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I worked for a car rental company and had to do tech support for their branches. One thing we had to support was their internet connection because they used it to access the company's car rental application located at the head office (where i was situated). One thing we often had to do was call the internet company's technical support line to report outages at our locations(when our router was not to blame). They always tried to pin the blame on us or our interconnector (the guy in charge of doing the cables inside the building, i'm not sure if i'm using the correct term). One really good example was when i went back and forth with the tech support for a month because we kept losing internet pretty much at random at one location and they kept saying everything was fine on their end it must be on your side see with your interconnector. We would then send the guy to verify all our cables inside the building. He would tell us everything is fine on his end it must be on the internet company's side. After a month of back and forth, getting yelled at many times by the manager of the branch having the issue for losing business, the internet company finds out squirrels have been gnawing on the loving cables in the pole and it was causing our random cut outs. Where was I going with this story? I forgot but one thing I can say for certain : in call centers everybody is out for themselves : accusing everybody of everything. People are always trying to throw you under the bus. I feel better.
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Dec 21, 2010 21:00
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So after a few weeks of wondering of I was going to have to choose between working or going to school, I found out that I can do both! Originally they didnt know if they could approve me going to part time because they need full time help, and I was hired on as a full time rep. But they are letting me go down to 24 hours a week, and pick my own schedule. And I just got a raise, yay! I am one step closer to getting out of the hell that we all know as call centers.
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Dec 22, 2010 03:04
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gently caress the end of call surveys.
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Dec 23, 2010 23:23
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Merry Christmas, everyone. Unfortunately, I will be spending the day in hell answering calls from the kinds of crackheads who call their insurance company on X-mas day. Oh, and I don't even get holiday pay for it, because Christmas falls on a Saturday. What a cheap and lame company.
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Dec 25, 2010 15:17
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JackRabbitStorm posted:gently caress the end of call surveys. Heh, these are funnny with my company because if someone calls into customer service, and needs to be transferred to my department (retentions) it see's that as an end to the first call and calls them with the survey. Also, by the new year I think I will hit my 20,000 inbound call as I am at 19,955 right now. What have I done with my life 
Harminoff fucked around with this message at 22:04 on Dec 26, 2010 |
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Dec 26, 2010 21:52
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Harminoff posted:Heh, these are funnny with my company because if someone calls into customer service, and needs to be transferred to my department (retentions) it see's that as an end to the first call and calls them with the survey. How many years is that? I take about 100 inbound calls a day a day on average, some days less, some more, but about 100 people a day, 20 working days a month, 2000 calls a month, been here 38 months so statistically I would have taken 76,000 inbound calls. I feel your pain... what have we done with our lives. KeanuReevesGhost fucked around with this message at 02:24 on Dec 29, 2010 |
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Dec 29, 2010 02:17
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I work for a decent sized utility company on the west coast and I have to say it is much better than retail ever was. I do inbound customer service/billing adjustments/general inquiries/routing of new construction/work requests, crap like that. Pay is more than twice what I was making working retail and the pay scale has you end about 8/hr higher than you start with in training, I know this is not common at all though. I take probably 80 calls a day on average, most are pretty boring but occasionally we get some good shadyness going on. People trying to use their small children's social, people wondering why they were cut after not paying for several months, then saying they were never made aware of that fact and demanding we restore it this second with a $0 upfront payment on their several hundred dollar balance, and then the crazy people. Oh god, the crazy people. You know you are in for a rough time when the caller opens the call with "Have you seen that Gene Hackman movie Chinatown? well I think something like that is going on, I've upset a local business owner and he's trying to get revenge." The craziest, though, was this woman who sounded normal enough, calling to see why her bill was so high the previous month. Those calls usually get set to auto pilot as I start with "well it's been very hot in Utah this month what sort of air conditioning do you have?" type questions. But no, not this woman, she got real weird real fast.  :"I wonder if you could send someone to check my meter, I can't read it because it's a duplex and the meter is in the neighbors yard"  :"oh okay, yeah I can send someone out, that's odd." :"I want to see if it can be moved. My neighbor is an agent working for the FBI and they're using magnets to speed my meter up. Also I think the reason my bill has been so high is because every night people in the neighborhood break into my house and torture me with devices that use a lot of electricity. When George Bush was in office I was blackmailed by him and Dan Quayle and a sex tape was made and distributed by them to every head of state in the country and in other countries. They were told that if they didn't take the tapes the same thing would happen to them. I know that the local police are also involved and they allow the torture using the electrical devices that burn my arms and my face and that is why my bill is so high so I need you to move my meter" :  also once a year for the last 3 years I've worked here I've gotten a call from a woman on the oregon coast who talks to me, without pause, for about an hour and tells me all the terrible sad things that have happened to her in her life including such gems as the time her and her 3 poodles all got giardia because she couldn't afford to get the leak in her roof fixed resulting in her having to poop in a plastic trashbag because she couldn't get to the bathroom in time. so...yeah, I'd recommend working in a call center.
