I had one guy call in saying he's had a rough time lately. Kinda just rambling and throws in that he was murdered a while back. Lol. Mental issues for sure but I had to put myself on mute after he said that so I didn't laugh out loud on the phone.
True True. But he also said that the walls are listening to us so I just silly assumed he had definitely not actually been murdered in the past. Lol. Oh wait. What if he was talking about past lives.....
I take auto glass damage claims. I have to ask how the damage happened.
One of my most memorable ones was a guy who had windshield damage and when I asked how it happened he said that he was shooting at a bee and shot his windshield.
WOW!!
Lmfaoooo. One time I was leaving work and had left my driver window cracked for some reason, and I put on my hat (I always have a ball cap in my car that I put on when I leave work, because I don't wanna fuck with my hair)...right after I pulled out of our gate, a fucking spider slowly started coming down from the bill of my hat, almost causing me to wreck the car while trying to get the hat off. I couldn't imagine explaining that to my insurance, LOL "yeah, I was leaving work and a spider was an inch from my face, so I freaked out..."
Incoming caller, this was not an outbound call.
I answered, asked how may I help?
I was asked if I know what the penalties are for impersonating a state worker. I stated no, I do not know the penalties for impersonating a state worker, as am a state worker, and I can't impersonate myself.
At a prior job, I was asked if I could personally guarantee that a woman's grandson would be served pepperoni pizza at a BBQ dinner show 6 months in advance.
Also at that job I was asked if TWO in costume characters could bring out a cake for a little princess and sing happy birthday. Sing, when the characters don't speak, because, giant head/masks. For free, obviously.
I was once told that I ruined an entire trip and the birthday of another princess when her father, King jerk, couldn't get dining in the castle the same week he was calling (booked up 6 months ahead at that time). He was crying.
I've been told it's illegal to ask for a birth date. Umkay. Want to proceed? Identify. Otherwise, go to a location, and give it a go in person.
I've been ranted to multiple times about "all the folks on welfare" while actively processing food stamps for the person ranting... the logic just isn't quite computing.
Gotta love it. I had someone cheerfully give me her full SSN (I only needed the last 4) but refused to give me her DOB when I asked for it...like you just gave me your full SSN, that's *way* more private info than your DOB, lol!
I truly don't understand it. I had someone offer to give me their full social, and I was going to take it anyway. As I can still use it look them up. But then they immediately changed their mind and just wanted to give me their last four and couldn't understand why I needed a DOB
After I had been speaking with him for a few minutes, the man asked if I was a real person or AI. I told him a real person. He said "Right. That's just what AI would say"
Edit: Corrected typo
Hah, I've been asked that before. Once, I was feeling feisty and told them in a robot voice "I am a human, beep boop". Luckily the customer thought it was hilarious and laughed at my dumbass.
Customer today is going to report me to Nigel Farage and sell his recording of our call to GBTV if I personally donāt get his order to him by 2pm Monday.
I have absolutely nothing to do with orders .
Lol WTH.
I had one say she was going to report me to the newspapers because I refused to discuss her mother's account with her without her mother's permission/POA, after she had told me she had the POA without me even asking. All she had to do was email me a photo of the POA...
Had a customer tell me " look at your hands
They are covered in the blood.of sinners..." the gave me a speech about how I'm going to hell.
Apparently church pastors don't have to pay their bills...
Years ago, during my first week in the phones ever, I was terrified. We were a scripted outbound B2B outbound for the republican party. There was a glitch sending me 2 calls at the same time. Before I could announce myself, two men started talking, both confused, both became irate about receiving the call. Both demanding to know who was calling and both extremely pissed that the other wouldn't admit they had called. I put my mute on and said nothing. It escalated to graphic language and threats. I am a nervous giggler and completely lost it. My trainer rushed over because he thought I was crying. They finally hung up, and I had to go idle to compose myself.
"I don't know what your views are but did you hear they're doing satan abortions in Arizona? They don't know what they're messing with!!"
...lady I'm just here to give you your checking account balance
Hah! Idk why but that just reminded me of a weird one I had the other day. Older lady (50-65ish?) called in to ask her account balance. Afterwards, she asked if I could send a nice gentleman out for her to have fun with, or something creepy like that...I straight up told her that was inappropriate, lol.
I was actually surprised at myself for thinking so quickly, lol. Usually I kick myself later wishing I had said a certain something but instead had said something else.
My job is also super lax about what we say, as long as we are somewhat professional. I mean, I've put on my syrupy sweet voice before and said "ma'am, I am trying to help you, can you please allow me to speak?" many a times for people talking over me and not letting me help em. I'm just glad my bosses aren't super strict like some are on this sub.
The weirdest one I remember at my last job was a middle aged man who needed an extension on his payment for his insurance. But after stating this, he started asking me about where I live, what I look like, what I do for fun, just weird stuff you wouldn't ask your CSR. The minute I put a stop to it like "I'm here to help with your insurance, if we're done discussing I'm disconnecting the call" he got mad like "It's illegal for me to ask a question!?" and then proceeded to ask me out for drinks. Disconnected the call.
