Time to die

[gunsage]

I really wasn't sure whether to put this in unsupportable (it technically has to do with tech support AKA my "job") or cursing out coworkers (and you'll find out why in a second). For those that haven't caught my previous explanations about my company whilst still TRYING to be vague about the exact title, here goes...

Tier 1 - Basically just customer service. They are our front line. They are not contracted, but rather a very real part of the company and therefore, directly represent the company. They deal with a lot of crap (their queue is ALWAYS ridiculous). The actual issues they deal with can range anywhere from cable issues to sales to cancellations to credit for poor service to much more. HOWEVER, they are not technical, so in that regard, they have to transfer.

Tier 2 - Basic tech support. They are not "officially" part of our company, but I only say that because they're contracted and are all over. As a result, they don't officially represent our company and while I'm sure a good lot of them do a good job, I've learned not to trust them because too often they like to LIE...not just on the notes, but also RIGHT ON THE LINE.

Tier 3 - Advanced tech support. This is...me. I enjoy my job quite a bit, actually. Our support extends beyond basic tech support in that we deal with digital phone, wireless Internet, and a lot more...but I'm not saying our support boundaries are by any means limitless. Notice, however, that we still only deal with advanced Internet and digital phone issues.

*** IMPORTANT ***

A cold transfer is COMPLETELY against policy in most situations. Though I'm unsure exactly what tier 2's policies are on this, as tier 1 is often IN THE SAME BUILDING AS US, BUT DEFINITELY UNDER THE SAME COMPANY REGARDLESS, I know the exactly policy. If a hold time is going to be more than 30 seconds, the customer is apologized to and dropped into our queue.

Why, that'd be great if it were true, wouldn't it? And I suppose there also wouldn't be a necessity for a BLIND TRANSFER LIST either, whereupon we write various offending tier 1 representatives.

And this brings me to my story. I'm sitting here, playing Phoenix Wright, when I get a caller ID flashing on my phone from tier 1.

Me: "My Company, level 3...this is Sage speaking."
(Pause, click...GODDAMMIT)
Me: "Sigh...My Company, level 3...this is Sage speaking."
Customer: "Um, yes."
Me: "Hi, this is Sage. How can I help?"
Cust: "Uh, well...I was put on hold by the last guy...he said something about...researching something? Anyway...now here I am."
Me: "That's...fantastic...anyway, what can I help you with?"
Cust: "Yes...uh...well, when I change channels on my TV, sometimes it can take up to 10 seconds to change the channel."
Me: "..."
Cust: "I just...I noticed it recently and thought that maybe something was wrong with the line."

If I was in a cheerier mood right now, maybe I'd joke about this and try to make some Phoenix Wright references. BUT...I'm not in a very comedic mood right now. Remember how tier 1 is supposed to handle cable calls? And remember how I showed you how I was cold transferred from tier 1? WE KNOW ABOUT JACK SHIT ABOUT CABLE, THAT'S WHY.

The worst part is all I could do was apologize and explain to the customer that the department she was JUST AT was who could answer these questions. Even worse than that...a quick scan of the employee phone directly revealed a number of very interesting things about Bastard Agent #1...

- This was a repeat offender. I had reported him several times prior as well as a number of our other tier 3s.
- This guy also has an "unlisted" extension. I've never understood why our system is set up to even HAVE people unlisted, which almost makes it sound like a conspiracy.

And the big one?

THIS ASSHOLE IS SOMEWHERE IN THIS BUILDING!

Some of my coworkers were actually egging me on trying to get me to go find this guy and demand his supervisor's information. I explained to them that I was angry enough that that probably wouldn't happen and I, well, really didn't want to get fired for impaling his face through a fire sprinkler.

The sad part is that we get cold transfers all the time. Usually, though, the agent meant well that transferred the customer, even though he/she did it improperly. For example, if the customer had a digital phone issue, sure, I'm going to report your ass for improper procedure, but it's still a legitimate call. THIS, though, had NO business coming up to us.

