Telemarketers Share Biggest Freakouts On The Job

From Redditor /u/former telemarketer:

Some people find certain situations funny, like when people claim calling is illegal and act so arrogant about it. I heard more funny stories than I was involved in. My favorite involved an older grandmother watching her grandchild. She was a salesperson, and mid-process, she asked me to wait. I said yes, then I waited.

I hear noise in the background, then she returns. "Okay, can we speed this up? I'm baking cookies with my grandson, and he spilled a gallon of milk on my slippers. He says sorry, but I know he doesn't."

This is followed by a small child's shriek after being insulted (he was only about 5), yelling, "I AM SORRYYYYYYYYYYYY."

The grandma says, "NO, YOU'RE NOT."

From Redditor /u/Relacuna:

I worked at a health insurance company, handling customer service for payments, plan changes, and other tasks.

A woman calls in. We ask for her member ID, name, date of birth, and zip code. She immediately yells that she lacked her ID because she never got her "f*cking ID cards." I go to the name and date of birth, but it does not appear in our system.

I try everything. I spell the name differently. I transpose numbers in her DOB to check if they were entered wrong. I try the whole thing.

Since we only offer insurance in a small part of the country, I ask for her state and zip code.

She then SCREAMS into the phone, distorting the call. I clearly hear "f*ck," "g*ddamn," and "c*nt," along with screaming sobs. This woman went NUCLEAR.

I try the second search, asking for the state and zip code again. This makes her lose control even more. She stops screaming and just YELLS at me that she hopes my mother raped me while they are raping her, then she hangs up.

My supervisor monitored that call live. He got her phone number. She called from a state we do not offer insurance in; she called the wrong company.

From Redditor /u/OhBother:

Once, a woman told me she did not know what I did to end up where I was in life. That comment hurt.

From Redditor /u/newm1070:

I worked at my university's phone center for three years calling alumni and parents, asking for donations. I liked it and performed well. I raised $50k last year for my school.

Rejection does not bother me. You are on the phone; you will likely never see them. So, forget them. This builds small-talk skills and made me more confident because I fear rejection less now. I approach guys at bars, hit on them, and do not worry about being turned down. I now work at a publishing company calling teachers, and those teachers are nicer. I still have some scary stories from my university phone center.

Telemarketers called me a f*ggot during small talk. They mentioned my involvement with the school's GSA [Gay-Straight Alliance] club, which apparently upset some donors.

It is a Catholic school, so I did not expect much. It hardened my skin, though, and I enjoyed it. Some girls I worked with left crying; some people are jerks. Remember, you talk to a person on the other end. Treat them like you would face-to-face. We just do our job and make calls.

Redditor /u/purpleautumnleaf:

My ex got a call from a telemarketer while in a bad mood. He shouted, "F*ck off, you c*nt," then hung up. Seconds later, the phone rang, and someone yelled, "F*ck you, too, sir!" and hung up.

Redditor /u/CMonte420:

The call I remember most was with a guy in Arkansas. No matter how many times I said I called about insurance, he kept saying, "I don't vote." He looked like he was in his late sixties or early seventies.

No matter how clear I explained why I called, he insisted my call involved politics. He attacked Barack Obama and the Democratic Party for thirty minutes. He was very racist. Though offensive, it was entertaining to hear. The guy was super passionate.

After he ranted for about an hour, I asked him, "If you care so much about the president and politics, why don't you vote?"

His reply was great. He stayed silent for ten seconds, then said, "Bars and liquor stores close on Election Day. I would not vote for any of these dirty f*ckers without being drunk as f*ck."

Touché, sir. Well said.

Redditor /u/OhBother:

I made calls for an environmental group in Berkeley, CA. As you can imagine, we got our share of complaints.

A guy said, "You just woke me up. I haven't smoked yet and need to poop. How do you think I am doing?"

Redditor /u/TheRecklessOne:

Worked in customer service for a bank.

