Nova Scotia power

I can understand people being upset about the lack of power, but they should realise who they are talking to on the phones. How many people out there don’t know anyone who has worked in a call center? Everyone at this point should realise that the phones of any major company are answered by people like your own kids who don’t have any control over the situation.

the end; maybe I didn’t explain well enough. I get that its not about materialistic things. I understand and share the concerns about NSP’s service and rates. I was around for the power outages too, working in IT I was kept running dealing with power issues myself. I totally agree with you. ( we finished our turkey on the BBQ ) My point was That people seem to think its soo much worse, because its Christmas. Regardless of NSp’s track record, Power can fail anywhere at any time . Because its a holiday and someone has plans doesn’t give them the right to be rude to the people on the phones at NSP. As I said before, maybe the people making the decisions that actually affect the customers should have a turn on the phones. They may be the ones deserving the crap.

oh yeah, my BBQ is not big enough for the turkey…I am thinking I need bigger BBQ or a smaller turkey?

Having worked at a call centre before, this is normal sadly. To Scott’s point, yes, this is what you sign up for when you take the job. Given that, Mole Rat is right as well. The little guy who answers the phone should not have to sit there and take your shit because you don’t have power to go onto the computer and look at porn all night, or watch TV, or whatever. It’s called courtesy. Please realize that the little guy does not have the power (heh that’s a pun) nor the responsibility to make the lights go back on.

ElvisQ – A good lot of us heat our homes with electricity. A good lot of people travel over the holidays to be with family. This increases demand on all area resources including power. Get it now?Scott is speaking some sense now. A call center rep complaining about pissed off customers is like a nurse complaining that she just got puked on. That’s the job. If you don’t like your job get a different one. If you don’t like working in a call centre, get an education otherwise you’re doomed to the shit job forever and ever. They don’t call it “shit work” for nothing.MoleRat – It’s just that attitude that infuriates people… “not my job” It’s the same attitude adopted by large bureaucracies that take 6 months to send a memo. You know which way the shit flow through such systems, right?Nobody likes to pay for a service, count on that service and then get fucked over at the last minute when you need that service just to experience an unjustified increase in price for the same shoddy service all the while stock markets are crashing everywhere. With the price of gas dropping shouldn’t the cost of electricity also be dropping especially with all “efforts” NSP has made to reduce their own green footprint?I find it deplorable this bitch was allowed to post. We’ve all been slapped on the wrist for mentioning businesses and names. Here we are getting punched in the face by one of their employees. I’d really like to know if this bitch was posted from a computer on the NSP network by an employee getting paid for the time it took to post this and the multiple times that same employee will be back to see the response. Did I hear somebody say, “you’re fired”? Must be my ESP kicking in again.Nova Scotia Power is never kind nor lenient to their customers when they hit hard times… they just shut the power off and cut their losses by selling the recievable to an aggressive collector. Why should NSP expect their customers to be happy when they’re FAILING TO PROVIDE such an essential and expensive service?

Dear Kay, guess what ? I have to heat my home too, Know what else? I had guests coming over and was invited places. Believe it or not, I have to heat my home BEFORE and after the holidays, I also tend to have guests over at various times of the year All of the outages affected me. If I’m planning a gathering on January 17th and my power goes out, does that mean I can call NSP and be a total asshole to them? Just because it was a holiday and people had plans Isn’t an excuse for them to be (extra ) rude and ignorant to the call center folks at NSP. GET IT NOW? I didn’t think so. You’re missing the point of the OP’s bitch.

Well Kay, it wasn’t my job. I don’t care if it infuriates people. My job was to do everything I was hired for in addition to taking this woman’s complaint and dutifully reporting it to my boss every single time, which is what I did. She didn’t have to be rude to me ON TOP OF THAT, which is what the whole point of this bitch is. You can communicate that you’re not happy with the situation WITHOUT being rude and hurtful to someone who has no responsibility for the situation you’re complaining about. How is this so hard to understand. Yes, people are rude, but guess what? THEY CAN CHANGE.This isn’t about corporations or individual workers not listening to the average customer when they have a grievance. It’s about emotionally immature people thinking they have gotten a leg up in life because they’ve dumped all their anger on one person and now they feel a bit better, meanwhile the person on the other end of the line feels like shit. What’s so great about that? Pretty pathetic actually.

ok this is what gets me…the whole 24 hours period(in halifax and dartmouth) there was a shitty storm outside, my power would go on and off about every 45-2hrs for a few minutes and i’m sure in other areas for a lot longer. Assuming the non-infinite supply of line techs in the province running around turning peoples power back in in a f’ing storm. then during the same conditions to have you power go off it just so happens to xmas does not entitle anyone to be xtra smug about “their” problems…to anyone who disagrees with the OP, you are entitled, to not understand her position is just plain stupid…you call these people to help you, how inclined are they to put you at the top of the list if you just made them feel like crap for even showing up on xmas to answer your call. I’ve been there and to each and every A-hole who felt it was their divine right to belittle me, i made sure they suffered the most, its called the call center golden rule. No matter who is answering your call, CEO or high school dropout, making them regret answering it will not improve your situation one bit. In the rare occasion you get someone to jump at your command, these people are new and will quickly learn to “push” back or the job will devour them, i don’t think the OP has long in her line of work or hasn’t learned quickly enough…after a while the shit storm that assaults you from the other end of the phone quickly becomes a sea of calm and you move on with your day

There is a world of difference between “ass kissing” and a basic level of civility. Everyone has a right to expect the latter, and everyone has a right to object when that basic level of civility is not met. The OP is doing no more than that. I have been without power. I have been angry at NSP at times. I have also been angry at other large corporations for various reasons. I have never vented my own frustration by making some powerless low ranking employee my verbal punching bag. That kind of behavior would make me the lesser person.

My mother did not sign up to be treated like a bag of talking shit 25 years ago when she started working for NSP. The people you speak to on the phone have absolutely NOTHING to do with A: the fact your power is out, B: getting it turned back on and C: that you weren’t prepared for it. In the middle of the fucking summer when it is warm as fuck, I have candles, flashlights and gas for the generator on hand just in case. I the winter they are even closer. It doesn’t hurt to be a little prepared. So because you’re a fucking bunch of idiots that can not handle having no electricity you think you get to lay in on the people answering the phones. This further proves you’re fucking idiots, you’re not even intelligent enough to know that they have NO control over the wind, rain, ice and snow that takes our power out. How about before the next time the power goes out, you all get a few candles, some batteries for the flashlights, or flashlights if you have none. If you’ve got the money, go get a fucking generator, they have gas and propane ones. Keep a little radio handy that takes batteries. Keep some food in your house that is not perishable, that you can eat without cooking it…unless of course you have a BBQ…you can do anything with one of those! lol But seriously people, you would not be as nearly upset when the power went out if you were a little more prepared yourself. Look how long we survived with none…at all. Regardless of the fact that NSP has gotten another undeserved, unnecessary hike increase, it is not their responsibility for us to be prepared when shit happens. Sometimes it is just that. Shit Happening….although the story about the salt in the air…I’d have to look into that a little further.