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Jan 1, 2011 20:06
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JackRabbitStorm posted:How many years is that? I take about 100 inbound calls a day a day on average, some days less, some more, but about 100 people a day, 20 working days a month, 2000 calls a month, been here 38 months so statistically I would have taken 76,000 inbound calls. A little over 4 years, but I'd say only 3 were inbound calls.
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Jan 3, 2011 00:04
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I've just started work Cold-calling to try and get people to change ISPs and I have to agree with those saying you have to have the right personality for the job. Did 4 1/2 days training followed by half a day on the phones and was thinking it was bad but tolerable, then did a full day on the following Monday and started to feel really sick and nervous about going back, so much so that I got sent home sick on the Tuesday before Christmas and decided to extend it out to cover the Wednesday and Thursday. I've been desperately applying for any other job I think I can do in the meantime, but because of the holiday season new opportunities are short on the ground and there's nobody around to respond to what you do send out. Supposed to go back tomorrow and I feel like throwing-up whenever I allow myself to think about it too much.
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Jan 3, 2011 18:15
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I gave away over 100k in credits in 7 months. I feel pretty happy, but not as much as one guy that gave away 400k
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Jan 5, 2011 05:43
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Ghost Who Walks posted:Supposed to go back tomorrow and I feel like throwing-up whenever I allow myself to think about it too much. Cold calling will do that to you. On the other hand, "How bad is your Internet connection ?" is about as good an opening line as you can have for cold calls. Really. Go find a website full of bad ISP jokes or something, that'll both give you an immediate laugh, which you need, and it'll build up your stock of stuff to talk to people about. You should be able to get it down to a mild loathing with occasional hives.
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Jan 5, 2011 07:42
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mllaneza posted:Cold calling will do that to you. On the other hand, "How bad is your Internet connection ?" is about as good an opening line as you can have for cold calls. Really. Go find a website full of bad ISP jokes or something, that'll both give you an immediate laugh, which you need, and it'll build up your stock of stuff to talk to people about. This is the truth. I did cold calling for eight hours. One full shift. I was actually calling the alumni of a college for donations to said college and you would not believe the horrible things people would scream even AFTER I told them it was for their alma mater.
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Jan 5, 2011 08:49
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I missed the old thread but was wondering if anyone could recommend any books/resources on how to deal with angry customers, specifically in a call center environment. I'm up for a Tier 2-like promotion and, while I'm confident in my knowledge, I don't have much experience with call control and/or people who are irate. If anyone could recommend any business or management books that would fit the bill, please let me know. Thanks in advance.
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Jan 11, 2011 04:27
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sbaldrick posted:I gave away over 100k in credits in 7 months. I feel pretty happy, but not as much as one guy that gave away 400k That would get me fired so drat fast.
