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Effexxor posted:I ope not for his sake. I've heard horror stories about that place. I had to call into them once with a borrower and basically had to save the poor kid on the other line when he clearly did not have enough training. This same center had Apple contracts too. The people there were no happier, but at least had <2yo Mac's so they didn't complain about slow systems. God that was horrid. I was only there 6 weeks I believe, and I was fired for being sick 3 days in a row. Even though the attendance policy allowed sick days. Granted, I had a new job before I called in sick... SiGmA_X fucked around with this message at 04:42 on Dec 2, 2014 |
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Dec 2, 2014 04:39
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Yeah, I have fixed more mistakes because of ACS/Xerox than I'd really like to think about. That call though... I'd had this lady who was as mad as a wet cat. She was furious because a payment had been misapplied there before getting transferred to us and we couldn't fix it, ACS had to send the change in loan amounts to us. I could see that she'd been getting the runaround from the history notes we got from the other servicer and felt bad, and when she got done venting and started to like me, she asked if I'd call into them with her. I figured that it would probably help comprehension if I called with her, so we did a three way call. The guy was nice and he knew some basic things, but he was waaaay out of his level with this lady. He kept interrupting her, though in the most endearing way I'd ever heard, and he just did not have information on the kind of high level stuff we were talking about. So she asked him to talk to a supervisor. He put us on hold for five minutes and then.... came back, said that they couldn't do what I knew, and she knew, they could. They argued, she asked for a supervisor again, he put us on hold again and yet again, his supervisor refused to take the call and sent this poor kid back onto the battleground that was this now irate borrower. I hated it when third parties called in with a borrower and took control of the call. With a passion. But this call had gone on for an hour and thirty minutes and this kid was getting no help from his supervisor and we weren't going anywhere. So I stepped in. They had to buy our system, since their old one was that bad, and I had him go directly to where the nitty gritty of the interest info was on the loans, and used that info to convince this woman that she saved money leaving everything as is and spun it as a good thing. She was thrilled by the end of the call and the poor guy finally got off the phone. What horrified me was the fact that this kid went to a supervisor not once, but twice with someone who was very escalated with a history of escalation and they refused to take the call. When you're in a job to take escalations? loving take them. The fact that they just left this guy hanging left a horrible taste in my mouth. Then there was the other time I called in with another borrower and the supervisor flat out hung up on us when the borrower wasn't even that bad, just teary and upset. After the supervisor had hung up on us, I called the woman right back and she was flat out bawling on the phone to me about how frustrating this all was and how much she dreaded dealing with them. I got my higher ups to listen to that call and the poo poo this woman was going through and that got them to bend our rules and allow this one off to go through. The call was just that bad. Seriously, that company needs some serious help. Edit: Oh, and there was the time that we got a loan where a refund had been requested a year before and they just sent us a letter going 'oh yeah, you should probably refund that out to him.' When I got the guy his refund within three weeks of being with us, I thought he was going to faint. His history from them was just a compendium of 'hey, where's my refund?' 'it'll get sent soon' 'hey, where is my refund?' 'calm down, it'll be sent out soon'. Effexxor fucked around with this message at 05:23 on Dec 2, 2014 |
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Dec 2, 2014 05:19
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So I just did their typing test. It required double space after each period. Gah.
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Dec 2, 2014 06:38
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Effexxor posted:*call center antics* That sounds hilarious. I just worked with the technical fruit portion of Xerox though, it wasn't nearly as bad as what you are describing.
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Dec 2, 2014 07:07
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The best call centre antics I encountered was at Teletech, where one of my fellow prisoners was mere days away from escape and no longer gave a gently caress. It was glorious - he would make his sales calls in celebrity voices, and he was pretty good. It was amazing to see him try to convince people that yes, he really was David Beckham or whoever, and that he was working in a call centre for charity or something. Other times he would just be brutally honest. "Well sir, they told us to tell you that the policy is underwritten by Nat West, but we can't find anything proving that, and no-one we call at NatWest has any idea who we are." The way the QAs worked, he would be well and truly gone by the time the calls came up for review.
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Dec 4, 2014 11:11
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Teletech is the Kevin Bacon of call centres.
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Dec 4, 2014 12:09
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I work at a call center where my primary job is relaying messages from nurses to doctors for a few big hospitals. Which is easy peasy. But we answer for thousands of accounts and the other heft of the job is saying "I'm sorry but the office has closed for the day. Would you like me to take a message?" And people yelling at me like it's my fault they can't be catered to 24/7. Like, it's 2 am of loving course Jim from Jim's Fence Company isn't up and at the phone right now. You moron. But sure lets talk about it for 4 minutes. All while being expected to take 40 calls an hour with a 20 minute break. Whatever. We also answer for a private investigator which is equally entertaining and frustrating.
