Update: 'By the end of the day, they will not have an IT company': Nightmare client orders IT company to deliver 'any email addressed to me'

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Jan 12, 2024 3:00 PM EST

Be careful what you wish for… I'm sure this IT company's client was really regretful about the can of worms he opened. 

It helps to have a good sense of humor in the workplace, and it's especially useful while dealing with clients. Clients can be unpredictable. Some want to be completely hands-off, and let the firm they hired handle everything. They'll just be yes-men about any project as long as things are going well. Others want to be more involved and will ask for frequent updates. Then there are people who are just impossible to work with, like the dude in this poor IT workers' story. 

The client called up and he was upset that he wasn't getting his emails. That happens to us all from time to time, and it is a frustrating experience. When you're waiting on a time-sensitive email, and you've checked for it in every folder, you start to get impatient. In a world where lots of digital actions happen immediately, like sending a text, some emails still take a minute to travel to the other side of the interwebs. 

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  • Check out this excellent malicious compliance story with numerous updates below. 

    After that check out this fast-food worker who agreed not to cook anything until their manager said so…and then a rush of customers entered. 

  • 01
    Jews Mail 2 Fa BE NEW BBC Ne
    via Brett Jordan on Unsplash
  • 02
    You want "every email that's addressed to you" to arrive at your inbox? You got it, pal.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 03
    Just happened, my bosses and I are still laughing. We are a small IT company. We manage quite a few clients, though. This one gentleman and one of our busier client sites says that he's tired of being told his emails never arrived to him. We look it up and yes, a couple of legit emails got tangled up in the spam filter. No big deal, we whitelist the sender and release the message.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 04
    No, not good enough for this guy. He calls back screaming. "I ORDER YOU TO LET ANY EMAIL ADDRESSED TO ME COME TO MY INBOX". I advise him that I'm going to have to transfer him to IT security and he's going to have to, on a recorded line, say he understands and accepts responsibility for yadda yadda yadda.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 05
    See, I did that because these guys get thousands of spam emails a day. A while back, several folks (this guy included) decided to give their email address and password to some unsavory website. Then did it again. And again. And again. So now they get easily 15-20+ messages an hour to the entire organization.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 06
    So he accepts, saying he just wants all his emails to go to him. We allow all messages to him to bypass the spam filter. Three hours later, he has over 100 new emails. And they keep coming in. He calls back, furious, asking why his spam filter isn't working. "Sir, you asked that all emails addressed to you arrive at your inbox."
    via u/[deleted]
  • 07
    UPDATE: So right around 4:45pm today, he's calling our office and the call gets routed to me since I own the ticket. He's livid. Shouting so loud my co-workers on the opposite side of the room can hear him. "WHATEVER YOU DID TO MY EMAIL I WANT IT PUT BACK TO THE WAY IT WAS! YOU F*CKED UP MY EMAIL AND NOW I CAN'T GET ANY WORK DONE BECAUSE MY STUPID NOTIFICATIONS ARE GOING OFF EVERY SECOND!"
    via u/[deleted]
  • 08
    I calmly reply "Absolutely. I'll go ahead and turn your spam filtering back on and all these emails will stop." "GOOD! ITS WHAT YOU SHOULD HAVE DONE IN THE FIRST PLACE!" At the end of it all, nothing changed, and he's happy. God I love IT work.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 09
    FINAL EDIT: I had to. I logged into our system this morning from home and listened to the recording. It's glorious. Here's the highlights: Security: So [OP] tells me you're looking to turn off the spam filter? Client: I don't even get spam. I'm paying you people for something I don't need.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 10
    Security: It's not an added cost, but you're not getting spam because you have a spam filter. If you turn that off, you're going to get flooded with spam emails. Client: I don't care. I've given you guys an order, and I expect it to be done. Security: I just need you to be aware that without the spam filter, you're open to getting every spam email that comes to you, some of which may be malicious and could open you up
    via u/[deleted]
  • 11
    to viruses, malware, and all sorts of software that could compromise your entire network. By going against our suggestions, you understand that [Our Company] cannot be held liable for any malicious software that makes it on to your network, infects any of your systems, or causes any system downtime and that you are claiming sole responsibility for that. Do you understand this?
    via u/[deleted]
  • 12
    Client: Yeah, whatever. Just get it done so I can get off this call. Security: Sir, I really need to reiterate how much we cannot recommend this action, you're going to get-- Client: I DON'T CARE, DO WHAT I TELL YOU. Security: Ok, I'll have [OP] remove you from the default spam rule, and you'll start receiving any email sent to you. Again, it's going to be a lot. The spam filter actually does catch a lot of spam.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 13
    Client: I. DON'T. CARE. JUST DO IT. Security: Ok then. Thank you. Have a good day. Click
    via u/[deleted]
  • 14
    FOR REALS LAST EDIT: I talked with Security this morning. This guy has a history with us. Apparently he's been told numerous times that if he "calls our employees 'delinquent or any other form of verbal abuse" then the company will be offboarded immediately. Oh, these previous tickets with him are juicy.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 15
    EDIT AGAIN BECAUSE PROMISES ARE A POINTLESSLY EASY SOCIAL CONTRACT TO BREAK: WE'RE OFFBOARDING THE COMPANY! Apparently when he called back to talk to security about the whole thing, he called the tech a very inflammatory Immediate offboarding. By the end of the day, they will not have an IT company. Holy J this is huge!
    via u/[deleted]
  • 16
    THE ACTUAL FINAL EDIT: Well, it's been a crazy day, folks. We offboarded the company despite the CEO (not the CFO, which was who this was) calling and asking us to reconsider. The CEO of my company told their CEO that these kinds of things are covered in our service agreement which the CFO had violated on numerous occasions and our complaints had gone unaddressed. We are providing EXTREMELY limited service to them for a total of thirty days
    via u/[deleted]
  • 17
    while they find a new IT company, after which we will send over all our notes and configs and wish them the best of luck. I'm glad we all could share in this little adventure, and I hope we can all do it again sometime. In the meantime, thanks for the rewards, the karma, and the comments that had me laughing. Goodnight everyone.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 18
    smellykaka A few years back, our spam filter was accidentally disabled for a few hours. Customer complaints that the spam filter isn't any good dropped off to almost nothing for a while after that.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 19
    billbot Anyone who thinks that OP should be fired needs to know one simple truth. You are the person your IT team hates.
    via u/billbot
  • 20
    r_u_dinkleberg EDIT: To the few of you who have (and the many more that will, seeing as how this picked up a little more steam than I was expecting) commented saying I should be fired... WHAT?!?!?!
    via u/r_u_dinkleberg
  • 21
    This CLIENT should be fired! Are you all insane?
    via u/r_u_dinkleberg
  • 22
    My thoughts exactly. The client was demanding something he shouldn't have been denanding, and was told multiple times he wouldn't like the result. What's the recourse here? Exactly what OP did.
    via u/r/MaliciousCompliance

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