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Jan 11, 2011 18:01
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ellasue posted:I missed the old thread but was wondering if anyone could recommend any books/resources on how to deal with angry customers, specifically in a call center environment. I'm up for a Tier 2-like promotion and, while I'm confident in my knowledge, I don't have much experience with call control and/or people who are irate. Not got any books I could name but a few tips from dealing with escalated complaints calls: 1. Let them talk. That customer is not going to listen to anything you've got to say until they've spewed out every last thing in their head that they're angry with your company for. It is utterly pointless to intervene in a lot of cases and best to just "Mmm hmm", "Ok..." and "I see." along with them until they run out of steam. However: 2. I've also seen advocated that in some cases if you've got a customer that's like a broken record you need to stop placating and say something moderately inflammatory just to break them out of it. Once you've got their needle out of their groove you can then steer them back away from the topic they're stuck on and get on to trying to actually resolve it. 3. Actually, this is pretty good: http://www.businessballs.com/empathy.htm Obviously you'll need to ignore anything about non verbal communication and remember that a massive chunk of how the customer will interpret your conversation will be based on your tone rather than what you're actually saying. 4. I worked in debt collection so this may not apply to you, however: don't be afraid to say no or tell the customer that they're wrong about something. Don't be rude about it, don't be smug about it, but don't cave on something you're emphatically sure you're right about and they're wrong. 5. Don't be afraid to tell the customer you don't know the answer to something but that you'll go away and find out. If it's appropriate, that is. If they're asking you to find out something that will do naff all to resolve their issue then don't be afraid to tell them you'll get to that once you've sorted the issue out. I'll see if I can think of anything else. Other call centre types please feel free to demolish any of those points at will, I'm not precious about it. Oh, and full disclosure: when one of my staff was asking me about a customer account, I would frequently have a look, give a full explanation to them as to why the mess was the customer's fault and close with "So tell them to piss off or pay up... only use tact and diplomacy and stuff," which may not qualify me to talk about excellent customer service.
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Jan 12, 2011 22:29
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I just got my first call center job with Progressive Insurance about 3 months ago. The atmosphere and training are actually really great, and 95% of callers are easy to deal with and I even have fun on some calls, but man, there's that minority that can just ruin your day. I had this grumpy fuckhead the other day who was whining about how our automatic withdrawal overdrew his account because the money was withdrawn a day LATE, so he knew about it, spent the money, now wants to whine, whines about our returned payment fee, whines about installments fees, whines about how everyone is picking his pocket, I do my best gritted teeth explanation of e-mail reminders, oh yeah, he wants his e-mail removed because he doesn't want us to have it, and he didn't get the reminder either. Most of my calls are pretty much like the commercials, I answer questions/make changes to the policy, then have fun giving away discounts, but when you get those belligerent people who haven't paid a freaking bill since October and want to know why they're cancelled, and they never saw anything ever about it in the mail etc., makes you want to claw at your eyes. The indignation they can conjure up is offensive to me. Why would we extend service to you if we're not getting paid!? "Oh hae, you made a partial payment of $40 in October and got into a $50,000 wreck today, here's a big fat check" *goes out of business*.
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Jan 12, 2011 23:12
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Loving Life Partner posted:I just got my first call center job with Progressive Insurance about 3 months ago. The atmosphere and training are actually really great, and 95% of callers are easy to deal with and I even have fun on some calls, but man, there's that minority that can just ruin your day. Oh yeah, it's impressive how few letters get through to this sort of customer - except final demand/default notices. And god yes, the ones that complain when funds are taken out later than they were expecting. Look at your sodding bank account! You can do it online, at an ATM (where you happily hit the "withdraw" button four times a day) or over the phone, and if it doesn't look right, question it. If you want someone to babysit your account you need to pay for that, your bank doesn't have people monitoring every account every day.
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Jan 13, 2011 10:14
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Fil5000 posted:Not got any books I could name but a few tips from dealing with escalated complaints calls: I think that covers most people actually. I'd like to add that if you get the blessed ability to hang up on abusive customers, do so after giving them a maximum of two warnings. You should not have to take poo poo off someone when you either can't do anything directly or they will not let you help and you can get rid of them without getting yelled at by your supervisor. I know not all places will let you do that, however, so keep that in mind.
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Jan 13, 2011 19:58
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I put someone from a call centre on hold today (while setting up a conference call). It was awesome. I wish I could put you guys on hold everyday. She got me back afterwards though, and put me on hold for like 10 minutes, which counts for double points since there were two of us
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Jan 13, 2011 21:34
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Anyone have the link for the previous call center thread?
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Jan 14, 2011 00:48
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Zo posted:I put someone from a call centre on hold today (while setting up a conference call). It was awesome. I wish I could put you guys on hold everyday. She got me back afterwards though, and put me on hold for like 10 minutes, which counts for double points since there were two of us I wish I could be put on hold every day. It means I'm getting paid to do nothing at all and there's nothing wrong with that.
