Stop with the Background Discussions

[Rattslinger]

I am so sick of customers calling up, asking for X amount of widgets, then when I give the price, that's in the catalog they just ordered from, it suddenly becomes a fifteen minute conversation with the other person in the room.

I hate that so much, it makes my calls far longer than they need to be, and it costs me and the company money.

[LifeCarnie]

I hate that so much, it makes my calls far longer than they need to be, and it costs me and the company money.

It's the bane of every call center rep who handles placing orders.

It's even more fun when they make you wait while they either have a conversation about something totally un-related or they take a personal cell phone call. All while you're listening and waiting for them to remove their head from their rectum.

[Giranan]

Extra points if it's something inappropriate. Just the other day I could have sworn I heard someone in the background say "bit her nipple."

[bigjimaz]

What can be worse is that after this behind the scenes banter, they begin questioning the quoted price because they fail at math as much as communication.

[pile of monkeys]

Try booking appointments for a group of two or more women:

Them:"We need three pedicures on a Saturday"
Me: "My next opening is Saturday, May 15th"
Them: "Hey, can you do May 15th?" "I have a Little League game, but try the 22nd." "Do you have the 22nd?"
Me: "No, the 22nd is booked already. I do have the 29th, however at 2 pm."
Them : "She has the 29th at 2." "2? Can't we come earlier?" "Yeah, 2 is too late for me, too."
"Can we come earlier?"
Me: "Sorry, the only opening is at 2."
Them: "They can only do 2:00." "Only 2:00?" "Nothing earlier?" "2 is really inconvenient for me." "Well, we could always go to lunch first." "Oh yeah, that's a great idea! How about the new Italian place?" "No, I heard it wasn't that good. How about the deli?" "Yeah, we can meet at the deli at 12:30, then go get pedicures." "Oh, but I have to pick up Bratleigh at 3:15." "No, we should be fine."
Me: "....so, do you want to book that?"
Them: completely ignore me for the next 5 minutes while they yammer like a bunch of hens making their plans.
Me:

[mattm04]

I work in a supermarket. If it is really busy and a SC calls and asks senseless questions, as a last resort my manager will let me terminate the call. Chances are they wouldn't have ordered anything anyway.

[Hello Kitty]

Yeah people would call and say "I've been waiting on hold for you for XX minutes, you can now wait for me!". Uhh, I don't think so. A lot of times I'd pick up a new call and hear the customer's hold music (they were all business customers). I'd always hang up. It's not fair to the other customers waiting in queue.

[smileyeagle1021]

Yeah people would call and say "I've been waiting on hold for you for XX minutes, you can now wait for me!". Uhh, I don't think so. A lot of times I'd pick up a new call and hear the customer's hold music (they were all business customers). I'd always hang up. It's not fair to the other customers waiting in queue.

oh, I've got the same policy, I hear hold music I release the call... you don't after my first three attempts at a greeting (I do wait 10 seconds between attempts so it's not as if I'm just immediately hanging up) and I release the call, if all I hear is static (even if I can hear you ) I say, "sorry, we have a bad connection I can't hear you, could you please try back"

[calulu]

I had some stupid tw*twaffle calling the other day and while he was on the phone with me trying to haggle prices he had my company's biggest competitor on his cell and kept trying to go between the two of us. Took me awhile but I did manage to squeeze an order out of him but it was like pulling teeth. I didn't know if I should be insulted or amused that he was so boldly trying to play us off against either other.

[Dips]

I didn't know if I should be insulted or amused that he was so boldly trying to play us off against either other.

We had a "customer" known as Evil Ernie who played that game. The thing is that our industry is small and everyone knows everyone else. Thus everyone soon became wise to Evil Ernie and his stupid games.*

So EE would be on the phone trying to dicker a better deal by being on the phone with another company and it would go like this:

Us: You've had the evaluation copy for 6 months and we're not going to continue supporting it unless you buy a license.

EE: Well [other company] also gave me an evaluation copy and I still haven't decided. I've got them on the other line...

Us: Oh, really? Is it Dave? Will you say hi to him for me? I missed seeing him at [industry trade show].

EE: And they're going to give me more time to evaluate it.

Us: [Knowing full well that's bullshit] I'm afraid we can't do that for you. Have a nice day. If you could tell Dave that everyone here hopes his foot feels better, I'd be grateful. Thanks!

*Note: Rumor has it that one hardware manufacturer made selling product to Evil Ernie a fireable offense. He was bad enough to deal with as a freeloader; when he had been persuaded to actually part with money he became downright impossible.

[LifeCarnie]

oh, I've got the same policy, I hear hold music I release the call...

I do the same thing. We usually don't have a que of more than 30 seconds, so if I hear music it's because the caller dialed the number and immediately put the call on hold.

If you're that busy, call when you have the time to wait half a minute or less for someone to answer the phone.

[Slytovhand]

We had a "customer" known as Evil Ernie who played that game. The thing is that our industry is small and everyone knows everyone else. Thus everyone soon became wise to Evil Ernie and his stupid games.*

So EE would be on the phone trying to dicker a better deal by being on the phone with another company and it would go like this:

Us: You've had the evaluation copy for 6 months and we're not going to continue supporting it unless you buy a license.

EE: Well [other company] also gave me an evaluation copy and I still haven't decided. I've got them on the other line...

Us: Oh, really? Is it Dave? Will you say hi to him for me? I missed seeing him at [industry trade show].

EE: And they're going to give me more time to evaluate it.

Us: [Knowing full well that's bullshit] I'm afraid we can't do that for you. Have a nice day. If you could tell Dave that everyone here hopes his foot feels better, I'd be grateful. Thanks!

*Note: Rumor has it that one hardware manufacturer made selling product to Evil Ernie a fireable offense. He was bad enough to deal with as a freeloader; when he had been persuaded to actually part with money he became downright impossible.

Oooh - nice one!! :-) Wish it could be that easy where I am. All I can do is have the 'luck' to see that the last person either left a note - or even luckier, and the last person they spoke to was me Had that a couple of times - sort of makes them back off a little when I tell them that