P
PT 940
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kiwifarms.net
Ever worked in a call center? Post your horror stories here. You'll feel better.
The Call Center PTSD Support Group Thread - It's a horrible job - click here for free therapy
W
WW 635
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kiwifarms.net
You first
Don't work in a call center, but once when I worked at RadioShack I had to explain to somebody over the phone how to hook their DVD player up to their TV. Took like 30 fucking minutes minimum.
P
PT 940
Guest
kiwifarms.net
I worked in a DSL call center and a guy yelled at me because his internet was down and his only income was trading stocks online. He kept saying, "You screwed the pooch on this one" which is just weird, creepy thing to say. He said it was my fault he was gonna be broke, dumb stuff like that, even though I said I could get someone out to fix it the same day but he said waiting a few hours was too long.
I had a lady call on a Monday morning and was upset her internet had been out since Friday evening and didn't call until Monday to report it and was like, "My kids can't do their homeschooling! What am I going to do with them all day?" and I asked why she didn't call over the weekend and she said, "I did, no one was there" but I worked every Saturday and knew that wasn't true.
We got graded on calls and had to suggest people pay for extra tech support on every call that was $30 a month and that was only answered by people in India and got in trouble if we didn't do it, so you got to at least pick who you got yelled at - your boss or strangers who were already upset.
Tons more where these came from.
I worked a technical help desk in the early 2000's where you had to walk people through literally everything; remote support tools were available maybe one call out of ten via PC Anywhere. We supported entire offices infrastructures. My favorite tactic for difficult people was to have them locate their US Robotics modem and have them count the blinking lights and tell me exactly which light was blinking, what the lights label was and how many times it blinked. It wasn't really as punishment, but more to make them feel involved in the process, stop the complaints and to buy myself some time to try and figure out what was going wrong while they were occupied. My most hated customers were always from northern Jersey though. Absolute dickheads there.
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It also blows my mind how people will call up and scream \ harass the people they expect to get assistance from. I'm never anything but 100% polite dealing with people on the other end of the phone when somethings wrong because I know I'm more likely to truly get helped that way. If you're a person that loves to scream at anonymous people who are trying to help you, maybe neck yourself.
Edit:
It also blows my mind how people will call up and scream \ harass the people they expect to get assistance from. I'm never anything but 100% polite dealing with people on the other end of the phone when somethings wrong because I know I'm more likely to truly get helped that way. If you're a person that loves to scream at anonymous people who are trying to help you, maybe neck yourself.
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I fully support everyone who works any customer service job and they have my thots and prayers.
No but seriously, anyone who works in customer service deserves an award, multiple of them. Nobody deserves to go through what customer service people go through. These are some of the many only jobs available to the lower end of the industry in general that are left that robots probably can't replace, and you have my utmost respect. Whether it be call centers mentioned in this thread, fast food, etc.
No but seriously, anyone who works in customer service deserves an award, multiple of them. Nobody deserves to go through what customer service people go through. These are some of the many only jobs available to the lower end of the industry in general that are left that robots probably can't replace, and you have my utmost respect. Whether it be call centers mentioned in this thread, fast food, etc.
My senior year of high school I worked part time for DirecTV as first line customer support. I did my month of training during summer break and mostly worked Saturday and Sunday morning when I started in the center. I lasted until graduation but it was tough.
Working as support for a service like TV, internet, cell phone, etc. may be the worst thing ever. 95% of your calls are people calling because their service isn't working right and they're pissed (especially on Sunday during football season). Keep in mind your boss wants you to get the customer off the phone within a certain amount of time too.
When I worked for DTV half my calls were "searching for satellite" issues because the customer's dish had become misaligned or they just needed to reset their box. Luckily the dishes used in 2003 were very easy to realign by the customer if they could reach it. If they couldn't reach it we'd have to send a service tech to do it which cost $75 and resulted in a pissed off customer. Also, all of the equipment was owned by the customer and there was no type of protection or warranty plan like they have now. If a customer's equipment needed to be replaced they had to pay for it themselves. It was $150 for a new dish with install, $100 for an SD box, $300 for a DVR SD box, and $1,000 for the Tivo HD box. Most customers didn't know this so it was always fun when a box died outside of the one year warranty and they found out they were responsible for paying for a new one.
We could give courtesies like account credits, free service calls, equipment, etc. but had to write every courtesy down on paper and give it to our supervisor at the end of our shift. They would go through all of our transactions from the previous day and if we forgot to write down a courtesy we gave we'd be reprimanded. If we gave too many things away we could lose the right to do so. My last day on the job I gave out almost $5,000 in free stuff.
