Janey

Does anybody like dealing with company's call centres? WTF is happening? everything from buy a Dell computer and having to wait on hold fro somebody in India to talk to, to renewing house insurance, and having to re-explain my file to every new call centre person. It's driving me up the friggin wall.



does anybody work in these?

Manic_Skafe

Customer service is a very large part of what helps me decide which comapnies I do business with. If I call and I've gotta go through 10 minutes of automated voices and bad 'on-hold' music that's one strike against the company - if the person I speak to isn't polite and/or can't help me then 9 times out of 10 I'll cancel my service on the spot.

I was on the line with Verizon Wireless tech support for about 3 hours - I was being over charged by hundreds of dollars for text messages I wasn't even recieving, I had 4 different phones of the same model because they were all defective and my service was in and out...I asked the service agent how continuing the service could be to my advantage in any way - she had nothing to say and I asked her to cancel my service.

I haven't gone back to Verizon since.

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Scorps

So I can't delete my post....fuck!!!!!!!!!!!!

MrFlux

I work in an ISP call centre, and believe me it's hard putting up with the shit that gets directed at you because they had to wait on hold or their problem hasn't been fixed yet etc.

The worst part is our fucking voice recognition system that callers get which sends them to Faults, where I work, when they want to cancel or change their plan which is handled by another department, so they have to wait on hold 10minutes only to be told they're going to be transferred, which takes another few minutes.

And then the customers take it out on you.

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kurty[B]

I work in a call center. Luckily staffing is pretty ample (right now) and hold times are small if existent at all.

Unfortunately due to our privacy policy agreement I can't share my personal opinions on the company starting a call center in India. All I can say is I don't know how many times in the last year I've heard the phrase "Think Globally" from upper-management.

canuckguy

i did a tech support job for awhile before, and phrase that rings the most truth is, act like an ass get treated like one. when people called in and screamed, the call was over, you would look for away out sad but true of most call centers. but, someone calls in and explains there issue without telling me how much they hate me is alot easier to deal with and i would be more than happy to help them. not fair i agree, as all customers should get the same service, but its a fact of life that someone is going to want to help a customer who is nice to them instead of the raving loon.
if you want to yell, ask for a supervisor, they get paid more and should probably hear it first if you have a beef.

Destrox

As long as the person on the other end speaks a form of english that I can UNDERSTAND its ok.

So Dell, you lose. NO offense to those from india, hell a lot of my classmates are, but their dialect is soooooo hard to understand even if they speak english perfect.

That and places who hire people to read from a book or computer is useless, HIRE SKILLED PEOPLE!!!!!

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Bruisedskin

Heh, i'm a telemarketer, selling time share advertisements, I actually work for the only time share advertisement company that isn't full of shit and actually does get the property sold.

Dan

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k925

I've had only the best experiences with the non-U.S. support lines. I've found that the people on the other end often spoke better English than me. In fact, I could understand them much better than most people I've talked to from the deep south or highly urban areas (regardless of skin color). Plus, the ones I've talked to seemed to be more patient than their American counterparts and they're willing to gab about where they're from and what time it is there and whether or not they eat dog and so on. Perhaps I got lucky and talked to some of the good ones?

Speaking from a capitalist perspective (though not really along the subject lines of this thread), more power to the corporation that can find a willing and able labor-force outside of the U.S. borders. If it costs them less, it'll cost you and me less.
Think about it- if a company like Dell finds that it's cheaper to run phone lines half-way around the world and set up all the infrastructure overseas for something that probably could easily be operated stateside, there's got to be a good reason (Lazy Americans? Nooo... couldn't be. ).

If you don't like it, you don't have to "go to Dell." Like what Manic_Skafe implied, you have the freedom to buy from whomever you want. Vote with your wallet/purse.

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Ella

I've spent the past 7 years working in a call centre for Australia's social security provider, Centrelink. And our CSOs are mostly pretty good customer service providers, doing what we can for our customers in the face of some pretty brutal abuse...yet our customers are unable to take their business elsewhere, as we're the only ones who will pay them.

I've spent a few years as a team leader, but have done a lot of time on the phone, and have largely spoken to pleasant people. However, there have been the abusive ones who rip into you because you won't pay them the money they're not entitled to. I tolerate a couple of "fucks"...hell, I use the word myself. But when it's directed at me in a personal nature, I have no hesitation in terminating the call after warning the customer. But I'm moving to a face to face customer service role within the organisation shortly, and am not looking forward to being without my "release call" button when I get a live one in the office. Guess it will be something I'll learn to deal with.

