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sbaldrick
Jul 19, 2006
Driven by Hate
I love living in Canada.

In any case, I now have to go work for a horrible call centre because of my current layoff. I've noticed at least one violation that would cause the Labour board and the Human Rights board to pimp slap them for here to next week.

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sbaldrick
Jul 19, 2006
Driven by Hate
you know what I hate, assholes on islands in the middle of no where that expect their services to work...gently caress you!

I would also never work at anything for 100% commision

sbaldrick
Jul 19, 2006
Driven by Hate
I wish they would let me fix stuff in tier one, it would take 10 seconds but I have to transfer you.

Also gently caress you to the crazy old man who kept me on the phone an hour and a half after my shift because their was no way for me to fix the manufactures OS and hardware for you. I called them, it can't be done (was not an iphone)

sbaldrick
Jul 19, 2006
Driven by Hate
The day I put in my notice, I've already decided I"m going to speak the whole day in a comical Spanish accent till they kick me out of the building.

sbaldrick
Jul 19, 2006
Driven by Hate
they would pretty much fire me if I did that. I got yelled at because my handle time is too low already, for only having done it for 5 weeks.

sbaldrick
Jul 19, 2006
Driven by Hate
We are allowed to be on a call for as long as we want, they will even write in our stats "long call" so it doesn't effect them. They even just raised our handle time, but I did think it was weird that I got yelled at.

I got my first 20grand phone bill today...and they forgave 17 grand of it right off the bat. She still owed 3 which she paid to get her service restored, I almost poo poo.

sbaldrick
Jul 19, 2006
Driven by Hate
International travel. Yes, you are going to get raped cost wise for travelling, honestly they should put up big signs in airports.

sbaldrick
Jul 19, 2006
Driven by Hate
Do you work for Bell?

sbaldrick
Jul 19, 2006
Driven by Hate
Working for WIND would suck...wouldn't 99% of there calls be "why does your coverage suck"...I work for ATT and can go days without those kind of calls.

sbaldrick
Jul 19, 2006
Driven by Hate
When Sprint gets purchased by the Spanish or Mexican telcom giants, I am so going to enjoy answer the phone starting with "ATT, The American owned phone company"

sbaldrick
Jul 19, 2006
Driven by Hate
Isn't that the reason the original SITEL when bankrupt and basically got taken over. I know that's why a bunch of call centre's left Canada, because they got bitchslapped by labour boards.

sbaldrick
Jul 19, 2006
Driven by Hate
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

sbaldrick
Jul 19, 2006
Driven by Hate
My call centre is about 6 months from close. I don't really care as I don't plan on being there, but I feel bad for the lifers. The worst part is that no one really seems to see that it's happening.

sbaldrick
Jul 19, 2006
Driven by Hate
My company was stupid enough to threaten my employment in my file for being sick. I love living in Canada and the ability to blackmail them because of that

sbaldrick
Jul 19, 2006
Driven by Hate
I have a job interview tomorrow to run a cs/order desk for a company. The job will be great because I would never have to talk to the public as the company is a manufacture that doesn't sell to the public

sbaldrick
Jul 19, 2006
Driven by Hate
My call centre is closing soon due to the high Canadian dollar. I'm really leaving for a new job but yay for severance.

sbaldrick
Jul 19, 2006
Driven by Hate
My favorite thing was supporting US customers in Canada and getting death threats/verbal abuse. On the day I left the company I sent them a lovely email about how there no hang up policy was basically illegal and highlighted the fun parts about abuse and death threats. They are closed now but still...I laughed alot about it.

sbaldrick
Jul 19, 2006
Driven by Hate
Congradulations on getting laid off from the worst job in the world.

sbaldrick
Jul 19, 2006
Driven by Hate
I've never understood why non-retail locations have gotten rid of part time staff. For a call centre in a college town it would be prefect to do split shifts.

sbaldrick
Jul 19, 2006
Driven by Hate

you ate my cat posted:

For sure. My position caps out at ~$28, and it's union, so you get a raise every 6 months till you cap, or you have to cap within 3(?) years. Plus benefits, a ton of available overtime if that's your thing. One of the guys I work with is doing ~25 hours of week of overtime a week, and is on track to make $100k+ this year. Too bad it's call center work, so the schedule sucks, no one respects you, and you talk to idiots all day.

