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Because no one knows my password, but people know what town I grew up in and my Dad's middle name
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Feb 1, 2019 22:50
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A lot of security questions don’t apply to me because I’m bad at life 
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Feb 2, 2019 04:41
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also why are favorite [anything] questions used as security questions since they always change over time. Even pets names are crappy cause they die.
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Feb 5, 2019 10:15
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A lot of security questions don't apply to me because for some reason they all assume that I am married and have kids and like sports.
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Feb 5, 2019 18:24
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The answer to my security question on every site I use that has them is a string of 12 random characters which I took the time to memorize. I can use different passwords for different sites and not have to give a poo poo if I forget one, nor do I have to give a poo poo what the security question even is.
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Feb 5, 2019 19:13
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Truman Sticks posted:Why do people use security/verification questions that don't apply to them? Like, if your dog died or you didn't have a dad growing up, then choose something other than "Pet's name" or "Father's middle name" as your question. Don't just enter 'None' as the answer. Likely because they’re dumb BUT the best practice for KBAs (those kinds of questions used as a secondary authentication method) recommend you not answer them truthfully because that makes them harder to social engineer. Thankfully most places are getting away from those in favor of actual multi factor authentication
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Feb 15, 2019 04:44
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One of the customer verification methods we used at my old job at a hosting company was the customer's password. Customers understandably hated that, so we created a PIN system which reminded customers to click a link in their control panel to make a verification PIN so we didn't need to ask their password. No one used it. The best were the customers who refused to give their passwords, asked if they could instead give me their social security number, then immediately start reading it out. At no point did my company ever ask a customer for their social security number prior to these people reciting theirs to me.
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Feb 15, 2019 21:35
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I work for the local utility company in the call center and thankfully it’s a union shop, but holy poo poo it still sucks. The union does a good job at making sure the pay and benefits are decent, and keeping the field guys safe, but it also is really focused on the field workers at the expense of the call center employees. Sure we may not get electrocuted working 50 feet in the air in a snowstorm, but 5 of the 7 deaths at my company over the last 5 years have been from suicide. The company also likes to blame not being able to make changes for the better on being a union location, which is horseshit. The place is chronically understaffed (which management blames on people calling in instead of building in enough slack) and customers often have been stewing in the queue for 10-15 minutes (at least) if there’s been a storm or if it’s a Monday at the start of/end of a college semester. Widespread outages are the worst. Just a constant barrage of people screaming about their lights going out “every time it rains” (See tropical storm force winds in a heavily wooded area) and how they deserve priority because they have 90 year old parents and infant children in their home who all have asthma. It’s all very understandable, because it loving sucks to not have power and people can and have died from lack of power, but there’s precious little that I could do about it besides report the outage, which is probably already reported anyway due to a lack of signal from the meter. It just crowds out the people who actually have something useful to report (like the location of a downed tree limb or downed/arcing wires). I just reached a year on the job recently, so I’m hoping to be able to transfer to something on the back end side of things like QA or an analyst position, but we’ll see. In the meantime, I have to maintain my sanity while being little more than a butt in the chair.
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Mar 5, 2019 04:56
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Padams posted:I work for the local utility company in the call center and thankfully it’s a union shop, but holy poo poo it still sucks. The union does a good job at making sure the pay and benefits are decent, and keeping the field guys safe, but it also is really focused on the field workers at the expense of the call center employees. Sure we may not get electrocuted working 50 feet in the air in a snowstorm, but 5 of the 7 deaths at my company over the last 5 years have been from suicide. The company also likes to blame not being able to make changes for the better on being a union location, which is horseshit. Pretty much all of this could have been written by me except the suicides part. What part of the country are you in? For my own bitch it really pisses me off how much worse customers treat women at my job. Some of these ladies have been working here for 10+ years but get sworn at and called incompetent while I have literally never had that happen to me and the only thing I can think of that prevents it is being male and faking authority.
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Mar 5, 2019 16:31
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CongoJack posted:Pretty much all of this could have been written by me except the suicides part. Northeast. And seriously, customers are racist and sexist as gently caress. I’m a white male with a “regular” name and it drives me nuts when I hear a customer after I greet them say “oh thank god a real American”. While at the same time hearing my coworkers calmly explaining to their customers that they will have to disconnect the call if the customers continue to call them racial slurs. My coworker was telling me how a customer told her that her name was a “n word name” and that she “must be from the ghetto with a name like that”.
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Mar 6, 2019 00:42
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When I worked in a call center employees were allowed to use fake names, and most people with foreign sounding names took advantage of that. It really sucks that they have to.
