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Geek Culture / Ridiculous Call Centre experiences

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BatVink
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Posted: 7th Jul 2008 18:51
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Sometimes, when I ring a call centre, I despair. It's one thing to havve to work from a script, but sometimes they should question what they are about to say next.

I have a BRAND NEW savings account, never been used. It's INTERNET ONLY, no branch involvement - that's why it's called an e-Saver. I called because I have no access to the account, and have never had any access. Here are the security questions when I called:

Assistant: How did you open the account?
Me: Here's the clue - it's an E-SAVER.
Assistant: Oh, yeh. Can you please name a recent transaction?
Me: Do you remember why I called? I can't use the account!

Is it just me, or is everything this bad nowadays?

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MSon
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Posted: 7th Jul 2008 19:11 Edited at: 7th Jul 2008 19:43
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I know what you mean, When i answer a call at work i have a list of questions i have to ask, including name, tel num, acct details, ect, but as we deal internally between SP's, i usually speak to the same people several times in one day, i guess it makes us seem a bit thick but if we dont ask the questions then it gets reported, (they listen to calls), usually I just wizz my way through the default questions so i can just continue with the call without it being scripted, but some people will work souly from a script, that can be a pain.

Reporting an IT Fault is worst here, my problem is usually at position z, else i could fix it myself, and they won't skip to it because they have a script they must follow.

Maybe i shouldn't slag them whilst im still at work else they may take away the admin rights they game me recentley

Everyone Be Cool, You, Be Cool.
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AaronG
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Posted: 7th Jul 2008 19:22
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Do you think recent transaction as in, last time you DID use the account?


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Samoz83
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Posted: 7th Jul 2008 19:42
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but as he said it is brand new and he hasn't used it yet

www.firelightstudio.co.uk
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Hobgoblin Lord
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Posted: 7th Jul 2008 21:15
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Were sorry Mario but the competant represenative your looking for is in another castle.

http://forum.thegamecreators.com/?m=forum_view&t=73324&b=8
My RPG WIP, check it out
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Seppuku Arts
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Posted: 7th Jul 2008 21:27
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Quote: " Were sorry Mario but the competant represenative your looking for is in another castle."


I wouldn't try phoning Mario at a call centre, in the plumbing world he's what you call a filthy pirate, we called him out for plumbing once, he started the job, got sucked into the pipes, spoke about a princess and some castle, haven't seen him since.


On Topic, ridiculouse call centres, not had to deal with them yet, all I have to do is be in the same house as my Dad and I'll know what kind of hassle they cause - you just got to stand your ground with some of them, especially the ones that like arguing and blaming the customers.

I don't have a call centre experience story, but a customer relation's manager experience, where we had a problem with the campsite and service we had, for a start the fields didn't have proper draining, so there were flooded patches, we were too close to the caravans and the road where people drive down at night, the hygeine of the toilets/showers and rubbish bins (they were left open and close to tents, they attracted seagulls, which was very noisy), people using tractors to tow chalets of private customers, when we booked 5months in advanced we asked for electric hook-up, instead the guy just put us in a random places. After the second night, we decided right, we're leaving, we want a refund and find another campsite. The customers relations manager wasn't having any of it, she just argued and tried to make it our fault, that we're too picky - "well no other customers have complained", "It's not that noisy, I have a chalet here", "you should have complained sooner and we could have done something about it", we never got that refund, to think they were rated 4-star. (and charged 4-star prices)

"Experience never provides its judgments with true or strict universality; but only (through induction) with assumed and comparative universality." - Immanuel Kant
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soapyfish
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Posted: 7th Jul 2008 21:36 Edited at: 7th Jul 2008 21:39
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This is why I try and do almost all problem solving over the internet.

We had a problem with our talktalk broadband recently and I wasn't looking forward to getting on the phone and sorting it out. Luckily I found the talktalk users forum before I tried the call centre and could explain my problem and post related log data in a few minutes to people in england who had direct control over the connection. The problem was solved in a few hours. Brilliant.

I realise doing it over the internet is no guarantee of a better experience but the ability to get help when you want to without being left on hold for a ridiculous amount of time is difference enough for me.


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tha_rami
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Posted: 7th Jul 2008 23:17
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Okay, Seppuku, I would not have taken anything like that from any sales dude - ever - period.


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bitJericho
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Posted: 7th Jul 2008 23:39
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Aye, I agree. That was most certainly not customer service. I would have gone so far as to dispute that charge with my credit card company had I had that type of service.


