Your name is NOT Rodriguez!

[myswtghst]

I'll transfer people, but I never give out more than maybe an office number, never a cell number or last name, even if they are listed in our directory.

I work in a call center where I am the only one with my name, which is not super common (Leslie). Granted, I have a coworker named Lindsay, and people often confuse us. My figuring is, we keep records of each and every call, we know who you talked to last. My supervisors will know who you're talking about, whether you call to complain or give a compliment.

I'll get a first name and any other info I feel is necessary, but I never ask for a last name, as I would never give mine out. Heck, around here, we don't give out our extensions unless forced, as we are an inbound call center.

[tollbaby]

somewhat related, the bank with which I have a Visa card has a nasty habit of phoning me up REALLY early on Saturday mornings and then they say they need me to verify some information for them and proceed to ask for my name and mailing address.... (date of birth and the confirmation number of my credit card comes after that if I bother answering the first two questions).

Excuse me, but on what planet do you phone ME up and ask ME to give YOU personal information? err....I have no proof whatsoever that you're calling me from the bank. I'll phone the number on the back of my credit card, what's the name of the department you work in? I'll phone YOU back. Ugh!

And they get all pissy with me when I refuse to comply! They honestly can't see why I'd have a problem giving out personal information to some completely stranger on the phone, even after I've explained to them that I have NO WAY of knowing that they're really from the bank if THEY phoned ME. *grumble*

[Kilamon]

When I used to work in a call center for tech support, I only had a couple of these types of cases. The first one caught me off guard and, as everyone else has done, I just refused to give my name. The call pissed me off and I fumed until I came up with the perfect socially acceptable answer for a professional environment.

"I'm not at liberty to give that information out to civilians."

Somehow, that always works. I think it's the combination of "you are nothing but a civilian" and the word liberty. Only had a chance to use it twice, so I guess always is a bit subjective, but it's worth filing away in to the bank of phrases, right next to "let me research that and get back to you."

[Auto]

Going back to the first post, you have to wonder what kind of jerk-off would claim that a store could be sued if employees lied about their names? huh?

can you imagine this idiot trying to convince a lawyer she has a case? especially when the lawyer says she'll be charged upwards of $300/hour.

(as a practical matter, she has no case and no lawyer would file a lawsuit because it risks the judge sanctioning him/her for wasting the court's time. prisoners who can't afford lawyers are about the only people allowed to file frivolous cases.)

there seem to be no end of people who think that anytime they're unhappy, inconvenienced, or just not getting what they're demanding, they can sue.

it's a form of magical thinking -- all you have to do to get satisfaction -- and a pile of money -- is file a lawsuit.

i'd have told this woman that store policy of not giving out employee last names is a way of protecting their privacy and not making them subject to harassers and stalkers.

then if she persisted, i'd call security/cops. she's obviously a harasser.

[MadMike]

somewhat related, the bank with which I have a Visa card has a nasty habit of phoning me up REALLY early on Saturday mornings and then they say they need me to verify some information for them and proceed to ask for my name and mailing address.... (date of birth and the confirmation number of my credit card comes after that if I bother answering the first two questions).

Did you call back and verify that it really was your bank? I can't imagine a legitimate company doing that. And if they did, I'd switch to another bank.

[PuckishOne]

I only once had someone ask me for my last name, this was at the country park; my instant reply was "Frehley". XD Everyone had a good laugh at that one. (Kudos to whoever gets that reference!)

Bah, Lace...you just want to rock 'n' roll all night and party every day, you do.

At my tiny office there is no name overlap (and only 5 people), yet we are constantly asked for first & last names. I just tell people, "I'm the only Puck here, don't worry" and thus far that's worked. I suppose it helps to have a less-than-common first name, but still...sheesh. The thing is, our full names are on our business cards and on our website, so it's not like we're hiding anything.

[Kusanagi]

Banks can suck

Who do you bank with?

Bank of America used to phone me to confirm a few things, they would do it once a month like clockwork. I never had a large credit card with them - I payed it down every month but all my bills hit it at once and they would call to verifiy that it really was me doing about $1600 worth of transactions within a few hours of each other.

Do you have automatic payment for somewhere tied into the card? That might do it.

[HowMayIHelpMe?]

If a customer demanded my last name, I'd demand in return HIS last name, the names of his children, the names of his pets and granparents, his license number, his blood type and social security number.

Fair's fair, after all.

Seriously, though - this is a big pet peeve of mine. And I will not work for a company that would force me to divulge my last name to customers.

Customers don't deserve my last name.

[JuniorMintz]

I'm one of two Sarah's at my job, and when dealing with patients I always identify myself as Sarah G and that if they don't ask SPECIFICALLY for me, there's a good chance they'll end up with the wrong Sarah. (Good thing we're pals so we make it a point to know as much of each other's business as possible-we've both faked enough phone conversations with patients as the other person and no one's ever suspected anything, lol!)

