The 10th level of fail...

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

I'm a manager for a cell phone company, I'm used to all kinds of crazy credit requests. People will try all manner of sob stories, lies and deception to try to save a few (usually unjustified) dollars on their bill. I've been in this business over 5 years now, there's not much that see that surprises me.

This one though....

Guy calls in and asks for a manager right away. Won't say why. Strike one. I don't like getting on calls with an angry SC where I have no idea what I'm getting into. If a customer persists, I will of course take the call, but usually I have my reps try to get at least some idea of what's happening before then.

My rep gets the guy calmed down a little bit and we're able to determine the issue, or in this case, issues.

In no particular order:

- The guy has 3 lines of his account, the newest one has been active since 2014
- He claims only one line is legitimate, the second line is a phone he's had that hasn't worked from the get go and the other is a line he's not even aware he had.
- With regards to the line that's been having problems, he says he's been calling constantly and it's never been fixed.

So because of the above facts and because he's been "seriously inconvenienced by all this" , he wants:

- A full credit of TWO ENTIRE YEARS OF SERVICE on BOTH lines
- He wants both cancelled WITHOUT PENALTY
- And he wants even more credit due to the "serious inconvenience" mentioned above.

I review his account and discover the following:

- Up until 3 days ago, he hadn't called in 4 months
- He's called only SEVEN times in the past two years and only four of those were apparently for device issues
- He's had service since 2002
- He hasn't had a credit since 2013

So the bottom line here is he's NOT getting what he wants. Now based on those last two items above, I decide to have my rep offer him a $100 credit (part of which was because I was in a good mood, another part of which was because I suspected he wouldn't take it anyway).

Of course he didn't. He's done the math and determined we owe him....drum roll please...

$2143.16!

Oh dear...



That's...not going to happen. So of course now he wants to talk to me.


I review everything above with him, explaining that, you know, he has an obligation to contact us promptly with disputes and how our records do not support his assertion that he's been calling constantly and even up the credit offer to $175. No dice. He wants "every single fucking penny" and he's apparently not going to stop until he gets it. We go around in circles until finally he demands my manager.

He ended up speaking to two more managers before finally realizing he wasn't going to get what he wanted. Last I heard he threatened to sue us and put us out of business and of course we all know how well that usually goes.

I really hate people sometimes.

[Argabarga]

Quoth the GOrd

Doors to your left....

[Shyla]

He's a very special snowflake. Over $2000 is an impressive number. I hope all of you at least got a good laugh.

[BlaqueKatt]

I'd be willing to wager that the lines may have been activated for a free phone that he wasn't eligible for. I saw that A LOT!

[sirwired]

$2k?

Yeah, I'm trying to think of a reason why a business would ever just give away that much to a single small-time customer, and I'm coming up blank.

And how does one go an entire year with a line you don't even notice... I mean, I'll cop to not reading all my bills in full every month, but I think I'd notice it being that high sooner or later.

Has he ever placed any calls on the mystery line?

[eltf177]

Please keep us updated, somehow I don't see this idiot giving up easily...

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

$2k?

Yeah, I'm trying to think of a reason why a business would ever just give away that much to a single small-time customer, and I'm coming up blank.

Because social media exists and if this guy takes his case to Facederp or Twitter and enough people retweet or "like" his complaint, corporate believes it's valid and potentially harmful to the business.

The dollar amount is ridiculous, but I am just jaded enough that I could see him getting it.

[Racket_Man]

- The guy has 3 lines of his account, the newest one has been active since 2014
- He claims only one line is legitimate, the second line is a phone he's had that hasn't worked from the get go and the other is a line he's not even aware he had.
- With regards to the line that's been having problems, he says he's been calling constantly and it's never been fixed.

OK let us break this down.


He has been receiving a bill for ALL 3 lines for at least 12 months
One phone has NOT worked for a sufficient amount of time BUT not really called in for help/service according to the customer call log
One line he claims to have NO knowledge of

The line he has no knowledge of should have been a red flag to him IMMEDIATELY as I assume the monthly payment would have gone up noticeably

Phone having problems and his "claim" of calling "constantly" is "obviously " HIS version of "I reject your reality and substitute my own".

[Seshat]

- The guy has 3 lines of his account, the newest one has been active since 2014
- He claims only one line is legitimate, the second line is a phone he's had that hasn't worked from the get go and the other is a line he's not even aware he had.

"Sir, I'm amazed to hear that. So you didn't authorise that third line? In that case, I will have to refer you to the fraud department - and there will probably be police involvement. An incorrectly authorised line is a terribly serious matter."

.... and if he's a scammer, listen to him backpedal. Hard.

[Android Kaeli]

Every time I read stories like this, I wonder if it's about any of my family members -- I could write a novel about the things I've heard them call up their phone/internet/cable/whatever company for. I think some of them have wasted at least six months of their lives complaining about little things that no one else can see or a minor glitch that happened once or twice that they want credit for.

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

With regards to the apparently unauthorized line, Fraud might have been able to help him out but I don't know. Standard billing policy is we generally only go back 90 days on billing errors, up to 6 months for high value customers.

The thing is the fraud department has to actually PROVE fraud before they credit anything. So if this was a line the guy signed up for at the store voluntarily not really realizing what he was getting into (which I highly suspect is the case) he's SOL.

Typicaly we would only credit an amount as high as $2000 for a legit <red checkmark> error. I actually saw an account once that got a $15 000 credit put on it because a guy was supposed to have several lines put on an international plan for a two week overseas trip and they weren't and yes, we had notes to prove it in this case.

The highest non-error credit (i.e. an "inconvenience" credit or some such) I ever saw was around $500. Typically they are less than $200.

Also, they don't let us peons (even managers) credit $1000s of dollars to an account. You have go a fair bit up the chain of command to find someone who can authorize that high a credot and they most certainly will NOT do it without a damned good reason.

I'd say there's about a 99.99999999999% chance this guy will NEVER get what he wants from us.

[Seshat]

Oh, I know. But scammers seem to hate being referred to anywhere called 'fraud'.

[Racket_Man]

Every time I read stories like this, I wonder if it's about any of my family members -- I could write a novel about the things I've heard them call up their phone/internet/cable/whatever company for. I think some of them have wasted at least six months of their lives complaining about little things that no one else can see or a minor glitch that happened once or twice that they want credit for.

This is one of the reasons that when I bring things up to my cable/cell provider I am nice, polite and reasonable.

Such as the time I asked why our cable bill had gone up like $30 or $40 a month. The rep looked at the account and told me he could do something for me by putting us on some promotion package and POOF cable bill went down again. I did not yell or threaten or scream or curse ---- WOW nice things happen.

IT PAYS to be nice and not a jerk and complain about every little thing.

[eltf177]

I'd say there's about a 99.99999999999% chance this guy will NEVER get what he wants from us.

I don't see that stopping scammer from continuing to try, hoping to find the weak link...

This is one of the reasons that when I bring things up to my cable/cell provider I am nice, polite and reasonable.

Such as the time I asked why our cable bill had gone up like $30 or $40 a month. The rep looked at the account and told me he could do something for me by putting us on some promotion package and POOF cable bill went down again. I did not yell or threaten or scream or curse ---- WOW nice things happen.

IT PAYS to be nice and not a jerk and complain about every little thing.

Same with my internet, they found me another promotion and got my bill to a reasonable rate. By maintaining a nice demeanor and thanking the rep I was rewarded...

[otakuneko]

Imagine the pwnage you could've delivered if you could've looked up any sort of usage stats.

"So, this line with the device that isn't working, it sent and received three thousand text messages over the past few months, and used a thousand minutes of airtime, and a few gig of data..."