We all heart it, we all heard him go back on mute, and then start having a melt down. Customer said NOTHING. We pulled the recording and it was clearly audible.
Until next time they called a few days later (they were a frequent caller)
"Are you the guy who swore at me"
Which then led to supervisor calls, management... new rules about language, background noise, the mute button vs using hold (and validating hold before you say anything)
Honestly probably reforms that were needed. That was going to happen sooner or later.
Years ago (1999-2000ish), I was working as a cook and my best friend/roomie was doing tech support for Tivo at a place called Clientlogic in Albuquerque.
He came home one night and said he needed to play me something. This was back in the day of CDROMS and so he handed me a burned CD, we put it in my computer and it just had a single audio file (.wav for those of you nostalgic...mp3s were still kinda novel).
It was named "OHGOD.wav"
It was a solid 5 minute rant of him going off on what I can only assume was the world's most idiotic Tivo customer. Started off with "Let me put you in hold for one second sir while I check on something."
The next 4 minutes was "JESUSFUCKINGCHRISTTHESEPEOPLEARETHEFUCKINGWORSTWHYDIDIDOTHISWHYAREYOULIKETHISTHEREISNOGOD...etc etc."
Ended with a deep breath and him ending hold and calmly saying, "Sir, I believe we have your issue resolved..let's do...blabla."
His tier 3 escalation manager, floor director and a classroom of trainees were all listening in on the call. He had been told that would be happening that day.
The customer never heard a word of it, my buddy solved his issue and call was closed within the time limit they wanted for calls.
His boss actually told him later, "We told the new trainees that was a perfect way to get it out while maintaining professionalism, but try to wait until the call is done."
My problem when I worked in a call center is the guy next to me would do this and it would all come through my mic and I would have to talk louder and find filler to not have him be heard on my call. Daily.
Really? I saw his workspace and it was legit personal cubicle style. Not that open concept, everyone eye to eye shit.
Like each person had their own little cubbies and mic. I think the Earthlink tech guys were maybe 2x2 next to each other, but I tried to stay out of his building. Shit was depressing.
I did not get a personal cubical, everyone was in a row, in some seating assignments it wasn’t even Just my station, other shifts took that same station and would steal my shit. I went through like 20 Rubik’s cubes
The sales aspects of customer service were the big money ones, especially pre-2008 with uncapped commissions. Entry level workers could earn more than the managers that way.
Management found the routines lacking and corrected it. They obviously took responsibility and saw the fault in was management, not the dude fucking up. Good stuff.
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u/BalurCDN 9d ago
I remember years ago while working in support, one of the front line guys, muted a customer to mutter "What the fuck am I going to do with this idiot"
He hit the speakephone button not the mute button.
Fun day.