However, sometimes I'll catch my coworkers picking up the phone and saying "Which Sarah did you want? Sarah Niskanen or Sarah Garcia?", and that always pisses me off. (Names used obviously aren't real, lol!)

Luckily I've only had one person flip out on me and then flip out some more because of my refusal to give her my last name. She flat out said "I DEMAND your last name because I WILL have your job for this!", and I responded with "I REFUSE to give it to you and if it bothers you that bad, add it to your list of complaints."

Dumbass.

[tollbaby]

Did you call back and verify that it really was your bank? I can't imagine a legitimate company doing that. And if they did, I'd switch to another bank.

Yes, I've phoned back and then they give me a hard time that I had to waste their time by phoning back when we'd be done by now if I'd just answered their questions. And I said "Well, why don't you give me your name, address and bank account number then?" the guy immediately got pissed and said "I wouldn't give out my personal information to a stranger!!" and I merely replied, "Exactly."

Who do you bank with?

CIBC is where I have my VISA account. They were phoning me because my payment MIGHT be late that month (it wasn't yet). That's why I get annoyed with them. But they give me a great rate, and a good limit, so I stay.

[Polenicus]

I remember this from when I worked in a call center. Most common questions we got we could NOT answer were:

1. What is your last name?

2. Where are you located?

So, for a time I came up with my own answers for these:

1. What is your last name? I don't have one. They didn't give me one at the lab.

2. Where are you locate? London... a small town on the outskirts of Wubble, the capital city of the Moon.

Unfortunately, my supervisor caught me doing that, and told me to stop (At that point I was on graveyard shift, and basically the only thing the wrote you up for was swearing or not showing up for work)

[PuckishOne]

London... a small town on the outskirts of Wubble, the capital city of the Moon.

Funny, I could have sworn it was the capital of Wubble. Maybe next time you should put your underpants on your head and shove pencils up your nose.

</gratuitous Black Adder references>

[Arcade Man D]

I have a simple way out of that one. The current situation at work with the employees means that no one who works at the entire store has the same first initial, let alone first name.

Even if we do hire another D______, I doubt we'll hire anyone with my same exact name. It's not all that common.

[Captain Trips]

I have two valid points here, I think.

First, there is one situation where you are legally required to give your full (first and last) name, at least here in the U.S. According to the Telecommunications Protection Act of 1993 (I think that's the year), if you receive a cold call from a call center, and wish to be removed from their contact list, you have the legal right to ask for the CSR's full name and if they refuse then they are breaking the law. So, if you call me from a call center and refuse to give me your last name, I can file a TCPA violation with the FCC against your company -- and win. Note, though, this ONLY applies to a cold call when the person called wants to be removed from the calling list. In any other commercial or retail setting, you are well within your rights to refuse to divulge such personal information, for reasons others have already stated here.

Second, as to suing someone, well, there is no law on the books (again, here in the U.S.) as to who can and can't sue whom. In other words, if you can get a lawyer to take the case, you can sue anyone for any reason whatsoever. Now, if you'll win such a suit or not is another matter...

So, just be warned -- if you are not required to give your last name (as per the TCPA) and someone threatens to sue you for not giving it, you should perhaps notify your company's legal department to watch out for a "frivolous lawsuit." Because they CAN SUE you for it, but WON'T WIN said suit!

[Getoutofmylobby]

Here's an update. Apparently she didn't get anywhere with the corporate office so during my day off, she called my manager AGAIN and bullied him into comping her room all because i "lied" to her.

Sick huh?

Yeah, it gets sicker.

So, i come in today and there is a brand new memo next to the front desk schedule "Employees must be always truthful to the customers, and not lie about things." (Our management is Pakistani and the English ain't so good.)

And in my message box, i find a write-up slip, reprimanding me for breaking the new rule against lying to the customers.

My manager is lucky he isn't here. Actually, I'M lucky he isn't here because i know i'd probably say something i'd regret. My last name is MY business; it doesn't matter if I am Getoutofmylobby Rodriguez, or Fernando Martinez (a cookie to whoever gets the reference) or whatever, its just not important to my job.

This lady is a member of the highest tier of our frequent stay program and according to Hilton doctrine, we are to kiss the asses of Diamond members. My manager takes this to a new level, in fact, I once saw him kiss the cheek of a (different) female Diamond member that stayed with us each week for about 6 months. Not the butt cheek.. her face cheek... But, OMG, I LIED to a Diamond member??!?!?! Conrad Hilton must be spinning in his grave.

I talked this over with the assistant manager, who is easier to deal with, and we agreed that i should throw the write up away and the little big guy will eventually forget he wrote me up. (seriously.)

The problem is this lady still has a reservation and she checks in on, you guessed it, a day i work. Next week.

So, my internet friends, what should my name be for that day?