First time poster here, I worked in a call center for a major cell phone company about a decade ago now. We were tech support for a very specific brand of fruity phones for this company, back when they were doing a huge change over from 3G to 4G towers.

I say that, because at least 70% of my calls for the first six months I worked there were related to this changeover, and how towers would be down in a whole area for two, three, or even four weeks sometimes. But occasionally, we still got calls about how to actually fix a phone.

So I get a call, and I do my whole spiel. Thank you for calling cell carrier's fruit tech support, this is Morrighan1129, how can I help you today?

"My f*cking phone isn't working, and you better fix it."

So already, we're off to a great start. But it's cool, I get it, I'd be annoyed too if my thing wasn't working was the mindset I tried to take. So I do my whole, "Oh, I'm sorry to hear that, sir, what seems to be the problem?"

"Are you deaf? I just said my goddamn phone isn't goddamn working!"

While internally sighing, I keep my best customer service voice on. "I did hear you say that, sir, but there's a lot of things that could be wrong. Is it not turning on? Is it not connecting to the wifi? A specific app that isn't working? Will it not let you make calls? I need to know the nature of the issue so I can walk you through steps to fix it."

"It's not working!" He barks, in the same tone of voice someone would use to accuse me of using their front porch as a bathroom.

"I understand that, sir, but I need to know what specifically isn't working. Is the phone on right now?"

"Obviously it's on right now! I'm talking to you on it!" he bellows.

"Oh. Well, is there anyway I could call you back on a different phone? We won't be able to do any troubleshooting on it, if you're talking to me on it," I say, putting a light laugh in my voice, because otherwise I get accused of calling them dumb.

"No! You can't call me back! I'm not sitting around all day waiting for you to call me back, I just need you to fix my f*ing phone!"

"It wouldn't be all day, sir, I'd call you back two minutes after I ended this call. But otherwise it's going to be very hard to identify the problem and get it fixed if you're talking on it," I say, struggling like Hercules to keep my inner voice of 'duh you idiot' from coming out.

"No! You're not calling me back! You people are all the same, none of you will help me with anything! My phone isn't working and nobody will fix it!" Except with a lot more cussing, insults, and so on, before he finally just hung up the call.

So I'm wrapping up my notes on the call, making sure to notate both the abusive language, and the fact that he wouldn't even tell me what was wrong with the phone, much less start to try and fix it... And not only do I see that there's four other calls over the past two days, but I haven't even saved my notes into the system yet, when I see another agent logs into his account and starts writing their notes.

Like... I can't help you if I don't know what the problem is, and I definitely can't help you if we're talking on the phone I'm supposed to be fixing.

It isn’t every rude caller. Most the time they’re just mad and stupid. But some callers are so negative and nasty and quick to anger that it sucks the life out of me.

I just had a call like that and I’m having a hard time recovering. I work at a law firm and this horrible woman called already yelling because it’s somehow my fault she can’t get ahold of her legal team for one day. Literally don’t even know how to describe it but she had me so anxious I feel like I could puke rn.

I don’t feel that way after every bad call. Something about this woman just drained me. What a horrible way to be. Like seriously.

Ive been trapped in one of the layers of hell called call centres for 8 years i have a law degree and have been desperately applying for two years straight looking for some kind of alternative work to do i haven’t heard back not even once I’m getting increasingly sad miserable suicidal even and it’s got me at my wits end i dont now what to do anymore I’m soo stressed and miserable im getting sick with mysterious illnesses all the time my life and youth is being robbed from me and i really see no end in sight i dont know what more to do so i write a thread hoping someone out there can vent with me

I can’t stress how annoying it is for custs to get angry and be mad when they get charged for services they signed up for and never bother to call in or go online to cxl and still act surprised to get charged for it. I mean I’ve had calls where custs will call about charges from 2 years ago stating that they never wanted it anymore or they no longer lived there… all of our calls are recorded and we have notes…why did it take you almost 2-3 years later to see that you were getting charged hundreds of dollars and just now demanding a refund?! I don’t make a lot of money myself but I check by bank statements almost every day..I fr can’t fathom how that don’t realize hundreds of dollars are being deducted from their accounts each year….

