Fast food restaurant being closed, wrong type of gas in top 10 list of worst 911 calls of 2018

Photo of Heather Andrews – E-Comm call taker who answered the number one call on this year’s list. (E-Comm).

A person who called 911 to complain about a local fast-food restaurant not being open 24-hours a day as advertised is in the number one spot on E-Comm’s top 10 nuisance calls list for this year.

Heather Andrews, the 911 operator who took the call, said when someone calls 911 to complain about customer service at a business, it takes time away from people who have real safety issues.

“This type of call ties up our ability to help people with real emergencies,” Andrews said in a statement.

“Dealing with a complaint about the opening hours of a restaurant is a call that doesn’t belong on 911.”

Here is E-Comm’s 2018 list of top 10 reasons not to call 911

1. To complain a local fast food restaurant wasn’t open 24-hours-a-day, as advertised
2. To complain a store won’t take shoes back without the original box
3. To complain that a gas station attendant put the wrong type of gas in their car
4. To report a rental company provided the wrong-sized vehicle for a customer’s reservation
5. To report a restaurant wouldn’t redeem a customer’s coupon
6. To ask for help turning off their car lights
7. To report their vehicle’s windshield wipers had stopped working
8. To find out where their car had been towed
9. To report a lost jacket
10. To ask if the clocks move forward or backward during the spring time change

Audio file – a sample of 9-1-1 nuisance calls handled by E-Comm call takers in 2018:

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E-Comm is once again reminding the public that 911 is for police, fire or medical emergencies when an immediate response is needed.

“Most people use 911 responsibly,” Jasmine Bradley, E-Comm corporate communications manager, said in a statement.

“But calls such as those on this year’s headscratcher list waste valuable emergency resources that would otherwise be available to someone who’s health, safety or property was in jeopardy or a crime was in progress.”

E-Comm is the largest 911 call centre in B.C. From January to November 2018, it handled more than 1.45 million 911 calls (92 per cent of B.C.’s 911 call volume) for regional districts and communities spanning from Vancouver Island to Alberta and from the U.S. border to north of Prince George.

E-Comm also provides call-taking and dispatch services to 36 police agencies and fire departments in southwest B.C., and operates the Wide-Area Radio Network, a multi-jurisdictional radio system used by police, fire and ambulance personnel within Metro Vancouver and parts of the Fraser Valley.

With files from The Canadian Press

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