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Dec 4, 2014 12:41
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I'm working at a home warranty company, and home owners who have home warranties are basically the most entitled motherfuckers I've ever encountered.
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Dec 4, 2014 16:13
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modeski posted:Other times he would just be brutally honest. "Well sir, they told us to tell you that the policy is underwritten by Nat West, but we can't find anything proving that, and no-one we call at NatWest has any idea who we are." The way the QAs worked, he would be well and truly gone by the time the calls came up for review. Sadly if you could do this in a call centre is would make everyone on earth happier. Everyone get's real answers to their questions and employees don't want to kill themselves.
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Dec 4, 2014 21:00
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sbaldrick posted:Sadly if you could do this in a call centre is would make everyone on earth happier. Everyone get's real answers to their questions and employees don't want to kill themselves. That would be call centre utopia! It would also be an amazing selling point for your company if your customer service people were empowered to tell the truth. Sadly, the sort of companies who'd benefit most from that sort of approach are the ones with the shittest structure and products. Telcos, banks etc.
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Dec 5, 2014 11:15
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My coworker just got fired in the most spectacular fashion. I work in a multi campaign twenty four hour place and I work nights. One of the campaigns the company does is one that sends out information packs for retirement homes and it is mostly amiable enough, although calls are rare. The way the campaign is set up, you input the customers details in and press send at the end. There is also another button just in case the customer decides not to order the pack, just a generic exit button. As they are next to each other, guess which one my coworker accidentally clicked when she had named the customer 'Mr Twatface' after a particularly grumpy customer decided not to order?
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Dec 8, 2014 05:08
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"Oh dear, I'm so sorry. I was filling in an order for our regular customer, Richard Twatface, and put your email address in by mistake!  "
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Dec 8, 2014 05:34
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Operation Juicebox posted:My coworker just got fired in the most spectacular fashion. I work in a multi campaign twenty four hour place and I work nights. One of the campaigns the company does is one that sends out information packs for retirement homes and it is mostly amiable enough, although calls are rare. One thing I've learned, by having a customer overhear me call him a f'ing idiot, is that no matter how you might think you can get away with saying/typing/etc. your frustrations out, your better to just not do it at work period. There is 0 chance of getting in trouble for saying/typing something inappropriate if you just don't do it.
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Dec 8, 2014 15:18
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I lost a co-worker in a similar fashion, less accidental though. After a stressful call that ended in a hang up he renamed a customer's profiles "YOU SHOULD HAVE," "loving FOLLOWED," "MY INSTRUCTIONS," and "YOU STUPID BITCH." I stopped doing things like that after I forgot the mute button and said "I hate you" at full conversational volume to a customer who couldn't do something simple, thank god they were super old and didn't hear me. Just bottle it up and spray it all over strangers when you aren't at work. Inspector Hound fucked around with this message at 15:23 on Dec 8, 2014 |
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Dec 8, 2014 15:19
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jassi007 posted:...your better to just not do it at work period. There is 0 chance of getting in trouble for saying/typing something inappropriate if you just don't do it. Thanks for the advice/lame troll, corporate boy. War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength. -G. Orwell, 1984
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Dec 8, 2014 17:02
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hooliganesh posted:Thanks for the advice/lame troll, corporate boy. So it goes. -K. Vonnegut, Slaugterhouse-Five
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Dec 8, 2014 20:06
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I once ended a call like this Alright, thanks for your time. Don't call me ever again!*CLICK* ... ... ... rear end in a top hat.*CLICK* And it got picked up for QA. Luckily my QA guy had just found out his wife was pregnant and was in a good mood, so he let it slide.
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Dec 8, 2014 20:50
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"Tier 1 help desk" my recruiter tells me. Five years of help desk and I have been placed in an entry level customer service call center job.  they hold calls all day and the moron I'm shadowing with doesn't even know what SLA means let alone it's impact on his job. Hell is other people indeed.
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Dec 8, 2014 21:12
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I am so sorry that all of you are going through all of this. I've escaped call center work for about a year now (thanks to another goon funny enough) but I still remember how sad I constantly felt. Try to remember that anything you do to make it through to the next day is the most important thing. Learning new skills made me feel better, although I probably drank and ate more than I needed to. Try to fill your evenings/off-days with hobbies that give you a sense of accomplishment to cheer yourself up, even small things like reading threads on the forums.
