....to be so ANGRY at the way people speak to me? (RANT)

[tigermoll]

I work in a call centre. It's hardly my dream job, and most days it makes me want to put my head on the desk and cry. I have been applying for other jobs since I started here (6 months) but, (as you may be aware ) it is not a brilliant time to look for work. So I'm stuck here for the forseeable future.

Often, very often, when I call people they are so rude and aggresive it can bring tears to my eyes. The people I call have voluntarily put their phone number into a request for information, so can hardly be surprised that they then recieve a call. However, this doesn't stop them from swearing at me, denying they ever made the enquiry, accusing me of lying about the enquiry, blowing whistles at me, claiming to have never ever heard of the company I'm calling from, or indeed the service we offer, sometimes even denying that they are the person they said they were a few moments ago, or that they even know what the internet is, mocking me, sighing, tutting, ranting, deliberately wasting my time then hanging up, asking aggressive questions in an attempt to 'catch me out' as they see it, and being as patronising and dismissive as they can. They assume that they can speak to me however they like, in a way they would never dare to speak to my face.

I understand that recieving calls can get annoying for people. In this case I would respectfully suggest that they:

Go on the TPS register
Get an answerphone to screen their calls,
carefully check any form or enquiry they make and tick the 'do not contact me in the future' box
and:
STOP PUTTING THEIR PHONE NUMBER INTO WEBSITES

But, no matter how irritated the recipient of the call may be, or how justified they may feel, do they forget that they are talking to a human being? A human being who:
a) is unlikly to be doing the job out of a strong desire to work as a call centre operative, and more likely, works long hours at low pay in a job they dislike.
b) is not responsible for the business model of the company, - it wasn't their idea to make all these calls.
c)is not a shareholder in the company, and probably doesnt like their employer very much
d) has no power whatsoever to take them off OTHER companies' phone lists, or change the fact that other companies may be contacting them, especially if they make a habit of chucking their phone number around.

It is actually illegal for a company to 'cold call' - ie get your number and phone you without obtaining your prior consent. So when you do recieve a call, it is as a result of your actions (ie you have given them your number and not ticked a box that says they can't pass it on), NOT because the company calling is EVIL.

If you are called by a company, and have no interest in the service they are offering, why not just politely say 'Thanks for your time, but I am not interested in the service you are offering. Cheers, bye.' There is no need to act out your irritation in a pettish display of superiority just because you feel yourself so justified that you can act any way you like.

Grrr. Here endeth the rant.

I don't believe that all (if any) of the calls are a result of an enquiry that was made.

I have a private number. Rarely give it out to anyone, let alone put in on the web. I have an old mobile for anything that won't let you proceed without a number.

I receive calls for solar panels, landscape gardening, double glazing, roof re-tiling, pool instillation, pool maintenance (I don't have one), manure delivery, estate agents who want to sell my house for me. I know for damn sure I have not given any of these companies my phone number, simply because these are changes I wouldn't invest in, on a house I rent.

We also get calls at weekends & have had 2 or 3 on a Sunday! No day is scared any more.

And I don't see why I should by an answering machine just to screen calls from cold callers. I wont waste my money.

someone has chosen to buy a phone, install it and pay for the line

I choose to have a phone to stay in contact with friends/family. To receive calls from them, or my daughter's school. I have it to make my life easier when I need to arrange something, like a drs appt, or a hair cut, a plumber or a pizza delivery at 9pm...

I did not get my phone for your convenience, nor the convenience of the estate agent who wants to make a quick few $$ by selling my home. I don't have it so 'microsoft' can try & convince me that I have a virus on my computer, I don't have it so the RSPCA can ask me to sell raffle tickets again (never have done so, but they still thank me for doing so & asking me to sell/buy more). I don't have it so someone could call me at all hours to try to sell me windows, doors, a new roof, a conservatory, a car, a holiday, manure etc.

If I want any of those things I am more than capable of looking for a number & ringing it myself. I don't want my dinner/lunch interrupted every day, thank you!

At least 3 of your posts are putting US, the phone line owner at fault for owing a phone in the first place, it must be our fault we keep getting calls because we choose to have a phone. What condescending crap! You may hate your job, but you sure are good at trying to put the blame on the customers you call for YOUR lack of manners & courtesy!

Not read the thread but OP feel desperately sorry for you. Its A shit job. As soon as you can please please please do somethig you're comfortable with

I'm sorry tiger, I appreciate it's a job and in that respect you don't have the right to be spoken to rudely at work per se. However, I also shouldn't have to put up with people invading MY privacy at home, forcing products on me, not taking no for an answer etc. I shouldn't have to register with TPs (which doesn't work anyway), I shouldn't have to opt out of being pestered at home or other sneaky ways that are used to incite a call. And no I shouldn't have to let all my calls go to answer phone just incase its a cold calling company I don't want to speak to!

I'm afraid if you choose to call me uninvited (ie I haven't explicitly given you my number and therefore invited you to contact me) and then continue to push on after my initial 'no thank you I am not interested' or I have already told someone at your company I am not interested and are called again, then yes I do think I have the right to be rude as my wishes are not being respected in my own home and I am being forced into a 2 way conversation I do not wish to be part of!

