Answering the call

A Belated Happy birthday to La Vante & La Grant, and Happy March to everyone else.
This time I would like to present a tale of a local call center worker, who's story has a loud ring of truth to it, hopefully everyon that reads this will re-adjust their thinking when speaking with a customer service representative from now on.

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I work in a call center I've been doing this for a long time so long that I hate to think about it. I started doing this when I lost my job and I couldn't find another one for about three months. I had the skills and I thought this will just be temporary and now it is eight years later. Where has the time gone? I found that I'd hate it I hate is so bad that I hate to get up in the mornings on the days I have to work. It has got to be the most thankless job there is. It’s so terrible I hate talking to people on the phone now I'm so sick of talking to people about their problems I'm not a counselor and when people can’t pay their bill they get mad. Why are the mad at me if they can't pay their bill it isn’t my fault, I am not to blame and for the matter neither is the company that provides the service at fault. This is not my first call center job but I can tell you it WILL be my last. I don’t care what I have to do or how I have to live from now on. I am not exaggerating when I say it’s a horrible position to be in.
Over the past eight years I have worked for five different companies here in Tucson. I know what you are thinking, that I can’t keep a job, well the truth of the matter is I've lost 2 very good jobs and 1 I hated because they outsourced my position to India to Brazil to Canada to Mexico and the Philippines I mean seriously in eight years of how many jobs can you lose to out sourcing? When will these companies can get a clue that the people of America hate talking to people in India they hate talking to people in Brazil they despise talking to people in the Philippines when they speak to someone there they know they're never going to get anything done it is a complete waste of their time.
I had a customer tell me that the company I work for has a bunch of stupid monkeys working for them and she was right what can I say I work with the same stupid monkeys all the time I feel like I should be a sewer worker because I spent all day cleaning up shi*. These outsources and Vendors [for they are just as bad] make a mess of the accounts and then just transfer the customer when they call in angry about the situation. I have to clean it up and they won’t ever let me off the phone until it’s done right! I take pride in doing my best, what is right for the customer within the company’s guidelines. That is not good enough most of the time, because you’d have to be a miracle worker to resolve some of the issues to the satisfaction of both. The company cares more about how long it took you to resolve the issue than they do about its resolution. The customer only wants the issue resolved. It never ceases to amaze me how many people tell me how good I was and helpful and that I have taken the time to listen to them when no one else would and fix the problem, but how many of them are willing to write a letter, send an email, or call back and say that to someone that matters? Don’t get me wrong I always give my best and I appreciate the few that do say nice things about me {it’s part of the bonus system, that earns me more money} but there is something seriously wrong with the customers that just yell and scream like a baby that needs it’s diaper changed, or a toddler falling out in the floor having a tantrum because they cannot get their way. I’m honestly sick and tired of the donkey’s that call in angry and belligerent because their service has been interrupted, and when you pull up the account, you always find that they haven’t paid ANYTHING on there account in months. They all say the same thing “I need my service!” Well I say, hen you NEED to pay your bill! But I do say it in a nice way.

I learned years ago about complaining about the outsources' my first encounter was indeed a Indian matter and I was told by someone high up in that particular company back in 2002 that they didn't care they only cared about the bottom line they only cared about the fact that that representative in India that was taking calls compared to what they were pay me they could have three people for that amount of money. That really sucks it sucks when you know that the shareholders only care about their dividends that they don't care about the fact that the people who pay for the service are not happy with it. It sucks that the management cannot see the trend of people calling back again and again because they don’t want to talk to those people in foreign countries. I had an account with Citibank [after they bought out my original bank] and I had to talk to people in India, my account was so screwed up and every time I called it just seemed to get worse. I would ask for a supervisor and they would never let me speak with one. I always got the same story “Yes Ma’am, we are doing everything we can to assist you. Everything will be taken care of just as you requested.” Liars!!!! I actually had to drive all the way to Mesa, and go into a branch, by this time 3 months later I was livid. I spoke with a personal banker who got her manager and although it took 2 hours I got my problem fixed. The next day I closed my account. And I have never looked back.
A lot of call center companies have left Tucson in the last five years and thousands of people have lost jobs to outsources. What I see more and more of nowadays are shops and payday loan centers isn't that funny get high and get in debt that the growing job industry in Tucson….. signed Answering The Call


I hope you enjoyed this piece as much as I did.

Peace,
Loko, Queen of The Night