r/callcentres

I've had this happen a lot in the past 4 years. I'll have a caller who needs a payment plan or a refund and for whatever reason they're not eligible. Then they start saying "you sound like you got money so you don't know what it's like working paycheck to paycheck" or they say I sound "comfortable" like dude I work in a call center. They try to make me feel ashamed or something it's weird

Recently my go to when people do the whole I'm out of patience or my patience is running thin or I'm mad or I'm upset. I like to remind them that they're adults who control their emotions.

I'll tell them: "You can control that or that's your choice"

Haven't got in trouble yet. Wonder what QA will think when it does happen

How many times can this inbred fucker say hello in a 10 second span?! Calls in, says “hello?” Before I even say my greeting. Asks a dumb ass question and doesn’t even give me time to respond before throwing in another “hello?” I say “hi!” He asks why we called. We didn’t. LIKE GIVE PEOPLE TIME TO THINK ABOUT WHAT THEYRE GONNA SAY OR JUST TIME IN GENERAL TO RESPOND!!!! God I think saying “hello” is one of my biggest peeves. I’m trying not to lose my shit and sometimes taking a second to collect my thoughts and then respond helps, but you being an impatient mother fucker…. Omfg

It initially started off as a normal call, but all of a sudden, it pivoted to some nonsense about Covid, the FBI, and being watched. Calls like this are usually weird because they started legitimately and pivoted to nonsense, and you pretty much know this will not be a serious customer, but QA will hound you for not saying some bullshit affirming phrase and putting the customer back in focus. I understand QA members are doing their job, but a lot of the so-called resources only work in theory.

He mentioned some other weird stuff that is too disgusting to go into. The call surprisingly ended peacefully, and he thanked me for speaking with him. It's amusing how he was more polite than the regular customer.

At the point in the call when I realised what the deal was, I sort of smirked and just closed the intake form. I tried bringing him back in focus, but he kept pulling away. Best conversation I've had all day, I will never meet him but wish him all the best.

I also had this other fellow who got pissed at something I never said. I told the caller, "I can't do x because I'm not in the billing department. If you want to do x, y, or z, you can call back in a few minutes, or I can have a billing member call you back," and she says, "I never said I want to get y done," and I'm close to saying, "Ma'am, you clicked the wrong extension on purpose. I'm not saying you want to get Y done, I'm saying for future reference, Y and Z and anything money/payment related are outside of the scope of my duties, and for future reference, maybe you shouldn't be gaming the IVR in the hopes of getting literally anyone to respond to your tantrums.

I am also starting to have a sneaky suspicion callers queue up on different extensions to line-jump. Our department gets most of these "wrong" extension dialed calls since we're sort of like a jack of all trades department and we have the shortest AHTs, so callers have figured that we have way less wait times. They'll reach us and ask to be transferred to billing and we tell them to just call the billing extension directly because there's nothing we can do. I can't jump the queue for you lol. They say it so entitled lol:

Caller: Transfer me to extension 4

Me: You can do that yourself (I say this professionally of course)

Caller: You mean you can't transfer me to billing?

Me: It's alright, I'll help you out (Immediately transfers them and places them last in queue haha)

I love when the pseudo-intellectual ones do it, and I sarcastically say, "Just because we all work here doesn't mean we do the same thing. A member of a group doesn't necessarily have to share the exact same traits with all other members. I understand it's inherent in a group that they all have commonality, but we do different things." Logic 101.

Is it a real thing that once you're in the CC the company has little to no motivation to move you out? Even what would be lateral or downgrade in pay jobs seem to be hard for myself or my colleagues to obtain. Anyone else experience this?

How do you handle it when a customer threatens to harm themselves? Got my first one today.

Edit: I mean, emotionally, how do you cope, what do you do to cope? I was quite affected by it, I obviously did reach out to my manager.

The most unethical life hack I ever heard in call centers is calling the customer from a second phone to get them to hang up on you and end the call when you can't hang up

Get an anonymous email like tutamail

Create a TextNow phone number with that email. (It's a phone app)

When you can't hang up and want to get off the phone with them they'll usually end the call or at least break their focus on you.

Place a call to the customer from your ghost number. Most people especially if they are escalated or have been given a resolution and won't hang up will take the other call and let you go.

MAKE SURE TO PUT PHONE ON MUTE!

It's good for giving them a reason to end the call.

Customer made a check deposit and wants it NOW. Asked me to “hit a button” to release it. I can see in notes he called yesterday and we already told him when it will be available.

These idiotic customer don’t take the time to think. Why would a bank with millions of customers give call center employees the ability to “press a button” and have funds available immediately. There is so much fraud in the world why would they do that?? And in what world do you deposit a check and get the funds right away.

