"Sorry the system is down"

[Tom]

Why is it that every single fucking time I ring a phone company, gas company, utilities company, WHATEVER, and try and do something, its always:

"Just a moment, getting my system up"

or

"Sorry the system is down"

or

"We're having computer problems today"

????

Is this just some kind of bullshit excuse they use? I'm fed up with call centres, how about just letting me ring my local bank and speaking to my manager

Honestly, I'd rather pay a bit more each year and have some decent service than speak to somebody whos probably not allowed to sit down, faking an English accent from India, and being paid 3 roupees an hour to sort my problem out.

/rant

 

[Cyfr]

I love how the indians are all called 'Bob' or 'Charlotte'

 

[dr_jo]

Having worked in a call centre for most of last year, it's surprising how many people thought I was in India. I'm english. I sound english....
People end up asking me what the weather's like, or a recent news story to try to prove I'm not somewhere foreign....

As for computers being down, that only happened once while I was there, and it was a nightmare. Taking orders manually, and not being able to answer any queries at all. So I'm not sure I'm afraid.

 

[nath]

how about just letting me ring my local bank and speaking to my manager

There is another way you know!

*doo doo do doooooo dooooo*

 

[Chilly]

I love how the indians are all called 'Bob' or 'Charlotte'

yeah, but they arnt are they cyfr, you just believe everything you see on tv.

 

[old.user4556]

Actually, a lot of them (probably all) do assume a western name.

 

[Brynn]

We got a *offshore* worker - just ding our bell for cold calling about BT services.

 

[~Yuckfou~]

It's not the systems that are down, it's the operators intelligence levels.

 

[WPKenny]

It's the system's too. 9 times out of 10 when I go to the 02 website to check my bill, it tells me the system is down.

 

[Gray]

yip and usually its true

Back when i started the systems would go down 70% of the day, so we ended up doing a project to call the customers back, no matter how big or little the query... What i seen was a huge stack of callback papers...

30% were thrown straight in the bin because they "wasnt important" and the res got lost somewhere along the line, making customers more pissed off.

Thankfully they seem to have bucked up the ideas a little, or at least, the people who made our system have - IBM, but when our systems do go down they have generally gone down so we arent really cheating customers ina way, and if its important we'd call em back.

We always get "Well i was speaking to someone who was from India" when as a matter of fact, the call centres they was probably part of was the Manchester one , and for our Cardiff base, i think customers have a problem understanding "baaa baaa baa baaaaa ba ba baaa" hmm

 

[Cyfr]

yeah, but they arnt are they cyfr, you just believe everything you see on tv.

Well actualy, yes they DO use names like that, to make them sound English or whatever. It's not been on TV, ive experienced it when ive phoned support..

 

[leggy]

It's not the systems that are down, it's the operators intelligence levels.

Why? Have you ever met a call centre operator?

Sorry yuck I love you but that is fucking nonsense. I bet at least half of those operators are more intelligent than this forum combined.

Who do you think works in these call centres? People who have no future or intelligent 20 year olds studying advanced mathematics? Having worked in a call centre as a student I'd sooner listen to anyone of them than take a piece of advice from some of the narrow minded, ignorant ***** in here.

 

[leggy]

Actually, a lot of them (probably all) do assume a western name.

Indeed. And they do it because our society dictates it. If I had a pound for every singaporean that I have met called "Terence"

 

[Chilly]

Well actualy, yes they DO use names like that, to make them sound English or whatever. It's not been on TV, ive experienced it when ive phoned support..

well, monkey dust makes light of such things. also perhaps you forgot they were part of the empire, and so many of them might well have english names anyway cos they were servants to rich english ***** back in the 1900s

 

[Ch3tan]

Wow the ignorance level is high in here.

Oh no the call centres have taken our jobs, and they are all based in india!

I'm with leggy on this.

 

[Will]

Why? Have you ever met a call centre operator?

*waves*

Funnily enough, no one things I'm from India. Must be the accent.

 

[mank!]

moronic Tom rant #435

You know what's even more annoying? When there are problems with the computer and you have to wait days for the tech support to come out because we're not allowed to try and fix it ourselves. In the meantime, fucking cretins like yourself come up and want to do a prescription but we can't because the computer doesn't work, so they go off on one and act like a fucking five year old because it's all OUR fault that the computers aren't working for you.

 

[old.user4556]

But Mank, the customer doesn't give a shit.

They don't care the systems are down, they don't care about your internal moans and gripes - they want the product/service they're paying for and quite fucking right. Whilst waiting isn't so much of a problem because of, say, large queues; system downtime and being told "my PC ain't working" and to "phone back later" is a hopeless service.

However, it happens. That's call centre life.

 

[old.user4556]

Why? Have you ever met a call centre operator?

Sorry yuck I love you but that is fucking nonsense. I bet at least half of those operators are more intelligent than this forum combined.

