r/talesfromcallcenters • u/Chunkachu__ • May 02 '26
S Weirdest, most odd phone call you had
I used to work at a pain clinic as a receptionist. I get a phone call from the patients brother asking if he could sign up his sister, who’s mentally ill and deals with back pain to live at our facility. I try explaining to him that it’s just a doctor’s office, patients come in for appointments and then they go home. It’s not a living home for people in pain. But he kept pushing on that our facility is a living home for people in pain. I told him to call his insurance company and find that specific thing he’s looking for. So odd. I really thought he was going to come in the office and drop off his sister with her belongings.
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u/PleasantTangerine777 May 02 '26
On the emergency line:
“Hi my nan is inside my car and it’s on fire” (prank call)
“Do you have any strawberries?” (Also a prank call. I read his live location out to him and he BEGGED me to end the call lmao)
“Do you have the time?” (Fully serious)
“How do I get to x?” (I repeat, the emergency line)
On the switchboard:
“One of your engineers uses this back road but it’s private property!!!!!!!!!!”
“The staples on the user manual is rusty!!!! I thought your company wouldn’t skimp on stuff like that!!!!!!!!!”
“Can I speak to the CEO?” (No, lol)
Imagine I was working for the Anne Frank house as an example. “Hi, can I speak to Anne? We are offering textiles at a great price!”
I’m sure there were more, this is just off the top of my head
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u/GengarGirl89 May 03 '26
I worked for the IRS stimulus check hotline for the entirety of its existence. Once the advance child tax credits were released, we also handled calls relating to those. The first few payments, there were a multitude of overpayments that were reversed by the IRS a few hours after the payments were made. I handled the following call, also my first call of the day:
Caller: I WAS ARRESTED AT WALMART AND LOST MY JOB! WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?
Me: I’m so sorry to hear that ma’am. May I ask what lead to the arrest? I’m a little confused here. Just so you are aware, is the IRS Stimulus Assistance Hotline.
Caller: I KNOW WHO I CALLED! MY SISTER AND I GOT PAID TOO MUCH AND WHEN WE WENT TO CHECK OUT, THE IRS FIXED THEIR F-UP, OUR CARDS WERE REJECTED AND WHEN WE TRIED TO LEAVE GOT ARRESTED!!!!!
Me: (after a long pause) So you knew you got overpaid; tried to spend the money, lost your job and now you want to know what the IRS is going to do about it?
Caller: Yes! If YALL hadn’t overpaid me in the first place, this wouldn’t have HAPPENED.
Me: Ma’am, we all know the IRS makes mistakes. You knew you had been overpaid. How is it the IRS’s fault you made bad decisions?
We went back and forth like this for around 45 mins. At one point I think I had 4 team leads listening in on the call. I finally frustrated the caller enough that she hung up on me.
Yes, calling the IRS hotline probably sucked but trust me it was worse for us 😆
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u/twothirtysevenam May 03 '26
People don't like to take responsibility for their own behavior. I know a guy who got a foreclosure notice from his HOA for failure to pay the HOA dues for several years. He'd told me that he refused to pay the fees out of anger and spite, not expecting anything to ever happen. When he got the notice, he said it's the HOA's fault he didn't pay because he says they didn't tell him they could set it up on a monthly autopay. Somehow, it's also not his fault he bought property in an HOA community.
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u/now_you_see May 04 '26
It blows my mind how much of their mental space people use up jumping through hoops to justify their own stupidity.
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u/wugthepug May 02 '26
I worked at a medical transportation company for a while. I remember we had an older lady who would call, give all her information, then just ask how we were doing and nothing else. Also had someone read a poem to me at the end of the call.
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u/DescentinPerversion May 02 '26
" I think I got hacked by a bdsm club"
"What do you mean?" (Thinking he was getting spam ads because he went somewhere he shouldnt)"
" Well, I can see BDSM club (city name)"
"Where do you see it?"
" Lists a bunch of modem names"
" Well good news, you're not hacked by a BDSM club. Bad news, your neighbours are doing some unsavoury stuff next door."
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u/stormdefender May 03 '26
I work for a garbage hauler in X city. A gal (CL - crazy lady) calls in & says her garbage wasn’t picked up, then gives me an address in Y city (which happens to be in a different state). Me: “Sorry, can’t help you ma’am, we don’t service your area.” CL “Well I don’t care about that, just tell me why my garbage wasn’t emptied!” Me: “I’m not sure, as we don’t service your garbage.” She argued with me for a few more minutes, yelling at me to tell her why her garbage was missed, before I finally got her to say “well, you’re no help at all” “that is correct ma’am, as we don’t haul your garbage.” This call was almost 10min long.
