![]() Mean People Suck
Submitted Monday, June 18, 2007 - 2:54:45 PM by Klaitu
Since I've started my job, I've taken over 20,000 calls. I've spent hundreds of thousands of dollars helping people out of situations they've gotten themselves into, and I've been able to help every one of them.. until last night.
A woman called in, she had been in an accident some hours ago, and other people in my department had arranged to deliver her a car. despite their best efforts, the car wasn't going to be to the customer until the morning.
Apparently, a passenger in the accident was sent to the hospital, and the customer wanted to go from her hotel to the hospital, and she wanted Hertz to pay for it.
Unfortunately, there's no way I can arrange something like that. The only transportation I have access to is public cabs, and they don't take money over the phone. Aside from that, because she was in an accident, even if I could pay for her cab I would not be allowed to by Hertz.. it's a policy they have.
I explained all this to the customer, of course. I've had to do this kind of thing before, and usually the results are that the customer gets really angry and says a bunch of mean things, maybe a cuss word or two.. but this customer just ignored what I had told her, and continued arguing about why I should pay for a cab.
Through the course of the call I explained the cab thing to her 3 times, and none of the times did she ever listen to what I had said. I offered to get her in touch with the local manager, who has more authority than I do and maybe could arrange something for her.
Normally, when faced with the choice between me, who can't do anything and a manager, who might be able to do something.. people pick a manager. This woman told me that she shouldn't have to speak with a manager, and continued to insist that I pay for her cab ride.
20,000 calls, and this response has never happened before. There's a good reason, too.
Most people who call are in a situation that they want to get out of, and given some time, I can always get them out of their situation. Of course, in all those cases the customer wanted to be helped. This customer was different, she didn't want to be helped, and she actively resisted attempts to help her. She was looking for someone to villify, and she just happened to get me.
In the end, I repeated the explaination and apologized that I couldn't do anything and offered to get her in touch with someone who might be able to, and as before she went ranting and raving about how I should sent her a cab.
I issued her an ultimatim: accept the help I can offer, or don't accept it.. she started railing again about the cab. I counted down 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and then hung up on her.
It's the worst call I've ever had.
As much as I detest my job, I do try to help the people that come my way. I've found that I'm more patient than most of my fellow call-takers, particularly with slow people and foreign people who don't know much english. I would have helped this woman the best I could if she had let me.
So, now I'll have to live with whatever the consequences are. Technically, I'm not supposed to hang up on any call ever.. and in 20,000 calls, I never have had a need to until this time. This is the kind of thing people get fired for.
So, what will happen to me? I suppose I won't know until Thursday, but this may spell the end for my call center days. I'd consider Hertz firing me to be "likely" at this point. The sad thing is, I knew all this when I hung up on her and I still had no option but to do it.
Is the Klaitu soon to be unemployed? Stay tuned.
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