Why do people double down when they make a mistake?
Callers and clients routinely misdial numbers, forget addresses, or provide incorrect details, yet refuse to admit the error and instead blame the staff. This immediate defensiveness forces customer service workers and property managers to waste time arguing with callers who insist they are right, preventing staff from resolving the actual issue.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1taking fake orders on mute while letting customers rant
- 2calling back the person yourself to help them reach the correct destination
- 3making a mental note of difficult tenants and ignoring their future complaints
In their words
Unedited, most upvoted first, each linked to the thread it came from.
“She said “No 4332 you don’t think I know my own address and where I live.””source ↗
“She responded “you haven’t been here long enough to know what you are talking about, I will take a picture of the building and come into the office and show you and we can go into rounds” and then hung up.”source ↗
“She responded “It’s 4323 I switched the numbers around but you should had known what I was talking about.””source ↗
““why should I tell you my name when you’re the one who called me” “you should know what property I’m calling about I’ve been looking at many places how do I know who you are…””source ↗
“the people calling would always double down and insist that they were calling the pizza place, to the point it was downright ridiculous”source ↗
“the tenant freaks out and starts calling him a telemarketer and she has no appliances and a m****f**ker.”source ↗
“Rarely were they willing to accept the idea that they had dialed the wrong number.”source ↗
“Some guy called us wanting to know the dates he lived at the property and he couldn't even pin down the year, but he thought it was within the past 5 years.”source ↗
“Another doggie daycare/boarding place opened up two states over with the same exact name. I once answered a call from a guy who grew increasingly irritated when I told him that I could find no record of him or his dogs in our system”source ↗
“have had clients where I manage their single family homes for years and when they call in with a question can't remember the address of the home we manage for them.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 4Why do I have to confess my mistakes at work?
- 7Why am I always the scapegoat when someone else messes up?
- 3How to handle a broken engagement right before the wedding
- 7Friends giving terrible excuses to skip my wedding
- 9Clients who ghost after you finish the work and don't pay
- 5How to respond when a client says your rates are too high