I find it hilarious when customers try to force you to do things you clearly can't or aren't authorized to do, using lines like, "Have I called the right place?" just to guilt trip you or make you feel inadequate.

Whenever they ask, "Is this the right place? Should I call somewhere else? I thought this was xyz place," I never give a straight yes or no, i refuse to give them any control, i just repeat what I've told them a million times already, sometimes I might throw in a cheeky, "You might have entered the wrong number, we don't do that here."

They know they called the right number, they just want to push their luck and see if they can get away with it.

Also, their new favorite tactic is, "I'm not sure if you can help me with this, you probably can't, but..." and then they proceed to drop the craziest request ever. If you think I probably can't help, mf, why did you dial my extension?

JUST PAY THE SERVICE FEE.

once it gets to the 20 minute mark and you still haven't figured out how to change your password and you refuse to let me do the change for the fee, i'm going to advise you get someone else to help you IRL and disconnect the call. i don't care.

you not knowing how to register for the online account and taking so long to get your one time codes that the page times out is NOT MY FAULT. you not knowing how to access your emails while you're on the call is NOT MY FAULT.

just pay the damn fee.

Does anybody ever experience this??! It drives me nuts, they will call in, i say my name and company, and then they ask for a call back. Or if it’s about something they’re looking into I have to say I’ll them over with somebody who can talk with them more about it, and then they said that can’t talk right now. Okay. So why did you call me? I get when I’m outbound dialing but WHY when YOU called ME lol

Basically, I read a lot of stories on here about call centers having a rule that says the staff can’t hang up, or you have to give warnings before disconnecting etc

As a manager, can you override that and let your staff hang up in the knowledge that you’ll protect them from a complaint, or does it come from above and you have to also enforce the rules?

Sorry if it’s a strange question - I’m just intrigued about how much management can change under their discretion, if they have any

Ok so we all have our own lists of who the worst types of cusotmers are, but honestly even in mine the one i missed was the worst... that is the Sealion...

Sounds badass but these assholes are the biggest pieces of shit you could ever get. For those who don't know Sealins are people who use a tactic call Sealioning: Sealioning is a bad-faith tactic where a person relentlessly demands explanations, definitions, justifications, or proof for basic or already-settled points all while pretending to be completely polite and reasonable, for customers it's usually under the pretense of "I’m just trying to understand".

Their ultimate goal is often to provoke the staff member into a moment of human frustration or snapping, which the sealion will then instantly use as leverage to demand find a loophole they can argue, get free compensation, or getting the employee in trouble knowing full well we can't do SHIT because our idiot QA teams always insist on "you don't know they were bad faith questions" even though it's obvious as hell, and we HAVE to answer their asinine questions over and over because they are "not being abusive"... even though what they are doing is actually emotional abuse and harassment.

They are WORSE than karens or standard abusive asshole because, lets be honst, in one way or another you CAN get rid of them without getting dicked up the ass by some prick QA agent who has no frame of reference... Sealions you can't get rid of them, NOTHING will stop their endless questions.....

They are the literal WORST people....

anyways rant over

Is when they ask me for the phone number THEY JUST DIALED.

Dude, you called me. You have the number somehow somewhere. Move the phone away from your jaw and it's probably glowing brightly in front of your goofy face!

I swear some customers just want to play 20 questions and waste my time! I'm just gonna start giving phone numbers to Dominos or Papa John's, I'm so tired of this question. Or maybe I'll put them on hold for 10 minutes while I "look it up". Hot damn, this stupid ass question always gets me heated.

What stupid questions send you through the roof?

It used to be worse and ive gotten used to it, but i still cant relax and i am short of breath.

The call sound coming in, no warning, no countdown until the phone answers and i have to jump into corporate mode, no way to see my place in the queue. Its a minor jumpscare every single time.

Even when its extremely slow and its a great day, i am on edge because i dont know what ill hear the beep. Its different from other customer facing jobs because there were at least a few seconds while i waited for the customer coming to the counter or approaching their house or smthn. Also, i can never expect if theyre going to be angry automatically. at my old job, the customers were happy to see me. At my current one, these are people going through rough situations, so they arent exactly happy to call me. I get that but it puts me on edge not knowing if the next caller will be normal or someone yelling at me.

My supervisor also had me revise the script bcs it wasnt "natural sounding" enough which threw me off and lowered my metrics a ton so now, i am constantly worried abt remembering the new script. the new script is way more unnatural and awkward also.

It wouldnt be too bad if I had to be perfect when i get a call. With old jobs, a customer came up and expected me to be profssional but also have a pulse. This job, i have to be careful to not yawn if the phone picks up or not to shift in my chair or not to clear my throat or type too audibly anything. Even typing makes me nervous bcs the keyboard that the company gives is loud as hell and i got in trouble for that.

Even on easier days, which are getting fewer and fewer ofc, I feel physically tense bcs i know its coming any second and I have to be perfect every time

I work for a major internet company. Everyone is nice and helpful. I got hired with a handful of others and they are great as well. But the work itself is insufferable.

Getting cussed out on a daily basis, screamed at, hearing them rant about politics, trauma dumping and treating me like their therapist, being told to die and fuck off because the wifi is down and they cant watch YouTube or their PS5 is lagging. My disdain for people has grown. Everytime I leave the house I imagine the people I see as potential callers and it makes me not want to interact with anyone. I won't even get started on the 50,000 stats we have to adhere by.

