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  • #1

    Call Center Stories...

    I've got a million of them to keep this board filled for a while...sadly once I find my mind and can remember all the horrors that I have to put up with I will GLADLY tell them all.

    Now I worked for a call center that handles several different compaines as a 3rd party call center, we handled everything thing from magazine subscriptions to debt collections...I worked for a department that handled credit card claims for a national Bank (no I won't put the name of said bank since I don't know if I can).

    Here is a PRIME example of a typical call...

    ME
    SC (sucky caller)

    Me: (Opening spiel here, including my first name only since I refuse to give my full name)
    SC: whats your name again?
    Me: (gives first name a bit more clearly)
    SC: Yeah, I don't recognize this charge on my account.
    ME: Have you tried contacting *insert said company name here*
    SC: No, I want you to stop the charge first.
    ME: ~twitching slightly as this is probably the 50th call I've gotten like this already...and its only 9am...and I started at 8~ I'm sorry sir it is against company policy to stop charges, you will have to contact the company first and try and work it out. (please note that I even took the time to reread the company policy and ask supervisors about it too)
    SC: fine whats the number for the (insert store name here)...
    ME: ~politly recites the number to said customer which is plainly written on the bill~
    SC: wait thats what that number is? I though it was just some kinda freaky number they throw on to confuse me (yes that is a direct quote).
    ME: ~still trying to be polite while ~ yes sir/ma'am/asshat, if they still won't resolve this problem please feel free to call back, but we can't do anything until you have made an attempt to contact them.
    SC: ~suddenly realizing what I just said~ well I did try contacting them and they told me to contact you...
    ME: ~ still continuing~ and how did they plan to resolve it sir/ma'am/asshat
    SC: they said they would look into it and find out what happened, but in the mean time I want the charge stopped.
    ME: I'm sorry sir/ma'am/asshat we have to give them a chance to resolve it on their end before we can do anything...~begins to recite in SIMPLE language what his time limit was...which btw is PLENTY of time for the company to do its digging and reverse charges~

    Lather rinse repeat for 5 8hour shifts...mondays were fun...its like they held it in ALL weekend just so that the person they call will jump to their whim and whine when it will take up to 3 months to be completed on either end.

    anyone seen my mind? its run off with my sanity...I'm REALLY glad I left that place...
    It is by snark alone I set my mind in motion. It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire 'tude, the lips acquire mouthiness, the glares become a warning.
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  • #2
    Our call center lost phones for 7 hours today when a nearby construction crew sliced into the fiber optic cable for the town. It was blissful! Sat in a largely deserted call center and dealt with company email inquiries between online gaming bouts.
    "No, I will not poop a shopping cart out for you." - Irving Patrick Freleigh

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    • #3
      Quoth calulu View Post
      Our call center lost phones for 7 hours today when a nearby construction crew sliced into the fiber optic cable for the town.
      Gotta love that backhoe. Damn, we used to have an ascii art backhoe for such occasions.

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      • #4
        Quoth calulu View Post
        Our call center lost phones for 7 hours today when a nearby construction crew sliced into the fiber optic cable for the town. It was blissful! Sat in a largely deserted call center and dealt with company email inquiries between online gaming bouts.
        Used to happen al the time with Internet connections when I was in school. One of the main trunks for computer network traffic ran very close to I-70, and the road crews would lop it in half with alarming regularity. This was back when online gaming was limited to MUDing, though.
        The Rich keep getting richer because they keep doing what it was that made them rich. Ditto the Poor.
        "Hy kan tell dey is schmot qvestions, dey is makink my head hurt."
        Hoc spatio locantur.

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        • #5
          Oh the dregs of human society us call center employees must deal with. Why do people insist on thinking that just because I'm a just a 'voice on the phone,' that I'm going to put up with not being treated like anything else but a human being?

          One of these days I'm finally gonna figure out how to 'force-choke' people over the phone...
          Some people are like slinkies,
          They don't really serve a purpose,
          But they still bring a smile to your face
          When you push them down the stairs.

          Comment

          • #6
            Quoth LambChop View Post
            One of these days I'm finally gonna figure out how to 'force-choke' people over the phone...
            i think its *SC

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            • #7
              Quoth Cyphr View Post
              i think its *SC
              XD *half-tempted to try it*
              Some people are like slinkies,
              They don't really serve a purpose,
              But they still bring a smile to your face
              When you push them down the stairs.

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              • #8
                Quoth calulu View Post
                Our call center lost phones for 7 hours today when a nearby construction crew sliced into the fiber optic cable for the town. It was blissful!


                While I understand that what we do is important/critical in my call center (working with emergency radio equipment, for one), I wish things like that would happen sometimes, when the idiots get a bit punchy. Unfortunately, we have something like 38 back up systems, and 2 back up locations off-site....so that will never happen. And anytime something goes wrong, that usually just means I get to come in on my day off to help out and run queries.

                And to Sarlon - don't you love when they change their story midway through the call? When all of a sudden in the middle of the call they "remember" that they did do the thing they initially said that they didn't, because you tell them that you can't proceed until they do that thing. Convenient, eh?
                "In the end I was the mean girl/or somebody's in between girl"~Neko Case

                “You don't need many words if you already know what you're talking about.” ~William Stafford

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                • #9
                  Quoth LambChop View Post
                  Why do people insist on thinking that just because I'm a just a 'voice on the phone,' that I'm going to put up with not being treated like anything else but a human being?
                  I know someone already mentioned this on this forum, but that would be due to the I-It mentality some people posess. It's easy to forget the person belonging to the voice on the other end of a phone has feelings and a brain, when said person isn't visible. Same thing as cyber bullying.

                  It's the same mentality that causes some people to speed up when they see a pedastrian in the cross walk. Why should they wait for a puny human when they are comfortably wrapped in 4,000 pounds of steel?

                  It's also a sign of sociopathy.
                  Just because a customer expects you to put some effort into your job, that does not make them an SC.

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                  • #10
                    Quoth Sarlon View Post
                    ME: ~yes sir/ma'am/asshat, if they still won't resolve this problem please feel free to call back, but we can't do anything until you have made an attempt to contact them.
                    SC: ~well I did try contacting them and they told me to contact you...
                    Only once did I first contact my credit card company, and since then when I was told to contact the place of business first, that is exactly what I have done.

                    I have had an issue four times with two different hotel chains where I had to cancel my reservation, and did so in plenty of time before their deadline policy. Each and every time, the issue was resolved in about a month (irritating, but you have to be patient), and not one time did either of these hotel chains tell me to call my credit card company first. So, this line of "They told me to contact you" usually comes up after the SC realizes they just wasted five precious minutes of their sorry lives and now have to do it with someone else. I'm surprised he didn't request your supervisor, like they all do.

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                    • #11
                      I work at a call centre booking outpatient appointments for NHS hospitals (that sounds so much fun doesn't it).
                      All weekend we had technical problems meaning that calls took longer and very few bookings went through. This was manageable though, all we have to do is ask people to call back (after explaining why of course).
                      What makes it bad is that people don't listen or read. So many people phone up without their password and unlike many companies we have no other method of verifying a patient, we MUST have the password. It states this on the Appointment Request letters, reminder letters (if received) and in the prerecorded message before you speak to a 'person'. I am still saddened by the number of people get as far as talking to me then say that they don't know / remember / have / want / need a password.
                      The only thing worse is when the doctors themselves don't understand the system (doctors who earn roughly 10 times my salary)

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