Call center classics #3: "I didn't do it, I swear!"

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

This is a split post:

Part 1

Me: Thank you for calling Empire wireless, this is CC, how may I help you?
SC: Uhh, yeah I'm calling to find out the status of a fraud investigation on my account.
Me: We have a specific fraud department, would you like me to transfer you?
SC: No, I've already spoken to them. On my last bill I was charged $1200 for a bunch of bogus calls to the Caribbean on my daughters line. They said they'd investigate and issue a credit once they were done but I don't see the credit yet and it's been a week.
Me: Let me check the account notes here...

I scroll through and one of the newest notes reads:

FRAUD DEPT - CUST CALLED IN ABOUT CALLS TO CARIBBEAN COUNTRY HE CLAIMS TO NOT HAVE MADE. CALLS WERE TO AN ADULT SERVICE BASED OUT OF THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC. CUST WANTED CREDIT FOR CALLS. CHECKED CALL DETAILS FOR EVIDENCE OF SPOOFING OR OTHER INTERFERENCE. NONE WAS FOUND. THESE CALLS ALL APPEAR TO HAVE ORIGINATED FROM THE DIRECT ESN AND DEVICE ON THIS ACCOUNT. THEREFORE NO CREDIT CAN BE GIVEN FOR THESE CHARGES.//

(oh boy....this is gonna be fun...)

Me: I do see a note from our fraud department here. Unfortunately they've determined the charges are legitimate and that phone actually did make those calls.
SC: WHAT?!?! My daughter doesn't know anyone in the Caribbean, she has no reason to call there. Why would she do that?
(Oh dear, what am I getting myself into here?)
Me: Well, according to the note, the calls were made to some kind of sex line.
SC: WHAT?!?! She would NOT do something like that!!!
Me: You may want to talk to her about this sir.
SC: Now you listen to me. There is NO WAY my daughter is calling numbers in the Caribbean for phone sex!! I want those charges credited RIGHT NOW. The whole $1200.
Me: Unfortunately sir, once the fraud department determines the charges are legit, we can't give any credit.
SC: So I have to pay $1200 for calls my daughter didn't even make?
Me: Our information says she did.
SC: Get me a manager now.

I can't remember exactly what happened on that one, I think we eventually bent a few rules slightly and gave him a bit of a credit. He seemed to genuinely have no clue what his daughter was up to and was not only angry but upset during the latter half of this call. I felt sorry for him, but it's not my fault he didn't know what his child was doing.



Part 2

Boilerplate version of a call I took way, way, WAY too many times at that job:

Me: Thank you for calling Empire wireless, this is CC, how may I help you?
SC: Why is my bill so high?!!
Me: Well, let's take a look here. Hmmm...well it looks like you've been billed $50 for internet use on your phone.
SC: But I don't have the internet on my phone!!
Me: Almost all phones can access the internet. You were charged the $50 because you don't have a data plan.
SC: I just told you, I don't have the internet on my phone!
Me: You mean you asked for it to be blocked and it wasn't?
SC: No I mean I only have minutes AND texting, NO internet!
Me: That's correct, but either you or someone else on your plan used the internet on their phone. Since you have no internet plan. you were charged the maximum of $50 for the data use.
SC: NOBODY USED IT!! I WANT THAT TAKEN OFF THE BILL!!
Me: Who else is on your plan besides you?
SC: My wife and my son and daughter, why?
Me: And there's no possibility one of the just might have have used the internet on their phones?
SC: NO! My wife never uses it and I don't think my kids would. They know better than that. We're on a tight budget and I've told them only to call and text.
Me: Perhaps you should ask them about this?
SC: I don't need to ask them because they DIDN'T DO IT!! Nobody here did! Now are you going to credit this or not?
Me: I can offer you a one time credit for the charges. Do you want me to block data services on your phones so this doesn't happen again?
SC: NO!! They all know to NOT use the Internet and none of them did, your billing computer must have screwed up or something.
Me:
Me: Ok, so once again, you do NOT want data blocked?
SC: NO, are you having difficulty understand me? Do you not speak English?
(Oh silly me, apparently up until just now we've been speaking in Russian or something...)
Me: I can understand you perfectly, I was just confirming because IF you do not get the services blocked and someone uses them again next month, you could very well see another $50 charge.
SC: And if I see that, I will be calling you people and getting it taken off my bill just like this time.
Me: Actually this is a one time credit.
SC: B%^$%t. I swear if you try to screw me over again with this internet crap next month I WILL get a lawyer involved. I AM NOT SOMEONE TO MESS WITH!
Me: Your credit is applied and noted in the account. Is there anything else I can do for you today?
SC: NO. I shouldn't have had to call in the first place but you people had to go and try to steal from me. Don't do it again or I'll have your job and the jobs of everyone else there. <click>

Several months later, corporate, in their infinite genius, increased the minimum charge from $50 to $75...so the SCs got even worse. So bad in fact, that it was later decreased back down to $50.

