In my continued 5 part series of Funniest Call Center Stories… In American society, invariably you’ve contacted a call center filled wall-to-wall with customer service representatives (CSRs) And for twenty years, I was a call center rat in some capacity. In some of those call centers, I rose through the ranks to be promoted to title of supervisor. Not only did we manage the workers, but we took escalated calls. The following is part 4 of 5 posts based on the humorous call center stories I have to share.
Funniest Call Center Stories: Part IV – April Fool’s!
This story is back in my AAA Days. Ironically, in 2018, April Fool’s Day falls on Easter too. Every once in awhile, a mischievous streak runs through me like a momentary Loki.
One of my desk configurations at AAA was 4 cubicles with the drop hole for the cables in the center and all the persons faced each other. Earlier that same year (1998) I read about a practical joke of someone unplugging the keyboard and plugging their own keyboard to “hijack” the controls. A female co-worker that had recently started was sweet and seated in the same workstation area.
It became apparent to me she was quite gullible therefore an easy target for my April Fool’s joke. As I said, every once in awhile a mischievous streak hits me. So for a week I studied her computer mannerisms, and learned her passwords for the applications we used at AAA.
Finally, it was April 1st!
I arrived to work a grip earlier to set up my trap. I unplugged her keyboard, and mouse, and then slyly plugged in mine. I grabbed a cup of coffee, returned to work station and waited.
My co-worker arrived on time, and plopped down in her office chair.
Time to begin. I was smiling so damn badly I could barely contain my laughter. I mimicked her every move because I’ve studied them. She did the same thing every morning. She would sign into the network, click on MS Outlook for her emails, and then she would open the reservation application.
I moved her monitor enough of an angle that I could spy it.
Then I deployed the madness! I opened email after email before she could read it. She was utterly confused. She clicked with her mouse several times. Then smash the Enter key on her keyboard.
Then she finally asked me, “Um, Carlos? Is there anything weird going on with your computer?”
Barely stifling my laughter, “No, X, I’m just fine over here. What’s going on?”
“Um, like,” she pauses. “Nothing.”
I opened MS Word, with a new document. Then I started typing. “Ouch! Quit that! It hurts.” I watched her whip her head around, no one is witnessing this.”
I continued typing, “Do not ask for any help. In order for you to gain control of your computer again, you’ll need to stand on your chair, and say this sentence out loud. I AM WE TODD ED, SOFA KING WE TODD ED.”
Yes, I realize that 20 years later this was cruel, and discriminatory, but I am recounting what actually happened.
As gullible as she was, she climbed up on to her chair and desk, and started shouting out the sentence in the middle of relatively quite call center. My supervisor, Carter, walked up to investigate why one of his employees is shouting at 8 o’clock in the morning.
I couldn’t contain myself any longer and burst out laughing. He saw the girl, knew me and stated calmly, “X, please sit down.” He walked over to her computer, unplugged my peripherals, re-plugged in hers, and growled at me. “My office, NOW!”
My laughter quickly dissipated as I walked behind Carter. As you can image, he read me the riot act on bullying, respect, and morality of just because you can do something, doesn’t mean you should.
As you can imagine, she didn’t trust me for the remaining time she and I had together. I would relive that moment every once in awhile, and an impish grin would crawl onto my face. She would be instantly pissed all over again.
Are you a grip of a prankster? Do you like to celebrate April Fool’s with a grand joke? What is your Funniest Call Center Stories?
Be good like you should, and if you can’t be good, be good at what you do!
Mic drop *bOoM*
‘los; out
What Easter Means to Me: As An Adult vs A Kid
