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Hate of the month: Irrelevant detail repeater ad nauseum. Them: "Yeah, I'm calling to switch to that new car I quoted yesterday, because I ended up buying it. I called yesterday and got a quote to see what I would be paying, and I ended up buying it because it was a good price, so now I need to switch over to that quote I got yesterday." Me:  Repeat this process about 5 or 6 times for every step of the transaction with no details flavored in and repeated themselves.
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Feb 23, 2013 17:05
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Loving Life Partner posted:Hate of the month: Okay, sir, let's start with your new VIN number! Sure, it's xxxxxx, it's red, 4 door, 4 cylinder, upgraded package, gonna be parked in my garage....
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Feb 23, 2013 17:41
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Haha, yeah, love the ID thief wet dream people who just spit out their full name, date of birth, social, and mother's maiden name when you just ask for any one piece of minute information. Also, I just had one epic escalation. This was so great, this guy is discussing a rate increase with me civilly and his wife is in the background, pacing I assume, just blathering about "this is poo poo!" and "You tell them they're losing a customer!" and she just like, FED this guy and every time she yelled something he ratcheted up a notch, until he was yelling at me about calling our vice President, and suing the company and blah blah at the top of his voice, hahaha, it was so amazing to listen to, I was just on mute laughing.
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Feb 23, 2013 17:54
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The ID thief wet dream people make me wince, but I try to turn it into a teachable moment. I explain that unless someone asks for it, you don't ever, ever need to give them out. Secondly, using stuff like your SSN for your PIN is a right terrible idea... Some catch on. Some don't. At least I try to reach out to 'em. What drives me nuts is when I ask if someone remembers their account username and they give me this story about how the last time they used it was YEARS ago, back in Nineteen dickety two and how do I expect them to remember THAT? Gosh, ehehe! ... it wasn't funny the first time and it's not funny after several hundred password resets.
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Feb 23, 2013 19:28
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The flip side of the ID thief wet dream is the person who refuses to give out information  over the phone.You called US. We didn't call you. I answer, identifying our company name. We're a publicly traded company that makes literally hundreds of millions of dollars a year. We're not going to steal your credit card and sell the number on the black market. I don't get this paranoia at all. poo poo, I can't even charge people's cards at all, only perform refunds. The only reason I ever have to ask for a credit card is if there was possible fraudulent activity on the account.
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Feb 23, 2013 20:11
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Loving Life Partner posted:Also, I just had one epic escalation. This was so great, this guy is discussing a rate increase with me civilly and his wife is in the background, pacing I assume, just blathering about "this is poo poo!" and "You tell them they're losing a customer!" and she just like, FED this guy and every time she yelled something he ratcheted up a notch, until he was yelling at me about calling our vice President, and suing the company and blah blah at the top of his voice, hahaha, it was so amazing to listen to, I was just on mute laughing. I love the background shithead. The only thing to watch out for is when they yell enough that they convince the person you're talking with to hand them the phone, at which point it's time to hit mute, tune out, and wait till they wear themselves out. I've started taking escalations at my job fairly recently, and it's boggling how terrible some agents are at keeping control of the call. The customer doesn't need a supervisor just because they said the word supervisor, christ. Try to de-escalate once in a while.
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Feb 24, 2013 03:25
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Yeah, my escalation rate is about a quarter of the site average. #1 because I keep everything cool and let people blow off steam without interrupting them, and #2 because I tell them when a supervisor will not be able to do what they want. I'm sorry you've been a customer for ONE WHOLE year and adding the 2013 Audi costs $70 more a month, but we're not going to waive it because you yelled at us and asked for a manager man.
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Feb 24, 2013 03:28
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When it comes to the 'too much detail' people, after I stopped working at a particular call centre, I needed their services (tech support) so when I called I pre-empted the person on the other line with all the info they needed to find me (full name, first line of address and postcode, PC model number) in the system. I went slow enough for them to get it all down, and I thought I was being helpful and expediting the call (due to AHT being one of the matrices there). I was able to do this due to these being what I always asked for when I did work there. Am I "THAT GUY"
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Feb 24, 2013 14:34
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BioEnchanted posted:When it comes to the 'too much detail' people, after I stopped working at a particular call centre, I needed their services (tech support) so when I called I pre-empted the person on the other line with all the info they needed to find me (full name, first line of address and postcode, PC model number) in the system. I went slow enough for them to get it all down, and I thought I was being helpful and expediting the call (due to AHT being one of the matrices there). I was able to do this due to these being what I always asked for when I did work there. Am I "THAT GUY" No; you are the opposite of "That guy" so long as you weren't a smug bitch about it (which it sounds like you weren't.) If anything, you were a good guy and used your knowledge wisely.
