The big red-lettered cell phone giant is laying off a bunch of their executive and management types… Not that I am for a bigger drain on our EI system, but maybe they should get rid of their idiot customer “non-service” people who never know WTF they’re talking about when you call in…
Hey – if they disappear altogether, does that mean I can get out of my contract?
—Gidge
This article appears in Nov 26 – Dec 2, 2009.
Those people probably work in India and don’t get paid that much anyway.
sad but true….
or even here in halifax. we have several call centres… though the pay is likely the same.
better to get rid of the fat, balding older upper-management types anyways.
they’ve had a good run.
Lord knows when I call there none of them speak english. And I love how they tell you the amount owing bill….last month PLUS this month making you freak out initially…..until you realize that they are adding on the next month that you haven’t even received a bill for yet!! Fuck Tards!!!
Can’t wait till the contract expires…..one of the dumbest mistakes I have ever made……
You’ll get out of your contract in Dec 2012, when the world ends. Oops, you’re stuck with your contract for fuckin ever.
Call centres are useless. When I’m forced to contend with an accent I’d rather be left to my own devices and the Google.
I actually have never gotten someone with an accent I can’t understand – most of the time I talk to people in Toronto…
But they still have no idea what they’re talking about – and “Heaven forfend” you should ask for a supervisor…
Ask for a super and you used to get me. The small American outfit we had a contract for decided Phillipinos could do a better job than Haligonians. So business goes, I’m just glad I got out before the shit hit the fan. Hell hath no fury like a pissed off american on an escalation.
Hey PDG – does anyone working on the front line actually read their training manuals, or do they just not get one?
I just hate when you get 4 different people and each of them tells you something completely different in answer to the exact same question…
Keep in mind gidget that call centres in general do not generally attract the best and brightest (with a couple of exceptions). To most, it’s just a job. I’ve never worked for a canadian outfit, but I know that the “manuals” are online (intranet) and rarely read after training. If you ask for a super, some places use their best reps and call it a separate department. This usually works better than the actual supers taking the calls because a) the supers often know less than the reps since they take fewer calls and b) they’re pissed that you’re interrupting their other work. That job (being a super) was by far the most difficult and least rewarding I have ever done. I’m doing what I love now, so that tends to skew my opinion of my former job.
Thanks Toots! 🙂
I just find it crazy frustrating to be told by 3 people that something “can’t be done”, and then a fourth says “Oh, yes, we could have done that for you months ago!”
I used to work for Rogers when they had a call center in Lower Sackville. I will let you all know right now… nearly no ones knows what they’re talking about and 90% of the people don’t give a fuck because they’ve been getting screamed at by pricks for too long to care. Especially when you’re always put on 5:30PM-1:30 shifts taking back to back calls all night for eternity.
Any answer to a question you have will be either found in their internal search engines, asked of a supervisor or made up.
oh and by the way… people who work in indian call centers make on average 1500-2500 US dollars a year. little interesting tidbit considering to live in a shitty O.T. style apartment there its like 500 in bangalore (where alot of outsourced call centers and IT companies are)