‘Karen’ Threatens To Call The Help Desk Every Hour Until Her Account Is Activated, Ends Up Paying For Every Call
The great inventor Thomas Edison once said, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” A brilliant quote that motivational speakers love to use to encourage people to persevere to achieve their goal. But where does the fine line between tenacity and entitledness lie? Unfortunately, the coaches are silent about this…
In fact, if you repeat the word “sugar” a hundred times, your mouth will not become sweeter. Perseverance pays off only if your actions can really bring results. Otherwise, the maximum that you will achieve is the annoyance of others.
As, for example, happened to the heroine of this story, posted on the Reddit Malicious Compliance community, where it gained about 7.8K upvotes and over 200 comments in just less than a week. By the way, in the situation described by the Original Poster, annoying ‘Karen’ also achieved financial losses for her company. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves…
More info: Reddit
The Original Poster works in a help desk service which works with several large companies
Image source: Marygrove College Library (not the actual photo)
So, the OP works in a help desk service that serves several large companies at once, whose tickets go to his team. Typically, employees communicate with customers via email and phone, and then log in tickets for each of the issues described. Accordingly, for each ticket, the client then receives an invoice for the standard help desk fee.
Image source: Icey96 (not the actual photo)
One of the clients demanded to set up her account ASAP and talked rather rudely
One day, the OP was contacted by a client whom they and their colleagues later named ‘Karen’. She demanded that they urgently create an account for her – but the problem was that the system where she needed this account belonged to another company with which the help desk collaborated.
Image source: Icey96 (not the actual photo)
Thus, the standard procedure looked like this: the OP logs in a ticket, employees of another company see it, open an account for the client, and inform the OP about the fact of opening. This process usually takes about 24 hours, which the OP had honestly warned Karen about. She, however, was not so happy about this, and demanded to expedite the procedure.
Image source: Icey96 (not the actual photo)
The OP tried to explain the standard procedure but the customer wasn’t happy with it
The OP tried to explain that it was not up to them, so it was unlikely that something would be done, but this answer clearly did not satisfy the client. Later, one of the OP’s colleagues said that Karen called them too, demanding that they create her account ASAP. The outrage in the team grew, and when Karen called again, the OP once more spoke about the procedure for setting up an account.
Image source: Icey96 (not the actual photo)
The woman told them that she would call the help desk every hour until her account was opened
To this, Karen sarcastically stated that then she would call the help desk every hour until the account was opened. The OP tried to explain to her that under the current rules, employees would be forced to log in a separate ticket for each call, which then would have to be paid. Karen didn’t even want to listen…
Image source: Icey96 (not the actual photo)
The OP decided to log a separate ticket for each call and then bill her with the standard help desk fee
So the OP did. Karen regularly called every hour throughout the day, the evening and the next morning, eventually gaining a solid amount that would then have to be paid by her company. Then the calls stopped, but the OP is not actually sure what caused this – either the client already had an account, or her management found out how much of company’s money she wasted.
Image source: SeAMK Kirjasto (not the actual photo)
People in the comments found out that the customer wasted around several hundred dollars of her company’s money
The commenters were literally delighted with the witty solution to the problem with the stubborn client, and asked, in particular, about how much money Karen’s pointless persistence cost her company. In the OP’s own words, that’s about a few hundred dollars – as opposed to tens if she’d called the help desk just once.
Image source: Timothy Vollmer (not the actual photo)
Many people in the comments began to tell similar tales from their own experience, and ‘Karen’ from the OP’s story, compared to some other clients, generally looks like a standard of calm and adequacy. And very often, according to commenters, such impatience from clients is connected to the certainty that if you annoy the interlocutor for a long time and strongly, they will eventually give up and do as you want. And this is almost always untrue, and often punishable. Karmic laws in all their glory…
By the way, as for us personally, what we never get tired of is your comments, so just feel free to write your opinion on this very story, or even better, tell your tale based on your own working experience.
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Please, from the bottom of my heart, stop calling these people Karen. This has had such a negative effect on those with the actual name. The sooner the trend ends, the better.
I agree,, there are many nice Karens. That's social media for you, it spreads like a contagious virus. Everyone does the same things, says the same things and wears the same high waisted grandpa pants, then on to the next new thing. But the Karen thing has stuck around for sure. I'm hoping it'll go out soon with "That's so fire"
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Ugh, I've had so many people pull this type of stuff. The idiot manager who knows about a new hire for a month, yet waits until COB Friday before the new hire is supposed to start to put in a request and then gets mad when we tell them it's going to be a week, maybe two, before we can even get a new laptop. One time, I had a guy from a project put in an urgent request for more drive space on a virtual machine. It was approved and I could start on it right away but I had migrate to a new volume before I could add the space. I email him that it's going to take 2-4 hours and he says ok, but then shows up at my desk on a different floor a few minutes later and proceeds to hover over me, constantly asking when it will be done. Literally said "make it bigger faster" 😆. I was conflicted because I wanted to burst out laughing but I was also PO'd. Finally I told him that he needs to go back to his desk and wait until i tell him it's done
I'm offended by the gross generalization of older people not understanding. I've called alleged customer service reps I can hear the keys clacking as they look stuff up, which by the way I could look up myself if had access. I also realize that when they ask me to hold they're actually servicing another, up to 4 at once. I've also been told I have to go through a prolonged trouble shooting process even though there's an established history of their "phone" line going bad. Then after being trapped on a trouble shooting call for over an hour and there being no indication that the fault is within the home or that We are somehow at fault I receive a veiled threat that if it's within the house I'll be billed $150.00 we is actually 3x's the cost of the service. This has actually scared me into putting up with such extreme buffering that I watched 52 mins of buffering for 3 mins of streaming/internet service.