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Feb 24, 2013 19:04
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BioEnchanted posted:Am I "THAT GUY" No, "That guy" is the one who gives that information, his full SSN, dog's name, shoe size, birth date and other completely irrelevant information. I'm sorry you've been transferred 15 times and you happened to hit the stupid train with agents. Yes I will fix your problem, no your time is not worth $60 an hour. Please try again. I quit "teaching" those people as they usually snap back with the "THEY KEEP ASKING ME". Yes I know they do because the other agents aren't doing their job. I've already reported them in the system we use that only our department has. To be honest, the worst ones are the ones that get to me and start that "WHAT IS YOUR ADDRESS" retarded horseshit.
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Feb 25, 2013 13:57
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Gothmog1065 posted:No, "That guy" is the one who gives that information, his full SSN, dog's name, shoe size, birth date and other completely irrelevant information. The amount of times I was given addresses that ended in "Planet Earth" 
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Feb 26, 2013 13:44
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It's even more fun when they demand you fix their internet and refuse to let you know any of their account information. The hilarity doubles when it turns out their internet was cut because they didn't pay for three months and somehow this is my fault because I should've told them BEFORE I started troubleshooting. Y'know, without the account information.
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Feb 27, 2013 18:18
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Aerofallosov posted:It's even more fun when they demand you fix their internet and refuse to let you know any of their account information. The hilarity doubles when it turns out their internet was cut because they didn't pay for three months and somehow this is my fault because I should've told them BEFORE I started troubleshooting. Y'know, without the account information. I'm honestly surprised at how little I get those calls. Those customers are normally the result of being transferred 500 times and being told the information was being passed on, when we still have to verify information unless the previous agent personally talks to us.
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Feb 27, 2013 19:23
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Aerofallosov posted:It's even more fun when they demand you fix their internet and refuse to let you know any of their account information. The hilarity doubles when it turns out their internet was cut because they didn't pay for three months and somehow this is my fault because I should've told them BEFORE I started troubleshooting. Y'know, without the account information. I've just assumed that those people are always angry at everything. I have to wait in line at the bank? WHERE'S YOUR MANAGERIWIURHWRFJSFD. At my old job, we would get triple-boned on those calls. We would get the notification to shut down the circuit, which, the automated system would never shut it down properly. Then, instead of instructing the customer to contact the Collections group, the inbound call agents would transfer the customer back to us, where we would endure anywhere from 2 to 20 minutes of screaming, profanity. We were not allowed to hang up on calls, and there was nothing we could do, as we did not get any notification from Collections to turn their circuit up. Then when they paid their bill, Collections would tell the customer to call back into Customer Care, where (yep.. you guessed it.) they would get transferred back to us, so we can experience even more bitching, because the Collections group is outsourced to Armpit Dubai or Bosnia, something, and they would never get back with us on reconnecting the circuit, or, better yet, claim that they had not even talked to the customer. I ended up just reconnecting the circuit without these notification, as I took the customers word when they said "I spent 45 minutes on the phone with those foreign speaking assholes to get them to charge my credit card $46.38" that they paid their bill. I'm glad I am not working there ever.
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Feb 28, 2013 00:25
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Aerofallosov posted:It's even more fun when they demand you fix their internet and refuse to let you know any of their account information. The hilarity doubles when it turns out their internet was cut because they didn't pay for three months and somehow this is my fault because I should've told them BEFORE I started troubleshooting. Y'know, without the account information. I would just say that I can't start the troubleshooting without your account details to verify your identity.
