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When you work at a help desk, one of the hardest things to deal with is a caller who simply won’t help you troubleshoot.
What would you do if you got a call for support at 1 AM because a caller was unhappy, but in reality, nobody could help her because all she did was yell and refuse to help with the troubleshooting?
That is what happened to the guy in this story, so eventually he had to shout over her to get her to shut up and realize that he was finally able to fix the problem.
This type of thing would be so frustrating to deal with. Read through the full story for yourself and see what you think.
“What are we even paying you for!?”
This was probably the most unhinged user I’ve ever had the joy of supporting, and this was the first time that I ever raised my voice at a customer.
Let’s see what happened here.
This exchange was about three years ago now, so some of the timeline and verbiage is not exact.
Setup: I was the 24hr on-call support technician for T2 Software support that week.
It seems like they offer great support.
Our company has a 24 hour T1 Software support team that directly receives calls from customers, and escalates to T2 when it surpasses their knowledge. We also have a good rapport with the T1 guys, so we will sometimes take calls that need a more “authoritative” hand, such as when a customer is very upset or resistant to advice.
We also have a mirroring structure for Hardware, with a 24hr T1 call center with an escalation to technician dispatches. Field Techs will usually try to do a phone consult before they are dispatched.
Managers shouldn’t be needed in most situations.
Also, there are no managers available after hours unless there is an absolute extreme emergency for which there is no precedent of action.
During the day, this would have been a “let me get our manager,” situation, but in this case, it was on me to just get them back up however I could.
The on-call phone rings for me around 11PM.
Some callers just can’t be reasoned with.
T1: Hey, VI. Got a really heated customer here. [Brief description of the issue] She called me a few hours ago, but she was very adamant that she did not want to troubleshoot with me at the time. I asked her to call me back when she was ready, and she just did.
But now she’s really hot and demanding to be escalated because her site has been down for so long. She’s claiming that we did not “help her” enough (though I’m not sure how we could have)… I’m sorry, but do you mind helping here?
Me: Ah dang. Yeah, that’s fine. [Gathers more information about issue] When did she first call in?
Let’s see how the call goes.
T1: First call was 6PM, so they’ve been down for about 5 hours.
Me: Crap. Okay, I’ll handle it. Thanks. click
I give her a call, and she snatches the phone up before the first ring is over.
Me: Yes, hello, this is VI wit–
Yelling is not going to help the situation.
C [Word vomiting while I periodically try to interject]: WHY HAVE YOU TAKEN SO LONG TO FIX THIS WE HAVE BEEN DOWN FOR FIVE HOURS AND MY MANAGER IS BREATHING DOWN MY NECK BUT YOU GUYS HAVE DONE NOTHING BUT WASTE MY TIME AND NOT RESPOND AND WE ARE PAYING FOR TWENTY FOUR HOUR SERVICE AND YET YOU GUYS DON’T DO SHIT AFTER HOURS WHY ARE WE EVEN PAYING YOU??
Me: Ma’am, I do apologize, but we were told you were not able to troubleshoot with us when you initially called. We were ready to assist but did not hear–
He is really trying to calm her down.
C: BULL. I CALLED YOU THREE TIMES AFTER AND YOU GUYS DID ABSOLUTELY NOTHING BUT TELL ME IT’S PROBABLY A SOFTWARE ISSUE
Me [Confused]: Y-yes ma’am? It does indeed to appear to be a software issue. That is why we wanted to attempt to address this with troubleshooting. Regardless, I am here to assist you now and would like to–
Sometimes, you just have to let people rant.
C: YOUR TECH GUYS DON’T KNOW ANYTHING I DON’T KNOW WHY WE PAY FOR THIS KIND OF SERVICE WHEN YOU GUYS DON’T KNOW ANYTHING AND IT’S ABOUT TIME I’M FINALLY TALKING TO SOMEONE WHO IS GOING TO DO SOMETHING
Me [Knowing T1 knew exactly what to do and was very knowledgeable]: My apologies, ma’am. Let’s try troubleshooting now.
When did a field tech come out?
I attempt to assist her with troubleshooting, and we end up getting stuck in cyclical issues of me asking her to attempt a reset procedure and her getting lost about halfway through. The entire time we are working, she continuously repeats sentiments like those above about how angry and frustrated she is with our procedures and support.
She ends up dropping a line about how “The Field Tech” wouldn’t even attempt to help her, and I pause.
She is really making this issue take much longer than needed.
Me: Ma’am, did you say “Field Tech?” When did you talk to a “Field Tech?”
