I NEED 2 SPEAK 2 a HUMAN BEING.....PLEASE!!!

[warhawk]

hello fellow chrome domes.....just wondering if  u  feel the same.  don't  ya hate when u call customer service or any business establishment & u hear this:  press 1 for english, press 2 for spanish  or press 1 for hours, press 2 for department, press 3 for appointment.    .  DANG!!! .....i need 2 speak 2 a human being...NOW!!!

anyways....how 'bout u?  do u feel the same?  i know i'm not the only one.  what's your story?

WARHAWK

[-Doug-]

I totally agree. I can't stand that!!

Usually, I just press '0' or don't press anything at all and let it get kicked over to Customer Service by default.

AND.....even if you do press 1 for English, the person you end up talking to does not have a good handle on the English language (IMO).

[Marz]

I have faced this many times. I always hit 0 (or whatever) to talk to a representative.

I have talked to guys with very thick accents that say "Hello, this is Jeff. How may I help you?"

I literally say "Your name is Jeff, really? Thats the name you were born with?"

Many times I have gotten the guys to tell me where they are and that they are told to use an American name to make the customer feel more comfortable. Some are really kinda cool if you break the ice and get them to smile. You can get a lot more info a lot faster this way.

"Jeff, when you start our conversation with a lie, that doesn't make me feel comfortable at all. Can you please tell your manager that I said that or put him on the phone so I can tell him".

There are many ways to have some fun with this situation and lighten up a dreary call center workers day as well.

[andrew]

"Jeff, when you start our conversation with a lie, that doesn't make me feel comfortable at all. Can you please tell your manager that I said that or put him on the phone so I can tell him".

In general, I think most of the offshore customer service sucks.  I've actually stopped using the service of certain companies due to this, and embraced their competitor that does not.  I hate to generalize, and it's nothing personal against the folks offering the service, but I've had many situations where I've needed immediate help (technical assistance, credit card, etc...) and have been given the run-around from someone reading from a script.

I'm willing to deal with a few IVR menus (1 for technical support, 2 for ...) if I end up with a competent person handling the call.

[nomad]

I agree completely about speaking to a person, but I had one instance that I talked to a person that allways makes me laugh. I bought some thing for my computor and it wasn't working right, so I called the help line. When I got some one on the line, In the deepest indian accent she said "hello my names is Sara Johnson how may I help you".
I had to laugh that name and that accent did not match at all and I told her so. I sald to her "no its not" and laughed some more then hung up the phone.

[Timmay]

Yeah I have done that before too.  I was like come on your name really is Clint.  Im come on...you have an accent taht isnt from around here. He was finally ok my name is Jesus.  And be careful what you ask for because I think before the conversation was over with I found out more things about him then I ever wanted to know.

[schro]

Living out here in CA, I've been exposed to a lot of different accents, so those don't both me. What I don't like is the guess work with choosing which option to get your question answered. And don't get me started on the voice activiated help lines....those are the worst. I'd like to say something like, "Look you piece of s**t f**kin' stupid a**, I just help with __________. Can you at least do that?" However, I'm afraid the PC police will lock me up for violating the civil rights of someone.

[Tyler]

With the outsourcing of customer service to other countries like India, it is pretty funny to hear them give themselves an American name.  But one thing to remember is that if they gave you their real name, you probably wouldn't be able to pronounce it or understand it.  So, at least they are giving you a name that you can understand and pronounce.

As for the topic, I also get frustrated with all of the menu items that you have to push to get to a person.  I'm all for using technology when it's convenient for me, but give me the ability to talk to a person when I want to talk to one.  The other thing I hate is when I get false information from the person and when I call them on it they deny that they are just guessing at what they are supposed to tell me. 

[marshd1000]

What I can't stand is when you get a company that does NOT let you press "0" to get a human.  Then you get that message that says "Invalid entry".  It makes me want to reach my hand through the receiver and physically damage their message computer!  Whew!  I needed to get that off my chest!

[Jdogs Better Half]

I will prob stand alone here but I don't agree, I work for a telecommunication company and as much as it is annoying to press 1 for customer service, 2 for sales etc, they have it for a reason - if there are high call volumes - which almost every company has do you really want to wait in an even longer call queue's to then be transferred to another department and wait again. Its the fastest easiest way to direct call volumes.  If you are calling up about paying your bill do you really want to wait in the same call queue's as customer service, sales, tech support - you would be waiting forever, taking 1 second to press 1 for customer service cuts wait times down big time.

We get pissed off customers waiting in customer service so they jump to sales cos of a shorter wait time only to be transferred back to customer service, there you are waiting again.

I think its more annoying just to be waiting for service cos business's are understaffed then to wait to speak to a human!

By the way we have 6 + Indian people working in our call center which is in Sydney, 3 are our highest tech support op's and we get a$$holes calling up saying I don't want to speak to you puck puck ding sing Indian put me onto an Australian, or what has your company done now, moved it off shore??? Don't always assume they cos they have an accent that the company is off shore, some countries have a very diverse mix of races.

I manage the complaints department, so I cop it even worse, I love it when I get told to F**K off by customers......and I kindly reply now I am terminating this call and I get to press my button. 

I'm done ranting now:D

[SLYinKC]

Great topic, Warhawk.  This is one of my greates pet peaves.  And as someone else has already said, the worst are the ones that don't give you the option to speak to a person.  Sometimes I just stand there pressing zero over and over hoping to  the the call system to kick me over to a live person.  Only the companies that are poor in the customer service area fall into this category and it drives me nuts.

[JDog]

Coming from someone who works in a call centre, I can assure you that those options are there for a reason.

If every single person just pressed 0 to speak to a human being than there would be no real use to have those specific areas in place would there.

The Call Centres have specific departments that deal with SPECIFIC problems..If your service is not working WHY DO YOU CALL THE SALES DEPARTMENT

If you want to pay a bill, WHY CALL THE TECHNICAL SUPPORT DEPARTMENT

You wouldnt buy a car and drive it back to the salesroom floor if you had mechanical problems would you? That is why the have a Service department, to service the vehicle.

And another tip to anyone calling a Customer Support Centre,

Swearing and screaming at the represenative is a sure fire way to have them NOT GIVE A sh*t ABOUT HELPING YOU.
These people are human beings too and are just trying to do their job.

[nomad]

The big with these systems is they don't work worth a ......  so most of the time you end up going to a person anyway and you've just spent an hour for nothing. Schro I completely agree about the voice activated deals.

[Stu]

I try to be as patient as possible with making these calls.  I don't mind outsourcing customer service too much, but I do mind when the people they hire are not competent enough to speak or understand English very well, or as someone already said, are obviously going by a script, making me feel like they really aren't listening to me but only guessing as to what part of the script they should choose to read.  My hats are off to anyone who works in a call center; you have a very difficult job, and I try to treat you decently.  The thing that will really set me off, and I'm sure the day is coming, is when I hear, 'Press 1 for Spanish, and 2 for English.'  Please don't persecute me for that last comment.

[PBurke]

the ones that get me are when my phone rings while i am eating dinner on sunday evening and when i answer, i hear "PLEASE HOLD FOR AN IMPORTANT MESSAGE." yeah right, like that is gonna happen.