Most of us hate phone surveys, but only some of us are rude to the people calling about them.

After all, they’re just doing their job, right?

“Rude” doesn’t touch the subject of this story.

Check out what she did and how the call center staff got back at her.

Never be rude to call centre staff

Years ago I was working as a call centre operative in Melbourne, Australia while on my working holiday visa.

We were asking people to answer a short survey on their mortgage.

No personal details, nothing identifiable, just gathering generalized data on market trends, which would be sold to mortgage providers to give them insight on what the state of the market is in.

Alas, it is not that simple.

Yeah I know cold callers are annoying, but it’s not that person’s fault.

They’re just trying to earn a few coins to keep them alive.

If you’re not interested in taking part in the survey, there’s no need to be a jerk about it.

I always made sure I was mega polite, never pushy, and always thanked them for their time whether they completed a survey or not.

We had a ‘naughty list’ in the office, which we compiled the names of people who had been rude during the week.

We’re talking yelling obscenities, swearing at us, calling us all sorts of things, you know the type.

The sort that would click their fingers at waiters.

On a Saturday there was no manager in so it was time for some petty revenge.

We usually had only one or two names on the naughty list, the bar was pretty high to get on.

This particular woman I had the pleasure of speaking to earlier that week had launched a tirade of vitriol and abuse at me for daring to disturb her.

Why would she know anything about the mortgage; sure I’m just a renter; I don’t know anything about that; you people are cockroaches / scum; you should just kill yourself now etc.

It went on for quite a while, and I listened while I added her to the naughty list, along with a note that she was a renter.

(this fact would be helpful for he revenge I had begun planning already).

Then he sprang into action.

So on Saturday morning I rang her number.

“Hello?” “Hi this is John from Carpet World, we will be round in about an hour to fit your new living room carpet”

“What’s this about? I know nothing about this?”

“Ah dang it, yes that’s right, the guy said he was the landlord, he said he would let you know to have the room cleared ready for us”

“Yeah he said nothing to me”

“I take it you don’t have the room cleared then?”

“No of course not you idiot I already told you he told me nothing.” (True colours starting to show.)

“I swap my jobs around today can push you back til about 1pm but if the rooms not ready by then it’ll be another 6 weeks before I can get back to you.

Is there any chance you could have the room cleared by then?”

“Yeah I can do that, see you at 1”

I like to think that she didn’t bother to call her landlord first to confirm and spent her Saturday morning clearing the furniture out of her living room, only to spend all afternoon waiting in for John who, of course, doesn’t exist.

Here is what folks are saying.

Everybody has a story.

Same. I’m only rude to scammers.

Wow. Congrats?

True. It’s not even going to prevent future calls, anyway.

It’s a weird flex to brag about, isn’t it?

So, are we supposed to root for you now?

Not today, says Reddit.

If you liked that story, check out this post about a group of employees who got together and why working from home was a good financial decision.