Some conversations are doomed from the start.

What would you do if a caller asked for help reconnecting after a dropped call, but couldn’t name the person they were speaking to and wouldn’t stop repeating the same line?

Would you help them anyway? Or would you finally draw the line and let them know you were about to end the call?

In the following story, one call center employee finds herself in this situation and refuses to help the customer.

Here’s what happened.

“How are you gonna figure that out?”

I’m part of a tiny team that serves as the first line of communication when our clients ring into the smallish company. We redirect calls to various key staff according to the nature of the request.

One day, I took a call that started out normal enough from a Fred Bloggs, whose call with a staff member had just dropped out.

Me: “No worries, it happens! Who were you speaking with, and I’ll put you through?”

Then, he asked the question.

Client: “I don’t know, a man.”

That made things trickier. I began to explain that I would ask my colleagues in the team chat if they happened to remember taking a call from Fred Bloggs just now, and who he was directed to.

He interrupted me with the phrase, “How are you gonna figure that out?”

At this point, he started to sound a little crazy.

And repeated this six or so times without pausing for breath or a response (fun activity to try at home). I wasn’t really sure what I was experiencing at that moment, but it was wholly unexpected and jarring.

I’ll admit I am not great at thinking on my feet in social situations, and when people start getting some kind of way with me, I instinctively fall silent and my brain slows right down. This helps me to process the situation and what actions to take next. It also allows the caller to run out of steam and provides an opportunity to self-reflect in the pregnant pause.

I suspect Fred was trying to rush me to make magic happen, but he also sounded a little unhinged, to be honest. I was confused—did he not hear me describe the action I took to get what he wanted?

And he said it again.

He finally paused his chanting and said, “Hello?” and I replied, “Hello, I’m here.”

He only repeated, “How are you gonna figure that out?”

Feeling my soul leave my body and not caring enough at this point to wait for a reply from my coworkers (less than a minute had gone by when I asked in the team chat for him), I said, “There’s not much I can do on my end without a name to follow up with, and he’s probably about to call you right back, so I’ll let you go now, thanks :)” then hung up.

Not my proudest moment, but hopefully a better solution for Fred in the end, as he didn’t call back.

Wow! It doesn’t sound like he actually wanted help.

Let’s see how the people over at Reddit would’ve handled it.

Such a good point.

This could explain it.

There sure is.

Fred needs to calm down because no one likes to deal with people acting like that.

If you liked that post, check out this story about a customer who insists that their credit card works, and finds out that isn’t the case.