Who do you think works in these call centres? People who have no future or intelligent 20 year olds studying advanced mathematics? Having worked in a call centre as a student I'd sooner listen to anyone of them than take a piece of advice from some of the narrow minded, ignorant ***** in here.

Agree.

Working in IT for a company that also has a call centre, i'm aware there are lots of students and indeed graduates working in call centres who have either just graduated or are looking for post-uni positions.

 

[nath]

They don't care the systems are down, they don't care about your internal moans and gripes - they want the product/service they're paying for and quite fucking right. Whilst waiting isn't so much of a problem because of, say, large queues; system downtime and being told "my PC ain't working" and to "phone back later" is a hopeless service.

Quite right, but I think the point mank was making was that it's pointless and lame to take it out on the poor sod who happens to be manning the desk. It's not his/her fault that the systems are buggered.

 

[old.user4556]

Absolutely nath, however phone calls in call centres are recorded (i'm sure everyone knows this, they spam it when you call up "these calls may be recorded" etc) and often calls are reviewed in an effort to improve their customer service.

Perhaps expressing disatisfaction in the short term could change things longer term; infact I feel in the UK we don't complain enough (in my personal experience).

 

[Will]

Not all phone calls are recorded (except in banks). Legally, if they want to tape calls for later review, they need that disclaimer. I take about 2500 calls a month. 3 of these are recorded. Thats 0.12%, not a high odds.

 

[old.user4556]

Well there you go, maybe explains some poor service .

 

[Will]

If you'd shouted at me less, I might not have switched off your phone.

 

[leggy]

Oops sorry guys. Seem to have been a little pissed when I wrote that rant . I wasn't having a go at you yuckers

/puts bucky down and steps away from the bottle.

 

[Gumbo]

With regard to Indian call centres, I am fully aware that they aren't necessarily 'taking all our jobs' etc. I just hate the fact that in my experience they have fairly little clue beyond their scripts and their basic 'This is what Britain is like' training.

I particularly hate the increasing number of cold calling ones. I now take great delight in taking the piss out of 'Steve' or 'Mark' or whomever. I tell them I earn more in a day than they do in a fortnight, I tell them how I think Musharraf is a great man and Kashmir should remain forever Pakistani. When they ring me at work, if I have the time, I attempt to sell them some brake discs, or plugs or whatever has caught my eye.

I had to deal with an Indian call centre when sorting out my car insurance, I can just about handle that, as I suppose the savings they make mean the costs of my insurance was lower, but cold callers receive no sympathy whatsoever, ***** the lot of 'em.

 

[~Yuckfou~]

Oops sorry guys. Seem to have been a little pissed when I wrote that rant . I wasn't having a go at you yuckers

/puts bucky down and steps away from the bottle.

I slept secure in the knowledge I was right

lube up biatch

 

[leggy]

With regard to Indian call centres, I am fully aware that they aren't necessarily 'taking all our jobs' etc. I just hate the fact that in my experience they have fairly little clue beyond their scripts and their basic 'This is what Britain is like' training.

I particularly hate the increasing number of cold calling ones. I now take great delight in taking the piss out of 'Steve' or 'Mark' or whomever. I tell them I earn more in a day than they do in a fortnight, I tell them how I think Musharraf is a great man and Kashmir should remain forever Pakistani. When they ring me at work, if I have the time, I attempt to sell them some brake discs, or plugs or whatever has caught my eye.

I had to deal with an Indian call centre when sorting out my car insurance, I can just about handle that, as I suppose the savings they make mean the costs of my insurance was lower, but cold callers receive no sympathy whatsoever, ***** the lot of 'em.

Why? I don't understand that attitude? They are only trying to do the job that has been given to them and do it well. They probably all have mouths to feed too.

Is it not easier, just to be polite, and say "Sorry I'm not interested" and hang up?

 

[nath]

I don't know if anyone knows me well enough here to know how polite I normally am (to real people, at least ). The point being - I share your sentiments leggy. They're just trying to make a living. However, when you receive NON stop calls from these fucking indian call centres* offering to save money on this, that and the other - it's hard to be quite so rational. Unfortuantely they fall out of the jurisdiction of the telephone preference service so you've got no way of blocking them. One week I received about 4 calls in the space of 1 hour each day.

I've not got to the point of being abusive, I doubt I will. Whenever I see a call from "Out of Area" I just pick up and hang up, there's nothing else I can do. It's fucking infuriating though.



* edit: that sounded a tad racist - the focus was on the call centres that happen to be in india, were they in luton I'd not be any less bile filled.

2nd edit: however if they were in luton, they'd fall under the jurisdiction of the TPS and as such could be avoided.

 

[Will]

I'm not sure about that, nath. They are selling products that will be provided in the UK, so the TPS may have some leverage. Someone would have to call them to ask though.