Just babble

[ctown28]

I know many of you have had this call:

Me: Thank you for calling the Support Center, My name is ctown28, am I talking to SC

SC: Yes

Me: Howw can I help you

SC:Well, I was on vacation last week, my husband and me took the kids to Disney World, that was a mistake to begin with. As soon as we got to Orlando my husband got sick so he didnt go with us, then we drove over to
Clearwater kids did nothingf but whine the entire 2 hour drive. We finallt get to the beach and my Son gets stung by a Jellyfish then my daughter isn't feeling well.
So we go to a restaurant and nobody likes anything on the menu, but we are already there so we just order for the sake of ordering. Then I get back her to work and my mouse is not working!

Dammit, just tell me about the mouse problem from the get go, I dont care about your vacation from hell!!!

[BravoOrig]

I hate calls like that, whether it's adding on this whole backstory about people who don't even touch the computer and thus don't help me fix their problem, to trying to make their situation more desperate by having a sick or dieing parent, pet, car, etc.

I don't care about all of that, just tell me what doesn't work, and I'll help you fix it. None of it helps me people, or make me care more!

[TNT]

I used to have a friend who started every story with, "I woke up that morning." Didn't matter if the story didn't really start until 10pm, I always had to hear the whole day before we got to the important part.

I could stay interested in her day until about noon... after that, I'd start getting distracted and miss the actual story.

[gunsage]

Yeah, these ones can get pretty frustrating. The only good part about these types of calls is if I have a LOT of things to do in the background for this particular call. In other words, if I need to check the diagnostics, account settings, and plenty more for a particular issue, that's fine. You go all chatty while I look that up. The main reason I say that is it's a lot better than customer's that constantly go "Hello?" anytime you leave them be for about 5 seconds.

Another thing I hate is when the person that REALLY wants to get this set up is REALLY mad in the background while having his/her SO call us up, who probably has about as much technical knowledge as a goldfish.

Me: "Okay, ma'am, did you make sure the ethernet cable is nice and tight on both ends?"
SO: "...Umm...which cable is that?"
Asshole: (Further away, but still quite audible) "Jesus Christ! What's wrong with that @#&&@#&#&@#&@#& OF COURSE it's plugged in right! I mean, SERIOUSLY!"
Me: "..."

Or even worse...(based on a true call)

Me: "Okay, now to properly finish the powercycle, I want you to now hook back in the modem first, then wait for the lights to go solid."
SO: "Okay. Hey, honey...I need you to...okay, but he said to wait for-"
AH: "Woman, this is MY house. I'll do whatever the fu-" *click*

YES. The customer somehow HUNG UP while powercycling the modem incorrectly. No, it was not a phone modem. Yes, I attempted to call back, but no one picked up. Scary stuff.

[BravoOrig]

I hate the "3rd party" calls, like those described above. I had one last week where the daughter was translating for her dad who spoke some middle eastern language. I'd start to tell her something and before finishing she would start translating it to him, which would mess me up and then a second later he starts yelling in his native language. They had a connection issue and this was the 3rd or 4th service appointment in a month, but they didn't want that, they were fed up, and wanted us to come get the equipment. I transferred the call to customer service, which then got transferred to another rep for another go around, back to customer service who had difficulty with them scheduling an equipment pickup, then it came back to us and we got a tech out. Haven't had a problem since.

[Gurndigarn]

Dammit, just tell me about the mouse problem from the get go

They did. "I went to Disney World".

They had a problem with a computer mouse, too.

[technical.angel]

Thankfully, most of the life story calls I get are for usernames and passwords, and I almost never have the right program up. So, while they're rambling on about whatever, I have more than enough time to go in and get the program up.

[Shabo]

When I was answering phones for the operator over the summer, I would get that *all the freaking time*. Some people genuinely don't know what department they need to go to, but just say that when I ask, "How may I direct your call" so I can ask you a directed question, and you can give me a clear concise answer.

Still cracks me up that I had someone call and ask for the principle... of a university...

[gunsage]

Thankfully, most of the life story calls I get are for usernames and passwords, and I almost never have the right program up. So, while they're rambling on about whatever, I have more than enough time to go in and get the program up.

Yeah, that's about the gist of what I do too. Unless I absolutely MUST have the customer do something before I can do anything else, I'm always doing something while they're rambling, unless it's relevant. Typically, it's not relevant unless they're answering questions I'm posing to them.

The nice part about chatty people is being able to have that ability to multitask. But again, the sucky part is that there are times where you have to know something before you can continue and they WON'T SHUT UP long enough for you to ask a question unless you interrupt them, which doesn't always end well...

[technical.angel]

Which is usually the info I need to verify identity. But, yeah, multitasking=good.