I once had a call with a very angry customer from the U.S. who was upset about the company’s service. He took his frustration out on me, and when he noticed my Colombian accent, he said:

"If you don't fix my problem, I'll make sure they stop paying you in your rations of beans and lentils!"

I couldn’t help but laugh internally at how absurd and stereotypical his comment was. Imagine thinking Colombians get paid in lentils and beans! 😂

Most of my negative experiences in this job have been with U.S. customers, but this one really stuck out. Do you guys have similar stories with ridiculous stereotypes or angry callers?

I have a question, does anybody know how to get a job in a call centre for one of the craft companies? You know like Michaels, Joanne’s or Mary Maxim. I live in Nova Scotia. I thought if I’m going to work at a call centre, it might as well be something I know about.🤷‍♀️

I’ve had to deal with the same absolute asshole twice today. He rudely insisted I call him back in a week, specifically in the evening, and I took great pleasure telling him I don’t make my own schedule and will call him when I’m able. He does not have to know I already have my schedule and know I could accommodate an evening call. But he wasn’t nice enough to get what he wants from me. It’s small, but it’s the only power I have, and I will fucking wield it.

Don’t get me wrong I’m very grateful for landing a job in BPO and this work paid a lot of my shit that i own now but sometimes i couldn’t help but to think that do i really need to endure this kind of mental torture every day. Every shift feels like hell, everyday is like a big examination day and you are being judge nonstop with your performance. It is mentally and physically draining especially managing the net promoter score. The fvck who the hell created this monster of a survey ?? Hahahahaha. I feel like this is their way to prevent agents from hitting those bonuses.surveys are usually for the company not really directed to the agents. Most agent would do anything just to secure that good survey but at the end customer would just rate the agent 10 but 0 for the company and get this they do not care if these customers rate you 10 as long as the companies rating is 0 gurlll??? Expect that it will still be taken against you! Hahaahahhahaa fvck this system!! Fvck these entitled clients whose demanding good feedback but their product sucks and company itself sucks!!!

I change small details here and there so posts hopefully won't trace back to me. If some details don't add up, that's why! For the sake of this post, I'll say that the call center I worked in dealt with financial planning.

I worked there when the company was new, and management still cared about the clients and customer service. They have since been bought up by a corporation that thinks people don't really want their questions answered; they want to be called Madam Smith, or Mister Blake: titles of respect triumph over customer service, right?!

I digress.

Back in those good, early days, a potential client called and wanted a referral to a financial planner. He said he was very easy going and simply wanted someone competent. He didn't care about fancy titles, or extensive credentials in an email signature.

"But no Jews," he said firmly.

This was not covered in my employee training manual.

"Excuse me?" I asked, my mind slowly clearing from the shock as I debated "accidentally" disconnecting the call.

"I said no Jews," the caller said. "You can't trust them."

At this point, one of my supervisors speedwalked toward me. Apparently, I had been one of the randomly selected employees whose calls were being monitored for quality assurance.

"Tell them you'll transfer them to a manager and put them on hold," my supervisor said.

I did so, but said, "This is wrong."

"I'll take care of it," my supervisor said, picking up the handset on my phone as my respect for him took a dive.

"Hello, sir? This is [supervisor's name]. I'm a manager at [employer]. I hear you're looking for a financial planner?" He listened to the caller, repeating, "Right, but no one who is Jewish. Understood. It sounds like you won't be a good fit for our company."

And then he hung up.

"That's how you deal with assholes," he said, adding, "I mean, get one of us to tell them."

Amazingly, that guy called back! The same supervisor repeated that we don't work with bigots, then gave the rest of us permission to just hang up should he call again.