I am so sick of the rude + entitled customers. Today I got a call and the first thing this mfer said was that he needed an american agent. I am not American but I do live in the US. So I said that I would be able to help, and then this fucker asked where I am from. I said my state. He said that he needed to know my city and I said that I would not be giving that information, I repeated that I would be able to assist and that I was from X state. Then this fucker said, that’s a state not a city.

I was over it and I just transferred him because I could not deal with him anymore, I don’t really care at this point. I am relatively new to this job and had over 5,000 calls so far and no one has asked me this before. I was honestly insulted.

The funniest part was that this fucker had a very foreign name. I am so sick of it all.

What do you think is the worst aspect of working in a call center or working remotely? I work from home for a massive hospital group.

For me the absolute worst thing that I hate is the utter lack of support when something comes up that I need assistance with. It takes FOREVER for anyone to respond, if they actually ever do respond.

Hello!

Im in my training stage with a call center. I'm planing to leave while I'm still a month with them since I finally got accepted in my dream job. I check the handbook and it said that I must submit my resignation 2 weeks until my last date. Does the 2 weeks rule apply for us who is still in training? It's my first time resigning with this reason, do they question you on when you applied and where you'll be transferring? I wish not give any answer about my new job.

I was about to clock in and I saw my stats. Our team leads post our stats with our names for the whole team to see and I'm not performing well due to severe anxiety and depression. I'm going to a temp agency in the morning to see if I can find work elsewhere. This job is too much.

Been in customer service for almost a decade, iv dealt with varying degrees of insanity when it comes to customers so I’m pretty unphased by a lot.

But the one thing that send me over the edge is:
“What does it show on your screen” “what does it show when you search ___”

I’m not referring to when a customer is just trying to explain something on their account and wants me on the same page. It’s when someone assumes that I’m flat out stupid and wants to do my job for me. Or assumes that I’m gatekeeping some information that magically exists. It’s always said with a tone of entitlement and superiority too.

It leaves me feeling very annoyed. Nonetheless, what’s the customer service friendly way of saying: “Sit down, shut up, youre being entitled, let me help you!” In response to when customers say “you’re stupid, let me look at your screen over the phone”

I’m finally quitting my remote call center job that’s been going on about 3 years now. I’ve been mentally and emotionally drained for months, felt deeply depressed at the worst points, and it’s gotten to where every morning, I wake up filled with immediate and intense dread to get up. No more of this!!!!!!!! I have another part time remote job that I’ve had for a couple of months, the pay is super low but I’ll manage financially. I’ve decided tomorrow will be my last day. How do I give a same day notice without just seeming like an asshole? Yes, the place doesn’t really deserve a notice considering I could barely pee on the clock without getting an attendance point marked. Yes I’m serious. But really…what’s the best way to go about this? Also, they fired my mother a few months back (whom I had referred) for absolutely NOTHING, and then proceeded to immediately revoke her access to every single system within a couple of minutes, so she has yet to be able to even return any of her equipment after trying to contact them repeatedly. I believe they took the cost of her equipment out of her last paycheck to make up for it. How do I go about ensuring that they get their equipment back, before they have a chance to block me from all forms of contact?

What are your worst or most hilarious helicopter parent stories? I’m talking about the ones who call on behalf of their adult children who live without the need for special assistance or guardianship.

I work in healthcare and am constantly being screamed at by moms of 20 somethings who don’t want to fill out their own forms or complete onboarding. Mommy calls and screams at support for something that cannot be changed. We cannot bypass verifying identity and HIPAA authentication because your grown ass child is upset and won’t speak to us.

A mom I spoke to recently said I was causing emotional distress by forcing her adult child to speak to me about her own refill. When the adult child got on the phone, the mom screamed at me “See! She doesn’t want to talk to you.” But we never even got started. 🫣💀

I’ve been seeing several posts on this community about deep loathing of the job, becoming cynical, doing things to intentionally get fired, etc. From someone who has worked in the call center environment for about 2 years, I empathize. So today in this moment, how are you feeling?

Sending healing to all those suffering working in the call centers.

I was thinking this today there are certain areas in the country where I think the customers are ruder/more demanding and friendlier in others.
I mean, of course people can be rude from anywhere and they are but just a trend I have noticed recently is that certain areas have more rude people.
Have you noticed this or similar?

I've worked on/off in call centres for years and years. This is the first place I've worked at where they actively name and shame you if you're underperforming to their standards. You get placed in a "team" and the team lead that I'm with has no problems daily posting every team member's stats and if she thinks you're not doing well after three calls, she'll post your stats AND tag you in the post, telling you to reach out for coaching.

Unreal. Demoralizing. Cruel.

For anyone who manages or supervises a call center/customer service team, what part of running the operation gives you the biggest headache?

Could be staffing, scheduling, training, turnover, quality, repetitive/manual work, performance management, technology, or something completely different.

What problem takes up more of your time than you think it should? And how are you handling it currently?

Just curious to hear what managers are actually dealing with day to day.