Your all going down!

[fumblebee]

So I currently work in the wonderful world of online sales for a mobile phone company. You know when you visit a site and that little box pops up that says "Looking for assistance?" Yeah, that's me.

Our boxes only appear when a customer is on the product pages, although we still end up with a lot of people looking to find a quicker work around for Tech support.

I rarely post my work frustrations, although I enjoy reading the posts from others. I usually enjoy my job.

Tonight was extra racist and fun. Also, extra points for the all caps chat. Always a good way to start. And of course the extreme use of !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! eleventy! The lies this SC told were particularly entertaining. I find it interesting that they have been a 35 year customer of a 20 year old company. And have been on hold for 17 plus hours, but have also called 20 times (and apparently called 4 other numbers... that aren't related to our company so not sure where they were going with that!)

Below: a transcript of my conversation. Beware- it is long. And mostly boring, but I needed to vent.

Me
Hi, how can I help you today?

Visitor
I HOPE YOU CAN BE NICER THAN THE LAST REP--SHE DISCONNECTED ON PURPOSE FROM ME.....
Me
I am sorry to hear that. How may I help you today?

Visitor
I HAVE BEEN ON HOLD ALL DAY WITH PHONE SUPPORT---ALL DAY LONG. 17 HOURS NO ANSWER. I NEED A LIVE HUMAN VOICE BUT YOUR PHONES HAVE BEEN ON HOLD ALL DAY--ALL DAY---PLEASE BE HONEST.....ARE YOU GOING OUT OF BUSINESS OR IS IS A NATIONAL HOLIDAY IN THE COUNTRY WHERE THE CALL CENTER IS??? HONESTY!!!!

Me
I can assure you we are not going out of business. I am sorry you are having trouble getting through. In order to direct you to the best resource for your situation, may I ask what brings you to chat today?

Visitor
PLEASE TELL <name redacted> THAT SHE IS THE MOST RUDE PERSON EVER
AND IT IS NO WONDER SHE IS NOTHING MORE THAN AN "OPERATOR" IN A CUBE WITH A HEADSET ON WHO IS MAKING MINIMUM WAGE-THAT IS ALL SHE IS GOING TO DO W/HER LIFE-I ADMIT I AM NOT TECH SAVVY BUT HAD A SECRETARY DO MY WORK AND RETIRED AT AGE 45 WITH MILLIONS OF DOLLARS. THAT IS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN FOR HER SINCE SHE HAS NO MANNERS AT ALL AND WILL BE REPORTED TO HEADQUARTERS MONDAY. I HAVE HER NOTES PASTED AND HOW SHE ENDED THE CONVERSATION ABRUPTLY. THE PROBLEM IS GETTING MY COVERAGE TRANSFERRERD, SET UP AND WORKING.......I AM A 35 YEAR NON STOP CUSTOMER!!! MAY I ASK WHAT IS YOUR PHONE ISSUE?????? I KNOW YOU ARE HAVING LOTS OF ISSUES AND ARE NOT WORKING WELL. I HATE TO LEAVE BUT AM VERY CLOSE, BUT I AM A "PITT BULL" ABOUT REPORTING PEOPLE WHO ARE RUDE AND SHE WILL BE REPORTED
I HAVE DEALT WITH YOUR PHONE SUPPORT FOR 35 YEARS. TELL ME WHAT MAKES TODAY SO DIFFERENT AND I WANT TOTAL HONESTY!!!

