Call centre staff suffer abuse too

I could not agree more, I too work in a call centre and it is not just rudeness but verbal abuse bordering on (and sometimes all the way to) threatening behaviour!

It's the organisations they work for. The poor management. The greedy barons who own them. I work in a CALL CENTRE. Our management are not very nice people, and are pretty hopeless at running the business. They drive us nuts, so we take it out on the customers.

Yesterday whilst on the Internet I noticed a job vacancy I wanted to apply for, I rang the job centre line that it requires you to call to apply for a job. I gave the job reference number and ask for more information about the job and said I wanted to apply for the position. The lady on the line asked for my details and I gave them, only to be snapped at because she couldn't find my file, " I said I don't have a claim for job seekers and haven't done for years", she snapped back " I need your old address to find your file" I said I'm sorry I don't remember the address I was at when I made a claim roughly 6 years ago". She snapped back " I cant update your file then". I said " I would just like to apply for the job vacancy" and gave the ref number again, she sighed and quite rudely gave me the information I had asked for but the contempt in her voice was unmistakable.

.Recently I have noticed that people have become ruder and more abusive. I have learn t that people call for help and then dont allow to be helped.They are usually in an emotional place where they are so confused and upset they can only seek the only option to them which is to lash out in pain and hurt wishing those interacting to be hurt as much or more than them; transferene I once was told that that surely people call to have some thing fixed. Unfortunately you soon release that some ( not all as many are honest kind souls ) call to drag you into there dark place.i try and be that shining beacon of hope to guide them. We also have the right not to dragged down and consumed and soul destroyed as some sacrificial escape goat. Why is it the very people who probably abuse use are the ones who if the tide if turned are the ones which would offer the lowest level of service.Some one has to be there for the customer to stop the descent into anarchy of the whole world. We make our choices to be the pillars of hope here as in many ways we are the braver and therefore always the chance to be the cannon fodder in the grave. We are unloved, not appreciated, abused, degraded, destroyed, never thanked, never accepted as telling the truth, always under pressure to deliver under fire, never rewarded with pay, promotion.Why do we do it; because YOU cant. Carry on screaming we will be there ,we know what you are we accept that, we love you even if you dont love yourself to respect us.
You are the wounded animal we are you healer shaman .Peace

It is a waste of time and money to call the CSA call centre, as most of the times that you call them about a problem, all they do is put you from one department to another, with you eventually ending up talking to the first person that took your call,

I think that they do this for a laugh, or to just pass the buck. all they want is your cash so they can take their cut.

Earlier Comment:
Why does Call Centres say your call may be recorded for training purposes, when the call centres when you call them proves they don't have any training?

Answer: A great deal of training is invested in every call centre worker. It can be a daunting job at times and operators need to be as prepared as possible to deal with all types of calls and varying attitudes of customers. It is impossible to train call centre operators in any industry for the variety in the kind of calls received. A random selection of every operators calls are used to assess and train on a very regular basis. All calls are recorded in the call centre I work for not only those purposes but also for the benefit of the customer who might dispute what has been said in a call.

Ask and ye shall be advised, don't just use a comment as another stick to beat us with!

.Recently I have noticed that people have become ruder and more abusive. I have learn t that people call for help and then dont allow to be helped.They are usually in an emotional place where they are so confused and upset they can only seek the only option to them which is to lash out in pain and hurt wishing those interacting to be hurt as much or more than them; transferene I once was told that that surely people call to have some thing fixed. Unfortunately you soon release that some ( not all as many are honest kind souls ) call to drag you into there dark place.i try and be that shining beacon of hope to guide them. We also have the right not to dragged down and consumed and soul destroyed as some sacrificial escape goat. Why is it the very people who probably abuse use are the ones who if the tide if turned are the ones which would offer the lowest level of service.Some one has to be there for the customer to stop the descent into anarchy of the whole world. We make our choices to be the pillars of hope here as in many ways we are the braver and therefore always the chance to be the cannon fodder in the grave. We are unloved, not appreciated, abused, degraded, destroyed, never thanked, never accepted as telling the truth, always under pressure to deliver under fire, never rewarded with pay, promotion.Why do we do it; because YOU cant. Carry on screaming we will be there ,we know what you are we accept that, we love you even if you dont love yourself to respect us.
You are the wounded animal we are you healer shaman .Peace

Hi there dumb customers. We in call centres are no longer interested in the technical issues surrounding your case. We are instead only interested in the psychological issue of why you called us in the first place. You have a psychological problem that needs resolving. We will convinve you that you don't really have a problem at all, and that your "ghost" will disappear. Call us to discuss your therapeutical needs.