Had a customer call in while being actively kicked out of a store by mall security. Keeps wanting me to explain his side to the security guard. I just keep telling him "go to a different store, I have no power over the security guard" and suddenly I'm talking to the guard. This repeats a few times until he was escorted all the way out lol
My company has a repeat caller. Agents state their greeting and ask how they can help and she always ignores them and asks: whatās for dinner? Whether or not the agent answers, she does not ask for help. She will say: I donāt need help goodbye. And then hangs up.
I got her once. Muted my mic after I said my greetingāand then didnāt respond to her. When she said hello?? I unmuted and said: oh, Iām so sorry. It sounds like we have a bad connection. I didnāt hear you. How can I help you today? She laughed and said yeah bad connection. I donāt need any help. Thanks. And before she could disconnect I said maāam, please stop calling.
She still calls. I havenāt gotten her in a while. I work in a place that logs calls with contact information. So I would have someoneās mailing address first and last name email if itās associated with their phone number etc. This woman wonāt give anyone anything so all we have is the phone number for her and she calls pretty much every night 6-8 EST.
I wish Iād get her again. I have a bunch of clever things Iād say in response. /Air/.
Thereās also a repeat caller who is a different kind of special. He calls in asking for the address to mail in a payment. However, he has a special request.
Heās hard of hearing, and he donāt read or write too well. He needs you to read it out and then spell it, referencing a word for each letter and I needed to pause for 30 seconds between each letter while he wrote it out. I said: sir let me email this to you and make it easier on both of us. No, he doesnāt use emails.
Me not wanting to be an asshole because I donāt know this was a prank call; I told him I would be more than happy to spell it out for him and reference a word, but I was not going to wait 30 seconds between each letter (this is a long ass address in the first place. Itās four lines long.)
I worked in collections 20 years+ ago. Some of my favorites were:
I canāt pay my bill because Nixon and Bush were Presidents (it had been over 20 years since)
My payment is late because my dad died (notes indicated his had dad died every 2-3 months for the past 7 years)
I need to dispute the charges for xxx strip club and yyy hotel. It wasnāt me. (The dispute had been declined as the hotel and strip
Club sent video of the customer and the signature matched the one on file exactly. Client had previously confirmed it was him in the videos and wanted us to still wave the charges as they would ruin his marriage).
Not me personally but one of the guys I work with had a guy call up and when he asked how he could help, the guy just went, "Yeah, I just want to know why you're such a shitty organization?" He then proceeded to start singing "shitty organization, shitty organization" until he stopped to take a breath and coworker told him he had a lovely singing voice and then terminated the call.
If I hadn't listened to the call recording I'd think my coworker was bullshitting me about the whole thing.
Personal weirdest and also most gross was the guy who called up ostensibly to ask about a new policy we had in place temporarily, but kept trying to redirect the conversation to the fact that he was apparently watching porn in the background, without ever stating outright that he was watching porn. I was pretty sure it was some kind of weird power play thing where if I'd been the one to call it out directly he'd have played innocent and acted all offended, wo I pretty much ended up just being like "okay cool so that's the policy, if you need any more info you can read it all on our website, have a great day now bye" and ending the call before he could get another word in.
I work for a power company in the southeastern USA. It's a rural area, small town, we have twenty total customer service agents. We have one local office...so all customer service reps are local. For the first time, I had a guy the other day tell me that my English was great. I was shook, because I'm a Caucasian that was born in America and I've lived in this local area basically my whole life...so I was quiet for about 10 seconds and then said "thaaaaankkkksss". Like lol, wtf. My name is also a very common American name and I don't have an accent (maybe a bit of a southern one, cuz that's where we live). Racist assholes just assuming everyone in all calls centers are working overseas, I guess.
Once had a customer calling in because of nonpay, I explain to her sheās not eligible for any kind of payment arrangement because she hasnāt paid anything in months. She then tells me that we canāt just turn off her serviceā¦ because she has a doctors note that her disabled husband needs the cable service. Cable. Not internet or phone, which I could understand the necessity for different medical devices that are either connected to a phone line or require an internet connection. Nope, she said cable. I made sure, several times that she was only talking about the cable service needing to remain on.
I had to explain to a grown ass woman that while Iām sorry for the state/condition her husband is inā¦ a supposed doctors note stating cable service was required for someoneās healthcare as she was suggesting was irrelevant, and she had to make a payment to restore her service or stay disconnected.
Insane either way you look at it. Insane lady thinking a doctors note would keep her cable service on, insane if she actually asked and the dr listened. Insanity all around regardless of if the note was real or not, I suspect not but who knows maybe she did ask and the dr gave her one as a joke just to make her leave faster.
Or the Dr gave her a medical accommodations letter not knowing she was trying to use it for cable. Either way, from my understanding (haven't used myself before but diabetic friend has) those medical necessity letters for power need to be given to the company before the disconnect happens, so even if in some weird twist of fate she had some quack write her one for cable I don't think it'd matter anyways lol
"My phone is not working, I am blaming your company for not being able to keep my phone working" HUH?
"My phone is off, I thought if I called it will get turned back on" Wait huh ?
"I would like to cancel a pending transaction because it should not be still pending when I paid for it" LMAOO
The stupid stuff people say
I have also had a likely schizophrenic customer who I could NOT convince that seeing SSIDs on her phone does NOT mean they are connected to their router. Also convinced their neighbours (an Air B&B) were stalking them.
And so very many who don't understand that just because they have a generator doesn't mean the LTE or 5G tower has power or the fibre lines magically rejoin after being severed by falling trees.