Hurray for teh logd!
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BatVink
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Posted: 8th Jul 2008 00:04
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Quote: "Do you think recent transaction as in, last time you DID use the account?"


Quote: "I have a BRAND NEW savings account, never been used"


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Agent Dink
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Posted: 8th Jul 2008 00:21
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I told an xbox service rep that my e-mail address was metalhed2@myprovider.itsextension. He was Indian or something along those lines so it was very funny when he asked "Are you a rocker?" in their thick accent. Then he went on to ask what types of music I was in to. It was sort of weird. That was the first time a tech support agent ever got off the script and it was sorta awkward as my metalhed email address really has nothing to do with heavy metal and I'm not very much into most metal It was just my nickname in a video game a good 11 years ago or so cause I thought it sounded cool, hahahaha.

MISoft Studios - Silver-Dawn

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Alucard94
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Posted: 8th Jul 2008 00:22
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Most of the times I walk in to those kinds of places to get some aid all I get it some 16 year old kid going through puberty or something who just wants to go home... But that might just be me(note I am not really meaning banks and such more like tech support places and just stores in general)

If someone says plz because it's shorter than please I say no because it's shorter than yes
Quote: "Chuck Norris drank gravy and fertilized his lawn with emo kids so it would cut itself"

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Seppuku Arts
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Posted: 8th Jul 2008 01:02
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Quote: "Okay, Seppuku, I would not have taken anything like that from any sales dude - ever - period."


We were going to try and get them bad publicity by taking the complaint much higher, instead after 3 letters saying they're "dealing with our complaint" and 6 months we gave up, though we did write to the guides that recommended them and told them about the poor experience and how they're not 4-star quality. Should've shown them who's boss.

Quote: "or something who just wants to go home."


I get those in the shop near my student home, I just joke with them and tell them how I'm not working and am doing something enjoyable that beats the bores of working, cruel, but when you're a regular you get away with it.

"Experience never provides its judgments with true or strict universality; but only (through induction) with assumed and comparative universality." - Immanuel Kant
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Inspire
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Posted: 8th Jul 2008 03:17
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@ Agent Dink:

I love the Xbox Live help people. Whenever I ask them a question regarding a problem with my xbox, they always really odd, usually saying "I'm deeply sorry for this problem", or something along those lines.

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Jeku
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Posted: 8th Jul 2008 03:23
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To put the shoe on the other foot, I used to work in a call centre (shudder) and we had some equally crazy and annoying people call in.

One guy claimed his computer BIOS would play William Tell Overture every night at midnight with deafening volume, *even when powered off*.

One guy claimed the CIA were spying on him through, get this, his PCMCIA slot

A lady was pissed that her laptop screen wasn't covered under warranty and she started goading me and making fun of me, asking "You must really like your high paying job. You must really like people like me who make more in one hour than you do in a day."

Finally one time I had a lady call in who would not stop crying when she asked for assistance to install her sound card driver. She was so terrified to do each step that she had to stop and breathe and take pills, and kept me on the phone for almost 2 hours. Our job performance is based on metrics of course and 2 hours to help someone install drivers makes you look bad


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ionstream
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Posted: 8th Jul 2008 04:15
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I once spent 3 hours on Verizon tech support because this one lady's modem was broken. Nobody believed me that it was broken, they'd make me open up "the little black box" and type the letters "I P C O N F I G." I started to screw with them a little bit about an hour and a half in. Eventually they sent over someone to "check the lines," and lo and behold, they found out the modem was broken.

The lady, who sounded like Calypso from Pirates of the Caribbean, called me by the wrong name throughout the entire thing.

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Megaton Cat
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Posted: 8th Jul 2008 04:27 Edited at: 8th Jul 2008 05:19
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I work as an "Accounts Receivable Consultant" for a very large corp here in Canada that Jeku might know. The job title is basically code for "The b-word helping people who don't bother paying their bills".

Quote: ""You must really like your high paying job. You must really like people like me who make more in one hour than you do in a day.""


That's basically most of the calls you get, people with their head up in the sky and like to point out how crappy your job (keyword: not career) is. It is slightly of higher caliber than working retail, where you are basically a Fetch Rat. These types of jobs are great because they motivate you to go back to school and get a respectable job where your actions actually matter.