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Feb 28, 2013 07:05
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Customer Service is the 21st century coal mine. It's just that we deal with mental destruction instead of lung cancer. When they take the 'customer service survey' after you hang up with them? Yeah, they're going to rate you as a horrible sack of poo poo because you DARED to tell them that they needed to pay the going rate for whatever service they've got. You're an rear end in a top hat because you explained that being three months late on the bill means the service got shut off.... Obviously that is YOUR fault as a customer service agent... Also, "Omgbees", You've obviously never been threatened with a firing because you "refused to offer assistance" to someone who didn't loving know what assistance they required. Kudos to your company for that, you're not assholes.
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Feb 28, 2013 10:31
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I love how every time I get an email from our operations division now, it's really the funniest poo poo ever. People can't make or reset passwords? Will be fixed shortly? They said the inability for people to buy stuff on the loving website would be fixed shortly six months ago. This is gonna be fun. Two more months, max. Light. End of tunnel. I can do this.
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Feb 28, 2013 17:10
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So a position as a Trainer opened up at my company and I applied for it. On the one hand, I'd get off the phones and make more money and it'd be a great job. On the other hand, I would be training new grunts to man the phones. It feels like some cycle-of-abuse metaphor.
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Mar 1, 2013 05:40
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Tiny posted:Also, "Omgbees", You've obviously never been threatened with a firing because you "refused to offer assistance" to someone who didn't loving know what assistance they required. Kudos to your company for that, you're not assholes. See, that's crap. If you don't confirm they are a paying customer you are just troubleshooting some jerkoff's internet connection who has no account with you. How can you be sure you are supporting a client if you can't get account info off them to determine that is is a valid account? It's "Customer service" not "tech support batphone for all mankind" sounds like your bosses are special individuals.
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Mar 1, 2013 09:11
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WampaLord posted:So a position as a Trainer opened up at my company and I applied for it. On the one hand, I'd get off the phones and make more money and it'd be a great job. On the other hand, I would be training new grunts to man the phones. It feels like some cycle-of-abuse metaphor. You're out of the hole, and you have to look out for you. Just help the newhires as much as possible. I'd love to be a trainer. Most of our tenured people are tenured for a reason. They ain't going nowhere.
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Mar 1, 2013 13:53
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One of the remaining QA's got promoted to TL so I've put my name in to the running to be a QA again. I talked to the operations manager about it and he said that although I've improved to the point of being in the top 10 agents, basically, to not get my hopes up and it's be better to apply next time QA becomes available. I mean I know he's saying that to keep my expectations realistic and he's actually a damned good manager but the hiring decision is up to the client, not the employer. To say Im a little bit hurt/crestfallen is an understatement. I love how they're still surprised that morale is so low here.
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Mar 1, 2013 16:28
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This is the biggest things I hate. Dear son/grandson/SUPERCOMPUTERNERDAWSOMEDOOD/goon. Please don't set your loving 90 year old grandmother up with loving Linux. Most people on the phone do not know how to troubleshoot it from memory. Please don't tell your grandmother it is "easier" to use than Mac/Windows. Unless you're going to call in every loving time her internet is out DO NOT DO IT. It's hard enough walking them through Windows.
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Mar 1, 2013 23:18
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Gothmog1065 posted:This is the biggest things I hate. Dear son/grandson/SUPERCOMPUTERNERDAWSOMEDOOD/goon. Please don't set your loving 90 year old grandmother up with loving Linux. Most people on the phone do not know how to troubleshoot it from memory. Please don't tell your grandmother it is "easier" to use than Mac/Windows. Unless you're going to call in every loving time her internet is out DO NOT DO IT. Do you work for an ISP or something? All of the companies I worked for had pretty strict system requirements so these tech Wunderkinds that just knew everything wouldn't set up our unwary customers with hacked together setups like that. We had one poor woman, who I believe was the practice manager (I was a developer for a veterinary practice management company) who called in constantly about "the system locking up" but couldn't really give us much beyond that. The techs couldn't figure it out so it made its way to me. Their "IT professional" was of some relation to one of the employees and about halfway through an MIS degree so he thought he was pretty hot poo poo. Anyway, I make my way to their server and see from the various logs that the SQL pages are getting chunked and causing the service to crash. It turns out this dipshit had a Windows 2003 server VM sitting on an Ubuntu box. SQLSERVER DOES NOT LIKE RUNNING ON VMs AND WHY ARE YOU USING UBUNTU FOR ENTERPRISE SOFTWARE ARRRGGHHHHHHHHH. My point is, if any of you are in a call center and in a position where you have to work with freelance IT professionals, kill yourself. It'll save you time in the long run.
