'Mostly I just laugh and wave at the screen': Tech support employee shares ridiculous customer stories from the call center trenches

Author image for Isabella Penn
Isabella Penn
May 6, 2024 12:00 PM EDT

Working at a call center that deals with computer support can be pretty tough. You get calls from all sorts of people throughout the day, and this employee has the stories to prove it. Once a customer gets transferred from customer support to him, his job in tech support allows him to access a customer's computer remotely to provide assistance on whatever they need. The guy who does this job has seen it all - from older customers who took 40 minutes just to set up a Gmail account to entitled customers who think they can fix the problem themselves, even while they're on a call with tech support. Can you imagine tapping into a stranger's laptop and the kinds of things you might accidentally stumble upon? It's a challenging job, to say the least, having to deal with frustrated customers who just want their computers to be up and running again. Keep scrolling below to read about some of the most ridiculous calls he's had while on the job. And if you want to read about other employee insights on the job, check out this next: 25+ Employees share what their job doesn't allow them to tell customers: 'Black Friday sales are not really sales.'

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  • 01
    CUSTOMER CALLS, ASK FOR ACTIVATION NUMBER I CAN'T GIVE YOU THAT, MY COMPUTER WAS STOLEN." made on ju
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    I honestly don't know what this woman was thinking we were going to be able to do. I told her that she needed to call the police and she huffed at me for a bit and hung up.
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    TRY TO DOWNLOAD MS OFFICE FOR A CUSTOMER "WHATEVER YOU JUST INSTALLED ON MY COMPUTER, REMOVE IT, NOW!" made on LP
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    Holy this woman. Her ticket said that she needed microsoft office installed, McAfee installed, "and a few other problems." Well, I asked her what the "other problems" might be because the phone tech did a crappy job documenting the ticket. She flips out
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    and says she's going to call our phones back because she doesn't remember what her issues are and they should have been written down. Okay. Whatever. I figure I may as well get office installed while I wait. I start the
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    download and she starts trying to wrench control of the mouse from me. I eventually relent, and she starts yelling at me for putting programs on her computer without her permission. "I did NOT give you permission to download anything onto my computer. Remove it.
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    NOW." At this point, I'm getting mad and want to end the session, but I politely explain that I was just downloading office. She says she had a disk and that's how it should be installed. I
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    apologized and said I assumed she needed it downloaded, since that's what most of our customers need done. She accused me of stereotyping her and ended the session.
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  • 09
    OUR 3RD PARTY SOLUTIONS DON'T WORK, DIRECT THEM TO THE PRODUCT'S MANFUACTURER "I THOUGHT YOU GUYS SUPPORTED EVERYTHING/THANKS FOR NOTHING!" made on imgur
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    I swear, this happens every single time. There are things in my company we aren't allowed to support. Most non- Microsoft programs can't be supported beyond uninstalling and reinstalling them. We can't support websites.
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    Sometimes there are hardware issues with the computer that we obviously can't handle remotely. Customers freak out. "Won't they charge me?" Yeah, probably, but we can't help you with that either. "Thanks for nothing!" they'll say, ending the session. Mostly I laugh and wave at the screen, because it's very likely that means that customer won't be coming back.
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    "CAN YOU CALL ME?" INSTANT BARRAGE OF PROFANITY AND INSULTS made on imgur
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    I am a computer tech. I have access to a phone, but I'm not required to use it. I don't have to interact with customers beyond a chat box, and it's wonderful. Until they ask for a phone call, that is. If they ask for a call, we have to give them one, and it instantly results in the
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  • 14
    tech swearing at their computer. We don't want to talk to these people. They're dumb. They're usually We can solve their problems in five minutes if they'll just let us work. A lot of techs mute the phone while they're talking to swear at the customers, too.
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    "WHAT SEEMS TO BE YOUR ISSUE?" GIVES ME THEIR LIFE STORY made on imgur
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    We aren't allowed to do stuff on a customer's computer while they're typing, and these people seem to think we want to deal with their anecdotes and life stories. I know how to solve a malware infection. I don't need to know what sites you only go to and how you've never had this happen before.
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    TWO OLD LADIES NEED HELP SETTING UP AN EMAIL ACCOUNT TAKES THEM 40 MINUTES TO FILL OUT THE INFORMATION GMAIL NEEDS made on imgur
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    This was my last session of the day, and I just wanted to go home. These were two old ladies that lived together or something, I'm not clear on the details, but one used the other's computer and email for everything. When she got her own computer, she wanted to get her own email. I took them to the page
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    where you fill out your information to sign up for a gmail account and it took them 40 minutes to do it. They asked me for help getting all of her email redirected to the new account afterwards. Fortunately, that qualifies as supporting another website (or so my lead said), and I told them that they'd have to contact the individual sites sending the emails for help with that.
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    4 "CAN YOU PLEASE OPEN AN INTERNET BROWSER FOR ME?" "A WHAT?" made on ingur
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    Being tech support for QVC, we naturally deal with a LOT of older folks. Some of these people are on their first computers. A lot of them don't know literally anything about computers. When the computer techs are asked to pick up calls to take pressure off of the phone techs, we have to deal with these people sometimes. Holy a nightmare. is it
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    DISCUSSING MUTUAL FRIEND WITH COWORKER ACCIDENTALLY START A RUMOR THAT A CUSTOMER DIED made on imgur
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    I had worked with one of my coworkers at a previous job before we both moved to this company, and we were discussing that job one day. The conversation turned to one of our friends from the old job, specifically some of his excuses for calling in. He faked sick a few times, but I mentioned
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    that, "He did have valid reasons sometimes. I mean, 'my grandpa died' is a pretty good excuse." Well, around this time, we had a very annoying repeat customer whose name rhymed with 'my grandpa.' I came in the next day to hear people talking about how they heard that customer had died.
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customer service call center tech support employee job funny stories work client it Office workplace information technology
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