And to those complaining about horrible call center experiences, welcome to bureaucracy. Call centers have no clue which departments do what and how, and frankly, don't get paid enough to go the extra mile and care. Corporate policy will always get in the way of common sense and 98% of problems will take ages to resolve because it only takes one person to pass the buck. Things will always be this way until drastic changes are made, and seeing as these changes would cost fortunes for companies, I do not see them ever happening. Till then, you're just gonna have high turn over rates in call centers.

To put it in a primitive example: It would be like a client commissioning a design studio to produce a series of ad designs for it's marketing campaign. The client would then call in to resolve an issue or make a change to one of the designs, would be placed on hold, transferred to the wrong department, be told one policy that would not necessarily apply to the situation, the rep would forget to do a follow-up, client would be placed on long hold again, put through to another guy who has no idea what the client is talking about because he had no involvement in the original job to begin with. That design studio would probably be client-less very soon.

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bitJericho
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Posted: 8th Jul 2008 04:43
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Quote: "The lady, who sounded like Calypso from Pirates of the Caribbean, called me by the wrong name throughout the entire thing."


That's why I never call customer's by their name, if you mishear them you screw up the whole call

Anyway, I've never had anyone try to insult me with the 'crappy job' line, but I get redirecting comments all the time. The key is to keep them on track.

Yes, but back to the matter at hand....

You can't argue with irrational people, it only gets more irrational. Gotta keep them on track.


Hurray for teh logd!
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Sunflash
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Posted: 8th Jul 2008 09:23
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I once worked as a Lab Technician for my College. That means I sat in a chair playing Casual Games while I waited to tell someone how to copy and paste, open/save files to/from a flash drive, or my favorite, try to explain to the technologically challenged old grouchy man name Theodore, that his Windows user name is his ENTIRE first and last name put together with no space in the middle, and even though he goes by "Teddy" the computer still recongnizes him as "Theodore." That can take HOURS.

Oh, and the lady who wants to know why her Google searches come up with rubbish. When I ask to see her query, I see she's typed, "Google search for directions to *insert address*" IN the Google search engine

And although this never happened to me, I once listened to a coworker put in a request for the IT department to fix a computer. This was basically the conversation:

Coworker: "Hello, I'de like to report a broken computer"
IT Employee: "Sure, whats the problem?"
Coworker: "The computer won't let anyone log on. I've even tried with my employee credentials, but it seems that it won't let you log onto any of the domains available."
IT Employee: "Oh ok, thats an easy fix. I want you to go click the button that says, 'Start' in the bottom left corner."
Coworker: "Yeah, I know where the start button is, but the computer won't let me, or anyone even log on."
IT Employee: "Oh, ok. Then press Ctrl+Alt+Delete and select the task manager."
Coworker: "Um, did you hear me, the computer won't let me log on. I can't go to the task manager until I've logged on."
IT Employee: "Oh... let me go get someone else to help you."

After a few minutes, another IT employee came to the phone:

New IT Employee: "Hey, sorry about that. I need you to open the command prompt for me."
Coworker: "But the problem I'm having is that the computer won't even let me log on!!"
New IT Employee: "Oh... *silence*. Would you mind just giving me the computer number and room number, and we'll come down and see what we can do?"

The next day an IT employee came down and reimaged the computer.. and for good measure, switched the monitors... just in case

Mountain Dew, happiness in a bottle.
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MSon
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Posted: 8th Jul 2008 12:48
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@ Sunflash
That kind of conversation sound quite familiare

Company i use to work for had an it department that literley ran the company into debt, if you had the slightest problem, say a button sticking on the keyboard, they wouldn't clean the keyboard, they wouldn't switch it, they would call dell and buy a new computer, although I never complained too much as instead of letting them bin the old computer, i use to get a few, that was how i got my first PC, once i couln't handle any more PC's, i use to just strip them of things link drives, HDD, Memory ,Ect.

I actually offered to work on there IT Department for free at one point so i could put IT Experiance on my CV, but they told me "They didn't have the time to train me", which was kind of strange considderng how one of the people on the department failed his "Networking Foundation" Course the company paid to put him on.

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BatVink
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Posted: 18th Jul 2008 23:31 Edited at: 18th Jul 2008 23:31
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Is it just me, or is the world going mad? Not a call centre incident, but this is from an Argos advert, a huge catalogue shop in the UK. As far as I can see, this is one massive contradiction of terms...