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Mar 2, 2013 01:25
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AgentSythe posted:Do you work for an ISP or something? All of the companies I worked for had pretty strict system requirements so these tech Wunderkinds that just knew everything wouldn't set up our unwary customers with hacked together setups like that. I remember the last time I worked in tech support that anyone that called in with Linux pretty much ended the call. No call centre is ever going to support Linux. The only thing that someone that uses Linux should be asking is if there is a network outage. Which is understandable.
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Mar 4, 2013 17:14
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I just escalated an accommodation request, haha. I'm like "Lemme talk to a coach assist, I don't agree with this" Just fightin' for the customer when I feel it's warranted. The good ones are out there 
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Mar 4, 2013 17:25
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AgentSythe posted:Do you work for an ISP or something? All of the companies I worked for had pretty strict system requirements so these tech Wunderkinds that just knew everything wouldn't set up our unwary customers with hacked together setups like that. Yeah, I do. We don't get many of them, but there are kids who give Grandma Linux because "it never breaks" and is "100% secure". When it does break, we can't fix it like we can windows or MAC. Sorry, little Jimmy (Who just discovered Linux himself) is going to have to do your troubleshooting.
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Mar 5, 2013 15:31
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Why is it that when I ask somebody who should be calling a different department (home phone, home Internet, etc.) what province they're in so that I can direct them correctly, they start repeating the problem again? : Unfortunately, you've reached mobility, but I'd be happy to transfer you to Home Internet. May I ask what province you're located in?  : Yeah, my Internet is not working and... : I understand that, but what province are you in? : It stopped working yesterday and... : Ok, but what province are you in? Ontario? Quebec? : Oh! (finally gives answer)This just blows my mind. It happens at least once a week, more like several times a week. I don't get how "what province are you in?" translates to "tell me more about your problem that I'm not equipped to fix." Also, a gem quote from today: "Say if I were to go somewhere in Europe...specifically Africa..." Why don't we give an IQ test before providing people with cellular service?!
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Mar 5, 2013 18:18
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cuntvalet posted:Why is it that when I ask somebody who should be calling a different department (home phone, home Internet, etc.) what province they're in so that I can direct them correctly, they start repeating the problem again? Aha, I think I know who you work for now. My condolences. Had a friend there who worked for 6 months to get money to open an art studio and he almost lost his mind. Man I'm going to hate going back to work after my vacation; before it I spent 2 weeks in the training area helping out. So much time off the phones, so much bliss, all over now.
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Mar 5, 2013 20:58
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cuntvalet posted:Why don't we give an IQ test before providing people with cellular service?! Nobody in a decision-making position at a cellular company is qualified to review and approve such a test.
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Mar 5, 2013 22:21
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I feel good. I posted a few posts ago about an accommodation, and I got shut down, when I told the customer, she decided to escalate (because I prodded her to) and then when I got to escalation for the warm transfer, I greased the wheels as best I could, and she was able to get it done through escalation. This lady was looking at $3500 in fees from the state of Maryland and we'll probably be able to get them all reversed. She had a lot of life circumstances going on, and I went to bat for her and we got it done 
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Mar 6, 2013 00:41
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I tried to start saying "...and who am I speaking with today?" to change it up a bit from "...and what's your name please?" sometimes, and literally every person just said "Ok." Not one person gave me their name. LISTEN TO ME 
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Mar 6, 2013 01:35
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you ate my cat posted:I tried to start saying "...and who am I speaking with today?" to change it up a bit from "...and what's your name please?" sometimes, and literally every person just said "Ok." Not one person gave me their name. LISTEN TO ME It's the same as at the supermarket when they say "how are you today?" and you respond "good thanks, and you?" and they just keep the head down scanning the stuff, just like a biological robot.
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Mar 6, 2013 11:10
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Omgbees posted:It's the same as at the supermarket when they say "how are you today?" and you respond "good thanks, and you?" and they just keep the head down scanning the stuff, just like a biological robot. I get a lot of "My name is <blah> how are you *no break* my issue is..." Don't ask me how I am if you're not going to let me answer.
