Working in a Call Center

I got called all the names under the sun.

Within 2 weeks of being on the phones, an old woman said to me 'You're a ****ing piece of ****, you are.'

Why? Because she didn't recieve her cigarettes.

And what superb company was I happy to take this abuse for?

Sainsburys Home ****ing Deliveries.


I was good on the phones, in fact, the best on the floor in my last month there going by the records. It was the way the company was run, the treatment you recieved, the lack of support, the stress, the idiotic staff and the pure **** factor that made me chuck it in.

I was coming home every day feeling like I had just been laid into and waking up in the morning feeling physically sick at the thought of another day. Combined with a near total lack of appetite and inability to get decent sleep, my doctor advised I try to get sick leave. Manager said he couldn't do it so I told him 'Fine, stick it, I'll not be back' and immediately felt a huuuuge weight off my shoulders.
 
I worked in a lloyds tsb call centre for 3 and half months and hated it. Training was good, because I was getting paid to not do much at all. But I started last year just when the **** hit the fan. But aside from that, even though I wasn't cold calling, and it was purely inbound, I HAD to put up with so much abuse off people. Such a hard job. Just talking to people all day long. a lot of people that work in these places(and stick at it) are 'chatty' people by nature. But there is obviously exceptions to the rule. Or the type of person who doesn't sit in work wishing they were out riding, with there mates and wondering what on earth the person your speaking to doesn't understand about a direct debit.
 
Oh, and the main reason why I quit is because essentially my job was to sell loans, credit cards, home insurance etc etc. And I wasn't having none of it.
 
so from my experiance and others, working in a call centre cause's:
*Lack of sleep
*bad lower backs
*rsi mainly wrists
*bad eyes
*low self estem
*deprestion
*weight gain
*sarcasm

if ive missed any add them on

so if you think £7 ph is worth the hazzle do it if not dont


we all know thats what lloyds tsb do none stop are you intressted in buying this insuracne with this or a loan for a new car!! gets fing annoying when ur just checking that a direct debit has gone out

By the way did you work at lloyds tsb in pencoed or newport?
 
I did work in a really good call centre back in Belfast. Answered about four calls a night and got paid a good amount too! Very very easy job!
 
I worked in the one in pencoed.

Theres no harm in trying it out the job for a couple of weeks anyway is there? (essentially what I done, but I stayed for a couple of months) Your job will no doubt be different to the one I had though if your selling phone insurance all the time.

I've spoke to other people who work in call centres and they are all different. One huy I know works in a call centre but for a non high street bank. His training lasted months, and he recieves about 10 calls a day. Insane!!
 
borgia said:
I've spoke to other people who work in call centres and they are all different. One huy I know works in a call centre but for a non high street bank. His training lasted months, and he recieves about 10 calls a day. Insane!!
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Thats what my old bank job was like. I loved it!
 
Another thing I find fun about supervising in here is that I get to listen to all the drunkards that don't know where they are... and trying to get an address out of them is literally like trying to draw blood from a stone :D
 
Its Carp!!!

I havent been on inbound/outbound calling since 8 days after i started in one and i hate it, All i say is thank god i dont speak to customers tho
 
I worked in an inbound credit card call centre. If you don't mind the hassle from customers or the mind numbing working atmosphere (which is what I experienced) then go ahead. That said I did meet some cracking people there.
 
$loth said:
I worked in an inbound credit card call centre. If you don't mind the hassle from customers or the mind numbing working atmosphere (which is what I experienced) then go ahead. That said I did meet some cracking people there.
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Exactly the same here.

ou will meet some right crackers tho. Whilst working for setanta i met a physics teacher, a highschool teacher, A doctor of medieval History, and a pilot, that sadly passed away
 
chumpit said:
so from my experiance and others, working in a call centre cause's:
*Lack of sleep
*bad lower backs
*rsi mainly wrists
*bad eyes
*low self estem
*deprestion
*weight gain
*sarcasm
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I can't claim any of them apart from the bad eyes and sarcasm, both of which I had before working in a call centre. Admittedly I did only work in one part time for about a year but it was easy money on an inbound campaign, all I had to do was stave off boredom and not start pointing out to people exactly how easy it is to read numbers off a bank card after you've been told 18 times while you were on hold that you needed it.