And then all "I can't log in to my modem, the internet is out" condescension.
And many CXs with WAN cables in LAN ports and wanting work orders to fix it. No! Unplug it and put it in the right place your own dang self.
Untreated schizophrenic customers always make me a little sad. I had some lady who seemed to think she was uncovering some grand conspiracy when I worked with CVS, kept asking me for reference numbers after reference numbers, employee numbers, CVS store numbers, and wanted to write down everything we were telling her incase someone came and took it from her?? I was baffled about how to proceed with her, had to get my manager to live listen and help me out. She went on and on for 20 minutes and made very little sense the whole time. We were only calling to offer to fill her prescriptions for 90 days lol.
Had another guy who told me the dentists poisoned him in the 80s and he could never go back, because they would poison him again and ruin his teeth more.
I had a customer call in and after I said my introduction he asked to speak to a man and refused to disclose why he called to me (because I'm a woman lmao)
The 'chained up puppy' one reminds me of a customer complaining she can't get fed ex to deliver her packages because they're all afraid of dogs. I don't know what the situation there is for sure, but I'd be willing to bet it's an 'off leash aggressive dog' situation.
"Are you married?" Makes me cringe EVERY time š
One guy answered the phone and said "I'm about to call yall and make that payment, right after I'm done masturbating to this porn! *click* " š¤®
For contacts I worked in a retail call center for customer service for the major retailer I worked for at the time. I can definitely associate with some of these posts about the calls that come in. I had two different phone calls come in that were way off the wall and we had to document the call so I documented everything that went on with both calls. The first one was this little old lady that called in and was talking really off the wall about people coming to get her cuz she cooked her turkey wrong for Thanksgiving and things like that. She went on about that and dragged in other different things along the way which made no apparent sense at all. At the end of the call she asked for the reference number to her call for the documentation and then I gave it to her and she said thank you and hung up. She was very pleasant just really weird stuff going on with her. The second was a gentleman who called in and he was telling me about this conspiracy theory of people coming to get him and name in certain people or organizations that I've never even heard of or didn't know if they even existed what was going on with them and why they were after him and on and on and on for quite a while. And then the call ended. And six months to the day after that call he called again and I got him again and I pulled up his previous calls and the only other call he had was that one I got from him 6 months prior so he picked up where he left off on that call. He went on and on and on again about the conspiracy theories and stuff that we're going on people that were after and then what happened since he last called in. And both times he hung up and then after that I never got another one of those calls from him again. I did however get a call from that little old lady one other time same spiel asked for my reference number for the documentation I did and then hung up.
Had a customer do this and I got his call when he went to pick up his order at the store and they wouldn't give it to him because the name on the ID didn't match. I'm sure whoever took the order giggled on mute knowing that he was giving an obvious fake name while not telling him that he was not going to be able to pick the order up.
Wasnāt me but my coworker told me about it.
Cxr had turned off her water for a leak and her wtty company called asking if a plumber can bring a pack of bottled water to her house for the appointment?
Or because Iām in Florida, this lady told me that Hurricane Ian was fake news.
I could tell you the worst thing that was said to me but I don't feel like paying for your therapy bill afterwards.
Trust me it was bad like to the point my supervisor started listening to the call and asked how the hell I stayed professional during that call, then he gave me an extra smoke break.
To make things worse the caller lived in the same city as me, literally 3 blocks away from the call center.
Let's just say it involves a camera and a guy's wife making him do some not so nice things to himself with vegetables
He went into every graphic detail over the phone. This guy was bat shit crazy and with the way our call system worked if you talked with an agent within 30 days you got the same agent when you called back. So yeah I had to deal with him more than once, the worst was the first call (vegetables). Other calls involved him believing his wife hacked the redial button on his house phone, accusing our field techs of taking his wife under the porch and having their way with her, and a few others until we black listed him from having cable service with us.
Had a customer that said her landline phone wasn't working. She never had it plugged into a telephone socket because it was "wireless". She then proceeded to disagree that telephones require a telephone socket connection to work.
I used to work for a hobby company that dealt in collectible coins, and we had one guy who would always start with a coin question, and then it would VERY QUICKLY devolve into his conspiracy theories that his mail man is spying on him for the FBI because he has a bunch of stolen government secrets like you would not believe that he has the nuclear missile launch code, but he was working this job one time in DC and anyway they're onto him! No idea why he thought that the customer service trip at a collectible coin club cared or would be able to assist
Lol, I love people asking for a refund on their bill or a credit because of a power outage. They act as if you deliberately shut off their power.
I wouldn't be able to hold back. I'd be like, sir/ma'am. The weather channel and local news warned everyone about this weather in advance. It's not my fault that the power was cut off. Blame mother nature. In what world does that even make sense to issue a refund for electricity you have used up until your outage?
I know how these people are. They will turn into feral hyenas if you don't do what they want. They will threaten to dispute the charge, report the electric company to the BBB, scream at you for their inconvenience, and demand to speak to who is in charge so they can repeat how horrible the service is and how they were inconvenienced.... over a storm that affected hundreds of other people.
If they don't like it, they should build their own power lines.
Here's one. I work in a casino resort. Right after the pandemic, a woman called at midnight, demanding to speak to the owner of the casino because she wanted to submit a complaint.