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Jan 14, 2011 09:19
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ellasue posted:I missed the old thread but was wondering if anyone could recommend any books/resources on how to deal with angry customers, specifically in a call center environment. I'm up for a Tier 2-like promotion and, while I'm confident in my knowledge, I don't have much experience with call control and/or people who are irate. I sometimes end up at the end of an escalation process when it starts getting technical, out of hand, no one knows what the gently caress or its a key customer. 1) You'll actually be cut a bit of slack because you're not front-line. Sure the angry customer isn't all sweetness and light but because they have got you instead of the front line guy I find they are far more willing to listen to what you have to say and accept what you tell them because in their mind you're more likely to know what you're doing. 2) You say you're confident in your knowledge, as long as that comes through it will be a massive help combined with number 1. So you've got a good start. 3) These phrases make everything better. a) I'm going to personally deal with your issue and ensure X, Y and Z happen. My name is X and my direct line is Y or you can email me at Z. b) Ok, I get what your saying and I agree that is unacceptable (or I agree with you we need to do something to sort this etc) lets see what we can do to make things right. What can we do now that would resolve this? 4) Make sure you get a clear overview of what the gently caress is going on as early as you can, especially from whoever passes you the call, and then from the customer, then repeat it back to them. "ahh right Mr X I get it, we did this, which meant you did that and now its all gone tits up because of such and such". I dunno why but doing that seems to calm really irate people down, they get it off their chest and by repeating it back to them (obviously using your own words not parrot style) they can see you actually understand whats up rather than just saying "I understand" off some script, by the time you've done that they seem much calmer and more willing to work to sort it, maybe its just a few seconds to cool off etc.
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Jan 14, 2011 17:48
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zelah posted:I wish I could be put on hold every day. It means I'm getting paid to do nothing at all and there's nothing wrong with that. I get paid per call and not by the hour so I just hang up after someone puts me on hold for more then two minutes.
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Jan 14, 2011 20:16
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A good thing to lighten up the mood somewhat. Got a call from a customer who had some issues that meant speaking on the phone was incredibly difficult for her to do. This was the end of the call: : Thank you so much for your help, you've been so kind : Not a problem at all, I'm just doing my job.: No, I really mean it, you've made me feel so much better. Now I can relaz and hopefully everything will be sorted out.: You're very welcome and I do hope you enjoy the rest of your day now we've got this all sorted out for you.: Are you in a local office?: Unfortunately not, it's a national number: that's a shame, is there any way I can pass on the compliment to a manager?: You can pick up a leaflet to do that at the local office, just ask in at the front desk.: Thanks again.Calls like that really make my day and this one made me feel a million times better for being on a late shift despie the fact that I'm feeling icky.
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Jan 14, 2011 20:43
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Cast_No_Shadow posted:I sometimes end up at the end of an escalation process when it starts getting technical, out of hand, no one knows what the gently caress or its a key customer. Yeah, I agree wholeheartedly with point 4. Paraphrasing what the customer's said and feeding it right back to them does wonders because they feel like you really get it. Entirely off this topic, is a customer bellowing "COMPUTA SAYS NO" still de rigeur in the UK? I used to like that because I was always able to reply that the computer didn't get a say in anything and that it was ME saying no.
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Jan 14, 2011 23:00
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Fil5000 posted:Yeah, I agree wholeheartedly with point 4. Paraphrasing what the customer's said and feeding it right back to them does wonders because they feel like you really get it. Never heard it myself, but then I tend to deal with people either at work in a similar corporate hell, in full knowledge their calls are recorded or wannabe captains of industry who have no time for such frivolity. I have had someone sing, "Boring boring boring, Cast_no_shadow, this is loving boring" down the phone while reading a legally mandated statement to them.
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Jan 15, 2011 01:57
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I worked for a terrible Canadian cellular company for almost 3 years. Did front line CS as well as help desk and escalations. Irrational and angry customers, Downright gently caress-you-customer policies, Dumb as bricks outsourced and first party CSRs, I did it all. It was okay though. Paid well and I wore an iPod to keep me sane. (They weren't allowed, but I was an awesome employee so I got away with it.) It was refreshing to leave though. Might even say the day just got better.
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Jan 15, 2011 03:56
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I'd just like to say I enjoy my call center job. I do tech support so I never have to deal with people angry about billing or anything, and I'd say 95% of the time our service is pretty top notch, and if the customer is complaining about a problem 99% of the time it can be fixed, so there is very little dissatisfaction from callers. I've only gotten like 4 angry customers in my nine months so far, and three of the four were defused fairly well.
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Jan 15, 2011 04:15
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Cast no shadow has it right. I would hire him!
