The Horror Stories Begin

[Erinesque]

I'm glad you were able to do that. Apparently, at the bank, there's been an influx of individuals phishing peoples' accounts, trying to gain information so they can do interbank transfers, wires, or ACHs, and if I don't verify the accounts fully, and it gets monitored by quality, it's an automatic fail, and that could result in getting written up.

[dalesys]

... I can remember the day and month of their DOB without a problem...

It was the year we got the green Chrysler, Norman...

[justhere]

Usually that's someone who is impersonating the account holder. I always get suspicious when I ask for the date of birth, and there is a long pause before they can come up with an answer - like they're looking for it.

I ran into this once at a doctor's office trying to make an appointment for one of my children. I can remember the day and month of their DOB without a problem, but I have the worst time remembering the years they were born - I always have to do the math (and yes, if I was smart, I'd do it before I call, but I never think to do that until after the call). The receptionist decided since I had to do the math, I was not his parent and therefore wouldn't help me. Fortunately, this office has multiple receptionists and I called back 5 minutes and got someone else and was able to make the appointment I needed for my child.

[earl colby pottinger]

Scam

Put me in the group that always assumes that if a person is giving you a hard time it is because they are scammer and are trying to bypass security.

I am willing to bet that the reason security has been tighten was because someone was able to steal a large amount of money or a person (usually a divorcee) found out info on an account they did not have legal access to.

[Erinesque]

Usually that's someone who is impersonating the account holder. I always get suspicious when I ask for the date of birth, and there is a long pause before they can come up with an answer - like they're looking for it.

[AnaKhouri]

How does one manage to forget their own address, phone number, AND their pwn birthday?

[Erinesque]

I am special because I am me! You are not-me, therefore not special, and really-not-me, so nobody cares what is done to you... You are back ground, furniture, noise, and sometimes food, but nobody cares because you are NOT ME!

That's exactly what these customers think. At least, in my department, the good outweighs the bad.

[Minflick]

I am special because I am me! You are not-me, therefore not special, and really-not-me, so nobody cares what is done to you... You are back ground, furniture, noise, and sometimes food, but nobody cares because you are NOT ME!

[EricKei]

Between having worked on the front lines and being a member here, I've found that it's because there's a certain tiny number of @$$hole customers who treat workers as non-humans because they genuinely seem to believe that they ARE somehow non- or sub-humans.

[Erinesque]

At the bank I work at, in the call center, we are required to get verification before we can speak to anybody. Before I was out on short term disability, the rules were generally lax; as long as the customer could eventually get the answer, it was fine. When I returned, I learned that there is now a 3 strikes and you're out rule. So, if a customer gets the address, phone number and date of birth wrong, I can't go any further. It's the same with verifying a transaction - 3 wrong answers, and I can't do anything else. A supervisor wouldn't even take the call at that point.

With that in mind, most customers are able to verify with no problems, or very minimal difficulty. It's lovely when they either have access to a recent statement, their online accounts, a receipt, or can give a close date (within two days), and a close amount of the transaction (within 10%).

I had a woman yesterday call in, got the zip code of her address wrong, so I moved on to another question, which she also got wrong, and then I moved on to the third question in that column, which she got correct.

Then I had to ask the question from the second column, the date and amount of a recent transaction. At that point, she started screaming at me, calling me a f***ing retard, an idiot, etc. She started throwing numbers out, and random dates. I told her that the answer would need to be narrowed down a bit more, rather than just guesses. This woman continued her personal insults until finally she used up her three attempts, and I couldn't move farther. When I advised her of that, she threw a temper tantrum and finally disconnected the call.

I'm thankful that, working in a specialty department, that I don't get as many of these type of calls as I used to when I worked in Core. A lot of my customers are friendly and polite, and I've had many fun conversations both with them as well as branch employees. I will bend over backwards to try to help someone, but do not understand how someone could treat another human being with such little respect.