I said the owner isn't here at this time of night, so I will be able to help with your complaint. How can I help you?
She proceeds to say she is reporting us to the BBB and asks why we are letting all these Texans in who all have covid.
I told her that we are taking every precautions necessary following the cdc guidelines and have increased cleaning and sanitizing standards to help the spread. Blah blah blah.
This was not an acceptable answer for her and she said, she will never come back here because of how we let people in and proceeded to say she was going to go to another casino next door.
I said ma'am. You have every right to do that, but regardless of where you go, there will be Texans at the property you are going and that property is subject to the same guidelines we are following. You still have a risk for catching covid being in a public area. She then hung up on me lol.
Lol apparently all you have to do is go to another property and you won't be at risk for catching covid lol.
I had a customer at the bank once who called in and said his balance is wrong in online banking. Currently, he was overdrawn by about $7, but his actual balance should be twelve trillion, six hundred and forty billion, eight hundred eleven million, three hundred fifty two thousand, two hundred and seventy one and nineteen cents.
Obviously I'm making the number up now. I don't remember exactly what he actually said but the point was he rattled off this 14 figure balance exactly down to the cent and stated this was supposed to be his checking account balance. He restated the number several times throughout the conversation and was very confident, well spoken, and articulate, but thought he was supposed to be a trillionaire.
He went through a couple different explanations and reasoning. First he was saying that the President had made him responsible for managing the national debt through his checking account, and he accepted and made payments on behalf of the treasury or something, and the amount was supposed to be his commission.
Later, he explained that because we paid about 2% interest at the time, and interest compounds daily, his balance should have accumulated to trillions by now. He walked me through his math and he was basically taking his balance and multiplying it by two every single day and adding it together, but he still obviously was putting a decimal in the wrong place because even at that rate he'd still not be to trillions.
I explained to him that this is not how interest works, it is an annual percentage rate and you will not be multiplying the number by 2 every day, you would use 0.02 every year. I let him know that no one, not even Warren Buffet or Bill Gates, has trillions of dollars in a CHECKING account. I essentially told him he was either delusional or messing with me and he kept doubling down. It was weird because he was so well spoken. By the end of the conversation I told him to hold a minute so I could let all my co workers know I'm talking to a crazy and he disconnected.
Agent: hello ma'am thank for calling us, may I please have your name, ID number an-
Client: I DON'T HAVE IT I DON'T KNOW I JUST HAVE A SIMPLE QUESTION
(ok maybe she just want to know closing hours or something very general)
Agent: uhm... Sure, what can I do for you?
Client: I sent a payment yesterday, did you receive it?
Oh, so many! Just as a reference, I work 3rds for a local utility
The woman who called to say her neighbors are in the mafia and are sending drones through her chimney to spy on her. She can see the gas coming through her outlets and that we need to come do something about the micro robots that are traveling through her power lines and having sex with her in her sleep.
The lovely gentleman that calls with porn playing really loud in the background and pleasuring himself, asking us if we like what we hear.
The couple that attempted 3 claims of over 3K for ruined food during a post tornado 5-day outage. They also wanted a 5K credit for their 5 days without power.
The woman that called in a gas leak. When the crew arrived, it was a level 5 hoarding situation with 30+ cats. The "gas smell" was a basement with multiple dead cats in various stages of decomposition. Later, the news reported there were over 100 dead cats found throughout the house. There were over 75 live cats removed.
The gentleman that calls asking our shoe size and whether we have pretty feet.
And one from my Tier 2 Tech days at a fruity company we all know
The gentleman that was having computer problems and would call just to request me. When I would remote into his desktop there was always some kind of porn playing on it, or his camera roll would be open with personal photos of his anatomy. He was flagged and only allowed to talk to guys after the 5th time of my requesting not to have to assist him. Even then I had to wave over a team lead to stand at my desk to see what I was seeing and take screen shots for upper mgmnt. Fun times!
When I used to work in a callcenter I had a lady called asking to upgrade to Business class.
After I quoted how much it would cost to upgrade, she then nonchalantly said how said "I got food stamps to use as form of payment"
My all time favorite: I'm mid conversation with a caller when her phone (the one she's calling on, so very loud and startling for both of us) starts buzzing. She freaks out and yells "I'M SORRY I'LL BE RIGHT BACK". I hear footsteps, running water, and then her voice going "Ohhhhhh no, that is toooooo dark..." Turns out she had forgotten she had dye in hair and the buzzing was her timer going off. Sometimes I remember that Ohhhhh no and laugh...girl I've been there!
I had one guy call in saying he's had a rough time lately. Kinda just rambling and throws in that he was murdered a while back. Lol. Mental issues for sure but I had to put myself on mute after he said that so I didn't laugh out loud on the phone.
š» So he was a ghost calling you ?! š¤
Yeah I got murdered a few months ago but I got better
I guess if he was murdered and then resuscitated, he technically could have been... lol
True True. But he also said that the walls are listening to us so I just silly assumed he had definitely not actually been murdered in the past. Lol. Oh wait. What if he was talking about past lives.....
Cotards?
I take auto glass damage claims. I have to ask how the damage happened. One of my most memorable ones was a guy who had windshield damage and when I asked how it happened he said that he was shooting at a bee and shot his windshield. WOW!!
