I can't believe he just did that.

[redqueenmeg.livejournal.com]

One of the truths I like to believe in, whether it actually is true or not, is that being in tech support makes us better people.  Or at least, more sensitive to people in jobs like ours, phone jobs and the like.

That, apparently, is not always true.  

Billy, who sits next to me and has been working at helpdesks longer than I have (not sure how long, but definitely more than 7 years, so long enough to know better), is in a dispute with his credit card company about some bogus charge.  He just made a call to them to ask for status on the problem.  

Apparently they asked him at the end of the call if there was anything else they could help him with.

HE ASKED FOR THE WINNING LOTTERY NUMBERS.

I cannot believe this.  How many times have lusers asked him that?  And he has the gall to inflict this pain and suffering upon the poor credit card company rep?  Inhuman.

Comments

[inahandbasket]

hey, share the pain! ^_^

[redqueenmeg.livejournal.com]

I utterly refuse! I'm not going to torture someone else if they haven't done anything to me. :)

[gremlingirl.livejournal.com]

I dunno. I asked the tech support ppl at Intuit for a technical reason for them disabling online transactions for 2003, and they told me that the reason was 2006 has newer features. So I went off. The fact that their support was in India did not help. Incompetance is incompetance. I do try to be nice and polite most of the time, though.

[redqueenmeg.livejournal.com]

But the rep answered all of his questions. This has absolutely zero to do with incompetence.

[gremlingirl.livejournal.com]

yeah....in those cases, it's lame to be rude like that.

[harmer.livejournal.com]

Shudder.
I laugh at people when they say that.
Note the word "at" and not "with" but the customers don't seem to notice.

Other common things I get are:
"a million dollars"
"will you clean my house"
"will you come to my house and fix all my computer problems?"

[redqueenmeg.livejournal.com]

yep. My favorite response is, in the most sarcastic voice I can muster, "Never heard that one before!" Or else just silence. No laughter. No words. Nothing. They usually apologize.

[redqueenmeg.livejournal.com]

Hee.

Yes, silence is one of our most effective and cherished tools.

[siobheanne.livejournal.com]

ah, i'll have to try that. It makes me really uncomfortable when that's the first thing they say "oh thank god you're an american!"... "actually, I'm Canadian." Sucka. We're supposed to spout some line alone the gist of "I understand your frustration; all of our technicians receive the same training and are equally able to help resolve your issue, but the language barrier can be frustrating at times, BLAH BLAH BLAH"...

[siobheanne.livejournal.com]

*"along" the gist of... sorry.

[harmer.livejournal.com]

Hahaha! Silence, that's awesome. Hopefully that scars them from every trying to be funny in the future.

[mouser.livejournal.com]

I've slipped at checkout registers with "If it doesn't scan, it must be free."

I usually apologise.

[siobheanne.livejournal.com]

I've heard some obscure law here in Canada that if the item doesn't scan, or scans at the wrong price, they have to give it to you for free (as long as the value is under $10). They instated it to crack down on grocery-fraud *L* (ie: retailers charging like $0.10 more per item, hoping you won't notice).

[jahbulon.livejournal.com]

That's the law here in Australia. If an item scans at a higher price than marked, you receive that item free, and if you were purchasing multiple items you get the others half price. Not many people are aware of it though.

[nuadha-prime.livejournal.com]

Having left support for retail, I can tell you that the "must be free" line is even more common than the million dollars "anything else" response. It's pretty sad. Glad to hear you had the sense to apologize.

[jecook]

If I get a decent vibe from the person I'm talking to on the phone, I've been known to ask for a case of beer.

Jokingly, of course, but i think it at least lightens the mood.

[trayce.livejournal.com]

:) I've used the "you owe me a beer" line too but only on internal type calls where I'm dealing with someone in the company/close to company dealings I know I can say it too (and who in all likelyhood may well buy me that beer!)

[redqueenmeg.livejournal.com]

That would be OK with me, especially if the person, like you said, had the emotional IQ to understand that the comment was appropriate at that time.

[sober-panda.livejournal.com]

It's actually been my experience that a lot of people who work in phone service professions are worse than normal customers when calling in for service because they call in with an attitude of "well, if it was me answering that call, I would have done this".

My manager is a prime example of this. My cube is immediately next to hers, so I get to hear every time she calls in and bitches out some poor customer service rep over something she didn't know she was going to be charged for, she didn't know would cost as much as it did, etc.

[redqueenmeg.livejournal.com]

See, I just don't understand that. Shouldn't someone who has a phone job know the limited scope of empowerment of the person they get on the line?

[prozacnation.livejournal.com]

blAH! I hate when lusers do that.

When I ask that question, I get answers like that in addition to these:

$50 to repair my computer
$10 for the poker game I was entered in when my internet went out

And the all time "piss me off" comment:

Yeah I could use a blow job.

[trayce.livejournal.com]

UGH if I got that last one I'd report the customer to my manager! :|

[prozacnation.livejournal.com]

I did.

It was a chat and I forwarded the Reference number and the chat transcript to the supervisor.

He didn't do anything. :\

[trayce.livejournal.com]

Bloody supervisors :(

[billysapphire.livejournal.com]

being a male, I wish someone would say that to me. Especially since I am a pretty out gay male at that.
Damn, I wish someone would ask me that now.
As for you, I could understand that being not only annoying but incredibly offensive.

[sid-dslaci.livejournal.com]

I'm amused (relieved?) to say, that after four years in call centers, I have not once been hit with the lottery number gem. I can't explain it, but I'll take it.

[darkblade1.livejournal.com]

Well now that've you said it, you'll get one.

I have gotten that 4 times, in only 3 years here.

[redqueenmeg.livejournal.com]

I can't explain it either, but congrats. I have gotten it at least once a day. For the past six years.

[duality.livejournal.com]

my usual response to that one is "if i knew those, we wouldn't be talking right now."

i have had marriage proposals and mentions of "i'll be having you later." the 2nd one isn't -as- creepy when you realize that my name on the phone is a popular alcohol.

[ace-brickman.livejournal.com]

jack? jim? johnnie?

[duality.livejournal.com]

Bailey

[the-s-guy.livejournal.com]

This is why I never ask that question.

Doesn't prevent me from getting the dreaded "Just while I've got you on the phone". If I can sense they're likely to spring that one on me, I'll see if I can hurry them through the closing conversation so that they're saying "Bye..." before they remember there was something else.

[redqueenmeg.livejournal.com]

I would like not to have to ask that question, but if I don't, I'll fail my call monitor.

[the-s-guy.livejournal.com]

Fortunately, our management has never heard of call monitors, and if they tried to implement them our best people would walk off the job. Plus they, you know, cost money.

[marahsk.livejournal.com]

That one doesn't bother me; I just tell them that if I had the winning lottery numbers, I'd be on a beach in Hawaii instead of working.

I'll take bad jokes over being yelled at, sexually harassed, or assumed to know nothing because I lack a penis.