Consumers Revenge: "Low and behold, if you are lucky enough to get thru' to a supervisor, invariably you're then thru' to someone with a level of intelligence to actually understand your issue and help you resolve it rather than citing, parrot fashion, from a screen of FAQs"

So, if my poor little call-centre worker brain can decipher this message correctly, I'm assuming you're calling every Customer Service Advisor stupid.

This, in itself, would probably explain why you have such a poor view of the people you speak to; if you seek to belittle each and every one of us then, of course, no-one will be willing to help you. At the end of the day, the person at the end of the phone is there - and willing - to help you, provided you show the same courtesy you would show if you called into your bank's local branch or the Post Office and spoke with someone face to face. If we answer the phone and we hear any of the following...

a) Sarcasm
b) Shouting/screaming
c) A sneering, snobbish tone

...this then sets our expectations of you for the remainder of the call and makes us rather less inclined to help you - not because we want to do a bad job, but because we deserve the same common courtesy you would give to someone face to face.

Only a minority of advisors will deliberately go out of their way not to help you without hearing you out first, just as I believe that only a minority of customers will call up specifically to create a scene (though I speculate that this is a tactic you're all too familiar with, Consumers Revenge). What I will say is this: manners and common courtesy go a long way. We all have to work for a living, and no-one deserves to be treated like a verbal punchbag.

Next time you speak to someone in a call centre, remember that they may be more or less qualified than you, but that this makes no difference when it comes to resolving your query. Treat that person with respect, and I can assure you they will do all they can to help.

To re-iterate a point made earlier in this forum. I am a University educated Psychology student who has travelled and worked abroad, have musical and artistic talents of my own and am soon to be undergoing training to become an Aerospace engineer. I currently work in a call centre because it offers reasonable pay while allowing me to work unusual hours (which I currently require to fit my hobbies around), while I save for my studies.

Needless to say I am not the irresponsible, lobotomized gibbon the ignorant masses assume they are talking to when they call through. Listen up monkey, if you are an aggressive individual with a major gripe with a company, the person you are first speaking to..

a) does not care about your problem if you come through ranting and raving and would sooner end the call rather than listen to you complain about how unfair life is.

b) depending on the legitimacy of the complaint has no authority to act on such outrageous requests.

If your complaint is soooo big it cannot be communicated any other way than to scream personal abuse at the person you are talking to my advise would be to write a letter. If on the other hand you want a more personal approach, realise that the majority of people on the phones are pretty decent human beings and if spoken to in the correct way will go the extra mile to not only settle your query, but to even exceed the expectations.

Through my workings in call centres I am a qualified coach and during discussion with friends, family members etc about poor service and the half hour of abuse they gave the poor call centre staff my answer is always the same. If you were in the staffs position and you were to listen back to how YOU acted on that call, would you help?

I am a mere call centre worker with a degree and many A levels, musical and artistic talents and a lot more intelligent than my supervisor who has none of these qualities. Things aren't always as you think they are.

Anyone who justifies abusing a call centre worker because of what they are MADE to ask/say when you ring up is a moron. They are only doing their job. If they don't ask you the questions they have to - they could lose their job. FINE you might feel irritated about what you're being asked - but understand this : WE ARE EXTREMELEY IRRITATED HAVING TO ASK YOU QUESTIONS WE DON'T WANT TO ASK AND THEN GET ABUSE FROM YOU ALLLLLL DAY. So learn some common courtesey ignorant masses. If you want to take offense to a process, write to the company boss/manager and DO NOT take it out on a mere hard working call centre working because it will get you NOWHERE.
It shocks me the way many people are totally unable to put themselves in someone else's shoes......I have never been a nurse in a hospital but I can clearly see and understand how hard their jobs are and the problems they face, so I would never make it extra difficult for them - it's just plain ignorant and rude.
Put yourselves in a callcentre workers frame of mind : we have to follow boring scripts day in day out, we have no say over how we do our work, we have to take breaks to the minute and get penalised if we go over by, yes, a MINUTE.
If you ring up and we offer to call back because we are unable to take your call consider this before you get into an argument about it with us : MAYBE IT IS THE END OF OUR SHIFT AND WE HAVE A BUS TO CATCH THAT IF WE DON'T CATCH WILL MEAN WE HAVE TO WAIT OVER AN HOUR IN THE DARK IN A ROUGH AREA FOR THE NEXT ONE. It completely confuses me why people have to argue with what people tell them. RAAAAAAAAAAAAA!