I recently called Dell to enquire about a laptop for my 10 year old. Just trying to get through to a CSO was nigh on impossible. As I'm in Australia, my call went to Indonesia. The gal who answered insisted on my full name, as I hadn't called Dell before. I would only give her my first name. So she asks me again if I've called Dell before. I told her in a fairly emphatic tone that I hadn't, and wouldn't be calling Dell again unless she transferred me to someone who could help me. She transferred me immediately.

The bottom line is....call centre staff are just doing their job, like anyone else. They don't make the rules and don't devise the complicated button pushing IVR system. Nor do they manage staffing levels that determine wait times, or fix the computer system when it goes down. Just be pleasant and forthright with them, and don't be afraid to take no for an answer sometimes.

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TheBrit

Argh. Phoning Apple Support is like going on a guided tour of accents of the world. Microsoft isn't much better, it seems like every single one of their departments exists solely for the reason of putting you through to another one, or telling you that they can't and you'll have to hang up and dial another number. It was only when I said "Don't put me through, fix my problem" that the guy took my name, address and phone number, and had the relevant department call me within 5 minutes. Ahhh, the glory of being forceful on the phone without sounding like a total arsehole.

Drider_it

ok here is what i dont get.. at&t kept calling me claiming im someone else.. a chick that had the number.. 5 fucking years ago before me lol.. i asked them politly to stop calling and they said they couldnt and that until the issue was resolved they would keep calling this was a span over two years (before that phone spam law thing was passed recently)

finally i got tired of it and asked for a supervisor. i told him i was gonna record this converstation. he said i couldnt cuz it was against the law... wtf

they state on hold that there is a chance the converstation will be recorded for quality assurance. wtf cant i recored it myself then?

on a side note i was peaceful and gentle during this all. i know a person doing this is just doing thier job and all. but after two years 4 calls a week i had had enough. I told them going through legeal means was pointless as an individual so i told them each time they called i would record the converstation and post it all over the net for all to hear and email the converstation to thier competitors with my permission to use it in cermicals and such as they saw fit. all doing this in a calm nice gentle way. they stopped calling.

although for gateway i got fed up after a friend asked me to call them due to his lack of tech lingo to state what was wrong. he bought a system from them online. came w/o the network card a 36k modem instead of a 56k (shit i didnt know they still existed) no sound was installed nor could we get it and for some reason the sound would only work with gateway speakers which didnt come with it.

after 4 hours of switch between sales and tech support i had enough and asked the supervisor.. "look friend all i want is a fax of the original invoice to compare to his. what do you mean you cant. I have the order number right here. *sigh* sir, did you last job include the line 'do you want fries with that?' shortly after that i got the invoice and a polite go to hell but i got what i wanted.

heh ive even had a friend do a 5 hour road trip to dallas to toss at the feet of customer support a dell system he order from a company out there. abit it arrived in small peices. he told them that he solved the hardware issue and that they could have thier paper weight back and he was gonna go buy an alienware. harsh but effective for him i guess.

you watch they will come up with a popular word for all this soon.. like phone rage or tech wars rage for the equaliviant of road rage heh

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Rodney

With computers these day, there's not much choice: all customer service is iffy at best, terrible at worst. But in all other things, I consider customer service to be part of the product that I'm buying. For a complex purchase, I'll gladly pay more from an establishment that gives good service.

laconic1

I work in a call center for an extended warranty company. We advertise the fact that we don't have any automated answering systems, and on average you get to speak to a live human within 15 seconds (usually it is within 5 seconds, but it could be a minute or two if we are really backed up.) I have customers tell me all the time how surprised they are that they got through to a real person right away.

Blackthorn

I like getting through to a real person that speaks my NATIVE LANGUAGE! Of course for me that's English (and some may call it Amuuurrrican) but when you talk to someone who's native language is Hindu when you are trying to get some support for your satelite TV service...uuuuugh.

Kudos to you crazybill for answering without an automated answering service!

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Shirtninja

The biggest thing that bugs me if when I cant get through to a real person. I spent the better part of a day trying to find a number that went to a real person for an ISP, when I finally found one they told me I had the wrong number and transfered me back to the automated system. I stopped using them that day and even ate the fee, I just couldnt put up with poor service and the lack of "promised" support.

Aside from them, SBC is pretty bad. I have my home phone and dsl from them. When I have a billing issue, I normally get bounced around between 2-3 departments with 10-20 minute waits each time, plus the initial 30-40 minute wait before I ever get to a person. They are the primary reason I hate moving, it takes at least two or three 2+ hour calls to get my bill fixed because none of their departments seem to talk when it comes to billing me. "You dont want your normal $65 bill to spike to $300 because we double billed you for two addresses, stack your dsl months up, and signed you up for our biggest and best long distance plan during your move?"

