Call centres

Don't you just hate being stuck on hold?

Get your revenge!

http://www.killthecluckers.com/

[wjp666]

not to be racist, but i HATE being diverted to someone who has ZERO GRASP on the english language. how annoying is that? and i'm meant to sort out a bank-loan or something equally as important with a person reaching for a phrase book every 5 seconds. grr!

It is the 5 second time delay as you say sod off and try to hang up on them that annoys me.

[goldencup]

I had to phone BT a couple of weeks ago as a wire had come down from the telegraph pole outside my house and was strung across the drive about a metre from the ground.  After holding for ages and pressing various buttons, I was then cut off.  On the second attempt I eventually got through to somebody and explained the problem.  She said on no account to touch the wire and someone would be straight round although she lost interest when I said I wasn't a BT customer.  A week later they still hadn't been so I phoned again.  They said the job would be completed within 2 weeks so I blew my top and told them my 78 year old landlady was having to limbo dance underneath the wire every time she wanted to go out.  They were here within half an hour.... 

[loulou]

not to be racist, but i HATE being diverted to someone who has ZERO GRASP on the english language. how annoying is that? and i'm meant to sort out a bank-loan or something equally as important with a person reaching for a phrase book every 5 seconds. grr!

Yes and why do they insist they are called George or Janet when you know they are blatantly lying.

[smurfboy]

not to be racist, but i HATE being diverted to someone who has ZERO GRASP on the english language. how annoying is that?

There's nothing racist about expecting someone who is employed to solve problems/take details to have a basic grasp of the customer's language. Part of the reason I stick with Natwest, even though I could get better interest rates elsewhere, is that I have a direct line to my branch and out of hours call centres are in the UK, not Bombay!

[oldspice]

I had a call from a company the other night and they wanted to sell me a funeral plan. They insisted I must sort my funeral finances out to save my family money after I am gone.

I told them I was already dead.

[Cherry_Ripe]

I told them I was already dead.

 What was their response to that, Oldspice?

Many members of my family are Scots but even I sometimes find it hard to understand people at the Student Loan company, whose call centre is in Glasgow.

There are lots of call centres in Plymouth as we don't have much of an accent here. I consider myself fortunate having never worked in one though.

[wjp666]

i think AOL is the worst. ring them up with a problem and you get put at a LEVEL 1 callcentre, where everyone is Asian and cant speak a word of english. if your problem cant be resolved, you get put up to level 2 - where everyone is still Asian, but they have a slight grasp of the english language. carry on like this - from levels 2 through to 5 - and on level 6 you finally get someone british. each level you go up, the more 'british' the person gets. very odd.

[Cherry_Ripe]

I have tried calling Sky but never even get a person!

[wjp666]

sky's a funny one... on the rare occasion i do get a person, 9 time out of 10 they are 100% foriegn and wont understand you. (try booking something on box-office with them - impossible!)

[loulou]

I rang Debenhams call centre today (India), and after trying to explain myself to some non english speaking girl she hung up on me.

[wjp666]

ive had that with hsbc before.

I rang Debenhams call centre today (India), and after trying to explain myself to some non english speaking girl she hung up on me.

I get that and I complained why she wasn't English and it turned out she was from Hartlepool.

Seriously though, I phoned the HSBC the other day and it was clearly an Indian woman in India.  After she sorted out my account query I happened to ask her if she was following the cricket over there and at first she seemed gob-smacked that the customer realised she was a human being but then we ended up having a right old chin wag about Sechan Tendulkar and various cricketing things.  I think I made her day.  It's good job I was ringing from the office phone. 

Incidentally, her English was very good.

[StrollingMinstrel]

OK If I admit this one promise not to hate me?

 

Here goes..... I do work in a call centre!

I work for Jobcentre plus, dealing with benefit claims. But I can honestly say I treat everyone that I speak to with kindness and respect... even when they are sometimes being blatently rude to me.

I always try to give everyone I speak to ample time to discuss there issues, which isn't always a popular thing with management as they expect us to work to tight time restraints.

I can honestly say, with my hand on my heart, that I give a good service. I receive genuine thanks for my help from most people I speak to, even when I can't change the law or system to suit them. treat people with respect and you receive the same in return, well usually anyway!

There really are some nice call centre workers out there... I know I am one! 

That said, I tried to speak to somebody at Orange the other day, and although he was not english speaking he was helpful, but the trouble I went through to actually reach a real person, I thought I was going to get a repetitive strain injury from pressing buttons!