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.

Standard, for their safety. You sound a bit unhinged. Years ago, a male found me online and harassed me because my full, slightly unusual name was published through a media work thing. Customer service reps are people too!

People who work in call centres often use a fake name. They're usually allowed to as long as it's fairly consistent and their own supervisors can identify them. People working these jobs could face personal attack online from disgruntled customers in their thousands. Potentially if they gave their real full name. It wouldn't be fair. They're on minimum wage and if the company sucks it's not really their fault.
Taking the first name is fine, and noting the time of the call. They'll know who you mean if you want to complain.
It's to stop their personal lives being affected by their crappy job.

I should get what I want because I demand it, no you should not

Told in every call centre to write good notes on accounts. So any CSA could read notes and carry on with the problem etc. So customers don’t waste their time/get pissed off in retelling their story.

As if customers demand to speak to xxxxx. Firstly they could be on holiday or on day off. Or could work at another CC. We didn’t know who was in which other call centre.

It's the same as those dicks who say "you have my full name" I'm like emmmm yepppp I need to adhere to data protection, you don't need to know mine for us to resolve the query 🤷‍♀️

They get an eye-roll, and if anyone wanted to speak to manager about is, manager would say "she doesn't have to tell you" and she sure as FUCK isn't going to tell them it so why bother???

Used to work for a travel insurance company a decade ago and would never give my surname. I had a very unique name so would have been very easy to find on SM.
I used to say I’m the only X at the office and when they didn’t believe that (I think because it was a popular brand they expected there to be 100s of us..unfortunately there was not enough of us hence the complaints 😂) I’d give my internal extension number. They couldn’t call to harass me but it was individual enough to satisfy most.
The amount of threats I got through decisions that I had no control over was unbelievable. The office address was available to all customers as they had to post original copies of documents for everything at that time. The last thing I needed was the man who told me he would kill me was for him to also know what I looked like thanks 😅
Most call centres can track the specific person you spoke to by seeing who has accessed your account so you don’t need their surname.

It's unfair that it works this way round as she will have your full name and details- erm well yes of course she will, because you’re a customer. Or would you be happy to not give your full details to your bank’s call centre and still be happy for them to discuss your personal bank account with you? No?

They changed a whole policy just because you were awkward? Seems very unlikely.

Surely you are joking. My name is on court documents, on plans for children and their families, my registration is known to all, it has to be, just like if someone needed to check your qualification, my car is parked outside the building, we have had a our building attacked, Ive been attacked, my colleagues have been attacked, cars have been attacked, both in the community but also in our parking area and in courts. I know the risks and how the public are but everyone talking about how 'the public make threats' are completely naive to how it is for many of us who owe the public a duty to say who we are and yet customer service staff on the end of a phone dont have to do that? Really? Astounding

If someone refuses to give me their full name I insist on being put straight on to Complaints ah, you’re one of those.

What these members of the public also need to remember is that when they are abusive, when they complain unnecessarily, as well as a record of their call, the above is often also listed on their profile, so future agents know exactly what kind of person they are.

Obviously not the low level ones, but where I work customers who have been really abusive are reported to a specialist team and can receive written warnings or even have their accounts closed. And then there is a note on their profile to say they’ve had warnings for abusive behaviour.

Similarly if customers complain there is a note on their profile to say that they’ve complained. This can be useful especially if they call for an update on a legitimate complaint, but if the complaint is purely about not giving out your name then we have access to that as well, including the communication the complaints team will have sent to the person saying that agents aren’t obliged to give out their full name.

Doesn’t matter if you complain, it’s not going to change anything with regards to someone giving you their full name. And in actual fact, if you go to complaints then you’ll be sent a letter by a complaints officer who also won’t give you their full name.

I worked for my local council for many years. Junior staff like those on reception or call centre were only expected to give a first name, their name badge only contained their first name. Managers who got involved were expected to give their full name in person and in correspondence

@soupfiend they are not public sector workers and do not owe that duty.

Oh look. Another FTP with a single post on their own thread, asking a question that is guranteed to have everyone telling them they are unreasonable.

So fucking sick of them.

Yabu. It’s standard practice not to give your real/full name if you work in customer service because the general public are psychos.

We user to get all sorts of threats when I worked in a call centre, even when I was working on innocuous campaigns like the dogs trust or the electoral campaign 😏. I once had a man threaten to rape my children over a refused refund of £14.95. I didn’t actually have children at the time but still, grim. Interestingly, the customer was a nurse by profession!

If you ever have the misfortune of having to phone the IRS (wait times are even longer than to HMRC) the agent gives you their identification number, no name.

can understand it

@soupfiend - you have no 'right' to be given someone's surname.

I have worked in customer service and been threatened so no way I would be giving my full name to customers. Welcome to cyber stalking

I didn't say they changed the rule ,just that I got the outcome I wanted

👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

I used to work in a contact centre, this was 15 years ago or so, so when social media wasn't as prevalent.

I didn't mind giving my full name then, but by the time I left, it was advised not to - after a staff member had someone look her up online while they were talking and say he was going to walk into the office on XX road and blow them up for not doing what he wanted. Scary.

I also use my husband's surname at work, so instead of Claire Foreignsurname I'm Claire Smith, much more anonymous.

I work on the Complaints phone line for a company and you would not be getting my surname 😘

Absolutely! I never worked phone lines but have worked in retail. Wild horses couldn’t have dragged my surname out of me, never mind a belligerent customer!

actually police give their collar numbers rather than their names, for this exact reason.

What possible audit trail and proof will be available if you know you spoke to John Smith rather than John? Either the conversation will be recorded, in which case it will be linked to your customer reference rather than the person who spoke to you, so it doesn't matter who they were, or it won't be recorded, in which case it doesn't matter who you spoke to, they could say whatever they wanted about what they did/didn't say to you. Proof of who spoke to you isn't proof of what was said.

There are very few places/organisations in which first name and job title (and time conversation took place) aren't enough to identify someone.

@Motheranddaughter You definitely wouldn't get the outcome you wanted at my place of work. Our managers and complaints team support not giving out full names.

Customers do not need a call handlers full name. It would be a complete waste of your time speaking to anyone else if it was to try and get your own way by requesting or complaining about a process that doesn't need fixing.

@soupfiend Generally speaking all calls are recorded (certainly the company I work for and companies that I have had to contact) there is your audit trail!

Regarding proof of what was said, that's why calls are recorded! I remember one customer adamant that I had misinformed them earlier in the call and demanded an apology and a complaint raised. I hadn't misinformed them and politely reminded the customer that all calls are recorded, soon changed their tune and said just forget it on this occasion. It's there to protect staff aswell as customers!

Yeah, nah. The people that make fools of themselves by carrying on about full names are exactly the people you don’t want to have knowing your full name.