September 3

A lot of morons have poured through the lines since the last posts, but there are just too many encounters to detail, especially when I'm so pressed for time. Bascially, I'm dealing with the same kind of people detailed below--the type who insist on the answers they want instead of the answers they get--but I'd like to briefly list some of the stupidity I'm experiencing just today. Although, with regards to people insisting on answers they want, it occurs to me that maybe these people are more selfish and stubborn than stupid, and that's what drives this insanity I put up with. But... that would just make them stupid, wouldn't it? A wise person would never label themselves as selfish and stubborn. Anyway:

-In between the caller speaking 4-5 sentences, I was barely able to finish even 1 sentence in response as she kept rudely cutting me off. I couldn't even finish the thought of wishing her a good day at the end of the call.

-A customer interrupted me in the middle of asking his mother's maiden name, which I obviously didn't hear because I was still asking the question.

-I had a situation similar to the one mentioned in a previous entry, where a woman was asked her year of birth for security and she kept giving her husband's. There must have been 8 or 9 different exchanges where she would keep giving me her husband's year of birth when I made it explicitly clear I only needed hers. It eventually dawned on her: "Oooooohhhh, so you just need my year of birth!" No fucking shit, Sherlock.

-More insanely rude people talking over me and not letting me finish my sentences (sentences which are answers they themselves are asking for).

-This one comes up all the time: people with education and doctorates who are so smugly confident with how intelligent they are, and yet they can never seem to grasp the most basic concepts. One of these kind of people said he had just spoken with someone and asked to add people to his account, and then make his wife a manager. However, since he couldn't provide her social security number the process could not be completed at the time, so he was advised to call back when he had her info. He was calling back now because he wanted to make sure we only add the people to his account, and not fully make his wife a manager because he wouldn't have her social for another week. I told him it's okay, the people were added to the card but the application for his wife was never finalized since he didn't have the social.
After taking a deep breath, he spoke more slowly this time, though only to reiaterate the question I just answered. He said he wants to make sure we don't go through with adding his wife, just the other people, so I told him that was already the case, just as he was told in the original call he made. It took 2 or 3 more rounds before he finally caught on, and hung up after thanking me for my time.

-Here's one that comes up a many times a day, and today has not been any different: if a caller has a fear that something they did or are going to do will have a negative impact on their account and I tell them there is nothing to worry about, they respond by explaining to me at length why they were so fearful. I remind them, again, that there is nothing to be fearful about because everything is okay. "Oh, ok," they say, "because I was worried if..." and they go on saying the same thing yet again. I tell them once more that everything is okay, I back it up with logic and proof, and yet once more they explain to me why they had their fears ("...and I just wanted to make sure nothing would happen to the account, because I always pay on time, and I'm going to be traveling, and I need my card, and I don't think my balance is more than allowed, and I didn't know if I was going to be able..." etc.). It always varies how little or how many times we have to go back and forth and back and forth, but the gist is the same, and every idiot eventually lets what I've repeatedly said sink in before they hang up. Are you starting to see a pattern here with the repetition?