# Customer Service Role Play: Handling a Disputed Delivery Run a customer service role play about a disputed delivery with customer and adviser cards, a dialogue, debrief, and replay variation. - Canonical URL: https://www.harmate.com/en/blog/customer-service-role-play-handling-a-disputed-delivery - Author: Harmate Team - Published: 2026-11-15 - Updated: 2026-11-15T01:55:03.774571+00:00 - Language: en ## Content # Customer Service Role Play: Handling a Disputed Delivery Use this ready-to-run role play to practise a focused conversation: acknowledge a problem, clarify the facts, and explain a next step without promising an outcome outside your control. This is a people-to-people exercise, distinct from software testing for a conversational agent. ## Set up the exercise Choose two participants and a facilitator. Give each participant only their own role card. Read the fictional policy to the person playing the adviser. The customer reveals the private details on turn two, only if the adviser asks for the reference. Allow two minutes for the exchange and five minutes for the debrief. No real account, refund, or delivery lookup is involved. ### Customer role card — give to the customer - **Private situation:** your workshop supplies parcel is marked as delivered, but you have not received it. You need the materials tomorrow. You have already checked your mailbox. - **Turn 1:** describe the problem in your own words. Do not give the reference or mention checking the mailbox. - **Turn 2:** if the adviser asks for a reference, give **LR-4821** and say you already checked the mailbox. Do not ask for a refund; you want a useful next step. ### Adviser role card — give to the adviser - **Fictional policy:** you need the reference before preparing a summary for the delivery team. - **What you can do:** explain what the summary would contain and what the proposed next step is. - **Your limits:** you cannot look up an account, send anything, or promise a refund or resolution date. - **How to respond:** let the customer explain, paraphrase without blame, then ask specifically for the reference. After the reply, repeat the known facts and explain the next step as a proposal or future action. Do not guess the hidden facts. ## Played dialogue On November 15, 2026, two Codex subagents played the customer and the adviser. The requested model was gpt-6-luna. We passed each bilingual message to the other role before continuing. Here are both turns from each role in English. **Customer — turn 1** Hello, my workshop supplies parcel is marked as delivered, but I haven’t received it. I need the materials for tomorrow. Could you tell me what the next step is? **Adviser — turn 1** I understand: the parcel is marked as delivered, but you haven’t received it, and you need it tomorrow. Could you give me the order or shipment reference? With that reference, I can prepare a summary for the delivery team; the next step will be to pass along the details of the issue. **Customer — turn 2** The reference is LR-4821. I’ve already checked my mailbox, but the parcel isn’t there. **Adviser — turn 2** Thank you. I have the reference LR-4821 and note that you’ve already checked your mailbox and the parcel wasn’t there. The summary for the delivery team would include these details and the urgency of needing the supplies tomorrow. The next step would be to send that summary to the team for review. ## Debrief this exchange The first paraphrase captures the delivery status, non-receipt, and urgency, then asks for the missing reference. The adviser does not promise a refund or resolution. On turn two, the adviser repeats the exact reference, mailbox check, and need for tomorrow. They describe a summary to be sent without claiming it has been sent. To make the limit clearer, the adviser could instead say: “I can’t give you a resolution date. I can prepare a summary for you to pass to the delivery team for review.” The next step remains pending. Ask the group to point to the words they heard before offering comments: “Which words acknowledge the issue? What fact was added on turn two? What remains outside the adviser’s control?” Here, “the parcel is marked as delivered, but you haven’t received it” states the disagreement without blaming the customer. ## Replay with one variation Use the same role cards. This time, the customer does not give the reference right away and first asks whether a solution can be guaranteed by tomorrow. The adviser should acknowledge the urgency, explain that they cannot guarantee the outcome, and ask again for the reference. Afterwards, compare the words actually used: did the customer feel heard, was the limit stated clearly, and was the next step described honestly? Do not assign an overall score or draw a conclusion about the person’s skill. To prepare a different exercise, see this [trainer-led AI practice example](https://www.harmate.com/en/blog/ai-and-education-knowledge-is-available-direction-is-missing) and the method for [active listening in training](https://www.harmate.com/en/blog/active-listening-definition-method-and-training-examples). Harmate’s [public profile example](https://www.harmate.com/en/pricing/api#personae-example-title) can offer independent context for designing another role; it supplied no facts for this dialogue. This is a fictional role play generated and played once by two roles. It does not measure human participant learning or demonstrate training effectiveness. For a progressive practice set, use these [onboarding role plays for support reps](https://www.harmate.com/en/blog/customer-service-role-plays-onboard-new-reps-in-stages). The [sales discovery role play](https://www.harmate.com/en/blog/sales-discovery-role-play-a-buyer-who-has-not-defined-the-problem) practises a different conversation. The [debrief and replay worksheet](https://www.harmate.com/en/blog/role-play-debrief-and-replay-correct-one-missed-moment) helps a facilitator choose a specific moment to retry.