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Customer care hell...

willmunny1990

How do you treat customer care agents when you ring in with a problem?

Say if you have a problem with Sky, UPC or Eircom etc..

I will admit i was harsh on the phone a few times to people until i experienced the job myself. I personally will never act the cnut to anyone ever again if i have a problem because 9 times out of 10 the poor bastard on the phone cant do anything, plus his hands are most likely tied due to company policy.

People always grow balls when they are on the phone, they no your hands are tied and you have to be polite and respectful on the phone to them, its bull****. I used never mind the abuse i got, what was worse is getting some condescending arsehole who thinks he knows it all and treats you like a child.

The never ending sop stories are also bad. I have to say i am just not cut out for Customer Care. The money you earn just isn't enough to warrant the abuse and hell the job is.

How do you feel about working in Customer care?

Plus how do you treat them when your on the phone?

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Agricola

Always treat them nicely. Ive been in their shoes and its no picnic. If they try to be helpful and cordial then I do the same.

TanG411

I never worked in customer care, but still treat them nicely. It shouldn't take someone who has already been in their shoes to realise what a difficult job it is.

Ghandee

I honest to God speak to members of staff, be it C/C or people on the tills as I would like to be spoken to/treated myself.

Good manners cost nothing, and I find that Sugar works better than vinegar when trying to get a problem dealt with to my satisfaction.

wardy2

if your nice to customer care people on the phone ,the more they help you.

TeddyTedson

I'm always as polite as possible to them. They're just doing their job and it's nice to be nice to people.
My friend worked in a one and said the amount of people that ring up shouting at him was really high. I can't believe so many people lost in on the phone, chill the **** out.

HOS 1997

wardy2 wrote: »

if your nice to customer care people on the phone ,the more they help you.

That isn't always true unfortunately.

I've worked in that area for a number of areas and it's generally the customers who complain the most get their way (sad but true).

peckerhead

Oldie but goodie...

http://youtu.be/Yj2oXMdZ4sk

DarkJager

I was about 6 years in various customer care/technical support roles (never again

). In my first job, I got a real prick on the phone one day calling me all sorts and having a good old rant. As I hadn't been trained on the "3 strike rule", I told him I'd personally call to his house and he could repeat everything to my fist. Fired the same day but something I always remembered in later jobs when listening to them.

The thing is, screaming gets you nowhere. Absolutely nowhere. No matter how bad the problem is, the guy on the other end is just there to help and is most certainly not paid enough to get hearing damage. Also it makes you sound mentally unstable and you'll become the topic of many a laugh on smoke breaks

Anyone I ever talked to that spoke to me in a reasonable adult manner got far much more help than the screaming twat. If you are one of these idiots, I suggest you work one week in a call centre and you will never act that way again on a phone.

[Deleted User]

Depends on how they treat me. I'm usually very polite when on the phone to customer services. Have dealt with the ESB, Vodafone, O2, Meteor, Flo-gas and several others without any issue at all.

A big exception was UPC. A few years ago I had a problem where I knew exactly what the problem was. I called to explain and got a very rude Limerick man on the other end, denying that my modem was at fault and constantly cut across me while I was talking. I was fit to snap but he eventually gave in and agreed to get the modem replaced just to shut me up. Turned out I was right too.

Oh, and Microsoft once drove me mental too. That was the only time I ever roared down the phone at someone.

Seachmall

You learn to deal with them.

I'm a programmer so I try to have as little contact with people as possible but due to where I work I occassionaly have to take phones.

I have learned many things working the phones but one thing sticks out more than anything else: People are assholes.

I have a theory called the Black Box Theory, derived from the science and engineering model, that because people don't know nor care how the inner runnings of the business work they assume you are capable of meeting their demands and expect everything to run smoothly despite the fact you operate in the real world where unavoidable things occur.

They reject your statements of things occurring that are outside of your control such as deliveries not arriving or arriving damaged or people getting sick etc. because those are issues within the business. Their interface with the business is supposed to hide that from their view and they simply don't care. As a result they get angry and frustrated when they realise they cannot have their demands met and, as per Black Box Theory, they take it out on the guy on the phone who, ironically, is the one with the least amount of power within the business.

Fortunately with experience you learn how to deal with these people. Spend two months and you'll learn how to tell them what they want to hear. You know and they know what you say makes no difference to what they want to get done but ultimately they just want you to listen to them and give them positive feedback.

