Sunday, June 15, 2008

Call Center's

Hello Everyone,
Over the last month I've been doing my best to keep the TV running in this house, the bane of this experience has been the infamous call center. I just got finished with one of these calls so I'm writing this under the influence of frustration.
Today's call was pretty much the same as all the others, 25 minutes of someone telling me how valuable a customer I am followed by some of the most insipid Muzak anyone has ever had the displeasure of creating. Today's exciting feature I'm sure was one of the Brandenburg Concerto's, hummed by the chipmunks and played at half speed. A truly overwhelming experience. Next came Lin, my personal representative for today, who wanted to ensure my experience was a very happy one. Everyone knows these poor saps who have this unfortunate job are all stuck in some horrid sweat box in India, cause Ma Bell doesn't feel that customer service is worth minimum wage in Canada, however I digress. Lin's English is better than my Punjabi, however that being said it wasn't much better, actually it was the annunciation that made for problems. I really was just trusting in the force when it came to figuring out what she wanted me to do, luckily I had been through this several times in the last month and I knew what I wanted and what she was going to ask before she gave it to me. However I was amused when during the check switch test, she started trying to up sell me. I had no idea what she was saying and I was just hoping for the test to speed up, eventually I heard "would you like to order this?".... Ha, that I understood, my immediate response was "well, what exactly is it?". She paused, this wasn't scripted... she didn't know how to describe this service to me, she fumbled, she paused, she hesitated "it a channel you watch with your wife showing all sorts of positions you can try" she stumbled. I almost choked on my laughter... anyways, I'm just waiting for the system reset to come down but I will leave you with this thought. When the banks set up call centers in Bangladesh, manned by lawyers and politicians, you better duck, cause I'm coming out shooting.
Take Care
CG

1 comment:

Chris said...

Beautiful country. Suggest you put your phone numbers on the Do Not Call registry. Your clearly under stress.