Crabby Penny-Pincher... warning, long!

[ShadedWings]

... y'know, like a crab.. get it?!

Ahem. Anyway.

Language Warning!

CW = Crab Woman
Me =

(As a quick preface, ever since 9/4 the queue for the phones was around 200 people waiting on the lines instead of our normal top of 20, and since then it's been from 30-50 every day because of after-holiday nastiness and due to new system and rules where for some reason Customer Service gets to transfer most of their calls to us... for no reason at all, since they're trained in more stuff than we are... it's been crazy.)

Me: Good evening, my name is ShadedWings, may I have your account number.
CW: *sigh* <blurts number while typing in the background>
Me: <verifies info, then gets down to the lovely question...> How can I help you?
CW: Yeah. I want to know what this "Co-Op" fee is. For a dollar. On my bill.
Me: <looking over account> Hmm... I'm not 100% sure, I don't believe I've seen this before. If you'll just give me a moment I'll check with a Supervisor as quick as I can.
CW: *sigh* Okay.
---
Sup: Looks like they signed up for some sort of donation thing in December 2006, 1.00 each month with their bill. It goes to energy assistance funds, for people who need help.
Me: *lightbulb* Ah! Okay, thanks.
---
Me: <explains it to CW>
CW: *explodes!* I never signed up for that!!
Me: Well... according to some notes here I managed to pull up, looks like you signed up in December -
CW: So. You're telling me I waited 37 minutes <yes she counted apparently> to talk to someone and THEN I waited 6 minutes while you had to find this out, and it's not even something that I signed up for! Couldn't you have FIGURED THIS OUT ON YOUR OWN!!
Me: ... I'm sorry, I hadn't come across this before and I wasn't sure, I didn't want to lie to you!
CW: Whatever. Just take it off my damn bill.
Me: I'd be more than happy to, but unfortunately I cannot personally do that. I can get you to someone who can though, it might just be a few more moments while I transfer you over to customer service... (they're not as busy as we are lately, so it literally would probably be a few moments)
CW: Wait. A. Minute. YOU are telling me I'll have to WAIT more for you to get SOMEONE to take this damn fucking charge off my damn bill that IF I signed up for it was a ONE TIME THING ONLY because it was CHRISTMAS!!??
Me: I'm really sorry, I wish I could do it for you, but I physically cannot access that section of your account -
CW: Well then, you had better TELL whoever you're transferring me to that I HAVE BEEN WAITING and they better take the charges off!
Me: I'm more than happy to, hold please! *click*

I ended up staying on the line to get the right person in customer service... they had to get me to the billing department, and this poor girl that I talked to hadn't even seen the situation but once before and didn't know how to remove it. I told her that I was giving her fair warning that the SC was pissed that she had to wait so long already and she just sighed and said "well, she'll just have to wait some more while I find out how to do this."

What I honestly don't get, is how can someone be SO obsessed over a single stinking dollar a month, that is going to help people as a charity donation? And that statement she made about only wanting to have paid it the one time for Christmas? If you're going to sign up for a donation for Christmas to help someone... go for a little more than a dollar, why don't you. Wonderful thought, but I can almost guarantee you most people lose more than a dollar a month in change and not even notice, unless you're so obviously anal-obsessed over every single dime like this lady was. Besides, it took her nine months to realize it was even on there!

Don't get me wrong, I've been to the make-every-dime-count stage several, several times. Including just a couple weeks ago. Yum yum ramen and rice. But! If you're already paying your bills... and you know hardship and how it is, one dollar toward helping someone who might not HAVE any money at all might just help keep their service on. And yes, before anyone asks, she was up to date on bills, and hadn't any late payments, so obviously she could pay...

I think this is longer than I wanted it to be. Yay for running on three hours' sleep!

[chainedbarista]

her failure to read the actual statement involving said donation is not transferrable to another person; read the print, i know it's there, read it, understand EXACTLY what you're signing before you commit, asstard.

reading is fundamental, yet not exercised nearly often enough.