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Dec 8, 2014 21:34
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legsarerequired posted:I am so sorry that all of you are going through all of this. I've escaped call center work for about a year now (thanks to another goon funny enough) but I still remember how sad I constantly felt. You have to make the most of your life. Being a callcenter drone is great for some people, but its not the best most people can do. I really suggest a gym membership (mine was free - school had an amazing one!) and honing in your skills so you can launch a career vs have a job.
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Dec 8, 2014 22:30
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Speaking of losing your job in funny ways:my cousin had an outbound job selling insurance or something over the phone. He decided this was stupid and would rather join the army. A week or so before he was shipped off to basic he spent an entire day calling people, telling them they had won something massive like millions of dollars, a few jet skis or my personal favorite, their own private 747 jet, and then he would put them on hold. He had 10-12 calls on hold at his desk when he left that day. People just would not hang up. About half way through his next shift he was doing it again when his manager came up and he just disconnected his poo poo and said, "Yeah yeah I know I should probably leave." He's my hero. As a side note, my work is a glorified paging service and we used to have these "send to" spots at the top of our tickets. Well the doctors we sent the messages to never saw them so doctors with a bad rep would have "send to Dr rear end in a top hat". This was the height of comedy around here until we updated the system and all of a sudden doctors could see the send to spot. Thanks a lot Dr Shitcanned. RiP most of the old day shift.
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Dec 9, 2014 00:13
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hooliganesh posted:Thanks for the advice/lame troll, corporate boy. He gazed up at the motivational poster. Forty years it had taken him to learn what kind of truth was hidden beneath the bland aphorism. O cruel, needless misunderstanding! O stubborn, self-willed exile from the loving breast! Two coffee-scented tears trickled down the sides of his nose. But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved QA.
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Dec 9, 2014 01:11
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sullat posted:He gazed up at the motivational poster. Forty years it had taken him to learn what kind of truth was hidden beneath the bland aphorism. O cruel, needless misunderstanding! O stubborn, self-willed exile from the loving breast! Two coffee-scented tears trickled down the sides of his nose. But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved QA. Brilliant. It's been 13 months since I escaped, and I still think about it a lot. I told a few of my former co-workers about the ethics helpline for reporting decisions that violate labor laws, but they all seem afraid to call. I never called about things that affected me personally, but surely it could be good for reporting things that affect the whole center...
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Dec 11, 2014 04:26
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Inspector Hound posted:I lost a co-worker in a similar fashion, less accidental though. After a stressful call that ended in a hang up he renamed a customer's profiles "YOU SHOULD HAVE," "loving FOLLOWED," "MY INSTRUCTIONS," and "YOU STUPID BITCH." The closest I ever came to getting myself fired for behavior on a call with a customer was when I was working for a sweatshop Verizon call center and was dealing with an aggressively shitheaded rear end in a top hat who couldn't get his point across without screaming. I'd been doing 10-15 hours of mandatory overtime a week for about 6 months at this point, so I deliberately pushed his buttons on the call until he hung up, called him back, and deliberately pushed his buttons some more. He hung up on me. Then I called him back, and, between (unmuted) giggles, pretended not to realize he hung up on me, inquiring if he'd just entered a tunnel by mistake or perhaps he'd accidentally hit end call? I think I might have even deliberately insulted him at this point, I was pretty disillusioned with the job. After more frothing anger and a third hang up, my manager pulled me aside for a QA "on your last call". He thought I had "some tone issues", but "It was good that you called them back". He thought the call was over after the second hangup and ended the recording before I made the second callback. Man, I was sweating bullets through that QA session. Mirthless fucked around with this message at 03:16 on Dec 12, 2014 |
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Dec 12, 2014 03:13
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There was a way you could cut off calls without it being obvious at my place so most people used it occasionally. So anyway, one time this woman called and asked me "how come it says this or that thing," so I started explaining what it meant and she cut me off to say "I don't care!" and going on. So I said "So if you don't care, then why are you calling and asking me?" and when she started answering I hung up on her. Probably my fondest memory of working at a call center. It was grounds for immediate firing and all that but man oh man did hanging up on abusive callers make the job easier.
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Dec 13, 2014 07:40
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RICHUNCLEPENNYBAGS posted:There was a way you could cut off calls without it being obvious at my place so most people used it occasionally. We could do this by pulling apart the connector where the mute switch connects to the headset.