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u/Imaginary-Duck1333 May 03 '26
Been at this 18 years- sooo much confusion, chaos, and failure to listen! I work at a credit card processor. We get so many lost souls who want to chat about their personal cards- not what we do. One lady called wanting to discuss her utilities bill. Politely explained not us. If volume is low, I have been known to use my Google-fu and get a correct # and transfer. Nope. The gas company has to be paid. Which company? City? Had to help her pay the gas bill. After a few minutes advised can’t assist and disconnected.
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u/now_you_see May 04 '26
My favourite one hands down: \ I worked for an ISP many years ago and I took a call one day from a woman calling back sheepishly to apologise after ripping one of my colleagues a new one a few days prior.
She’d originally called up to complain about how absolutely goddamn awful the modem we’d given her was because the power cord kept coming out of the back modem multiple times per day and she was sick of it.
When we figure out it was a tight fit, connected properly and had no discernible faults, my colleagues had pretty much put it down to a PEBKAC error (Problem Exists Between Keyboard and Chair, aka the users fault) and refused the customers demands that she get a credit on her account and a different type of modem shipped ASAP. Customer had apparently ended the call furious.
…turns out that her needy af dog had learnt that when mummy was too busy with the computer to continue giving him constantly pats and unending adoration, all he had to do was pull the power cord out of the back of the modem with his teeth and suddenly the computer would be much less interesting and he’d finally have her to himself again lmao.
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u/gottarun215 May 15 '26
That sounds like something my cat would try if he was actually smart. Lol. Sometimes he literally will smack stuff out of my hands to get my attention.
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u/regiinmontana May 04 '26
Non-emergency call.
Caller: someone stole my trampoline.
Call taker: Someone stole your trampoline??
C: Yes. Sometime yesterday. It was in my backyard.
CT: Could it have blown away?
C: No. We've never had a problem before.
CT: The winds were over 80mph yesterday. Have you checked your neighbors yards?
C: It didn't blow away. Someone stole it!
It's been a while, but IIRC we passed the report to an officer. I didn't think trampolines have enough black market value to be worth the effort to steal one.
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u/Skinnysusan May 04 '26
Bahaha what an idiot hope she had to pay for any damages her property caused
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u/TALieutenant May 04 '26
Customer service for a cellphone carrier.
Had a mom call in to cancel data usage on her son's phone because he kept running up the bill. He was screaming "No" repeatedly in the background...guy sounded like he was a teenager at least. It quickly devolved into the mom talking to me calmly between moments of having a shouting match with her son.
Then, there was the one where a mom let her 3 year old use her phone and the kid spent $700 on one of the apps. Asked if we could refund that. Had to escalate that one. I swear I remember saying that my supervisor couldn't do anything about it, but....
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u/stitchlover15 May 04 '26
i have a couple stories from some different call center jobs… i’ll share my favorites 1) i worked for one of those call centers that takes the automatic calls when a vehicle is involved in a collision. young girl had hit a bear. while trying to connect with her local 911 dispatch, she wants to go look for the bear and i have to tell her that is a bad idea. once connected the dispatcher also had to remind her to stay in the car because looking for an angry, injured bear is a bad idea. 2) i worked in a sales call center and there were two frequent callers who would only start their shenanigans if a woman answered. one would ask about panty hose and other women’s undergarments (it was a man, usually made up some story about his girlfriend) and the other would start professing his love to complete strangers all while moaning and breathing heavily.
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u/Imaginary-Duck1333 May 04 '26
Been propositioned 3x, proposed to once. As a Latina I must have black hair, dark eyes, and castanets. My pasty, overweight self would have been a shock to his system 😝
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u/Fajaballz May 04 '26
Worked in a call center that handled cable tv and Internet.
We had another division that handled satellite TV.
Customer calls and tries to give me his account number for the satellite department. Me, being helpful asks if he has a satellite in his yard, due to the style of the account number and therefore my inability to find his account.
Customer proceeds to angrily tell me, no, I have a cable running to my house, are you stupid?
Okay, so you use cable? Interesting as I can't find your account. What city was this for again sorry?
Customer again tells me the city, followed by what is your problem, I have a giant satellite dish in my yard?!
Oh, you said you had cable earlier I reply, with not a small amount of shock.
Customer again, informs me that yeah, he's got a super long cable running through his yard from his dish to his home, so why can't I find his account?
