You Don't Know Why You're Calling?

[Dips]

As near to verbatim as I can recall:

Caller: I need to speak with [owner's name] please.

Me: May I ask who is calling?

Caller: [name]

Me: And the reason you are calling?

Caller: [gives company name]

Me: OK. What is this regarding?

Caller: I need to talk to either [owner's name] or someone in human resources.

Me: OK. What is this regarding?

Caller: As I said I need to talke to [owner's name] or someone in human resources.

Me: I'm afraid I can't put you through to anyone until you let me know why you are calling.

Caller: [testily] I don't know what all to say to you. YOU ALL HAVE A GOOD DAY!

Me: OK and you too.

[click] Commence giggling.

I'm not sure why this one thought being evasive was going to make me MORE likely to put her through than if she'd just said she was trying to sell something.

If she just come out and told me I would have gladly filled her in that we aren't in need of her company's services. Most sales callers actually appreciate knowing that so they don't waste time on leads that go nowhere.

Oh, well.

[protege]

Now that's my favorite kind of idiot. My feeling has always been, you want to be evasive, fine. But, don't count on me transferring you...and wasting my boss' time. You want to talk to him, you will tell me why you're calling. Otherwise...you can bugger off. Occasionally though, I'll tell them that all of that--HR, advertising, accounts payable etc.--is handled out of our main office. I suppose I *could* be nice and give it to them. But, by that point, they've already hung up. Guess that call wasn't so "important" after all

[draftermatt]

Our office manager gets that all the time I only hear half the conversation but it's always "May I ask who's calling?" "And who are you with?" "And what do you do?" "I mean why are you calling for him?" "Are you selling something?"

[Shalom]

Our office manager gets that all the time I only hear half the conversation but it's always "May I ask who's calling?" "And who are you with?" "And what do you do?" "I mean why are you calling for him?" "Are you selling something?"

My ex-boss didn't have the patience for that.

His family name is long and Middle-Eastern; difficult to pronounce correctly if you aren't from that culture. People who had legitimate business with him either called him by his first name or his wife's last name, both of which were much shorter and easier to say.

If someone called, asked for him by his last name and got it correct, it was probably family or someone who knew him personally. If they mangled it, though, the first thing he'd say was "What are you selling?", not the fifth.

[fma_fanatic]

I'm going to take a wild guess that if they were asking for the boss or HR, it might also be for employment verification. I get a lot of calls for verification like that. Most times they don't want to admit it, for whatever weird reason.

[Hyndis]

I get that all the time.

If the person calling cannot tell me why they are calling or what issue/question/problem they have I will not transfer them. I don't care how upset they get because they refuse to answer the question, but I will not transfer them.


Most of the time its someone demanding to speak to a supervisor about something utterly trivial that I can handle myself in about 30 seconds. But because they refuse to tell me why they're calling and continue to insist on being transferred to a specific person they get nothing at all.

[chickengirl]

I'm going to take a wild guess that if they were asking for the boss or HR, it might also be for employment verification. I get a lot of calls for verification like that. Most times they don't want to admit it, for whatever weird reason.

Maybe they're not allowed to due to privacy/confidentiality concerns? I'm not sure why they wouldn't be allowed to say so if that's the case but that's the first thing that came to my mind. As a collection agent I ask for accounts payable and there's very little I'm allowed to say to you if you're not AP. (One would think there would really be only one reason someone would call a business and ask to speak to "accounts payable, or the person who's responsible for paying the [phone company] cell phone bill" but many people try to pump us for every single little detail... sorry, but we operate on the assumption that your boss wouldn't like it if I told any employee who asked that the company cell phone account is $10,000 past due.)

[Stormraven]

I get that a lot on our home phone from telemarketers. I can count on one hand the number I get in a six month period who'll actually answer the question. The rest start getting all defensive the moment I ask it.

[Dips]

Maybe they're not allowed to due to privacy/confidentiality concerns? <snip>

The handful of ex-employees who use as as a reference usually tell us about it, as those who are applying for mortgages and know that they will call for income verification usually do.

Even if it were the case, I've taken those calls and those guys always answer the question by telling us the the name of the person they are calling on behalf of and that they can't disclose the details to me. This person evaded the question and the company name she gave also didn't conform with her being a recruiter or a loan company. She was definitely selling something [since she asked for HR I'm guessing either insurance, benefits management services or recruiting services] and thought she had a better chance convincing the owner than me. [Hint: She didn't. He HATES lying and evasiveness. ]

And, if she were asking about a late bill, she would have asked for Accounts Payable instead of the owner/HR and I would have put her through to Hannah. Whereas Hannah would have confirmed that we owed money, the amount, apologized for forgetting to pay it and made sure it got done.

[Magpie]

Isn't the whole point of having someone answer the phones to let them spend time talking to the person on the other end rather than forcing the boss to speak to every crackpot? This sounds like EXACTLY the sort of call that requires there to be someone answering the phones, even when it's a direct line.