Here's a few of the calls that I still remember:
1. Each box has an access card it comes with that will only work with that box. If you take it out and put it in another box you'll get an error message and loose programming. This rich old lady called because her grandkids were over and decided to swap the cards in all six boxes in her home. She couldn't move too quickly and lived in a mansion. It took about an hour for her to get the cards organized and put in the correct boxes.
2. Some time in fall there were really bad storms in the Florida area and dishes were getting blown off houses left and right and were losing power to their home. Customers were calling because they had a generator running, but couldn't watch TV because the dish was blown off the roof. We couldn't send techs down to the area until the storms cleared, but they didn't want to hear that. I always thought it was odd they were concerned more about watching TV than restoring power to their home.
3. A customer had a Tivo HD receiver and one of the two tuners went bad a month after the year warranty ended. When I told him he'd have to pay $1,000 for a new box I think he screamed for five minutes straight before I passed him to a supervisor to "see what they could do".
I quit a few days after I graduated high school and got a job stocking shelves at a department store during college.
Working as support for a service like TV, internet, cell phone, etc. may be the worst thing ever. 95% of your calls are people calling because their service isn't working right and they're pissed (especially on Sunday during football season). Keep in mind your boss wants you to get the customer off the phone within a certain amount of time too.
When I worked for DTV half my calls were "searching for satellite" issues because the customer's dish had become misaligned or they just needed to reset their box. Luckily the dishes used in 2003 were very easy to realign by the customer if they could reach it. If they couldn't reach it we'd have to send a service tech to do it which cost $75 and resulted in a pissed off customer. Also, all of the equipment was owned by the customer and there was no type of protection or warranty plan like they have now. If a customer's equipment needed to be replaced they had to pay for it themselves. It was $150 for a new dish with install, $100 for an SD box, $300 for a DVR SD box, and $1,000 for the Tivo HD box. Most customers didn't know this so it was always fun when a box died outside of the one year warranty and they found out they were responsible for paying for a new one.
We could give courtesies like account credits, free service calls, equipment, etc. but had to write every courtesy down on paper and give it to our supervisor at the end of our shift. They would go through all of our transactions from the previous day and if we forgot to write down a courtesy we gave we'd be reprimanded. If we gave too many things away we could lose the right to do so. My last day on the job I gave out almost $5,000 in free stuff.
Here's a few of the calls that I still remember:
1. Each box has an access card it comes with that will only work with that box. If you take it out and put it in another box you'll get an error message and loose programming. This rich old lady called because her grandkids were over and decided to swap the cards in all six boxes in her home. She couldn't move too quickly and lived in a mansion. It took about an hour for her to get the cards organized and put in the correct boxes.
2. Some time in fall there were really bad storms in the Florida area and dishes were getting blown off houses left and right and were losing power to their home. Customers were calling because they had a generator running, but couldn't watch TV because the dish was blown off the roof. We couldn't send techs down to the area until the storms cleared, but they didn't want to hear that. I always thought it was odd they were concerned more about watching TV than restoring power to their home.
3. A customer had a Tivo HD receiver and one of the two tuners went bad a month after the year warranty ended. When I told him he'd have to pay $1,000 for a new box I think he screamed for five minutes straight before I passed him to a supervisor to "see what they could do".
I quit a few days after I graduated high school and got a job stocking shelves at a department store during college.
SelmaHendersen
kiwifarms.net
I'm so sorry to all of you, and this thread needs a blessing upon it. Indians were bred and buttered to work in call centers, but kind and gentle Kiwi's don't deserve to suffer under such oppression.
P
PT 940
Guest
kiwifarms.net
Where I worked I had no access to turning peoples' service off or on, all I could do was test for problems on the line, refer to other departments or help troubleshoot (as long as the person was home.) So I would literally have people (LOTS of people) call and say "I paid my bill! Flip the switch!" and I had to explain there was no way for me to do that.
people working in call centers deserve to be treated like shit, you have to wait for hours on the phone and in the end they are unable to help you without you yelling at them.
As an ip relay operator 75 percent of my work day was either making prank calls on behalf of middle school boys, being made to say insulting and demeaning things by middle school boys, attempting to defraud merchants out of goods for Nigerian scammers, talking to sad and lonely old men being sweetheart scammed by Nigerians either directly for money or to serve as an address to deliver their stolen goods to. There was no real effort to curtail any of this abuse because MCI was being paid two dollars a minute by the government for handling calls. The rest of the time was spent dealing with the actual Deaf community, a majority of which were like SJWs only mentally retarded. Gaudellet students were far more hostile and dumb than RIT students as Gaudellet exists to turn out Deaf identity activists to agitate for more gibs from the government.
