"But you sound like a boy!"

[Beth Andrea]

So I was on the phone yesterday, talking to the phone company...

I had to go thru the usual nonsense to show it was me...phone number, last 4 of social, zip code...

It's when they asked me for my name things got interesting. The first customer service person "needed to transfer" me to the billing dep't (without really saying why)...then the billing department person went thru the same info questions, and when he got to my name, he said:

"But you sound like a boy!"    <--his tone

I explained, "Well, yes...I am transgendered, and recently changed my name..."

"Only the registered owner of the account may make changes. I'm going to have to transfer you to customer service. They can help you with this."

"I've already been there...they sent me to you."

"I'm going to transfer you...*bee-BOOP!*"

Fortunately I was in the phone company's store, and the clerk there had seen the whole thing, and he took care of me using the company's "employee only" customer service line.

I'm thinking about asking the company to have a sensitivity training day...This is not the first time I've had problems with the customer service people there, but it is the first time anything was actually SAID about my being TS...

[suzifrommd]

Our phone company is just evil. They also do cable and internet, and I have never called them without first being sent to the wrong place (after waiting a queue) before waiting a queue at least once more for the right place.

Not going to mention names, but it starts with a V and rhymes with horizon.

So if we weren't trans, they'd find some other way to make sure our experience with them is awful.

*HUG*

[Beth Andrea]

Our phone company is just evil. They also do cable and internet, and I have never called them without first being sent to the wrong place (after waiting a queue) before waiting a queue at least once more for the right place.

Not going to mention names, but it starts with a V and rhymes with horizon.

So if we weren't trans, they'd find some other way to make sure our experience with them is awful.

*HUG*

Mmmm...V-horizon....V-horizon...nope, can't figure that one out. 

I've generally been happy with mine (M-Tobile), but the name/voice dichotomy just gives them a...lobotomy!!

LOL! 

[Sephirah]

I know a few people who work in customer service - call centres more specifically. They do not want to be there. In their choice of career it ranks only slightly above Ebola Vaccine Tester. They take out their boredom and frustration on the callers, in whatever small ways can get them through the day. Sensitivity training probably would do as much good as a band aid on a broken leg, because if the operatives are anything like the people I know, they're not insensitive, just looking for ways to irritate the callers in order to gain a perverse satisfaction from it.

[Nicolette]

"But you sound like a boy!"    <--his tone

What an immature response. Perhaps, if this happens again, reply "Excuse me?! I can assure you that I am all woman!" And then threaten to move to another company if an apology is not forthcoming.

[Shantel]

This has happened to a cis woman friend on a regular basis, unfortunately she had some strange childhood malady that left her with a voice like James Earl Jones. It's also a really common problem for transgendered women. I am afraid I am prone to resorting to more of my previous state in life and feel compelled to take their name and inquire if perhaps they might be suffering from a rectal/cranial inversion, because after all I am the customer and I'd like to have a word with their supervisor. Things change quickly!

[Jeatyn]

The same thing happens to me all the time when I call anywhere With the genders reversed of course

Even in person sometimes I can present people with photo ID to prove who I am and they just look at it, and back to me, back to it, about 20 times, clearly thinking something isn't right. Jeez it's clearly a picture of me and it says I'm male so get over your preconceived notions and give me some customer service for crying out loud.