Am I wrong for being mad? Honestly, I feel insulted more than anything. He knew what he was doing. In fact, he knew HOW to take care of the problem, too! That was yet another reason I attempted to look up his number...he never solved the initial problem that he KNEW he could solve. A simple transfer back with a verbal warning MAY HAVE (don't hold your breath) straightened him out.

But I digress. There are a lot of things that could be changed in the company to make stuff like this "go away," but I don't think they're likely to happen anytime soon. In any case, I've got beers with my name on them for when I get home...so I'll feel good in a bit.

[JustADude]

Guy's an ass. You're fully right to be pissed at him. When you find him, break his hands for me so he can never use a phone again, pretty please?

[BlaqueKatt]

in my center that's called "call Avoidance"-and should be brought up to their supervisor/QA-in most places it's grounds for immediate termination.

[gunsage]

The problem is that we have a LIST of people who do this. The list is actually put on a shared drive and supposedly anytime we receive a cold transfer, unnecessary transfer, etc. we are documenting them. The truth is, though, that a lot of people have stopped doing it because there aren't results. We have repeat offenders who get away with this crap all the time and who I see and "encounter" on a regular basis (I say encounter, but when they cold transfer, it's not like that's any sort of contact, per se).

The worst part is one of my supervisors accused ME of call avoidance once...ONCE. The reason it was never brought up again is because I will refuse a call from an agent if they have no grounds for the call coming in our department. Unfortunately, I have a tendency to go overboard and so I try to back off as much as possible.

The reason he never bothered confronting me again is because of call avoidance vs. call refusal. Refusal sounds a lot worse than it is. Like I said, if it cannot be justified to come to our department, I will subtley attempt to make it not happen. Unfortunately, if someone's QUITE insistent, that's fine...I'll document your own ticket, get you in trouble, but take the call anyway!

Besides, in the end, it's all about the customer. I don't want to inconvenience the customer anymore than has already been done. Even if I REALLY don't want to talk to the customer, I will if it's a bonafide issue for the tier 3 department. If it's not, you're going to have to prove it is. I don't do this to dick around with people; I do it because I know it's not necessary to come to me, at this point you already know what needs done and it doesn't/shouldn't involve me.

But no, that's too much for some agents. Honestly, that's why I've come to distrust most people from the other departments, which should technically NEVER happen in an industry such as this. Yes, people can make some BONEHEADED mistakes...

Me: "So what seems to be the problem?"
T1: "Well, their modem's disabled."
Me: "...Ah! And I see why."
T1: "Oh, you're the best!"
Me: "Well, it's because the occurrence isn't matching up for the data. Let me adjust that." (Even though you should know how to use this tool better than me since you handle billing, upgrades, downgrades, etc.)
T1: "O-oh...okay."

I typically go on to explain how it's normally corrected. That way, if they come across the problem again, they probably won't transfer up. Now, if it's something specific to our department, I MIGHT explain what I'm doing, but I'll add the disclaimer "That's okay, this is our stuff, so don't worry about it." Here's an example of call avoidance...

Me: "Okay, so what's been done so far?"
T2: "Pardon?"
Me: "You say the customer's getting DHCP errors..."
T2: "That's correct."
Me: "But that's all. I'm not seeing any notes here, so what's been done?"
T2: "Well-"
Me: "Did you powercycle? What's her IP address?"
T2: "Uh..."
Me: "I'm not trying to badger you here, but please understand my position. This ticket has no notes in it."
(Brief pause, click, COLD TRANSFER)

That actually happened. THAT is call avoidance. Why? Well, the ticket may have already had tier 3 escalation approval (which also indicates a lack of intelligence on part of the supervisors, as they're supposed to read over the notes beforing approving tickets), but with no notes, I couldn't determine what, if anything, had been done and therefore, verify that the ticket DEFINITELY needed to come to us.

Now, here's call refusal...

