In customer service, entitlement often rings right at opening time.

When one particularly annoying customer insisted only the boss could solve her “urgent” account problem, one employee calmly agreed to pass along the message.

Just not the way the customer expected.

Keep reading for the full story.

Contact My Boss While They’re Out?

I work in a customer service-based role, though my job does entail other tasks not customer-facing.

Customers have accounts with my company, and I am able to access and view many account details.

There’s one particular customer who’s the focus of this story.

We have a customer who always demands to speak with my boss.

She doesn’t like talking to myself or the other lowly peons who can’t possibly know anything or assist her.

Throughout this job, this employee has come to notice a few patterns.

I have had past occurrences with this customer to already have her on my List of jerks, though granted she isn’t the highest person (or even in the top 3).

My office opens at 9 AM, and I have yet to be proven wrong that whenever the phone rings right at opening, it will not be a good, fun, or pleasant conversation.

The clock strikes 9:04 AM, and the phone rings.

I take a deep breath and prepare myself for a myriad of potential issues I am about to hear.

The employee immediately hears a familiar voice.

A shrill voice, one I recognize immediately, is on the other end.

But I still give my typical, cheery greeting.

Their conversation goes like this.

Shrill Voice: I need to speak to [boss’s name] right now. It’s very important. It’s about my account.

Me: Oh, [boss’s name] isn’t in today. They will be back tomorrow. Is there anything I can help you with?

Shrill Voice: No, only they can help me. It’s about my account. I have to speak with them. It’s very urgent. It’s about my account. (Please don’t read that in a sweet, concerned tone. It very much was not.)

Me: Well, they are out of the office today, but I can let them know you called and they can call you back when they are back in tomorrow.

Shrill Voice: That is unacceptable. I have to talk to them today. I know you have contact information and can get in touch with them. You NEED to contact them and have them get in touch with me today.

That’s when this customer really rubbed them the wrong way.

Now I need to pause because that part, the part you just read, is what really ticked me off.

Never mind the extremely rude and disrespectful tone I was hearing. I deal with that—anyone does when you’re in customer service.

This customer showed a complete and utter lack of respect for anyone but themselves.

But how dare you say it is unacceptable for someone to be out of the office because YOU need to talk to them.

You have no idea why they took a day off.

It’s none of your business, but you still have no idea if someone died, if they’re violently ill, if they are taking a much-needed and well-deserved vacation.

And you want me to disrupt any one of those possible scenarios because YOU need to talk to them… AbOUt YoUR AccOUnt?

Nah, hon. I don’t think so.

Malicious compliance is now weighing heavy on this employee’s mind.

Me, wheels already turning about how to comply: Well, I can try to reach out, but again, they are not here today and I cannot promise they will get in touch today. May I have your name and account number?

Shrill Voice states their name, which I already knew, and instead of their account number (which I also knew but wanted to confirm), she provides her phone number, because obviously I am going to immediately do as she demanded.

I pointedly ask again for the account number, and she provides it.

The customer continues to be annoying.

She again states that she must talk to my boss and they need to call her today and says goodbye and then hangs up on me.

I have a few pet peeves, some minor and some not, and she hit almost all of them during that conversation.

So I did as she asked and contacted my boss.

Just not about what the customer demanded.

I texted them about a different matter altogether and had a lovely little text conversation, never mentioning Shrill Voice and her demands.

I did send my boss an email letting them know that Shrill Voice had called and her demands, but it was about an hour or two after the initial call from her.

The employee escalated the issue with absolutely no urgency.

I did not mark the email as anything special, and my boss has been out of the office for 3 days, so it will be lost in the sea of emails my boss will come back to.

When my boss gets to the email, they can then reach out to her.

Take that, shrill voice!

What did Reddit think?

This customer should really be aware that you catch way more flies with honey.

When will customers learn they can’t just escalate their unimportant issues to the person of their choice?

Many customers don’t seem to understand how businesses actually operate.

This commenter knows what it’s like to deal with an annoying customer.

The customer wanted an immediate escalation, but ended up getting put on the back burner.

What this customer really needs is a reality check.

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.