Bad situation made worse

[Midorikawa]

In reference to my last (and first! :-D) thread started a bit ago, I mentioned being in a bad situation because of having to give my information out, this is it:

Working at the cable company back in Texas, I had some crazy call in at about 4 PM accusing us of ripping phone wires out of his phone box outside. (what?!) I explained to him that there was no way in the world we would have done that. He obviously didn't believe me, so I contacted dispatch and double checked. Of course, noone has been in the area. So I go back and tell him and things go downhill from here:

Me: The abused tech
SC: The raving lunatic
CSM: My (utterly useless) supervisor.

Me: I'm sorry sir, I checked with dispatch, and noone's been down there all day.
SC: NO! YOU GUYS DID THIS! YOU NEED TO FIX MY PHONE!
Me: I'm sorry, but you don't have any services with us. Regardless, this issue is between you and the phone company. Whoever did this to you, it was not us.
SC: NO! I KNOW YOU DID IT!!!
Me: No, I just went further than any L1 should go by contacting dispatch directly. It was not us.
SC: Listen here! I know who you are! I know what car you drive!!!
Me: Really?
SC: Yes! You drive a 1973 Plymouth! I'm going to wait for you when you get off work!
Me: *thinking: damn my working on the outskirts of town and driving a distinctive car...this guy lives 3 blocks from here, too.*
Me: Is that a threat sir?
*SC hangs up, but throughout the call, there was a distinctive echo that signifies that my CSM was listening in on the call in livetime. At the end of the call, my supervisor came up to my desk.*
CSM: Here's the report for that last call.
Me: You were listening to that call?
CSM: Yes.
Me: You heard him threaten me?
CSM: Yes.
Me: ...?
CSM: What do you expect me to do?
Me: Oh, I don't know, call the police? He did threaten to kill me and named the car I drive, and has my first and last name. What do you THINK I want?!

He basically refused to call the police, and told me not to worry about it. I had a coworker look before I even approached the door, got the all clear, then left that night. ridiculous, but that's what I came to expect from this miserable unscrupulous company that didn't hesitate to leave customers in the dark on a whim, or steal from employees, fire them because they didn't like the way they looked that day, or any number of other reasons.

[Blade_Raver]

Wow.. damn... just.. damn..

Wrongness on so many levels on behalf of both your employer and the one who threatened you.

Jailarity must ensue. Call police.

IANAL, but that also might be a negligence lawsuit against your employer for not taking appropriate actions to ensure your safety. Call a lawyer.

Now.

Faster!

[LillFilly]

Everything Blade said, seconded!

[morgana]

He's not in that job anymore, guys . . .

[freeatlast]

I was threatened by a customer a few weeks ago. He was local (we do billing & collections for franchises all over the country.) When he found out that being blithering asshole was not going to intimidate me into giving him what he wanted, he told me "I'll be waiting when you close and I'll take care of you." That's when I told him the "discussion" was over and that I would not be taking any more of his calls and I disconnected the call. Then, over the next hour he called repeatedly. I just left him in the loop for about a 1/2 hour, but he just hung in there. So then, I began picking up when he would call and then immediately disconnect him. This went on for about another 45 minutes. Then, he stopped calling. That's when I really got nervous. When it got dark, I closed all of the blinds in the office. When it was time to leave I went and looked out every window to be sure that no crazies were waiting outside.

When I told the warehouse manager about it, he told me I should have called him. He said he would have come back in and would have called and made a police report. That didn't even occur to me.

Now, every evening before everybody else leave I pull my car into the warehouse so that I don't have to go outside in the dark to leave. I have a remote for the door opener, so I can be in my car with the doors locked before the door is opened. I feel much safer that way.

[tropicsgoddess]

Can we say gross negligence lawsuit?

[bsaana]

Why would you rely on a supervisor for that? I would have signed off for a couple of minutes and called the police myself. The call was taped right (I know most if not all record them)? It would still be available for them to listen to.

I don't think I would have even been able to get into my car let alon go home after something like that.

[Getpowned]

good god!

thats some whacky stuff luckily i only deal with out of state customers!! hope everythign is still okay

[nuthing12]

quit and sue the company for creating a hostile work environment. And report it to the police. And go after your buttmunch of a manager by contacting the guy back and giving him the managers name and address and his car model and saying you were told to say what you did by your manager.

[otakuneko]

And then there's the fact that even if the cableco had done anything to damage the guy's phone service, it'd be the telco that had to fix it. (That is, assuming he wasn't using some cable-based "digital phone" service carrying his phone over the coax) "You broke it, you fix it" doesn't apply. More like, "You broke it, you foot the repair bill."

So he was talking to the wrong people to get it fixed in the first place!

[PepperElf]

and some companies actually do defend their employees.

i use to play a pay-for online game and a major patch had come out so no one was getting into the game... bout the only thing working was the game's chat room.

one of the chatters started suggesting that physically attacking the employees (there were a couple monitoring the chat) would encourage them to fix things.

don't know if they did anything to him but another player said "don't do that"... apparently HE had done the same thing previously, a comment about going to the headquarters with a shotgun.

The second player continued... "I just had my court case yesterday. I'm lucky they didn't ban my account."


so yeah some companies *will* go legal on the customers who threaten their employees.
if anything more of them should do that... it might help keep these idiots at bay

[Fryk]

Wait wait wait wait WAIT!

So they took him to COURT, and all he could think of was...

"Thank God they didn't ban my account"??!!?!

That is SO SAD!

[Midorikawa]

And then there's the fact that even if the cableco had done anything to damage the guy's phone service, it'd be the telco that had to fix it. (That is, assuming he wasn't using some cable-based "digital phone" service carrying his phone over the coax) "You broke it, you fix it" doesn't apply. More like, "You broke it, you foot the repair bill."

So he was talking to the wrong people to get it fixed in the first place!

that too, which I also explained to him. the call was about 45 minutes long, I wasn't going to put you through all that. :-P

[AccountingDrone]

Wait wait wait wait WAIT!

So they took him to COURT, and all he could think of was...

"Thank God they didn't ban my account"??!!?!

That is SO SAD!

You don't understand online gamers ... for some of us the MMORPG that we play is our main contact with the outside world. We are unusual and dont make real world friends easily [it is difficult relating to people who only watch Dance with the Stars and Survivor and that is all they can talk about, and you can intelligently discuss Perisan tactics of Xerxes at Cstephon. Or may want to discuss why the French Revolution would never have happened without the American revolution]

Actually, being a gimp, and essentially a shut in, MMORPGs are 90% of my people contact, combined with a few message boards, and emaillists I am on. It is difficult for me to function outside the house. We went to visit the King Arthur Flour store in Vermont yesterday, and today my feet are in full on flare up of my condition. I wont be walking for at least a week. So for the forseeable future, my only chatting will be with my buddies online and what time mrDrone is at home from work, and our roommate. If I didnt have my MMORPG I would lose a lot of 'face to face' contact with live people that don't actually live with me.

Not all games are loser 12 year old boys playing nintendo and online games. My corp in EVE Online are all adults, and my guild in WoW is made up of people on one of my message boards [Straight Dopers ... Burning Dog Legion. You have to be a board member to get into the guild]

[Rapscallion]

Wait wait wait wait WAIT!

So they took him to COURT, and all he could think of was...

"Thank God they didn't ban my account"??!!?!

That is SO SAD!

Seems to have been effective, though. If they planned for someone in the community who could and would spread the word that they're both willing to deal with a problem and somewhat merciful, that's bloody good work.

Rapscallion