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  • #1

    I must speak to him NOW!

    I'll make the introduction brief. I work in a cube farm call center and we're on the phones with customers all day for the most part. So much fun, right?

    Well, it's really not that bad I suppose as a good percentage of the people that call in are half way reasonable. But that can never last for long, as we've all learned.

    I have a coworker who, for the sake of anonymity, I'll refer to as "John". A woman calls up and had evidently spoken to John before. She'd like to speak with him again. Not a problem, as he sits right across the aisle from me, except for one thing.

    He's on a call at the moment.

    So the following conversation commences -

    Me: I'm sorry, but John's speaking with another customer at the moment. How may I assist you?
    SC: I need to speak with John.
    Me: I understand, but he's on another call at the moment. But if I may please have your phone number, I can have him call you back when he's done.
    SC: I need to speak with him now!
    Me: I'm sorry, but he cannot speak now. He's on the phone with another customer. If you need immediate assistance, I can help you. Otherwise I can have him call you back when he's finished with his call.
    SC: I need to speak with John!
    Me: (Am I speaking Japanese or something?) I'm sorry, but he's with another caller at the moment. Either I can assist you now or he can call you back when he's finished.
    SC: (says something really fast that I don't understand)
    Me: I'm sorry, what was that?
    SC: (snaps) Do you speak English!?
    Me: Ma'am, you are not going to speak to me like that. Now, as I said, either I can assist you now or John can call you back when he's finished with his current call.
    SC: (hangs up)

    Well, I suppose the woman had a point about my English, because whatever I thought I had been saying must have translated, in English, to - "Yes, John is available and would be happy to assist you, but I'm not going to transfer you to him."

    Funny, I'd been speaking this language all my life but apparently I don't have a clue what I'm saying. Curse those public schools . . .
    Tags: None
  • #2
    I sometimes get those calls, but they always ask for K, my boss. But here's the thing... K doesn't have a set time when he comes in. He breezes in and out throughout the day so unless you give me your name and number, you're not going to talk to him.

    So on you, ya mean SCs!
    Ridiculous 2009 Predictions: Evil Queen will beat Martha Stewart to death with a muffin pan. All hail Evil Queen! (Some things don't need elaboration.....) -- Jester

    Ridiculous 2010 Predictions: Evil Queen, after escaping prison for last years prediction, goes out and waffle irons Rachel Ray to death. -- SG15Z

    Ridiculous 2011 Prediction: Evil Queen will beat Gordon Ramsay over the head with a cast-iron skillet. -- FireHeart

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    • #3
      Why'd she need to talk to John , or don't I want to know?

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      • #4
        Why'd she need to talk to John , or don't I want to know?
        Meh, who knows? Whatever it was it was something I was obviously too incompetent to deal with. After all, I no speak English.

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        • #5
          I get calls like this all the time, too. People seem to think that I can magically make the person they want appear in their office by snapping my fingers. Believe me, SCs, I would if I could. Then I wouldn't have to deal with you anymore!
          "Thank God for the idiots: but for them, the rest of us could not succeed." ~Mark Twain

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          • #6
            I get people like that all the time. My boss also does service calls (and breakfast with the g/f and lunch with the g/f and shopping with her) so he's in here maybe an hour or so alltogether every day.

            People will call and insist on speaking with him. " I'm sorry he's not in, anything I can help you with?" "Nooo" So they leave a message, cause they HAVE to talk to him only. Thing is he's really bad about returning calls. So they call a few times a day for a week, getting themselves and me, more and more anoyed, until I finally grab the phone, when he's here, dial their number and hand it to the boss, so he HAS to talk to them. And what do you think it's about 98% of the times?
            .........
            .........
            ........
            Idjits want to shedule a service call.
            So boss just tells 'em: "Hold on, I'll transfer you to my dispatcher, she'll shedule you."

            Yup, that'd be me (the by now really pissed person)

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            • #7
              Quoth It shouldn't View Post
              So they leave a message, cause they HAVE to talk to him only. Thing is he's really bad about returning calls.
              Had a habitual caller when I worked the help desk at a bank... she'd call routinely just before I went for my lunch break, and would ask for the same underwriter every time. Now, although I could see said underwriter at her desk, I still had to check through our in house IM system if she could take the call. The answer I always got back was, "Not now, I'm too busy."
              Now, by the third time this lady called, I knew the Underwriter she was calling for was just making excuses, and didn't want to talk to this woman, because I'd pass on every single message, and the woman would just get angrier and angrier with me, apparently thinking I wasn't passing on the messages. The thing is, this caller had been around the help desk a number of times, and was well known for being insanely rude to whomever was helping her, and needed that underwriter to hand hold her way through the application process, something the underwriter was too busy to help her with, or she needed to 'discuss' possible alternatives to the file. Which is NOT what the underwriters are there for. We have loan programs on our website for trying 'what ifs'.
              This lady eventually started telling me, "If the underwriter isn't available, don't even bother giving her my phone number, you and I both know she's not going to call me back."
              Yes, I know this because that underwriter had gone to her boss twelve times or more about this lady calling her for worthless reasons and eating up all her time. Her boss had also called said lady's boss to admonish her about the excessive calls...
              One time, I made the mistake of trying to correct the lady about her information, and it started a back and forth argument, that eventually ended in me saying, "... but that's not important..." It wasn't important, whatever we'd been arguing about, not to the file she was calling about anyway.
              She jumped on my comment as though I'd just called her a bitch. "What do you mean, 'That's not important'?"
              "That information I just gave you isn't relevant to the file you called about, and I'll give your message to the underwriter."
              "You know she's never going to call me back, right." It wasn't a question.
              "I can't give any certainty on that. All I can do is forward the message."
              "I call murder on that!"

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              • #8
                SC: (snaps) Do you speak English!?
                "What part of 'He's with another customer' don't you understand?"

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                • #9
                  Yeah. I hate these customers. Especially when they are insisting to the agent on the call that I stop helping the person I'm on with and help them. I would love to be able to ask them how they would feel if that heppened to them.

                  Makes me want to use my cookies of doom on them. Unfortunately it doesn't work so well over the phone and I just wind up with cookie crumbs everywhere....
                  Bark like a chicken!

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                  • #10
                    Quoth Crescent Cat View Post
                    SC: (snaps) Do you speak English!?
                    Why yes, I do.

                    Do you?
                    "If you find yourself fantasizing about throwing actual users into a blender, please get help... they're heavy." - Tom Dickson

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