Tweet
So I work in the customer care department of a utility company and cranky people are fairly common, but once in a while you get a customer that is just unruly and totally unreasonable. The kind of customer that makes you want to go postal.
I answer the phone, and as I'm saying my greeting, I can hear her screaming to someone in the background and I knew right off the bat, she was going to be a pain in the butt.
When a customer calls, we have a little pop-up screen that gives us an account number and a name...it generates based on the automated system and usually goes off of the phone number they call from. Before we go over the account, we have to verify that the person we are talking to is the same account that came through. Sometimes people call from a number that isn't theirs, therefore someone else's account comes through.
As soon as I got finished with my greeting, she starts yelling at me wanting to know why we are harrassing her about her past due balance. I ask her who I'm speaking with (to verify her acct) and she starts in on me about why she has to tell me again when she already gave her information before (to the automated system). "Yes, I am who I am, blah blah blah..." There's no point in explaining to her that sometimes a different person's account pulls up so we have to verify the information we have is correct, because she doesn't want to hear anything I have to say, just yell. I wasn't asking her for her first born child, or to surrender a blood sample or anything. Simply her name.
As soon as I could drag her name out of her, albeit very snarkily, she keeps going off about how we are harrassing and threatening her over her past due balance. When a customer's acct goes past due, we send a letter asking them to contact us, and after about 10 days, if we don't hear anything or receive payment, we issue an automated phone call asking the customer to call in. So that's the extent of our harrasment with her, a letter, and ONE phone call. She was going off about how it's illegal to shut her service off in the winter and that we won't shut her service off, so why are we even trying to contact her. She'll pay it when she pays it. I didn't bother trying to explain that she was wrong, and we absolutely do shut service off if a customer isn't paying their bill, but there's no point in arguing with someone like this, it's futile. She starts threatening us saying she could take us to small claims court over this "harrassment."
I tried to explain to her that her account is PAST DUE so we send out PAST DUE notices and that there isn't any way to avoid that (other than paying the statement in full each month of course). She wasn't having any of it. I was basically there to yell at. She wouldn't listen to any reason, or any logic, she just wanted to yell and threaten. She said if she got one more notice she'd "go ballistic."
After some more yelling, threatening, and swearing, she finally hung up on me. Now here is my question. Which is more harrassment? One letter, and one automated phone call, or her calling me and swearing, yelling, threatening to sue? She actually said we were having a "tizzy fit" over her past due balance. I think it was pretty clear who was having the tizzy fit. She really got under my skin.
I answer the phone, and as I'm saying my greeting, I can hear her screaming to someone in the background and I knew right off the bat, she was going to be a pain in the butt.
When a customer calls, we have a little pop-up screen that gives us an account number and a name...it generates based on the automated system and usually goes off of the phone number they call from. Before we go over the account, we have to verify that the person we are talking to is the same account that came through. Sometimes people call from a number that isn't theirs, therefore someone else's account comes through.
As soon as I got finished with my greeting, she starts yelling at me wanting to know why we are harrassing her about her past due balance. I ask her who I'm speaking with (to verify her acct) and she starts in on me about why she has to tell me again when she already gave her information before (to the automated system). "Yes, I am who I am, blah blah blah..." There's no point in explaining to her that sometimes a different person's account pulls up so we have to verify the information we have is correct, because she doesn't want to hear anything I have to say, just yell. I wasn't asking her for her first born child, or to surrender a blood sample or anything. Simply her name.
As soon as I could drag her name out of her, albeit very snarkily, she keeps going off about how we are harrassing and threatening her over her past due balance. When a customer's acct goes past due, we send a letter asking them to contact us, and after about 10 days, if we don't hear anything or receive payment, we issue an automated phone call asking the customer to call in. So that's the extent of our harrasment with her, a letter, and ONE phone call. She was going off about how it's illegal to shut her service off in the winter and that we won't shut her service off, so why are we even trying to contact her. She'll pay it when she pays it. I didn't bother trying to explain that she was wrong, and we absolutely do shut service off if a customer isn't paying their bill, but there's no point in arguing with someone like this, it's futile. She starts threatening us saying she could take us to small claims court over this "harrassment."
I tried to explain to her that her account is PAST DUE so we send out PAST DUE notices and that there isn't any way to avoid that (other than paying the statement in full each month of course). She wasn't having any of it. I was basically there to yell at. She wouldn't listen to any reason, or any logic, she just wanted to yell and threaten. She said if she got one more notice she'd "go ballistic."
After some more yelling, threatening, and swearing, she finally hung up on me. Now here is my question. Which is more harrassment? One letter, and one automated phone call, or her calling me and swearing, yelling, threatening to sue? She actually said we were having a "tizzy fit" over her past due balance. I think it was pretty clear who was having the tizzy fit. She really got under my skin.
Especially if they set the heat to sauna level because they "don't have to pay".
Comment