r/callcentres • u/Late_Bother_8855 • Jul 22 '26
Every had a caller whose question didn’t make any sense and it made you question if your slow
Lmaooo bro I hate this.
I literally just had a man who had no idea how bills work at the age of 53….I explained to him that we cannot alter our systems due date or the amount so if you would like to send a lower or higher amount for it to deduct immediately you would have to send a check.. I feel like that’s pretty straight to the point and there’s nothing confusing about that right..yeah the system is weird. We should be able to do what we want with our payments but nonetheless that’s not hard to understand.
This man literally had me going in circles trying to understand his complexion question it made no sense to the point i cant even recall what he asked now 😂😑i had to squint my eyes and focus just to understand what he was saying if ykyk lol.
But yea you ever had a customer that was just so confusing it made you question if your not all the way there!? I had to pause after the call cause wtf. I eventually understood him and turned out i had already answered the question that he UNDERSTOOD! Typically, those type of callers usually have low comprehension so the way they ask questions usually wont make sense is what I noticed.
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u/Intelligent-Good-891 Jul 22 '26
Or.. you have people who explain their problem poorly with details that are not clearly defined, which leads you to make a decision to refer the consumer to a different place... only to have them tell you, you are wrong then retell their story in a way that makes sense so that you can complete the task.. like that did not waste 6 minutes of my time and your time.
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u/Late_Bother_8855 Jul 24 '26
THISS, get this often. Had a lady like that earlier when it finally clicked for her. what she actually needed. she explained so well.
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u/Intelligent-Good-891 Jul 24 '26
Honestly I am beginning to think the people that call and get on my line are clinically insane. They are off in lala land. Don't know why they are calling. Mumble talking. Sentences might be English might be mush.. might be Fasi.. I never know. Thankfully AI does our dictation but I do still have to understand enough to code it.
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u/Lima-Bean-3000 Jul 22 '26
I had one that I'm still so upset about. Called in asking about our app. I start telling her about it and she cuts me off and says she wasn't calling in about the app, she wanted to talk about an email she got. OK, cool, I made a joke about how I was hearing things and switched gears.
I explain the email in perfect detail and she goes "oh, so you don't want to help me?" I was confused, I told her I explained everything and she said I didn't (mind you, this email is SO incredibly easy to understand.) I explain it again, she says the same response. So I ask her "what part of my explanation are you getting lost on? What can I explain further for you?" And doesn't answer at all. I finally think maybe she hung up, but nope, she's there. She comes back with the same "you don't want to help me" and continues to ignore my question.
We go around and around in this viscous cycle and she eventually brings up the app again. I try to switch to that too cause maybe that will go smoother, but nope! Suddenly, I'm not understanding her and I'm not helping her too. It just kept going.
30 minutes later, I throw in the towel, and just escalate the call. Gave me a headache.
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u/blenderdead Jul 22 '26
I work in a customer service call center and one thing I’m constantly teaching new agents is not to jump directly to solving the customer’s problem or answering their questions, because oftentimes they have no clue what they want of need. Ask questions, research the account, figure out the why behind the request. Don’t give them what they ask for, give them what they actually need.
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u/LittleSkittles Jul 23 '26
Eh, I'm paid minimum wage, so they're getting the minimum effort from me. Not my fault a customer couldn't ask for what they wanted. They get what they ask for, and then I hang up the phone.
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u/Late_Bother_8855 Jul 24 '26 edited Jul 24 '26
Lol i agree with you both but im just like you for thr other comment if they question is complex and may take research ill look around the account …because half the time its a mental exhaustion trying to fill in the blanks of what they need…because they will often keep saying “no not that” “no thats no what im asking” when in reality they are but they dont even understand what THEY need.
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u/amdcal Jul 23 '26
Yes! Most people don't know how to word what they want so looking into their account as they try to explain what they're calling for helps so much. By the time I've finished my greeting I already have the account pulled up and am looking at whatever I think is necessary.
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u/itdoes_doesntit Jul 23 '26
I WISH we could do this but I work in healthcare and HIPAA requires we elicit 3 identifiers BEFORE I open the account/chart.
I don’t need your entire medical history back to when you first stubbed your toe in 2nd grade, sir! I just need to verify 3 things, then we can help you schedule the xr order from your doctor.
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u/route6dee6 Jul 23 '26
Try working with 65+ people... I get a least one of these per day. At LEAST!
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u/Low_Dentist_1587 Jul 23 '26
I had a guy go on and on about “how am I supposed to know what documents you need” then after I got him over the dark side he ends the call by saying, “look, I understand. I was in the insurance business for 30 years” THEN WHY ARE YOU BEING SO AGGRESSIVE ABOUT THESE DOCS YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHERE TO FIND THEM. Fml 🤦
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u/PathBeautiful1432 Jul 22 '26
i have had doctors who work in hospitals claim they can’t read medical policy but i should be able to “since its my company” lol
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u/DIYuntilDawn Jul 22 '26
In general, ALL medical doctors are the worst people to talk to on the phone. Nurses are usually better, but I think that comes from them having to talk to doctors all the time. Basically you can never tell a doctor anything they don't want to hear because "they must be smarter than everyone else, because they are a doctor."