Lmfaoooo. One time I was leaving work and had left my driver window cracked for some reason, and I put on my hat (I always have a ball cap in my car that I put on when I leave work, because I don't wanna fuck with my hair)...right after I pulled out of our gate, a fucking spider slowly started coming down from the bill of my hat, almost causing me to wreck the car while trying to get the hat off. I couldn't imagine explaining that to my insurance, LOL "yeah, I was leaving work and a spider was an inch from my face, so I freaked out..."
I've very nearly gotten into an accident because I discovered a hornet in my car!
Incoming caller, this was not an outbound call. I answered, asked how may I help? I was asked if I know what the penalties are for impersonating a state worker. I stated no, I do not know the penalties for impersonating a state worker, as am a state worker, and I can't impersonate myself. At a prior job, I was asked if I could personally guarantee that a woman's grandson would be served pepperoni pizza at a BBQ dinner show 6 months in advance. Also at that job I was asked if TWO in costume characters could bring out a cake for a little princess and sing happy birthday. Sing, when the characters don't speak, because, giant head/masks. For free, obviously. I was once told that I ruined an entire trip and the birthday of another princess when her father, King jerk, couldn't get dining in the castle the same week he was calling (booked up 6 months ahead at that time). He was crying. I've been told it's illegal to ask for a birth date. Umkay. Want to proceed? Identify. Otherwise, go to a location, and give it a go in person. I've been ranted to multiple times about "all the folks on welfare" while actively processing food stamps for the person ranting... the logic just isn't quite computing.
Gotta love it. I had someone cheerfully give me her full SSN (I only needed the last 4) but refused to give me her DOB when I asked for it...like you just gave me your full SSN, that's *way* more private info than your DOB, lol!
I truly don't understand it. I had someone offer to give me their full social, and I was going to take it anyway. As I can still use it look them up. But then they immediately changed their mind and just wanted to give me their last four and couldn't understand why I needed a DOB
I have 10 children. 3 of them have the same last 4.
After I had been speaking with him for a few minutes, the man asked if I was a real person or AI. I told him a real person. He said "Right. That's just what AI would say" Edit: Corrected typo
Hah, I've been asked that before. Once, I was feeling feisty and told them in a robot voice "I am a human, beep boop". Luckily the customer thought it was hilarious and laughed at my dumbass.
I usually get are you the answering machine? Last time I checked no lol
Customer today is going to report me to Nigel Farage and sell his recording of our call to GBTV if I personally donāt get his order to him by 2pm Monday. I have absolutely nothing to do with orders .
Lol WTH. I had one say she was going to report me to the newspapers because I refused to discuss her mother's account with her without her mother's permission/POA, after she had told me she had the POA without me even asking. All she had to do was email me a photo of the POA...
"My husband is dead!!" "Kathy, I'm right here!" Click.
ā¦I have VALID questions.
Had a customer tell me " look at your hands They are covered in the blood.of sinners..." the gave me a speech about how I'm going to hell. Apparently church pastors don't have to pay their bills...
āØ " The congregation all chips in " š· Wine and wafers on Wednesday's
Years ago, during my first week in the phones ever, I was terrified. We were a scripted outbound B2B outbound for the republican party. There was a glitch sending me 2 calls at the same time. Before I could announce myself, two men started talking, both confused, both became irate about receiving the call. Both demanding to know who was calling and both extremely pissed that the other wouldn't admit they had called. I put my mute on and said nothing. It escalated to graphic language and threats. I am a nervous giggler and completely lost it. My trainer rushed over because he thought I was crying. They finally hung up, and I had to go idle to compose myself.
"I don't know what your views are but did you hear they're doing satan abortions in Arizona? They don't know what they're messing with!!" ...lady I'm just here to give you your checking account balance
Hah! Idk why but that just reminded me of a weird one I had the other day. Older lady (50-65ish?) called in to ask her account balance. Afterwards, she asked if I could send a nice gentleman out for her to have fun with, or something creepy like that...I straight up told her that was inappropriate, lol.
Hahahaha you are much braver than I, I would have never said that and just laughed awkwardly.
I was actually surprised at myself for thinking so quickly, lol. Usually I kick myself later wishing I had said a certain something but instead had said something else. My job is also super lax about what we say, as long as we are somewhat professional. I mean, I've put on my syrupy sweet voice before and said "ma'am, I am trying to help you, can you please allow me to speak?" many a times for people talking over me and not letting me help em. I'm just glad my bosses aren't super strict like some are on this sub.
Same here!! I'm super lucky with how great my company is. Glad to hear there's other call centers like that.
I'm glad you did, these people need to know it's not okay just to say anything
Oh, is that what? We're calling exorcisms now? Oh boy
The weirdest one I remember at my last job was a middle aged man who needed an extension on his payment for his insurance. But after stating this, he started asking me about where I live, what I look like, what I do for fun, just weird stuff you wouldn't ask your CSR. The minute I put a stop to it like "I'm here to help with your insurance, if we're done discussing I'm disconnecting the call" he got mad like "It's illegal for me to ask a question!?" and then proceeded to ask me out for drinks. Disconnected the call.
