Phone Rage

[Fr0dders]

That guy from First direct:
"it's not advertising, we are just telling customers about what products we are offering"

Yeh mate, it is advertising, especially if you give staff performance targets.

he doesnt really think that. He's been specially picked out of all the teamleaders in that place to go on camera. He's got a very fun style of management, and you can bet he only gets them into the sales because thats his job, not because he really beleives it.

I've had bosses like this before, they play the game they're paid to play. But they dont geniunely believe it and just toe the line.

 

[Biohazard]

^ MrLoL. there were a couple of centrica employee's watching it at my bit saying the same as you.

 

[Stellios]

Am I evil if I actually act interested on the phone for 15 minutes and drag the call out to make people think they have a sale then randomly hang up?

 

[Biohazard]

no just sad

 

[Fr0dders]

^ MrLoL. there were a couple of centrica employee's watching it at my bit saying the same as you.

haha. Like i said, ive worked in call centres for years, and the british gas system is the most hatefull thing ive ever come across. Its no wonder i only lasted a couple of weeks at that place.

For somebody on the outside, its difficult to describe without you seeing the system to see what we mean. The best of describing it, would be as though everything was separate. Nothing was unified so you went looking all over the place for stuff

You have a mental image of waht your account looks like, like lots of bank statements all one after the other with everything on one piece of paper, in order, in the same place, correctly datestamped to see.

its about as far from that as you could get.

Am I evil if I actually act interested on the phone for 15 minutes and drag the call out to make people think they have a sale then randomly hang up?

thats one of the reasons i never worked in a call centre that involved selling, its awkward and embarassing and you have to be prepared to be pushy, and have people dislike you and mess you about. Im not so i just stuck to service and problem solving rather than selling.

 

[Sonea Fifer]

^ MrLoL. there were a couple of centrica employee's watching it at my bit saying the same as you.

Are they still base in Granton?

Am I evil if I actually act interested on the phone for 15 minutes and drag the call out to make people think they have a sale then randomly hang up?

Hell no - thats half the fun

To be fair thats probably half the problem as well - you'll probably find the majority of callcentre employees in this country are only doing it as a stop gap or for beer money while at uni/college, the job itself is still seen to be demeaning by many.

Until that attitude is changed and people start taking the job as a serious occupation then its not going to get any better imo

 

[Stellios]

no just sad

Just bored

 

[Biohazard]

cebol and sap are what they kept chirping on about, system wise. although they might not be spelt right, bloody women had no idea.

and moaned that its rubbish, with different parts being on different systems for billing/readings etc

 

[Biohazard]

Are they still base in Granton?

Looking over to yer mud hut aye!

 

[Sonea Fifer]

Looking over to yer mud hut aye!

Oi Oi - I've got a nice house here in Fife I'll have you know

 

[Fr0dders]

Are they still base in Granton?

british gas used to subcontract all sorts out. I was working for one of these outsourced call centres in leicester when working for them. We were trained on the british gas system ( oh so briefly, only a couple of days) and then put on the phones for whatever task they needed us to do. After i left there that company subsequently lost the contract as they consolidated everything so they spent less money outsourcing stuff

But theres a centrica call centre in leeds as well. Our company just took a load of the centrica trainers on as trainers for our new MOD contract. And they were in agreement as to how horrid the system was.

 

[Sonea Fifer]

cebol and sap are what they kept chirping on about, system wise.

Think its spelt/pronounced Siebel - but they're right it's an absolute nightmare to work with !

british gas used to subcontract all sorts out. I was working for one of these outsourced call centres in leicester when working for them. We were trained on the british gas system ( oh so briefly, only a couple of days) and then put on the phones for whatever task they needed us to do.

A couple of days training - thats all they gave you before allowing you to speak to customers?

Our company just took a load of the centrica trainers on as trainers for our new MOD contract. And they were in agreement as to how horrid the system was.

That says a lot for the training these agents receive when the trainers themselves are in agreement at how poor their system is - is this being reviewed / updated?
Probably not as its much easier and cheaper to simply outsource to foreign lands where you can train monkeys to read off a script and they'll be grateful for the job

 

[Fr0dders]

That says a lot for the training these agents receive when the trainers themselves are in agreement at how poor their system is - is this being reviewed / updated?

no idea, i havent used the system in years, but the trainers that left centrica said it was still as horrid as i remember it.

 

[ots3go]

You say that, but we had a similar system at work. Ok it wasn't signs, but it did involve muting the call and shouting for your TL to come over

Another old PCSC chap hey... when were you in that 21st century coal mine?