Me
I may be able to assist you better if I could get some clarification on your reason for contacting us today

Visitor
PRODUCT TRANSFER! NOT TO BE RUDE BUT CAN YOU READ ENGLISH???? ARE YOU I INDIA? I BET 10:1 YOU ARE. I WANT SERVICE AND WANT TO KNOW WHY THE PHONES ARE ON HOLD ALL DAY.......I AM GETTING NOTHING FROM THIS CHAT WASTE AND I THINK IT IS BECAUSE YOU CANNOT READ ENGLISH. YOU JUST SPEAK BASIC ENGLISH IN HEAVY INDIAN ACCENTS I KNOW IT AND CAN TELL--YOU HAVE PASTED SCRIPTS A 4TH GRADE KID COULD DO... WALK NXT DOOR AND HAVE YOUR BOSS CALL ME!!
I HAVE BEEN MORE THAN CLEAR. YOU & YOUR ASSOCIATE ARE PASTING IN SENTENCES YOU HAVE BEEN PROVIDED...YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND ENGLISH..........THAT IS WHY THEY HIRES YOU TO PAY YOU ABOUT 2 DOLLARS PER HOUR

Me
All of our sales and support staff are located in North America. For clarification, you are looking to add another phone to your plan?

Visitor
YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
BUT WITH A LIVE VOICE TO MAKE SURE MY INTERFACE WORKS ETC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

me
Thank you for the clarification. I am sorry for the misunderstanding.

**I then proceed to give instructions on how to add their phone and if they still felt the need to speak to technical support, I provided them with the tech chat, the tech website and their phone number **


Is there anything else I can help you with today?

Visitor
YET ANOTHER IDENTICAL PASTE............YOU REFUSE TO HAVE SOMEONE CALL ME...........I HAVE TRIED THAT NUMBER 20 TIMES TODAY AS WELL AS 4 OTHERS........NO ANSWERS BUT YOU ARE VERY VERY SECRETIVE ABOUT WHAT IS GOING ON. I SAY JOBS ARE OVER.......FIRED --HISTORY!!!!!!!!!!

Me
I am sorry, however, I am not able to transfer you to technical support. My role is to direct you to the appropriate resource. In your situation our support department will be able to help you.

Visitor
SAME PROMPT-SAME VOICE--SAME ALL DAY HOLDS.........I THINK YOU ARE THE LAST EMPLOYEE AND PACKING UP YOUR DESK AS YOU TYPE
NO THEY ARE NOT--THEY HAVE NOT ANSWERED PHONES FOR 17 HOURS

Me
I can appreciate that you are frustrated. However, I am unable to have someone call you. You will have to contact the technical support using the links and phone number provided above. Is there anything else I can assist you with today?


At this point, they stopped posting long enough for me to use the "It seems you no longer need our assistance. Thank you for contacting..." and I disconnected the chat. Shortly afterwards, another coworker got this person in their chat and received similar "shouting" and threats of reporting me to Headquarters.

Also, for fun, after work, I called the tech number. Yes, there is a 30 minute wait, but they also offer call back service. So there's no way they were on hold for 17 hours.

Anyway, I just had to vent. Sorry it is so long.

[Food Lady]

Yeah, I'm absolutely sure he retired at 45 with "millions of dollars".

[Deserted]

Agreed... but I do know a guy who retired in his 30's. Just sayin'.

About the whole "India, can't read English" thing: I've driven a number of people from India. Some were visiting, many had moved here. Almost all of them spoke perfect English with an easily-understood accent, and I'm sure their writing is just as good. (Hell, most of them spoke better English than people who grew up here.)

[MoonCat]

Ugh, what a complete jackass twit! No wonder he/she couldn't get any help! Couldn't spell, form a coherent sentence, or get to the point. Not even mentioning the lies, er, exaggerations. Sorry you had to deal with that!

[eltf177]

Hopefully with that many lies upper management won't take his complaint seriously.

We hope...

[mjr]

Apologies to all you call center reps on here who work extremely hard and get stressed.

I do understand the possible frustration. I've had frustrations before where it seemed like I was getting the run-around, too.

I know that the call center/chat folks are told to be polite, but how often can/do you go off script?

I mean, with me, I have DeathStar as my home phone and Internet, and the Satellite TV company that DeathStar acquired for my television. Took me three days and numerous phone calls before I finally got to someone who could assist me with what I actually wanted.

And what I wanted wasn't unreasonable at all. I was just trying to see what other Internet options were available to me, if I could change around some services and possibly save some money, and possibly bundle some services.

