Customer demands refund for 20 minutes of internet downtime caused by their own mistake, customer service rep maliciously complies: '[That's] a little under 2 cents an hour'

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Brad Dickson • Managing Editor
Aug 13, 2024 10:00 AM EDT

Dealing with an endless stream of customer complaints is no way to live your life... Repeatedly pushing that boulder of someone else's problems up to the tip of the hill only for it to roll down again every time the ungrateful person on the other end of the line hangs up. The futility and thanklessness of your efforts is only rewarded by statistics on a screen that you hope are high enough to keep your micromanaging supervisor off your back.  

Of course, the beauricratic inertia that customers face from some organizations does nothing to help their attitude when calling in for assistance, leading them to "forget" that the initial mistake was their own and that there's an actual person on the other end of the line.

When this customer demanded that they be refunded for 20 minutes of lost time doomscrolling online when their internet went down due to their own error, the call center rep who they were connected with saw a chance to grant them exactly what they wanted and have a little fun while they were at it.

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  • 01
    "You want a refund for your own mistake? No problem."
    via Marília Castelli
  • 02
    You want a refund for your own mistake? No problem M This is a story I recently heard from a friend of mine, who works in a telecommunications company's call center. Conversation is not word-for-word, but it gets the point across. Also, English is not my first language, please be patient with any errors. Anyway, on to the story!
    via u/beerbellybegone
  • 03
    A customer called in to say that their mobile data internet had stopped working about 15 minutes ago. Some very simple troubleshooting discovered that this person (herein, Caller) had accidentally turned off their mobile data in the settings menu. Simple mistake, no harm no foul, and 99/100 of the times the customer will say "Great, that was quick, thanks!". Not this guy. This guy decided that since he was internet-less for almost 20 minutes, he deserved compensation. Even worse was that this gu
    via u/beerbellybegone
  • 04
    Friend: "Sir, as this error was of your own making and not a problem with the phone's firmware, software or our own mobile networks, as a general rule we won't offer any compensation in such cases. However, given your long time as a client of the company (he was a customer for less than a year, on the cheapest plan, so not a loss), I'm willing to meet you in the middle and provide you a 50% recompense of your bill for the time you were without internet service, even though, once again, it was no
    via u/beerbellybegone
  • 05
    Friend: "You currently pay (the local equivalent of) €39.99/month for 3 phone services: calls, text and mobile data. Since your calls and text worked just fine, and the internet was the only problem, let's divide your bill into thirds and look at the part that wasn't working. That comes out to a total of €13.33/ month. Then, we'll divide again by 30 days, which means you are paying €0.45 each day for mobile data. Your data was turned off for 20 minutes, but in order to ensure that you leave this
    via u/beerbellybegone
  • 06
    darkenedgy A refund for 20 self-inflicted minutes. That's impressively entitled.
    via u/beerbellybegone
  • 07
    ofcbrooks He should have refrained from rounding up that last hour and credited the account for .3 cents and told him that after two more service outages of 20 minutes in the future, he would give him the entire penny.
    via u/beerbellybegone
  • 08
    Agravicvoid Loses internet access for 20/43,200 minutes In his billing cycle, demands compensation for a mistake on he made on his own device? Glad it turned out the way it did! "your refund is $0.01. Please allow 7-14 business days to see the completed transaction" LOL
    via u/beerbellybegone
  • 09
    memymomeddit I worked in a call center for a fledgling internet company back in 1997 and got a similar call about someone's phone line being down for an hour and they wanted a refund of their internet service for that time. Bear in mind, these were the days of $19.99/mo unlimited internet service. So rather than go round and round with them, I just apologized and promised them a statement credit for the time their service was out. It worked out to 2.68 cents, and I was feeling generous that day,
    via u/beerbellybegone
  • 10
    avillegasjr As someone involved with cellphone carrier call centres for 12+ years this is pretty common when dealing with these kinds of customers. Usually I would be semi- generous and throw in $5 but if things escalate and you get the right supervisor this can be right in their playbook.
    via u/beerbellybegone

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