T2: "So...you're refusing to take the call?"
Me: "You have admitted to not performing all of your troubleshooting steps. You need to go back and do X, Y, and Z."
T2: "But, you're refusing to take the call? Even with escalation approval?"
Me: "It's not that I WANT to refuse the call, but you haven't done YOUR job."
T2: "Soooo..."
Me: "Yes. I'm refusing the call. Goodbye."

While call refusal may be construed as call avoidance, they are two very different terms because I've caught you either in a lie, without fulfilling all necessary requirements, or maybe even accidentally overlooking something...BUT YOU'RE GOING TO ACT LIKE AN ASSHOLE TO ME WHEN I'M PROBABLY NOT EVEN GOING TO REPORT YOU? I guess I will now, huh?

It took everything I had to NOT go over there yesterday. I wanted to. My coworkers wanted me to. However, this job is too important to me to just blow off. I don't believe anything will be done to him and most likely, he will continue to cold transfer. I've only been at this department for 7 months. I'm going to get some certifications and then we'll see about bloodlust.

[repsac]

Why do I have the strange suspicion somewhere you have a little button, that when pushed screams "OBJECTION!"

[sld72382]

At my center we CANNOT refuse transfers from other departments, with one exception - if the sales dept does not charge the client correctly. Sometime they get nasty and then dump the call on my lap, like this:

SLD: I see you only charged the client the main troublshooting fee. You have to add the diagnosis fee to the order before I can accept this.
Sales: But there is no need for that, sir. The client already knows he has a virus, so no diagnosing is needed.
SLD: Doesn't matter, we still need to have the diagnosis fee in there in case he decides for example to abandon support 2 hours later, we still need to charge him for our time.
Sales: Well he doesn't want to pay that much for the diagnostic fee and troubleshooting combined!
SLD: Once again, I cannot help the client unless you add the diagnosis fee. Please add the fee, let the client know he needs to be rebilled and call us back...
Sales: *Beep* *beep*
Client: There's this virus on my computer and I need you to help me.....
SLD:

[gunsage]

I look at it like this...my responsibilities include...

- Digital phone support.
- Advanced tech support.
- Wireless support for OUR products.
- Security/abuse issues.

And that's about it. If you call me solely because there's a problem in the BILLING, you already know you're an idiot. Now, if the customer is having problems with their phone and at the end of the call they say something along the lines of "Hey, so, how do I get compensated for my downtime," that's okay, but it will come right back to tier 1.

The major reason I'm annoyed is that this guy knew he could take care of this. He also knew that this was NOT my responsibility and therefore, could do NOTHING for the customer. He deliberately inconvenienced me, but more importantly, he inconvenienced the customer because all I could do was throw her back into the always ridiculously high tier 1 queue.

I get cold transfers all the time. Yeah, they frustrate me, but it frustrates me EVEN MORE if there's absolutely nothing I can do for the customer. In this case, not only was there nothing I could do, but that was primarily because of the fact that the department that should have taken care of her not only didn't, but felt the need to cold transfer over to us, who couldn't, who then had to transfer back, but not to a direct person because of the queue.

Way to screw the customer.

[Shabo]

Sales: *Beep* *beep*
Client: There's this virus on my computer and I need you to help me.....
SLD:

It's ok. Here's what you do.

SLD: Do you know what kind of virus you have sir?
Client: Uh... no...
SLD: Then unfortunately, we need to charge you for troubleshooting. You see, if you don't know the kind of virus, then we don't know how to remove it. Please hold while I transfer you back to sales to apply that charge. *click beep beep*

[Polenicus]

I used to work in a call center that had the MOST spineless transfer policies I've ever heard of. Both ways. We were an internet service provider for a big, three-letter-named service provider (Not AOL)

There were two tiers in the building, Tier 1, which was basic troubleshooting, and Tier 2, which was advanced troubleshooting. For problems over Tier 2's head, we transferred from Tier 2 to Tier 3, which was out of building.