I think the first guy I talked to was on the right track. Unfortunately, he transferred me to another department, and I think it was just a couple of minutes before they closed, so nobody answered.

Frankly, I don't blame him. I'd wanna go home, too.

But after that, it seemed to go downhill, to the point my wife yelled at, then hung up on, a rep.

We did call back, finally got "retention" (where we needed to be in the first place), and got everything sorted out.

[Jay 2K Winger]

Every time I see a post from a fellow call-center/phone-in service desk peon, I am grateful I work for a contract wherein I'm not dealing with the general public, demanding to know where I'm located because they want to talk to some woman named Anna Murrican...

[KuariKaydrith]

Being able to go off script depends a lot on how strict the client is. I've worked for clients that have everything scripted out and if we don't use those scripts we get into big trouble. I have also worked for clients that are happy as long as you brand the call at the start and finish and are polite through out the entire conversation while you do whatever it is the caller needs done. It's all on the client though as to what agents can do/say on the phones.

I have been known to go off script regardless of what the client wants - my brain to mouth filter has been known to fail spectacularly at times. Such examples include me telling a male caller that I'll put a man on the phone as soon as he does (tech support) and another where I point blank told a caller that yelling at me doesn't make me go any faster (HR services). Or the one where the missus was swearing at me in Quebecois French, figuring I wouldn't know what she was saying...until I finally told her in my best Quebecois that I knew exactly what she was saying and that I had no problem with translating it all to my boss if I were asked to (the joys of having had a Quebecois boyfriend once upon a many moon ago sometimes pays off LOL).

[RealUnimportant]

NOT TO BE RUDE BUT CAN YOU READ ENGLISH????

Yep, but can you write it?

[EricKei]

So there's no way they were on hold for 17 hours.

We refer to that as "CST" 'round these parts -- "Customer Standard Time." In other words, she was full of it. I can believe that she was calling all day long, and then hanging up as soon as she figured out that she wouldn't get a human on the line within 30 seconds, though.

Anyway, I just had to vent. Sorry it is so long.

Hey, that's what the site is here for Don't worry about posts being too long. We don't consider them "long" until the system forces you to break the post up into multiplier; this happens at around ten thousand characters. Check the archives for any of Gravekeeper's more epic posts if you wanna see what I mean.

Beyond that, to ! We're friendly sorts. Have a question? Ask! ^_^

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

Apologies to all you call center reps on here who work extremely hard and get stressed.

I do understand the possible frustration. I've had frustrations before where it seemed like I was getting the run-around, too.

I know that the call center/chat folks are told to be polite, but how often can/do you go off script?

Depends on the company and the circumstances. At the call centers I've worked at there's been more a focus on having a real human conversation with customers than reading from a script. I much prefer it that way.

That being said, "real human interaction" doesn't always mean happy and cheery. We can be firm and say No to things so long as we are polite about it. Managers like me don't always have to be quite as polite as the reps but there are still some lines even we cannot cross (yelling, cussing, threats, etc) for obvious reasons.

[fumblebee]

We have the ability to go off script and I do so regularly. However, when it comes to sending someone to Tech support or customer support, it is usually quicker and easier to just use the library response that includes all links and phone support information, rather than typing it out and potentially making an error. This person came back to chat 3 times and everyone gave him the same stock answer. I doubt it would have mattered if we had worded it differently. It wasn't the answer he wanted and therefore he didn't care. I can't magically make someone answer the phone. I can't help them jump queue and connect them directly to support. We don't have those capabilities.

[Argabarga]

Five seconds and twenty cents lost might as well be a decade and a billion bucks to the SC, it's the PRINCIPLE of the thing!

[katzklaw]

doubtless the "17 hours on hold" actually translates to "2-3 hours of calling, ending up in the queue, getting bored/frustrated after a minute or so, hanging up, and calling again." apparently without understanding they go to the back of the line every time they do that.

sounds to me like you need to "fire" that customer