[Gurndigarn]

I've been on the receiving end of the stick before, so I can understand her frustration. In our case, our ISP sold their business to a real fly-by-night operation that didn't answer emails, including ones saying "cancel our service".

So we went to the credit card company, and tried to get them to stop the automatic payment. They refused. Instead, we had to dispute the charges, with this lengthy form to fill out... every month, every time the charge appeared. And the way FBN internet ran, that would mean years before they stopped trying to bill us.

Hello?!! This =/= rocket science. We want payments to these people refused. End of story. It should, IMO, be possible. And we were willing to pay the charges up to the pont where we refused to accept additional charges— we just wanted them to decline all future billing attempts.

In the end, we dropped the credit card, since that was the only way we were going to end the mess. And we still got one more bill after we told them to cancel.

[draftermatt]

I know it's not your fault, and she was a bitch for not paying attention and for complaining so much about a dollar.

But (and I know little to nothing about call centers) I understand her frustration. I hate calling the line the bill tells you to call. Only to be told that you need a new department, new person, etc. Or you have to hang up and call a different number. Or when you get to the new person they have no idea why you are calling.

People shouldn't be sucky, and certainly shouldn't yell or make threats, but anyone, anywhere, is bound to get frustrated having to jump through so many hoops.

There are times I want to ask the person if I can talk to the genious who invinted this system so I can ask that person why they thought it was a good idea because the poor person answering the phone has to deal with people who get mad.

[wagegoth]

When I kept getting two recurring charges that I couldn't get the companies to cancel, my credit card company gave me the option of closing that account and opening another with a new number. My balance and credit line were transferred, but they did not transfer over anything having to do with automatic payments.

[ShadedWings]

I know it's not your fault, and she was a bitch for not paying attention and for complaining so much about a dollar.

But (and I know little to nothing about call centers) I understand her frustration. I hate calling the line the bill tells you to call. Only to be told that you need a new department, new person, etc. Or you have to hang up and call a different number. Or when you get to the new person they have no idea why you are calling.

People shouldn't be sucky, and certainly shouldn't yell or make threats, but anyone, anywhere, is bound to get frustrated having to jump through so many hoops.

There are times I want to ask the person if I can talk to the genious who invinted this system so I can ask that person why they thought it was a good idea because the poor person answering the phone has to deal with people who get mad.

Agreed! I understand her situation too... I've been there myself. I have a current loan with a company that will remain unnamed, that gives out five different numbers to call them, even one stating that you can talk to a rep to discuss your bill... I've called all the numbers at every time frame I can, and they all do exactly the same thing... give me no options whatsoever aside from what I paid last month, what my current amount due is and when it's due. No options to talk to someone or anything. Just ends the call after it states those.

So yeah, I understand her frustration with the system... I would be too. I just wanted to vent and share the story. I still don't get all the fuss over a dollar though... and besides, people never seem to take into consideration the person answering the phones either, and how frustrated WE can get with our own system, which IS incredibly stupid, I must admit, or with the person after person insanity.

[Pagan]

Sup: Looks like they signed up for some sort of donation thing in December 2006, 1.00 each month with their bill. It goes to energy assistance funds, for people who need help.
Me: *lightbulb* Ah! Okay, thanks.
---

CW: Wait. A. Minute. YOU are telling me I'll have to WAIT more for you to get SOMEONE to take this damn fucking charge off my damn bill that IF I signed up for it was a ONE TIME THING ONLY because it was CHRISTMAS!!??

Should have told her Wait. A. Minute. She signed up for it in Dec 2006 and didn't notice the $1 charge until 9 months later? What smoke was she crackin'?