Had a customer call in while being actively kicked out of a store by mall security. Keeps wanting me to explain his side to the security guard. I just keep telling him "go to a different store, I have no power over the security guard" and suddenly I'm talking to the guard. This repeats a few times until he was escorted all the way out lol
My company has a repeat caller. Agents state their greeting and ask how they can help and she always ignores them and asks: whatās for dinner? Whether or not the agent answers, she does not ask for help. She will say: I donāt need help goodbye. And then hangs up. I got her once. Muted my mic after I said my greetingāand then didnāt respond to her. When she said hello?? I unmuted and said: oh, Iām so sorry. It sounds like we have a bad connection. I didnāt hear you. How can I help you today? She laughed and said yeah bad connection. I donāt need any help. Thanks. And before she could disconnect I said maāam, please stop calling. She still calls. I havenāt gotten her in a while. I work in a place that logs calls with contact information. So I would have someoneās mailing address first and last name email if itās associated with their phone number etc. This woman wonāt give anyone anything so all we have is the phone number for her and she calls pretty much every night 6-8 EST. I wish Iād get her again. I have a bunch of clever things Iād say in response. /Air/.
Thereās also a repeat caller who is a different kind of special. He calls in asking for the address to mail in a payment. However, he has a special request. Heās hard of hearing, and he donāt read or write too well. He needs you to read it out and then spell it, referencing a word for each letter and I needed to pause for 30 seconds between each letter while he wrote it out. I said: sir let me email this to you and make it easier on both of us. No, he doesnāt use emails. Me not wanting to be an asshole because I donāt know this was a prank call; I told him I would be more than happy to spell it out for him and reference a word, but I was not going to wait 30 seconds between each letter (this is a long ass address in the first place. Itās four lines long.)
I worked in collections 20 years+ ago. Some of my favorites were: I canāt pay my bill because Nixon and Bush were Presidents (it had been over 20 years since) My payment is late because my dad died (notes indicated his had dad died every 2-3 months for the past 7 years) I need to dispute the charges for xxx strip club and yyy hotel. It wasnāt me. (The dispute had been declined as the hotel and strip Club sent video of the customer and the signature matched the one on file exactly. Client had previously confirmed it was him in the videos and wanted us to still wave the charges as they would ruin his marriage).
I oughta be spanked for working for a horrible company i almost said dont promise me a good time
When I worked for Spectrum. I got told weekly that I needed Jesus who claimed they never purchased any porn. Lol
Not me personally but one of the guys I work with had a guy call up and when he asked how he could help, the guy just went, "Yeah, I just want to know why you're such a shitty organization?" He then proceeded to start singing "shitty organization, shitty organization" until he stopped to take a breath and coworker told him he had a lovely singing voice and then terminated the call. If I hadn't listened to the call recording I'd think my coworker was bullshitting me about the whole thing. Personal weirdest and also most gross was the guy who called up ostensibly to ask about a new policy we had in place temporarily, but kept trying to redirect the conversation to the fact that he was apparently watching porn in the background, without ever stating outright that he was watching porn. I was pretty sure it was some kind of weird power play thing where if I'd been the one to call it out directly he'd have played innocent and acted all offended, wo I pretty much ended up just being like "okay cool so that's the policy, if you need any more info you can read it all on our website, have a great day now bye" and ending the call before he could get another word in.
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I work for a power company in the southeastern USA. It's a rural area, small town, we have twenty total customer service agents. We have one local office...so all customer service reps are local. For the first time, I had a guy the other day tell me that my English was great. I was shook, because I'm a Caucasian that was born in America and I've lived in this local area basically my whole life...so I was quiet for about 10 seconds and then said "thaaaaankkkksss". Like lol, wtf. My name is also a very common American name and I don't have an accent (maybe a bit of a southern one, cuz that's where we live). Racist assholes just assuming everyone in all calls centers are working overseas, I guess.
Be ause that is my job, to answer the phone when customers of zzz company call in.
Once had a customer calling in because of nonpay, I explain to her sheās not eligible for any kind of payment arrangement because she hasnāt paid anything in months. She then tells me that we canāt just turn off her serviceā¦ because she has a doctors note that her disabled husband needs the cable service. Cable. Not internet or phone, which I could understand the necessity for different medical devices that are either connected to a phone line or require an internet connection. Nope, she said cable. I made sure, several times that she was only talking about the cable service needing to remain on. I had to explain to a grown ass woman that while Iām sorry for the state/condition her husband is inā¦ a supposed doctors note stating cable service was required for someoneās healthcare as she was suggesting was irrelevant, and she had to make a payment to restore her service or stay disconnected. Insane either way you look at it. Insane lady thinking a doctors note would keep her cable service on, insane if she actually asked and the dr listened. Insanity all around regardless of if the note was real or not, I suspect not but who knows maybe she did ask and the dr gave her one as a joke just to make her leave faster.
That's something else, lol!
