Annoying...

[BookstoreEscapee]

Not sure if this is really an SC story; from what I could gather it sounded like he had a fairly valid issue, something about being told something about a bill and a credit, and what he was told didn't happen. He wanted someone who could either make what he was told would happen, happen, or cancel the account. Either way, he didn't care. (I'm guessing it was about a satellite radio account for his car; I heard something about the car, something about radio, so two and two and all that.)

Anyway, so this guy who sits across the aisle and one cube over from me at work, was on the phone with some company, and he spoke to 2 different people. He asked each of them where in the world they were located, and I heard a comment about "the last person" being in Jamaica. I got the impression that whenever he speaks to people in call centers, he asks them this question. It sounded a bit "confrontational" at first, but it might just be the way he talks; later in the conversation it sounded like he was just curious.

[Geek King]

Anyway, so this guy who sits across the aisle and one cube over from me at work, was on the phone with some company, and he spoke to 2 different people. He asked each of them where in the world they were located, and I heard a comment about "the last person" being in Jamaica. I got the impression that whenever he speaks to people in call centers, he asks them this question. It sounded a bit "confrontational" at first, but it might just be the way he talks; later in the conversation it sounded like he was just curious.

The way he's asking it is confrontational, but I can understand why. Often times, outsourced support doesn't have authority to deal with financial issues, particularly credits. It would speed things along if he knew that the person he was talking to had the authority to take care of the problem.

I usually deal with this by asking staight off, "Can you credit $X.XX to this account if that is what is required?" Not telling them that this is what's going to happen, but I also want to make sure I'm not getting jerked around because they don't want to admit that they can't handle the issue at their call center. I always try to be polite about it though. I get better results that way.

[PepperElf]

i met a tech who would kinda do that for his computers. he knew a lot already, so for him to actually require their help meant there were some bigger issues, or he was trying to use the warrenty. for either case he'd just ask to get a level 2 tech right off the bat, cos he didn't want to fart around talking to the outsource techs discussing stuff he'd already tested.

now granted that was for computers and not financial issues...but i'm sure it's a similar setup. the outsource tech is the filter, screening out the small stuff, so only the serious issues go to the higher level techs. (course it doesn't always weed out the psychoscalls unfortunately)

[TryNotToBeThatOne]

I had a friend absolutely frothing after a computer issue. She works at a help desk, and while she's no computer whiz, she's a least a little savvy.

When her internet connection went kerflooey, she checked all the basics (cables firmly seated, cables in the right slots, etc). Then she emailed, from a different computer, detailing everything that she had already tried, vainly hoping to skip the usual barrage of questions by answering all the questions in the script.

Her reply? A copy & paste of the FAQ. Which did not answer her question.

Repeat, about 3 times with them not answering her question, not even adding anything to the email. Just hitting reply & send.

This is the same company that she sat, waiting to talk to a supervisor, until her cell phone battery died.

[Naaman]

Her reply? A copy & paste of the FAQ. Which did not answer her question.

Repeat, about 3 times with them not answering her question, not even adding anything to the email. Just hitting reply & send.

To be fair, the FAQ sorts out a lot of common issues albeit the software used to pick the keywords needs work. I talked many customers through 'problems' that were resolved by checking the first couple of things on the FAQ, despite how strenuously they said it had been followed.

Sending it three more times is inexcusable though