Sligo people "not sufficiently skilled" to work in call centres

okiss

In the past few months I had to get Broadband into my home. I went with Eir due to a good offer. A contractor for Eir put in the broadband in.
I had to ring customer service one day as I wanted to find out the day my 1st bill was due. I had to wait about 25 mins to speak to someone, was put on hold and after that was given the wrong date that the dd would come out of my account. 1901 is just hell to ring due to a lack of staff.

The systems they have are not up to the job they are required to do. Along with this staff training is poor and the pay is not great.
Some bright spark decides that each call should take x amount of time and being honest some calls just take longer no matter what you do.
Then for the CEO to go on national media and say it all the people of the Sligo office fault well she not doing herself any favours.
You can keep cuting cornors but eventully the service will just lose customers.

Why can't people like that CEO realise that without customers paying for Eir service she would not have her job?

Bass Reeves

I think a lot of people would want to watch the program again and listen this time

Yes CL was poor mind you the lad from RTE was useless as well. What did she say.

They have a historical issue with there call center. 2 years ago they decided to bring it back in-house. They set up centers in Cork and Limerick and a new one in Sligo. With Sligo they were struggling with staff that had no call center experience rather there background was retail and hospitality.

Sligo was just starting to get up to capacity when COVID hit. As many companies did they started working from home. However this created an issue where Iinexperienced staff working in not ideal conditions for customers support often a bed room had no support from more experienced staff as in a dedicated call center.

The Rate test started on about pay. She pointed out they had competitive rates and paid sick pay and other benefits. Is there pay great, probably not but 21-23k in Sligo is as good as 30k in Dublin if you do not live there. Is it a low wage yes but starting pay in CC is always ****e.

She pointed out that previously in Dublin staff turnover was an issue. I heard this about more than one CC in Dublin. However due to WFH she seemed to hint that staff turnover was higher than expected in Sligo ( and maybe in Cork and Limerick) was running at nearly 20%.

There was an element of bad luck. Talking to a lad that worked in EIR about this a few years back his opinion was that previously as COMREG's job was to reduce EIR's market share there was no point in spending money on custo.er service as COMREG'S job was to force EIR to lose market share. Same as the in the a energy sector with the ESB.

However I imagine now it's an issue as with demand changing due to COVID. She made one good point that it still left to EIR to manage all the external network. This naturally skews the complaints numbers as in the end unless you are in a city and get VIRGIN BB if you get connected to any rural fibre BB it supplied by EIR.

jelem

garrettod wrote: »

The people of Sligo should all boycott Eir, much in the same way as the people of Liverpool boycott that rag of red top tabloid.

it is eir and the telcos Not the sligo people.
indian and pakistan call centres with many complaints of no understanding of english language have
been blamed and then "WE are moving back to ireland". this to hide the fact call centre staff cannot
sort out issues of eir and other telcos Selling what they dont have and cannot maintain.
the staff are purposefully "trained" to be "plausable deniable" .
i would not be employed by them as i in response to customer would state,
LOOK your exchange only has X bandwidth and eir has sold large part to paying business
along with another large part to resellers (likes of imagine\pure\ etc.) and what is left is
dished out to you in portions. The line you are on can handle ** example** 60 x 20Mb but
eir has sold to 300. with computer and system Quality Of Service tools the bandwidth is
allocated. the understanding that all customers will not be using 100% all the time is the
"frame" used and so your bandwidth goes up and down.
the Criminal Act is the allowing of government to allow the "upto" excuse which allows selling what they
do not have.
the government is involved in cartel and monopoly support.
the ccpc.ie comreg.ie and ombudsman along with advertising authority are all intentionally powerless.
(comreg is the companies and will not admit they lie).
i hold the documented evidence but no one will act and needs many 10s of thousands to take to court for
which the outcome will prove government\s FF and FG have left the legislation incomplete. which i and the
evidence shows is purposeful.
Again the government cannot unless corruption charges, but garda will not pursue, walk away free and eir with the
resellers carry on with the rip off.
until "upto" is banned you irish consumers will be robbed, until cartel and monopoly is banned along with
government held to account, eir and resellers will continue to blame all for their failings hence call centre staff
are no more than excuses whom can handle the mere basics just above of "have you got your device plugged in".
Yes recorded a "tech" talking customer in circles of check this check that and back again to step 1 some 10 minutes later.
the tech then stating my device at fault for which i then stated i had 3 different devices and all give same issue..
thats the "put on hold and lose call" exit by tech..for which redial by customer required and back in 20 or more minute wait.
As stated and government cannot attack me for slander\defamation it is a government supported cartel and monopoly
being run along with the so called NBP which is just another fake farce to give politicians a "look what we doing for you".
The dont use and not pay is your own trap as you signed contract and have to pay.
just like the minister (yes her" as far as judge is concerned, well claim just following procedure lol.
there is No legislation to protect the consumer and government along with the legal fraternity will do nothing.
You want copy of ccpc.ie "case closed", for that is their legislation when they are powerless to act and it is in
their small print.
as i have stated in other telco threads the irish consumer has allowed FF and FG to do this to you.
call centre staff are the equivelant of basic soldiers with the term "cannon fodder" due to those whom
run the show gov.\telcos.

