Some of the most funny, laugh out loud moments come from call center conversations. Have you ever been on the line with a customer service agent and thought, what is this person thinking? I thought it would be fun to document some of the funnier call center conversations so we can all have a good laugh or two:
I’ve shared this conversation before, but it ranks as perhaps one of the three funniest call center conversations I’ve heard to date. On a call w/an AirFrance agent located in the US call center the following conversation occurred:
Mary: Thank you for calling Air France Baggage Control, how can I help you.
Us: Mary, our bag didn’t make it to Bangkok with us. It’s in Paris and won’t arrive in Bangkok before we leave for Vietnam.
Mary: Do you have the baggage claim number?
Us: Yes, it’s BKKAF12345
Mary: Okay, I see it’s in Paris and will arrive in Bangkok on the 27th.
Us: Yes, the problem is we leave on the 26th for Vietnam
Mary: well, you can pick it up at the airport in Bangkok
Us: But we won’t be in Thailand, we’ll be in Vietnam, can you have them forward it to us there?
Mary: I could put a request through to Bangkok to ask them to send it to Vietnam
Us: ok, we’ll
Mary: hold please (before we even got our sentence out)
Mary: Okay, I’ve sent a request for them to forward it to Vietnam
Us: Which airport?
Mary: Vietnam
Us: But Vietnam is a country. Which airport did you send it to?
Mary: They’ll make the decision where to send it once it reaches Bangkok.
Us: How will they know where we are?
Mary: They’ll make the decision
Us: Okay, that’s not going to work. Can you please cancel the request to forward it. We’ll change our plans and leave Bangkok on the 27th.
Mary: <Long sigh>, <grunt> But I just changed it to go to Vietnam.
Us: Well, I’m really sorry to inconvenience you on Christmas Eve, but if you could cancel it that would be great
Mary: <Sigh>
Us: please change it and we’ll pick it up in Bangkok.
Mary: Fine, hold please
Mary: okay you can pick it up in Bangkok
Us: thank you so much and have a very Merry Christmas
Mary: <click>
So that one still makes me laugh out-loud. I was sitting in the St Regis Bangkok with two-other friends and trying to explain to Mary who was somewhere in GA that Vietnam was a country, not an airport.
I had another funny call center conversation a few days ago with Air China. I got someone in the LA call center. Here’s how that one went:
Me: I’m trying to figure out which of your flights from LAX to PEK has the new business class seats, can you help me with that?
Agent: You want to know if there are seat on the flight from LAX to PEK?
Me: No, I’m making an online reservation and trying to determine which flight has the new business class seats.
Agent: Well, we usually look at the price.
Me: The price?
Agent: the price is the way to know the difference
Me: They’re pricing out the same
Agent: Well, it’s quite hard for us to know what types of seats are on an airplane. I would just suggest you pick whichever one costs more.
Me: thanks, have a good day. <click>
That was not a productive call. I’m not sure she ever actually understood what I was really asking.
Have you had a funny call center conversation? Feel free to share them. I’ll post frequently about funny conversations I have and those submitted by readers.
Not airline related, but a friend of mine who lives in New Mexico got into a debate with a call center representative back when the Olympics were in Atlanta. He was ordering tickets for events and the agent on the other side of the conversation insisted that tickets could only be mailed to US residents and New Mexico was not a state and would not allow him to buy tickets. A call back got another agent and in that 30 second span, New Mexico was admitted to the Union…. 🙂
@LH Flyer, that’s a good one!