Female operators had it worse than male operators because in addition to the above, they had to spend at least an hour a day acting as free phone sex operators for perverts.
Female operators had it worse than male operators because in addition to the above, they had to spend at least an hour a day acting as free phone sex operators for perverts.
Emperor Julian
kiwifarms.net
My standard experiance as a call centre employee was more about slow attrition rather than individual horror. Little day to day annoyances which just ground you down. Stuff like
-the customer ignoring what you've just told them
-the customer being enraged at something which is there fault
-the customer repeating the same bullshit info over and over.
-The shaggy dog story which leads into the actual reason for the call about 2-3 minutes into the call.
-Customers who angrily rant at you without explaining what they actually want.
-Customers who want to speak to a manager despite it being pointless.
-The customer threatening to put your (fake) name on social media as though that will somehow sway your overlords.
-The customer answering questions with a completly differant answer, because they were not listening.
-The customer refusing to admit they don't know the answer and trying to give you an differant answer to what you asked which they think will help, rather than just saying "I don't know."
-the customers mother calling in to lecture you.
-the fucking hold music.
-the customer trying to use their children as leverage to guilt you into something you're never going to do
-The coffee machine drinks tasting like shit
-Your boss giving you grief because you took too long taking a shit
-your boss giving you grief because you came back a minute late from lunch
-hearing your boss bitch about what an unreasonable prick his boss is and then seeing him turn around and pull the exact same shit.
-the way the emails and general manner of your superiors is completly at odds with the grim realities of the work
-the state of the toilets.
-the shitty seats which hurts your arse.
-Getting stuck on a call after you've finished.
-customers you can't understand what they're saying because they're grasp of english is limited
-customer phoning on a pototoe so the signal is shit.
-the complete lack of effective communications with other departments.
-Customers who won't get off the fucking line so I can solve their problem for them.
-being made to take on extra duties for no benifit to yourself.
-Customer using saying it's "not their problem" when it evendently is.
These where all daily experiances.
-the customer ignoring what you've just told them
-the customer being enraged at something which is there fault
-the customer repeating the same bullshit info over and over.
-The shaggy dog story which leads into the actual reason for the call about 2-3 minutes into the call.
-Customers who angrily rant at you without explaining what they actually want.
-Customers who want to speak to a manager despite it being pointless.
-The customer threatening to put your (fake) name on social media as though that will somehow sway your overlords.
-The customer answering questions with a completly differant answer, because they were not listening.
-The customer refusing to admit they don't know the answer and trying to give you an differant answer to what you asked which they think will help, rather than just saying "I don't know."
-the customers mother calling in to lecture you.
-the fucking hold music.
-the customer trying to use their children as leverage to guilt you into something you're never going to do
-The coffee machine drinks tasting like shit
-Your boss giving you grief because you took too long taking a shit
-your boss giving you grief because you came back a minute late from lunch
-hearing your boss bitch about what an unreasonable prick his boss is and then seeing him turn around and pull the exact same shit.
-the way the emails and general manner of your superiors is completly at odds with the grim realities of the work
-the state of the toilets.
-the shitty seats which hurts your arse.
-Getting stuck on a call after you've finished.
-customers you can't understand what they're saying because they're grasp of english is limited
-customer phoning on a pototoe so the signal is shit.
-the complete lack of effective communications with other departments.
-Customers who won't get off the fucking line so I can solve their problem for them.
-being made to take on extra duties for no benifit to yourself.
-Customer using saying it's "not their problem" when it evendently is.
These where all daily experiances.
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H
HG 400
Guest
kiwifarms.net
I've worked in call centers and it's easy work. You'd have to be soft as butter to cry about strangers yelling at you over the phone who the fuck cares lmao.
J
JM 590
Guest
kiwifarms.net
You must have been very lucky. I worked at an ISP where I ended up liking the customers more than my coworkers and superiors. Even the crazy assholes who yelled at me because they bought a router, and we couldn't help them with it because we didn't sell it to them. Or the countless poor souls that NEEEEEEEEEEEED their internet because all their business is online and WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN THERE'S AN OUTAGE AND IT'LL BE TWO MORE HOURS UNTIL OUR INTERNET'S BACK I HAVE VERY IMPORTANT EBAY BULLSHIT TO DO ITS MY FULL TIME JOB
H
HG 400
Guest
kiwifarms.net
Maybe you're just a cuck who gets bullied in the workplace?
