Call centres make my blood boil

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London Female

Über Member
I have had no internet at home for three days now. I made a call to Virgin which went to a call centre.

I get the usual instruction to swith the modem off and back on. After being asked to swith it off and back on for the fouth time, I refused.

Me: there are no lights on my modem it is clearly not working, just send me a new one
Call centre: please swith it off again
Me: no I have already done this four times
Call centre: unplug everything including your computer
Me: no, put me through to someone who can help
Call centre: you are not letting me help you now unplug your computer
Me: it isn't plugged in to anything
Call centre: you can not have a computer that is not plugged in to something

I put the phone down and swore, I think my son may have heard me, in fact the whole street may have heard me.
 

stephec

Squire
Location
Bolton
I can see a contract being cancelled. :smile:
 
In startling news, I returned home earlier to find Mrs Marmion with a large smile on her face. "aye, aye" I thought "what's she been upto when I have been out?" Turns out she had phoned the HMRC people to ask for some assistance with her tax return and a very very nice chap talked her through the entire process - seems as if in the past that requests for information had to be submitted in writing but they are piloting a service that provides all the information via telephone; how novel.
 

Spinney

Bimbleur extraordinaire
Location
Back up north
I've phoned HMRC from time to time over the past 10 years, and have always found them helpful. They are hardly piloting being helpful over the phone...
i.e. HMRC clearly do not use the Indian style of call centre!
 

Cheddar George

oober member
I try not to lose my temper with call centres, as a generalisation they are mostly under paid, under trained and under staffed. What makes my blood boil is that after going through all the options and waiting on hold for ages and then explaining the problem to a person who is unable to offer a solution they then come out with the same stock phrase every time ........ " is there anything else i can help you with today ?"
 

Melonfish

Evil Genius in training.
Location
Warrington, UK
if you hate speaking to call centres you want to try working in one. sheesh.
it occurs to me though that the fault is not with the call centres but with the companies that set them up, they for some reason love IVR's (those little phone things that speak to you and say press option 1 if you're psychotic)
then after you've been through a billion ivr menu's you usually get the first line centre who are usually all scripted, the best they can do is parrot some suggestions and offer to log a trouble ticket with a tech team.

back in the old days we just used to sit on the phone and when someone called we talked them through all the settings there and then. but then back in the old days (we're talking late 90's and dialup here) there weren't nearly as many people on the intermanet.
i miss the good old days.
 

mattobrien

Guru
Location
Sunny Suffolk
I really don't like some from the call centre asking my how my day is or how I am. I appreciate that they are trying to be polite and possibly build rapport, but they really couldn't care less and I find it rather insincere. For me it has the opposite effect.
 

vernon

Harder than Ronnie Pickering
Location
Meanwood, Leeds
Same here. Whenever I am tempted to let rip, I try to reflect that in a different world it might be me on the other end of the phone.

Like this?

The next time you pick up the phone to pay a bill, book a holiday or reserve some tickets, it's possible that you won't be speaking to an office in Cardiff or Sunderland or even Bangalore - but to someone at one of an increasing number of call centres in Bulgaria.

British firms such as Thomas Cook, eBay, Sky, Seatwave and Zumba Fitness have all outsourced aspects of their customer services to Bulgaria. Such deals have led some to suggest that India may finally be quietly losing its crown as the call-centre capital of the world.

British businessman Jonathan Gladwish 's firm, 60K, is one of the half a dozen or so outsourcing firms attracting companies to Sofia, the Bulgarian capital, where it handles more than 3,000 British customers a day.

“When we set up in 2008, Bulgaria was virgin territory with an ageing telecoms infrastructure and practically no outsourcing,” said Mr Gladwish, who employs 650 staff speaking 27 languages.

“That's all changed. During that period I've come to realise how well educated the young people are here - something like 93 per cent of my staff are graduates or postgraduates who want to work for me for two, three or even four years before moving on.”

Mr Gladwish, whose customers include Sky Broadband, saves 40 to 50 per cent by basing his operation in eastern Europe. He contrasts the situation in Bulgaria with that in the UK, where working in a call centre is often a seen as little but a “stopgap” for graduates.
 

ASC1951

Guru
Location
Yorkshire
Like this?
It wasn't so much a comment on the qualifications of call centre staff - which in some countries are indeed high - more that it cannot be a pleasant way to earn a living, spending all day ringing up people you don't know to sell them something they don't want. Or even worse, being on the other end of the Complaints Line.
 

asterix

Comrade Member
Location
Limoges or York
Yeah, tell me about it. I put in 3 months on the local authority help line. Before they started recording the calls. There are some very strange people out there!
 
Location
Northampton
London Female,
In my experience it is extremely rare for the router/modem to completely "die" or have no lights on it when it is switched on.
I am sure you are very good at technology etc but may I kindly suggest that you check that it is actually connected to a working power source.
One way is taking out and connecting it to a working plug point.
 

Fab Foodie

hanging-on in quiet desperation ...
Location
Kirton, Devon.
London Female,
In my experience it is extremely rare for the router/modem to completely "die" or have no lights on it when it is switched on.
I am sure you are very good at technology etc but may I kindly suggest that you check that it is actually connected to a working power source.
One way is taking out and connecting it to a working plug point.
.... also, check the fuse?
 
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