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Jan 17, 2011 14:47
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Aww, I graduated academy training today at Progressive and they gave me a plushie IRV: I know the general consensus of a call center is a toxic environment, but I've really never worked at a better place, everyone is so cool and upbeat.
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Jan 18, 2011 04:40
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So I work in a call centre that handles health insurance and we own 3 different brands. However the centre that I am in only handles 2 of those and the 3rd brand's call centre is located in Queensland and since about mid last week has been evacuated and closed down due to the flooding situation. So on the IVR there is a message notifying people about this and saying that only if they have an urgent hospital admission within the next 7 days to press 1 and be transfered to the Melbourne office for assistance. Otherwise it states that it would be best to call back in 48hrs for an update because the Melbourne office are not trained in their particular brand/rules. So of course every single fucker and his dog has presses 1 and gets transfered through saying "now I know that I dont have a hospital admission but this is urgent, I have been short changed $1.75 at the chiropractor and I'm not bloody happy and I want to know what you people are going to do about it?". You'd think in the face of a natural disaster these people could close their loving open palm wanting a hand out and understand that it is an extreme circumstance that they are not able to get through to the right place and have their questions answered straight away. I tell them that I understand that it is frustrating, but again these are extreme and not common circumstances. True a some of them do even apologise for coming through when I explain I can't help them, but that's a very very small amount. I even had one harpy bitch from Sydney say (and I quote exactly) - "So just because there is a bit of water in queensland you're telling me you can't tell me the status of my optical claim? How do they effect each other?". I explained that I physically didn't have access to the system required to check her claim and she demanded to speak to a team leader. Amoungst all the good donating people are doing, it's just a ball breaker to see how selfish some people are. The urgent hospital admissions are hard enough as it is, each call that we take of their's requires a heck of a lot of fact checking into their fund's rules/turn around times/policy covers etc... so we have been completely inundated with calls. So that's my call centre rant for today.
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Jan 19, 2011 10:12
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Loving Life Partner posted:I know the general consensus of a call center is a toxic environment, but I've really never worked at a better place, everyone is so cool and upbeat. I've interviewed with them for Claims Adjuster positions. Got rejected by Flo, though. Insurance factory wasn't bad. Until bigger insurance factory took over. Now, it's the kind of company people run screaming from. Just got a verbal warning for "negative reliability points," from my manager. As of December 29th, I had 5 reliability points left. I'd explain this system, but it makes your head hurt, much like everything else there does. Got an ear infection. Called in on December 30th. I figured this would take me to -3 reliability points, which is OK...you can go to -7 before there's a problem. However, it was decided that because December 30th was the day before a holiday, that day counted for 10 reliability points. Bringing me down to -5 reliability points. Oh, and my perfect attendance bonus for December of 2009 rolled off as of January 1st, which knocked me to -7 reliability points. The magic bad number. Meaning I had to sit there and have a 20 minute talk with a manager that I generally avoid talking to, because I truly don't like or trust the guy. He attempted to justify this POS system, I told him it was the most retarded thing I'd ever encountered in a company in my entire life and generally is something that is used at $10 an hour call centers where they don't care about turnover, not on insurance professionals. Oh, and we're getting smaller cubicles soon too. Not because there's a bunch of hiring, in which case I could understand it. It's because company we were bought-out-by has determined that our old company gave us too large of cubicles that make it too easy for us to socialize with each other. So we need to be downsized to smaller cubicles. So I can be closer to my sick co-workers who are coming in with full blown flu's so they can avoid losing reliability points. I hate this place. I just had an interview for a leasing consultant position for an apartment complex. Less money, have to work both Saturdays and Sundays...don't think I care.
