Some people say they want to cancel a service when what they really want is a discount.

So, what would you do if your entire job was convincing callers not to cancel, but you were on your very last day and completely out of patience?

Would you suck it up and do the job one more time? Or would you make it easier and give the customer exactly what they ask for?

In the following story, one fed-up retention agent finds themselves in this situation and chooses the latter.

Here’s what happened.

Cancel your account? Sure done.

Years ago, I worked for an inbound call center, where I specialized in the retention department of a popular satellite radio company.

Well, I absolutely hated this job throughout the whole 5 months I was employed there, and I especially hated it when I genuinely knew people wanted to cancel, but I still had to go through all the hoops trying to keep them.

It was also common for people to call and request to cancel, but they didn’t really want to cancel – they just wanted a cheap rate. You guys know how it goes.

All they had to do was ask.

So, my last day (I didn’t put in my 2 weeks, but I had a job lined up for the following Monday), I decided that I would go as long as I could without trying to retain any customers. It was fantastic. Every call went as follows

Them: “I would like to cancel my account.”

Me: “Sure, I’ll process that for you right now…OK, your account has been successfully terminated, and a credit of $X has been returned to the card on file….etc. etc.”

Now the responses were the best part.

Some people were bluffing.

Several people were like, “Wow, that was easy/fast, thanks so much!”

But the other half of the customers were dumbfounded, and it went like this:

Them: “Whoa, whoa, that’s not what I meant to do…”

Me: “Well, sir, you requested a cancellation, so I did that for you.”

Then, his boss found out.

Them: “Well, I didn’t really want you to cancel it. I just wanted a better rate.”

Me: “I just did what you asked.”

It was almost an evil satisfaction to end my short career in the call center. Definitely felt good to break the rules and not be the annoying sales guy for once.

I made it 3 hours into my shift before my supervisor caught on and sent me home.

Wow! That’s one way to get back at the company.

Let’s see what the people over at Reddit have to say about it.

That works!

This reader never saves customers.

Here’s someone who did something similar.

He went out as a hero to the customers… at least some of them anyway.

If you liked that post, check out this story about a customer who insists that their credit card works, and finds out that isn’t the case.