Me: Can I get your account number and sort code, please?

Customer: My star card? What is that?

Me: No, no, the sort code.

Customer: I don't have a star card.

Me: Not a star card, the SORT CODE.

Customer: I JUST TOLD YOU I DON'T HAVE A STAR CARD.

Me: SOOORRRRRT COOOOODE.

Customer: Star code?

Me: SORT CODE!

Customer: I really don't understand what you're asking me for.

Me: S-O-R-T C-O-D-E

Customer: Sort code! Well, I think SOMEONE needs elocution lessons!

I'm pretty sure SOMEONE needed a hearing aid.

From Redditor /u/neureaucrat:

Updating TV packages and managing VOD services was part of my job. A lady called, asking me to reset her VOD password to "order some adult films." She was clearly getting pleasured during the call. Heavy breathing. Grunting. I did not lose control. It was quite funny.

From Redditor /u/crustyruffles:

I worked for a health insurance company. It was entry-level. I took calls all day, explaining benefits, answering claim questions, and helping people find doctors for their plan.

A woman called mid-day, asking why she got a $2,000 bill for a procedure. I checked everything and told her it was her deductible; the insurance company covered the rest of the bill.

She immediately lost it, crying and screaming. Her point was that her insurance should cover everything. This happens often. I began explaining her insurance covered over $9,000 for the service, but she still owed some money.

The hysterics increased. She wailed about losing her house because of this. She faces bankruptcy. Kidney stones caused this. I showed empathy and told her many places work with her for payment plans, some even offer more for lower incomes. I offered to call the hospital billing department to see what we could do... this went beyond company policy, but I wanted to help.

The woman calmed down a bit and asked if I had the same insurance as her. I told her I did.

She then told me she hoped I died before I used health insurance. People cussed me out like never before. I hung up.

After the call, I paused to gather my thoughts. I had been yelled at and called names before, but my mother came to mind. She finished radiation and chemo after a double mastectomy. She had over $300,000 in medical bills. She never complained about them; she just wanted to be better. She never called a stranger screaming a death wish, no matter how upset she was.

I quit after that. The call center's usual nonsense—bad management, impossible output goals, and a toxic peer environment—was enough. I applied for non-phone work at the company and left. Three years later, I have never returned to a call center and live a happier life.

From Redditor /u/Blargmode:

My boss demanded we call people on Fridays from 5:00 PM to 10:00 PM to conduct a 30-minute market survey. We argued we would only face yelling if we called during dinner time.
We spent five awful hours getting yelled at by angry people.

After the shift ended, our boss got angry about the few answers we got and yelled at us. That is when I quit.

From Redditor /u/SebboNL:

I moved to systems administration and support for a big Dutch TV production company. One day, a major outage hit our Citrix system, stopping the whole company.

All users understood, except one. A former paparazzo turned investigative journalist, famous for his amoral methods that made him a trendsetter, was annoyed by our poor performance in getting his team back online. Luckily, this happened on my shift.

After an hour of saying, "Yes, the cluster is down. We are working on it. Sorry!" and users expressing their frustration calmly, this jerk called me. His condescension turned to hostility in three seconds; that hostility turned into open abuse in another three seconds.

After being called a "hoerenjong," a "randdebiel," and a "stomme klootzak"; after my professionalism, ethics, intelligence, and background were questioned; and after my ears were assaulted, I called my boss. I told him I would not stay there any longer. But first, I looked up his cell number and posted it anonymously on an internet message board.

Since it took me three weeks to train my replacement, I did this every time he got fed up with random people calling him constantly. I asked for a new phone number.

From Redditor /u/ThePonzo:

I worked at a call center for Bertelsmann. That German mass media company sold cheap travel packages to seniors for trips to Egypt or Turkey, including expensive flights, hotels, and insurance.

