Working as a phone support rep, what's your worst stories?

[Justin89]

I worked as a phone support representative for a brief time, and I hated every minute of it. I had one caller call because his order didn't get shipped. I checked the tracking, and it was never shipped. So when that happens, I tell the buyer that we would have to send a new order out, as the original order didn't move out of the warehouse. He complained up a storm, calling me a child, saying I could easily check and get the right package sent. I told him that I can't as I am in a completely different location, and then he went off on me some more, saying my dad would be disappointed in me, and that I should talk to him about being a man. 

I tried to stay as calm as possible, but it was just so damn anxiety inducing, so I just kept reiterating that all I could do, is send you a new package out, as the old one won't be sent out, as it's either stuck in the warehouse, or lost somewhere. He wasn't having it and then decided to hang up. I was so mad. People don't seem to have any patience when it comes to anything these days. 

So, ever since I have had no interest in doing any support/tech support/phone support work. It's just too stressful, and for very little pay. Not worth it imo. 

[Scarlett]

I have never had this kind of job but I had one similar. I was working for a company who needed me to call businesses to ask permission to fax them letters and deals on a service. This one guy I spoke to not only called me something VERY sexist but he told me to get a real job. I almost cried when I hung up the phone. 

[James]

At my ecommerce project the customer service team was one of my favorite teams to work with. 

I do not like talking on the phone either but I have done it plenty of times before. 

The most frustrating phone calls for our CSR team were when we shipped a package and the tracking says the customer got it and the customer did not get the package. We knew from looking at hundreds of shipments every day that this takes place all the time but the customers do not understand that. Typically if you wait for a couple of days the package magically shows up. 

Phone conversations are the hardest form of service because the customer can not see you or your face. They have protection being that they are so far away so sometimes they just act really mean. Then again I have seen people do this in person too as for some reason consumers always expect perfection and if something is a little bit wrong they want to complain to try to get something for less most of the time. 

We had to start tracking the customers and figuring out who problem customers were the ones that complain about the same stuff over and over again to keep getting appeasements. 

We thought about it in a way yes our shipping team can make mistakes every now and then, and the shippers make mistakes every now and then there are humans involved in the process so errors are going to take place. But when you had a customer that was always missing products in their shipments you start to notice a problem. 

So we made a system where we just did no questions asked customer service for up to 3 orders a year. After that we would ban the customer from future orders because they would just cost us to much in appeasements over time and wipe out any profit we were making. 

There are some miserable people out there and they seem to want to take others down with them. 

I used to tell the CSRs never to take it personally, just follow our policies, escalate when needed. 

[Lana]

I worked a short temp job at a call center many years ago. Hated it too, but it was mostly because of the anxiety of waiting for a call to come in. I had a few horrible calls, but for the most part, it wasn't too bad. 

46 minutes ago, James said:

At my ecommerce project the customer service team was one of my favorite teams to work with. 

I do not like talking on the phone either but I have done it plenty of times before. 

The most frustrating phone calls for our CSR team were when we shipped a package and the tracking says the customer got it and the customer did not get the package. We knew from looking at hundreds of shipments every day that this takes place all the time but the customers do not understand that. Typically if you wait for a couple of days the package magically shows up. 

Yes, I had the same. We shipped out toys and other products, and we'd get calls all the time about their fedex package not arriving when it shows it was delivered. We'd tell them to check around the property, with neighbors, or if it was an apartment, with the apartment manager, and if it doesn't show up in the next 3 days (depending on how long it was since it was marked delivered), we send out a new toy to replace it. And if they receive it, we ask them to send back. Hated dealing with those, because they would complain about it not being there and they would often ask if we could call fedex about it. 

I don't miss it, but at the time, it was good pay, so I can't complain too much. 

[Stacey]

I had an office job right out of high school. It was not phone support, more a less telemarketing. I have had people yell at me, hangup on me, call me names, etc. and it sucked at first but you get used to it. lol

[Mila]

I never worked as one. I have been on the receiving end up them being pretty rude to me though lol

One example was when I was having issues with Amazon. I needed help with my account. The woman I was speaking with kept asking me for my full name and I would tell her. I told her 5 times and she just kept saying "FULL NAME PLEASE!" getting louder and cockier. So I realized that my account had a middle name attached to it and I asked her if she needed that and she rudely said "that is your full name, isn't it?". I was so mad. Like why not just tell me?