jd

Bass Reeves wrote: »

She made one good point that it still left to EIR to manage all the external network. This naturally skews the complaints numbers as in the end unless you are in a city and get VIRGIN BB if you get connected to any rural fibre BB it supplied by EIR.

Yes, but the complaints would go to to the retail supplier, rather than eir?

jelem

As a further word on the idea of sligo people boycott ===
who you going to use ? they all use eir controlled network
You will just have another crowd making excuses as they
are in the same situation as you but they pay eir network.
A bigger laugh is eir will not supply ftth but will sell over virgin network
infrastructure. = hence virgin is a monopoly, whilst they use eir network.
competition? what goddamn competition and why ccpc.ie paid taxpayers money.
this is where fraud is evident as any eu or irish tax money put into broadband IS
going to cartel and monopoly profit companies with NO legal requirement to do
anything which is also supported by government.

Yyhhuuu

seamus wrote: »

This is nothing to do with Sligo, and everything to do with a culture problem in eir that has existed since day dot. The fact that CEO blames the quality of customer service on the staff says volumes about what management think about staff.

In my early days I worked in two companies that could not be more different in their reputation for customer service; Superquinn and eircom.



Superquinn's induction process consisted of two days. 1.5 days were spent discussing customer service. Literally. Drilling home the "customer is always right" culture that the business was built on. Roleplaying various scenarios about serving customer, responding to issues, etc. The other half day was the procedural company stuff, the job, etc. When you were working, performance was almost entirely focussed on customer interaction; whether you were pleasant and friendly to customers, whether you looked dour and unapproachable while working, whether customers specifically called you out for being helpful, etc. Issues like speed or accuracy less important.
Going above and beyond for a customer was the holy grail.

eircom's induction process (for a customer support role) was 1.5 days learning how to do sales and a half day learning about the company. That's it. The "support" training was being given access to a load of How-To documents to guide you through the issues you might have to deal with.
On the job, there were no customer service performance metrics. No customer satisfaction surveys, no ticketing systems that tracked whether a customer issue was fixed and how long it took to fix. The only metrics were how quickly you could finish a call, and how many sales you made (on a support call). They didn't care about anything else.
No training to deal with difficult customers. No discussion on customer satisfaction. Just "fix their sh1t quickly and try to sell them stuff while you have them". Going above and beyond was no desired. I spent an hour on a call with a guy in his 80s one day. He didn't really need anything fixed, just lonely and wanted a chat. I got called out for it and told it was way too long.

So it doesn't surprise me at all, that when this company went to set up a new call centre in Sligo from scratch, they made an absolute balls of it. Because eir has never, ever, understood what customer support is supposed to be.