Paq

i have worked in three call centers, only for tech support, though, and I can say...yaeh, they are a bitch...from both ends. two were well staffed and call hold times were under 5 minutes on average...the only problem is that it often takes 10 minutes to navigate the system.....

The one busy call center was well staffed, but after a month, the amount of supported users increased ten-fold...soo, wait times were often 90 minutes and you had to spend 10 minutes of every call trying to calm a customer down....not the most efficient way to run a business....


the onlything i can say about outsourced call centers in general is that they have an amazing profit margin for a company while overcharging the client company and still maintaining a higher than average amount of 'managerial' positions...like 1 manager for every 4 people...

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joeyaz

I worked in a call center that people called in to order parts for sears appliances then we had to sell them other parts related it wasn't so bad but I'm not the type to pressure sales like that so I did not last long before I quit. The other was for a wireless phone company the region I did was NE US we were training on the phones when 9/11 happened lots of phone problems and mischarged bills I ended up walking out halfway through a shift a couple weeks after.

alpha666

aaaahhhh call centres!! , infact getting any info at all out of large companys... i feel sorry for the people trying to call the company that i work for. for the most part they just get stuffed around for hours and their problems never solved. this is a real pain in the arse for them because we have a monopoly here in australia so ...... the customer has no choice than to get stuffed around by us ....

from a bit of personal experience i called gateway the other day about my computer and was asked if the Gold Coast (where i live) is near Perth (the other side of australia) WTF????? the guy was in India it turns out and he was trying to use aussie slang, it was funny as hell, wish that i had taped it!

thingstodo

I've had all the experiences everyone has talked about here. I do have a really good experience worth sharing.

I had a problem with my lawn sprinkler system. The guy working on it wasn't getting things resolved to my satisfaction. So, I looked the Rainbird company up on line, tried to figure it out from there and eventually called their customer service line.

The time I called was literally five minutes before their center closed. I got a real person within seconds. He spent 15 minutes going through what had been done and possible solutions, finally hitting on something we both felt would work. This guy was amazing! And my system was at least 3-4 years old, so we weren't talking about a new, under warranty system or anything like that. I figure he must have been a supervisor or management of some other type.

In any event, I will always tell this story about the Rainbird Sprinkler Company because, from my experience, they really care abou customers using their products.

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wolfpack0102

my pet peeve: press 1 for this 2 for that 3...4...5...6...7...8....9 then after you press one press 1...2....3...4...5...6...7 and so on! Then you finally get through and boom you are on hold for 5 + minutes!!! Call centres are a joke!

rfra3645

a post i have to jump into...

call centers...

i have spent so many hours days if you addedit all up probablly months on hold.. it is unbelivable

the record

indianna secrary of state. all day.. im not kidding form 8:30 to 4:30.

i had to switch to a corded phone..

i have been thru just about evrey system out there..

most of them you can "beat" random butons.. till you find a human...

but i have found that they are getting better.

i recently called hp tech support that switched me to warranty and only waited a total of 3 minutes. the 1st guy answered on the 1st ring. unbelivable.

i think companys are getting the picture "phone in service" is important to the customer.

lets git it right.

sprint right now well ussually sucks they have been answering soon but they quality they offer is completley off base.


i wonder why if a company is going to have diffrebt centers all over the country or world cant also have a pc system with my "file" integrated to wherever i may go or whomever i coudl talk to. they should have my file. by the time i get done explaining it for the 8th time in 2 hrs there is usually sevrall fucks in it... i try awfull hard not to direct comments to the person im speaking too.

the worst thing is a rep that wont transfer you too a supervisor after 45 min on hold..

then your mad and they hang up on you...

i was talking to this guy indian or somthing that siad he was top of the line.. he said im sorry sir i odnt have a boss.

yes im hear alone.

no there isnt a voicemail you can leave a message on..


he hugn up on me....

unbelieavlbe yes..

but when that happens what can you do.

NOTHING

i hate call centers.

but they are becoming more tolerable.

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if you cant read my post i dont want to hear about it move on. thanks

superiorrain

The hate of call centres is obvious, from those that use them to those that work inside them. But when it comes down to it, it must be remarked what the hell would we do without them. They are one of those necessary evils in my opinion.

But they could do better and get ride of the talking machines and employ real people that actually talk to you in a nice way.

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Janey

so sorry about that. but hell, wouldn't you?

Janey

I think that this will never stop, until a customer gets an actual person on the first call, without having to hold or choose from a menu. So either the job training will have to consider this, or the procss needs to be changed.