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Jan 19, 2011 15:19
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I've been on the floor now for 2 months, long enough to just about have everything nailed down. The only serious problem I'm having is leaving early. I wont use the term we use for obvious reasons, but if call volume is low (almost everyday), you can just apply to take off for the day, and the only thing it ever hurts is your paycheck. Unfortunately I do it a lot, and a lot of people I work with do the same, it's incredibly addictive and in the end, really sucks. It's such a weird job doing tech support/billing overflow. I've had a lot of jobs, and on paper this is the best job I've ever had. It's just strange for me. In previous jobs I could say "This job aint bad" or "This job is loving cake" or "This job is horrible and I'm quitting on my break". But this job? I have no loving clue how to feel about it. I'm lazy so I know that's part of the reason I always want to leave early, but I can't tell if it's also because some part of me hates what I do. I don't like having to hop back on the phones, and I don't like waiting between calls for that beep, trying to read a book in paragraph intervals so I don't stare through the wall. The customers usually suck, but don't have a huge impact on my emotions. The only time I get bothered is when I have to confidently explain a policy that I personally find bullshit and unfair and nonsensical to a customer that feels (and rightly so) the exact same about it. The only problem is, it's my fault somehow. I don't know how the rest of you feel but I genuinely try to get the customer's problem resolved, and get a good feeling when I relieve someone else's stress about a situation they can't control. On the flipside, I don't like constantly hearing about how terrible my company is (especially when it comes after explaining a bullshit policy). Then there's the metrics, two of which are almost entirely out of our control. If the customer calls back for ANY reason in the next few days, one of my major metrics get hit. It's pretty loving bullshit when most of the calls you get are people that have already called but didn't get the answer they wanted, or people who call just about every drat day. Anyway, I guess after writing all this out I feel a little less vague about my feelings for my job. It's the best job I've ever had. The pay is above average and plenty to live on, the benefits are amazing, I've got more vacation time/sick time/do what the gently caress you want time/leave early time/voluntary overtime whenever I want. I sit in a comfy chair and get to read books or draw or do whatever the hell, and at least every other day, 2 hours of my shift are spent in meetings or trainings or just being able to stay off the phone and do absolutely nothing. This is a great company to work for I only wish I could enjoy the work a bit more. edit: If you work/have worked for the same company as me (what I've posted will most likely give it away), please don't mention the name as they have a dept just for searching the internet for opinions on the company from customers and inadvertantly, employees. Just tip your hat and join me in solidarity. fret logic fucked around with this message at 04:46 on Jan 28, 2011 |
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Jan 28, 2011 04:41
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Many some of you can shed some light on what this was like from the call center's perspective. I plan on canceling my gas service as I am moving out of my apartment. I call to ask if I cancel my service on a given date, will my auto pay still go through. I am assured that yes, it will. I thank them and ask to have to terminated at the end of the month. The rep confirms what I was back over the phone and then I hang up. A few minutes later I get an email notifying me my account has been canceled and I need to make final payment manually! Frustrating but whatever, it is not the end of the world. Week goes by, it is the end of the month and I get my final bill. I call again, confirm (again) my autopay is not going to kick in, and after being told I need to make a manual payment, do so over the phone. You can probably see where this is going and sure enough a couple weeks later, autopay goes through and now I have been double billed for my last month. Once again hop back on the phone and after waiting (48 minutes due to high call volume) finally get someone on the phone. I ask for them to reverse my auto payment since I was double billed. After spending five minutes verifying this (I have no idea what took so long) she comes back on to say she cannot issue a refund because the payment I made was made within the past three days. I put up a fuss saying that is an absurd rule and am finally transferred to a supervisor. I get the supervisor on the phone who just reiterates the same thing. I ask for any valid explanation and of course she cannot provide one. Then I get the great idea to ask her to refund my original manual payment I had made since it was made over a week ago and thus was safe from the 'three day rule'. I get put on hold once again for several minutes and then she comes back on and tells me I can only be refunded the most recent payment so she can't refund that one either. I literally started laughing at this point because I had basically lost it. She told me she would personally submit my request for me in several days. In the end about a month later I got a check in the mail. I have no idea if it was her, or some automated account payable system but I was left in shock with how little anyone could actually help me. 1) How can people have so little knowledge with what happens when you terminate your utility account? This has to be a very common process and it blows me away how little anyone seemed to know about it. 2) Were the reps making these rules up on the phone? It seems ridiculous to have to wait days before getting refunded back after they double billed and even more ridiculous you can only back out the last transaction.
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Jan 28, 2011 05:13
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Ahhhh, a thread for the damned. I've had the week off but I'm sure I'll be back next week for a rant. Can I just say that customer service is a harsh mistress that keeps dragging you back simply because it's easy money with no outside hassles. At least in my opinion.
