Cutting Edge : Phone Rage

Dymetrie · 06-03-2008, 23:39

What's this? Me talking about another episode of Cutting Edge?

This week was focusing on Call Centres and the (*ahem*) TOTAL ****ING MORONS THAT WANTED TO TALK TO THEM...

The Programme looked at 2 UK call centres, one in Essex (staffed by a charicature of Mohinder) and one in Newcastle (I think) (staffed by the damned), as well as one in South Africa.

Now I'm not a saint when it comes to speaking to call centres, but I always try to remain level headed and polite, and if I speak out of turn then I will always apologise (unless it's talking to repairs or IT in Camden when I say it like it is), but the complainants they had on this programme REALLY got on my nerves.... Well, mostly...

There was the one lass who was being charged twice, on direct debit, once for her hous and once for her old house... CANCEL ONE OF THE DIRECT DEBITS YOU IDIOT!!!

There was the guy who was trying to get a replacement mobile, but was being a **** to everyone he spoke to and then had the audacity to go on about how people in call centres are just doing a job and it wasn't their fault... nob...

And then the grossly overweight woman who was so racist she would've made Hitler cringe :/

As for the call centres...

They featured one in Essex which was absolutely horrible (Kate said about the whole phone not ringing thing, just a *bzzz* then talking), which was horrible.

Then one in Newcastle (I think) for First Direct, which was run by 'Power Paddy' and made me cringe sooooo much.

But the one which struck me the most was one in South Africa. It followed the training and then the first few days of one of the girls.

Six months training to not only understand British pronunciation but also British slang. THAT's dedication... The woman teaching them this was so damn condescending I felt sick, and then on their first day they were given 1000 RAND (about £60) to buy 'corporate' clothes...

THEY'RE ANSWERING THE DAMN PHONE!!!!

That amount of money is immense for the kind of people working there and could be much better spent on clothes/food/ANYTHING for their families, yet they got sent to 'The Mall' to buy clothes to wear to work...

Suffice to say that me and Kate were less than impressed...

Mark · 07-03-2008, 00:18

I turned it off after about 5 minutes. Too many potty mouths for my liking and it was pretty obvious where it was all going.

LeperousDust · 07-03-2008, 02:37

Thats the thing about call centres everyone complains but there are always ways around the "problem".
For starters if you're waiting in a queue use speakerphone i do it all the time, finally when they answer they have to breifly wait for me...
If its a stupid number 0870 use saynoto0870...
If all else fails keep your head make sure you make yourself clear you'd like to talk to a superior or you'll take this "further", if they can't help you.
But do not (unless they really deserve it) blame the person on the phone, usually theyre bound by stupid rules that they dont agree with either but have no choice, the person on the phone is still a human being a lot of people seem to forget that, if these people had basically followed these *simple* rules they, and me (when i worked at a call centre

) would have had a much easier time. I bent over and took it regulary on the phone from customers and then some still thought i was a peice of s***e, quite unbelievable!

BBx · 07-03-2008, 10:45

I thought the programme was going to be a lot better than it was

BB x

karbon · 07-03-2008, 11:43

i'm the worst worst WORST person to get on the phone if you work in a call centre. i know people that work in pretty much all of the glasgow ones so that covers pretty much every industry, i'm 99% sure what i'm entitled to and will get it.

hell mend you if you work for Dell and i phone you though.

Desmo · 07-03-2008, 14:52

Have to say Dym I disagree with some of your points...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dymetrie

There was the guy who was trying to get a replacement mobile, but was being a **** to everyone he spoke to and then had the audacity to go on about how people in call centres are just doing a job and it wasn't their fault... nob...

I didn't think he was that bad from what I actually heard him say on the phone. Yes, he was a bit of a plonker speaking to the camera, but on the phone he didn't really say much. It was more a case of his frustrations coming out.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dymetrie

And then the grossly overweight woman who was so racist she would've made Hitler cringe :/

If she was racist....then so am I.
I can't think of one major thing she said that I didn't agree with. Foreign call centres are a pain in the arse. When you've got a problem you just want it sorted. I don't want to have to struggle to understand the person dealing with me and they shouldn't have to struggle to understand me. They can't empathise with any of our problems we might have because they don't understand anything about us. And no amount of teaching is going to solve that.

In reality, it's not about race or any form of racism. It's about the simple fact of people being able to do a job. And whilst they might be very good at doing that job for people in their own country...I don't think they're good enough at doing it for people in ours.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dymetrie

and then on their first day they were given 1000 RAND (about £60) to buy 'corporate' clothes...