If I ever hear my friends give out **** to someone on the phone I will, without exception, slap them full force across the face. That's not hyperbole either. I've had people make my day hell because they've nothing better to do than scream down a phone and I wouldn't wish that on anyone.

When it comes to how things work people are wilfully ignorant and, worst of all, they use that ignorance to justify making someone's job the worst job in the world.

Fuck. Those. People.

whatdoicare

I'm always as clear and polite as I can be - worked in a call centre a few years ago and it was just awful!
I also find that if you are clear and polite that everything gets done quicker and everyone is happy.

I have once lost the rag with someone in a call centre - my laptop was broken, I was 100% entitled to a replacement and the girl on the other end was having none of it - I realised that the reason she was holding off was that the guarantee was up in a month (Xmas was in the middle of the month) and she wanted me to extend it - whereas I would have gotten a new guarantee with the new laptop (this was part of the original deal when I purchased the laptop)

It was costing me a fortune ringing her and her story changed to having no guarantee to blaming me for the fault to trying to send me a new charger to just hanging up on me several times when I tried to read out the terms and conditions on my guarantee. I eventually just lost it and started demanding her supervisor. She flat out refused this and I went nuts. She hung up on me again and I left it at that.

I went into the shop where I bought the laptop - told them what had happened and explained that I just couldn't afford another phone call to the call centre. The lady in the shop got straight onto them for me - yelled blue murder at them (I mean it when I say blue murder - there was a fair amount of cursing) and I went home that day with my new laptop and guarantee. Success!:) I sent that lady a thank you card straight away

Big Nasty

I always try to be as polite as possible but on more than one occasion I've been completely frustrated by them and have lost the head.

To be fair much of the frustration can occur while being on hold for 27.8 minutes before your call is taken.

starbelgrade

Generally have no problem with them, but trained monkeys would be better than the help you get from customer care from PTSB. I honestly believe that they employ the dumbest fuckwits they can find who are able to answer a telephone without eating it or setting fire to themselves.

Professey Chin

Always try and be polite & civil to them after working in 1 myself before.
The only time I got annoyed was Vodafone. They cut my service cause I apparently hadnt paid my bill(I did) and when I rang them up the fella on the phone said he could see the payment on my account but wouldnt unblock it until I sent a fax proving id paid it -_-

Seachmall

MCMLXXV wrote: »

I always try to be as polite as possible but on more than one occasion I've been completely frustrated by them and have lost the head.

To be fair much of the frustration can occur while being on hold for 27.8 minutes before your call is taken.

But the person you're talking to has no control over that. They're just there trying to make a wage in what is genuinely a supremely shitty job. They're not responsible for why the company did you wrong or why you were on hold for 30 minutes and if he says he can't sort the issue he cannot sort the issue, if he could he'd do it ASAP because the longer it takes the more likely it is you'll get aggravated.

The guy on the phone doesn't really care about your problems and he'll care even less if you lose the plot with him. If you want to flip out at someone ask for the manager, at least he actually has the discretion to sort out your problem.

up for anything

Seachmall wrote: »

If I ever hear my friends give out **** to someone on the phone I will, without exception, slap them full force across the face. That's not hyperbole either.

That's a bit strange - apply physical force to make people speak nicely on the phone. I can't see how it works because if you were my friend and slapped me full force across the face you'd never see/hear me on the phone again unless it was on one of those prison visiting phones with you on the inside.

cocoshovel

polite and concise. I also research a bit on my problem too as I usually try fix it myself. Those things combined make for extremely fast and effective problem solving and we usually get along great. (as we understand the problems and can get down to fixing them fast)

Have had nothing but good experiences with Eircom, A.I.B and PayPal american call centre so far.

Alot of people get all angry and frustrated in turn creating problems for themselves, making the original problem harder to solve....and they're idiots.

fro9etb8j5qsl2

I worked for UPC back in the good old NTL changeover days and the horrific abuse never really bothered me. I always try to be nice when I speak to customer service but it does drive me insane when the person on the other end of the line can't string a sentence of english together :mad::mad: Also, I did become fairly irate with a 3 customer service agent who was trying to convince me in the most condescending manner that 0.8mbps was an excellent internet speed when I was paying for 7mbps :mad:

Seachmall

up for anything wrote: »

That's a bit strange - apply physical force to make people speak nicely on the phone. I can't see how it works because if you were my friend and slapped me full force across the face you'd never see/hear me on the phone again unless it was on one of those prison visiting phones with you on the inside.

