More Call Center Crap

[CherryB]

It's amazing the crap we take at call centers isn't it? Even more amazing is that we take this crap on a daily basis and so far no one at my call center has gone postal.

I work in a call center selling and registering business software. I won't get more specific than that, but you have to register your software within 30 days. It's an attempt on our part to mitigate piracy, probably useless I know-but we have to take those calls when customer calls and help them register. We only get the stupid ones because everyone else with 2 brain cells to rub together just registers online.

I work with one of the nicest guys you could ever meet. He is gracious, polite and professional on the phone. He gets a call this afternoon, and the young "lady" ( no lady in my book) says "Yea-I gotta register this crappy software." Not a good start, but he makes a valiant attempt to get her info and get her registered. Our system was wonky today, so validations were taking a minute to process than normal. He explained that to her, thanked her for her patience and said "your validation will be up in just a moment." Someone in the background must have asked her what she was doing because she said (remember she was still on phone with my co worker) "Yea I am just waiting for this asshole to give me my number." Well, that pushed his butttons and I don't blame him! He said "Ma'am I heard that, and I don't appreciate being called names. I have been nothing but polite and respectful to you and I would appreciate you respecting me as well." She sputtered something about "you shouldn't have been listening to me" Isnt it even more amazing how ridiculous they get when you call them out on their behaviour? Anyway she snarled at him to hurry up with her number-and that's when he had enough. He just reached over and released the call! Enough is enough..lol

[chainedbarista]

fly little worthless sc, be free. cutting them loose is one of the few joys at your job, i'm guessing. anyone there would have more patience than i would; first jerk would get an earful and i'd be fired.

[Phone Jockey]

Oh dear, she sounds even worse than the ppl I get! That poor co-worker of yours! There's no excuse for her attitude. Good for him for calling that b*tch on it!

[Moirae]

Another gem of a person. Oh joy.

It's amazing the number of us that work in call centers and are on this site.

[Kiwi]

you guys are scaring me....

i start work at the call centre in 3 week.... tell me the majority of calls are ok and its only the occasional idiot

*crawls up in the corner looking scared*

[Crosshair]

Even better, if they complain they will listen to the tape and find that it was justified because of the SC being abusive.

[Actarus]

Oh the joy !

We get this kind of call from time to time over here too. I personnally had to do that twice already in the last 2 years.

The proceduce we respect here is we poitely as them to change their behavior. If they don't do in the next 10 seconds or so, we thank tehm for calling our helpdesk.

Sub's usually get the message.

[Phone Jockey]

you guys are scaring me....

i start work at the call centre in 3 week.... tell me the majority of calls are ok and its only the occasional idiot*

You decided to go for it, eh? Well, some of the calls are fine...I'm not sure if "occasional" is the right word. About 1/4 of my calls are chock full of idiocy.

Enjoy!

[tenzilkem]

Hope ya enjoy the job, call centers can be a pain, but are a lot of fun and usually the co-workers are wonderfully insane.

I tend to try to zone out the morons that call in, but occassionally you get some that are just....wow and have to say something about.

[Jester]

There is one major advantage to a call center over a retail/service job that I remember from my six month stint at 1-800-MAJOR HOTEL CHAIN:

You get to sit down.

Especially useful/welcome when you are hungover or still drunk from the night before.

NOT, of course, that *I* was ever in such a condition....

[BlaqueKatt]

Kiwi there is one other thing about a call center that places it about all other customer service jobs...there can be a million miles between you and said idiot. You can rest easy knowing that you will probably never come across this itiot in your daily life(unlike the SCs one deals with in a retail setting), so go ahead make faces at them over the phone, put your head down on your desk while speaking with them-they'll never know!!!!

BlaqueKatt-who routinely attempts to hang herself with her headset cord-what can I say it amuses my co-workers*(kinda difficult to explain the background laughter to the idiot on the phone though)



three tips for dealing with the "evyl people"
1, taking a mini vacation in your head while they're yelling is fun.
2, have a notebook and a sharpie handy to make signs for your co-workers(eg "We have a winner for the limitless stupidity award), if the center allows that sort of thing.
and by far the most important:
You are a faceless rep of the company you work for, the customer doesn't know you from Adam(or Eve), you just happen to be the person that represents the company to them-any yelling or insults ARE NOT personal, don't take them as such-laugh with your co-workers about them.
Also an easy way to difuse a customer that is complaining about something you have no control over is to say in a monotone yet slightly "smart-alecky" voice "I am not allowed to express my opinion of_______"
It has gotten every customer I've ever had complaining about tech support to laugh-best thing is it's a neutral statement, and the customer usually takes it as "hey you're on my side, I can't yell at you", but you aren't taking sides.

*I have tinfoil cat ears on my headset-maybe that's why they laugh

[Seanette]

you guys are scaring me....

i start work at the call centre in 3 week.... tell me the majority of calls are ok and its only the occasional idiot

*crawls up in the corner looking scared*

That actually has been my experience. In four months of tech support (got laid off when they cut back techs), I only got one real jerk, and a few clueless types. I'm not sure how the insurance thing is going to go yet (haven't had that much phone time), but based on what little I've had, they'll be about like tech support: considerable majority are fine, only a few clueless or jerks (these categories sometimes, but not always, overlap).

What type of call center are you headed for?

[Kiwi]

I signed a confidentiality agreement so I cant name the company

lets just say if you were to send something somewhere... you might use us to get it there overnight

My art stand job was ending anyway, and I hate sales. This job had benefits and I get to sit down all day and grow my fat ass !!

[Moirae]

All in all, the call center has been a fairly good experience. You wear your own clothing, make some pretty good friends out of the other clerks, have fun with them, get a good wage, usually great benefits, get to sit on your butt in front of a computer all day, and most of your calls are ok.

But then there's the fact that you rarely EVER get a break from the calls. Call after call after call after call. It can get wearing since you can't exactly get up and walk away for a while. You sit in the same spot, not even the scenery changes. At least at other stores, the scenery changes a bit as each person changes. That doesn't happen in a call center. It gets to the point where you'd do almost anything to get away from that never ending "bong" sound of the phone.

And then there's the jerks. Some are worse than others. Some just end up being a source of amusement. And then some are just people you would like to stab in the eye. Repeatedly. With a spoon.

Everything else is great about the job. But I think I've almost reached my limit and have even begun applying for other jobs. I'm a trained medical and legal secretary, I should be able to find something.

It's up to you whether your temperment can handle it.

My call center has a very large turn over rate. Your's may as well. Because, no matter how great the job, there's always the phone and the irate jerks that you have to come back to.

[Jester]

And of course there ARE positives to working in call centers, besides those already mentioned....there are good moments dealing with callers to balance out the true suckasses.

The two that stand out from my brief stint as a hotel call center employee were:

1. Helping people in Florida find hotel rooms as they ran from Hurricane Andrew. Almost every caller I found a room for treated me like a hero. It felt great to help them out. (Until, of course, our chain ran out of rooms....in the entire STATE!)

2. I had had a standard call, and was doing the usual spiel of what they got for their money at that particular hotel.

ME: "...blah blah blah blah blah and a free continental breakfast."
C: "Holy shit!"
ME: "No ma'am. I said a free continental breakfast."

Took me ten more minutes to book that room, she was laughing so hard.