It can be really annoying when you tell someone how to do something but they won’t do it and won’t believe you that it’s a good idea. Then, someone else tells them the exact same thing, and suddenly, they’re raving about this great idea that other person had that’s actually the exact same idea you already mentioned.

This is true in any relationship or interaction in life, but it’s especially true in customer service jobs where customers demand to speak to a supervisor. A lot of times, the supervisor can’t do anything more to help them than an average employee, yet, customers are more likely to take a supervisor’s word about something than an employee’s word.

In this story, we have a situation just like that.

Keep reading to find out what happens when a customer thinks he’s speaking to a supervisor.

I want to speak to your supervisor

Some background; my company upgraded some customers WiFi modems as the old ones had a recall.

Me: welcome to tech, how can I help you.

Cust; my laptop isn’t connecting to the Internet. Can you help me?

Time for the troubleshooting to begin.

Me; of course. Ma’am did you recently receive a new modem from us and if you have, have you already plugged it in.

Cust; Yes I did and now it’s not recognising my WiFi. Does the new modem have a different password

so far a normal tech call, didn’t think things would take a turn for the stupid

Me; on the back of the new modem you will see a label, under it you will a line saying WEP. Please enter what says beside it. (The device in question is a cellular wireless Hotspot, so isp doesn’t have the default WEP)

But it wasn’t that easy.

Cust; I did. It’s not accepting it. It says wrong password.

Me; Make sure your entering it correctly and it’s case sensitive. Please tell me exactly what your entering.

Cust; I am typing in “WEPxxxxxxx”

Me; no Ma’am. Don’t enter the word WEP. Just whatever is after it.

The customer is so incompetent that they think OP is incompetent.

Cust: okay: still not working. I am entering the space, then the what’s written down.

Me: no ma’am, just start with the first character, ignoring the space after WEP

Cust; you don’t seem to know what your doing. Let me speak to a supervisor.

Me; I don’t think that’s nessessary, if you just read me what you see, I’ll help you out.

The customer misunderstood.

Cust: no you don’t seem very intelligent, supervisor now.

this point I give up and call up a supervisor. Sadly, the wait to speak to one was long so I had to go back and refresh the client

Me: ma’am sorry about the wait to speak to a super…. (I get cut off)

Cust; good I am talking to a supervisor. I have to tell you your last agent was kind of dumb and shouldn’t be employed. No wonder people hate calling tech support when they have issues when you have people like that working. Anyway,do you know my problem. Please tell me how to fix it.

This is crazy!

Me;….ummmm, Start with the first character after WEP, ignoring the space.

Cust; okay it works. Your much better then the other guy. You should fire him and you should get a pay raise. Goodbye

If only the customer had listened to the directions the first time!

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a hotel guest who complained about noise from an event, then reported the employee who agreed with him.

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

This is a good point.

Crazy, isn’t it?

This is a good question.

Exactly! Who wasn’t very intelligent?

That sounds so frustrating! But, in the end, it was pretty hilarious. I really do hope they record their calls.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a mom who is irate after she gave a group leader money for her daughter’s lunch, only to have him pocket the cash and ask all of the kids to pay their own way.