"Do you have any idea how much money you're costing me!"

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

I suppose this is supposed to make me feel guilty of something.

Let me elaborate. I get this commonly when customers call in because their service has been interrupted for whatever reason. Often they will complain that by having no phone that they are "losing thousands" because the interrupted phone is a business line and they can't conduct any business.

Understand something people: I DO NOT CARE

Sure I can sympathize how much it would suck to lose your business line at an inopportune time, but don't think telling me how much my company and I are costing you will get your phones on any faster. One guy today told me we'd cut him off on his busiest day of the year. What kind of crazy business has its busiest day of the year on a SUNDAY?

The other thing I don't get is if you are someone who would be losing money at such a rate by having your phone off for a few minutes, you've obviously built some semblance of a successful business. Should not a successful business be able to pay its bills on time? In the situation above, said customer had not paid in nearly two MONTHS and was getting upset at US for costing HIM money.

Sorry you may be out a few bucks dude. Pay your bill on time and you won't have these problems.

[draggar]

I had someone once tell me that they lost a "multi-million dollar deal" because their cell phone dropped the call.

Then, I asked, "How come you're basing a multi-million dollar deal on a free cell phone?"

IMO - extremely poor business choice.

It's also plain and simple in most cases, if you pay your f-ing bill then your service won't be turned off.

[TNT]

Used to get that all the time in the internet business. People calling who didn't pay their bill who were losing "thousands and thousands" of dollars. Got the same thing when we had a brief outage... "If had such a lucrative business, I'd have a backup... and a commercial account."

Somehow, I never had any takers on the commercial account.

[HawaiianShirts]

Used to get that all the time in the internet business. People calling who didn't pay their bill who were losing "thousands and thousands" of dollars. Got the same thing when we had a brief outage... "If had such a lucrative business, I'd have a backup... and a commercial account."

I've talked to a few folks who work support for internet services have similar experiences. I used to work a call center that recently picked up an account for an internet provider, so my friends tell me stories sometimes. Want one of those customers to go away? Try this (heard from friends and I think here on CS some time ago):

Caller: Blah blah losing money blah blah big business on a home plan blah blah blah.
Rep: Oh, you're running a business on this line?
Caller: Yes!
Rep: Well, we've got you down as a home line! Our mistake. Let me upgrade you to a business account.
Caller: *click*

[Seshat]

What kind of crazy business has its busiest day of the year on a SUNDAY?

A church?

[blas]

I admit, I've thought it to myself and waltzed around my apartment grumbling before work because my cable or internet went out. I'd never call the cable company screaming, though. They always note when you call if there's an outage in your area.

It's more of an inconvenience than anything else. I've grumbled "I don't pay $50 a month for willy nilly internet service that goes out every night for 10 minutes. That's over an hour a week." and "Even if the cable TV is free, if the landlords get wind of how it tends to go out quite often, they are going to drop it from our list of benefits, and soon we'll all be forced to have to shell out more money for other cable tv."

[Jacen]

Unsure about the rest of the country (or the world) but Harvey Norman computer super store is open on a sunday... and since their the only major computer shop open on a sunday, I can imagine they'd get a fair bit of bussiness... However, I also imagine they'd handle their accounts better then this.

[LifeCarnie]

Where I work we have hospitals who are on credit hold call in and try to place orders all the time. And than, they get really indignant about the fact that they can't place an order due to the their credit status.

Like it's the creditors fault you don't pay your bills. You want your product on time, without any delays? PAY YOUR BILL!!

Sometimes I feel bad for people, because they're calling from a purchasing problem and they have no idea that the hospital that they work for is basically bankrupt. However, most of the time people know that they're employer is a dead beat.

[auntiem]

Sure I can sympathize how much it would suck to lose your business line at an inopportune time, but don't think telling me how much my company and I are costing you will get your phones on any faster. One guy today told me we'd cut him off on his busiest day of the year. What kind of crazy business has its busiest day of the year on a SUNDAY?

I'm guessing bookie?

[greensinestro]

The old "You shut me off for not paying my bill and are costing me thousands in business" syndrome! I get this a lot myself, and much of the time, it's a customer who did not pay their residential account, and are claiming it's their business.

I totally agree with the assessment of "if you have this successful business and are making the thousands of dollars you claim to be losing, why do you have such a difficult time paying your bill, let alone pay business rates instead of residential ones?"

I never have actually said this, but I have argued with a few of the "this is my business line" people. I tell them, "I'm sorry, but you are paying residential rates and need to convert to business rates if you claim to be using this for a business." It usually shuts them up and gets them to pay the bill.

[drunkenwildmage]

When I did support for an national cable ISP, once or twice a day I would get a call in from a day trader, or some other schmuck that would give me that "thanks to your service I lost thousands of dollar's of business" BS, and then would demand credit or in some cases, wanted us to pay them for the amount of money they lost. Our Company approved response was (paraphrasing to an extent)

"ISP is for recreational use only, ISP isn't responsible for any financial loses occurred while using our service. If you are using the service for business purposes, then I will have to transfer to the commercial department "
That's normally as far as they got before they hung up.

[greensinestro]

When I worked for Bellsouth, I had a guy who complained on me, stating I held up his line and cost him $5,000 on a business deal because his buyer could not get through to him. They pulled a verbatim (which records virtually every key stroke you make, what number the customer called from, etc.) and found this call lasted 13 seconds. Not sure how I did all of that in 13 seconds, but this is what this guy claimed. It turned out later on, his phone service had been cut by workers outside, right around the same time he called in to me. We still didn't reimburse him.

[Boozy]

What kind of crazy business has its busiest day of the year on a SUNDAY?

Canadian grocery stores the day before Thanksgiving, which always falls on a Monday. Also, Walmart's busiest day of the week (not year) is usually Sunday, having surpassed Saturdays in sales several years ago.

The astute among you may notice that these two examples do not rely heavily on cell phones to conduct business. And if they did, they would a) have commercial cellular accounts, b) have backups, and c) not call CrazedClerk and throw temper tantrums if something went wrong due to lack of a) and b).

[gunsage]

I may have mentioned this elsewhere, but I work for our residential section. I could 100% understand if someone was complaining because they were part of our business class. I giggle when someone tries that on me. For one, you are breaking the terms of your contract when you are attempting to use residential services for business, per our policy. Ah, it never gets old...

SC: "My (insert faulty service here) is out! I work from home and this is affecting my business! I need a tech out here TOMORROW!"
Me: "You're using your residential service for business?"
SC: "I've had your services for-"
Me: "You didn't answer me, so I'll continue anyway. Our business class offers a LOT more than our residential services. Yes, you pay a little more, but it's more than worth it."
SC: "W-well, I'm not going to PAY EXTRA for service that doesn't work in the first place!"

At this point, the conversation's over and he/she knows it. I don't know how our business class works, but I would assume that they could have a tech out SAME DAY if there was a problem. Better equipment, better support, more experienced techs...and yes, a much higher price. Even still, if you were running a business of ANY kind, wouldn't that be what you want? The answer is yes, shut up.

[Rapscallion]

I don't know how our business class works, but I would assume that they could have a tech out SAME DAY if there was a problem.

When I was in the shop, we were classified as a business line and paid accordingly. By golly, we were promptly served if there was a fault on the line. Residential accounts in the area could get stuffed, but commercial ones were dealt with as a top priority.

Rapscallion