You love to see it, folks…

I’m talking about managers who will stick up for their employees and not always abide by the old “the customer is always right” motto.

Check out what this manager did with an unruly customer in this story from Reddit.

Wrong company.

“I used to work for an ISP in customer support.

One day I had a woman call in upset because she was being overcharged on her bill. People say this a lot but it is usually because they don’t understand what they actually have.

There’s a whole routine they had to go through…

As part of my opening script I say the name of the company twice, our hold music says the name about once every 30 seconds or so and on this day we had a 15 minute wait (was a holiday). I will be ‘M’ and she will be ‘W’.

M: Thank you for calling [company], my name is XX with [company], how can I help you today?

W: My bill is too high! You are ripping us off and I want a refund!

This is about 10% of our calls, nothing out of the normal.

M: What seems to be the problem with your [company] bill ma’am?

W: It has been wrong and you haven’t fixed it for months and my service is still down.

M: I understand that is very frustrating, can I get your account number?

W: [number]

M: That is too short to be a [company] number, are you sure that is it?

Oh, boy…

W: Of course it is! I have had this number for years!

We have this too where people insist they have had their same account number for years yet have trouble giving it to us. So I pushed on.

M: Could I get your [company] telephone number instead?

W: [number]

The number she gives me doesn’t return anything in the system, our system won’t return a number unless it is from our company but people sometimes give us cell numbers instead.

M: That number does’t bring anything up, do you have another one?

This wasn’t going well.

W: (getting very irate) What do I pay you guys for! You are all useless!

M: What address do you have your [company] service at?

She proceeds to only give me the street number. I had to ask her for every individual piece of her address while she continues the attack.

Once again nothing comes up, grasping at straws, I pull up a system that we normally use to port numbers from other companies but can also tell us what company a number came from and check the number she gave me.

M: Ma’am, this is a [company] account, correct?

W: of course it is. Are you new? Can you not use your own systems?

At this point I did what I should have done in the first place and asked her to read me the top of her bill.

W: You should know what it looks like!

M: Just humor me.

W: Your bill for [another company] is…..

M: Ma’am, that bill says it is for another company, not us. I am not able to help you with that.

W: You are an ISP! The government says you have to help! It’s against the law to refuse!

They were trying to get through to her…

By this point I was somewhere between trying not to laugh and highly annoyed. I am on a recorded phone line so i had to watch what I said. These happen every now and then and people really do expect you to help in these situations. I should also mention I have left out a huge amount of expletives so far.

M: Ma’am, I do not work for that company, I work for [company]. I can not help you unless you have an account with us.

She loses it, saying that I am probably some Indian in a far off country who doesn’t deserve house or home. They do this far too often, even though our company proudly touts an all in house customer support team. This continues for about 10 minutes before I get another word in.

M: Ma’am, if you have nothing [company] related, I am afraid I will have to be going, there are other customers waiting.

She got so loud people in neighboring cubicles were looking over to see what was going on. I  had a manager standing behind me as well listing in on the now 30 minute long call.

The woman finally started talking about layers and regulating bodies which at my company is seen as an instant transfer to a manager.

Due to a software bug, the managers at my sight have unrecorded phone lines. I tell her that I will be placing her on hold and bringing a manager to continue the conversation.

We are supposed to get their permission but at this point I placed her on hold without it.

I was shaking a bit, it is hard getting screamed at for half an hour, even if it is over something so stupid. I relayed the story to the manager standing next to me but he had heard most of it.

He took the call at his desk. Sadly I couldn’t hear the woman but I could hear him. We will call him Dave.

Dave took control of the situation.

Dave: Hello my name is Dave, I am a manager at [company] you wanted to speak to me? Yes ma’am, i know what was going on. No i don’t think he was rude.

Ma’am we do not work for that compan- Ma’am, let me spe- (raising his voice). Listen Ma’am, it is unacceptable the way you have been treating my agent, we do not work for that company, we are not that company, if you can’t get that through your thick head maybe you should just pay the bill.

Yes i did. no you can not speak to my manager, they don’t speak to idiots. Yes, idiots. Does it say [company name] on the bill? Then why would you call here? No it is not the same thing. Ma’am I am putting in a request to have your number blocked from our services. Because we are not that company!

He put the phone down and wandered over to slightly dazed me.

D: I took care of it, take a break okay?

M: Right… did you hang up?

D: No I left it off the hook.

M: Why?

D: The lines at her company stay open 24 hours if you don’t hang up.”

Reddit users shared their thoughts.

This person weighed in.

Another reader shared their thoughts.

This individual spoke up.

Another Reddit user has been there.

And this individual spoke up.

There are still some managers out there who stand up for their employees!

Bravo!

If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.