Wobbly day.. sniff sniff

[spk]

Why are people so nasty to call centre staff sometimes? Im human too you know- Im not just a machine >O( I feel like Im teetering on the edge of waking up in a padded room wondering why my hands are tied behind my back. Now if you excuse me Im off to hide in the bathroom to have a good cry. Sob. Wail !

[jno]

oh dear, where are you now spk - working at a call centre in Bangalore handling complaints for Tesco or something? Poor you. Mind you, if you're just cold-calling people to sell them unnecessary financial products you deserve all the abuse you get...

[spk]

Hey Jno - nah no cold calling for me I hate them too- just dealing with poeple who have way to much money and think Im something they scrapped off their shoe. Aaaargh ! My only saving grace is Im not married to them I suppose- upset 5 minutes of my life and thats it yehoo ! x

[petes_dragon]

SPK, I completeley agree with you - I work in a call centre too and can't beleive the abuse that we have to put up with sometimes..........and love them or hate them it is even worse in the overseas call centres too!!

Tell your line manager that you have 'personal issues' and you need a bit of time off line............they're always too scared to ask what the issues are and should leave you in peace. Go home, get the quilt on the sofa, drink tea and watch cr@p telly all afternoon!!

Hope you get away early at least!!

A xXx

[spk]

aww Thanks Andrea your a gem ! Im a temp though and if I go home early I wont get paid, and Ive just bought a house and need as much money as I can get. Im thinkin a snickers and a big cup of tea might soothe the pain though! :O) Only good thing about call centres is I can sit flicking a V at the computer and the customer cant see me hee hee ! xxx

[enigma]

Been there , done that spk. Do what I did with my colleagues - shoot some paper hoops whilst at your desk. Take a plastic cup (a clean one preferably) from the water dispenser and cut the bottom off of it .Sellotape it to the board in front of you , make a paper backdrop for your plastic cup which is now your basketball ring. You can colour it in if you wish. Then scrunch up some paper and voila , mini basketball. Or say that you are putting them on hold but put them on mute and listen to them bitching about you ! Chin up xxx

[Goodsoulette]

I unfortuantely end up flicking a v at customers to there faces some days. I wish I didnt have to work with real people.

[VINNY100_2]

Um...if that was you who called me sunday morning,trying to flog me a kitchen...Im sorry I put you on hold and placed the phone by my speakers...!..but I hope you enjoyed an hour of jimi hendrix....(:o)

[spk]

I like the basketball idea ! The snickers bar seems to have perked me up a bit. I no longer want to throw myself out of the window behind me. Amazing what a sugar rush can do !

[spk]

Ha ha Vinny that wasnt me but an hour of Jimmy would work nicely today ! I bet that dude was in his element you mustve made his sunday ! Poor sod cold calling see my life could be worse I guess

[petes_dragon]

Vinny just to let you know - the average call time is about 5 mins so they'll hang-up by then any way!!

SPK, glad you're feeling a bit better and its not just me who sticks their fingers up at customers!!

I've been doing this for nearly 8yrs but change my role pretty regularly and generally I like my job but some customers are just ar$eholes for the sake of it!!!..........my favourite is 'don't you realise that I am paying your wages!!'....or....'you're not in India are you?'

A xXx

[Toureman]

I think everybody should have one of these by their phone..

http://www.xs4all.nl/~egbg/counterscript.html

[spk]

Actually Andrea my favourite one is when they phone you- and ask, do you do telephone banking?? No mate Im just sitting here cake icing. GobsH*tes. You really worry sometimes how people get through everyday life !

[petes_dragon]

I know - I don't thinkmost people should even be able to cross the road by themselves let alone have a credit card!!

A xXx

[spk]

Then why do they keep using us?? Aaaargggh !

[B00]

Awww spk, my heart goes out to you, I used to work for BT, on the billing enquiries side of it and the threats I received on a daily basis because folks had been cut off for non payment were unbelievable- one even threatened to come to my place of work with a baseball bat to 'do me in'

I do recommend the putting them on hold- it gives you both a chance to calm down and count to 10- use that time to go get ya cup of tea, why do it on your time? ;-)

[spk]

Aww thanks Boo! I have 18 minutes to lunch time and a big fat juicy cup of tea will be sitting waiting for me bliss ! The latest is Ive just had someone screaming at me for the fact that hes spent all the money on his credit card. Yes sir- I went into your wallet, took out your card and spent �274.00 in HMV. I had a great time stocking up. Jeeessss help me before I go stir crazy !

[petes_dragon]

I work for BT too - on the faults department - I had a customer recently seemed to think it was my fault that the grass had gown in his garden and covered part of the line - so a digger cut through it.....even though it had been in the same place for the last 14 yrs without causing a problem!!

MDOO, I know what you're saying, but it really can be frustrating when people are deliberately ar$ey...but the majority of customers are fine!

A xXx

[WaldoMcFroog]

I think there's two sides to this. Obviously there are lots of very good people working in call centres, but there's also some extremely poor ones and a lot of practices that go to infuriate. Frankly, I think customer services in this country is abysmal.

I think everyone has had the experience where they're on hold for 20 minutes and being told every 30 seconds how important their call is. That's guaranteed to raise the blood pressure, particularly if the person calling is at the end of their wits because their salary hasn't gone in, or something.

Then you have people who can only re-iterate stock answers and go to pieces when they have to try and think outside of the box.

Then you have people who have no authority to actually do anything. Normally, you talk to a supervisor and they'll do whatever you wanted when you called - so why wasn't it done in the first place?

What about when you have a problem, they take details of the call, say they'll get back to you then don't? Then you phone up again and they've got no record of the previous conversation so just reiterate the same thing again...

Although there is never any excuse for threatening the staff, call centres can be extremely frustrating places.