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Dec 13, 2014 07:52
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Mirthless posted:The closest I ever came to getting myself fired for behavior on a call with a customer was when I was working for a sweatshop Verizon call center and was dealing with an aggressively shitheaded rear end in a top hat who couldn't get his point across without screaming. I'd been doing 10-15 hours of mandatory overtime a week for about 6 months at this point, so I deliberately pushed his buttons on the call until he hung up, called him back, and deliberately pushed his buttons some more. He hung up on me. Then I called him back, and, between (unmuted) giggles, pretended not to realize he hung up on me, inquiring if he'd just entered a tunnel by mistake or perhaps he'd accidentally hit end call? I think I might have even deliberately insulted him at this point, I was pretty disillusioned with the job. After more frothing anger and a third hang up, my manager pulled me aside for a QA "on your last call". He thought I had "some tone issues", but "It was good that you called them back". He thought the call was over after the second hangup and ended the recording before I made the second callback. Man, I was sweating bullets through that QA session. The closest I got was a woman who called on a Friday at like, 4:55PM. She was screaming at us to come fix her internet. Okay, we go through troubleshooting. It's a no sync, a tech is gonna have to come out. I explain this, that they will likely come out Monday at the earliest and needed some details (address, best times, blah blah blah). She promptly freaks out, and goes on and on about OH MY GOD! What are her kids going to do all weekend!? She had her KIDS this weekend. Her CHILDREN NEED the internet! WON'T SOMEBODY THINK OF THE CHILDREN!? This goes on for about 15 minutes. I somehow pried out her details in the midst of it all. So then she pointedly asks me what she's going to do this weekend? What can she do about her kids?! ... It was this surreal moment like when you spill something important and watch it splatter all over in front of you. And there's not a drat thing you can do about it. But you watch intently, in horror as it all unfolds in front of you. Training to hold yourself steady, to hold your tongue and check your pride as a human being (and dignity! We are not slaves!) all go out the window in that one moment. I quietly replied, "Why not pay attention to them?" I really didn't even sound mean. It just sort of fell out. The line went DEAD SILENT. Then a click. I felt this sense of horror, dread and relief. Hey, if I got fired... I wouldn't have to do this anymore. If I didn't, well. Then I noticed the supervisor down at the end of the stations looking at me strangely. I got an IM on pidgin that he was sympathetic and tempted to say the same thing, but don't do that again.
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Dec 14, 2014 00:55
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Aerofallosov posted:I got an IM on pidgin that he was sympathetic and tempted to say the same thing, but don't do that again. Buy that man a beer. That job might not be a keeper but your boss is.
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Dec 14, 2014 01:35
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Aerofallosov posted:The closest I got was a woman who called on a Friday at like, 4:55PM. She was screaming at us to come fix her internet. Okay, we go through troubleshooting. It's a no sync, a tech is gonna have to come out. I explain this, that they will likely come out Monday at the earliest and needed some details (address, best times, blah blah blah). She promptly freaks out, and goes on and on about OH MY GOD! What are her kids going to do all weekend!? She had her KIDS this weekend. Her CHILDREN NEED the internet! WON'T SOMEBODY THINK OF THE CHILDREN!? This goes on for about 15 minutes. I somehow pried out her details in the midst of it all. So then she pointedly asks me what she's going to do this weekend? What can she do about her kids?! *Some people were huge pushovers and went on about how their own kids couldn't manage without the Netfucks either, and blah. gently caress call centers. I'm glad you told her how you feel!
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Dec 14, 2014 07:08
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Che Delilas posted:Buy that man a beer. That job might not be a keeper but your boss is. Haha, yeah. He was a fast food run buddy and he was awesome. He ended up getting an awesome job supervising elsewhere. SiGmA_X posted:This happened ALL THE TIME at Netflix. It was freaking amazing. Most of us would say something along the lines of "well back in my day, and surely yours, we didn't have internet as kids... So our parents did activities with us and we read and went outdoors!" or something like that. It was always pretty funny. It wasn't really intentional, but yeah. I was kind of shocked. If our TV went out or something and I wasn't already reading or off outside, I - went outside. I mean, I get living in an area where kids playing outside is a bad idea (ask me about living in LA around the time of Rodney King sometimes), but on the other hand - why not TV? Books? Arts and crafts? Family time? I donated most of the yarn I didn't sell to an afterschool thing for poor kids to have some fun (and yes, I am totally sympathetic but that's an E/N post in and of itself), and in a lot of places there's plenty of free little things like volunteering at the butterfly house. I can't imagine that much dependence on the internet being healthy, anyway. Especially not at a young age.
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Dec 14, 2014 12:45
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I have people who try to get me to escalate overtime/emergency service because their dishwashers aren't working. "What am I supposed to do!? I need a dishwsaher!" 