Wow! Thank you for that insight.

I nearly had a nervous breakdown last year calling eir HOURS waiting, clueless staff who were more like automatons who had a trick of transferring your call then line went dead.

At the end of my tether I rang one if their business numbers and the person sounded like a real person rather than an automaton reading from a script.

A lot of companies could learn a thing or two from the late Fergal Quinn. My experience is that customer service leaves a lot to be desired in so many retail outlets. I assumed it was either poor management of poor pay or both. Do others have this experience? Things have got worse since covid.

I was in Aldi the other day; the staff I dealt were badly in need of customer service training. Fergal would have turned in his grave..

Greyfox

Bass Reeves wrote: »

They have a historical issue with there call center. 2 years ago they decided to bring it back in-house. They set up centers in Cork and Limerick and a new one in Sligo. With Sligo they were struggling with staff that had no call center experience rather there background was retail and hospitality.

Sligo was just starting to get up to capacity when COVID hit. As many companies did they started working from home. However this created an issue where Iinexperienced staff working in not ideal conditions for customers support often a bed room had no support from more experienced staff as in a dedicated call center..

She pointed out that previously in Dublin staff turnover was an issue. I heard this about more than one CC in Dublin.

Haha, what a load of sh**e, you sound like you work in Eir's marketing department. The fact is all the other Telecom companies had COVID issues and the other companies were able to manage this as they have support systems in place to make sure agents can do there job. If they cared about there employees and listened to them they could fix there issues but Eir don't care about there frontline staff which is why they have had staff turnover issues for years. They are facing the same turnover issues they had when they outsourced their customer care because once again they are overworking and undertraining there staff. Call centre experience it not essential IF you train staff properly and have systems that work.

jelem wrote: »

As a further word on the idea of sligo people boycott ===
who you going to use ? they all use eir controlled network
You will just have another crowd making excuses as they
are in the same situation as you but they pay eir network.

Well when I was with Eir I got a fault logged and it took 3 weeks to get fixed. I moved to Pure Telecom and I had same issue (according to engineer) and it was fixed within 48 hours. The timeframe for getting things fixed is the same with Eir/Sky/Vodafine/Pure it's just that with other companies you get to speak to an agent who had been given all they need to do there job

whisky_galore

Yyhhuuu wrote: »

A lot of companies could learn a thing or two from the late Fergal Quinn. My experience is that customer service leaves a lot to be desired in so many retail outlets. I assumed it was either poor management of poor pay or both. Do others have this experience? Things have got worse since covid.

I was in Aldi the other day; the staff I dealt were badly in need of customer service training. Fergal would have turned in his grave..

We need more FQs in business, less Trump/MO'L wannabes or simply plain old incompetents.

garrettod

garrettod wrote: »

The people of Sligo should all boycott Eir, much in the same way as the people of Liverpool boycott that rag of red top tabloid.

Unfortunately unless they go with SIRO or Virgin regardless of provider any fixed line broadband is on Eirs network and therefore they’re making money, customer or not.

Pronto63

.anon. wrote: »

I had major issues with them a few years ago (Eircom, not people from Sligo). I was mis-sold a broadband package. They made all sorts of promises that the issue with my line would be resolved by their engineers, so I stupidly held off on cancelling until after the cooling-off period had lapsed. When it became clear that the problem wouldn't be solved (too far from their cabinet, apparently, despite the fact that my neighbours on both sides were availing of the service), I told them I wanted to cancel the contract, but was informed that I would be liable for an early cessation charge.

After spending hours trying to get in touch with their customer service, and being pushed from one useless rep to another, I was told that the only way they could extricate me from the contract was if I lodged a formal complaint. So I did that, and never heard anything back. I then contacted them on the old "Talk to..." forum on Boards and was told that there was no record of my formal complaint. So I made another one. And the same thing happened again. It felt like I was being trolled by them. At this point, I had already wasted hours dealing with them, so I went to the bank and cancelled/blocked the direct debit. I then cancelled the contract and told them where to shove their early cessation charge.

