I'm not asking for personal information!!

[Redbeard]

I love people who are calling to get info for relatives. They're trying to help out someone (such as an eldery mother or a young child new to the ways of the world, for instance) and want to make making decisions easier.
HOWEVER
If you're not listed on an account as an authorized user, if we share any information about that account with you we can lose out jobs. People don't get this, however.
Case in point.

Me: rum levels dropping...
SC : Sucky Caller

Me: Once more into the breach, how may I help you, potential customer?
SC: Yes, I'm gathering information for my mother, her account information is ******** I think she has this, I want to know how much it would make her bill if I add X services.
Me: Well, I can give you general costs of the services that you're talking about, but as you are not listed on her account I would need to speak with her to get that permission. I've got her home number here, I can just give her a call.
SC: NO! Just tell me! she isn't home, so you can tell ME.
Me: I'm sorry sir, but I can not tell you what her bill would be. that is secure information that we do not share without customer permission.
SC: *after much spluttering* SECURE?!? It's not fucking secure, Who could make use of that?!
Me: Actually.....*I go into various phishing scenarios, including the "get a bit of info here and a bit of info there" tactic*.
SC: Doddamnit...just tell me how much it would be! Don't patronize me with that bullshit! I've worked on phones, I'm not a scammer!
Me: I'm sorry, sir, but I can't take your word for that, and I'm not going to risk my JOB over this.
SC: Just TELL ME the amount!! Give me a supervisor!
Me: A supervisor will not give you the information either, sir. This is CORPORATE policy and can not be overruled. ?Now, I can always call your mother
*click*
The stupid part? I checked the account later, saw where the account holder called in, confirmed him and got everything done.

[MoonCat]

Yeah, that's typical. I have a magic phrase that almost always (I did say almost) shuts them down, though. "We can only deal with the customer of record, and that is [fill in name here]. Please have them call us and we'll be glad to help them." Believe it or not, that phrase "customer of record" usually works. I guess it sounds too "special" to argue with!

[lvceline]

Boy do I know how you feel about this! At my job (utility company) we get people all the time calling about relatives, friends, roommates, etc accounts. They almost always refer to it as their account, and I have to remind them sometimes that it's not 'their' account. I had a lady calling in yesterday who pretended to be the account holder, but was really the new wife of the deceased account holder's husband! I usually offer to put them on hold and call the account holder to make it easier and that works sometimes, but you certainly have some that just don't understand the concept of being authorized on someone's account.

[Slayer]

Yuck, that went bad pretty quickly. I don't get why people think arguing long enough will get people to give in.

Though, if you're going to call in for someone, do a better job at it o_O. I call for my mom all the time because she hates it.

[Enjis]

My mom is slowly going blind, and can't really make calls to the various services any more, and even has trouble understanding a lot of the technical talk. Most of the time I just say I'm her, with her sitting next to me. It saves a lot of time and fussing, and no one says 'boo' about it.
I completely understand that businesses can't give out info to those not on the account, but since my mom asks me to help her this way, I do it. No one will be the wiser, as she's not exactly going to complain about it to them.
I did have the health insurance add me as an approved caregiver, so they can give me info when I call them.

[Aria]

I used to get that all the time. I would tell them it's a FEDERAL policy... which, in Canada, is absolutely true. We have no leeway at all.

[Sonoma]

I get those all the time too. Spouse/parent calls in wanting to know about another adult's doctor's visit. They get very upset when they learn that federal law prevents me from giving them any information without that person's specific consent.

I can't count the number of times that mom or dad has called in about their 23-25 year old child's doctor visits, because "Junior's" in bed and can't take the time to call. Then they get upset because I can't tell them WHY Junior saw the doctor. Talk to your child - if they want you to know, they'll tell you.

[Slave to the Phone]

One of my friends marches to the beat of a different drummer. He often forgets to pay his water and trash bills. Once I called the trash company to try to pay his bill because he was dragging his can to my yard. They wouldn't let me give them money. I understand that his privacy is important, so I didn't make a fuss. That was almost a year ago, he's still pulling his can to my yard. His trash is getting picked up, I'm not paying extra and they don't get the money I would have paid them to pick his trash up half a block away.

When his water gets shut off, I call the water company and they are very willing to take my money. Maybe its because I don't ask to change anything, I just give them his name and address and say that I want to pay his bill?

[dakhur]

Fix your laser glare of death on the phone, crank the sarcasm level up to eleven, and, with a voice dripping with "you're an idiot" tone-age, demand "and what makes you so important I should be unemployed, sir?" They should go silent and then ummm meekly.

Practice it until you can make your cat sidle to use their litter-box or customers wet their pants just by you looking at them. It's quite a useful look when you get it right.

[PepperElf]

One of my friends marches to the beat of a different drummer. He often forgets to pay his water and trash bills.

Thing is... this could end up costing you a lot if he keeps doing this. he might want to consider automatic payments.


as for access to someone else's account... i know another good reason to not let "relatives" have what they want. sometimes it's not for the good of the account-holder.

one of my former shipmates had it happen to her - her husband was overseas and broke into her personal cell phone account cos he wanted to know who she was calling. he had decided (incorrectly) that she was cheating on him and was snooping for "proof" to throw in her face.

[Catwoman2965]

I get that with customers who want to pay their store charge in the store, which they can, and also want their balance, which we can't give them. We have no access to any of their account info, aside from being able to accept a payment. even the account lookup feature won't give us their account number; it just pulls it up once we've verified they are who the ysay. For balances, we CAN call CS, but then must put the customer on the phone as they won't give that to us either. Most are ok with it, but some just don't get it, even when I tell them its for THEIR protection. they just don't want to take the time or be inconvenienced.

[Slave to the Phone]

Thing is... this could end up costing you a lot if he keeps doing this. he might want to consider automatic payments.

I was being nice when I described him. He's batshit crazy. I could write for days about the conspiracy theories he buys into. He's not online and doesn't have a bank account. When I pay his water bill, its a one time payment and he always pays me back.

As to the trash...well, I'm allowed 2 cans a pickup. I rarely fill 1, so I'm not really cheating by my friend dragging his can up.

[Ghel]

I get similar things all the time at the bank:

SC: My mom wants to add me to her account.
Me: She needs to be the one to contact me.

SC: My dad is getting charged a monthly fee on his checking account. Why is that?
Me: If you're not on the account, I can't even verify that he has an account with us.

SC: Did my son cash in his CD he has with you?
Me: I can't tell you that.

And that's not including the scammers making pretext calls.

[Rhania506]

I get similar things all the time at the bank: ...

I've gotten all of these and more at Lowercase Two. I also seem to get the people who don't understand that just because they posess someone else's checks does not mean they can write those checks.

SC: That's my boyfriend's account.
Me: Yes ma'am, I understand. But our records show that you are not listed as a signer on the account.
SC: But I write checks on it all the time.
Me: Then that's called check fraud.

[mslisarose]

When his water gets shut off, I call the water company and they are very willing to take my money. Maybe its because I don't ask to change anything, I just give them his name and address and say that I want to pay his bill?

I think it is because water bills go with the property, not the person. I work for a title company, and we often call and get property tax and water billing info to be paid by mortgage company or closing lawyer. Most of the time they do not care who is calling - just give you the amount due and when.