...A tiny message appeared on the screen of his smartphone. It contained an email address for someone at 22Cans, the Guildford studio Molyneux had founded after leaving Microsoft and traditional game development behind.
Bryan, confused but intrigued, followed the instructions. Have I really won, he asked? An email appeared with a the message "Be sure to drink your Ovaltine."
"There is nothing wrong with saying "I'm sorry, if I did this for you I would be fired.""
Actually if you want to keep your job, everything is wrong with saying that. I worked at a Verizon Wireless call center for 3 years and there was no way that a statement like that would go ever well with any manager doing a call review.
"Conversely, there is everything wrong with saying "No, I'm sorry sir, but I can't change that for you" when you know he can, he just won't. (in general; not referring to this case"
Saying this is how you keep your job. There are call quotas that must be met. Calls are timed. Everything is monitored. Saying you can't change something for somebody does not mean that it isn't at all possible. It means, "I can't change this for you or else I would be in trouble with my managers." There is no point in wasting time explaining why something can't be changed when it's company policy it can't be changed.
Above all else, these reps are just the messengers. For many of those that I worked with, their stances came from a place of "would I rather get fired or feed my three children?"