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Oh, the examples I could cite with this title. This happens in any customer service environment, but I believe it happens more often for those who work in call centers. Here are a few examples of what I have dealt with over the years:
* My pet peeve are the SC's who call in for changes to an account, or for just plain info about the account. In any call center I have worked in, we always first had to ask who we were speaking with, then have them verify the account information. When the reply to "Your name, please" is "Um, uh John", it leads me to believe it is not the person authorized on the account. When I get this reply, I normally ask for the person to verify additional info, like the date of birth or social, and when they can't even verify that (you don't know your own birthday?), I do not assist them unless it's general information not related to the account.
* I have a customer who is trying to change the name of the account from her husband's to her own, stating the husband passed away. We require the death certificate as proof in order to change the name, and it must be faxed in. She has made this attempt four times, along with nasty letters and a copy of her bill, yet the death certificate is the only document that never comes through. Instead of her saying she'll try again or try mailing it, she has pretty much given me a hard time, saying we should just take her word for it and do it without this headache. This leads me to believe the husband is really not dead, and this may not even be the wife trying to make this change into her name. It's more likely a daughter or an in-law trying to get this guy committed so they can have his stuff when he dies.
* When I worked as a toll operator at Bellsouth, one of the things I always was cautious of were people who reversed the charges to the number they were calling, or would try billing to another number. On reversing the charges, when a customer said something like, "Please don't put me on hold", it led me to believe this person had a scheme to quickly pass that party a message and no charges would be billed. I always kept my finger over the hold button, and the moment anyone talked over me, I pushed it. If the message got through and the party at the other end was aware and was also behind this scheme, I billed them anyway for it. As for billing the call to another number, I would first ask for their name, and if the reply was "Why do you need my name?", you knew they were committing an act of fraud, trying to bill it to someone they probably did not even know.
Any others?
* My pet peeve are the SC's who call in for changes to an account, or for just plain info about the account. In any call center I have worked in, we always first had to ask who we were speaking with, then have them verify the account information. When the reply to "Your name, please" is "Um, uh John", it leads me to believe it is not the person authorized on the account. When I get this reply, I normally ask for the person to verify additional info, like the date of birth or social, and when they can't even verify that (you don't know your own birthday?), I do not assist them unless it's general information not related to the account.
* I have a customer who is trying to change the name of the account from her husband's to her own, stating the husband passed away. We require the death certificate as proof in order to change the name, and it must be faxed in. She has made this attempt four times, along with nasty letters and a copy of her bill, yet the death certificate is the only document that never comes through. Instead of her saying she'll try again or try mailing it, she has pretty much given me a hard time, saying we should just take her word for it and do it without this headache. This leads me to believe the husband is really not dead, and this may not even be the wife trying to make this change into her name. It's more likely a daughter or an in-law trying to get this guy committed so they can have his stuff when he dies.
* When I worked as a toll operator at Bellsouth, one of the things I always was cautious of were people who reversed the charges to the number they were calling, or would try billing to another number. On reversing the charges, when a customer said something like, "Please don't put me on hold", it led me to believe this person had a scheme to quickly pass that party a message and no charges would be billed. I always kept my finger over the hold button, and the moment anyone talked over me, I pushed it. If the message got through and the party at the other end was aware and was also behind this scheme, I billed them anyway for it. As for billing the call to another number, I would first ask for their name, and if the reply was "Why do you need my name?", you knew they were committing an act of fraud, trying to bill it to someone they probably did not even know.
Any others?
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