Eventually, after being bombarded with texts and emails about an outstanding bill of around €300 (the early cessation charge and the final month of a service that had never been provided in the first instance), I received a text from a debt collection company, telling me to contact them urgently. I was in the mood for a row, so I rang the number and they were actually lovely. Eircom could learn a thing or two from their hired goons. I explained everything to them and they told me not to worry, I wouldn't be hearing from them again.

Could you not sue for breach of contract.

They agreed to provide a service for 12 months at €X per month.

You pay the first month or 2.

No service provided.

Is the contract now void?

Any legal eagles out there?

RandomViewer

Pronto63 wrote: »

Could you not sue for breach of contract.

They agreed to provide a service for 12 months at €X per month.

You pay the first month or 2.

No service provided.

Is the contract now void?

Any legal eagles out there?

Seems to be nearly impossible to leave while in contract, even if they cut off your service they will continue to bill you up to contract end date, Helps to send in a written request to end the contract as well, registered post, you will be guaranteed to get so rubbish about modem or extra GB to be paid for ,I'd be imagine there a shed full of unopened returned modems somewhere

Bass Reeves

garrettod wrote: »

The people of Sligo should all boycott Eir, much in the same way as the people of Liverpool boycott that rag of red top tabloid.

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Unfortunately unless they go with SIRO or Virgin regardless of provider any fixed line broadband is on Eirs network and therefore they’re making money, customer or not.

As well at the end of the day Eir's CC could in the long-term maybe bring a couple of hundred jobs to Sligo. I doubt if SIRO or Vodafone will. Cut your nose off to spite your face comes to mind

MY BAD

Abtran, a call centre in Sligo were handling the Late Late toy show last night. Just saying.

Ciaranis

You think Eir is bad? Try Currys PC World's Irish customer service. They claim not to be contactable by phone ("The phone system is one-way only - we can only call you"). How convenient. If something goes wrong, you can call Team Knowhow, a partner company, who send Currys an email, and Currys then ring you if you're lucky. I had to be extremely persistent to even get an email address out of them. Sorry to derail thread but it was the most exasperating customer service episode of my life. I think I have PTSD

Ciaranis

Ciaranis wrote: »

You think Eir is bad? Try Currys PC World's Irish customer service. They claim not to be contactable by phone ("The phone system is one-way only - we can only call you"). How convenient. If something goes wrong, you can call Team Knowhow, a partner company, who send Currys an email, and Currys then ring you if you're lucky. I had to be extremely persistent to even get an email address out of them. Sorry to derail thread but it was the most exasperating customer service episode of my life. I think I have PTSD

While I agree with the post, it’s still not really the same thing as a telecommunications company having bad customer services.

chrissb8

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

Why have they not offshored this kind of work like Vodafone have?

To be honest, I called Vodafone last week and I was put through to an Indian man. I was having issues with connectivity and speed.

He went through a script and had me try out turning on and off my modem, connected devices and other actions. This took an age as I had to ask him to repeat himself over and over as his English was all garbled up and came out as one long unending sentences with no discernable spaces between the words to understand what he was saying.

I've also had past experiences with customer service for a dell computer we used to have and having to speak slowly, purposefully and simple enough in order to be understood.

The frustration of the above is two-fold when your piece of technology isn't working and they're just peddling from a script in the hope it works kinda way. Wasting half an hour with no result.

Eir just need to sort out their customer care and hold people accountable, instead of the horror stories of Eir getting back to customers weeks later with a solution or just leaving them on hold when they call. All this can come from proper training and management.

So no. Keep customer service jobs for people who are fluent or speak the native language. One thing to be able to hold a conversation, another thing to talk about the ins and outs of technical problems you are experiencing with someone whose English is not their first language.

D3V!L

chrissb8 wrote: »

English is not their first language.