Friend or not if you put someone in that position I'll slap you.

And I've that kind of relationship with my friends, my best friend once decked me a few years ago over something stupid. He bought me a pint and we laughed it off. Good times.

krudler

MCMLXXV wrote: »

I always try to be as polite as possible but on more than one occasion I've been completely frustrated by them and have lost the head.

To be fair much of the frustration can occur while being on hold for 27.8 minutes before your call is taken.

dont blame the call centre for that, blame the ****wits who ring in constantly with trivial stupid queries that a 10 second google could answer who make the queues longer wasting the agents time, its not like people who work in customer are sitting there tiwddling their thumbs answering the phone when they feel like it, you get no time between calls, like none, one ends another one comes through straight away, you can take yourself out of the queue but then you impact everyone else.

I work in a call centre, its where you see, or rather hear, the general public at its very worst, people dont seem to understand that screaming at agents gets you nowhere, at all, it'll get you put on hold to calm down ("I'll just go talk to a supervisor" really I'm just sitting there or gone to make coffee and hope you hang up) or just hung up on if you get abusive.

I could, and probably should, write a book about working in a call centre, its hilarious and horrifying at the same time.

fusuf

I'm always polite with them and have never worked in a call centre. I dont understand how it could take people experiencing the job first hand to realise that being a rude prick gets you nowhere. I don't agree with the argument that being a c*nt will get you the help you need. Being polite is not the same as letting them brush you off when you claim you deserve a better service, I'd imagine they are trained to do this. But cursing and shouting is completely pointless and unnecessary even if you know you are in the right.

IsaMtq

Worked in a call centre years ago, one of my first jobs & it was mind-numbingly tedious, got my fair share of rude arrogant customers on the phone & usually dealt with it with general ambivalence. One day had just had enough & turned the rude arrogance back on some fecker on the phone and took the head off him. Was v. pleased with myself upon hanging up….. till I was called into the office & whole thing played back to me. When they say they record all calls, yea they really do!

Pdfile

starbelgrade wrote: »

Generally have no problem with them, but trained monkeys would be better than the help you get from customer care from PTSB. I honestly believe that they employ the dumbest fuckwits they can find who are able to answer a telephone without eating it or setting fire to themselves.

in fairness though, alot of the call staff i get are normally ex FAS/mentally challenged due to them getting the job through key hole scheme...

not to put them down or anything, But a jobs a job... its not a hard one... Everyone just expects it done right i guess.

up for anything

Seachmall wrote: »

Friend or not if you put someone in that position I'll slap you.

And I've that kind of relationship with my friends, my best friend once decked me a few years ago over something stupid. He bought me a pint and we laughed it off. Good times.

So what do you do when you find me in tears on the phone trying to get some satisfaction from a customer service agent who is parroting the party line and refuses to let me speak to a supervisor?

IsaMtq

5 Idiotic Misconceptions About Calling Customer Service:

http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-idiotic-misconceptions-about-calling-customer-service/

Seachmall

up for anything wrote: »

So what do you do when you find me in tears on the phone trying to get some satisfaction from a customer service agent who is parroting the party line and refuses to let me speak to a supervisor?

Oh well clearly I smack you because "context" does not exist in my world.

KittyeeTrix

I would be very appreciative and aware of the general idiots these call centre workers have to put up with on a hourly basis and would be above nice to them on the phone until one day I had to deal with one particular landline phone company...

Lets just say it ended with me fuming, still don't know how it happened but it was the most frustrating thing in the world to deal with as she spouted one generic response after another to me. I could have strangled her with my bare hands at that moment:mad::(

Like I said I'm mild mannered on the phone so I could only imagine the type of effect this particular call centre worker would have on someone less mild mannered!!

smash

I like to phone customer care lines and play sound clips of bricktop from snatch, then hang up!

cloud493

I try to be as nice as possible to customers. A smile costs nothing, and most people appreciate it. Even if I'm having a bad day, or the customer is a scumbag who is trying to rip me off/being a dick, I'm always polite. If your polite, they can't say anything against you essentially. If you're rude, you're just giving them ammunition to use against you :rolleyes:

subway

i dont ring them anymore, i just ring a mate and ask them to read the faq on the website to me. it gives the same result and no hold times.