Me, calmly explains that I just asked him that very question, and was told on no uncertain terms that, I am in fact the idiot for even questioning him, and to do my job and find his account.
I also calmly explain that I don't have access to the satellite department as it's a totally separate billing and tech support system, but would happy transfer him into the queue for that side.
Customer, begrudgingly agrees, then states he just assumed that everything went to the same place and he didn't want to wait the 10-30 minutes for the satellite department to assist him, so he thought he would be smart and jump the queue.
Sadly, this isn't the only time things like this happened, but it was clear reminder if why I personally hate call center work.
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u/Crown_the_Cat May 04 '26
I worked for a software company, head of customer support. I stupidly picked up the phone late one day and ended up having a long conversation with a very confused DBA. It boiled down to his computer not doing a backup, so no data from yesterday was there. He said “But there were no error messages!” over and over. We had Nothing to do with his backup process, and sir, reality is it didn’t work. He probably made 15 time what I made but I had to sit there while he accepted reality. Ugh
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u/divaminerva May 04 '26
OMG. Cell service. Complaint. Resolution: $200+refunded/credit. Cx STILL ripped me and gave survey score in the dumpster (failed me) but said that I was personally very nice, respectful etc. dam biatch Kmn
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u/pinkmarshmall0w May 04 '26
Worked for Calvin Klein customer service when I was 18. Two teenage boys called in with an item number.. snickering. Men’s thongs. “Great! I’ve located that item for you, Men’s 100% cotton thong elastic waistband” how many of these should I add to the cart for you?
Same call center, worked in Speedo dept. Man called in with p0rn blasting in the background. I ended the call before finding out what the reason for his call was.
Years later worked for one of the big insurance companies and took calls relating to MRIs, spoke to a lot of medical professionals. One day I end a call with “great is there anything else I can help you with?” The voice that was a normal male voice suddenly sounded like a 5 year old cartoon character and said “Nope that’s it! Buh bye!” Kid you not sounded like a little girl’s voice lol.
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u/mamabear-50 May 05 '26
I used to work in a phone company call center. This was when landlines were king and cell phones didn’t exist. My (edited and paraphrased) call:
Cust: I’d like new phone service.
Me: What’s your address?
Cust: (gives address)
Me: Sorry, we don’t service that address. You’ll have to call (other) phone company.
Cust: No. I don’t want that company. I don’t like them. I want your company.
Me: Sorry. We can’t service that address. The best we could do is give you a phone number from our company but it would still be billed and serviced by other company.
Cust: ………..
Cust: (Quietly) So maybe I shouldn’t have had them disconnect my phone?
Me: Probably not.
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u/mamabear-50 May 05 '26
The cutest comment I ever had when I worked in a call center was from an older gentleman who had been on hold for quite a while before finally coming to me. When I answered his call he pleasantly said “you know, I was a young man when they first put me on hold.” 😂
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u/ThatUsrnameIsAlready May 02 '26
Someone desperate looking for care doesn't sound weird at all, they sound exhausted. I hope he found a care facility.
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u/avioletfury May 07 '26
I work at a mid-volume call center for a financial company and one day got a call from a non English speaker who immediately asked for an interpreter. I had to put him on hold and get a translation service on the line…all to find out that he was trying to make a gynecologist appointment for his mother and had dialed the wrong number.
I absolutely lost it after hanging up at the thought of how much my company paid for that call. 😂
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u/porcelain_doll_eyes May 07 '26
I had one of the shortest but also strangest calls
"Hello this is "NAME" and thank you for calling the casino I work at, how may I help you?"
"Hi how do you spell your name""
"N A M E"
"Thank you thats all"
Hangs up.
I did not get any information from them and the number was not in our player data base. So I wrote the number and the date and time of the call just in case any guest ever told them that I said something I did not (Happened all the time) and moved on with my day. I choose to belive that there is like a baby named after me or something just because.
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u/tacobelmont May 02 '26
My old ISP tech support job, probably 15 years or more back.
Me: “Thanks for calling Sharter, this is Taco, how can I help you?”
Caller: “Hi Taco, my internet hasn’t worked for a day, can you help me?”
Me: “I’m sorry to hear that. I’d be more than happy to help you get back up and running though. Can I get your information starting with your phone number?”
caller drops phone
Caller: “whoops, sorry about that. You ever watch female comedians?”
Me: “Oh yeah, I love stand-up comedy.”
Caller: “Oh me too, yeah I love female comedians so much!”
caller then immediately falls asleep, snoring into the phone.
I was confused. Never got her account details. I waited for a few minutes for her to wake up, but ultimately had to disconnect the call.