[Andara Bledin]

Part 1
If the guy wasn't a moron, he'd have blocked that kind of call on any subordinate phones on his plan. Then again, if that guy wasn't a moron, he'd have had a chat with dear daughter to find out what the hell she thinks she's doing calling a pay line of any sort.

Part 2
Raising the charge wasn't a bad plan. Even if it didn't cover the added customer service expenditures it caused. What would have been a better plan, however, would have been to make the "one-time" credit contingent on mandatory data blocking so that the customer would have to call in before they were even capable of incurring the fee a second time.

^-.-^

[AyreBiskits]

Part 1

i think that was the guy doing the calling all along. and that was his plan all along too, to use his daughter's phone for the phone dirty no-no's and then call the phone company to complain and get the charges taken off because who would believe his daughter would do such a thing!! teh horrors!!!

Part 2

you don't block it, then you pay what you use. block it if you don't want to pay for it. duh?

[Mr Hero]

I didn't do it! It's not true! It's bullshit!

Oh hi, Mark!

[depechemodefan]

We're on a tight budget and I've told them only to call and text.

but

I WILL get a lawyer involved.

Yeah, a lawyer will understand you are on a tight budget and do you a service for free

[AmbrosiaWriter]

Yeah, a lawyer will understand you are on a tight budget and do you a service for free

The lawyer is his imaginary friend.

Shh, don't tell him though, it might shatter his underdeveloped psyche.

[MoonCat]

Probably doesn't even have kids. Just said that because no one would believe him if he said "my son wouldn't call a phone sex line!"

[Luna Baby]

Sad point--our cellular provider charges me to block internet . They also charge me if I want to block a number that's been harassing us. While I don't condone his SC attitude, I can almost (just barely) understand it.

[ComputerNecromancer]

Part 1
If the guy wasn't a moron, he'd have blocked that kind of call on any subordinate phones on his plan. Then again, if that guy wasn't a moron, he'd have had a chat with dear daughter to find out what the hell she thinks she's doing calling a pay line of any sort.

The trick (and it *is* a trick) is that most of the countries in the Caribbean are part of the North American Numbering Plan Area (NANPA).

As such they have area codes and can be dialed just like any other call to a different area code in the NANPA.

But they get charged as an *international* call, at rates set by the telecom administration in the destination country.

And those countries cheerfully set even higher than normal rates to the numbers the sex lines (and other scams) use, because they get a big cut of the charges.

So all the daughter would know was that she dialed 1-AAA-XXX-YYYY. Unless you *know* that AAA is the areacode for one of those countries, you'll think it's a normal call to another part of the US or Canada.

This scam has been going on since the 1980s. And folks keep paying for it because they don't realize it's an international call and thus not covered by their longt distance plan.

[PepperElf]

Several months later, corporate, in their infinite genius, increased the minimum charge from $50 to $75...so the SCs got even worse. So bad in fact, that it was later decreased back down to $50.

Sadly, those customers are LUCKY even at $75.

on my old japanese phone the web-surfing plans were priced per packet. so a song download might cost up to $5.

I've seen some cases where phone bills went well over $1000 because of websites on these phones.

[DGoddessChardonnay]

Probably doesn't even have kids. Just said that because no one would believe him if he said "my son wouldn't call a phone sex line!"

My brother did that with our land line back in the early 90's. Our bill was over $600 for one month - needless to say Mom and I were NOT happy over it in the least.

But we had no choice but to pay it off - it was either that or HellSouth would've turned off our phone - and back then we didn't have cell phones or Internet in our house either.

And yes, we had a block put on our line so long distance calls other than 800 could not be made. But how these calls went through was when the caller dialed an 800 number, it would reroute to a (usually outside the US) 900 number and the charges were astronomical.

Very sneaky on the part of these unscrupulous companies for sure. But IIRC, they didn't last too long.