I work in a call center for an electric utility company. I know, not exactly the most popular company to work for at this time of the year. Or in the summer. Or when your power goes out. Or when…. You get it. We help people set up new service, close their old services, report issues with electricity, discuss billing and payment issues, and more.

One particular person called to discuss a bill that was considered high. Which happens quite frequently during the winter months and the hotter summer months. We went over this with him and discussed the amount of power used during the month. We then discussed December bills in the prior years and the amount charged and the amount of power used was similar to this bill in question. The conclusion that was reached was that the power company does not read the meter for his bills in the winter. At the very least for December.

I wish I could tell people someone doesn’t do their job properly so that the constant complaints are well deserved. A company may admit that as often as an angry customer admits wrong doing on their own end. That’s a soap box for another time.

Why is it that people feel the need to call to bitch and scream at someone until their faces are blue? With the reaction we are met with it was as if the issue they were calling about was that someone walked up to that person to slap them in the face, tell them that their dog had been stolen and now they have been diagnosed with intermittent explosive disorder.

Of course, that’s not to downplay whatever the issue is that they’re calling for. Depending on where you work whoever is reading this, it very well could be a life and death situation. Or at the very least a threat to someone’s livelihood. Of course that would make someone’s emotions to run rampant. Anyone can understand and relate to situations such as this and we are all glad to help in any way we can, even if it’s not very much we’re able to do.

That being said, the need to curse, belittle, berate, and blame the individual talking to you for your own issue is over the top of what not to do. It’s easy to take out your frustrations on someone that works for the company you are currently hating with all your might. At least that solved some much needed stress relief on your own end.

That also being said, we, the employees don’t know you and we are only getting a small glimpse into your life, however long it takes to solve this particular issue. The flip side of that is true too. You do not know us, either. There is always the non 0% chance that you just so happen to say the wrong thing to the wrong person on the wrong day. Then all of a sudden, guess who knows where you live? Who knows more personal information on you than you realize? The reason you just chewed out with the fury of someone who may have also been having a bad day themselves. That person could also have some demons they’re wrestling and may not be able to control.

Be thankful that at the very least the people show restraint due to that person would rather not go to jail and get sued for retaliation for someone being more rude than they should be. That we show more maturity than you’ve shown in the last few minutes. We’ve given you more consideration because we also know what it may be like to have a bad day.

Anyway, something to consider when calling to unload on someone that is likely not involved with the situation you’re in. My rant is over. Peace out.

Been working in a call center for a couple years now and stats would go towards one score as a team, this has since been changed since announcing a merger, so now we are using stacked ranking. It has been a few weeks and it's already evident that people are doing everything they can to get the highest stats, even if this includes not taking breaks properly in order to meet in our adherence stat. I've asked the team for tips on boosting stats and nobody answers me. It wasn't like this before when we would all work together so everyone's stats would be high as a team. The company pushes collaboration and making employees compete against each other rather than compete against teams/departments doesn't really seem to support that.

I've been working from home as a contractor for FEMA for 6 months & recently the call volume has been stupid low (at least on our helpline side, registration intake is still very active) so there have been talks about our contracts ending in the near future. It's been cool, and I feel like it's a great resume booster. But I have 0 effing clue what to do now.

I've been a licensed cosmetologist for almost 6 years, and for the previous 5, that's all I've done. This job is my first outside that field. I decided to try & pivot into more administration positions due to a fall in clientele + realizing I'm not super passionate about it anymore.

Now that this contract is about to end, I'm kind of at a loss of where to go. Nowhere seems to be hiring & I don't want to take a pay cut when I'm making almost $21/hr. Going back to school feels impossible too.

Anyone who's experienced something similar I am OPEN to any advice

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.

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.

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?”

“Shit, Fuck, Cunt, Mother Fucker… I wouldn’t dare say that if the call was still being recorded”.

He burst out laughing and said “thank you, that actually convinced me!”

I've been working in a call center for nearly 2 months now and I feel like it has absolutely messed with my mental health. I dread taking calls and I feel like it's bleeding into my life outside work.

