Tonight I Matched the Energy
So obviously I work in a call center. While the department I work in is not my absolute favorite I love the company and people I work with. Since I work specifically in the Escalations department naturally whoever I get on the phone with is usually already frustrated and I try my best to not match their energy but tonight this guy pushed me to it.
Just some relevant info, I work for a well known ticketing company and handle things like troubleshooting, following up on transfer issues, finding replacement tickets if needed, etc. Friday and Saturdays are our busiest nights and tonight was no exception. We were absolutely slammed all day.
I’m off at 10 and this guy called in at 9:56 and stated that he thought he bought two tickets to the <PERSON> tour but when he received the confirmation it was only for one ticket. 156
I advised him that I do see only one ticket was purchased and offered to transfer him to our sales department to buy another ticket. He then proceeded to say he wants a refund because he’s standing outside the venue and doesn’t want to take the time to place another order and wait the 10 or so minutes for the transfer to be completed. I advised since this order was confirmed and the original ticket was already sent I cannot take back the sale (we have an all sales are final policy) and again offered to get him over to Sales.
He was adamant that our website glitched and starts making threats to involve his attorney and cursing at me, stating it was my job to fix this for him. I warned him that if he continued to use language I would be disconnecting (my bosses don’t allow for us to be verbal punching bags and we have permission to disconnect if they keep at it after we warn them.) I then let him know that I see no glitches in our system logs and our website is 100% user driven so there is not much else I can do for him except assist him with purchasing the second ticket.
He then brought up that he purchased the ticket insurance and I told him I was happy to provide him with the number as the insurance company is a third party (they wouldn’t be able to refund him either as this would not follow under their coverage guidelines but only I knew that and I needed him off my phone) He continued to insult and curse at me and then demanded the number to the insurance. I was pulling up the number for him and he kept rushing me and demanding even after I asked him to please give me a moment while I got that number for him. He then told me to “stop talking and give him the fucking number” at that point I was just done and said “okay you want me to stop talking? I most certainly can do that, have a nice night.” And hung up.
I know the most I will get if anything is a talking to about empathy and not matching energy but my teammates thought it was hysterical and I feel that while I could have handled it better this man absolutely did not deserve my best and I’m okay with how I handled it. 156