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Resetting a password can uncover much bigger problems than a forgotten login.

One caller wanted access to a coworker’s account, even though he had died months earlier.

The request sent tech support straight to security and triggered an unexpected complaint.

Check out how this unusual support call unfolded below.

User tries to use a deceased colleague’s account to sign in. Finds out.

So I work at a service desk for an insurance company (outside of the US), who primarily deals with a specific profession of people. For the sake of anonymity, that’s all I’ll say.

I work in a phone-based team, and my conversation with the person went like this:

Me: Welcome to [Company Name], how can I help today?

Caller: Hi, yes, I’m calling from [Another Company], and was looking to reset my password?

Me: Of course, can I take a username please?

But this is where the conversation took an unusual turn.

The caller gave me a username. It’s important to note at this stage that I was speaking to a middle-aged woman, and the name on the account was a male name.

Me: Got it, and what was your name, please?

Caller: I’m [their name].

Me: The name you’ve given me doesn’t match what I’ve got on file. Are you calling on their behalf?

And what they said next really took this employee by surprise.

Caller: No, they passed away a few months ago, and I’m looking to get access to his account.

I’ve heard a lot, but this was a first for me, and this rendered me speechless for a second, to say the least. Another important factor is that if we have one username, we can pull up all the usernames under that company.

At this point, I’d done so, and could see that despite a solid few previously registered users, this was the only active username.

Cutting this username off means potentially having this caller look elsewhere, and management frowns upon this.

So they tried to figure things out in the best way they could.

Me: OK, that’s one thing I’ve not heard before. Please bear with me, I need to speak with a colleague.

I rang through to security, and a colleague picked up.

I explained the situation, and there was silence on the phone for a good seven seconds before they asked me to repeat what I’d said: that the caller was trying to log in as a deceased colleague.

Security pulled up the company structure, only to notice, as I did, that the deceased was the only employee listed for the company. I heard a sigh.

In the end, there was only one thing to do.

Security confirmed as that was the only username for that company, we’d have to shut it down. This isn’t us being mean, there are serious regulations behind these kinds of accounts. Misuse can mean large fines.

I responded as follows, with a potential workaround: “I figured. If the caller registers herself, is there any chance I can convince you to bump this one to the front?”

More clicking followed, before security confirmed that that would be fine – but new accounts would require the approval of a company director.

I got back to the caller, to let her know.

But this helpful solution only served to make things worse.

She proceeded to start shouting as soon as I told her that she needed her company director’s approval to register on the system, explaining that he was out of the country for the next week.

I responded: “I understand that, but I’m sorry, when your company signed up, they were very clear that the director would need to-”

She cut me off to say, “That just isn’t good enough! I want to speak with your manager!”

I replied telling her that I had security on the other line, and that she’d need to take it up with them. She agreed, and I toggled back to security.

Let’s see what happened when the call got passed over.

It’s worth mentioning here that if we suspect a call is going to be a complaint, two people should be listening to that call, usually a manager from your team.

I told security about the shouting and the ‘complaint,’ to which they laughed and agreed to talk to the caller.

About a week after I did so, a complaints handler caught me on Teams, and explained that a complaint had been filed against me (personally, for some reason), but that the handler wouldn’t be upholding it.

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In the end, the caller had to wait a week, and I suspect their company director asked a few more people to register themselves!

It sucks that the caller didn’t seem to understand – or care – that they were asking the company to commit fraud on her behalf.

She can’t expect to just be able to log into another person’s account without their permission – much less someone who has passed away.

Sure bureaucracy can be annoying at times, but it’s important to remember that a lot of this stuff is in place for a reason.

Let’s see what the Reddit community had to say about this.

Many people could relate to this story.

And this person shared a similar story, with a similarly frustrated customer.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a customer service rep who hung up and called a customer back to get around a time limit, but ended up getting an award instead of a reprimand after the customer praised his service.

Meanwhile, this Redditor sympathised with the caller.

Security closed the deceased employee’s account and told the caller to register under her own name.

She complained about the technician, but the complaint was rejected and she still waited for approval.

Even tech support cannot resurrect a login.

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Author

Chris Allen