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Mar 6, 2013 15:46
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Gothmog1065 posted:I get a lot of "My name is <blah> how are you *no break* my issue is..." I hate the ones who get pissy everytime I ask for information to access their accounts. I can only imagine them at the doctor: "So, what seems to be the problem, what are you symptoms?" "NONE OF YOUR loving BUSINESS"
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Mar 7, 2013 13:55
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Boomer The Cannon posted:In my experience that's more of an ESL thing. quote:I hate the ones who get pissy everytime I ask for information to access their accounts. I can only imagine them at the doctor: "Well you're the expert, you figure it out."
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Mar 7, 2013 20:09
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Gothmog1065 posted:"Well you're the expert, you figure it out." Or worse, after they finally describe the problem and you tell them the solution: "That won't work. No, I haven't tried it yet. No, I won't try it now, because I know it won't work." They should at least assume that the people who have dealt with their issue a thousand times, and who they are calling for help, might know slightly more about it than them. If they're not going to listen, why are they calling?
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Mar 8, 2013 02:16
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I work in a department that is basically a mix of escalations, weird cases that just need to be babysat and questions from internal reps. I have had borrowers tell me that they hope that I get hit by a bus, that I get raped, that I get killed, that I go bankrupt, you name it and I will take it. I just go into a monotone, calm voice, do what I can, and let them know when I can't do anything else. But the internal reps... I just have no patience. I'm sorry, but after a year working here you should know how interest accrues. You should know better than to hoist calls onto me to improve your metrics when it's an issue that I do not need to take. If I give you an answer, it's because it's the right one, I promise. You don't need to call right back to ask one of my coworkers who will give you the exact same answer. And the questions have been even worse lately. Everyone has a minimum of 5 hours of overtime with some insane bonuses for working more, so everyone is working nonstop and is fried. Add a very rough new training class, non stop calls and a new policy when people who've verified their info more than a certain amount of times in a week they get automatically routed to my small department, and... god drat, it's a warzone. Before, we'd take these horrendous calls but we'd have some downtime in between to get our sanity back. Now, we have people taking time from their work to answer incredibly basic questions to needy people who don't stop calling in, and there's no end in sight. I was pulling 230% efficiency for 3 weeks solid till I broke down after getting a complaint that I was too curt to an internal rep. Now, I'm not caring if a call is waiting in our queue. I'm finishing notating my calls fully before moving in to the next one. And god drat, but is my attitude ever better. I'm still pulling 170% efficiency, but I'm not pulling the hero poo poo anymore. If they want me to do the work of 2 people, they can pay me two people's salaries. That being said, I am checking internal job postings every two seconds till a job comes up that's off the phones. I like my employer, but my sanity just can't any more phones. Also, my vote for the worst type of caller is the type that talk over you nonstop, and then when you try to get a word in edgewise, rage about how you just won't let them talk. Actually, I can help you, and if you'd let me talk for a moment then we can both go our separate ways. Or you can keep talking for 20 more minutes, yell at me for not helping you and hang up on me. Do what you gotta do.
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Mar 8, 2013 03:52
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I am down to the final two for the trainer position at my company. Pray for me, fellow call center goons. I might just have my ticket off the phones for good here.
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Mar 8, 2013 04:34
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Oh god, I almost forgot. We're contracted by the federal government. The federal government takes people's privacy very, very seriously. So when people call in, they need to verify their ssn and their full date of birth. This is not a question. And yet, I actually had my second conversation with a lovely individual about how we need that information. And this happened.  'So are you saying that your policy is above customer service?!' 'Sir, this is federal law. If I released account information without verifying that you are this borrower, I would be breaking federal law.' 'Then your policy of following federal law is more important that customer service? I bet you won't even admit to that.' 'I can safely say that our policy of following the law is more important that how you feel about your customer service. Absolutely.' 'Well as a small business owner, I would NEVER put following federal law above customer service!' This conversation went along the same line for 20 more minutes. How dare we follow the law. Effexxor fucked around with this message at 05:15 on Mar 8, 2013 |
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Mar 8, 2013 05:10
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Effexxor posted:Also, my vote for the worst type of caller is the type that talk over you nonstop, and then when you try to get a word in edgewise, rage about how
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Mar 8, 2013 08:53
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