C: YES. I CALLED THE HOTLINE BACK AND THEY INSISTED IT SOUNDED LIKE A SOFTWARE ISSUE AND COULDN’T HELP ME, SO THEY HUNG UP ON ME. I CALLED THEM BACK TWICE AND THEY KEPT SAYING THEY COULDN’T HELP BUT FINALLY ESCALATED ME AND THEN THE STUPID FIELD TECH SAID THE SAME THING!! TWO HOURS WASTED!
Now he is figuring it out.
Me [Lightbulb moment]: Ma’am, did you call the hardware hotline?
C: WELL YES I CALLED THE OTHER HOTLINE BECAUSE THE FIRST HOTLINE WOULDN’T HELP ME AND NEVER CALLED ME BACK. I WAITED FOR HOURS AND THEY NEVER CALLED.
Me: Ma’am, they asked you to call back when you were ready–
Maybe her manager will be more rational.
C: WELL, THEY SHOULD HAVE CALLED ME BACK SO I CALLED THE OTHER ONE AND THEY WASTED MY TIME TO BY ASKING ME TO DO STUFF ON THE MACHINE THAT DIDN’T EVEN FIX IT
Her manager apparently comes down at this point to check on her, so she puts me on speakerphone. We are clicks away from resolving the issue, so I try to drop the issue of “who called who,” but apparently for her, she now has to double down on trying to throw us under the bus.
He is getting upset.
As I begin talking, she starts ranting over me. At first I let it go, but it started to seem intentional. There would be a pause, so I would start providing instructions.
As soon as I started speaking, she would cut in over me talking about how incompetent we all are. For the first time at this job, I start to raise my voice.
Maybe it is time to hang up on her.
The customer’s complaints were essentially a nonstop stream-of-consciousness rant that I tried to talk through with the manager occasionally interjecting. The below exchange occurred with all parties overlapping.
Me: Ma’am would you please try to do this troubleshooting step I am asking? All I need is for you to click–
Absolutely frustrating.
C [Finally addresses me]: NOW LOOK HERE I AM DONE WITH THIS NONSENSE AND I STILL CANNOT BELIEVE YOU HAVE ALLOWED US TO BE DOWN FOR SO LONG–
Me: I just need you to [Click final option] and we will be done–
C: NO SEE THIS IS RIDICULOUS BECAUSE WE ARE PAYING YOU GUYS TO SUPPORT US AND YOUR STUPID TECH–
Finally, the manager is stepping in.
Manager: You said [Click this] correct? I can–
Me: Yes please [Click that] and ma’am the previous technician was very competent but you did not call–
C: WE HAVE BEEN DOWN BECAUSE YOUR SUPPORT CAN’T FIGURE OUT HOW TO–
She doesn’t want help; she wants to yell.
Manager: Okay, thank–
Me: We have been supporting you this entire time but we cannot support you when you do not–
C: WHY ARE WE EVEN PAYING YOU 24 HOUR SUPPORT IF YOU DON’T SUPPORT US AFTER HOURS–
How can her manager let her keep acting like this?
Me: Ma’am it IS ALMOST 1AM IN THE MORNING. WE ARE LITERALLY SUPPORTING YOU AFTER HOURS RIGHT THIS VERY SECOND–
C: YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN–
Me: I REALLY DO NOT, NOW IS YOUR SYSTEM WORKING OR–
The problem would have been fixed hours ago if she were rational.
C: I CAN’T BELIEVE THAT–
Me: IS THE SYSTEM ONLINE–
C: HOW DARE YOU INTERRUP–
What a relief.
Manager[With a faint hint of levity]: THANK YOU VERY MUCH [Company] TECH SUPPORT, WE ARE GOOD TO GO NOW, YOU’VE BEEN GREAT, HAVE A GOOD EVENING–click
I later confirmed with Hardware T1 that she had indeed called them yelling about why her software was still down.
They did everything they could to get her to call Software T1, but finally relented to let the Tech take over and confirm she was using the wrong channels.
The sad part of all of this is that the caller likely still thinks that the help desk was the problem. Next time she has issues, they will have to deal with it all over again.
Read on to see what the people in the comments have to say about it.
She was to blame, but she won’t get fired.
Nobody should have to put up with this, though.
I 100% agree with this commenter.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a customer who can’t seem to come to grips with the fact that her reward points will not cover a purchase.
This commenter has a great way to handle people.
She wasn’t trying to fix the problem; she was trying to cast blame.
The manager should have shut her up a lot sooner. No employee should be allowed to treat others this poorly.
Fortunately, the problem got solved, but the real problem (the angry woman) is still there.