MAGICALLY KNOW WHO I AM!! (short)

[Versalia]

My phone rings.

Me: Hi, this is Versa?
SC: Yes, hi, I just got a missed call from this number and I'm calling to see what you want?
Me: Uhh, okay. Can you hold for just a moment please?
SC: *BIG HEAVY SIGH* No, I won't hold... if you can't tell me what you wanted with me, I'm just going to go back to work.
Me: *Less polite voice* Then what is your -name- sir?
SC: *BIG HEAVY SIGH* I don't have time for this. *click*



An awesome CW was joking about this afterward. "Yes sir, you're the only person this entire call center has contacted today. Hey everybody! It's HIM! HE has called us back!!"

[Sapphire Silk]

In a way I can understand the caller's behavior . . . he just wanted to know who called, though I would assume you ID'd your company when you picked up the phone?

But . . . given that he was calling a business and not a private number, he should not have expected you to have his info immediately on hand.

I would not have called back a number I did not know. If they can't leave a message, I don't care. If it's not a company I have a business relationship with, I don't care.

If he cared enough to call back, he should have cared enough to be patient.

[Versalia]

Quoth Panacea

I would not have called back a number I did not know. If they can't leave a message, I don't care. If it's not a company I have a business relationship with, I don't care.

If he cared enough to call back, he should have cared enough to be patient.

So much this. I usually say "If it's terribly important, I'm sure you'll get a message or another call." And yes, to even get to me, you have to go through the front desk. Receptionist had this to say:

"He called and said he had a missed call. I asked if he had submitted any information to us or replied to a recruiting post, and he said he was a small business owner. I knew you were working on a study involving small biz owners, so I sent him to you."

He couldn't even say "I'm a small business owner" to ME, the person who would have been able to know what he was talking about! Geez.

[MoonCat]

See, he was just so terribly important that he knew you were sitting there praying that HE would call back. You couldn't have talked to anyone else that day. And you are the only one working there, aren't you?

Back when we had about 30 people on the phones, we used to get similar calls here that started with "I spoke to the other girl...", as though that would let us know who was calling.

[Mongo Skruddgemire]

Quoth Versalia

An awesome CW was joking about this afterward. "Yes sir, you're the only person this entire call center has contacted today. Hey everybody! It's HIM! HE has called us back!!"

Ooooooh! The Chosen One!

[C. Cecil Ivanish]

Hm, I always have a problem when I get calls I can't pick up from call centres (let's say, if I asked to be called back or if it is a job offer-related call).

Last week I got a call from a number my phone didn't recognise (and I am not allowed to take personal calls while in the ofrifice anyway), so I waited for it to ring out hoping it'd go to voicemail - remembered in a panic that I had disabilitated the voicemail - googled for the number and realised it was a jobseekers' agency. So, at my first break, I called them back.
"Good morning, this is [Cemetery Cecil Ivanish] speaking, I received a call from your number about 30 minutes ago, I had applied for a job through your agency..."
After over 10 minutes of holding I was told that the lady at the reception was unable to find who had called me but I would have been called back by the end of the day (I confirmed my e-mail address and switched the voicemail back on).
Never got that call, though

[Mytical]

We have close to 200 phones in as many offices, when somebody is called from here (for a interview or whatever reason) it always displays the front desk number. They don't inform us who they are going to call, when, or why. We have absolutely no way of knowing who called, or why. At all. So I sympathize. If you can't tell me who called you, why, and what you need..sorry you don't get connected to anybody. Please play the "Mytical should be psychic" game again later. hehe.

[mharbourgirl]

I love it soooo much when I hear 'Yeah, someone called me from there?', and I only handle the switchboard for the receptionist's lunch break twice a week. Oh, and we have around 50 people working in my unit at the moment, just for comparison's sake. But there's a twist to most of mine:

Look, dude, someone probably DID call you. Now, who the frack ARE you? Ok, I don't recognize your name. Who do you work for? Hmm, well, I know that business, but they subcontract on a dozen different jobs for us, so... who is your point of contact? Who WOULD be calling you right now, do you think?

Oh... there's a message on your phone but you called the number first just in case it was important...

Yeah, that last bit? THAT'S what I get 9 times out of 10. I look forward with excessive anticipation to random telemarketers so I can expend some of my pent-up fury. Pretty sure I've made a few wet themselves at this point.

[Rivulatus]

I currently work in the office at a very large department store - we have five separate buildings, each with many different departments, each with several staff - so somewhere around 100+ people are on any particular day. Our office includes the switch so we get to hear the goings on.

All outgoing calls show the switch number on caller id, so we get this all the time. They usually go something like this...

Receptionist: "Thanks for calling [company], how may I direct your call."
SC "You rang me"
Receptionist: "Ok, your call has come through to the switchboard, so I can direct your call do you know who or which department may have called you?"
SC "You rang me, I have no idea what it was about"
Receptionist: "Sorry I'm just at the switchboard and don't make calls - have you made a recent purchase , do you have goods on backorder, or something in repair?"
SC "No"
Receptionist: "Well it may have been a wrong number then, I'm sure if it was important, whoever called you will probably call you back"
SC "Oh hang on, I do have a [product] in for repair" or "I do have a [product] on backorder"
Receptionist: "Ok, it was probably someone from [department] calling, I'll put you through"

I mean seriously, you have a computer in for repair, or you have a $10,000 lounge suite on backorder, you get a call from the company and you don't have a clue why they may be calling?

A few others we get all the time are...
"No, don't put me through to the [department], just tell me the best price on a [category]"
"Has my stuff arrived yet"
"It's the lady with the pink hair that was in this morning, remember me?"

Our store is freakin huge, you drive across the carpark to the different departments, rather than walking, and we sell a huge range of product. You know this, yet you still expect the switchboard operator to know all the products and prices, to know whether your order has arrived (without knowing who you are or what goods you ordered), or to remember a specific customer out of maybe 2000 on any day, and who definitely didn't come anywhere near the switch?

[South Texan]

I guess I am the odd one who assumes that if a number (whether or not I recognize it) shows up on my history, but no message was left, the caller either had a wrong number or the call was not important enough to leave a message. Even people who know me might have intended to call someone else, but dialed my number by mistake.

In either case, I would never presume to try to contact the person to see why they might have called. To me, it is solely the prerogative of the caller to decide whether they actually want to communicate with me.

I once had some guy call me who was responding to a wrong number I had dialed three days before. The guy DEMANDED to know who I was and why I had called him. He refused to accept the wrong number explanation (can we say "paranoid"?), so I just hung up and did not answer the many times he tried to call me again.