THEY'RE ANSWERING THE DAMN PHONE!!!!

That amount of money is immense for the kind of people working there and could be much better spent on clothes/food/ANYTHING for their families, yet they got sent to 'The Mall' to buy clothes to wear to work...

What the guy was saying is true in general. If you're dressed for work it puts you in a certain frame of mind. And I don't see what's wrong with giving them EXTRA money (it's not like they were forced to spend it out of their first pay packet) to go and cloth themselves for the job they were doing. I also didn't see any of them complaining either....most of them looked really excited about being able to go clothes shopping.

Mark · 07-03-2008, 15:18

My pet peeve with call centres are the ones where it's more than their job's worth to deviate even slightly from their prescribed question sheet. There's a certain set of questions that they have to ask to identify the caller - no problem at all with that - but it's when they start asking either irrelevant or already answered questions just because their instructions tell them to do that. Trouble is, it is of course the foreign call centres that are most likely to do this because their operators can't 'wing it'.

I once spent 28 minutes with a Netgear callcentre in India going through the exact same set of diagnostics I'd already done on the kit just because the script said so - only to be told what I already knew - the unit was DOA. I don't generally lose it on a call but that time I was pretty close. Grrr.

BBx · 07-03-2008, 15:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by Desmo

What the guy was saying is true in general. If you're dressed for work it puts you in a certain frame of mind. And I don't see what's wrong with giving them EXTRA money (it's not like they were forced to spend it out of their first pay packet) to go and cloth themselves for the job they were doing. I also didn't see any of them complaining either....most of them looked really excited about being able to go clothes shopping.

I think this is true. I used to wear a suit every monday to get me into the 'work' frame of mind. I haven't for a while so maybe thats why I may be slacking as I only wear one if I have a meeting with a client.

BB x

semi-pro waster · 09-03-2008, 20:24

Quote:

Originally Posted by Desmo

What the guy was saying is true in general. If you're dressed for work it puts you in a certain frame of mind. And I don't see what's wrong with giving them EXTRA money (it's not like they were forced to spend it out of their first pay packet) to go and cloth themselves for the job they were doing. I also didn't see any of them complaining either....most of them looked really excited about being able to go clothes shopping.

I didn't see the programme so I don't know exactly what the guy was saying but I don't think dressing for work puts you in a frame of mind unless it is that of 'slightly more uncomfortable than I need to be'. I wear a suit to work every day at the moment, I'm in a non-customer facing role and it makes no odds to my work ethic whether I'm wearing it or not - what it does mean is that I'm that little bit warmer and slightly more constricted than if I wandered in wearing jeans and a t-shirt as I'd normally wear outwith work. I've had jobs where I need to wear suits and others where I could wear whatever (none particularly high powered yet I must admit) and I reckon I was more productive in the ones where I could wear whatever I wanted although perhaps that has more to do with the more relaxed atmosphere of the office in general.

I have previously worked in a call centre for about 9 months and actually fairly enjoyed it, the campaign was an inbound one and pretty easy, you never heard the phone ring but just got a buzz in your ear and had to start talking which led to some rather abrupt changes of topic compared to what you were discussing with the person at the next booth.

The idea of following a script is quite frequently unhelpful though, many people who got through to my call centre didn't want the campaign I worked on but we were technically supposed to go through the rigmarole of asking them all the questions in the (loose) script before giving them the information that they wanted or punting them to another department - not really a good plan so I'd usually just ask them if I could help them first before getting on with the spiel, it actually meant that call times were often less for me but I did get told off once or twice for deviating from the prepared lines.

The main things I picked up from it were that generally you shouldn't take it out on the person answering your call - almost invariably it isn't their policy, nor do they agree with it frequently. The other thing is that I quite often forget to introduce myself and just start talking to people, a bad habit that comes from sitting down when someone is in the middle of a call then joining in the conversation so by the time I realise I don't know the name it is usually too late to subtly bring it up.

Joe 90 · 12-03-2008, 10:31

I saw this on 4OD yesterday over my lunch hour, thought it was pretty interesting.
And I hope all those people like the ones featured in the program now have a better understanding of what its like to be the person on the other end of the phone!

