My supervisor is not a God!

[greensinestro]

Ah, the fun of working in a call center. I particularly love it when I get a customer that demands something that is way beyond my control, and when I advise them of this, they demand a supervisor. When I worked for Bellsouth, some of my favorites were the ones that requested a phone line, or wanted DSL, yet no facilities existed to provide the service in the speedy manner they wanted. Usually, if a customer wants a second phone line, facilities need to exist, or it has to be put into PF status, also known as pending facilities. Sometimes it can take weeks before this is resolved, or sometimes it may take no time at all if someone disconnects their line, freeing up that facility.

Yet, whenever you explained this to a customer, it 99% of the time turned into a supervisor call. Customers look at it that if they speak with a supervisor, that supervisor can just wave their magic wand and make phone facilities appear out of thin air. The same thing happens with areas where DSL cannot be provided. It takes millions of dollars to install the facilities, plus technicians have to work a while to get them installed. Also, if you do not have a residence within 22,000 feet of a central office, it is literally impossible (unless they have a new way around this). Again, no matter how you explained this in detail, customers would demand a supervisor, again under the impression that the supervisor could just magically make it possible for the impossible to happen.

So, as I think to myself but cannot say to my customers, my supervisor is not God! If he were, believe me, he would not be doing this line of business, nor would he be existing as a normal person, but as a deity.

[Becks]

If supervisors aren't God-like deities, can they be hobgoblins?

*ducking*

[Gurndigarn]

The same thing happens with areas where DSL cannot be provided. It takes millions of dollars to install the facilities, plus technicians have to work a while to get them installed. Also, if you do not have a residence within 22,000 feet of a central office, it is literally impossible

I have a quick question here. Do you have any idea roughly what population base is needed to make adding a new central office to an area (I'm assuming that "central office" is a specificly designed satellite location)? I (1) need more speed than dial-up offers, (2) want an alternative to cable modem, and (3) live in a villiage that doesn't have DSL yet. So I'ld like to know if I have any chance of seeing it. Especially since I keep getting fliers with my phone bill telling me just how wonderful it is...

Gotta love marketing at the new* AT&T.

* After it was purchased by one of it's progeny. The family trees of US telecommunications companies contain some rather weird forms of incest...

[BookstoreEscapee]

I had a customer like that in the bookstore. We were a test store for a new magazine gift subscription promotion, where you buy the subscription and the recipient gets to choose which magazine from the list in the box, then they send in their info to that magazine. They were a Christmas promotion, and then they were gone, at least from our store.

Had a woman months later asking about them. I was stocking supplies, so I was on the floor behind the cashwrap, and the girl helping her was new and therefore hadn't ever seen the promotion. I told the woman, twice, we only had them at Christmas, and she refused to believe me, saying she had just bought it a couple weeks before in our store. (Turns out it was in another branch. We don't always have the same stuff.) She insisted I call the manager, who I knew was eating her dinner. She listened to me ask the manager on the phone, I told her what the manager said, and she then insisted that I call her up to the register so she could ask herself. I was still kneeling on the floor, but she saw me roll my eyes. I couldn't help it. Then she yelled at me for rolling my eyes. As soon as the manager got there I walked away. Later I asked if she had complained about me and the manager rolled her eyes and said yes. And she finally ate her dinner.

Why do people think a manager can make something materialize out of thin air? And why, just because we had a special promo in the past, do they think it will always be there. I don't expect the phone people to give the deal they were running 6 months ago....

[pbmods]

If a customer were ever to pull that stunt in my lab, I would ask the customer, "And what did ______ (the tech) say about this? Well, then what do you need me for?"

Fortunately (or maybe unfortunately), I'm the only one who ever gets the difficult customers, so this situation has never come up

[SnapAddict218]

If a customer were ever to pull that stunt in my lab, I would ask the customer, "And what did ______ (the tech) say about this? Well, then what do you need me for?"
(

I've had a COOL supervisor that has said that before, and it usually shuts people up!

But yes, really people, WHY (especially in a case of selling more product) do you think I would tell you no? Just for the fun of it? Best one was at the warranty company when this asshat demanded that I either call my supervisor at home OR provide him with her cell number. He could not comprehend why I would do neither.

[Gravekeeper]

If supervisors aren't God-like deities, can they be hobgoblins?

*ducking*

I'm not a hobgoblin =/

I'm more of a Ringwraith. If you come near me with your problem after a coworker already told you no I'll hiss at you till you go away or I have to stab you in the chest.

[BusBus]

Most of the time that my coworkers get a "I want to speak to a supervisor", all I end up doing is repeating what my coworker said and they're happy (or have accepted defeat).

[Becks]

If you come near me with your problem after a coworker already told you no I'll hiss at you till you go away or I have to stab you in the chest.

With what kind of stabbing instrument? Shank? Shiv? Fork? Plastic straw? Pointy stick?

[Gravekeeper]

Someone keeps stealing all the pens AND forks at my office, so I guess the best I could muster right now is sort of unfolding a paper clip into a straight line and poking people viciously in the kidneys with it. -.-

[Der Cute]

try the eyeball. That way while writhing on the ground screaming "MY EYEEEEE" you can run away.

Cutenoob *whistles innocently*

[Becks]

Someone keeps stealing all the pens AND forks at my office, so I guess the best I could muster right now is sort of unfolding a paper clip into a straight line and poking people viciously in the kidneys with it. -.-

My sister can give you pointers on stabbing someone with a plastic straw and drawing blood.

[BookstoreEscapee]

With what kind of stabbing instrument? Shank? Shiv? Fork? Plastic straw? Pointy stick?

I prefer the spork. You can get a titanium one at thinkgeek.com

[faeriekawaii]

I work in a call center for a shoe company and I get the same thing when I explain to customers why their shoes are not going to ship, arrive or do anything short of sitting in a box over the weekend. "No, I cannot change company policy so that UPS will ship on Saturday for us just for you." And yet of course they want to speak to a supervisor because obviously supervisors have the ability to teleport and hand-deliver the customer's package.

[greensinestro]

I work in a call center for a shoe company and I get the same thing when I explain to customers why their shoes are not going to ship, arrive or do anything short of sitting in a box over the weekend. "No, I cannot change company policy so that UPS will ship on Saturday for us just for you." And yet of course they want to speak to a supervisor because obviously supervisors have the ability to teleport and hand-deliver the customer's package.

Yeah, not to mention your supervisor has total control over when UPS makes special deliveries!