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This is a classic from my call center days (oh, how I do NOT miss them!)
This woman calls me, her cell phone service has been shut off due to non payment. She was already raging made when the call started...
Me: I can get your service back on ma'am, but you'll have to pay the outstanding balance plus a reconnect fee to restore service.
SC: I'm not paying a penny! NOT ONE PENNY! Don't you know it's ILLEGAL to cut off someone's cell phone?
Me: Actually ma'am, it's perfectly legal. If it wasn't, we wouldn't do it.
SC: BULLSHIT! What if I had an emergency and needed to call someone? You can't just cut me off like that with no way to get help.
Me: All phones call dial 911, regardless of whether not the bill has been paid.
SC: What if I don't want to call 911? What if I need to call my brother or daughter or mother-in-law and tell them what's going on?
Me: Well, you'd need to pay the bill and restore service to make those calls.
SC: CUT MY PHONE ON NOW!
Me: I can't do that unless you pay.
SC: CUT IT ON!
Me: I understand you're upset, may I take a moment to review your account?
SC: Fine, but I swear to God if you hang up or transfer me, I will--
Me: Ma'am, I would get fired if I did those things. Hold one moment. (Note: I would be fired for hanging up on her, not so much for transferring. However, a transfer would cause me to fail the call on a QA audit, so not a good idea anyway)
So I look at her account. I did this for no particular reason other than to give both me and the SC a chance to calm down a little bit. I find something interesting when I look at the account: This woman has paid her bill only FOUR times this year (it's October) and yet, this is the first time her service has been cut off.
How is this possible? It seems she's been calling in regularly and beating service credits out of our poor reps to keep her phone active without actually paying much. So I go back to the call...
Me: Thank you for your patience ma'am, I've reviewed your account and unfortunately there's no way I can restore your service without any form of payment.
SC: BULLSHIT! You can't do that, It's ILLEGAL to cut me off, do you hear me, ILLEGAL!
Me: No, it's not.
SC: YES IT IS!
Me: NO, it's not.
SC: Are you a lawyer?
Me: No...
SC: Then how the hell do you know what's legal and what isn't?
Me:
I don't think that's really the point here, but--
SC: TURN MY PHONE ON!
Me: Not without payment.
SC: Ok, that's it! Get me a manager or supervisor now! I swear I will have your job over this!
So I called a Supervisor over. The SC ranted and raved at the Supervisor for close to 15 minutes, before finally declaring her intention to lawyer up if we didn't turn her on phone back on without payment.
That was the out we needed. My sup immediately gave her the number for the legal department and said he could no longer deal with her on this matter because of her intention to pursue litigation. She again screamed: "CUT MY PHONE ON!" only to have the manager repeat the above statement. Lather, rinse, repeat for a few minutes and then she finally gave up.
Unfortunately, this story actually has a sad ending:
About a week later, I checked SC's account, curious to see if she ever actually paid up or if she was still cut off. To my surprise the account was restored...and no payment had been received.
I'm sure you can guess where this is going. She'd called back to us, threatened to cancel her 5 lines and go to the competition and some spineless retention rep had put a fat credit on her account to stop that from happening, thus restoring her service without her needing to pay anything.
I wish I could find that rep and punch him in the face.
This woman calls me, her cell phone service has been shut off due to non payment. She was already raging made when the call started...
Me: I can get your service back on ma'am, but you'll have to pay the outstanding balance plus a reconnect fee to restore service.
SC: I'm not paying a penny! NOT ONE PENNY! Don't you know it's ILLEGAL to cut off someone's cell phone?
Me: Actually ma'am, it's perfectly legal. If it wasn't, we wouldn't do it.
SC: BULLSHIT! What if I had an emergency and needed to call someone? You can't just cut me off like that with no way to get help.
Me: All phones call dial 911, regardless of whether not the bill has been paid.
SC: What if I don't want to call 911? What if I need to call my brother or daughter or mother-in-law and tell them what's going on?
Me: Well, you'd need to pay the bill and restore service to make those calls.
SC: CUT MY PHONE ON NOW!
Me: I can't do that unless you pay.
SC: CUT IT ON!
Me: I understand you're upset, may I take a moment to review your account?
SC: Fine, but I swear to God if you hang up or transfer me, I will--
Me: Ma'am, I would get fired if I did those things. Hold one moment. (Note: I would be fired for hanging up on her, not so much for transferring. However, a transfer would cause me to fail the call on a QA audit, so not a good idea anyway)
So I look at her account. I did this for no particular reason other than to give both me and the SC a chance to calm down a little bit. I find something interesting when I look at the account: This woman has paid her bill only FOUR times this year (it's October) and yet, this is the first time her service has been cut off.
How is this possible? It seems she's been calling in regularly and beating service credits out of our poor reps to keep her phone active without actually paying much. So I go back to the call...
Me: Thank you for your patience ma'am, I've reviewed your account and unfortunately there's no way I can restore your service without any form of payment.
SC: BULLSHIT! You can't do that, It's ILLEGAL to cut me off, do you hear me, ILLEGAL!
Me: No, it's not.
SC: YES IT IS!
Me: NO, it's not.
SC: Are you a lawyer?
Me: No...
SC: Then how the hell do you know what's legal and what isn't?
Me:
I don't think that's really the point here, but--SC: TURN MY PHONE ON!
Me: Not without payment.
SC: Ok, that's it! Get me a manager or supervisor now! I swear I will have your job over this!
So I called a Supervisor over. The SC ranted and raved at the Supervisor for close to 15 minutes, before finally declaring her intention to lawyer up if we didn't turn her on phone back on without payment.
That was the out we needed. My sup immediately gave her the number for the legal department and said he could no longer deal with her on this matter because of her intention to pursue litigation. She again screamed: "CUT MY PHONE ON!" only to have the manager repeat the above statement. Lather, rinse, repeat for a few minutes and then she finally gave up.
Unfortunately, this story actually has a sad ending:
About a week later, I checked SC's account, curious to see if she ever actually paid up or if she was still cut off. To my surprise the account was restored...and no payment had been received.
I'm sure you can guess where this is going. She'd called back to us, threatened to cancel her 5 lines and go to the competition and some spineless retention rep had put a fat credit on her account to stop that from happening, thus restoring her service without her needing to pay anything.
I wish I could find that rep and punch him in the face.
the retention rep, CC but I thought that it's retention reps have to kiss the customer's ass to keep them with the company. That SC sure didn't deserve that credit at all to be honest and should've had her account closed at the most. At my job, if a customer is past due and calls in for activating receivers, ordering movies, replacing equipment or getting a tech out, the database literally blocks reps from putting in orders until the past due balance is paid in full. I dread getting those calls because the worst EW's come out of the wood works almost everytime.
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