A young married couple from Bolesławiec set up a family business. Co-owner Magda handles administration and customer service. She set high standards for customer service. Each of them is treated individually, with special care, like a good acquaintance or even a friend, not like a petitioner.
Magda is a young woman with a pleasant voice who is warm in her interactions. She always keeps the company mobile phone with her. Every regular customer is saved there by first and last name. She often greets callers warmly by name. But recently, after receiving calls from a stranger who has been harassing her for half a year, she answered a call from an unknown number and snapped at an innocent person who was calling her.
“I thought it was her again, and I think I lost a new customer because I was so upset,” Maga recalls. “The girl called—the one I now recognize by her voice—but I didn’t recognize the number. Once again, she wanted to recommend our services to some nephew or niece of hers. She always lies that she wants to buy something from us. She called several times, and another call from her made me very upset. I finished speaking with her, and the phone rang again. The number was different, but unknown to me as well. I answered, heard a woman’s voice, and for a moment I was sure it was her again. I reacted unpleasantly, but it was a completely innocent person calling. She really was interested in our offer. I apologized and explained why I had reacted that way to her call, but it was still a foolish situation,” Magda adds.
The whole story began in October last year. Magda received the first call from the girl in Germany, where she was on business. The girl spoke with her for almost twenty minutes. At first, she sounded like a customer interested in the company’s offer. Magda began asking her for details, and the girl became more talkative. She said that she had five children, that each of them could become Magda’s customer, and that she lived in the countryside near Bolesławiec. Magda ended the call by explaining that she was in Germany and would call back after returning to the city.
“I wanted to be nice, but I can tell whether someone really wants something from me or just wants to chat,” says Magda. “This girl did not inspire my trust. When she called again, I did not answer.”
The girl has been calling regularly for half a year. Magda even suspected that it might be a teenage girl infatuated with her husband. Most often, she wants to buy something or asks about the company’s opening hours, but she can also ask about the office’s décor and its appearance. When Magda does not answer her calls, she changes her number. When the girl manages to get through, she complains.
“Once she accused me: ‘You don’t answer my calls; I think I’ll go to the competition,’” Magda recalls. “Once she left a message on the answering machine. In the background, I could hear some voices, as if someone was laughing. I think it’s a teenage girl playing silly jokes, perhaps in front of her friends. I sense malice in her words. She seems nice and polite, but these calls are unpleasant.”
Magda eventually went to the police and told them the whole story. “The police took me seriously,” says Magda. “But they helplessly spread their hands when I said that the girl only asked about company matters, that the phone she called was a business phone, that she was not aggressive, did not threaten me, and that I did not feel intimidated. I was offered the opportunity to give a statement, but no guarantee was given that the prosecutor would deal with the case.”
However, the prosecutor may consider Magda’s report under the Code of Petty Offences. Magda may invoke Article 107, which states that “anyone who, in order to annoy another person, maliciously misleads them or otherwise maliciously disturbs them is subject to restriction of liberty, a fine of up to PLN 1,500, or a reprimand.” In this case, Magda does not have to feel threatened for the report to be accepted.
When asked why the girl calls Magda, well-known Bolesławiec educator Teresa Rudzińska believes that young people most often do foolish or bad things out of boredom.
“If she really is a teenager, she may be filling her time this way,” says Teresa Rudzińska. “Of course, she is manipulating the business owner. She has power over her time; the woman has to be nice to her because she is at work, answer her calls, listen, and even respond to stupid questions. My experience shows that some teenagers may turn to drugs, commit vandalism, or make malicious calls out of boredom,” the educator adds.
Magda is finding the anonymous calls increasingly difficult to endure. She cuts the conversation short by inviting the girl to the company. “When I stop listening to her, hang up, or quickly end the conversation, I can sense that the girl is becoming increasingly enraged by it,” says Magda. “It is no longer merely tiring; it is becoming very disturbing.”
The business owner’s name has been changed.
(information: Grażyna Hanaf)