Do you work for the government as I know if you live in Canada you want to work for a Service Canada call centre. 40k a year, government hours, no call monitoring by anyone (it's illegal) plus after a while they let you into other departments.

sbaldrick
Jul 19, 2006
Driven by Hate

martyrdumb posted:

Wait, how does the company do QA if higher-ups can't review calls after the fact?

As I understand from my ex, they sit and watch people do it and based on what they do on the screen and the notes that's how they QA it. Even then it's not really QAed as it's the government so different kind of call centre goals.

sbaldrick
Jul 19, 2006
Driven by Hate
corporate call centres are very different then a call centre like most of these ones. It would basically be talking to people that work in stores bitching about things. It's the best kind of call centre job.

sbaldrick
Jul 19, 2006
Driven by Hate
Can you afford to take the paycut, and will getting your foot in the door in the corp. further your career goals. If not don't apply for it.

sbaldrick
Jul 19, 2006
Driven by Hate

Boomer The Cannon posted:

No sweatshirts, shorts or hats allowed anymore? We're in a loving call center, not loving Saks 5th Avenue.

I swear our company is like "Despicable Me,' where Gru tells the kids they can't breathe, laugh, cry, eat, drink, make noise, have fun, etc.

I don't understand call centres like this. Who cares what the people who work in them wear?

sbaldrick
Jul 19, 2006
Driven by Hate
unless you work for a call centre for a company where working there means you can advance to other departments (like a bank) then a dress code is stupid.

Pretty much all companies should adopted the old zappos model where exec have to work in the call centre which was designed to stop stupid policies.

sbaldrick
Jul 19, 2006
Driven by Hate

CUMGUARD posted:

Sorry for the wall of text, just wanted to throw out a very atypical call center experience for you guys.

This isn't really a call centre, even through it's been run like one. This is generally work done by non-inside sales reps. that have a inside sales rep. title. So good job on getting a real corporate job.

sbaldrick
Jul 19, 2006
Driven by Hate

Obscurity posted:

The call center I work at has departments taking a poo poo ton of calls per day with tons sitting in que waiting to be answered.

My department is the only department that doesn't have a poo poo ton of volume. I've been working here for almost a year and a half now and on average take between 5-15 calls a day. We have chat days too! Chat days I'm lucky to even get one chat.

The best part? There is no sign of our department being shut down..in fact..they're taking on new projects because we're looked at as one of the best teams! (Protip: it's because we take so little calls that our mental stability is still intact compared to everyone else)

I seriously browse SA all day at work (until I'm caught and yelled at)

We've dealt with a lot of entitled pricks, but the nice part is..there's more friendly people than anything who call in.

I get paid 11.50/hr to browse SA.

I'm going to make you feel bad, as I get my sweet government wage at the moment to browse SA due to them breaking our date base for the new year. Of course that means a poo poo ton of work once we can use our date base once it's fixed

sbaldrick
Jul 19, 2006
Driven by Hate

AA is for Quitters posted:

Nothing like the new changes to the ACD crashing and burning!

So, since some of our clients were complaining that every time they'd call they'd get a different person, management decided to split the CSR's into teams, and each team would get their own queue, and each queue would have it's own direct-dial number. Well...they decided to test the system today. Anyone who dials the direct line to the team gets hung up on as soon as the CSR picks up the phone.

...oops. So glad I do sales and am completely outbound calling.

I would change to inbound in a heartbeat. Beside call idea ever.

sbaldrick
Jul 19, 2006
Driven by Hate
Does anyone work in a Call Centre in Ontario where they have no legislated being nice to service workers? I"m sure it makes the job more enjoyable.

sbaldrick
Jul 19, 2006
Driven by Hate

Robzor McFabulous posted:

Do you have a link to any information about this? Tried Googling but didn't find anything that sounded relevant. Sounds really interesting though!

It basically came out of a Human Rights Commission lose by a company that got cute and thought they could win (no company every wins a HRC, which is why they always settle). However, if you have noticed in stores now they have signs that say "Our employees are people and have to be treated like humans" that's the reason.

It would have to wait till the weekend to find the direct ruling for you, but it does exist and you can use it to your advantage.

sbaldrick
Jul 19, 2006
Driven by Hate

cuntvalet posted:

Tomorrow is the first day of no 15 minute breaks. :( Dreading it.