Like people from Sligo :pac:

Wanderer78

chrissb8 wrote:

So no. Keep customer service jobs for people who are fluent or speak the native language. One thing to be able to hold a conversation, another thing to talk about the ins and outs of technical problems you are experiencing with someone whose English is not their first language.

Customer service is a 'cost', and costs are bad, particularly in relation to maximizing 'share holder value', because share holders are 'valuable', apparently!

Saralace

Maybe they could send up some Dubliners

Saralace

Maybe because the turned teaching upside down

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/education/how-the-sligo-school-with-no-curriculum-or-timetable-is-turning-teaching-upside-down-1.3620746?mode=amp

Wanderer78

Saralace wrote: »

Maybe because the turned teaching upside down

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/education/how-the-sligo-school-with-no-curriculum-or-timetable-is-turning-teaching-upside-down-1.3620746?mode=amp

no harm, our educational system has little or no connection to peoples actual needs

99nsr125

Where is Comreg in all this eh ? ? ?

Wanderer78

99nsr125 wrote: »

Where is Comreg in all this eh ? ? ?

'light touching' themselves, id imagine

YFlyer

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

Why have they not offshored this kind of work like Vodafone have?

To Achill?

Bass Reeves

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

Why have they not offshored this kind of work like Vodafone have?

I think they had some part off it offshore to an Indian company before and stated bringing it all back in house 12-18 months ago. This was when they set up the Sligo CC. They were unhappy with the offshore CC.

Wanderer78 wrote: »

Customer service is a 'cost', and costs are bad, particularly in relation to maximizing 'share holder value', because share holders are 'valuable', apparently!

I think this is a lot of it. I think part of the problem is in Ireland we set up regulators with the job of creating competition in area's of the economy. Mainly this was in communications and energy. In energy this is part of the reason we have the highest energy costs in Europe. The okd ESB was not allowed to complete on price with new energy companies. These companies were artificially allowed to take market share from it and the customer paid. Add on leaves for wind farm and that the ESB was supposed to make sure that we had a power supply all the time drove up electricity costs.

Similar with EUR, the regulator was supposed to reduce Eir market share down below 50%, in the fixed network. However Due as a private company has been less compliant with the objective. A side effect of this drive IMO has been over the years it lack of investment in certain area's of the tekecommunications like broadband. But it has also failed to invest in customer support. As Comreg pointed out it was not the in there remit.

bilbot79

Most likely 100% true. But why would you say that publicly, why??

chrissb8

Wanderer78 wrote: »

Customer service is a 'cost', and costs are bad, particularly in relation to maximizing 'share holder value', because share holders are 'valuable', apparently!

That's fair, but it makes me wonder if a company has good customer service that is efficient and clear this would be a distinct advantage over other companies. As the overall customer experience with Eir at the moment is clearly driving away customers and saddling them with a bad reputation.

jelem

99nsr125 wrote: »

Where is Comreg in all this eh ? ? ?

late but === comreg is part of the cartel.
they ARE the companies and not to protect you.
they fire out some info and promote certain businesses they deem right
as far as equipment supply.
want to ask them how all internet service providers stated my download speed was
12 when i had 14 and the screen shots showing the speed passing through different irish
isp serverws.
i can say crooks and evidence to support it which i made sure they received.
the retaliation was my isp cut me down to 11 but continur to charge same price.
FG and FF government supported theft on all issues you take a deeper look into.

Bonniedog

99nsr125 wrote: »

Where is Comreg in all this eh ? ? ?

Comreg!


Won't even accept complaints unless you can verify previous complaints through the often impenetrable maze of "customer service."

I was ripped off by a mobile provider - not Eir - and ended by just switiching provider.

I suspect what happened was that employee in one of the said companies offices who replaced a SIM for me was engaged in fraud.

robinbird

The change from outsourcing to in house should be an opportunity for a company to change the focus from metrics to customer service. However clearly this has not happened. Instead the usual focus on pointless statistics and repressive thuggish management to enforce regime has been continued.
The result is high attrition and appalling customer service.