The worst kind of SC- the employee abuser

[Pagan]

That's weird, when I worked for a call center for a whirly appliance corporation, one of the first things they told us was that we were not to give out our last names under any circumstance, and if the customer demanded a sup for this reason then we were free to send the call to a sup. For exactly the reason that you never know what kind of crazy person is calling, and they just might decide to show up at the call center.

I forgot about that. We also weren't allowed to get a sup on the line. And, we couldn't have any "dead air". We had to keep chattering no matter what we were trying to accomplish on the computer that might actually require us not talking for a couple of seconds to concentrate on it.

And the winner, of the "most out-of-touch with reality" award in customer service goes to... *drum roll* ........ THESE GUYS!

Tell me about it. This is a big part of why I was there briefly. That and I got another, better job that was actually in my field.

[Gilhelmi]

The man's a bully. He set out to hurt your feelings. He probably gets a lot of pleasure out of being a mean-spirited, angry jerk.

No, sadly, I know this type of person.

They are continually angry, they know little peace and almost no pleasure in life. In some ways I feel bad for them, as they their anger will lead to an early grave. One day his/her blood-pressure will, literally, pop a vein or artery and die of something heart/blood/artery related.

This type of person is in desperate need of an intervention and anger management counseling.

[Aethian]

And, we couldn't have any "dead air". We had to keep chattering no matter what we were trying to accomplish on the computer that might actually require us not talking for a couple of seconds to concentrate on it.

Boyfriend was helping me trying to set up a program and to try and figure out why my Frankie wasn't finding his new HD kept saying, "Just trying to get the answer." Or "looking at google now." Every few seconds. It got to the point where I snapped and exclaimed that I didn't know I was dating a robot. That not allowing silence got so ingrained in him he still does it and it is maddening to me.

Of course I never liked it when I called IT lines anyways.

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

I briefly worked for a contact call center for the Blue Death Star. We weren't allowed, no matter what they called us, how they talked to us, even if they threatened us, to hang up on anyone. As a matter of fact, if the customer asked, we were required to give them our full name and where we were. No, nope, nuh-huh, that's not happening. The reason the higher ups didn't see them having our full names as a problem? "Well, they're not going to get in a car and drive here and do something!". You wanna bet? There are some nutballs out there that would do just that.

I've worked at two different call centers. The first we weren't required to give out our last name, just first name and employee ID. The one I'm at now we are required to give our full name.

Also, at the first one we WERE allowed to tell irate customers that if they did not calm down, we WOULD disconnect the call. This one we can't. We can request for a supervisor to take over the call, but we can't threaten to hang up. Also at my current one, we are ONLY allowed to pass them to a manager if they specifically ask for one and we can't try to "nudge" them either. Instead of saying: "Well my manager told me we won't be able to do that" even if that's exactly the case, we have to say: "unfortunately we (meaning the company), aren't able to do that, but here are your other options."

This kind of unrealistic, micromanaging BS is a big part of why call center turnover is so high (well that, and SCs).

[Silent-Hunter]

I'm pretty sure if they fired you for refusing to give your name to someone who threatened you, you could have a criminal complaint against them. That's a hostile work environment. In fact, YOU know the customer's full name, if they threaten you and you actually suspect they might try to find and harm you, you should call the police, management be damned. They wouldn't be able to get away with firing you at that point, surely?

[Argabarga]

This type of person is in desperate need of an intervention and anger management counseling.

And sadly, they'll never ever ever sign up for it because it's not them that has the problem, it's everyone else! See, they wouldn't be so angry all the time if they, the superior human specimen they are, were not surrounded by MORONS and IDIOTS who are too dumb to recognize that the problem isn't him, it's THEM. You see? SEE!?!?!?!?!

And now these same morons are saying HE has to work on HIS anger?

SEE WHAT HE HAS TO DEAL WITH?!!!!!

ALL THE TIME????


Seen it too many times.

No wonder these guys blow their aortas apart by 45.

[mathnerd]

I've mentioned this before, but when I was at MajorBank they had a great way of dealing with the "full name" issue. We were all assigned a last name based on our location and supervisor (a particular department could have a single supervisor overseeing employees in different cities/states). So, if I told a person that my name was Mathnerd Frost, they would know that I worked for Supervisor A in Location 1, but if I sad that my name was Mathnerd Baker, I worked for Supervisor B in Location 1 (or Supervisor A in location 2), and so on and so forth. I thought it was great because the customer (or in my case, the banker...my department was non-customer contact) got what they wanted, my real name was protected, but the bank knew exactly who I was based on my first name and the fictitious last name.

[Argus]

I once spoke to someone who worked at an inbound call center (focused on order-taking). At that one, everyone got a fictitious first and last name with initials matching their own.

[Catwoman2965]

I just had a customer the other day who was mad that she wasn't able to connect to WiFi at home. Upon further inquiry, it turned out that she does not, in fact, subscribe to any Internet service provider, she just thought that her WiFi would work anywhere, freeing her from the costly bonds of her data usage limit.

Of course, I was treated to a 15 minute tirade about how I was "ripping her off," because, "what do I pay you all this money for, then?"

This reminds me of my friend and her amazement that I would actually PAY for wifi, through my cable provider, when it was "just out there", through said provider Um yes, those are called wifi HOT SPOTS, which you can access, through your account, with said provider, if you are out in public, AND near one. So if you're say waiting for your car to be fixed, and the place has no wi fi of its own, you can simply log into your account, and voila, you're good to go.

NOT from your home, because if said provider did that, why then, would they actually CHARGE for the same service?????

[Kit-Ginevra]

SC: No you don't. Either you do it or you don't. This is not complicated.

I'm sorry sir.We were looking for Either you do it or you don't.There is no try.
You fail.Goodbye.