I work in a call center that is partnered with dozens upon dozens of credit unions across Canada.

The majority of the callers are always either pissed at me over something I have no control over or have no understanding of the complete basics of modern systems and technology that makes it super difficult to even explain the most basic things to people (as most people calling are 60-80). Not to mention there is absolutely no pause at all. It's straight from one call to the next with no ability to even breathe.

Anybody know any good genesys hacks for avoiding calls, besides refreshing as that ones risky and pulls from adherence

I work for an LOA company is all ill say but im getting tired of the onslaught of people calling with the same self explanatory questions

Hi, I just wanna ask for some of your advices becozzzzz huhu I am newly hired CCA and to my surprise I was Assigned to The account of AT&T. And many from my friends who experienced handling that Account wished me luck. Should I be afraid? What are the things that I should prepare?

I would love to read your comments ❣️

I am the customer service department for a small company. Just me on chat, email and phone. Most of our customers are amazing, but they are testing me today lol

Customer A: I want to place an order.

Me: ok, what would you like?

Customer: I want super limited edition item available for 2 weeks or less every April.

Me: explains its not available and we can email when ready.

Customer: well the owner told me he would email and he sent me one yesterday that it's ready now.

It was me that told him 2 weeks ago that it wasn't available until April and we'd let him know. Owner sent a newsletter this week with just a general update on what we're up to. No mention of this product. Customer proceeds to argue with me about the products availability. Gets mad that we're flip flopping.

Customer B: I want to place a large order, is the sale from November still happening? (We had a store wide sale for all of November and multiple category sales in December).

Me: We aren't having any sales this month, what are you wanting to order?

Customer: 2 items and its a lot of money.

Me: Item 1 won't be on sale again until probably March. Item 2 is usually only on sale in November/December

Customer: Well it was on sale for black Friday, why isn't it on sale now?

Me (in my head lol) it was on sale for almost 2 months, every sale email we sent has an expiration shown. Why didn't you order when you knew it was on sale?

Customer C: your website says free shipping. But when I get to checkout it show a shipping charge.

Me: what are you trying to order?

Customer: 2 items

Me: that's odd. That order does ship for free unless you are shipping to Alaska or Hawaii. Then it's a $13 flat rate charge and it ships priority (note our cost to ship to AK and HI is double or more. This order would cost us $50 to ship)

Customer then argues with me that it should be free because it will ship flat rate priority. Refuses to accept that it costs us more to ship to AK because those items would never ship flat rate to a state in the lower 48. Doesn't agree that we shouldn't have to eat the $50 shipping charge entirely when we are willing to offer free shipping on orders that cost us $15-$25 with UPS. I ended up just telling him I can't make an exception and he hung up on me.

Can't wait for 5pm to roll around today.

I LOVE wfh (although im trying to get into any proper career I can, suggestions for something that doesn’t need a degree or experience?) but I HATE being stuck to my computer. It’s torture. The company I work for doesn’t even give laptops so I can’t even sit anywhere else at home. Is it just me or is it inhumane to expect someone to be stuck to a desk even all day even with two breaks and lunch. I wish I had a professional remote job so I could actually take a nap, sit in the sun, take a walk, especially on a rough day. It’s easy work but pays crap, has no future and I HATE having to be ‘on’ constantly. I know this this Amazon treatment but it’s still messed up. The best thing about this job is wfh.

Finally - I have an interview outside of the call center realm. I've only been here for six months or so but I feel like I'm going to die. I try and go the extra mile to help folks out, and management tells me I need to keep my calls short and snappy even though I meet and exceed my numbers every single day.

Anyway, here's the question - how do I frame this job in an interview? Are there any buzzwords I can use that make it seem better than it is? Any phrases, examples, etc. that you've seen have worked?

Thanks a million!

You cannot make this shit up.

Caller comes in hot because they got pulled over and now have a ticket and a possible license suspension due to not having insurance on their vehicle (policy was canceled 3 months ago).

