The lighter side of call centers

· An American woman called a computer call center agent and asked for guidance on how to operate a certain program. The agent innocently told her to kindly close all the windows first, and the agent almost fell off his seat when he heard the woman telling her son in the background, “son, I don’t know what the heck this guy’s telling me, but can you close all our windows so our computer will run???”

· Another woman called another computer call center. The woman was complaining non-stop that the computer company should improve its devices since she has been having a hard time navigating her mouse. The agent who got the call got a bit puzzled, mainly because the mouse is perhaps one of the easiest computer attachments to use. The woman never gave the agent a chance to speak, and the agent almost could not stop himself from laughing out loud when the woman said: “you know what? My foot has been tired from navigating the mouse!!!” Wherein the agent simply instructed the woman to kindly get the mouse off the floor and place it on her table. The woman was silent for a minute, and then she said without apology “well, that’s better!” and hung up.

· A man wanted to change the dates of his travel to a later one, and said without preamble to the travel agent who got his call that he should not pay any fees as he had a “cancellation penalty waiver.” Wherein the agent informed him that as he was changing and not canceling, normal change penalties would apply. The caller got irate and claimed that a change is still a cancellation, because when you cancel, you still change your plans. The agent calmly asked again which he wanted to do, and what type of waiver he got. The agent coyly asked him: “so, if you want to change your tickets and you have a cancellation fee waiver, but you want your change penalties waived using a cancellation penalty waiver, does that mean then that change and cancel are one and the same? Aren’t they completely different courses of action? Wherein the caller shouted expletives at the agent and hung up!

· Another caller, this time a woman, called the same travel call center to cancel and get a refund for her “strictly non-refundable” plane tickets. A travel agent advised her that though her tickets are non-refundable, she could get credits for it that can be applied toward a future travel, subject to reissuance penalties. She insisted that she should be reimbursed because she had no plans of flying again soon, and said that there must be a way to circumvent the rules. The agent said, üh, yeah, there is one way where you will definitely get a refund. The passenger has to die first.” Wherein the woman happily said “that’s great then! What do I have to do?” Bewildered, the agent said, “uh, the passenger, uh, meaning you, must die first…” Oh…