 

[WillyNelson]

cebol and sap are what they kept chirping on about, system wise. although they might not be spelt right, bloody women had no idea.

and moaned that its rubbish, with different parts being on different systems for billing/readings etc

Think its spelt/pronounced Siebel - but they're right it's an absolute nightmare to work with !

So is SAP. Most apalling GUI I've ever had to work with.

 

[Deiwos]

Another old PCSC chap hey... when were you in that 21st century coal mine?

Did 9 months between november 2006 and July 2007. I still can't get over how badly that place was run!

 

[BrightonBelle]

I lasted the weeks training at NTHell Debit Review and got some interesting calls. Couldn't do it myself - its bad enough getting sales calls at work.

Some people don't understand that people are not going to look for our company in a book. They are going to use a search engine where we rank on the first page organically.

Some people just can't take no for an answer.

I managed to get paid from NTHell and the agency I went through though - so all good there!

BB x

 

[mejinks]

Reading this has brought flashbacks of working in a Manpower callcentre. We had to put our hand up to ask permission to go to the toilet and you weren't allowed more than 6 minutes of toilet time a day. When there was a serious shortage of staff, breaks and lunches were not allowed, cables ran everywhere and there were floor tiles missing and the two delighful cowbags for representitives were quoted as saying "we could replace you all tomorrow"

At one point for a few months, we would all be told to turn up at 8am to be given our shifts for the day, which could start at 1 pm and last till 9. You were then expected to sit around all day waiting, but couldn't go home because they might need you to cover (without being paid for it) during the busy periods during the day.

Lateness was not tolerated. If you were even a minute late, you were docked 15 minutes of pay, which is fair enough, but you weren't allowed to sit around for 14 minutes, you had to still work for free for the time you weren't getting paid.

Holidays were frowned upon. I once has the audacity to bookk a two week holiday with my family, and right up til the last night, I was being pressured to cancel and work overtime for them. On the day I was leaving to go to France, I got a call asking me to go into the office very quickly to sort things out, I remember my mum going ballistic. Needless to say I was made to feel very uncomfortable on my return.

The final straw came when BT paid Manpower an extra pound an hour for the slaves, only for Manpower to pass on what equated to just over a pound a week pay rise (despite the fact that at the time it was still below minimum wage, but the minimum wage laws hadn't come into effect then)

BT employees who worked over the Christmas eve, Christmas day and New Years eve/day got a 400 pound bonus, Manpower employees got a disposable camera and a pen set. There wasn't even extra pay, you were expected to work it.

Call centres are all the same. I think the other reason for sending them abroad is so they can get away with the illegalities they used to perpetrate in this country with the foreign staff because they are all grateful for the employment.

If you think all the above is exageration, I would go as far as to stand up in court and go on record, as would a good few others who had the same treatment.

I need to go back to therapy now

 

[Sonea Fifer]

I wouldn't say your above post was an exageration - though am assuming your going back a few years if there's no minimum wage laws in force?

It's all a bit extreme to say the least - putting your hand up to go to the toilet? Errrrr we're all adults here !

I would hope there's no way in this day and age any company in Britain would get away with expecting staff to sit around waiting and not get paid for it - as for holidays, they're your entitlement ! There's still a lot to be said for having a union on your side though granted if your employed by an agency you have to be more careful that your not being walked over.

Am sure there's also a good reason the phrase "21st century sweatshop" was hung on the door of callcentres in general

 

[Fr0dders]

If you think all the above is exageration, I would go as far as to stand up in court and go on record, as would a good few others who had the same treatment.

I need to go back to therapy now

i dare say some of the illegal stuff has stopped now, docking pay but forcing you to work, making you stay on the premises without pay etc..

but the rest is still happenning in call centres and not just there. I was telling somebody at work here the reason why they all held up those "help" signs at the powergen call centre. Because they're not allowed to get up and walk around unless its allocated break time.

Heck i know one certain highstreet retailer who issues its callcentre staff toilet keys. If one person has the key, you cant go to the toilet untill they get back. One per team, and your timed. No more than 6 minutes of toilet time per day, with breaks, arrival time etc.. timed to the second and even 1 minute late being classed as a late notice.

Outsourced callcentres (like manpower) have allways treated their employees badly and taken a cut off the profits. They still do as well. They've got to pay their staff wages, their costs, and then make a profit on top. As a result outsourcing costs people like BT and powergen a fortune, which is why British Gas stopped outsourcing because somebody else was making a profit out of them.

Call centres are hatefull places.