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Jan 28, 2011 05:18
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alreadybeen posted:Were the reps making these rules up on the phone? It seems ridiculous to have to wait days before getting refunded back after they double billed and even more ridiculous you can only back out the last transaction. On this point, I think I can safely answer in the negative. You would be shocked, shocked at how finicky call centre billing applications can be, and at how inane most policies are. Like, we spent millions of dollars on our ticketing app, and continue to pay for ongoing improvements and support. When we first received it, it was a glorified web page, and replaced a ticketing system which was an actual web page that also happened to be about a thousand times more reliable and user-friendly. It took ten times longer to do everything. Our billing system dates back eons and makes absolutely no sense, but it usually works. I don't want to complain about it though, since if it is ever replaced it will be with something much, much, much worse. There's so much poo poo you can't do, unless you know some secret "trick" that you don't learn about in training, but rather learn or don't learn when someone who knows said trick notices you don't and tells you about it. It doesn't make sense...
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Jan 28, 2011 05:44
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alreadybeen posted:2) Were the reps making these rules up on the phone? It seems ridiculous to have to wait days before getting refunded back after they double billed and even more ridiculous you can only back out the last transaction. They need to make sure your payment actually clears through, and there are no problems with it before giving you money back. The bank I work for has a 10 day waiting period for paper checks to be refunded and a 5 day waiting period for electronic/ach/autopays to be refunded. It sucks for you, the customer, yes. I agree 100%. But the reason why most companies have this rule, especially on "Final billings" when you can do a check by phone, but they wont know for 3 or 4 days at the minimum if your bank will honor the payment. If they refund you the money on day 2, but your payment to them bounces on day 5, guess who has to eat that money? The company. And companies hate having to eat costs. Hence, rules. And sorry if this sounds snarky, it is not supposed to, just been a long week.
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Jan 28, 2011 19:04
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Ancient billing systems  Almost everything in the company I work for is run from a program we bought somewhere between 1982 and 1986. Command prompt everything and incredibly counter-intuitive (well for anyone who has used computers in the last 20 years). That said, I love it. It works, its fast, and its bullshit free. Out of everything we use, not matter how many millions it cost. It works best, once you learn the ins and outs of it its like reading the matrix, it just all makes sense and 10x faster than anything they'd put together today.
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Jan 28, 2011 22:04
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Ahhh finally back to hell today. And I remembered the thing that pisses me off most about my current job - people do not speak english. PLEASE don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to be racist in any way, shape, or form. But people who can't admit that they don't speak english, or only know the bare minimum conversation skills, really really really piss me off Example: Me: Hi, it's Comic Book Guy from Medibank, can I speak with *insert name* please? Customer: Ahhh, can you repeat? Me: Is *insert name* there please? Customer: Yes, this is me. Me: I'm calling about a visit that was made to Medibank a few days ago, was that you who came in to see us? Customer: Med-i-bank? Me: Yes, Medibank Private. Do you speak English? (I always say this as nicely as possible. I'm not trying to offend anyone, just trying not to waste someones time). Now, usually at this point, the person will laugh and say "Oh, not very well. Do you have someone that speaks hindi/chinese/etc". Or "Yes, but you have to speak slowly" (Sure! I don't mind at all if you warn me, I'm just happy you might answer my questions) But then you get a few people who say... Customer *pissed off/offended*: YES! Me: Thanks, would you be able to answer a few questions about the customer service you recieved at the store? It should only take 1 minute. Customer: Yes. Me: Great! So what was your main reason for coming into the Medibank store? Customer: Yes. Me:....Ahhh, so why did you come into the store? Customer: What store? Me: The Medibank store? Customer: Sorry, I don't understand. I don't speak English. Me:  Sometimes, the convo goes like this: Me: I'm calling about a visit that was made to Medibank a few days ago, was that you who came in to see us? Customer: No, it wasn't me. I went in to pay my premiums, but that's it. Me: *thinking* What did you do, stand outside the store on the street and hand the money to the clerk through the door????
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Feb 1, 2011 07:13
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I had a great moment the other day. The insurance police added a livein boyfriend driver to someones policy when she called in to get a quote, was quoted an increase, then said "no thanks". So she calls in furious, never had her authorization to add him, etc. (read your contract some time people), and I let her know we sent numerous memos indicating that she could provide his correct information and exclude him from coverage if she wanted. Her: But then if he gets into an accident I'm screwed! This fantastic awkward silence ensues and I just kinda say "well you could pay to cover him on the policy..." like it was this CRAZY idea. Anyway, escalated up the chain, so dusted my hands of it.
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Feb 1, 2011 14:32
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