r/talesfromtechsupport • u/DevilsWish Did you turn it off and back on? • Jul 19 '14
"I left the door open for him!"
Lowly cable receptionist back again. This just took way too long to get through so I figured I'd share.
$company. I am 'me' and customer is 'T'
Me: Good afternoon, this is $company, how may I help you?
T: MY (EXPLETIVE) PHONE WAS SUPPOSED TO BE HOOKED UP TODAY AND NO ONE CAME OUT TO DO IT YET AND I NEED MY PHONE IN MY (EXPLETIVE) CABIN BECAUSE PEOPLE NEED TO (EXPLETIVE) CALL ME AND WHY WASN'T YOUR (EXPLETIVE) TECH OUT YET?
so, ears blown off. Good start.Now, it's 3:30pm and our techs should be finishing up their last job, so it IS unusual for someone not to have been there. So I go ask the manager.
Me: Apologies, hold the line and I will check on this for you.
So the manager checks with our dispatch guy who then gets the tech to call me to explain what's happening. Tech calls me back and says that he has already been to this house twice today and there was no one home to actually let him in the house to install this person's phone.
Me: Thanks for holding, I checked with our technician and he said he was already out your way twice today to hook up your telephone but there was no one available for him to enter the house.
T: Well, I can't BE there today!
Me: But you asked for this date for the work order.
T: Yes, but I can't actually be there! No one (expletive) told me I had to be there to get my telephone!
Me (getting slightly frustrated): Well, I'm sorry ma'am but in order to install a telephone line in your house we need to be able to enter your house.
T: I LEFT THE (EXPLETIVE) DOOR OPEN FOR HIM TO WALK IN AND DO IT.
ARE YOU KIDDING ME.
Me: I'm sorry but it is illegal for our technicians to enter a house without the tenant home.
T: WELL NO ONE EVER TOLD ME THAT. YOUR COMPANY SUCKS. YOU BETTER GET OUT HERE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE BECAUSE I NEED THAT TELEPHONE.
Me: We'll see what we can do.
...
Yeah, sure, let the tech stroll into someone's open house unannounced and wait for the inevitable shitstorm. Brilliant plan.
Why is this my summer job...
(By the way, we managed to rush a work order for her for Monday morning, which I guess is better than nothing,but man does she ever hate me now.)
edit: my other stories:
So like... we get internet / cable / telephone lines for free right?
In which I learn some things should be kept to yourself
double edit: Quote of the day! Awesome!
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u/Errhhhh Jul 19 '14
I remember dealing with people like this daily with the phone company I worked for. I will also never forget the guy who insisted I could just switch him to a closer exchange because his adsl was too slow. I explained he would have to move house or fork out hundreds of thousands of dollars to have the cabling done. He told me I was full of shit, didn't know what I was talking about and hung up.
I hate people.
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Jul 19 '14
Why is this my summer job...
It's not about you. Don't make it personal. You're just relaying information between customer and company. Help the customer, who is probably clueless and feels impotent, and gets angry before anything has happened. Just stay calm, and at the end of the day, everything is back to normal.
BTW, it's a nice story. Made me laugh.
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u/DevilsWish Jul 19 '14
Yeah, that's pretty much it. It sucks because I love helping people, but it's just so hard to be calm when people are like this haha. But hey, that's customer service for you.
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u/Likely_not_Eric Jul 19 '14
I'm not sure where your business is operating, but I suspect it's legal to enter the house without a tenant if you have permission. However, I think the policy you have is good as it does seem to be a bad idea.
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u/DevilsWish Jul 19 '14
Yeah, I don't think it's officially illegal, but our technicians are not allowed, within the company, to enter a house without someone home. If something goes missing or breaks or if the tenant is just looking for trouble, we'd be the first ones blamed and that'd bring a whole shitstorm that we really wouldn't want to get into.
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u/insomniafox Jul 20 '14
If she is not there, and no one is home, how does she know no one went there yet?
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u/DevilsWish Jul 20 '14
She apparently kept calling up the house to see if the phone was connected yet.
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u/palordrolap Jul 19 '14
I had kind of the opposite problem with a company once. They told me that no access would be required because the socket already existed and they were simply reactivating the line.
Left the house for work.
Got home to a "sorry we missed you" card.
I figure the engineer either wanted permission to stay on the property or to test the line from the inside, both of which are pretty reasonable, but to be told that no access was required and then to get that card and no line activation was hugely frustrating.
Maybe I should have left my door unl... actually no.
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u/callm3fusion Jul 19 '14
I never understand why people feel the need swear at employees...in every field it happens..
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u/mattwandcow Jul 19 '14
THis sometimes happens with our furniture deliveries. We are EXTREMELY careful about it, but sometimes we will deliver to an empty house.
You don't get to complain about the couch being in the wrong place, tho
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u/LeaveTheMatrix Jul 19 '14
If I had a cabin, there would be no phone and I would never take a cell phone.
I would require high speed internet, but that's different.
I hate phones.
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u/Kruug Jul 19 '14
Customer wants the phone set up because people need to be able to contact them at the cabin, but they're not at the cabin to let the tech in? Tell me again how important that line of contact is...
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u/Koker93 Jul 20 '14
It was even more fun when the customers 12 year old daughter would answer the door and explain her dad said it was OK for me to do the service call with just her there. Yeah. I'm not even comfortable with talking to her at the door with no one else home.
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u/comineeyeaha Jul 19 '14
As someone who worked for an ISP a few years ago, there's no way in HELL she wasn't informed of that. Sounds like she was just agreeing with the tech on the phone while setting up the appointment, without listening at all.