‘I swore... He burst out laughing’: Call center employee uses extra colorful language with a customer, ends up getting thanked for it

Author image for Elna McHilderson
Elna McHilderson • Managing Editor
Jan 27, 2025 10:00 AM EST

When dealing with difficult customers at work, you are trained to stay professional. There are many paths you can take when you encounter a customer who is now making you the reason for every issues to possibly occur. It is difficult to keep your cool and stick to your training when someone is berating you for things that are out of your control. You can do all the breathing exercises in the world, but sometimes a person *coughKARENcough* can just push you to your limits. We are only human, after all—some customers seem to forget that. 

 

Sometimes you lose it on that kind of entitled customer, but sometimes you just through caution to the wind and go with your gut. In the case of this call center employee, he decided the best thing to do was to start getting very colorful with his language. But not in the way you would think! He wasn't using that kind of language as a weapon to insult his difficult customer, he was using it to actually comfort him. We know, we know, that sounds crazy. How does swearing at a customer make the customer feel more comfortable? Everything will be explained below. 

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    via Unsplash+ (and semenay erdoğan)

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

     

    This particular call center employee was designated to get the credit card information of participating customers. When he asked them to recite the digits, he would also stop the recording and let the customer know that the recoding has no ended and his CC info was not being recorded. But, some customers aren't so trustworthy. 

     

    In this situation, the customer paused and skeptically wondered how he could actually believe that the recording was turned off. So the employee said some words he wouldn't ever dare say, as a professional, while the call is being recorded… The customer loved it! 

  • "I swore at a customer and he thanked me!"

    We have since updated our system so you enter your credit card details through the keypad of your phone so we don't hear your cc details and they don't get recorded, but back when this happened, we just paused the recording and had them tell us the details and we would enter them on their behalf.
    via Mrkayne
  • This customer called to update his credit card details for his direct debit, as he recently had to cancel the card due to it being fraudulently used.
    via Mrkayne
  • So when I advised that "the call recording has now been paused, could I please have your cc details?", he was very hesitant and asked "well how do I know that you have actually paused the recording?"
    via Mrkayne
  • Cheezburger Image 10458675712
    via Unsplash+ (and Agustin Farias)

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • "hit, Luck, unt, Mother ucker... I wouldn't dare say that if the call was still being recorded".
    via Mrkayne
  • He burst out laughing and said "thank you, that actually convinced me!"
    via Mrkayne
  • nitrojuga That's one thing I've never understood about the idiots calling in. "Are you sure you work for xyz? Yes? Ok here's my info". Like if I was a scammer I'd literally just tell you a lie to get your info.
    via nitrojuga
  • Mrkayne OP I've had to call customers who have understandably been skeptical and I suggested they find our number and call back and ask for me, only for them to ask for the best number to call lol I've had to patiently explain that if they are concerned about me being a scammer, that maybe they shouldn't ask me for the number, because if I'm a scammer I won't be giving them the right number..
    via Mrkayne
  • Cheezburger Image 10458684928
    via Unsplash+ (and Jordan González)

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • Ginaccc I used to have an online biz and people would say, I don't trust the website, so I wanted to call and give you the number over the phone. Okay. I'd open the website and plug it in cause that was the only way to run the card. But now you've given me your card number lol thx... I mean I never did anything with it but it would have been way safer to just use the site
    via Giinaccc
  • knatehaul I worked for a bank call center and loved people that would balk at verification steps. I would be literally looking at their full name, address, account numbers, driver's license info, social security number, etc etc, and they'd throw a fit at me thinking I was asking so I could steal their identity. It also funny thinking that they went through multiple IVR menus only to get to me, a "scammer" trying to steal their money.
    via knatehaul
  • Frequent-Monitor226 I loved the calls where'd they go "How do I know you're not a scammer." "Sir. You called me. But you can just hang up and call the telephone number on the back of your credit card." "... Okay my social is blah blah blah" like seriously? Or my other is them going "well... what's your social?" Sir. I'm not calling in about my card declining.
    via Frequent-Monitor226
  • Cheezburger Image 10458685184
    via Unsplash+ (and Karolina Grabowska)

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • Dirty-draft When I worked in a call centre which X number of calls were listened over every month at random, they caught me out using language that was not the greatest. Somehow I always got away with it by stating it was in context with the conversation due to my laidback way I am pretty casual and they knew I was one of the best at that job. I left for better pastures but went back for a bit after a marriage separation to new people wondering how I ended up in a higher (sideways) position stra
    via Dirty-draft
  • that it was fine as it kept me sane. They never knew I was in a much higher pressured job that required skills that they would never have without years of training. I always when I wanted out, I had a role back in my job I had left tomorrow as stated when I missed a different opportunity. I was not quite ready so stayed a little longer. Fast forward a month and not getting yet another position stated I can just leave and go back to what I was doing. Got called out and then handed my notice in th
    via Dirty-draft
  • Will never forget the very last call I took there ever. The language was terrible but still within context of the conversation. How many can say that they have been offered to give a random lady if they were ever in the town I lived at due to the help received for an internet issue? I know I can.
    via Dirty-draft

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