I am dealing with the loss and grief of my father, a break up, and a very bad roommate situation, and this past Thursday my very first call was a typical karen going off about her wifi being down. She was in an outage and wouldn't accept that answer and started screaming at me and I just lost it. Everything I am going through built up and I jumped up from my desk and started crying. I tried to excuse myself to the bathroom, but unfortunately I was seen by several people including several from management and of course they rushed to me to see what happened. I appreciate all of the support and care and hugs I received after telling them all I have been going through, but the support doesn't make the calls more bearable. And even though they asked, I feel like I trauma dumped on them and greatly over-shared and its left me feeling humiliated and unprofessional.

I feel like a loser because this is the best paying job I have ever had. I just got out of 4 years of retail and thought this was it for me. A new chapter after my streak of bad luck. A desk job with no heavy lifting, no more sore body in the morning, etc. The benefits are amazing and the people once again are lovely, but I just cant do it. If I am not getting cussed out or passive aggressive remarks slung at me, then I am stuck on a 1 hour call with an elder who won't listen and cant work a freaking toaster if I guided them step by step. My anxiety is through the roof. Even if the call is nice I shake. Had a woman start off nice and ended up being one of the meanest calls, so I feel no call is safe now.

The day I broke down, I called my mom and told her I was going to quit and she heavily dissaproved despite everything I told her. Thats the only reason I didnt just drive off that day. But I cant do it anymore. I get one more check and I can cover November's bills, but after that I have nothing. But this job just isn't worth the mental agony on top of everything else. I am going in today to say my goodbyes to my fellow new hire class (wasnt planning on it, but they really held me down when I had my breakdown), and tomorrow I will email HR and resign and then mass apply to jobs. 3 others in my new hire group have already quit, so I am not alone, but it still feels embarrassing that I couldn't tough it out like everyone who stayed.

Ask them to verify their email/Date of birth=impossible

Survey saying 0 is bad and 5 is good=easy

My job ‘evolved’ and we were told that our new position involved some CC work, like an hour a day or so. Fast forward to a year and it’s full on CC work and the metrics are added gradually. If you are like me and not built for this type of work under these conditions then you must know how I feel daily. My mental health is in the toilet and getting deeper and deeper into crises territory. Taking calls from callers who think they need to give me their entire mental health diagnoses is not helping. I am at my wits end!

I work in a call centre for my local government customer service. People are absolutely crazy and horrible and nasty. I've hit a point now where I can't take it anymore. I'm having to manage people's mental health crises (I'm trained in missed bin collections and pot holes!!!!! Although people are also so nasty over these, you'd have no idea) and deal with suicidal/homicidal individuals. Had a particular call last week that resulted in police having to be called because someone was threatening to kill others, then 5 minutes later I was in the supermarket across the road buying stuff for dinner and no one in the shop knew what I had just dealt with.

I'm expected to just suppress it all and go about my life like nothing happened. I'm told to take my breaks, which I do, but it doesn't change the way I feel. I'm told to not take it personally, which is fine, but when you switch your brain and feelings off to not take anything personally for 4 years, you lose all feeling completely inside and outside of work.

I'm quite miserable and very anxious. But I also have no feelings and I'm really out of it. My memory is so bad I can't remember things and I feel like I can't focus. Even crossing the road requires all of my attention, I accidentally poured the just boiled kettle on my counter instead of the cup and it went all over my feet because I just have nothing going on in my head.

I called in sick and told my manager for the first time about my mental health today and they were shocked because I am good at acting like it's all ok. Called the mental health line because my GP wouldn't give me an appointment about mental health so now I've been referred for work support where I get 6 free sessions of counselling. Yay, I'll be cured.

I feel sick at the thought of going to work tomorrow but I feel more sick at the thought that I've actually brought this issue up and I wish I never said anything. They also want me to fill in this huge risk assessment and I just don't have the brain capacity for it. Have tried getting another job for 4 years. Not gone very well.

I honestly don’t even know what to do anymore. I’m living with clinical depression, and my current job in a call center is completely destroying my physical and mental health.

Over the last 5 months, we’ve gone through 4 different trainings, constant schedule shifts, process changes, and management swaps (3 TLs/OMs). On top of that, there’s practically no way to get PTO because of strict team quotas, daily abusive callers, and we are constantly monitored down to the second. You can’t even take basic bathroom breaks without pressure, and everything has to be done fast. and now management is adding forced extra work and mandatory RTO days as "punishment" for my metrics tanking while I was sick.

Every single morning when my alarm goes off, I experience severe anxiety. My entire body freezes up and I physically cannot bring myself to log in or move. I’m terrified out of my mind because I can’t afford to just quit, I need the money to survive but staying is pushing me to the absolute edge. Now, I’ve been out for 2 straight weeks. I can tell my leads are completely frustrated with my reasons, but work has been triggering my episodes so badly.

My metrics just tanked again, and instead of actually helping me, I know they’re going to punish me even more and try to passively drive me to quit.

I feel completely trapped, exhausted, and helpless. Has anyone else been in this exact spot where your body just shuts down from job trauma and depression? How did you survive or get out when you couldn't afford to just walk away?

Right now just waiting for a lot of admin stuff, paper work to go through but everything looks good so far. I only was given about 10 days because I don’t have a diagnosis right now so I’m making an appointment with a therapist to see where I am. And hopefully that can extend my leave and even be in short term disability.
I’m a little nervous about it all but i just need to take it day by day.
I had such a bad headache yesterday, I had gone to work a few hours then literally left. Then I did all this researching and was able to figure it out thankfully. I think the adrenaline really stayed with me cause I had such a hard time sleeping last night I was so anxious. I took a little nap and feeling a little better. I’m just grateful that I finally listen to myself. I think I suppressed a lot things these years working this job, I just want to feel normal again.
Wish me luck everyday, still very nervous.