That's a terrible company. Are you able to switch service? My sister works from home and actually pays for a business line because the customer service is so much better. Guaranteed to have a tech out within 24hrs and such. It's more expensive but it's paid off several times for her not to miss work or get fired for things outside of her control
Load More Replies...
Hahahahha I’ll tell you what I tell my son when he complains about customers who demand changes: don’t get mad just say “ka-ching” (the sound of a cash register). You should thank them, they just made you a lot of money
Karen was right though, OP's process is very inefficient and she should have the option to expedite at additional cost. (BTW, keep using "Karen". My mother, Karen, thinks it's hilarious.)
*OP's company's process is ineffectient. OP has zero control over it and yes, the company is stupid for not having that as an extra charge
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Worked in disaster recovery, many stories but the one that sticks most in my head was one where the employees MP3s were not restored on his work computer. He was livid and ranting, told him I would be happy to explain to his manager that we only back up and store work related data and that we could make an exception if they were work related, he hung up. Problem solved.
My sister had a woman call to get her eyeglasses bought out of network reimbursed by her insurance. Except her plan didn't include that and she'd need to fill out paperwork. She called over 6 times in one day, just to keep getting the same answer. Each time, a note was made in her file. There were only a few people working so it was obvious in the work chat too. She was so confused, why the woman would keep calling back. Simple: she wanted someone to just cut her a check so she'd stop calling. Except they can't do that and no one answering the phones cares
Please, from the bottom of my heart, stop calling these people Karen. This has had such a negative effect on those with the actual name. The sooner the trend ends, the better.
I agree,, there are many nice Karens. That's social media for you, it spreads like a contagious virus. Everyone does the same things, says the same things and wears the same high waisted grandpa pants, then on to the next new thing. But the Karen thing has stuck around for sure. I'm hoping it'll go out soon with "That's so fire"
Load More Replies... Ugh, I've had so many people pull this type of stuff. The idiot manager who knows about a new hire for a month, yet waits until COB Friday before the new hire is supposed to start to put in a request and then gets mad when we tell them it's going to be a week, maybe two, before we can even get a new laptop. One time, I had a guy from a project put in an urgent request for more drive space on a virtual machine. It was approved and I could start on it right away but I had migrate to a new volume before I could add the space. I email him that it's going to take 2-4 hours and he says ok, but then shows up at my desk on a different floor a few minutes later and proceeds to hover over me, constantly asking when it will be done. Literally said "make it bigger faster" 😆. I was conflicted because I wanted to burst out laughing but I was also PO'd. Finally I told him that he needs to go back to his desk and wait until i tell him it's done
I'm offended by the gross generalization of older people not understanding. I've called alleged customer service reps I can hear the keys clacking as they look stuff up, which by the way I could look up myself if had access. I also realize that when they ask me to hold they're actually servicing another, up to 4 at once. I've also been told I have to go through a prolonged trouble shooting process even though there's an established history of their "phone" line going bad. Then after being trapped on a trouble shooting call for over an hour and there being no indication that the fault is within the home or that We are somehow at fault I receive a veiled threat that if it's within the house I'll be billed $150.00 we is actually 3x's the cost of the service. This has actually scared me into putting up with such extreme buffering that I watched 52 mins of buffering for 3 mins of streaming/internet service.
That's a terrible company. Are you able to switch service? My sister works from home and actually pays for a business line because the customer service is so much better. Guaranteed to have a tech out within 24hrs and such. It's more expensive but it's paid off several times for her not to miss work or get fired for things outside of her control
Load More Replies... Hahahahha I’ll tell you what I tell my son when he complains about customers who demand changes: don’t get mad just say “ka-ching” (the sound of a cash register). You should thank them, they just made you a lot of money
Karen was right though, OP's process is very inefficient and she should have the option to expedite at additional cost. (BTW, keep using "Karen". My mother, Karen, thinks it's hilarious.)
*OP's company's process is ineffectient. OP has zero control over it and yes, the company is stupid for not having that as an extra charge
Load More Replies... Worked in disaster recovery, many stories but the one that sticks most in my head was one where the employees MP3s were not restored on his work computer. He was livid and ranting, told him I would be happy to explain to his manager that we only back up and store work related data and that we could make an exception if they were work related, he hung up. Problem solved.
My sister had a woman call to get her eyeglasses bought out of network reimbursed by her insurance. Except her plan didn't include that and she'd need to fill out paperwork. She called over 6 times in one day, just to keep getting the same answer. Each time, a note was made in her file. There were only a few people working so it was obvious in the work chat too. She was so confused, why the woman would keep calling back. Simple: she wanted someone to just cut her a check so she'd stop calling. Except they can't do that and no one answering the phones cares
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