Call centre staff suffer abuse too

Fortunately, there are many people working in call centers which are quite happy with their job (like my cousin for instance). I think it is essential that everyone who is interested in this type of job talks to other people who are already in this business and understanding the advantages and disadvantages (as explained in the previous posting). An other approach also might be to try it for a few months before taking a final decision. There are quite a lot of job vacancies published in the web and it shouldn´t be a big problem to find a job. I checked out for instance http://2ajobguide.com/call_center_jobs.aspx and found
115,568 call center job openings. What you should NOT DO is working for 8 eight years in a job that you hate and where you are abused!

I work in a call centre, dealing with technical issues for Sky equipment. Don't stone me to death for it. I hate my job so much and am currently looking for work until my college course begins later in the year.

I understand how frustrated customers can become when their issue is not being dealt with as soon as they need it to be but you have to remember - It wasn't the person you are speaking to that caused this problem. Shouting at us and calling us 'wh*res, bi*ches, stupid cows' (a few of the many horrid things I've been called) Is not going to get it resolved any quicker.

Then I actually cringe when informing a customer they will have to pay £65 for an engineer call.This is not something anyone enjoys & yes it is inconvenient but us agents DO NOT make the rules! Mostly, I speak to some lovely people on a daily basis! I will always do my best to help anyone to the best of my ability, even when they are squealing down the phone at me for being so stupid because they didn't pay their bloody bill and Now have no Sky TV.

I have come to the conclusion that no one in the British population seems to want to take responsiblity for their own belongings. Especially when it comes to dishing out money for them. There is such a thing called insurance - use it!


Just remember, YES you are incredibly p*ssed off because you have a problem and are getting nowhere quickly - but just spare a second and think of the person you are yelling at. At the end of the day, we are all human and have husbands/wives to get home to each night. I'm sure you would feel pretty disheartened if someone came into your place of work shouting obscenities at you because the halfwit company you work for has ballsed up AGAIN!

Another problem with Call centres is with some issues that cannot be resolved .Such as a call centre answering whether a benefit/welfare claim has been processed.You as an agent cannot do anything to speed this up ,if it is reliant on a back office or indeed the customer needing to do something.In certain respects some things do not lend themselves to call centre work.If you can resolve it there and then it does. I feel though these issues in my job are not the majority of calls and above all I do enjoy helping people where I can.Its just the frustration of being the middle man so to speak,which can cause stress and low confidence levels in that you can feel an idiot for saying 'well I do not know when that will be done', etc when something is out of your hands.

The major problem with call centres (having worked in one for 8 years now) is that the reason usually ,in my line of work anyway is that the customer has not paid something (a bill) or provided info and basically would like the agent to advise them 'what they would like to hear' .This is only a minority of calls ,but their impact on stress levels can be high. Also when TV documentaries etc address call centre problems from the customer point of view they concentrate on the length of time etc waiting to get through or getting through to India etc as the reason behind why the customer is not happy .When in fact the unhappiness of the customer is caused by the reason they had to phone up in the first place: I.e over spent on credit card, not paid a bill etc etc .

In my old call centre for the BBC we had to put up with enormous amounts of abuse, it was ridiculous. I remember we were given a handout full of useful phrases to use when being verbally abused - such as 'I really would like to help you, but you are shouting and that is causing disturbance in my ear piece' I kid you not. And the management didn't seem to care one bit - no matter how loud the caller shouted or what language they used, the management never took our side (they were fairly incompetent in other areas too, though, not just that). I would never speak to someone the way some callers spoke to us, and the management really should be more concerned with the wellbeing of their staff than they are.

I feel that abuse on the telephone to call centre staff should not be tolerated and employers that do not support there staff in such incidents should be prosecuted on health and safety grounds within the work place. Enough of the silent bullying. We are there to do a job not to be harrassed.

I was recently on a call to a UK call centre of a financial organisation. The person to whom, I had the misfortune to be speaking, and who had a British accent (Estuary English) was ignorant and unhelpful to the point of obstructiveness. I rapidly got to the point of realising that I needed to speak to the organ grinder and not the monkey, but he refused to let me speak to anyone else and also refused to give me the number of the company's head office (public domain information anyway). His comment was: "You're lucky you're not through to a call centre full of 'Pakis' " (his word not mine). No doubt he felt that his job was under threat, hardly surprising really.

I told him that disregarding the racism of his remark, I felt that an Indian call centre agent would most likely have been able to speak better English, and have been more helpful.

At the end of the conversation, he asked me if he could 'help with anything else'.

Faint Hope 03-Jan-2008 11:18

faint hope, you are ridiculous and I could not disagree with you more.

I work for a glasgow call centre, and unlike some other outsourced call centres, I work directly for my employer. I have the authority to sort out problems and sort them out very well. my average satisfaction is 98%.

I am from Glasgow, and when I call my gas, electricity, mobile phone company, bank do I get through to my 'home town' NO. get a grip and realise how racisit and how much nonsence you are talking.

grrrr

I and my colleagues are repeatedly told by a regular caller to (nasty word) and our boss tells us we must carry on with the call. Surely that can't be right? I shake when this person comes on the phone because I know what's coming.

Feeling a bit mad, undervalued and generally irate right about now. What gives customers the right to call me and talk to me like I'm am something they just stepped in. I knew that working in a call centre was bad but some of the things that I have had said to me are just bad. I mean the amount of people who are nasty to me because I'm a girl is unbelievable and those people are men. I suppose they think that they can bully me into giving them a credit on their phone bill which they can't be bothered to pay.

I hate working in a call centre but due to the great wages I have no choice. Anyone saying that this job is easy should come be me for a day and then maybe they would think twice before having a whinge at me next time they call in.

well I had to comment on this one, I have worked in a call center and the amount of time I have bent over backwords for some one that a) needed my help b) wonted me to help them c) was polite to lison to what I had to say. when I got some one that was agressive to me there would of been a small chance that I would of helped them unless it was with out a dout the componys folt still then there was a slim chance, all I got to say is look at it this way your at work and your partner started to shout at you down the fone every time you try to calm them down thay got more agresive how would you feel, there is a department that deals with the idiots its called complaints departmen not custermer services can you see the diffrence>>>> complaints<<<<>>>>custermor services<<<<< you shout at the wrong people and then expect then to do somthing that thay are not ment to do, some advice dont just randomly pick a number then fone it try looking for the rite number you just mite find that you get the ball moving faster!!!!!!

"Call centre staff suffer abuse too. They are only doing their job."

? ? ?

What complete nonsense. What absolute balderdash. Call centre staff are simply put there to protect what organisation and its management against the slings and arrows of a very angry customer base. Call centre staff rarely have the authority and skill to put whatever matter has been raised right. They simply argue the case that nothing was wrong in the first place.

Consumers' prayer:

"Please don't give me a call centre representative when I call. I want and need someone with the proper knowledge and authority."

"Please don't give me someone from Glasgow or India. I want someone from my own home town.

"Please don't tell me lies. I want the truth."

"Please do admit that you just cannot help me. Pleas put me onto someone immediately who can."

Oh Lord please give us back our high street shop.