I Need Your Name!

[TelephoneAngel]

Customer is unhappy, demands my name, I give my first name and my phone login number, I am not required to give my surname.

Customer keeps on and on about how it is illegal to hide my identity from him and I have to give my full name.

Bonus points if customer starts demanding your name at the start of the call before you even know why he is calling.

[wasabi999]

We must give our full names if asked. Most Cs (S or not) think my given name is something completely different from what I say, which doesn't bother me.

[Racket_Man]

We must give our full names if asked. Most Cs (S or not) think my given name is something completely different from what I say, which doesn't bother me.

/scarcasm
"Yes my name is Thomas Edison (or Alexander Bell or Betsey Ross or whatever)"

/end scarcasm

[XCashier]

We must give our full names if asked.

And what if the customer decides to stalk you? I just don't think giving full names is safe anymore.

[Whiskey]

You could give them First and Middle. I would, under no circumstance, EVER give a customer my first and last name. EVER. Especially not an irate customer.

re:stalking; didn't someone post a thread recently about their work email being firstname.lastname@company and a customer found the employees facebook and left them creepy friend requests and such? Nah uh.

[Mytical]

Surprisingly I have no issue giving my First and Last name, but there are a few reasons.

1) Nobody ever believes me.
2) When they do believe me, they think I am somebody I am not (at least if over the phone)
3) It is a famous name (well semi famous), but I am not said famous (or semi famous) person.

The thing is, I always get asked "Were you named after such and such?"

Well no..seeing as I am older, and even if not..since such and such is kinda young, my parents hadn't heard of them when I was born.

[Hanzoku]

I'd outright refuse to give my last name. It's an uncommon spelling with several variations, which makes it a bit safer, but still... no.

[Teskeria]

personally, (since at my work we are specifically told we must give EITHER our first or last name, but are forbidden to give both) If they were really nastily insistant, I would tell them my last name is iggensbottom, with an H (higgensbotton). lol

[XCashier]

personally, (since at my work we are specifically told we must give EITHER our first or last name, but are forbidden to give both) If they were really nastily insistant, I would tell them my last name is iggensbottom, with an H (higgensbotton). lol

Perhaps if they're really insistent, tell them your first name is Nonna, and your last name is Yerbizness. Then they call the manager:

MGR: And what was the name of the employee?
SC: Nonna Yerbizness.
MGR: Well, if you feel her name is none of my business, we have nothing further to discuss. *click*

Oh, if only...

[TelephoneAngel]

I had one today!There was nothing wrong in the conversation except that the customer had a snotty attitude, eg when I said I needed to check something on the computer, she said "I just told you that!" *yeah, but I still have to check*

When suddenly she demanded my name, when I asked why she said I had to give it.I said not for no good reason I don't.She hung up ranting about making a complaint.

[MoonCat]

We ALL have to give our names when we answer the phone (bonus points to you if you automatically assume that some people still don't do it). First names only is fine, the thing is, every time we send out a fax or an email, our name gets put on there by the system. We don't like it, we've complained about it, but management won't take them off.

I bet we could start a thread called "But you HAVE to..." all about the things customers think we are required (by law) to do for them... starting with "you have to give me your name."

[Sheldonrs]

All our names, titles and pictures are available on our web site so it doesn't matter If I give my full name or not.

[C. Cecil Ivanish]

Here we MUST give at least our first name at the start of any call - a colleague who regularly forgets to is being marked down in his quality checks. In case of complaints or requests of my full name, I always reply that I am the only person going by my name in the company - which will sound odd to an Italian as it was by far the most common boys' name in the mid-1970s in the country, but then again... I am not in Italy

I am aware, though, that the use is different country by country. Germans, for instance, always give their LAST name when answering the phone, giving a first name is considered rude.

In Italy we usually were told to give our full names: it suggests officiality by an old tradition, when the only people who would be called by first name only were children. Same reason why when I have a customer called John Smith I'd always call him "Mr. Smith" rather than "Mr. John" (or, even worse, "John" only).

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Yeah, I don't give out my last name. Me and my dad are the only two with that name in the phone book.

[emax4]

Customer keeps on and on about how it is illegal to hide my identity from him and I have to give my full name.

I'd explain that while working in a call center, I'm under no obligation by any law to give out my full name for security and protective purposes, and that if they are 100% certain about this that they fax over the notarized documentation stating this. They won't jump through that many hoops just to get one name.