Actually listening to what people say seems to be pretty rare these days…

And here we go again, folks!

A person who works in a call center explained how they dealt with a student who just couldn’t seem to comprehend what they told them…over and over again.

Check it out and see what you think.

I didn’t receive a warning – therefore I don’t owe you any money!

“I work an out of hours service desk supporting multiple businesses.

This particular business is an educational institute and this particular discussion took place between myself and a student.

Me: Service Desk

Caller: I CAN’T PRINT!

Me: Okay, what actually happens?

Caller: I JUST TOLD YOU! I CAN’T PRINT…

note – callers tone is very rude and I’ve reached my tolerance by this stage

Me: Yes we’ve established you can’t print- what actually happens? What errors are received? What does the printer do?

Caller: It tells me to top up my print credit as I have a negative balance of -$49

Me:…

Caller: HELLO!

Well…

Me: I’m sorry, I don’t see the issue here. You’ll need to clear the $49 outstanding balance before you can print

Caller: But I don’t owe you any money!

Me: Okay, are you saying this balance has been added to your account in error?

Caller: No.

Me: Can you please explain what you mean?

Caller: I was photocopying loads of personal pictures yesterday and since then I have this balance. But I don’t think I owe this as I didn’t get any warnings when photocopying

Me:… But you’re aware there’s a charge for photocopying?

Caller: YES OF COURSE I AM!

This person wasn’t too bright…

Me: Okay, so I don’t see why you’re disputing the balance? You used a photocopier for a large job and as a result of this have a negative balance which will need to be cleared. Regardless of “warnings” or not, you still used a service at the end of the day and need to pay for what you’ve used. You’ve just admitted you knew about the charge before using the service.

Caller: I JUST NEED TO PRINT NOW!

Me: Okay, you’ll need to clear the balance on the account first by topping up.

Caller: BUT THIS IS URGENT!

Me: It’s 11 pm – I’m not sure what you’re asking me to do. If you want to print you’ll need to clear this balance by topping up your credit.

Caller: BUT I DON’T OWE YOU ANY MONEY!

Me: You said you used the photocopiers?

Caller: YES

Me: Presumably you have the documents you photocopied?

Caller: YES

Me: So you have photocopied documents that you haven’t paid for. The photocopiers should not be used for personal use either. What is it that you need to “urgently” print right now?

Caller: I want to print a banner for a party.

A ha!

Me: So, again you’re using the printing facilities for personal reasons, in clear breach of the policy you agreed to. You’ve also called an IT emergency line and claimed this was “urgent”.

Caller: WELL I DIDN’T GET ANY WARNINGS!

Me: Thanks for calling. I’ll report this to your school office for further investigation but I’m unable to deal with this on the emergency line. Goodbye.

Click.”

Here’s what folks had to say about this on Reddit.

This person spoke up.

Another individual shared their thoughts.

This Reddit user weighed in.

And this individual spoke up.

This person clearly had a serious listening problem…

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.