No, I cannot stay on the line while you hold another conversation!

[greensinestro]

Don't you just love the customers who call in to your call center while holding another conversation in the background? I get this every day, and it's becoming a real issue that hits a nerve lately. When this happens, these customers miss at least seventy per cent of the information you're giving them, making the call last at least three times the amount of time it should.

I had a gentleman today who needed help setting up his internet connection, yet I had to repeat the instructions almost five times before he got it right. Every time I told him what links to click and what to type in, he always ended up with errors. Yet, I got to listen to he and his wife bicker about the car insurance rates, how much the gas cost them that they put into their car earlier, when this man's mother was coming for a visit, how Junior's diaper needed to be changed, who was going to go grocery shopping later and at what store they would shop at..............DO I REALLY CARE ABOUT ALL OF THIS? And, then, just as I thought the call would end when we (finally) got the connection all set up, he had to test the connection first. While the connection was testing, I got to listen to him bitch about how slow the connection was, then he and the wife went into more about their household affairs, how long his mother was going to be staying with them, more about the price of gas in their car, and so on.

Look, if you are going to call me up for help, make sure you're either alone, or you have at least finished your ongoing conversation with your someone else before talking to me. After all, I have other customers to attend to.

[tollbaby]

*snicker* My mom does that to me all the time. She'll call me to ask about some bizarre thing my brother did to the computer, and the whole while I'm trying to help her, she'll be having a conversation with my dad about a dozen other things. I've told her that if she's going to continue to let my brother (who doesn't live at home anymore) continue to mess with the computer, then he can fix it for her

[Dips]

When this happens to me I very politely inform them if this isn't a good time to deal with whatever they are calling about, they are welcome to call again. We are open until 5.

It usually works pretty well, but one guy did get angry about my saying that. I just told him very calmly that I really couldn't do my job and help him without his full attention. He calmed right down and apologized.

These people are reason #78 we don't have a toll-free number. If you're going to waste time on the phone, you can pay for the call.

[greensinestro]

When this happens to me I very politely inform them if this isn't a good time to deal with whatever they are calling about, they are welcome to call again. We are open until 5.

It usually works pretty well, but one guy did get angry about my saying that. I just told him very calmly that I really couldn't do my job and help him without his full attention. He calmed right down and apologized.

These people are reason #78 we don't have a toll-free number. If you're going to waste time on the phone, you can pay for the call.

I have also done that, but yes, there are some who get nasty when you tell them that. I had a lady at Bellsouth who told me "I'll be only a moment" while she went to answer her cellular phone. That call lasted nearly ten minutes, and this woman could not even hear me saying anything to her thanks to her putting the phone down and walking to her cellular phone. What was worse was the fact that I was not allowed to simply hang up on this customer because I didn't feel like waiting for her to finish her other call. But, I got to hear all about her job, her deadlines, everything I didn't care about. She thought I was rude when I politely told her she could call us back at a better time, yet she didn't think it was rude to keep a rep waiting on the line for ten long minutes.

[Phone Jockey]

I had a silly one awhile back. A customer needed help with the digital converter box in his son's room. We were going to reboot it, so Dad goes up to Son's (teenager) room & asks him to reboot box. Son decides to mouth off to Dad who goes ballistic & starts telling me what a rotten kid he has. Son is trying to reboot box & Dad is threatening to take the box & not let the kid have it. Son finally reboots box & everything is fine, but the call ended with the dad telling me his kid was going to be grounded for a long time.

[AFpheonix]

If someone calls me and then proceeds to put me on hold, I have a habit of hanging up. I've got another line ringin' baby, and someone vulturing at the counter.



OT, but Tollbaby, I love Danae and her pony!

[pbmods]

I had a lady at Bellsouth who told me "I'll be only a moment" while she went to answer her cellular phone. That call lasted nearly ten minutes.... She thought I was rude when I politely told her she could call us back at a better time, yet she didn't think it was rude to keep a rep waiting on the line for ten long minutes.

I wonder if this was her way at getting back at Bellsouth for putting her in a hold queue instead of connecting her to a live person instantaneously. Not that she had a leg to stand on or anything, but customers + entitlement = redundancy.

[greensinestro]

It's been a while, but I had another incident like this. Took me thirty minutes for this woman to set up her dial up connection, all because she held, I kid you not, three additional conversations while talking to me. She had her co-worker in the background that she kept speaking to, then she had to answer her cell phone (which I got to listen to the entire conversation being she used the speaker phone), then she put me on hold to answer another phone call on another line, and finally, she answered the call waiting on the phone she spoke to me from. We could have had her computer set up in five minutes or less, but couldn't because she was in the middle of talking to multiple persons! To top it off, when I told her that perhaps it would be better for her to call us at a better time if she was that busy, she let me know that was rude of me to suggest that. How am I being rude to someone like this? Isn't it rude for one person you are speaking to not to let them have your undivided attention?

[powerboy]

Had one at Office Max when I worked there. I answered the phone, and the customer asked me how to do something with something, can't remember what right now. I knew how to do it, since I had done it a couple of days eariler. all the while of trying to explain things to him, his wife kept talking to him. I told him, that if it is not a good time, that he can call back, and I will tell him what to do. He told me that he was sorry, and that he will call back. Right after my break, he called, just as I was walking by the phone.