RUDE PEOPLE

Why do people feel so free to swear at people over the phone that they’ve never met whenever they hear something they don’t like? More accurately, why do women feel so comfortable and justified when it comes to this?

This is not a call of the week, it is merely a brief pondering. I wasn't rasied to show my ass in public…unless a distinguished gentleman with a Porsche was in the vicinity. I also wasn’t raised to swear at people doing their jobs or, for that matter, those who got disrespectful or snippy.

Actually, I was raised to keep a pretty tight reign on my emotions whenever possible and to reason objectively whenever capable. I never once remember seeing my mom lose it on the phone with someone representing a company. Like most if not all, I’ve had my share of negative experiences with customer service and financial departments. I’ve grown angry and raised my voice and demanded the useless supervisor who, except where I work, is every bit as powerless as his or her direct subordinate.

But those are extreme scenarios, cases where the person on the other end of the phone was a bitch or an asshole so inflexible or unconcerned or hostile that it created a like response. That’s not what this post is about. Let everybody else piss and moan about that. I’m focusing instead on minor inconveniences engendering such responses.

As has been noted throughout history, people often have a tough time distinguishing between fact and fiction. By the same token, they also seem to have difficulty distinguishing between corporations and those paid to enforce their policies.

We all know there are immature people in the world who still reason like angry teenagers. A certain percentage of human beings will always be clueless and without sense. And, sadly, I have to say it is often a symptom of class and the significant lack thereof. Lower class, lesser-educated people tend to be the culprits. This isn’t exclusive to them, though. An underserved sense of entitlement on the part of wealthy and middle class types can be equally as obnoxious.

If you’re wondering what my major bone of contention is, I’ll share it with you. Where I work, we have a strict verification policy. If the account is started in your name, you are the only person authorized to discuss it or make changes to it unless you authorize someone else to do so. There has been entirely too much fraud committed in the cellular industry for it to be any other way.

It doesn’t matter who you are. It doesn’t matter that you have a cell phone on the account holder’s family plan. It doesn’t matter that the account holder lives in another state or is vacationing at a brothel in Amsterdam and you can’t reach them. It doesn’t even matter that you are his or her spouse and have seen him or her nekkid. A cell phone is not a utility. Say it with me, please: A cell phone is not a utility.

It is, however, a small computer that is also licensing airtime from the FCC. As such, it cannot be treated like your electrical or heating bill. Being married to someone does not entitle you to have access to the account unless the account holder either authorizes you or you have subpoena in you hand.

Naturally, the process to ensure all the appropriate have access is a simple one, and just a naturally people make it needlessly complicated. Just getting the person name don the account is half the battle. Once that occurs, the account holder provides them with a password so they can verify themselves when they call in. How many of these people do you think remember or bother to write down this password?

When these people call in and can’t remember the password, it’s my job to ask for the account holder so I can verify other info with him or her and get them to change it if they don’t remember it either. Here’s where we separate the intelligent from the overly emotional. Instead of being grateful for the fact that some stranger can’t call in with the social security number and enable to phones to call Zimbabwe, these people grow furious when I can’t assist them beyond general information. Here are a few examples:

* The woman whose husband was a graveyard digger. Her husband dropped the phone in a grave and wisely decided against exhuming the corpse to reclaim it. His wife, country gal that she was, started yelling at me because I couldn’t go over replacement options with her. I offered to call the gravedigger and get her added to the account and she yelled, “He works for a living-uh!” After he hung up, ready to cancel service, I called her husband, nice guy, and had her added.

* The man who called in for info who I advised we needed to have authorized by his wife the account holder before we could discuss anything and he started yelling, “NOT TRUE! NOT TRUE!” because some idiot had assisted him once before. We went round & round until I finally said, “Look, What that other rep did was against company policy and could have lost their job.” Only then did he realize I wasn’t going to budge.

* The most recent and typical example, yet another hillbilly female, screaming the popular slogan, "This is bullshit!” These are the ones that start throwing out incorrect passwords and the account holder’s social security number thinking they can bombard us with info until we just cave in. Not I. This one I calmly advised we were just going in circles when we could have already resolved this by contacting the account holder. She grew angry and hung up.

* My favorite happened last week. This woman kept yelling that it was her phone and she pays the bills, None of that matters. She also claimed she received help at the stores without being authorized which is against company policy. I advised her the named account holder must authorize her, she employed the original, “This is bullshit” slogan and threatened to cancel service before hanging up. I just checked that account as of this writing nothing has taken place. It rarely does.

I like to think these people think about their behavior after they hang up. I like to think they realize how silly and childish they were. Sometimes I even allow myself to believe they understood the reason for what happened and are glad we are so protective of their privacy. Certainly some customers have expressed gratitude and understanding.

But the original point of this post was why people feel so comfy being verbally abusive to customer service folk? Maybe it’s the faceless quality of the interaction. Surely it’s easier to be a bad-ass when no one can see you. Maybe there’s a sense of superiority involved here people can feel bigger and more important than the person servicing them. Or maybe they’re so provincial that nobody they don’t know personally matters. I suppose it could be all of the above and more I haven’t thought of.

I’m a pretty thick-skinned guy and I keep my cool in most situations. But even I have a limit when it comes to being mistreated for doing nothing wrong. So, consider this me letting off a little steam.

Thanks for “listening.” You can start yelling at me now~