AIBU to expect Customer Service Advisor to tell me their full name?

[Complaintxoxo]

I rang about a problem l currently have with a well known national organisation. The customer service advisor was unable or unwilling to come up with a solution.
I asked for her name so I could follow the complaints procedure. She gave me her first name but declined to give me her surname.
Is this standard practice? I was surprised. I worked in front line customer service for a local council for many years. It wouldn't have been accepted for me to refuse to tell the customer my full name.

Yes, I never give my surname. It can be seen that I spoke to the customer on the logs anyway or the recorded call

We have had issues where customers have tracked people down and been abusive on social media

Absolutely no need for you to know their full name. The organisations call system will know who you spoke to.

I work for the council and never give my full name or sign off with it in emails. I've also changed my name on social media so I can't be tracked down. There is literally no need for you to know it, all calls will be recorded and shel have updated your account.

Of course they should not give people their surname! There's people out there who will stalk people, and try to hound and harass them on social media. Some people ringing are very rude and aggressive and threatening, and DO say 'I will find out where you live etc!

I have a very unusual forename, and I don't even give my real first name. (So if my name is 'Jupiter' I call myself Jude.) I would easily be tracked on social media/the internet if someone knew my real first name. I have never known anyone else with my name.

If they warn you that all calls are recorded, not only will they know when you called and who you spoke to, they'll be able to listen to the recording of the call. quite. And “your call will be recorded for monitoring purposes” should serve as a warning to anyone thinking they should be able to get away with abusing staff like that.

Never, ever would I have the expectation that somebody would give me their surname.

The public are utterly horrendous & are only getting worse. It used to be we rarely called police about customers but it happens regularly now.

If customers don't get what they want, they threaten to turn up at offices to physically assault them. I had one a few years ago who threatened to turn up with a gun & then complained when they were arrested & had their account closed

We still have to give full names. It must be truly awful for people with unusual names. They generally have to change their names on social media so morons can't find & harrass them

There is no reason you need information that could be used to track down the person outside of work. At best there could be an employee id number. However, first name plus the day and time of the call will be enough to link the complaint to the employee. They may even be using fake first names and that is fine as well as long as they are consistent.

Another aspect of this- police, teachers, nurses etc all have a fair degree of autonomy in their roles.

CSA in a call centre? There's a possibility that they got something wrong, but the far bigger likelihood that 'computer says no'. If its not there on their screens, they simply cannot do it. In an unusual situation, you are nearly always far better off via email because its more likely to get escalated to someone who can help you.

I was told by one nut last month that he wanted to throttle me. Should I have given him my address and phone number too?

Definitely YABU. There are some seriously fucked up people out there. DW and DD have been threatened with assault, rape, car keying, along with death wished on family members. The company systems know who dealt with you OP, you do not need the advisors full name.

Some customers are absolutely vile. In a previous job the company went into liquidation, a colleague actually got bombarded on social media with abuse from a customer, and was told she should go to prison for a very long time. She was only a member of staff, had nothing to do with the board of directors, had lost her job, had to claim her unpaid wages and redundancy off HMRC plus lost out on commission she was due. The client had paid his services via credit card so could claim his money back, she lost a hell of a lot more. A quick search on companies house would've given the name of the directors but according to him it was her fault.
I'd say half of my current colleagues use a fake name as a work name, and I don't blame them. The only reason I don't is because I know I'd forget and introduce myself as my actual name.
You don't need a full name, they'll be able to find out which Sarah the complaint is about.

The company will be able to work out who you were on the phone to.

I worked for a council back in the 90s and we all had ‘phone names’ that we gave the public. We had contact with them in person too, with open public access, there had been some difficult incidents so we were given more anonymity.

Back over 30 years ago I was advised never give a real first name by a state body. Reference number of applicable but not a chance they should give their name too risky

Standard. When I was a manager at a call centre I had a customer (my first ever customer in that job) tell me the address of our building and say he'd wait outside until the end of my shift with a carving knife.

Because his router had been delayed by the courier service...

So yeah, like fuck were any of my team giving out their full names.

A bit of a difference between a person in what is likely a generic customer service role with high turnover and taking on a profession where a name is needed, usually set out in policy

Most calls are recorded now, so there is a record of your interaction. Would that be referenced re. your complaint?

I think that there should be a form of conscription, whereby everyone is obliged to spend a year working in customer service.

I think people really don’t know just how awful the public can be.

Although if you look on social media and some of the types who post there, then translate that into them speaking to someone at their bank/insurer/their local Sainsbury’s you’d have a bit of an idea.

Years ago when I worked in a call centre a customer knew my surname from an email chain. He found me on Facebook and started bombarding me with creepy messages and friend requests.

Not entirely the same, but I used to work in a high street clothing shop. There was a brief period where our full name was on the receipts. I served a man, who then asked me to try on shoes for him. I said no, and he told me he’d ’find me on Facebook and ask when you’re a bit more amenable’. Around the same time, another member of staff was told that her address could easily be found on the 192 website.

Just because other professions do it (often unnecessarily), doesn’t mean that we should put even more people in danger.

You don't need their full name. You can provide details of when you spoke to them and they'll trace the interaction from that. I used to work with someone who was harrassed after another employee shared their full name and he used social media to track her down.

Do you want your problem fixed or do you want to get her into trouble?

All people who are far better paid than call centre staff.

OP you are being incredibly unreasonable and naive. You do NOT need their name.

I worked in call centres. Wasn't allowed to give my full name to customers as its security.

Though one call centre I worked as a temp for a month, I had to say "you are speaking to Auburngal (surname)." I hated it as customers had to ask to spell my surname as there are variations of my surname. Glad FB wasn't around at the time. I know there are about 35 people with my first name and surname in the UK as a website which doesn't exist anymore - typed in name and came with the results.

Also many companies have multiple call centres to protect the workers and if there is a problem such as a power cut in one CC, then calls would be able to continue.

When I worked for a bank, I was forced to wear a name badge with first name and surname on it. Asked if I could just have the first name. No. Got customers say "how do you pronounce your surname?" "are you related to....?"

Some UK call centres do allocate you a random name. They chose it based on your ethnicity. I knew two people who were working on the 119 covid line and one was given Andy - he's Jamie and the other one was given Heidi when her name is Jo.