Well, I can say that the other company I worked for was bothering me to some degree. I couldn't in good faith keep working and robbing people of their hard earned money in a difficult economy just because the owners of this comany were greedy. I mean, come on, every call you have to try to sell something! And you get penalized if you don't actually make a quota of sales!
In February of 2009, I got out and haven't looked back. Sure, the free cable and very cheap internet was a perk, but soon it did not outweigh the stress and insanity of the job, so I went to someplace that is much better.
I like this job much better, and perhaps I'll share some details in the form of an anecdote or something :)
Monday, January 11, 2010
Sunday, January 25, 2009
It has begun
When I started working for this call center oh so long ago, it was a cool place to work. Sure, the customers were pains, but they always were and always will be.
Then, last year, things started changing for the worse.
The customer is being removed from customer service.
Now, when I joined, I joined for technical support. I can help you with your phone service or your internet service, and in most cases, help you get it working again.
I am no salesperson. I hate selling....to me, it's like asking people to give me money, and I hate it.
You can imagine when we were asked to start selling that not only did it come as a shock to me, but I staunchly refused it for the longest time.
The sneaky management started out slowly. They offered it as an optional thing, you know, kind of test the waters to see how well it would work.
I warned people about giving in and doing it, saying that if they did, it would be something we would absolutely have to do, but as usual, they didn't listen.
So it begins with a handful of people starting to sell the products. The company sees increased profits from those sales and gets greedy...they want more.
Then they start to hound all the employees, saying that even though it didn't count against us as far as stats go, that we should try to make a sale on every call. I had a bad feeling about it, as I had seen this before.
Then they made it count against us. Just to put it in perspective, if you called in and had problems getting online, or your phone wasn't working, 20% of my call score would go towards asking you to buy something.....20%.
So if you called in and I didn't ask you to buy something for whatever reason, I automatically lose 20% of my score on my call monitor. I find this to be unacceptable.
I should be scored on what I'm there to do, which is technical support.
Now surely you may think that there must be situations that you could run into and not have to sell. I have asked questions and have been given the same answer every time.
"What if the customer is calling to lower their bill?"
"Make the sale."
"What if their service isn't working when I'm ready to end the call?"
"Make the sale"
"What if the person is not authorized to make changes on the account?"
"Make the sale"
Every question was met with the same answer.....make the sale.
So it begins with this, the greed of upper management, that makes me start this blog again.
Believe me, there will be much more, and in time, I think you will hate the company as much as I know I do.
And I know what some of you may say....get another job. Well, it isn't as easy as you may think it should be, with being in a recession and all. So I'm stuck in the position that I can't really quit because I would be in a dangerous position of being one of the first ones cut if the new place starts laying off, and I don't want that.
I'll be blogging more on this and other subjects. Believe me, last week was hell, and I plan on letting you all know about it.
Keep a watchful eye here, as I will return.
Then, last year, things started changing for the worse.
The customer is being removed from customer service.
Now, when I joined, I joined for technical support. I can help you with your phone service or your internet service, and in most cases, help you get it working again.
I am no salesperson. I hate selling....to me, it's like asking people to give me money, and I hate it.
You can imagine when we were asked to start selling that not only did it come as a shock to me, but I staunchly refused it for the longest time.
The sneaky management started out slowly. They offered it as an optional thing, you know, kind of test the waters to see how well it would work.
I warned people about giving in and doing it, saying that if they did, it would be something we would absolutely have to do, but as usual, they didn't listen.
So it begins with a handful of people starting to sell the products. The company sees increased profits from those sales and gets greedy...they want more.
Then they start to hound all the employees, saying that even though it didn't count against us as far as stats go, that we should try to make a sale on every call. I had a bad feeling about it, as I had seen this before.
Then they made it count against us. Just to put it in perspective, if you called in and had problems getting online, or your phone wasn't working, 20% of my call score would go towards asking you to buy something.....20%.
So if you called in and I didn't ask you to buy something for whatever reason, I automatically lose 20% of my score on my call monitor. I find this to be unacceptable.
I should be scored on what I'm there to do, which is technical support.
Now surely you may think that there must be situations that you could run into and not have to sell. I have asked questions and have been given the same answer every time.
"What if the customer is calling to lower their bill?"
"Make the sale."
"What if their service isn't working when I'm ready to end the call?"
"Make the sale"
"What if the person is not authorized to make changes on the account?"
"Make the sale"
Every question was met with the same answer.....make the sale.
So it begins with this, the greed of upper management, that makes me start this blog again.
Believe me, there will be much more, and in time, I think you will hate the company as much as I know I do.
And I know what some of you may say....get another job. Well, it isn't as easy as you may think it should be, with being in a recession and all. So I'm stuck in the position that I can't really quit because I would be in a dangerous position of being one of the first ones cut if the new place starts laying off, and I don't want that.
I'll be blogging more on this and other subjects. Believe me, last week was hell, and I plan on letting you all know about it.
Keep a watchful eye here, as I will return.
Changing this blog.
I am changing the blog because I am no longer upset with the customers anymore. I am much more upset with management now than anything.
Nothing like being on a burning ship when it's going down, right?
Starting now, the management are assholes!
Nothing like being on a burning ship when it's going down, right?
Starting now, the management are assholes!
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Customers I hate #873
Ok, I am in tech support and I get calls all the time about someone not being able to access the web.
I have my list of things that I hate, and I will list these occasionally with a rant.