P
PT 940
Guest
kiwifarms.net
Where I worked had "schedule bidding" so every month you had to numerically choose which shift you wanted to work but your seniority was factored into it. I was there for a year before I got something that wasn't 11-8 or 12:45-9:45. The only way to move up in the company was to do training for "business class" at which point your seniority plummeted back to the bottom and you were back to crappy schedules again.
I worked in the fraud department for a large online shoe/fashion retailer for 2 years. We would get all kinds of shady shit and some interesting charge backs.
- We'd often get a call from someone that had their card stolen and used on our site and the delivery address was just a few blocks away from the billing address. We required a police request for info so we wouldn't get sued when the credit card holder went to their friend or families house to carry out street justice in these cases.
- IP relay calls were 99.9% fraud because the person placing the orders didn't want their Nigerian or Venezuelan IP flagged on the order since it was grounds for automatic cancellation. I hated these because it took forever for the scammer to give the info to the operator and we would just cancel the order right after placing it.
- I once received a call from a VP at AAA. Apparently at this time their Visa gift cards of $50 or less were already loaded and activated before they were even purchased and run through the register. They were kept behind the counter at AAA locations though. Someone somehow found out about this and that the sequence of numbers was the same save for the last 4-6 numbers. They kept guessing numbers until they got one and would spend them at various online retailers. They managed to spend about 50 at our site before we were made aware of it. We didn't scrutinize orders of $100 or less very much.
- One time an FBI agent called to get copies of orders that were placed on our site with stolen American Express accounts. A man from Canada had taken over numerous Amex accounts and changed all of the info so he could verify purchases with retailers. He would send the orders to a drop shipper in Washington state and cross the border to pick them up. He managed to get $500,000 worth of merchandise ($75,000) from us before he was caught.
- If you're ever worried an online order might go wrong use an American Express card. They're the most customer friendly for chargebacks and will let you charge things back for a very long time. I was working chargebacks one day and a customer had charged back almost $15,000 worth of orders for mens items (clothes, shoes, watches, etc.) In cases like this we would reach out to the customer to make sure it wasn't a mistake. When I contacted the customer she started crying immediately and was ranting and raving about her ex boyfriend. She was a high power attorney and had a boy toy that left her for another woman. I left the department shortly after that, but heard she dropped the chargebacks after she was threatened with being put in collections.
- We'd often get a call from someone that had their card stolen and used on our site and the delivery address was just a few blocks away from the billing address. We required a police request for info so we wouldn't get sued when the credit card holder went to their friend or families house to carry out street justice in these cases.
- IP relay calls were 99.9% fraud because the person placing the orders didn't want their Nigerian or Venezuelan IP flagged on the order since it was grounds for automatic cancellation. I hated these because it took forever for the scammer to give the info to the operator and we would just cancel the order right after placing it.
- I once received a call from a VP at AAA. Apparently at this time their Visa gift cards of $50 or less were already loaded and activated before they were even purchased and run through the register. They were kept behind the counter at AAA locations though. Someone somehow found out about this and that the sequence of numbers was the same save for the last 4-6 numbers. They kept guessing numbers until they got one and would spend them at various online retailers. They managed to spend about 50 at our site before we were made aware of it. We didn't scrutinize orders of $100 or less very much.
- One time an FBI agent called to get copies of orders that were placed on our site with stolen American Express accounts. A man from Canada had taken over numerous Amex accounts and changed all of the info so he could verify purchases with retailers. He would send the orders to a drop shipper in Washington state and cross the border to pick them up. He managed to get $500,000 worth of merchandise ($75,000) from us before he was caught.
- If you're ever worried an online order might go wrong use an American Express card. They're the most customer friendly for chargebacks and will let you charge things back for a very long time. I was working chargebacks one day and a customer had charged back almost $15,000 worth of orders for mens items (clothes, shoes, watches, etc.) In cases like this we would reach out to the customer to make sure it wasn't a mistake. When I contacted the customer she started crying immediately and was ranting and raving about her ex boyfriend. She was a high power attorney and had a boy toy that left her for another woman. I left the department shortly after that, but heard she dropped the chargebacks after she was threatened with being put in collections.
Emperor Julian
kiwifarms.net
A thing which occurs is that press are always the worst customers because they always threatens to write a story about you and how shitty yours service. Politicians typically try and hint that they should get preferencial treatement and the police imply your in the shit but the associated press will bitch, lie, make completly unrealistic demands and bitch some more. I once spent 25 minutes explaining politly that we honestly didnt give a shit if you're going to write an angry article in the Express-I'm not breaking the law and breaching data protection to tell you where some elses info.
You ever thought about going into management? Moneys pretty good.
You ever thought about going into management? Moneys pretty good.
I'm willing to bet that it pays better to be in non-call center management than call center management.
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