Sometimes customers complain about the most ridiculous things.

For example, in this story, a customer complains about his internet speed and how slow it is, but when the internet service provider repair department lead looks at the customer’s account, he realizes the customer has nothing to complain about.

Yet, the customer keeps complaining.

Keep reading to see how the repair department lead handles the situation.

Guy who flips out over his internet speed, gets less.

So, a little back story. I work for an internet provider company as a lead in the internet repair department.

This means that I get calls from agents who work there that either need help with a situation because they are stuck and don’t know what to do, or when a customer escalates the call asking for a supervisor, manager, or someone above them.

My department mainly handles internet issues like being offline, outages, replacing equipment, etc.

It started out as a pretty typical day.

So, the other day was like any other.

I’m getting calls from agents needing equipment transferred from one account to another, scheduling a technician for customers who refuse to do any troubleshooting, the list goes on and on.

One of my main calls is an agent asking for me to run a special tool that corrects the speed being sent to a customer. This usually happens when a customer upgrades or downgrades their internet speed and it doesn’t take right away, and this only takes a couple minutes.

This comes in later.

A lot of factors can impact internet speed.

On this particular day, I get a call from an agent that says her customer wants to speak to a supervisor because he is not getting the speeds he pays for.

This happens quite a lot, usually because most people don’t understand how the internet works and all the factors that come into the result of a speed test.

This can include a lot of things, like how far away you are from your router, if you are testing on Wi-Fi or directly connected, how many devices you are currently using, and even things like how your residence is built, because stone and concrete do not allow Wi-Fi signals to travel through.

The customer really had nothing to complain about.

When I looked at the customer’s account, I see that he is currently subscribed to 100mbps, (megabits per second). Our normal plans are 300, 500, and a Gig, which is 1000.

I asked the agent what results he was getting, and she told me it was 437mbps, which is way over what he is paying for.

I told the agent to go ahead and transfer him to me, and I’ll continue the discussion.

Once the customer gets to me, we’ll call him Darren, I introduce myself and ask how I can help.

They clear up that they’re both recording each other.

Darren immediately begins yelling and cursing at me about how he is not getting what he pays for and is extremely upset, and even demanding credit to his account because of this.

I begin to try and apologize to Darren and explain that speed test results can vary based on certain conditions.

He cuts me off and states that he is recording the call and will be posting everything I say on social media.

I tell him that that is fine, as all our calls are recorded for quality assurance purposes as well, and everything will be documented.

Darren seems unhinged!

Darren then proceeds to continue cursing stating that this is unacceptable, and I should be ashamed of myself for working for a company that does not provide the product people are paying for.

While he rants on and on, I noticed that he had recently changed his internet plan from 500mbps, to 100mbps two days ago.

Now, as I mentioned before, sometimes the internet changes don’t happen right away, and we have to run a specific tool to fix it. This can happen when the modem has not been reset to reflect these changes.

If Darren had listened, maybe he would’ve understood that he had nothing to complain about.

I try to tell Darren that he is receiving more than what he is paying for.

And again, he cuts me off stating that he will be reporting us to the FCC, BBB, and filing a lawsuit about this, all while recording our conversation.

Now, normally I wouldn’t care, and Id allow the speed to continue going through until the system automatically fixes it.

But his attitude and rude demeanor made me feel otherwise.

Might as well give him what he asked for!

Cue the malicious compliance:

I respond to Darren saying “Sir, you are absolutely right. And I am so sorry you are not receiving the speeds you are paying for. I will get this fixed right away”

Now, this plan that Darren was on, the 100 speed, is a plan that only certain customers can get if they are financially unable to make normal payments, meaning he had to apply for this program and be approved, based on his low income.

So, I run the fix tool on his internet and reduce the speed down to 100 as he requested.

Darren finally listened.

I then ask him how his speed results are now.

Darren then responds, “It’s even worse than it was before! What kind of trick are you trying to pull on me?!”

I responded, “Sir, you told me you were not getting the speeds you were paying for, and you were right. You recently applied for financial assistance to be downgraded to 100, and I fixed that for you. It was absolutely wrong of us to be sending you 500 when you were only paying for 100. I apologize for the inconvenience.”

There was nothing more to complain about.

After a few minutes of silence, Darren then muffled to himself “this is ridiculous” and proceeded to disconnect the call.

I left notes on his account so any future agent would know what had happened that day, and that he was not entitled to any credit on his bill.

All I can say is, be careful what you complain about.

Darren would’ve been better off if he had never called.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

Some people with a lot of money are really cheap.

Another person with the same job shares his experience.

Another former ISP employee shares their experience.

Here’s the perspective of a customer.

Sometimes, complaining can really backfire.

If you liked that post, check out this post about a woman who tracked down a contractor who tried to vanish without a trace.