Open Lines Heart attack caused by customer service call

[Debi]

http://www.myfoxny.com/story/29022386/woman-says

CHESAPEAKE, VA- A Virginia woman says she had a heart attack while talking to a Verizon Wireless customer service representative, and now she's suing.

Angela Hawkins is seeking more than $2 million.

She called Verizon wireless last November to get her $60 credit.

She says the call began in a "routine matter," but then, the rep began questioning her "in an aggressive manner."

The lawsuit says Hawkins was put on hold for 15 or 20 minutes.

After that, a manager got on the line and allegedly accused Hawkins of threatening his employees.

That's when the court records claim Hawkins "began experiencing physical distress, including tightness in her chest and difficulty breathing."

"He was under the impression that I had threatened to bring a gun to the call center and shoot every employee in the call center," Hawkins explained, "I was just blindsided. I mean, my heart sunk. I felt like I was in a whirlwind because what a horrible thing to accuse somebody of."

"I had had a heart attack. She didn't even want me to drive across the street to the hospital," Hawkins added.
"She's never had anything like this, and all of a sudden he went through this event and she had a heart attack, there's no question about it," Hawkins' attorney Jeffrey Brooke said, "She's about 4'10", so when they say she threatened someone, that's a little bit hard to believe."
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I have had calls to service centers that have had me throwing in an extra blood pressure pill! I hate dealing with these people, especially now that sooo many are not in this country. The rudeness is beyond belief! And I've even had a few try intimidation tactics. You guys have any fun times with people like this??

 

[Seahunter]

True story... My worst customer service experience was when the adjoining city was working on the sewer system in an easement through my property in Texas. I told them that while they had it dug up, that at night there were THOUSANDS of cockroaches coming up out of the sewer - I mean the ground was covered with them! I lived in one city, literally right on the line touching the next city. The other city is the one that was doing the project because the sewer line ran to their treatment plant. So, this guy started arguing with me that how did he know whether the cockroaches were from my city or his city! He said since they were in my city, they were my problem. My stand was that they were coming from their project being dug up, so the inundation with cockroaches was caused by their work and it didn't matter what the residency was of the darn bugs! They finally came out and sprayed once. Then when they were done, and had dug a huge trench through backyard about 100' long, they just put the dirt back, which had been grass, threw some seed down and called it good. That started a whole other battle to get them to sod it so I had grass again. I finally got them to do that too, but not without some fighting.

 

[Debi]

I've had two really bad rounds with reps in the last few years. One so bad that I actually had to open a bottle of wine afterwards just to calm down, and I'm not a drinker! That one was arguing with someone in India over cancelling a credit card I didn't want. There was NO balance on the card, and it was coming up for it's annual $30 membership fee. I called in advance, and this guy in India would NOT let me cancel it unless I paid the $30, which, he said, would then be REFUNDED to me after receipt! A half hour later of trying to get him to see the light, I was ready to have my own stroke and cross over into a different light! Finally won that one, but sheez!

The last one was recently. New modem overnighted to me by UPS was marked delivered to porch. Nope. No modem. I looked high and low, went down the road to the neighbors, and finally called and said it had been misdelivered. OH NO! sez they....you MUST be wrong. YOU'RE not looking in the right place? Someone must have taken it from your porch, sez they. I was livid. No...I live in the middle of nowhere, waaay back from the road, etc. etc. Yet, they still insisted, not their fault. On a hunch of intuition, I decided to go down to the road and check the mailbox. There it was. First, it's illegal for UPS to leave it in the mailbox. I called back and worked my way up the ranks to a supervisor, who then tells me, "Oh! Sometimes they leave it in the mailbox if there's snow or ice in the driveway! They mark it porch because we don't have a place to mark mailbox on the sheet they use!" There was no snow, lady....just one lazy driver! Never even got an apology!!!

 

[Debi]

True story... My worst customer service experience was when the adjoining city was working on the sewer system in an easement through my property in Texas. I told them that while they had it dug up, that at night there were THOUSANDS of cockroaches coming up out of the sewer - I mean the ground was covered with them! I lived in one city, literally right on the line touching the next city. The other city is the one that was doing the project because the sewer line ran to their treatment plant. So, this guy started arguing with me that how did he know whether the cockroaches were from my city or his city! He said since they were in my city, they were my problem. My stand was that they were coming from their project being dug up, so the inundation with cockroaches was caused by their work and it didn't matter what the residency was of the darn bugs! They finally came out and sprayed once. Then when they were done, and had dug a huge trench through backyard about 100' long, they just put the dirt back, which had been grass, threw some seed down and called it good. That started a whole other battle to get them to sod it so I had grass again. I finally got them to do that too, but not without some fighting.

Egads! That sounds horrible!!! Wasn't aware bugs had addresses!

 

[Seahunter]

Egads! That sounds horrible!!! Wasn't aware bugs had addresses!

All I know is they were Texas-sized cockroaches, and there were waaaay too many of them!

 

[surge]

I would rather pluck my eye lashes than deal with customer support, especially when English isn't their first language.

My most recent maddening encounter with CS was last summer, after we bought a Roku streaming stick for the bedroom TV. We got ready to watch something one night and it went into a reboot cycle. After a bit I figured out that the problem was a loose HDMI connector, and called Amazon. Since the device was still under manufacturer's warranty I was referred to Roku. That's when the fun started!

After dialing the number, I spent 15 or 20 minutes on hold, and when someone finally answered I was told his name was "Steve", except "Steve" had a very, very thick Indian accent. I had to have him repeat himself nearly every time he spoke because I couldn't understand anything he said.

I explained what the problem was, and that my Roku had a loose HDMI connector. Rather than believe that I might know what I was talking about (what with having physical access and all), I still had to go through all the trouble shooting steps that I'm sure "Steve" was reading right off his computer screen. After jumping through the appropriate hoops to prove that the stick wasn't functioning, I was finally told that my device was apparently broken and I should expect a prepaid envelope soon so I could exchange it for a new one!

Companies claim to care so much about their customers, yet they take all their CS jobs and ship them off to call centers in the middle of Mumbai, thereby making the experience as a customer infinitely worse, and taking jobs away from Americans who would be grateful to have them. If they truly cared about their customers, their call centers (at least the ones servicing Americans) would be located in this country and be staffed by American citizens.