The other day I had something happen to me at work that caused me to lose faith in a large portion of the population. For those of you who have followed my blog through the last few months, or anyone who has navigated around it, you'll know I work as a Customer Service Rep in a call center. Not exactly a prime place to find the worlds best and brightest to begin with, but I digress.



My direct colleagues and I already have an air of superiority to begin with since we are a specialty department and always assume the other reps are airheads since they can't seem to understand what we do and do not do, but sometimes something happens that even the people outside of my department or even my company will just put their hand up to their forehead and think, "What the hell was that guy thinking?" Here are a few.



I work in the Fraud department, customer has a concern with charges on their account, transfer them to me, simple right? If only you knew.



Me: "Fraud department, this is Troy"

CSR: "Oh great, did I reach the fraud department?"

Me: "Sure did"

CSR: "Awesome, and who am I speaking with?"

Me: "Troy"

CSR then proceeds to explain the call to me, letting me know what I will be doing when the caller comes through to me.

CSR: "And now before I transfer them through, how would you like to be introduced?"

*Facepalm*



The best part about that lovely exchange is that the rep is not from India, that wonderful human is from our own USofA. Take pride Americans, take pride.



Not to be outdone, our buddies in India like to follow up with this little gem:



Me: "Fraud department, this is Troy"

India: "Excuse me, Charlie?"

Me: "Troy"

India: "Ok Charlie, this is the situation..."

*explains*

India: "Alright, and you're name was Charlie?"

Me: "No, Troy"

India: "Oh I'm sorry, let me introduce the caller"

India: "Caller, Thank you for holding, I have Charlie on the line to better assist you"

*Facepalm*



Here's a good universal one that never ceases to amaze me, fear for your accounts ladies and gents, fear for them.



Me: "Fraud department, this is Troy"

CSR: "Hi Troy, this is soandso, I have a caller on the line who has fraud on their account"

Me: "Ok, I'll be glad to assist, how did you identify the caller?"

CSR: "I didn't"

*This is the fraud department, we actually would like to STOP fraud, not encourage it, thanks*

*Facepalm*



To wrap it all up, I would like to stress the importance of situational awareness, know whats going on before you open your trap, this goes for anyone, even not in the customer service field. If I get done introducing a caller to you who was just had their identity stolen and abused by a family member, DO NOT start the call with, "Hi ma'am, my name is Steve, how are you doing today?"



The threat to America isn't terrorism, it's our own stupidity.