I tell him that I can look into what happened and the first thing I see is that he missed 3 payments in a row because his automatic payments are using a credit card that expired, we send multiple e-mails and letters 4 months before the card expires btw as a heads up that their card is expiring even if it isn't a credit/debit card through us.

Maybe I am the weird one but how the fuck do these absolute idiots not notice that they just have 300 dollars extra on their bank acc. every month for 6 months.

After telling this guy that his policy is canceled and no we are not reinstating him until he pays what he owes + a possible downpayment due to not keeping up with his payments because it is his responsibility to make sure his card information is up to date he demands to speak with a manager because they did not consent to having their policy canceled.

To quote the escalations team person that took the call over "what the fuck is with these idiots this week".

i work for a 24 hour emergency veterinary practice in a very wealthy area, clients can act very entitled & can get quite nasty when you can't give them what they want. a lot of the clients are upset/distraught, angry, emotional, etc. i don't know how much more of this i can take, it is emotionally draining but my only option is to wfh for this company. do you guys ever feel like you are giving out free therapy sessions?! why does it seem like half the people i talk to are lonely/chatty or need to get into therapy? why do people open up so easily & don't have a filter!? people say way too much, give too much information to me that i don't need nor want to hear. anyone here work for a medical office & can relate!?

I have been working in a call center, selling Medicare Advantage plans for about one year now. The job is basically just 8 hours of outbound calling all day, every day. At first, I didn't really mind it, but now I feel like I'm getting really burned out and starting to really dislike my job.

I would say that I make anywhere from 200-300 outbound calls a day. Most people that I get on the phone are angry elderly people who are tired of all the spam calls they are getting. I really want to switch to a different industry because I feel like I am not even developing as a salesperson all that much. Most of the sales on our floor come from calling elderly people who are very confused about insurance and therefore it's pretty easy to sell them. The job also has a very call center like environment where everything we do is measure. Our handle time, break time, availability and a bunch of other micromanaging stuff.

This is my first ever sales job and I don't know if this is how all sales jobs are or if I just need to find a better job in a different industry. I do really want to pursue a long term career in sales but for some reason Medicare is just not something I'm interested in at all. Am I just lazy, a bad salesperson, or is my job really not all that great? Thanks for all the advice!

So has any of you guys ever transferred back anyone to the automatic voice response? When I was working as a CSR way back, we weren't allowed to transfer a customer to someone else in the same department unless there was a really good reason for it like an emergency or if you misclicked and got into a call before the shift's started. For instance techies weren't allowed to transfer to another techie, but they could transfer to delivery and so on.

I've had my shares of customers (B2C) demanding to speak to another representative because they didn't like the answer they were given. Do you remember when you were a kid and your dad said no, so you went to your mom instead? Yeah, like that but obviously they don't want to call in again because of the laziness or queueing time.

I haven't done this myself. On the other hand, I have given customers the choice to either stick with me or get transferred into the VR. It was essentially a threat.

Come on, give me some tales from your call centres!

I'm a newbie to working at call centres. Recently resigned from my position on the phones.

One of the problems I had at the job was how any deviation from the script was criticised harshly and may even result in termination . Is this common or were the folks I worked with just extra nitpicky?

Please let me know, I'm confused.

I used to work B2B customer support. It was great. Now I work retail. It's not that great but customers are funny and annoying af. Currently I just answer simple questions and transfer calls.Here are the best lines I have heard in three months.

"Good evening Sir. This is customer name. Could you please connect me to the customer deception department?". Dude was extremely eloquent and polite.

" -This is N-T-KYS speaking , how may I be of assistance? -(Old angry dude voice)If you don't refund my 20€ RIGHT NOW , I am going to the nearest store to cut the dicks of every employee and then shove them down their throats"

"-This is N-T-KYS speaking , how may I be of assistance?

