Imagine realizing your house is on fire. What are you going to do?

Most people would probably call 911, but in this story, one crazy Karen called her cell phone company and expected them to call 911 for her.

Let’s see how the story plays out.

Call 911 or get me your supervisor!

Around 2008 I was working in a call center for a major cell phone company in the USA.

The job was soul sucking and the entitled customers were the worst.

I tried to go above and beyond on every call, but some people will never be satisfied.

Enter a particular customer, let’s call her Karen because the stereotype fit her to a T.

The customer’s request was rather unusual.

Here’s a run down of how our call went that glorious day:

Me: Thank you for calling Cell Phone Company, my name is PapayaCake. How can I help you?

Karen: MY HOUSE IS ON FIRE AND YOU NEED TO CALL 911 RIGHT NOW!!!!!!!

Me: oh my goodness, I’m terribly sorry for what you are going through! I recommend you hang up right now and dial 911 so they can send the fire department to save your house!

Why doesn’t Karen just call 911?

Karen: I pay my phone bill every month, you work for me! You better call 911 before my house is completely gone!

Me: I really wish I could do that for you but 911 is alerted based on your location. I’m 1,000 miles away from you and if I dial 911 then the cops are going to show up at my location, not yours. I don’t even have the ability to access the internet to look up your local emergency services. I don’t want to waste your time while your house is burning so please hang up and call them right now!

Karen: what kind of customer service is this! The customer is always right and now it is your fault that my house is still on fire! You better call 911 right now OR GET ME YOUR SUPERVISOR!

Malicious compliance time!

She looped in her supervisor.

Me: yes ma’am. Since I am unable to dial 911 on your behalf, please hold while I see if my supervisor is available to discuss this matter with you further.

Per company policy, we were not allowed to keep customers on hold for longer than 2 minutes without checking in with them.

It took me about 10 seconds to explain the situation to my supervisor. He had dealt with his fair share of these idiots so he told me to keep her on hold for the full 2 minutes before transferring the call.

At exactly the 2 minute mark, I get back on the line.

But the wait wasn’t over.

Me: thank you for holding, I’m connecting you with my supervisor, John Doe, right now.

Karen: it’s about freaking time! You are going to pay me for all the damage you’ve caused!

Me: *in my most pleasantly fake customer service voice*: thanks for your call today, have a fantastic day!

The fallout: I put her back on hold to transfer her to John. This caused the 2 minute hold allowance to start over again. He made her stay on hold for the full 2 minutes before he picked up the line.

The wait still wasn’t over.

Why she hadn’t hung up at this point is beyond me but she was not going to lose “the customer is always right” argument, even at the loss of her home.

John essentially repeated exactly what I said to her and (shocker!) she did not take it very well at all!

In fact, she was so mad that she escalated to his supervisor!

Back on hold she went while her house is burning to the ground because she’s too stubborn to call 911 for herself.

John listened to the call.

Legend has it, she is still on hold to this day waiting for someone to call 911 for her….

Just joking, she disconnected the call before she got to John’s supervisor.

Out of curiosity, John pulled the call to listen to it because she was an absolute raging nut job.

The calls are all recorded including what the customer is saying while they are on hold.

Her house really was on fire.

Turns out that while she had been screaming at us and escalating, one of her neighbors did end up calling 911.

So while she was on hold waiting for John’s supervisor, you could hear sirens in the background and Karen says “it’s about freaking time! These idiots took long enough to send help!” and hung up.

What a crazy person! She should’ve just called 911!

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

This person suggests sharing the recording.

It really was a stupid thing to do.

Unfortunately, this is true.

This is funny!

One person pictures how a judge would react.

When there’s an emergency, call 911!

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a customer who mistook a teenager mopping the floor for a bank teller and tried to get cash.