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Dec 14, 2014 13:35
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Loving Life Partner posted:I have people who try to get me to escalate overtime/emergency service because their dishwashers aren't working. "Oh, your hands are broken?" In other news, apparently working for the goverment here is pretty okay, decent pay and the customers aren't complete shitlords. So that's nice.
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Dec 14, 2014 23:20
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Well going in for an interview with a new company tomorrow and they stated that they use Star based questions. Never been in an interview that used that format, any tips?
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Dec 15, 2014 01:14
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Harminoff posted:Well going in for an interview with a new company tomorrow and they stated that they use Star based questions. Never been in an interview that used that format, any tips? Lots of stuff on Google. It's just an interview where the format of your answers is often times more important than the content. Common in terribly large companies with HR departments where the execs never hire anyone themselves.
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Dec 15, 2014 01:18
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Got an interview with SYKES at home, never done call center work. How badly will this suck?
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Dec 17, 2014 21:23
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Wizard of Smart posted:Got an interview with SYKES at home, never done call center work. How badly will this suck? Eh, It's work. you go there, wonder how people are such idiots for 5-8 hours, go back home, drink yourself to sleep. But honestly, callcenter jobs are't the worst job ever in the average case from my experience. it depends on the type of work(Inbound, yay. outbound, abandon all hope ye who enter here) and the company or org you work for. I currently work for the goverment and it's a pretty good deal so far after bout half a year in. Soooo, the imporatn question to you is what kind of job is it exactly?
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Dec 18, 2014 00:36
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Aerofallosov posted:I quietly replied, "Why not pay attention to them?" I really didn't even sound mean. It just sort of fell out. The line went DEAD SILENT. Then a click. I felt this sense of horror, dread and relief. Hey, if I got fired... I wouldn't have to do this anymore. If I didn't, well. Then I noticed the supervisor down at the end of the stations looking at me strangely. I got an IM on pidgin that he was sympathetic and tempted to say the same thing, but don't do that again. I had a call like this. Some dude calls and tells me his internet is out and he's been trying to fix it for 3 hours. I get it working in about 10 minutes and he asks for a credit. I told him I could give him a day's worth of credit (which is about $1.20) and apologized for the inconvenience. This loathsome motherfucker then says 'Well, I should've been doing things with my 5 year old son for the past 3 hours instead of fixing this, can you give me more credit for that?' and I couldn't have stopped myself if I tried. 'You're asking me to put a price on the time you spend with your son?' 'I think I'm entitled to it.' 'I think your son deserves more than I can give.' *click*That happened at least 6 years ago and I still get angry enough to grit my teeth when I think about it.
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Dec 18, 2014 10:34
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Wizard of Smart posted:Got an interview with SYKES at home, never done call center work. How badly will this suck? When I went to train a Sykes location not long ago, they were still using mice with balls and 14" CRT screens since their policy is not to replace equipment that isn't defective. They were in a "city" in the middle of nowhere with about 2000 people, since they got some sort of tax break there and the people were paid about €2000 per month. The doors at the call center were locked until 8 am, so if you came before, you had to stand outside in the cold. All the cubicles and furniture was old, gray and beige. Even if your coworkers are the nicest ever and the customers and phone work is nice, I would kill myself if I had to work in that environment and those conditions. It's one of the most depressing things I've ever seen.
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Dec 18, 2014 14:21
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AzMiLion posted:Eh, It's work. you go there, wonder how people are such idiots for 5-8 hours, go back home, drink yourself to sleep. evobatman posted:When I went to train a Sykes location not long ago, they were still using mice with balls and 14" CRT screens since their policy is not to replace equipment that isn't defective. They were in a "city" in the middle of nowhere with about 2000 people, since they got some sort of tax break there and the people were paid about €2000 per month. The doors at the call center were locked until 8 am, so if you came before, you had to stand outside in the cold. All the cubicles and furniture was old, gray and beige. It's online chat support for one of the big three phone carriers, and it's from home so I don't have to worry about outdated equipment. I gave it a night, and I think I'll do it. I mean, worst case it'll tide me over until something else comes along, right? ...right?
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Dec 18, 2014 18:45
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Wizard of Smart posted:It's online chat support for one of the big three phone carriers, and it's from home so I don't have to worry about outdated equipment. I gave it a night, and I think I'll do it. I mean, worst case it'll tide me over until something else comes along, right? ...right? Online chat support from home is very different from phone support in the beige dungeon of death, since you can do it without pants. What is your payment model? Do you get paid per case, per line you type, per hour or similar? What kind of metrics do you have to deliver on? Do they supply your equipment and internet connection at home, or reimburse you for using your own equipment? What happens if your internet goes down or your computer breaks and you can't chat?
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Dec 18, 2014 19:33
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