Anyway, when I started, the problem was fairly bad. Tier 1's would transfer calls to Tier 2 without troubleshooting, and Tier 2's would push back legitimate calls as long as there was SOME troubleshooting step the Tier 1's could do, no matter how unlikely to help. There were instances of a Tier 1 being pushed back 4 times in one call, and instances of Tier 1's transferring calls before even confirming account information.

So some policies were put into place to help with this, and for the most part it made sense. We grumbled some in Tier 2, and some Tier 1 agents abused them, but for the most part they worked. They were as follows:

1. If a Tier 1 agent calls up a second time on an issue, regardless of the reason, the Tier 2 agent must take the call.

2. If a call goes over 40 minutes, it is assumed the Tier 1 agent doesn't know how to solve the problem in a timely manner. The call will be transferred to Tier 2 immediately.

3. If the customer has been talking to Tier 2 on this issue previously, the call is to be immediately transferred to Tier 2.

Sensible, right? Well, part of the problem was that the supervisors weren't actually tracking abuses by Tier 1's. If the Tier 1's squawked we'd get written up, but it rarely worked the other way. We had no formalied process to track it, despite our complaints. This began a long, slow process of Tier 2 becoming the 'bad guys'.

Of course, we had Tier 1's who simply called up, were pushed back, then called up again immediately, and had their alls auto-escalated. We were grudgingly given the right to push back if the agent hadn't verified the account information and the issue, but that was it. we were told problem agents would be dealt with, but since we had no way of reporting it, we had to get lucky and have it happen on a monitored call.

Then, NEW rules were implemented. Escalation procedures for Tier 2 looked like this:

1. If a customer demanded Tier 2, they were immediately escalated.

2. If a customer demanded a Supervisor, they were escalated to Tier 2

3. If a Tier 1 agent didn't feel comfortable dealing with the call, it was escalated to Tier 2

4. If the Tier 1 agent did not have a clear idea of how to solve the issue within 8 minutes, the call was escalated.

5. If the customer needed to be referred to their OEM, another company, or for whatever reason told to call somewhere else, they were escalated to Tier 2

6. If Tier 1 was in queue the call was escalated to Tier 2 if there was an agent available, regardless of the issue.

So, you can see what happened. Tier 2 became choked with garbage calls. We had to create a departmet to call customers back to tell them that they had to call someone else. And since there was no feedback, coaching, or any sort of tracking, Tier 1's would dump calls on us as soon as any of us went into available, regardless of how stupid. All they had to say was 'I don't feel comfortable troubleshooting this call', and we had to take it... even if they hadn't verified account information. We literally could NOT push back.

Did I mention the company stopped doing training, or handing out alerts about new developments or procedures, or any sort of caching of Tier 1 agents in troubleshooting methods? Nope, we were supposed to do that when the Tier 1's called us up. Tell them how they could solve the problem next time.

Did I mention we were also supposed to verify all the account information with the agent before we took the call?

Did I mention if we didn't manage this within 30 seconds, the transfer was considered overtime, and we were marked down on our monitors?

They literally stopped monitoring us for ANYTHING but the call transfer portion. We were marked on how well we coached, getting all the info, and doing i within 30 seconds. The rest of the call I could scream and swear at the customer if I wanted, no one would be listening it.

Then the whole tech support side of the call center folded. I wonder why.

[gunsage]

Wow...that's really quite crap. I don't know what the procedures are for transferring to tier 2 from tier 1, but working as a tier 2 formerly, I knew there were QUITE a bit of steps to perform before transferring. Now...I also understand that there are issues that tier 2 isn't properly trained on in relation to our department (security, wireless, and digital phone issues come to mind) and therefore, if they can verify that's what the issue is, I typically have no problem taking the call right off.

Unfortunately, I add the "typically" disclaimer because of exchanges like this...