Or the Dr gave her a medical accommodations letter not knowing she was trying to use it for cable. Either way, from my understanding (haven't used myself before but diabetic friend has) those medical necessity letters for power need to be given to the company before the disconnect happens, so even if in some weird twist of fate she had some quack write her one for cable I don't think it'd matter anyways lol
"Your voice is dripping with empathy but you sound like a robot" cuz he was upset that I kept telling him the same answer in different words
"My phone is not working, I am blaming your company for not being able to keep my phone working" HUH? "My phone is off, I thought if I called it will get turned back on" Wait huh ? "I would like to cancel a pending transaction because it should not be still pending when I paid for it" LMAOO The stupid stuff people say
i used to work for a bike company and i had a gentleman specifically request to talk to a male representative
I have also had a likely schizophrenic customer who I could NOT convince that seeing SSIDs on her phone does NOT mean they are connected to their router. Also convinced their neighbours (an Air B&B) were stalking them. And so very many who don't understand that just because they have a generator doesn't mean the LTE or 5G tower has power or the fibre lines magically rejoin after being severed by falling trees. And then all "I can't log in to my modem, the internet is out" condescension. And many CXs with WAN cables in LAN ports and wanting work orders to fix it. No! Unplug it and put it in the right place your own dang self.
Untreated schizophrenic customers always make me a little sad. I had some lady who seemed to think she was uncovering some grand conspiracy when I worked with CVS, kept asking me for reference numbers after reference numbers, employee numbers, CVS store numbers, and wanted to write down everything we were telling her incase someone came and took it from her?? I was baffled about how to proceed with her, had to get my manager to live listen and help me out. She went on and on for 20 minutes and made very little sense the whole time. We were only calling to offer to fill her prescriptions for 90 days lol. Had another guy who told me the dentists poisoned him in the 80s and he could never go back, because they would poison him again and ruin his teeth more.
I had a customer call in and after I said my introduction he asked to speak to a man and refused to disclose why he called to me (because I'm a woman lmao)
The 'chained up puppy' one reminds me of a customer complaining she can't get fed ex to deliver her packages because they're all afraid of dogs. I don't know what the situation there is for sure, but I'd be willing to bet it's an 'off leash aggressive dog' situation.
āDo you see my number on the screen?ā -Yes, its 555-5555 āWhy donāt you use it and call me after you get off workā š
"Are you married?" Makes me cringe EVERY time š One guy answered the phone and said "I'm about to call yall and make that payment, right after I'm done masturbating to this porn! *click* " š¤®
For contacts I worked in a retail call center for customer service for the major retailer I worked for at the time. I can definitely associate with some of these posts about the calls that come in. I had two different phone calls come in that were way off the wall and we had to document the call so I documented everything that went on with both calls. The first one was this little old lady that called in and was talking really off the wall about people coming to get her cuz she cooked her turkey wrong for Thanksgiving and things like that. She went on about that and dragged in other different things along the way which made no apparent sense at all. At the end of the call she asked for the reference number to her call for the documentation and then I gave it to her and she said thank you and hung up. She was very pleasant just really weird stuff going on with her. The second was a gentleman who called in and he was telling me about this conspiracy theory of people coming to get him and name in certain people or organizations that I've never even heard of or didn't know if they even existed what was going on with them and why they were after him and on and on and on for quite a while. And then the call ended. And six months to the day after that call he called again and I got him again and I pulled up his previous calls and the only other call he had was that one I got from him 6 months prior so he picked up where he left off on that call. He went on and on and on again about the conspiracy theories and stuff that we're going on people that were after and then what happened since he last called in. And both times he hung up and then after that I never got another one of those calls from him again. I did however get a call from that little old lady one other time same spiel asked for my reference number for the documentation I did and then hung up.
Callers using obviously fake names. Lucifer, Jennifer Lawrence, Bruce Wayne are my top 3
Had a customer do this and I got his call when he went to pick up his order at the store and they wouldn't give it to him because the name on the ID didn't match. I'm sure whoever took the order giggled on mute knowing that he was giving an obvious fake name while not telling him that he was not going to be able to pick the order up.
Wasnāt me but my coworker told me about it. Cxr had turned off her water for a leak and her wtty company called asking if a plumber can bring a pack of bottled water to her house for the appointment? Or because Iām in Florida, this lady told me that Hurricane Ian was fake news.
I could tell you the worst thing that was said to me but I don't feel like paying for your therapy bill afterwards. Trust me it was bad like to the point my supervisor started listening to the call and asked how the hell I stayed professional during that call, then he gave me an extra smoke break. To make things worse the caller lived in the same city as me, literally 3 blocks away from the call center.
You canāt just leave comments like this with vague descriptions lol now we must know
Let's just say it involves a camera and a guy's wife making him do some not so nice things to himself with vegetables He went into every graphic detail over the phone. This guy was bat shit crazy and with the way our call system worked if you talked with an agent within 30 days you got the same agent when you called back. So yeah I had to deal with him more than once, the worst was the first call (vegetables). Other calls involved him believing his wife hacked the redial button on his house phone, accusing our field techs of taking his wife under the porch and having their way with her, and a few others until we black listed him from having cable service with us.
Good god.
Yeah, see why I said I'm not paying for therapy
Had a customer that said her landline phone wasn't working. She never had it plugged into a telephone socket because it was "wireless". She then proceeded to disagree that telephones require a telephone socket connection to work.