I used the name "Stromberg" (the main guy on the German version of "The Office") on the phone because an elderly person found me in a phone book and called my mobile at 9 PM, spitting about the cancellation fee for his trip. (He did not buy the travel cancellation insurance.)The OfficeAn elderly person found me in a phone book and called my mobile at 9 PM, spitting fire in my ear about the cancellation fee for his booked vacation. (He did not book the travel cancellation insurance.)

Those Bertelsmann/Donauland people did not provide help for the elderly. One woman called after her trip and told me about Egypt locals shooting at the cruise ship with rifles "for fun." Bertelsmann sent the next group of elderly people onto the same cruise.

The poor quality on those cruises generated many reports of elders getting sick or having issues.

That'sOne of those flyers still makes me angry.

Redditor /u/boysvfood:

I worked an insurance call center. This call was my final straw.

Lady and her husband split years ago. They had a teenage daughter. By rule and because she was a big liability, she had to be on both parents' policies, even though she lived with her mother. The daughter was only on both policies after she had an accident in her dad's car. I guess the claim handling added the daughter to dad's account without discussion.

Years later, the daughter calls to pay on her mom's account but gives her own information. This pulled up dad's account. She paid on that without knowing.

The frantic mom called because her policy would lapse, even though her daughter paid on the wrong bill. The mom's ranting peaked when she seemed to ask me genuinely, "Do you ever listen to yourself talk?"

Redditor /u/Eggmcmuffington:

I worked call centers for several years. Now, I work for a Canadian telecom giant as a retention agent. Before that, I worked for a cable provider's Tampa queue. I handled billing, tech support, and sales—almost everything. Tech support was the worst part.

Floridians must be the most entitled and nasty people in the continental United States. If they were too dumb to figure things out, it was because of my incompetence.

An older man called me. He started a relentless tirade about my company's incompetence, ending with insults about my intelligence and my failure to fix his issue. I only said a greeting and my name.

When they had outbursts, my tactic was always silence. I stayed totally quiet. I did not mute myself; I stayed silent so they knew I was present but not speaking. After they finished, I let the silence stretch as long as I could before the expected, "Are you still there?" Then I calmly continued as if nothing happened. I refuse to validate the adult temper tantrum with a response.adult temper tantrumwith a response.

After explaining his issue and insulting me more, I laughed loudly on the phone, upsetting him further. Our system was so bad because his TV kept showing "DVD VIDEO INSERT DISK."

I told him repeatedly this issue stemmed from his TV input, not our system. He kept insulting me and calling me stupid.

We fixed his issue. He still insulted me afterward. I told him, "Next time, I hope you get somebody too stupid to help you, might make it easier to work with somebody more on your level. Have a great day!"

Quality never pulled calls longer than a few minutes. We could do whatever we wanted.

Redditor /u/OhBother.:

A guy next to me thought he called a radio show and won tickets to a band.

Redditor u/superhajime:

A Scottish woman called me a "bloody foreigner".

I am English.

Redditor u/monster_snow_goon:

I handled student loan collections for two miserable years at a major bank. That bank was very sh*tty.

The overlords up high decided we must call people late on their loans. Seventy-five percent of customers paid online already. Our dialing system missed this until the payment cleared, which took three business days.

I argued with someone I agreed with. I still had to defend the foolish decisions made by idiots I never meet. Every day, every hour, this was my life. After a heated fight with a woman, I broke down crying. I am a big guy, but I lost everything. I bawled, and snot came out.

My boss told me I needed to leave this job before I went crazy, even though I was her best rep. Months later, another argument made me say, "F*ck it," grab my things, and walk out. I never quit a job like that, but I needed out. It was probably the best choice I ever made.

I took a lower-paying job. Now, I need more money. The only places in my city that pay what I need and hire me are call centers. I am about to make a bad choice.

Redditor /u/wargassm13:

I lost control when I called to speak with Mr. Smith. An elderly lady answered. I asked, "Can I speak to Mr. Smith please?"

She answered, "No, my dear, but I wish you could. My husband died last week. We were married 55 years."

I choked up.