TIFU by getting snappy with my finance manager

I, 20F, have worked at a call center for a car dealership for 3 months now. I used to live in the U.S but my dad decided for me to live in our homecountry, which is underdeveloped, but he’s retired and wants to live the rest of his retirement here. This is relevant for later.

I regularly contact interested clients to schedule their appointments and I had one that wanted to come in tomorrow but he wanted me to give him the OTD price. I tagged my finance manager at around 9:40 AM to send the client the information.

He is the only finance manager on our team so I try not to bother him much except letting him know a client submitted a credit application so we can help the client in the process. I admit I’m not proud of how I went about this because I would consider myself a professional person when it comes to work. I am very level-headed and never cause tension or any issues. I get along with my coworkers and have dealt with heated customers in a rational and professional manner. I also received praise from coworkers and managers that have been working here longer because of how many visits (plus the customers that bought vehicles from the appointments ive set) I’ve made in a short amount of time so I know I dont do a bad job. I have never worked at a call center before but I know how to talk to customers.

It is 12:40 PM and my client is still waiting on a response on the OTD and I assured him that he will receive it soon, my finance manager hadn’t said anything.

Here is where I fucked up (part 1) my client says he won’t feel comfortable coming to the appointment if he doesn’t receive the information after I said I’m still on the lookout on a response. I misread the message and thought he wanted to cancel the appointment and was following on what I wrongly assumed was a request.

The client says that it is “unbelievably shady” that I didn’t give him the information of the OTD. I apologize for the delay and said I’m waiting for the finance manager to get back to me.

The client says “Forgive me. I just want to confirm that it’s been 3 hours and instead of getting me the information on the price of a vehicle at a dealership you’re going to cancel my appointment instead? Is this a joke?”

I was getting anxious because while I’ve had annoying customers, this might’ve been my first bad review for something that I felt I wouldn’t have to deal with if my finance manager had sent the information after an hour or two. It also didn’t help that this morning, we heard news of a family member passing away.

I tag him again on a note and then I message him privately through our work messenger space because he’s active to help me with a response because he’s getting angry at me and just want it to be diffused as soon as possible.

After 10 minutes, he finally messages the client the OTD and texts me “you need to be more careful reading customer responses – this might lead to a bad review online.” I was not having it because like I said, I felt like it wasn’t my fault for the response to be delayed but I shouldn’t have assumed the client wanted to cancel. Not to mention, they pay USD$3 an hour because of the minimum wage in my homecountry, which is why the dealership chose a call center here because its cheaper. And it made me all the more mad.

This is where I fucked up as well (part 2), I text him “i recognize i misread it, but i did tag you 3 hours ago and i understand that youre one person. but i did not appreciate being called “shady” simply because i could not provide the information for them bc my job isnt talking about prices. i wasnt even requesting to analyze a credit app but to simply send the OTD for a vehicle. Just some food for thought”

He replies: Food for thought: you can not take things personal in customer service. if this is the line of work you are pursuing and that bothers you that much , you might be in the wrong line of work. A simple : we apologize for the delay but we are experiencing high volume of inquiries at this, we will be reaching out as soon as possible. —- such be sufficient to settle down a customer.

I was even more mad because I am capable of being in this line of work and I acknowledged my faults from earlier and that I knew he’s one person. He then follows it up with: I also recommend you work on your communication skills towards management.

It then sunk in that this may result in a strike or me getting fired. I’m just sitting at my desk waiting to get called to speak to a supervisor and get the walk of shame back, whether I get fired or not.

TL;DR: I shouldn’t have tried to give my finance manager a piece of my mind since he’s been in the company longer and I just felt so frustrated I could risk my job.