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Mar 6, 2019 00:53
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That poo poo is absolutely revolting. The center that I'm at is in loving Kansas (I always want to die) and we have some employees from the Philippines, India, Russia, Korea, Nigeria, Mexico, Peru, etc., and, my God, the patience these people have would put Jesus Christ to shame. I don't know how they manage to maintain their composure day after day with all the poo poo they get for the grave sin of answering the phone with an accent. What the gently caress is wrong with people? Alternately, why do all the people who have stuff wrong with them keep calling?
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Mar 6, 2019 03:12
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Padams posted:Northeast. And seriously, customers are racist and sexist as gently caress. I’m a white male with a “regular” name and it drives me nuts when I hear a customer after I greet them say “oh thank god a real American”. While at the same time hearing my coworkers calmly explaining to their customers that they will have to disconnect the call if the customers continue to call them racial slurs. My coworker was telling me how a customer told her that her name was a “n word name” and that she “must be from the ghetto with a name like that”. I, multiple times, had customers talking about how much they hated talking to the incomprehensible and stupid "Indians" they were sent to last time they called us at my last job. We did not employ anyone from India or anyone with an even remotely Indian accent, so I think they were just spouting racism out of hand expecting sympathy from me.
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Apr 1, 2019 02:43
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I worked in a call centre for a while. The European equivalent of the racism thing is mostly about eastern Europe. I had a few colleagues with Scandinavian names who kept getting asked things like "are you from Poland?". UK callers in general are terrible compared to mainlanders, horribly entitled and sentimental. Whenever someone from Holland or France or whatever called us they usually just wanted to make us aware of a problem or ask a question, UK callers were all about claiming damages and petty voucher fishing.
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May 11, 2019 12:58
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I got roped back into a call center position from my off-phone position about 6 months ago because the person who interviewed me blatantly lied about the job and my employer refuses to let me go back to my old position. It motivated me to go back and finally finish a couple of IT certifications I had been studying for. I just got a job offer today. These fuckers in my call center's Management have shown that they have no qualms with firing people for giving their two weeks notice, so I cannot wait to tell them to eat my poo poo the Friday before my new job starts.
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May 24, 2019 23:34
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Been a phone jockey for a few years, and one thing that drives nuts is people who reuse to verify themselves. I don't know you, saving "it's me" does nothing. Until you give me your PIN I can't tell you anything. What company can you call and not verify yourself? This is not new. Just getting them to guess is like pulling teeth. When I finally pry a guess out of them 19/20 times it's correct.
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Aug 16, 2019 19:21
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Coolspaz posted:Been a phone jockey for a few years, and one thing that drives nuts is people who reuse to verify themselves. I don't know you, saving "it's me" does nothing. Until you give me your PIN I can't tell you anything. What company can you call and not verify yourself? This is not new. Just getting them to guess is like pulling teeth. When I finally pry a guess out of them 19/20 times it's correct. In my current job I am mostly off the phones but get the occasional calls for backoffice/customer acceptance stuff for the telco i work for now. Had a customer refuse the id check thing we do. "okay, since i can't establish your identity i'm ending the call, bye" We aren't technically a service department and we mostly do debt collection and fraud managment. This also means we can do whatever the hell we want on the phone(apart from being flat out rude in the way we speak) Spretty great. Also professionally doxxing shady applicants for phone/internet contracts is great fun.
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Aug 16, 2019 19:39
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I was told to take this to the Corporate thread and I suppose it's more active than this one, but I guess I'll revive this one as well while I'm at it. Basically I'm in a tough spot financially and looking at my options for work until I can do the stuff I actually want to. I know call center stuff is grueling, but how much so exactly? What have your experiences with it been? How long and how well did you do it? Do you have experiences at doing it from home VS in a center? (I've seen openings for both) I'm good at talking and being on the phone and I think I got the detachment needed to make it at least for a while, but I'd really appreciate any input from folks in the field. I know this is tough, unfun work more often than not but I'm trying to figure out if it's the kind of bullshit I can handle or not.
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Nov 5, 2019 16:49
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As someone who did a long time ago, it's less that it's difficult and more than it gets to be soul-scarring. Even if you're a cantankerous person with zero phone or people skills, getting good at it takes no effort. Hell, I still mostly dislike talking on the phone for long periods of time unless it's with my loved ones/BFFF's, but thanks to that period of my life taking calls, I did acquire some soft skills. Most interviews have become less an existential cataclysm of untold proportions and more of a friendly exercise in knowing when to shut the gently caress up and let the other person talk. You basically just need to learn that it's a temporary measure while you get something else going. The moment you get the offer/contract, start looking for other jobs after a month or two.
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Nov 5, 2019 17:04
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If you don't mind people talking to you as though you are simultaneously an all-powerful God who is choosing to use that power to make their lives worse and who could, with a mere effort of will that you are unreasonably refusing to make, fix everything for them, and also a pitiful worm who is a lesser being which must obey their whims or else be guilty of insubordination, you'll be fine.