It did leave me with the bad habit of forgetting to introduce myself though as quite regularly you'd be sat down in the midst of people you didn't know but without the time for ordinary introductions you just start chatting and then about two hours later realise that you don't know anyones name.
 
West said:
I work at the moment as a Supervisor in the funnest call centre of them all.. The West Mids Ambulance 999 Control Room (So not really a call centre per say) and it's hillarious.

When it's dead like this on a night like this we throw things at each other and eats sweets/Crisps all night.
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Wow, i'm rolling on the floor laughing histerically, that is some seriously funny ****.
 
If you are unemployed then a call centre is a great way to grind out the money to live while you look for the job you really want.
 
Rroff said:
Wasn't one run by fujistu was it?
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No, it was an inbound call centre run by Telewest at Cablephone House in Small Heath. Sales support.

I was interviewed for a job in one once with telewest, offered it there and then on the spot when I past the technical tests with 100%. But after a look at their working practises, rota and how it was run I wouldn't touch it with a barge pole, even after they offered to top it up with another 5K on top of the 12.5K they were offering.

EDIT: Tho was interviewed by a couple of real hotties and there was plenty of eye candy doing time there... if it wasn't for the horrid shift pattern I could prolly have tuffed out the rest for that :P
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The shift pattern was annoying but bearable. It was the sheer grinding monotony of the work, the endless, pointless micromanagement and the wanton abuse I received from the other end of the phone that did my head in.

I prefer a job in which my brain is required.
 
skippi90 said:
I was good on the phones, in fact, the best on the floor in my last month there going by the records.
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I won an award for employee of the month. Not long afterwards, it dawned on me that this was the only recognition I'd get, so my motivation went out the window and it simply became a way to put food on the table.

It was the way the company was run, the treatment you recieved, the lack of support, the stress, the idiotic staff and the pure **** factor that made me chuck it in.

I was coming home every day feeling like I had just been laid into and waking up in the morning feeling physically sick at the thought of another day. Combined with a near total lack of appetite and inability to get decent sleep, my doctor advised I try to get sick leave. Manager said he couldn't do it so I told him 'Fine, stick it, I'll not be back' and immediately felt a huuuuge weight off my shoulders.
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That's exactly what I went through and exactly how I felt when I told them I was resigning. Best feeling in the world. :D
 
I worked in the technical call centre for Sky for 1.5 years, after such a long period of telling people to turn their boxes off and on and to press the AV/Input buttons on their remote controls I lost a piece of my soul. The abuse received wasn't great either, especially if it was on the last call of the shift.
 
agw_01 said:
Unless you're on tech support and have to speak to idio... sorry, customers.
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Couldn't agree more with this statement. I spent some time working for a well known isp providing technical support in their call centre. As many have said "a job is a job in this day and age" but at what cost?

There's nothing worse than getting up every day to go to a job you absolutley hate doing, and call centre work is completely soul destroying. Coupled with the fact the company I worked for seemed to have no interest in resolving customer issues their main focus being call stats.

I've found everything is very statiscally driven in this environment, this is all very well if you enjoy pressure and hassle and probably explains why the majority of call centre operators I worked beside were students simply topping up their grants with some easy money sitting on the phone. Dealing with in coming calls you'd be surprised with the idiots you'd have to deal with, and if you're company like's to outsource and you're dealing with internal transfers from abroad then your pretty much screwed as they're about as much use a fart in a spacesuit!

Granted my opinion maybe very biased as I'm relying on my own personal experiences and there's probably others out there who will disagree and would enjoy that type of work however the OP was asking for opinions and thats mine for what it's worth ;)
 
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