-(Young woman voice)Uhmm , hi. I am calling to let you know that some racial slur kids with knives are slashing the tires of the cars at your parking in store A"

-Maam, you should probably call the police, not the call center.

-I am not calling the police IT'S YOUR STORE."

"-This is N-T-KYS speaking , how may I be of assistance?

-(Old dude voice)Evening . I bought a wood stove. It is supposed to be used for outside spaces however I used it to heat my bedroom. Now there is a lot of smoke and I have a headache. Is this supposed to happen? Can I speak with a technician?

-Sir, please turn it off, open the window and call an ambulance.

-I DON'T NEED AN AMBULANCE, I NEED A TECHNICIAN TO FIX THIS SHIT

-Transfering you right now sir.

"-This is N-T-KYS speaking , how may I be of assistance?

-(Desperate middle aged man)Thank God Almighty, finally, I am actually speaking to a man. I want an estimate on when my order will be delivered and those b!tches are constantly transferring me.

-I am sorry Sir but my colleagues were right to transfer you, only the delivery department knows about this.

-Please don't abandon me with those harlots

-immediately transfers client"

"-This is N-T-KYS speaking , how may I be of assistance? -(regular dude)Hello, we are at store X at the tools section. No one has come to aid us for about 7 minutes. Why?

-Sir, this is the C.C, I am unaware of what is happening at the store.

-Idgaf about that , call the store and tell them to send someone over RIGHT NOW

-Unfortunately, I am not allowed to contact the store. Why don't you head to the next section and ask for someone to assist you?

-Because I don't want to. I am hanging up know. If someone doesn't come within 5 minutes, all hell will break loose and it is going to be your fault.

"-This is N-T-KYS speaking , how may I be of assistance? -(Young dude)Hi, are you hiring right now?

-If you are interested in employment, I would suggest to mail your resume to .....

-I don't know how to write an e-mail.

-That's ok. There is a form that you can fill on our website.

-Can't you just schedule an appointment at the store and let me know?

-Unfortunately I can't do that.

-Fine I will fill the form. How long does it take to reply to candidates?

-Well, the HR has to screen you first..

-Hold on a moment, what is HR?

-briefly explains what HR is

-You know what, this shit is too complicated, I don't want to work for you anymore. "

I've never worked in a call center with this kind of "scoresheet" elements before. I find it crazy anal.

What do you guys think??

Deduct points if agent sounded interested and helpful and composed BUT seemed nervous or unsure, or lost control of the call at some point.

Deduct points if she regularly used a specific word more than 3 times during the interaction. Regularly means that a specific word is overused to the point of distraction. Examples of unacceptable words but not limited to, are:

thanks, Ok, np, sure, Um, right, alright, np, no worries, K, mmmmmm and backup words as: so, well.

I get a call from a customer with a heavy accent and he’s from a place where women are practically second class citizens.

When I speak he speaks over me to ask a question I’m in the middle of answering. At some point I ask him to verify his age when licensed and I don’t know what came over him but he began raising his voice. This was my last call of the day so before I could stop I yelled back (there was neck an attitude all through my voice)“OOoooO!!’ WHO ARE YOU YELLING AT?!”

He went silent and then in quiet voice said “…what?”

Me: “Why are you yelling at me??”

He seemed so surprised but kept his tone civil for the rest of the call. When I hung up my heart was pounding.

You call us asking for help with something. Then you start talking over us, we start to answer you and then you talk over us again, we answer a question and you come back with more, and then more, and don’t let us get a word in edgewise. WHY CALL US IF YOU WONT SHUT UP FOR A SECOND??? Geez.

End of rant for today

Decided to add something more casual to my blog section, and I thought I could share this one here.

Customer service can be a rollercoaster—some days are quiet, and others surprise you with memorable conversations. One such call I handled during my time as a customer service agent for a Belgian ISP took almost 30 minutes and left me grinning afterward. It started with a hesitant question about our TV channel lineup and gradually veered off into a full-on chat about technology, subtitles, and why Nickelodeon might be the greatest channel ever. The caller, an older gentleman between 65 and 75, had an endearing mix of curiosity, nostalgia, and blunt honesty. Calls like this didn’t just make the day interesting—they made the job worthwhile.

