Call Centres: The Poor-Houses of the 21st Century?

[Carmine 10]

Anyone else worked in a call centre (or bull**** mills as I like to call them)?

 

Anyone here work in one right now?

 

Anyone thinking of working in one (fools)?

 

I spent more than a year working in one of these hell-holes myself and ended up leaving for the sake of my health after my stress levels went too high and I began to wake up each morning and enter a catatonic state by the time I was sat at my "work-station."

 

One of my colleagues dropped on the flor with a minor heart attack, another was in danger of suffering from DVT and the management were breaking down every Monday morning at the thought of another week of hell.

 

Please share your fond annecdotes about call centres with me and maybe by sharing our misery we can become stronger.

[Lindseyw 10]

I know of one - which will obviously remain nameless, where the staff have to put their hand up - yes you read correctly - put their hand up to go to the toilet !!

It is a lovely environment on the face of it, but being barked at by some little hitler wannabe is not my idea of fun and I sympathise with those of you who are unfortunate enough to work in a Cack Centre..... sorry - Call Centre.

[Carmine 10]

They tried to introduce that one where I was, but I just tended to ignore it and spend at leat 15 minutes of each our sat on the toilet if I felt the need to go or not. Any attempt to curtail this was always met with references to such things as basic human rights. Even a bloody convict gets a slop bucket for heavens sake!

 

Another little gem was the fact that you were always split up into little teams of 10 or so and encouraged to compete against the other teams in childish games designed to distract your attention from the fact that you were being exploited. Then they decided to introduce individual targets and have the team members compete amongst themselves as well as having the departments do the same thing. So each department competed against each department, each team against the other teams in their department, and each individual against everyone else on their team. And yet we were still all informed that we had to work together and encourage each other to achieve our targets for the benefit of the fatcats and shareholders.

 

There people seemed to have no problem having their cake and eating ours.

 

And the coffee from the vending machines was ****e, tasted like it was made with sump-oil.

[Rich 12]

That's universal though, vending machine coffee always tastes like regurgitated cat doings.

 

Just cos places are too tight arsed to employ canteen staff who'll make you a proper cuppa.

[Sam Miguel 10]

Don't talk to me about call-centres. They have subjected me to infinite levels of stress over the past two or three years.

 

Now, as was mentioned in a previous thread of mine, everything goes wrong at my end, so, as you can imagine, I have to ring call-centres up a lot. (Press button 1, press button 2...) Argh!!

 

Phone rage, I call it.

 

I have simply lost count of the times I have slammed down the phone, kicked the hamster and had to open a can of reassuringly expensive lager in an effort to calm my nerves after unsuccesful dealings with these call-centres.

 

My worst experience was when I put on hold for more than a week-and-a-half when I wanted to change a direct debit and subsequently had to endure the strains of Unchained Melody throughout this lengthy period.

 

it was awful.

 

I don't know how anyone can work in such an incompetent environment.

 

Argh!

[GazB 10]

On one now, although it's more of a Technical Service Desk than a helpdesk/call centre.

 

Our's is fine, no problems from any customers because we give a high level of service and everything's really flexible.

 

My old job was a different story though..

[gizmo 10]

Heres a test to see if you can work in a call centre(or do better than the one ive been battling since August 03)

 

a man comes to read your electric meter and discovers that it is set to the wrong tariff (Set to 6.33 per unit instead of 2.49)

so you have been paying nearly three times more for you power than you should have. okay got that one?

 

the house has one of those token meter things in that was here when we moved in so it is impossible to use electric without paying for it first. still with me?

 

given the above facts take a simple stab at whether they owe me money or i owe it them

 

my version....i want the difference back between what i should have paid and what i actually charged,because the meter was over charging.

 

their version...........you have used 21000 units at 2.49 and on top of what you have already paid we want another £467.86. because you havent paid enough.

 

to help you in you calculations consider the fact that the excessive amount of units used is because the meter was charging more for them so using them up quicker.

 

for gods sake someone save me from the faceless chretins at this call centre

[Sam Miguel 10]

I sympathise with you, I really do.

 

The thing is, when you phone back, (in the unlikely event that you actually get through) you can never get to speak to the person that you spoke to originally, so you have to explain the whole story again.

 

I think if just one of those large companies using call-centres now swallows their pride and goes back to the old human-friendly system, it might (a tiny might I know) just start a trend towards returning to the phone rage-less society that we once proudly belonged to.

 

You know it makes sense.

[jackthedog 10]

Sorry to hear about that one Gizmo.

 

Will the nice people at Citizens Advice help you out?

Maybe they can ring on your behalf and then your case may be heard.

 

Just a thought.

[Chris_Sleeps 10]

My Mum left Freemans because it was bringing her down, its **** how they treat people really.

 

Chris.

[Skatiechik 10]

Originally posted by Sam Miguel

I sympathise with you, I really do.

 

The thing is, when you phone back, (in the unlikely event that you actually get through) you can never get to speak to the person that you spoke to originally, so you have to explain the whole story again.

 

Make sure you always ask for your operators name before you put the phone down. Then when you ring back you can then ask to be put through to them.

 

Gizmo:- Most of the people who work at call centres are unfortunately not very intelligent. ( There are also the occasional intelligent few who use it as a stop gap for something better) The best option is to speak slowly in a clear and concise voice and show them the error of their ways. If they dont see it, then ask to speak to their manager/supervisor.

 

Or you could do what I do, get frustrated and make them feel small, it makes me feel better but obviously isn't the best way for getting something done about your problem as you annoy the operator.

 

Skatie

[Skatiechik 10]

Originally posted by Lindseyw

I know of one - which will obviously remain nameless, where the staff have to put their hand up - yes you read correctly - put their hand up to go to the toilet !!

 

That is appalling, i didn't know working conditions were like that in call centres. I don't think I could stick working there, makes the university where i work sound like heaven.

 

 

Skatie