Agreed! I understand her situation too... I've been there myself. I have a current loan with a company that will remain unnamed, that gives out five different numbers to call them, even one stating that you can talk to a rep to discuss your bill... I've called all the numbers at every time frame I can, and they all do exactly the same thing... give me no options whatsoever aside from what I paid last month, what my current amount due is and when it's due. No options to talk to someone or anything. Just ends the call after it states those.

Here, try this. http://gethuman.com/ Or just try pushing zero. Sometimes that works.

[Andara Bledin]

Hello?!! This =/= rocket science. We want payments to these people refused. End of story. It should, IMO, be possible. And we were willing to pay the charges up to the pont where we refused to accept additional charges— we just wanted them to decline all future billing attempts.

In the end, we dropped the credit card, since that was the only way we were going to end the mess. And we still got one more bill after we told them to cancel.

When I kept getting two recurring charges that I couldn't get the companies to cancel, my credit card company gave me the option of closing that account and opening another with a new number. My balance and credit line were transferred, but they did not transfer over anything having to do with automatic payments.

Just an FYI for all you people out there: You cannot refuse charges from an automatic billing system. If you have a bill set up to charge every month, the only legal way (at least in the US) to get away from it is to close the credit account. A lot of gamer types found this out the hard way when the game Horizons was bought out and the company that bought them was a really sleazy one. People had to go to their state's attourney general to get the automatic billings stopped.

^-.-^

[ShadedWings]

Here, try this. http://gethuman.com/ Or just try pushing zero. Sometimes that works.

I'll try it out, thanks.

[AnqeiicDemise]

I know it's not your fault, and she was a bitch for not paying attention and for complaining so much about a dollar.

But (and I know little to nothing about call centers) I understand her frustration. I hate calling the line the bill tells you to call. Only to be told that you need a new department, new person, etc. Or you have to hang up and call a different number. Or when you get to the new person they have no idea why you are calling.

People shouldn't be sucky, and certainly shouldn't yell or make threats, but anyone, anywhere, is bound to get frustrated having to jump through so many hoops.

There are times I want to ask the person if I can talk to the genious who invinted this system so I can ask that person why they thought it was a good idea because the poor person answering the phone has to deal with people who get mad.

At least at my company, owners get the runaround because a) they don't shut up to listen what information we give them. b) don't *tell* us anything to its completion and expect us to know what it is they want out of intuition alone. c) Want insta-results without explanation. or D) they don't have the patience to wait things out, period.

Like, today, I had this one owner call to get some points reversed because the last time she called and made a reservation through us, the person who answered her call made a mistake; he reserved THREE dates at THREE different resorts (all with the same guest name too. O.o). Long story short: she actually had the patience to wait on hold while I called different departments to figure out what the hell went on....even when *I* had to wait 45 minutes on another department to answer the damn phone.

Everyone was so thankful for her patience that in the end, her points were reversed. (normally, it wouldn't have been done.)



Customers just fail to realize that nine times out of ten, the person you're talking to have to wait just as long to get you transferred.

Well, at least at my company. They like us to introduce the client with the person they were transferred to. "Hi, <blah>, I have <blah> on the line and he/she will be able to help you with this situation."

>.<

[MadonnaC]

Here, try this. http://gethuman.com/ Or just try pushing zero. Sometimes that works.

Trouble with that, is that you tend to get a human that has to transfer you anyway.

[Broomjockey]

Trouble with that, is that you tend to get a human that has to transfer you anyway.

But if you're not getting a human at all, then a transferring human's better than none, I'd say.

[Auto]

When I kept getting two recurring charges that I couldn't get the companies to cancel, my credit card company gave me the option of closing that account and opening another with a new number. My balance and credit line were transferred, but they did not transfer over anything having to do with automatic payments.

Ditto.

I've had a few recurring automatic monthly charges that were impossible to cancel. I finally just closed the account and had the CC company issue me a new number.

[Banrion]

On the VRU's (Voice Response Units) just say something like representative or operator. It is usually not a listed option, but will get you to a person.