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**bainsidhe** · 05-27-2009, 05:33 AM

Gaaaaah! The "put me on hold while I take another call people"! Feel my fury!!! This also applies if I answer the phone and I'm listening to hold music. So sad, you just lost your place in line.

I don't usually field the loan cold-calls. I get quite a bit for free magazine renewals (no, person X does NOT have a secretary and I am customer service, meaning you are taking up our customer line and my time) and copy machine pitches. I hate the copy machine pitches. We have a contract already, it is NOT with you, and asking snottily if I am the descision maker when I tell you that is not going to put you on my good side. Grrr.

**bean** · 05-27-2009, 07:12 AM

The ones I hate most are collection calls.

Seriously fucktards, this is a BUSINESS phone you're calling. No, I will not transfer you to that person without you telling me what department they're in. No, I have no idea who you're talking about, I already told you we have nearly 300 employees in the store.

No, I will not put you through to HR, they're going to tell you said employee can't get personal calls at work. Just like I already did. And they're going to send you right back to me, where I'm going to repeat the same thing. Chances are the person you're looking for doesn't even work here anymore and probably hasn't in years, that's what you get for buying bad debt.

Although I did chuckle when I got a bill collector calling for, uhm, me.

Me: "Thank you for calling XYZ, this is Bean, how may I direct your call?"

Them: "Bean? Bean Smith?"

Me: "No sir, Bean Jones. What department does Bean Smith work in, I'll try to connect you?"

Them: "I need to speak with Bean Smith regarding a personal matter."

Me: "I'm sorry, without a department I can't connect you, we have several hundred employees in this building and you're calling a place of business. If this is a personal call, please call them at home."

Them: "Can I speak to HR?"

Me: "No. You just told me it's a personal call, they're not allowed to get personal calls here. Stop calling here, you're tying up our business lines. Goodbye."

edit: I probably get 20-30 collection calls a day, another 30+ hangup calls, and a handful of telemarketers. The rest are legitimate customer calls or otherwise business calls. Not in a call center, I just answer a REALLY busy grocery store phone. The owner of the shopping strip called today to let us know our mailbox had been knocked down, and he turned into a huge asshole when I refused to connect him to the store manager (how many ways do I have to tell you HE'S IN A MEETING WITH REGIONAL?!?!?? SO ARE ALL THE OTHER MANAGERS! You've got me, deal with it). He finally showed up in person, and I was at the customer service desk when he got there, so he didn't get any further than a supervisor above me.

**Blade_Raver** · 05-27-2009, 07:16 AM

If people put me on hold, and there's calls in queue, I'll hang up on them.

My favorite is when they call me and when I pick up I immediately hear hold music..

Me: Opening line
if no response, then I'll +++ATH
NO CARRIER
(Hang up phone)

**SilverOrb** · 05-27-2009, 03:16 PM

We have been told by management that we have permission to hang up if we are ever put on hold. I usually give like 30 second before I hang up if it isn't busy... But If I pick up and the voice is automated or the line is ringing or there is hold music... See ya!

**CrazedClerkthe2nd** · 05-27-2009, 05:07 PM

When I did the call center thing, we gave...I want to say it was around 20 seconds before hanging up if a line went dead or we heard hold music.

I get a lot of collection calls at work too. I guess since our number is on all our business cards, customers use it as their personal number to avoid the nasty calls.

**Sliceanddice** · 05-27-2009, 05:39 PM

at my call center we actually had a policy if you have no responce after three attempts you hang up, made people who put on hold fun

**Andara Bledin** · 05-27-2009, 08:18 PM

When I was still working reception here, I made it a personal policy that if there wasn't a person on the phone before I got done with my greeting, it got disconnected. My favorite were always the "Your call is very important to us" automated messages from cold-call centers. Sorry, but if it was that important, you'd have a human on the other end when I picked up the phone.

Also, as we're a small company, I was the gateway to anyone inside. If you had a legitimate call, I'd let you through, but if you said you were "an old friend" but wouldn't give me a name, you weren't getting through. The boss' time is valuable, and lying cold-calling salespeople weren't on the agenda. Anyone else that wanted to try to sell us on something was offerend the fax number or the mailing address.

I once had some scummy salestroll claiming to be "an old friend" and refusing to give their name who just wouldn't give up on the story. So I passed them to another person who also wasn't the boss and she played with them for another 10 or 15 minutes while I answered more important calls. I think they finally got the message, though, and gave up.

^-.-^

**sirwired** · 05-27-2009, 08:31 PM

I work as a peon for a company with nearly 400,000 employees in every corner of the globe, so when I get calls asking me to move my company's long distance service, I just bust out laughing. I'm not sure the company CTO would be very happy with that.

The kicker is that my company owns three entire exchanges in this area code... every phone line belonging to the company in this area goes through those exchanges, and there isn't anybody else on them. it's not as if avoiding calling anybody that works for my company is that hard.

SirWired

**Moggie** · 05-27-2009, 10:02 PM

I used to regularly get calls for one of my managers wanting to sell him shares in random things. I understood (and avoided) the calls about land, mineral rights, and energy companies. I never did get the people who were selling shares in movies to understand he wasn't interested though.
All the others I could say "just send him the brochure" and they'd give up. The movie people refused to hang up until they had explained the *entire* plot, all the side plots, the relative age and sexiness of the actors involved and the sheer staggering amount of money that he could make from putting in on this independent film.
After awhile I just started critiquing the performance of the pitch and they'd give up then too.

**Bramblerose** · 05-27-2009, 11:48 PM

Quoth Basher View Post

Ring. Hello, A123StuffStore, howcanIhelpyooo?
Mr. Capital: "Can I speak to the owner?"
Me: "What is this regarding, please?"
Mr. Capital: "I am calling today to offer you a low-interest business loan to capitalize your next expansion."

OH, that was easy when I worked retail last-

"I'm sorry, you'll have to call national for that. I think they're in New York."

**freeatlast** · 05-28-2009, 01:39 AM

Back in my days at the Call Center from Hell, if I answered a call and heard hold music I would instantly hang up. I figured that if they needed to speak to me that badly, they would be waiting when I answered. If not, there was usually 100+ other people waiting on hold that would be available to speak to me. And those idiots who would call without blocking the call waiting first got on my nerves. If I am making any type of business call, I always block the call waiting before dialing. Those who were calling from work to avoid paying for the call (no - we did not have a toll-free #) would be hung up on after 30 seconds if they place me on hold to answer another call.

**Peppergirl** · 05-28-2009, 03:45 AM

One of my personal faves in the call center is picking up and hearing them futzing around on speaker, but not answering me when I say my spiel, plus another 'hello?'.

It gives me GREAT satisfaction to hang up on speaker phone assholes. Speaker is great and understandable if you're on hold for awhile, but most of these idiots are on hold a max of 30 seconds.

**Andara Bledin** · 05-28-2009, 04:40 PM

Quoth Peppergirl View Post

It gives me GREAT satisfaction to hang up on speaker phone assholes. Speaker is great and understandable if you're on hold for awhile, but most of these idiots are on hold a max of 30 seconds.

Urgh! I hate speaker phones.

You'd think, by this day and age, they'd come up with some way for it to work 2-way and not have that huge block of silence bracketing every noise.

The worst are the people who have a ton of background noise, so no matter if you were screaming, they'd still never hear it, because they'd be broadcasting constantly. I refused to ever raise my voice for someone on a speaker; I'm sorry you couldn't hear me, but if you can't hold the phone, then please go to a less noisy location, or get a headset.

^-.-^

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