Does your company have a bonus system, if so I know a fun way for the CRA to destroy them in painfully fun ways.

sbaldrick
Jul 19, 2006
Driven by Hate
He lives in Canada, no such thing as "right to work" here. You can always get a doctors note for stress related issues or just get up and start taking a piss. If they bitch threaten them with the labour board or Human rights tribunal and watch them poo poo themselves.

sbaldrick
Jul 19, 2006
Driven by Hate

cuntvalet posted:

Yeah I was gonna say I wasn't sure what Canada was in terms of right to work, etc.

I know that washroom breaks are gonna sky rocket for everybody but at orientation the company basically said that when we switch our phone software to washroom break, we only have 8 minutes of that (for the whole day) before they begin considering it "unproductive aux time" and may not pay us for said time.

As for the union thing, I definitely will not be the straw man who gets burnt for it as an example. I'm not signing until I know a lot of people are behind it. While I said im on good terms with the person whose starting it (and thus, feel obligated), he's the sort of person who finds a reason to get angry and talk to management every other (if not every) single day. He gets physically abusive to his desk if he has a bad call so honestly, I'm not sure this will go over well.

Also, I may not like my job but I do like getting paid. Id rather not get tossed during my probationary period for conspiracy to unionize but that's just me...

The second they stop paying you for taking a bathroom break, call the labour board and walk into HR tell them, walk up to the Manager/Owner and tell them. Watch them poo poo themselves.

sbaldrick
Jul 19, 2006
Driven by Hate

RICHUNCLEPENNYBAGS posted:

Please, everyone, stop confusing at-will employment with right-to-work.

Given the US use right to work in place of at-will everyone is aware of it. It doesn't matter either way as no province in Canada would get away with it.

sbaldrick
Jul 19, 2006
Driven by Hate

cuntvalet posted:

Tonight is my first night of working the 3:30 to midnight shift. According to a friend who started it last night (I should have but I called in sick so I could go to a baby shower...)the call volume is normal until 7, then slows until 10:30 and then between 10:30 to midnight there's usually 6 - 7 minutes between each call.

Plus our customer service/billing department closes at 9 so we get to more or less give people the number for them and tell them to call back tomorrow. Ahahahaha.

I think I'll take my sketchbook and some pencils tonight and alternate between that and searching for a new job in the down time between calls.

Also, thank god, they've gone from super strict about cell phone use on the floor (we might steal people's information! OH NOES!) to not batting an eye or even asking us to use our phones if one of the other agents isn't as knowledgeable on the type/set up of them.

This and overnight are the best way to work. When I worked in a call centre our volume dropped at 9pm on the dot, I worked till 11. So it was two hours of fun and games for 20 odd people

sbaldrick
Jul 19, 2006
Driven by Hate
For the first time in history I had someone on a call pitch me something useful. I wouldn't mind being sold things if it was stuff I wanted.

I wish someone someplace could remember this. 90% of the stuff management in call centres want pitched is stupid.

sbaldrick
Jul 19, 2006
Driven by Hate

Iced Cocoa posted:

I am free! Got a call yesterday that I got a job as a programmer. It was the most demanding jobs that I applied to, but I'm so relieved to be out of the call center.

I'm wondering what my exit gift should be. I'm torn between a case of Pepsi (the company has exclusive contract with Coca Cola) or Vanilla Coke.

As long as you haven't used that call centre or anyone in it as a reference, give no gently caress. They annoyed they where closing the call centre I worked at just at the same time my wife got a new job that required us to move. I basically stopped caring at all and tried to get them to fire me (really hard to do in Ontario once a layoff notice is given). On my last day I might have told a couple of callers to go gently caress themselves because they are assholes.

I felt better about my time in hell after that.

sbaldrick
Jul 19, 2006
Driven by Hate

IfIWereARichMan posted:

Because of this thread, every time I call my insurance or credit card company, I ask if they would like me to tell their manager how awesome they are. The credit card agents consistently refuse and just ask me to answer the survey, but the insurance people are usually surprised and happy.

That's because insurance people (at least one the ones I've dealt with) are generally fairly well paid and work for the company themselves. Not outsourced to hell.

sbaldrick
Jul 19, 2006
Driven by Hate

MA-Horus posted:

Do the factory work. I can absolutely guarantee it'll be better and you'll enjoy it more.

Plus in the right factory you get a free work out

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sbaldrick
Jul 19, 2006
Driven by Hate

Ugly In The Morning posted:

Welp, as of 5/6/13, my whole office is shitcanned. At least I have 90 days, but I've never lost a job before. This is, well, gently caress.

The call centre I use to work at is now completely closing. You will fill better about yourself now that you are gone.

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