Just after your thoughts on this?

[Mumsymumphy]

My daughter works in a call centre. She was going through the customer call list for that day, had to phone a customer called Barbara* (NC).
A man answered so DD said the company spiel and said, "Can I speak to Barbara please?" The man immediately shouted at her with "I think you need to have some company training on how to speak to people! I'm Barbara!"

Has it got to the point where we are now supposed to assume, or somehow telepathically know, that a male voice on the end of a phone is a man that identifies as a woman? 😡

It goes to show that offense isn't given, it's taken.

^^ This.

Fairly typical angry masculine-socialised behaviour from some AGP trans women. Reminiscent of the “I’m a lady you know” stuff on that television programme a decade ago.

Sorry that your DD had to put up with such entitled rudeness.

Some people take offense like a drug to get high.

Very true.

Sorry that your daughter had to deal with such an arsehole. Hopefully she won't get too much hassle from management. It's always good policy to confirm who the person on the phone is before proceeding.

I don't know what sort of call centre your daughter works in but my own works in car insurance and is legally required to ensure the person she is talking to is the person who owns the policy.

The male customer's behaviour was completely out of order and I would expect the management of the call centre to back your daughter 100% as she has done nothing wrong.

I'll repeat what I've said before and what others have said.

For some of these men the fetish is to catch people off guard, make them uncomfortable, have an excuse to abuse them, and then apply control over them.

Look at the trans widows thread. The wearing of women's clothes is a small part of what's going on.

Actually I meant to type this:

For some of these men the fetish is to catch people women off guard, make them uncomfortable, have an excuse to abuse them, and then apply control over them.

I kind of hope that if this incident does get mentioned to management, that Barbara's file is marked so that next time a phone call is required, a man does it and uses the same words (being as they are, entirely normal and reasonable) and notes whether he gets the same type of response.

I doubt that would happen in practice but it might be interesting to find out.

Barbara is a dick. A normal response to the bog standard question "are you the person I'm meant to be talking to?" is to say either yes or no.

I sound so much like my mother on the phone that I've had to get into the habit to stop private callers before they can tell me all their personal issues, because they naturally assume she is answering the phone in her own house. I've never had that problem with companies calling, because they are all obliged to make sure they speak to the right person.

Your daughter did her job and did it right. I'd recommend though that she lodge a complaint against Barbara, even if she normally takes the inevitable arseholes in her stride.

When I first was working in a call team, we drew lots for who had the task to call Mr Smellie !
He corrected the poor boy who had lost, ( and was bursting with laughter) to pronounce it Smeelie.

I think this is less about gender issues than it is an arsehole customer. I have 4 sisters. Callers would ask to speak with 'Vlad' even if one of my other sisters picked up the phone.

Is it Barbara the taxi driver from Royston Vasey? She/He is touchy you know!

Maybe Barbara was female and a heavy smoker and felt offended your DD thought she was a man.

'I think you need to have training on how to speak to people' would also make sense in that scenario

Barbara has a is a dick.

Barbara has a is a dick.

'I think you need to have training on how to speak to people' would also make sense in that scenario

No it wouldn't; what the OPs DD said is absolutely fine regardless of the voice which answered, she had no way of knowing if it was Barbara.

ErrolTheDragon I'm not saying the OP's DD did anything wrong, I'm pointing out that Barbara could have been female.

Maybe Barbara was female and a heavy smoker and felt offended your DD thought she was a man

Except that nowhere does OP suggest that her DD told the customer that they had a man’s voice or referred to them with masculine pronouns.....

Maybe Barbara was female and a heavy smoker and felt offended your DD thought she was a man.

Reach a bit more, why don't you?

Also what Emily said.

I'm not saying the OP's DD did anything wrong, I'm pointing out that Barbara could have been female.

You were pointing out Barbara could have been female, but your comment about the 'needs training' response making sense implied the OPs DD should have said something different.

@StealthPolarBear I’m a man, I’m also a rugby prop so I’m quite big physically, I sound like a twelve year old girl. I have had people genuinely laugh the first time they hear me speak, including during an interview!

Reported

Obviously

I've worked in a call centre and we have to confirm that the person who answers the phone is the one we're supposed to speak to, and I have had customers get angry at me in the vein of "You phoned me, you should know who I am!" when I've asked to speak to Mr/Mrs So-and-so. Some customers are just massive, massive arseholes.

For some of these men the fetish is to catch people women off guard, make them uncomfortable, have an excuse to abuse them, and then apply control over them.

I dunno, that very large and aggressive woman, who smashed up the Gamestop store because the male assistant used the word "sir" certainly made the male assistant uncomfortable.

I regularly get a call for William Hill. I now reply with "have you tried the bookies?"

How do the offended actually get on in the work place and real life?

For the record, if a man answered then no, I wouldn't assume he was the female customer, Christine, that I'd been asked to ring.

For years women have been called "doll" "sweetheart" "darling"etc. Now that is something to complain about.