People who try to lead double lives usually get caught because of the smallest mistakes.

So, what would you think if a customer called and insisted they never authorized a sixth line to be added to their phone account, even though it was added in the store? Would you think it was an honest mistake? Or would you suspect something else was going on?

In the following story, one call center employee finds themselves in this situation and accidentally exposes a double life. Here’s the full scoop.

The time the wife found out about the second business account

I worked for a cell phone company a while back, this was in 2018, and I had a wife call in and ask about their bill. (She was authorized on the first account but not the other) She wanted to go over a specific change to the account.

I typed in the husband’s social, because she didn’t want to give me phone numbers. I see two accounts under his name.

I say, “Okay, I have your account pulled up.”

And she says, “Why is there a 6th line added? When did it happen? And what type of phone is it?”

Not much later, her husband called.

I confirmed with her that it was added in the store, advised her of the date it happened, and that it is an iPhone XS.

She says I never authorized this.

And I say this is something that was added in the store. We require identification to process these types of requests.

She hangs up.

About an hour later, the husband calls, and I get the call (Spanish line, only a few agents available). He starts yelling that we made a mistake because he never added the phone, and I pull up his accounts.

It turns out, he had two accounts.

I told him the same information I gave his wife, and he started flipping out and said we made a mistake, as the phone should have been added to his other account. I apologize and advise him that I will transfer him to activations to fix the issue.

Meanwhile, my co-worker is on the line with the wife, who’s now demanding the new line’s phone number.

I was explaining the situation to the activation rep and telling her that he had 2 accounts: one where his wife, let’s call her Linda, is authorized, and another where a lady, let’s call her Beth, is the authorized person.

The husband had given the store rep the wrong number.

It turns out the man had 2 families, and the rep in the store pulled up his first account because he gave them his first account’s phone number (he had 2 phones) instead of the phone number on the second account.

The wife called the number according to my coworker while she was on the line, and Beth answered, thinking the man had changed his phone number since the caller ID had his name, and she just heard her say, “I am his wife.”

I still wonder what happened, as he hung up before I could finish the transfer.

Yikes! What a terrible way to find out.

Let’s check out what the folks over at Reddit think about what happened.

This person got caught in the middle of a nasty divorce.

That guy got a surprise.

Here’s someone who couldn’t tell the customer the truth.

Just wow!

It was going to happen eventually.

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.