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Nov 5, 2019 17:34
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avoid it at all costs man, I'd rather live out of my car if I had to.
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Nov 5, 2019 18:23
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I worked for a call center, in some capacity or another, for 5 years. Did 75-85 hour weeks for most of about 3 of those years. Hated it. It will grind you down to a nub. Taking about 140 calls that are all the same call with 140 different voices isn't hard in the same way pouring concrete is hard, but it is hard in that every day is a test of your fortitude to cope with the monotony, maintain metrics, and survive the 2 to 10 truly bad calls you're guaranteed to get during the course of an average shift. I will say that, at least for the call center I was at, the pay was fairly good considering that it was work you could do straight out of high school. Just know that anyone you like will be fired, quit, or walk out, that anyone with "manager" in their job title cannot be trusted and will never do anything for you unless it benefits them more, and that anyone who calls in will lie to you and throw you under the bus if they think it will get them what they want. Five years of working in a call center did more to damage my ability to trust other people than the other 30 years of my life combined. I will say this, though: it was also incredible motivation to bust my rear end at home and at school so I could get a job anywhere else.
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Nov 5, 2019 19:31
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Johnny Five-Jaces posted:Likely because they’re dumb BUT the best practice for KBAs (those kinds of questions used as a secondary authentication method) recommend you not answer them truthfully because that makes them harder to social engineer. Thankfully most places are getting away from those in favor of actual multi factor authentication While this sounds like good security advice, it's actually a great way to get locked out of a very important account. I only say this because I've seen it happen. The best advice is to use a password manager.
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Feb 25, 2020 01:57
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First call of the last day (due to Covid-19) of my new job, and I get Lenny. There's something cosmically funny about that.
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Apr 3, 2020 16:39
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What are your call centers doing in light of covid-19? I remember I was considered "essential" by my former call center job back in the day and had to drive in during a freeze. Call center work became much more tolerable for me when I was able to work remote so hopefully some of you are able to transition to that.
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Apr 10, 2020 03:41
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I was actually wondering the same thing. I'm out of the call center game now, but I wonder how my call center is handling things. It was a bank, so maybe it was "essential," but I wonder...
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Apr 10, 2020 03:50
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Ours is essential (a bank) and people were/are coming in. A lot of steps along the way, from forcing separation between seats, extra cleaning, and closing the cafeteria/break rooms. We’ve deployed a poo poo ton of people now though.
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Apr 10, 2020 05:16
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I just started a new Temp call center job and I have the most technologically illiterate group of human beings on earth in my training class. We're 20 hours into training and I think we've done maybe an hour of actual training because these idiots cannot get passwords right, log into any of the systems, anything really. I've done everything successfully on the first try and I feel like ripping my hair out listening to these dipshits hold us back from learning anything. We're actually starting to take calls today and it's not like my position is insanely complex, but I have never been less prepared to start a job than this. We haven't even looked at the phone system yet! I know  good help is hard to find but considering I'm doing something pandemic-related and there are a lot of important things being exchanged with clients including SSNs and stuff I feel like they should hire people who know how to reset a loving email password and such??
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Apr 10, 2020 16:09
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If it’s any consolation management doesn’t want those people in training either. In our center the supervisors did the hiring. Unfortunately many of them “just want to give someone a chance” and other bleeding heart statements. Double down if those supervisors match the age range of the computer illiterate. The last piece of the poo poo sand which is that there wasn’t a way to weed out computer literacy in an interview setting. The real irony was when those people hit the floor and report to a supervisor that gets mad, but won’t address the hire with the interviewer or bring to their manager so the cycle repeats.
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Apr 10, 2020 16:37
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savesthedayrocks posted:If it’s any consolation management doesn’t want those people in training either. Thankfully they hosed up the queues so all of us are just getting calls that aren't in our jurisdiction and we have to transfer immediately; you don't need to be trained for that! 
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Apr 10, 2020 19:28
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UZworm posted:I just started a new Temp call center job and I have the most technologically illiterate group of human beings on earth in my training class. We're 20 hours into training and I think we've done maybe an hour of actual training because these idiots cannot get passwords right, log into any of the systems, anything really. I've done everything successfully on the first try and I feel like ripping my hair out listening to these dipshits hold us back from learning anything. We're actually starting to take calls today and it's not like my position is insanely complex, but I have never been less prepared to start a job than this. We haven't even looked at the phone system yet! UZworm posted:Thankfully they hosed up the queues so all of us are just getting calls that aren't in our jurisdiction and we have to transfer immediately; you don't need to be trained for that! This sounds like government work. One thing with government hiring is that they do it on points, and you might get points for stuff unrelated to the job at hand, like "has a degree in something vaguely related" or "got shot in the rear end at Da Nang".