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Sunflash
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Posted: 18th Jul 2008 23:46 Edited at: 18th Jul 2008 23:47
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Quote: "Company i use to work for had an it department that literley ran the company into debt"


Same here. They just fired the head of the IT department. Again, I work for my community college, and the school gets a lot of government funding. The funding is then delegated to many of the departments. The head of the IT department just got fired because he was over hiring, made bogus policies, and in general, was just to old and stuborn for the job. He made a mess both in general and finacially up until the day he forcefully "resigned." They now have a new guy thats doing a rather good job, but they have no more money left to hire any more employees, and most of the current employees are students who are constantly graduating... so I give the whole department about another year or two before it crumbles completly


Quote: "Is it just me, or is the world going mad?"

Slowly and surely, slowly and surely

Mountain Dew, happiness in a bottle.
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soapyfish
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Posted: 19th Jul 2008 16:29
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Lol, gotta love Argos and their 'laminated book of dreams'. -> Videho


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tha_rami
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Posted: 20th Jul 2008 05:13
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I once had this one over the phone, mind you, I'm the IT guy.

Me: "Computer department, how can I help you?"
Woman: "I bought this new monitor, but now my internet is not working."
Me: "Okay, what kind of monitor are we talking about?"
Woman: "A flat one."
Me: "Okay, good. What kind of connection do you have?"
Woman: "To the screen? It's connected with a cable, but I wouldn't know what kind of cable."
Me: "No, my apologies, I meant to the internet."
Woman: "Oh, uh, without cables, I think."
Me: "Wireless, okay. I assume there's a little USB adapter on the back of your computer?"
Woman: "Yes, yes indeed. My son-in-law put that there for me."
Me: "Good, that's good. So"-
Woman: "They don't work together do they?"
Me: "Excuse me?"
Woman: "A friend of mine told me that flat screens scramble the internet signal."
Me: "Well now, that's probably not the case. Could you check if the adapter is firmly attached?"
Woman: "No, no - it's the screen. He told me."
Me: "Believe me, it's not the screen. The computer I'm standing at right now has a wireless connection and a flatscreen."
Woman: "Then maybe it's this particular screen?"
( LIGHTBULB MOMENT )
Me: "That could be it, indeed, you could try to rotate the screen slightly, and then re-attach the USB-adapter."
Woman: "Okay, okay."

This went on for 15 minutes, and I kept pretending we were checking the screens properties while I had her check the hardware configuration. Now, that wouldn't be so bad, but in the end, it turned out the USB stick was jammed into an Ethernet port after the stick dropped when they removed the cable of their old monitor.

I just wished the lady luck with her new monitor.


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AlanC
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Posted: 20th Jul 2008 05:50
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I always hated calling AOL, every time I called, somebody from India answered my calls. I could never understand them.

Hi
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Sunflash
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Posted: 20th Jul 2008 07:25
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Quote: "This went on for 15 minutes, and I kept pretending we were checking the screens properties while I had her check the hardware configuration."


Haha! I've had the same type of stuff happen to me too!

Mountain Dew, happiness in a bottle.
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SunnyKatt
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Posted: 20th Jul 2008 15:04
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@tha_rami - Ha ha!
I hate interacting with people in realtime. On the internet people (including me) have more time to think about what we say rather than acting stupid.

Favorite Quote: Dramatized code? Code Drama!

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Little Bill
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Posted: 20th Jul 2008 15:05
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AlanC, tell me about! It's like ramming pencils into your eyes!

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Agent Dink
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Posted: 20th Jul 2008 22:54
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Rami, that story is hilarious lol.

MISoft Studios - Silver-Dawn

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BatVink
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Posted: 21st Jul 2008 11:02
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You might like this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LLTsSnGWMI&feature=related

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Tom J
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Posted: 21st Jul 2008 11:19
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ii8xKJyUMbs

This is pretty funny too.

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Sunflash
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Posted: 21st Jul 2008 11:42
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haha, both of those are great

"What are you thinking about?" lol, classic.

Mountain Dew, happiness in a bottle.
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Megaton Cat
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Posted: 22nd Jul 2008 07:33
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I always feel horrible and utter a little prayer to the IT guy just before I transfer pissed off customers to em.

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tha_rami
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Posted: 22nd Jul 2008 15:13
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@Batvink: That one is pretty amazing. Had a good laugh, that guy portayed it perfectly.

The other one I knew, but still is funny .


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Little Bill
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Posted: 22nd Jul 2008 18:03
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This is what I feel like when calling AOL.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Igb1vYS_Tng&feature=related

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