This is "Customers I Hate # 873."
"Your crappy internet service is down again!"
Ah, yes! These people are dumbasses to the extreme sometimes. To blame the internet service for being down before it is actually diagnosed is just stupid.
Most of the time the call goes like this:
Me: Thank you for calling tech support, how can I help you?
Them: My internet don't work. This happens all the time. I was online last night, but now it won't work. What's wrong with your service? Why is it always not working?
Me: I'm sorry to hear about that. Let me take a look at your account and see if I can see what the problem is. (My empathy statement. Anyone who works in this field "knows" what this is.)
Them: I just can't believe that the service is down again. I am so frustrated right now, I should just cancel the service completely. How would you feel about that?
Me: I can transfer you to the Disconnect department if that's what you want.
Them: No, just fix my shit.
Me: Ok, let me have your account information.
Them: What do you mean? I already verified it 100 times already. I swear to God you people piss me off. ( They give a huge sigh and reluctantly verify the info I ask)
Me: Thank you for that. Let me see your account and check your cable modem out. ( I look up the info, and check to see if the modem is online, which it normally is)
Them: (huge sigh again. They want me to know how exasperated they are with me.)
Me: ok, it looks like the modem is online....
Them: No! the modem isn't online. I can't get on the web....
Me: As I was saying, the modem is online, but it doesn't look like your router is communicating with it. Can you unplug the power from the router for me for about 45 seconds?
Them: No! I've already done all the troubleshooting and your service is down. I'm not going to do any more troubleshooting.
Me: ok then. If you refuse to troubleshoot, then we have nothing more to talk about. Thank you for calling.....
Them: Wait! ok, I'll unplug it. (they go to unplug, and after the set amount of time, they plug it back in) I still can't get online.
Me: You have to give the router a second to synch up. Try it now.
Them: Oh, I'm online. Thank you so much.
Me: Thank you for calling tech support.
Sigh. I get about 15 calls just like this every day. They always want to say they've done it all and it turns out that most of the time, these dumbasses are just completely wrong, which is why I can't stand them.
If they had already done the troubleshooting, they would not have had to call me, which leads me to the very first tip of the day:
"Listen to what I say and do what I ask you to do. You called me for help, I didn't call you"
OK, this ends my rant for now. Feel free to comment :)
I have my list of things that I hate, and I will list these occasionally with a rant.
This is "Customers I Hate # 873."
"Your crappy internet service is down again!"
Ah, yes! These people are dumbasses to the extreme sometimes. To blame the internet service for being down before it is actually diagnosed is just stupid.
Most of the time the call goes like this:
Me: Thank you for calling tech support, how can I help you?
Them: My internet don't work. This happens all the time. I was online last night, but now it won't work. What's wrong with your service? Why is it always not working?
Me: I'm sorry to hear about that. Let me take a look at your account and see if I can see what the problem is. (My empathy statement. Anyone who works in this field "knows" what this is.)
Them: I just can't believe that the service is down again. I am so frustrated right now, I should just cancel the service completely. How would you feel about that?
Me: I can transfer you to the Disconnect department if that's what you want.
Them: No, just fix my shit.
Me: Ok, let me have your account information.
Them: What do you mean? I already verified it 100 times already. I swear to God you people piss me off. ( They give a huge sigh and reluctantly verify the info I ask)
Me: Thank you for that. Let me see your account and check your cable modem out. ( I look up the info, and check to see if the modem is online, which it normally is)
Them: (huge sigh again. They want me to know how exasperated they are with me.)
Me: ok, it looks like the modem is online....
Them: No! the modem isn't online. I can't get on the web....
Me: As I was saying, the modem is online, but it doesn't look like your router is communicating with it. Can you unplug the power from the router for me for about 45 seconds?
Them: No! I've already done all the troubleshooting and your service is down. I'm not going to do any more troubleshooting.
Me: ok then. If you refuse to troubleshoot, then we have nothing more to talk about. Thank you for calling.....
Them: Wait! ok, I'll unplug it. (they go to unplug, and after the set amount of time, they plug it back in) I still can't get online.
Me: You have to give the router a second to synch up. Try it now.
Them: Oh, I'm online. Thank you so much.
Me: Thank you for calling tech support.
Sigh. I get about 15 calls just like this every day. They always want to say they've done it all and it turns out that most of the time, these dumbasses are just completely wrong, which is why I can't stand them.
If they had already done the troubleshooting, they would not have had to call me, which leads me to the very first tip of the day:
"Listen to what I say and do what I ask you to do. You called me for help, I didn't call you"
OK, this ends my rant for now. Feel free to comment :)
Welcome
So you think this is a catchy title for a blog?
Good, because it is, but it is also very true. I work in the tech support industry and I take calls from assholes all day long. Granted, not all customers really are assholes, but most of them are.
I will be regaling everyone with tales from calls I take personally, and experiences I have with customers.
But it doesn't stop there! I'll be attacking service workers also, because let's face it....we're assholes as well.
Hopefully this blog will go to entertain and educate. I truly hope you enjoy it :)
Good, because it is, but it is also very true. I work in the tech support industry and I take calls from assholes all day long. Granted, not all customers really are assholes, but most of them are.
I will be regaling everyone with tales from calls I take personally, and experiences I have with customers.
But it doesn't stop there! I'll be attacking service workers also, because let's face it....we're assholes as well.
Hopefully this blog will go to entertain and educate. I truly hope you enjoy it :)
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