Me: "Thank you for calling X Company. This is Sage, how can I help you?"
T2: "Yeah. I got this guy here and he can't seem to connect wirelessly to our router."
Me: (Ignoring the fact that he probably means wireless modem) "Okay, let me check here..." (Find that the customer doesn't have our wireless modem) "Sir, he doesn't have our wireless equipment."
T2: "...Um, well, he said he was having trouble-"
Me: "Sir, I'm going to say it again...the customer in question does not have our wireless equipment. Did you have him try to directly connect?"
T2: "W-well, no! That's not my job!"
Me: "Actually, it is. Given that the equipment in question, a third party router, is how he's connecting wirelessly, it is YOUR job to directly connect to the modem. If it works like that, the problem is most likely the router and will need to be referred to his vendor."
T2: "Grumble grumble..."

The discrepancy here is that since it's third party equipment, we could make a best effort to try to get it online via a powercycle, but that's it. Beyond that, as a tier 2 agent, you're required to take the router out of the equation, powercycle, and work from there...at least in our company. The problem is you'll get tier 2 agents that are INSISTENT that the customer is using our equipment.

I actually had one agent not only chew me out but also say "Well, I don't have access to that information, so I have to take the customer for their word!" Right, like it's my fault they BS'd you. How did I respond?

Me: "Well sir, I do have access to that information and I'm telling you that they don't have our equipment. Are you going to do your troubleshooting?"

Yeah, he got pissy, but eventually screwed off.

[sld72382]

It's ok. Here's what you do.

SLD: Do you know what kind of virus you have sir?
Client: Uh... no...
SLD: Then unfortunately, we need to charge you for troubleshooting. You see, if you don't know the kind of virus, then we don't know how to remove it. Please hold while I transfer you back to sales to apply that charge. *click beep beep*

I did that. He didn't want to pay and decided to cancel the service call altogether.

[gunsage]

Doesn't it seem strangely ironic that a SALESPERSON cost you a customer?

[Shabo]

I did that. He didn't want to pay and decided to cancel the service call altogether.

Well, then he's a dummy. Kudos to you!

[gunsage]

Hehehehehehe...just found out something interesting. First, a definition...

Automated Provisioning: AKA autoprov. Basically put, this is the factory default for the firmware. We send "hits" to your account, which update the firmware to the correct services, etc. so that, well, so that it just all works.

Up until recently, our tier 2 department has sent us tier 1 tickets, in other words they didn't bother getting tier 3 escalation approval, that contain "Durr, modem in autoprov." Guess what? I was just informed by one of the most KICKASS supervisors ever (who sits right across from me) that we are NOT to take anything that is not a tier 3 ticket. Meaning...

- It has to be a legitimate tier 3 issue.
- It has to be coded as a tier 3 ticket.
- It must have tier 3 escalation approval.

OH, HAPPY DAY! And yes, I just fobbed off a tier 2 about 5 minutes afterward with that new information. Good times.

[Onar]

Oh happy day! Reading the horror stories of call transfer abuse between tiers really gets me bunched!

I worked for an ISP/Phone service provider in a call center last year, we weren't really broken into tiers. Agents were responsible for T1&2 level stuff and outside of supervisor eseclations, we were it for tech support.

Even so, I have been the victim of cold transfers from Sales/billing/Marketing departments. Most times, they didn't have a tech problem. And I don't think I had anyway of knowing who sent me the call if they didn't talk to me first. So now and then I'd be faced with the:

ME: <Greeting phrase> how may I help you?
CC: Yes, I need to pay off my bill.
ME: Ah, you've reached tech support, let me get you over to accounts.
CC: But I just came from there!

Or some variation there of. The worst though, was fighting with other tech support. Sometimes a customer would have a problem with their router or other equipment that we simply didn't have the ability to control, and required we get them to the tech support for Linksys/Belkin/etc. Their first line of defense was to transfer the callers back to us. Even explaining what steps were taken and why it wasn't our problem to solve didn't seem to detour them from shuffling them back once we were off the line.

*sigh* Now, I answer a different sort of phone call. No more tech support. Now I just promise callers to call some one else who will address their problem. Yay.