Ever had one of these....

[littlebit]

I've been filling in for the receptionist some this week and I actually had this happen today.

Me: Good afternoon ABC Industries
C: I need CSR.
Me: Just a moment. (I put the call through to the desk of the only CRS for that dept) and a few mins later the call rings back to me.
C: I got her voicemail, is she on the phone or away from her desk?
Me: I'm not sure sir, I can't see her from where I'm sitting. Her line doesn't appear to be busy, so I guess she must have stepped away from her desk. Would you like her voicemail?
C: No ! can't you page her something!
Me: I'm sorry sir, we don't have a paging system. Would like me to try her desk again.
C: YES
So I put the call through again and sure enough, the call comes back.
Me: I'm sorry sir, she must still be away, Can Joe Blow Salesman help you?
C: Can't you just go find her, this is really important!

Me: Just a moment please. ( I put the call on hold and make a quick sweep around the office)
Me: I wasn't able to find her, would you like to leave her a message? or perhaps Joe Blow could help you?
C: No I have to talk to her...did you check the bathroom
Me: no sir, but I'm sure that business is much more pressing than yours!

[justZu]

And you know, you just know, his question isn't really important at all. I think it's some kind of inverse rule - the more an SC insists their question is SeriousImportantUrgentOMFG!!1!!1! the less important it really is. He probably wanted her to check and see if he spelled his name right on the order form. Either that, or he needed to know what time it was in his house.

[Bloodsoul]

At first I thought it said he needed CPR.. >.<

[MrSunshineState]

I have had one where a call was transferred to me by somebody who wanted a supervisor. Of course the person was mad because they didn't get their way. I proceeded to tell him the exact same thing the telephone banker told him. That wasn't good enough. He wanted MY supervisor. Well I work for a large financial institution and even though we are 24/7 in the call center, MY boss keeps normal bankers hours and goes home around 1700. The Assistant Manager goes home at 1930. I stay until 0100. So after 1930 *I* am as high as you CAN get. So I politely inform the man that I am the highest he can get tonight (it was like 2200) but I would be happy to email my boss and ask her to give him a call back the next day between 0730 and 1700. His response:


"NO! You get on the phone and you CALL YOUR BOSS AT HOME AND GET HER HERE TO TALK TO ME"

[Phone Jockey]

I've done receptionist work too & it sucks. Bless all the receptionists out there who keep their cool!

[chainedbarista]

At first I thought it said he needed CPR.. >.<

just for your brain after dealing with an idiot of that proportion.

'help, i can't find my front door; how can i leave my house? YOU have to do something!'

'sir/ma'm, maybe it's all for the best...'

[Best Made Tacos]

"NO! You get on the phone and you CALL YOUR BOSS AT HOME AND GET HER HERE TO TALK TO ME"

And these gits never stop to consider how much that would piss off said manager?
"I just interrupted you on your personal time with my angry demands, but nonetheless, you will give me everything I ask for! What? You won't and are cancelling all my services? Why is this happening to me??"

[Imogene]

Oh, hell, I had one of those kinds of calls yesterday night.

Suppose I should start at the beginning: Last night was crazybusy. It wasn't just crazy, it wasn't just busy. It was the second day of end of month, so I took around 115 calls for the day.
Anyway, I had a caller, who I put on hold, to go find out the answer to her question. I came back to my desk, and accidentally hung up on her (seriously. Our phone system, you can easily drop calls, cause mute and the line button are right next to each other). Anyway, about twenty minutes later, I'm in the middle of another call, and my coworker, we'll call her A, who is a bit spacy at times, sametimed me to tell me I had a call from someone whose name looked vaguely familiar, but I could not place it. Can I take the call? Once I'm off this call, sure.
Anyway, take call transferred from A. Answer caller's question. ('Twere the caller I hung up on) And huddled with A, to fill her in on what went down. A insisted she had told the caller the same thing, but she wouldn't take it for an answer. Funny, cause I got my answer from her.

[draftermatt]

All the time. When our recep. is out I answer the phones.

Yesterday I took a call for my boss (who was off). Told the guy he was off, and got his info. He called this morning at 7:30 saying "I called yesterday"...

1. He isn't even here yet. He starts at 8.
2. Even if he was here, he wasn't here yesterday so he has stuff to catch up on
3. What is so important that you are calling at 7:30?

[IlovemyGeek]

I love it when customers send the receptionists after me. It usually doesn't end well for them.

[Becks]

And you know, you just know, his question isn't really important at all.

In the real world. To the customer, he needs the answer to his question more than he needs food, water, oxygen...

[Lehk]

So after 1930 *I* am as high as you CAN get.

if i had to work phones, i would be too.

[greensinestro]

Yes, I have had those kind of people. I have had ones that will call my department, the internet department, then demand to speak to John Doe in customer service. I normally will transfer the customer to John's department and tell the customer to ask for John there being I most likely have no idea who he is. The SC will then ask, "Well, what if I describe what he looks like to you?" Yep, that helps me a lot, pal!

And with this guy you're talking about, it sounds like one of those people who look at employees as not being entitled to a break or lunch every day.

[Andara Bledin]

Heh.

We stonewalled someone a couple of weeks ago.

I'm no longer the one answering the phones, so some odd calls end up in some odd places.

We got this one woman that called asking for the big boss. He wasn't in, but that ended up being irrelevant.

We screen all of the calls that come in for him because he gets a high number of calls from people trying to sell him stuff he has no interest in. He's got enough people trying to sell him things that he wants that we're not going to let people waste his time and we're fully authorized to refuse to pass them on.

So this woman calls up and asks for him. We ask who it is and what the call is regarding. She refuses to give us her name and says that she's an old friend and wants to surprise him. Yeah, right, an old friend. So we again ask for her name and tell her we won't tell him who she is, but she will have to give it to us before anyone will patch her through to him. She still refuses.

She finally gives up and goes away. We all figure it was some obnoxious sales call who was hellbent to talk to the boss. The best part? Even if she had gotten to talk to him, he would probably have just hung up on her. He doesn't even care about most of the office-related purchasing except when he needs something and can't find any of it.

The boss is rich enough that he gets pestered by stockbrokers and agencies all the time. He never buys stocks. He puts almost all of his money back into the company to buy more stuff, even though we don't have the warehouse space or the personnell to handle all the stuff we have already.

^-.-^

[Jack7957]

"NO! You get on the phone and you CALL YOUR BOSS AT HOME AND GET HER HERE TO TALK TO ME"

How I would have done it....

"Sure, no problem, please hold"
3-5 minutes later, not really calling the boss.
"Ok, they are coming in to talk with you, they live an hour away, so I'll put you on hold till they arrive"
30 minutes later
"They just called and are stuck in traffic due to some night road work going on, so it'll be another hour before they arrive"
20 minutes later
"They just called again, someone that had too much to drink, hit and killed a construction worker while driving through the area, and since the boss is a witness, they have to wait for the police, and don't know when they'll arrive, do you still want to hold?"

The fun part is seeing how long you can keep them on hold.