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I was working at the call center, answering complaint calls/letters for a cell phone company.
I was in Kentucky, and answering a letter from a customer in California. The letter was full of big words and threats of litigation and threats to notify the media about their complaint. The actual complaint was totally without merit, they basically wanted to rack up huge overages, and international roaming, and get it all for free on the grounds they didn't get any notification at the time that they would be billed separately for any of this.
It was all spelled out clearly in the terms of service/service contract, and I always thought it was pretty basic knowledge that if you use more minutes than your cell plan allows, you get charged for them instead of your phone turning off, and if you take your phone to a foreign nation in the Caribbean, you'll have to pay separately for that.
Well, he wanted a couple thousand dollars worth of services comped to him, with a written apology. Not happening. We had no authority to adjust international roaming, since foreign companies were billing us for the time they used, that wasn't an internal issue. We could only do something about it if it was confirmed "network fraud" i.e. cloning. He admitted he went on a two-week vacation with his family to some tiny island nation, they were amazed they had phone signal, and they talked it up with the folks back home about how cool things were on their island paradise. . .and used the heck out of their smartphones (international data roaming can be super-expensive).
As for the overages, we could offer a one-time courtesy adjustment for up to $500 worth of the charges if he agreed to change to a price plan which would prevent the overages in the future. He wouldn't hear of it, he thought it was our fault for not letting him know somehow that he was in overage territory and would be billed per-minute when not on nights/weekends time.
So, I stuck to my guns. He owed us about $2500. I could have trimmed $500 off if he changed the price plan, but he wanted all-or-nothing. This was somebody who could afford to take a family of 5 to the Caribbean for two weeks, but was acting like I would bankrupt him to charge him cell phone overages.
Sputtering and angry, he screams out "I'm having a heart attack here!" and hangs up.
Uh oh.
I immediately try to call back, and get no reply. I notify my supervisor immediately, and we go into an emergency response. The supervisor tries to call other contact numbers on the account (home, other family members ect.) while I call 911.
I get ahold of 911, explain that I'm in a local call center reporting an emergency in Bakersfield, CA. They transferred me over, and I was speaking with Bakersfield 911. I told them what happened: a customer was upset over a billing dispute, began to scream and said he was having a heart attack, hung up, and we have been unable to contact him again. 911 said they were dispatching EMS.
Well, my supervisor called his wife. . .who wasn't at home but was told that he reported he was having a medical emergency at home and we've already called 911. She said she would race there immediately. About this time he tries again to get ahold of the customer, this time we call his landline phone. We usually don't use landlines as a main means of contact since they are often outdated numbers (many customers have their old landline numbers on accounts, but have since discontinued landline service).
He picks up. The supervisor puts it on speakerphone.
He says he doesn't want to talk to us. He didn't answer when we called back because he didn't want to talk to us, and his landline doesn't have caller ID or he wouldn't have answered that call. He hung up on us because he was angry with us, and he said "I'm having a heart attack" apparently to emphasize how upset he was. As we're talking, we hear in the background the sound of a siren. He gets very upset when he sees an ambulance pulling up out front of his house. The supervisor explains how we called 911 since he reported a medical emergency.
He goes even more furious, saying that if he has to pay one dime for the EMS being dispatched to his house, he'll sue us, on top of suing us for the billing dispute.
I hear in the background the EMS pounding on the door, the SC says he'll never do business with us again, reminds us he is suing us and will be speaking with his attorney later in the day, and we'll all be out of a job over this very soon.
Never heard anything else from this SC.
I was in Kentucky, and answering a letter from a customer in California. The letter was full of big words and threats of litigation and threats to notify the media about their complaint. The actual complaint was totally without merit, they basically wanted to rack up huge overages, and international roaming, and get it all for free on the grounds they didn't get any notification at the time that they would be billed separately for any of this.
It was all spelled out clearly in the terms of service/service contract, and I always thought it was pretty basic knowledge that if you use more minutes than your cell plan allows, you get charged for them instead of your phone turning off, and if you take your phone to a foreign nation in the Caribbean, you'll have to pay separately for that.
Well, he wanted a couple thousand dollars worth of services comped to him, with a written apology. Not happening. We had no authority to adjust international roaming, since foreign companies were billing us for the time they used, that wasn't an internal issue. We could only do something about it if it was confirmed "network fraud" i.e. cloning. He admitted he went on a two-week vacation with his family to some tiny island nation, they were amazed they had phone signal, and they talked it up with the folks back home about how cool things were on their island paradise. . .and used the heck out of their smartphones (international data roaming can be super-expensive).
As for the overages, we could offer a one-time courtesy adjustment for up to $500 worth of the charges if he agreed to change to a price plan which would prevent the overages in the future. He wouldn't hear of it, he thought it was our fault for not letting him know somehow that he was in overage territory and would be billed per-minute when not on nights/weekends time.
So, I stuck to my guns. He owed us about $2500. I could have trimmed $500 off if he changed the price plan, but he wanted all-or-nothing. This was somebody who could afford to take a family of 5 to the Caribbean for two weeks, but was acting like I would bankrupt him to charge him cell phone overages.
Sputtering and angry, he screams out "I'm having a heart attack here!" and hangs up.
Uh oh.
I immediately try to call back, and get no reply. I notify my supervisor immediately, and we go into an emergency response. The supervisor tries to call other contact numbers on the account (home, other family members ect.) while I call 911.
I get ahold of 911, explain that I'm in a local call center reporting an emergency in Bakersfield, CA. They transferred me over, and I was speaking with Bakersfield 911. I told them what happened: a customer was upset over a billing dispute, began to scream and said he was having a heart attack, hung up, and we have been unable to contact him again. 911 said they were dispatching EMS.
Well, my supervisor called his wife. . .who wasn't at home but was told that he reported he was having a medical emergency at home and we've already called 911. She said she would race there immediately. About this time he tries again to get ahold of the customer, this time we call his landline phone. We usually don't use landlines as a main means of contact since they are often outdated numbers (many customers have their old landline numbers on accounts, but have since discontinued landline service).
He picks up. The supervisor puts it on speakerphone.
He says he doesn't want to talk to us. He didn't answer when we called back because he didn't want to talk to us, and his landline doesn't have caller ID or he wouldn't have answered that call. He hung up on us because he was angry with us, and he said "I'm having a heart attack" apparently to emphasize how upset he was. As we're talking, we hear in the background the sound of a siren. He gets very upset when he sees an ambulance pulling up out front of his house. The supervisor explains how we called 911 since he reported a medical emergency.
He goes even more furious, saying that if he has to pay one dime for the EMS being dispatched to his house, he'll sue us, on top of suing us for the billing dispute.
I hear in the background the EMS pounding on the door, the SC says he'll never do business with us again, reminds us he is suing us and will be speaking with his attorney later in the day, and we'll all be out of a job over this very soon.
Never heard anything else from this SC.
Way to call his bluff. He was obviously angling for some kind of 'sympathy discount'. Do keep us informed, tell me this call was recorded for quality assurance. That will be quite interesting should your firm have to sue him.
I AM the evil bastard!
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