Call Centre Conversations


Donate to Marie Curie Cancer Care

Customer: ‘I’ve been ringing 0800 2100 for two days and can’t get through to enquiries, can you help?’.

Operator: ‘Where did you get that number from, sir?’.

Customer: ‘It was on the door to the Travel Centre’.

Operator: ‘Sir, they are our opening hours’.


Samsung Electronics




Operator: ‘I think you mean the telephone point on the wall.’


RAC Motoring Services

Caller: ‘Does your European Breakdown Policy cover me when I am travelling in Australia?’

Operator: ‘Doesn’t the product name give you a clue?’


Caller (enquiring about legal requirements while travelling in France)

‘If I register my car in France, do I have to change the steering wheel to the other side of the car?’


Directory Enquiries

Caller: ‘I’d like the number of the Argoed Fish Bar in Cardiff please.’

Operator: ‘I’m sorry, there’s no listing. Is the spelling correct?’

Caller: ‘Well, it used to be called the Bargoed Fish Bar but the ‘B’ fell off.’



Operator: ‘Woven? Are you sure?’

Caller: ‘Yes. That’s what it says on the label; Woven in Scotland ‘.


On another occasion, a man making heavy breathing sounds from a phone box told a worried operator, ‘I haven’t got a pen, so I’m steaming up the window to write the number on.’


Tech Support: ‘I need you to right-click on the Open Desktop’.

Customer: ‘OK’.


Customer: ‘No’.


Customer: ‘No’.


Customer: ‘Sure. You told me to write ‘click’ and I wrote ‘click.”


Tech Support: ‘OK. In the bottom left hand side of the screen, can you see the ‘OK’ button displayed?’

Customer: ‘Wow. How can you see my screen from there?’


Caller: ‘I deleted a file from my PC last week and I have just realised that I need it. If I turn my system clock back two weeks will I have my file back again?’






This is the actual dialogue of a former WordPerfect Customer Support employee. (Now I know why they record these conversations!)



Operator: ‘What sort of trouble??’


Operator: ‘Went away?’

Caller: ‘They disappeared.’


Caller: ‘Nothing.’

Operator: ‘Nothing?’



Caller: ‘How do I tell?’

Operator: ‘Can you see the C: prompt on the screen?’

Caller: ‘What’s a sea-prompt?’



Operator: ‘Does your monitor have a power indicator?’

Caller: ‘What’s a monitor?’


Caller: ‘I don’t know.’


Caller: ‘Yes, I think so.’


Caller: ‘Yes, it is.’


Caller: ‘No.’


Caller: ‘Okay, here it is.’


Caller: ‘I can’t reach.’

Operator: ‘Uh huh. Well, can you see if it is?’

Caller: ‘No.’



Operator: ‘Dark?’



Caller: ‘I can’t.’

Operator: ‘No? Why not?’

Caller: ‘Because there’s a power failure.’

Operator: ‘A power…A power failure? Aha, okay, we’ve got it licked now. Do you still have the boxes and manuals and packing stuff your computer came in?’



Caller: ‘Really? Is it that bad?’

Operator: ‘Yes, I’m afraid it is.’



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