Here’s a closer look at how our conversation unfolded:

Customer: (Hesitantly)"Uh, hello… I have a bit of a question. It’s just that… well, I noticed something recently… You’ve, um… reduced your selection of… gay channels."

Me: "Okay, I see. Could you tell me a bit more about what you mean?"

Customer: "Well, you used to have more of them. There were a few that I watched quite regularly… They had great documentaries, you know."

(I wasn’t expecting that! Of all the things people usually call about, I didn’t think the missing “documentaries” would be one of them.)

Me: "Ah, I see what you mean. Sometimes we adjust our channel selection based on ratings and viewership. It could be that those channels didn’t have enough viewers, which might explain why they were removed."

Customer: (Sounding genuinely puzzled) "But surely I’m not the only gay customer you have. There must be others! What do other gay people do?"

(At this point, I had to suppress a chuckle. He sounded so earnest, like he thought there was a secret club he hadn’t been invited to.)

Me: "Well, these days, a lot of people tend to use the internet for that kind of content. It’s more on-demand, you know, so people can watch whatever they want whenever they want."

Customer: "Oh! The internet, huh? That’s actually good news. My brother’s been giving me lessons on how to use the computer. He says it’s important that I keep up with the times. I’ll have to try that."

(I couldn’t help but smile. He sounded genuinely excited—like he was about to embark on an adventure through cyberspace.)

Customer: "You know, while we’re talking about it… I really miss Teletext. Do you remember Teletext?"

Me: "Yeah, I do! It used to be pretty handy for quick info, right?"

Customer: "Exactly! I used it for subtitles because my hearing isn’t so great. Now that Teletext is gone, I have to rely on your subtitles, but they’re way too small—I can’t read them properly without straining."

Me: "That’s understandable. Unfortunately, most providers have stopped supporting Teletext. As for the subtitles, they’re designed to be unobtrusive, but I get how that can be a problem if the text isn’t large enough to read comfortably."

Customer: "Hmm… It’s a shame, really. Teletext was so convenient. And another thing—I never understood why Flemish channels don’t just dub foreign shows like the Germans do. It would make things a lot easier for people like me! That’s why I love Nickelodeon—they dub everything. I can just sit back and listen without having to read those tiny subtitles."

Me: (Laughing a little) "Yeah, Nickelodeon’s great for that. But generally speaking, Flemish audiences prefer subtitles. Dubbing isn’t as popular here—it’s more of a cultural thing."

Customer: "Well, they should reconsider! Not everyone has great hearing or good eyesight anymore. Watching dubbed shows would be so much easier for us older folks."

Me: "That’s a good point. I’ll definitely pass that feedback along. It’s something worth considering for accessibility."

Customer: "Thanks, that would be great. You’ve been very helpful. And hey, if I do figure out how to use the internet properly, maybe I won’t miss those channels so much after all!"

Me: "Once you get the hang of it, I think you’ll find there’s a lot to explore. You might even like it better—you’ll have more control over what you watch."

Customer: (Chuckling)"That sounds promising. But first, I’ll have to survive my brother’s lessons. He’s a bit of a know-it-all, and I’m… well, I’m not the fastest learner anymore."

Me: (Smiling)"Take your time with it—there’s no rush. And if you have any questions about your services, feel free to call us again!"

Customer: "Thanks, I will. You have a good day now!"

Me: "You too!"

The call left me smiling for the rest of the day. What started as a routine inquiry turned into a lighthearted 30-minute chat about everything from documentaries and Teletext to family dynamics and online adventures. Calls like these reminded me why I enjoyed working in customer service—it wasn’t just about solving problems; it was about connecting with people, sharing a laugh, and sometimes even making someone’s day a little better.