06-03-2008, 23:39	#1
Dymetrie A large glass of Merlot Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Letchworth with a Lightsaber Posts: 5,819	Cutting Edge : Phone Rage What's this? Me talking about another episode of Cutting Edge? This week was focusing on Call Centres and the (ahem) TOTAL **ING MORONS THAT WANTED TO TALK TO THEM... The Programme looked at 2 UK call centres, one in Essex (staffed by a charicature of Mohinder) and one in Newcastle (I think) (staffed by the damned), as well as one in South Africa. Now I'm not a saint when it comes to speaking to call centres, but I always try to remain level headed and polite, and if I speak out of turn then I will always apologise (unless it's talking to repairs or IT in Camden when I say it like it is), but the complainants they had on this programme REALLY got on my nerves.... Well, mostly... There was the one lass who was being charged twice, on direct debit, once for her hous and once for her old house... CANCEL ONE OF THE DIRECT DEBITS YOU IDIOT!!! There was the guy who was trying to get a replacement mobile, but was being a ** to everyone he spoke to and then had the audacity to go on about how people in call centres are just doing a job and it wasn't their fault... nob... And then the grossly overweight woman who was so racist she would've made Hitler cringe :/ As for the call centres... They featured one in Essex which was absolutely horrible (Kate said about the whole phone not ringing thing, just a bzzz then talking), which was horrible. Then one in Newcastle (I think) for First Direct, which was run by 'Power Paddy' and made me cringe sooooo much. But the one which struck me the most was one in South Africa. It followed the training and then the first few days of one of the girls. Six months training to not only understand British pronunciation but also British slang. THAT's dedication... The woman teaching them this was so damn condescending I felt sick, and then on their first day they were given 1000 RAND (about £60) to buy 'corporate' clothes... THEY'RE ANSWERING THE DAMN PHONE!!!! That amount of money is immense for the kind of people working there and could be much better spent on clothes/food/ANYTHING for their families, yet they got sent to 'The Mall' to buy clothes to wear to work... Suffice to say that me and Kate were less than impressed... __________________ Khef, Ka and Ka-Tet....

07-03-2008, 02:37	#3
LeperousDust Bananaman Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Liverpool/Edinburgh Posts: 4,817	Thats the thing about call centres everyone complains but there are always ways around the "problem". For starters if you're waiting in a queue use speakerphone i do it all the time, finally when they answer they have to breifly wait for me... If its a stupid number 0870 use saynoto0870... If all else fails keep your head make sure you make yourself clear you'd like to talk to a superior or you'll take this "further", if they can't help you. But do not (unless they really deserve it) blame the person on the phone, usually theyre bound by stupid rules that they dont agree with either but have no choice, the person on the phone is still a human being a lot of people seem to forget that, if these people had basically followed these simple rules they, and me (when i worked at a call centre ) would have had a much easier time. I bent over and took it regulary on the phone from customers and then some still thought i was a peice of s***e, quite unbelievable! __________________

07-03-2008, 11:43	#5
karbon Long Island Iced Tea Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Glasvegas Posts: 475	i'm the worst worst WORST person to get on the phone if you work in a call centre. i know people that work in pretty much all of the glasgow ones so that covers pretty much every industry, i'm 99% sure what i'm entitled to and will get it. hell mend you if you work for Dell and i phone you though. __________________

12-03-2008, 10:31	#10
Joe 90 Absinthe Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Chester Posts: 2,345	I saw this on 4OD yesterday over my lunch hour, thought it was pretty interesting. And I hope all those people like the ones featured in the program now have a better understanding of what its like to be the person on the other end of the phone! __________________ 360 Blog \| Join GiffGaff \| Twitter

07-03-2008, 00:18	#2
Mark Screaming Orgasm Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Newbury Posts: 15,194	I turned it off after about 5 minutes. Too many potty mouths for my liking and it was pretty obvious where it was all going.

07-03-2008, 10:45	#4
BBx Reverse SuBo Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: London Posts: 8,673	I thought the programme was going to be a lot better than it was BB x

07-03-2008, 15:18	#7
Mark Screaming Orgasm Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Newbury Posts: 15,194	My pet peeve with call centres are the ones where it's more than their job's worth to deviate even slightly from their prescribed question sheet. There's a certain set of questions that they have to ask to identify the caller - no problem at all with that - but it's when they start asking either irrelevant or already answered questions just because their instructions tell them to do that. Trouble is, it is of course the foreign call centres that are most likely to do this because their operators can't 'wing it'. I once spent 28 minutes with a Netgear callcentre in India going through the exact same set of diagnostics I'd already done on the kit just because the script said so - only to be told what I already knew - the unit was DOA. I don't generally lose it on a call but that time I was pretty close. Grrr.