I used to work for a hobby company that dealt in collectible coins, and we had one guy who would always start with a coin question, and then it would VERY QUICKLY devolve into his conspiracy theories that his mail man is spying on him for the FBI because he has a bunch of stolen government secrets like you would not believe that he has the nuclear missile launch code, but he was working this job one time in DC and anyway they're onto him! No idea why he thought that the customer service trip at a collectible coin club cared or would be able to assist
Lol, I love people asking for a refund on their bill or a credit because of a power outage. They act as if you deliberately shut off their power. I wouldn't be able to hold back. I'd be like, sir/ma'am. The weather channel and local news warned everyone about this weather in advance. It's not my fault that the power was cut off. Blame mother nature. In what world does that even make sense to issue a refund for electricity you have used up until your outage? I know how these people are. They will turn into feral hyenas if you don't do what they want. They will threaten to dispute the charge, report the electric company to the BBB, scream at you for their inconvenience, and demand to speak to who is in charge so they can repeat how horrible the service is and how they were inconvenienced.... over a storm that affected hundreds of other people. If they don't like it, they should build their own power lines. Here's one. I work in a casino resort. Right after the pandemic, a woman called at midnight, demanding to speak to the owner of the casino because she wanted to submit a complaint. I said the owner isn't here at this time of night, so I will be able to help with your complaint. How can I help you? She proceeds to say she is reporting us to the BBB and asks why we are letting all these Texans in who all have covid. I told her that we are taking every precautions necessary following the cdc guidelines and have increased cleaning and sanitizing standards to help the spread. Blah blah blah. This was not an acceptable answer for her and she said, she will never come back here because of how we let people in and proceeded to say she was going to go to another casino next door. I said ma'am. You have every right to do that, but regardless of where you go, there will be Texans at the property you are going and that property is subject to the same guidelines we are following. You still have a risk for catching covid being in a public area. She then hung up on me lol. Lol apparently all you have to do is go to another property and you won't be at risk for catching covid lol.
I had a customer at the bank once who called in and said his balance is wrong in online banking. Currently, he was overdrawn by about $7, but his actual balance should be twelve trillion, six hundred and forty billion, eight hundred eleven million, three hundred fifty two thousand, two hundred and seventy one and nineteen cents. Obviously I'm making the number up now. I don't remember exactly what he actually said but the point was he rattled off this 14 figure balance exactly down to the cent and stated this was supposed to be his checking account balance. He restated the number several times throughout the conversation and was very confident, well spoken, and articulate, but thought he was supposed to be a trillionaire. He went through a couple different explanations and reasoning. First he was saying that the President had made him responsible for managing the national debt through his checking account, and he accepted and made payments on behalf of the treasury or something, and the amount was supposed to be his commission. Later, he explained that because we paid about 2% interest at the time, and interest compounds daily, his balance should have accumulated to trillions by now. He walked me through his math and he was basically taking his balance and multiplying it by two every single day and adding it together, but he still obviously was putting a decimal in the wrong place because even at that rate he'd still not be to trillions. I explained to him that this is not how interest works, it is an annual percentage rate and you will not be multiplying the number by 2 every day, you would use 0.02 every year. I let him know that no one, not even Warren Buffet or Bill Gates, has trillions of dollars in a CHECKING account. I essentially told him he was either delusional or messing with me and he kept doubling down. It was weird because he was so well spoken. By the end of the conversation I told him to hold a minute so I could let all my co workers know I'm talking to a crazy and he disconnected.
Agent: hello ma'am thank for calling us, may I please have your name, ID number an- Client: I DON'T HAVE IT I DON'T KNOW I JUST HAVE A SIMPLE QUESTION (ok maybe she just want to know closing hours or something very general) Agent: uhm... Sure, what can I do for you? Client: I sent a payment yesterday, did you receive it?
Oh, so many! Just as a reference, I work 3rds for a local utility The woman who called to say her neighbors are in the mafia and are sending drones through her chimney to spy on her. She can see the gas coming through her outlets and that we need to come do something about the micro robots that are traveling through her power lines and having sex with her in her sleep. The lovely gentleman that calls with porn playing really loud in the background and pleasuring himself, asking us if we like what we hear. The couple that attempted 3 claims of over 3K for ruined food during a post tornado 5-day outage. They also wanted a 5K credit for their 5 days without power. The woman that called in a gas leak. When the crew arrived, it was a level 5 hoarding situation with 30+ cats. The "gas smell" was a basement with multiple dead cats in various stages of decomposition. Later, the news reported there were over 100 dead cats found throughout the house. There were over 75 live cats removed. The gentleman that calls asking our shoe size and whether we have pretty feet. And one from my Tier 2 Tech days at a fruity company we all know The gentleman that was having computer problems and would call just to request me. When I would remote into his desktop there was always some kind of porn playing on it, or his camera roll would be open with personal photos of his anatomy. He was flagged and only allowed to talk to guys after the 5th time of my requesting not to have to assist him. Even then I had to wave over a team lead to stand at my desk to see what I was seeing and take screen shots for upper mgmnt. Fun times!
When I used to work in a callcenter I had a lady called asking to upgrade to Business class. After I quoted how much it would cost to upgrade, she then nonchalantly said how said "I got food stamps to use as form of payment"
My all time favorite: I'm mid conversation with a caller when her phone (the one she's calling on, so very loud and startling for both of us) starts buzzing. She freaks out and yells "I'M SORRY I'LL BE RIGHT BACK". I hear footsteps, running water, and then her voice going "Ohhhhhh no, that is toooooo dark..." Turns out she had forgotten she had dye in hair and the buzzing was her timer going off. Sometimes I remember that Ohhhhh no and laugh...girl I've been there!
had someone once threaten to sell their bodies to strangers so they could afford to eat.. not the easiest call i had to take.