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Apr 10, 2020 20:36
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So after working 11 years in retail sales, I’m being switched to work at home customer service. Very grateful to keep a job and benefits. Instead of sales, I will basically be doing troubleshooting , bill issues , and walking people through transferring their info (as far as I can guess anyway). I’m not really worried since I am more than qualified, but it’s still different because I’m used to physically seeing everything, and I’m used to being on my feet all day (the last 3 weeks of quarantine have helped get me ready there). Yeah, thoughts on what to expect, advice, etc ?
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Apr 10, 2020 21:11
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UZworm posted:I just started a new Temp call center job and I have the most technologically illiterate group of human beings on earth in my training class. We're 20 hours into training and I think we've done maybe an hour of actual training because these idiots cannot get passwords right, log into any of the systems, anything really. I've done everything successfully on the first try and I feel like ripping my hair out listening to these dipshits hold us back from learning anything. We're actually starting to take calls today and it's not like my position is insanely complex, but I have never been less prepared to start a job than this. We haven't even looked at the phone system yet! Lol. My group, which rotates between processing and hotline work, was getting swamped with calls. We decided to hire 5 contractors, give them basic training, and set them up to handle common calls. The quote, from the director at the time, was basically "if they don't curse during the interview, they're hired." She interviewed 6. Hired 5. 4 of them were gone in less than a week because they couldn't do things like "remember their windows passwords" and "log into the phone system." The one left made it a week into doing the actual job before walking out. She then did the same tack for another round. Same exact results. Desperation hiring sucks.
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Apr 11, 2020 00:24
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blackmet posted:Desperation hiring sucks. I'm working for a part of the state govt (yes it's exactly what you think it is) that has required 100+ new temp hires in the past month so it's basically that in an exponential amount, but my 30-person group in particular is for an insanely specific niche that should be the simplest thing around and a bunch of people are still making GBS threads the bed beyond belief both in terms of retaining information and tech issues. Duckman2008 posted:So after working 11 years in retail sales, I’m being switched to work at home customer service. Very grateful to keep a job and benefits. It's a different kind of mental fortitude required for call center work vs. retail work, but it's IMO said fortitude is easier than retail work in most possible senses and much easier to get used to so you'll probably do well. Depends on the job of course, though. UZworm fucked around with this message at 08:26 on Apr 12, 2020 |
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Apr 12, 2020 08:22
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I'd take call centre over retail any day.
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Apr 13, 2020 04:14
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less than three posted:I'd take call centre over retail any day. I mean, that is like saying, "I'd rather have kidney stones than be shot in the belly." You're not wrong, but the "rightness" of the answer is purely an academic exercise.
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Apr 13, 2020 05:05
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Yeah not discounting they both suck.
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Apr 13, 2020 20:57
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UZworm posted:I just started a new Temp call center job and I have the most technologically illiterate group of human beings on earth in my training class. We're 20 hours into training and I think we've done maybe an hour of actual training because these idiots cannot get passwords right, log into any of the systems, anything really. I've done everything successfully on the first try and I feel like ripping my hair out listening to these dipshits hold us back from learning anything. We're actually starting to take calls today and it's not like my position is insanely complex, but I have never been less prepared to start a job than this. We haven't even looked at the phone system yet! I know that office work is less than ideal in the current climate but I managed to transfer over to an office job where I'm just doing document admin work by myself so not only am I doing something I enjoy more but I also won't have to deal with this group of brainless shitheads anymore as they do more training for new stuff I took about 5 total calls during my four days of the call-taking job lmao
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Apr 19, 2020 06:19
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UZworm posted:I know that office work is less than ideal in the current climate but I managed to transfer over to an office job where I'm just doing document admin work by myself so not only am I doing something I enjoy more but I also won't have to deal with this group of brainless shitheads anymore as they do more training for new stuff Sounds like a good deal! I'm doing a full training of a new rep remotely for the first time. The good news is that we poached her from another department internally, so she at least knows some of the systems and has a general idea of what's going on, so I don't have to explain that stuff too much or worry about her not knowing the basics of how to use a computer. It's still going slower than I'd like due to tech hiccups and some interruptions, but not terribly. This is a trial run for training 3 contractors in another city who only learned a small sliver of what we do, but now that that work is getting close to caught up, management wants them to learn more and be able to help in other areas. Followed by three completely new to firm hires. And 100% QA on all of them for 3-6 weeks, with maybe a tiny bit of support from the other managers team lead. And while I am still hourly and can work OT, any OT I work is to be used on processing or taking calls. gently caress. At least at home I can cuss at my computer.
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Apr 19, 2020 22:40
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Hey friends I just wanted to drop buy to say I appreciate those of you and your peers who understands when I call in and say "hey, I've got X problem, I've done Y thing, and I need Z solution" knows how to get me Z without asking if I've unplugged it. That includes field technicians, too. Y'all are the real heroes.
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Jun 24, 2020 04:02
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