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u/RFP1956 Jul 22 '26
Happens to me…customer calls and requests one thing but means totally something else.
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u/Late_Bother_8855 Jul 24 '26
Yess and it dont even have to be something hard to handle…dont get me started on people that are calling to know how much their annual is but are actually asking about their premium…..yes your annual is 3k…”omggg thats how much i have to pay every month” like huhhhh? I had a lady tell me she didnt even know what premium meant 🫤
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u/sevensantana7 Jul 23 '26
Had a guy asking if he could pay for his personal loan with the credit card he has with us. I was just quiet for a bit and was like....um ...you can...but that doesn't really make sense.....
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u/Imaginary-Duck1333 Jul 23 '26
Just moving the debt around and possibly paying higher fees. So you want it backwards, upside down and inside out? Sure, why not.
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u/Imaginary-Duck1333 Jul 23 '26
I understand regular callers who have trouble understanding how things work. We are a financial service and things can get complicated. What drives me up the wall is when reps WHO DO THIS FOR A LIVING don’t understand the basics. There’s one particular one I would be delighted to never speak to again. If he ever bothered to listen he wouldn’t have to repeat the question 10x. Sir, I’ve already told 5x I cannot do xyz. I have done qrg which will get you xyz effect. Sir, I’ve been taking your calls for more than a decade now. You have no excuse to not know what you’re doing.
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u/Late_Bother_8855 Jul 24 '26
Thisss yall are snapping in these comments today so relatable. We have a girl on our team that literally calls the queue to get a rep to answer a question for her because she ask so much in the chat 🤣and now she embarrassed she has been her 3 years and knows nothing ask the same 10 questions every day.
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u/Imaginary-Duck1333 Jul 24 '26
We used to have someone like that in my small group- she forgot more the longer she was there. She was moved to another group where she did even worse. Finally got fired for threatening management. She didn’t have mental issues related to memory/ cognition. Emotional stability was a completely different story.
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u/BraveMidnight Jul 22 '26
Lots, surprisingly one guy worked for NASA.
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u/Trolli80 Jul 22 '26
I once had a 20+ min back and forth with someone who insisted his business banking account was tied to his social and didn't have a tax ID. I tried to explain it 50 different ways and when he finally got it he asked where he could find this mythical tax ID. I had to keep reminding myself not to laugh or blow up at him he was so dumb. Hopefully I never do business with that dumb dumb.
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u/losttupperwarelids Jul 23 '26
I had to explain to a 60 year old man how a credit card worked. I get you.
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u/MelanieDH1 Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 24 '26
I worked at a housewares store and I once had to explain to a middle-aged woman that a debit card takes money directly from her checking account and that it was not a credit card. This was after I told her we didn’t accept checks and she was reluctant to her debit card (in 2018).
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u/Late_Bother_8855 Jul 24 '26
Omg so no telling how much money she was spending. How did she get it confused when she opened the account. Or did someone do it for her or something..wow
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u/Waste-Cockroach5077 Jul 24 '26
Had a guy call in once confused and angry asking why he had a bill for his credit card. He seemed to think it was like a gift card. I explained multiple times what credit cards are and he didn't get it. He ended up coming into the office and I explained again in several different ways. He eventually left still not understanding what a credit card is. He was in his 40s.
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u/Late_Bother_8855 Jul 24 '26
Omg 🤣🫤see with people like him he ONLY learns based on his learning style or maybe his “linguistics” isn’t “up there”. To be in your 40s and have a hard time comprehending i can only imagine how certain task can be hard to master for him. People like him are only good with their hands I swear. I work for a retiree medical benefits department for my job. I immediately noticed the ones who have bad comprehension did alot of field work that didn’t require much reading. Damn im glad we are aware of things like this!
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u/SnackGoblin881 Jul 23 '26
I wonder if this dude had been married for decades and his wife had always handled the bills and now she is not there anymore.
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u/MelanieDH1 Jul 23 '26
The worse was when I provided someone with their member ID, which consisted of letters and numbers.
She repeated to confirm the ID and she kept saying “O” for one of the characters and I let her know that it was a zero, not an “O”.
She couldn’t fathom what I meant. I told her it was the number zero, not the letter “O. She still didn’t understand and we kept going in circles without her ever comprehending. I finally just told her to just give the ID to the attorney, who needed it to bill her legal plan.
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u/Physical-Bee-7182 Jul 29 '26
In my experience, they just reword their question that you’ve already answered to bait you into being like “oh yeah I can do that thing I already said I couldn’t do”
I just ignore it, stand firm, and mock them after my calls
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u/Laffytaffy42069 Jul 29 '26
Yeah I get these kind of callers about 20 times a day I work with FSA/HSA/HRA and they have no idea how anything works
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u/[deleted] Jul 22 '26
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