I’m so sick and tired of people complaining about the HRM call centre!
“They gave me the wrong bus time!”
“They were rude to me!”
“They didn’t take my complaint seriously!”
Oh, be quiet! These people work their behinds off and are required to know everything about everything to do with the HRM. Give them a break! Just be glad that this city has a call centre you can call 7 days a week, from 7 to 11, to get info, make complaints and even just get stuff off your chest!
—Loving Halifax
This article appears in Mar 12-18, 2009.
I have always had good service from the HRM call centre.
“Just be glad that this city has a call centre you can call…”
Yeah, just be grateful your tax dollars are being spent… WHAT?
OP, you work at a call centre that fields complaints. WTF? You’re complaining that people complain to you? Why would you expect something different? Give your head a shake.
I actually always had good experiences when I lived there and called the centre. They were always prompt to answer the phone and gave me great bus advice etc.
Someone working their behind off does not get an automatic pass to be snarky just because some dipstick is rubbing them the wrong way.
Holy fuck, I actually kinda agree with Kay again. Someone must’ve hijacked her account cuz this shit’s crazy.
Your job is to field complaints and part of that job is to not bitch the complainers out. If you can’t resist or think you have some special god given right to blow the fuck up at people who call to complain at a call centre which is there to field complaints, then you need to find a new line of work (because either you can’t hack it, or because you just don’t know how to do your fucking job).
I’ve called the call centre a total of 4 times, and 3 out of those four times I’ve had beyond excellent service. 2 of those 4 calls were complaints, the others were route suggestions or questions regarding routes. AND! Out of the “complaints” the one I have issue with wasn’t even a nasty complaint. The bus driver had left quite early on a route I was trying to catch and when I mentioned it to another driver he told me to call the call centre and tell them and that the driver wouldn’t get in trouble, he’d just be reminded to stay at his time points until he’s scheduled to leave. No biggie right? Well the bitch I got on the phone was the nastiest, rudest piece of shit I’ve ever encountered. She was actually verbally abusive and got so pissed off at me (and I wasn’t even mad! I just made a simple comment in a pretty calm manner!) that she started pulling random policies out of her ass and told me it was in the riders guide when I asked where this certain policy was written down. When I told her they weren’t in the guide, she hung up on me! Honestly, if HRM tapes their calls and I had the exact time I called I’d make a formal complaint to her supervisor, and I NEVER do that shit. I’ve worked in CS so I always try to be extra nice because I know it sucks, so her going ape shit like that when I wasn’t even rude to begin with is uncalled for. If I was someone’s boss and they pulled that shit I’d can them, plain and simple.
I wonder if the OP of this bitch is the same asshole I encountered? Because I can’t see anyone other than someone who gets pissed off at people on the phone as a CSR making this bitch.
I don’t call anymore cause I get the same one as Kitty. Only difference is even though I have exellent CS too I also have a nasty streak. If you piss me off i’ll let you know and none to kindly. I have no problem with getting rude with assholes.
maybe I should start calling again, I got complaints too.
Be lucky you have a job, smile, now awnser the phone and hope its not me ..lol
Boo-Hoo!
For $40,000 a year answering phones, you better be good.
And knowing everything about HRM… please, you look it up on a terminal in front of you.
It is a union job, so the ability of the useless, toothless manager is nil.
Swear at a caller, that’s a finger-wag.
Hung-up on a caller, tilted head and sigh.
Don’t come to work, card and flowers.
Out-source the bunch!
I’ve got mad luv for my HRM call homies. They spent an hour trying to get me directions to Massachusetts, and even printed them out for FREE! WHO DOES THAT?!!
Like I said, I’ve had good experiences with all but one I talked to. And, Mama9 confirmed that I’m not crazy. The call centre is there to provide a service funded by city tax dollars paid by the citizens of the city for the citizens of the city; it is NOT there to provide a personal outlet for some sourpuss piece of shit to spew her shit onto the people she’s essentially working for.
It’s a good thing she has a unionized job because anywhere else her arse would be tossed out the door by now.
hey Matthew, outsourcing an HRM call centre, are you insane, that would be the dumbest thing ever, and by the way the salary is closer to 34,000 not 40,000. If you outsourced outside of HRM the service would go down the tubes as the people answering the phone would have no idea what you’re talking about. yes, it is funded by tax-payers, which is why there is such a large array of information available. I’ve called and emailed probably a dozen times and have always gotten the info I was looking for. I find it to be a very useful service and will continue to use it 🙂
Hey hrmboy did I say outside of HRM? There are tons of call centres in HRM that could do the job cheaper and better.
They are unionized and do their jobs to the lowest common denominator.
I’m sure it could be done much cheaper using 3rd party call centres but then you’re going to run into a whole new set of issues. HRM’s Call Centre is a first party call centre and shall remain as such. It is a very controlled environment and employees are hand-picked from hundreds of applicants to follow the strict guidelines set forth by management. And I’m not talking about general information such as bus info, but rather personal information regarding tax accounts, incident reports and other sensitive information. Sure, they could cut their costs in about 1/2 by contracting it out, but then you lose touch with the workers and the grade of service. As far as the other call centres doing it “better”, not likely. This is not to say that people who work in other call centres are any less capable, because they are not. But why would a 3rd party call centre care as much about sensitive information distribution as HRM would ? Outsourcing this call centre would make as much sense as outsourcing Metro Transit’s work to be done by a private company such as Stock Transportation, a company which has proven that privatizing runs everyone into the shitter, especially the employees who don’t get their deserved rate. Yeah great idea.
Actually a very good reply, hrmboy.
I still don’t agree with you, but good points.