I would not choose to do this job, but if I did, I would be aware that I am forcing myself onto others uninvited and therefore would have to expect an impolite response

Good post different name btw

I've done two hideous call centre jobs. The first one we were literally given pages torn out of the phone book to call. The second, yes people HAD put their number into a website, but to access a text messaging service, NOT for information. There are stricter rules now but companies find loop holes. If I put my number in a website it is because it is forcing me to, or because I an expecting a delivery. I shouldn't have to OPT OUT of unsolicited calls.

That said, I am usually polite to callers.

I get annoyed by these nuisance calls.
I never give out my number unless it is a required field on the order page.
Quite often I have asked the caller "Where did you get my number from?" to which I have never been given an honest answer. I usually tell the caller that I am not interested. However I don't recall them ever seeming to understand that basic remark, they simply carry on on another track, asking for very personal information. Now after I have asked the above question and told them politely that I am not interested and that I am infact busy and no it is not convenient to speak, and they still whitter on, what would you suggest I do? Slam the phone down seems the only option.

Op, judging from your description, it's as though you've rang my house a few times.

I shan't be polite to unsolicited calls and even if I tick a box saying "please harass me some more" you should not be allowed to call outside of working hours. I don't want call centre people irritating me and disturbing my family through supper.

I try to be polite to everyone, including telephone callers, and have only lost the rag once or twice, because I do feel for the people on the other end doing a job. Other than the computer scammer people - I don't know how they can sleep at night. Scamming people, and phoning people to sell them stuff are totally different. The former is disgusting, the latter merely irritating.

Must say we hardly ever get unsolicited calls, maybe one every few months, other than for companies we are use (our own credit cards, banks, insurance company etc) trying to upsell us.

I hope you find something else soon, OP that makes you happier.

I work in customer services and actually enjoy it.

I usually find the best way to get on with a customer is to mimic the way they speak/humour and find things in common with them and build rapport.

If they say they dont want calls point them in the direction of BT and apologise, you cant do more than that and if even after that they are swearing at you it says far more about them than your job.

I just generally say sorry I'm not interested this was after I had a foreign guy on the phone doing a survey and during the survey he asked if I had sex with my boyfriend, it kind of put me off giving call centres the time of day.

Youngvisiter, you make the fair point that the employee might not know that they are being used to harass people. I do feel a certain sympathy for that position, but look at the OP and it must have been obvious 10 minutes into the job that these people hadn't said "yes please call me as soon as you can as I need to get this double-glazing (or whatever) installed soon"

Perhaps call center employees should get together and form a union to improve the way their companies treat them. Or possibly report the company to the appropriate authority. I can sort of understand why they'd say "oh I can't be arsed", but then they must take the blame for their own actions.

@ knittedbreast. If any call centre phoned me and started mimicking the way I speak, then that certainly would be justification for rudeness on my part!
I had a call the other day from someone saying their records showed that someone at my address had been involved in a car accident in the last three years and did I remember anything about that? Unlikely to have been me "voluntarily putting in a request for information" as the OP suggested, or giving out my number to a company, so I asked (a bit snippily, I admit) how he'd got my number (TPS here).
"Erm......" cue shuffling of papers as he frantically searched for the reight response to this question.... and then the line went dead.

OP, change your job.

knittedbreast Not sure what you mean by "point them in the direction of BT". Unless you mean you work for BT.

"point them in the direction of BT"

knittedbreast And what exactly does this mean?

clam your caller called me straight after you. still did not know the right response to the TPS question. idiot

HuntyCat - you think supermarkets and petrol stations are morally superior to call centres, do you? Brilliant.

Also, I wasn't personally calling you a snob. I was more referring to the "you and your industry" sort of comments, not to mention the "Someone like me who paid a hundred gazillion pounds of income tax last year would speak to someone like you anyway I wanted".

ThePopsicleKat... It's not an honest industry though, is it? It's whole ethos is built on lying to consumers and doing everything it can to get people to sign up to something they don't want. They provide special training for their operatives to achieve that.

It's not at all like supermarkets and petrol stations; they have their own 'stigmas' that have nothing to do with cold calling.

Somebody who's paid £1 or £1m in income tax has equal rights to be angry at the cold calling they are subjected to and have no choice about.

Making excuses for this despicable industry is just risible really. I would genuinely prefer any other type of taxable work.

I do feel for you - to cope just look at it as its just a job and it pays the bills. Do the best you can. I must say it is annoying to keep getting calls you dont want and annoying for you when they have indicated for you to contact them. My job at times is very demanding and I have at times been shouted at and sworn at. I won't put up with this sort of behaviour. Get in quick when they start to be rude which is what I do. I say along the lines of I won't be spoken to like this - you need to put strategies in place. No need to be rude back but you don't need to put up with this behaviour either.

its called soft listening skills, mimic was the wrong word il admit. but beleive it or not it is quite easy to build a good rapport even with irate people by ajusting your voice in line with how they speak themselves.

Sorry point them in direction of bt, if you dont want to receive these calls please contact your phone company.

tds does work, but not when used from a managers phone or office and thats usually how they get round it. luckily i dont work for that company anymore, its in bound calls and I have nice customers who actually call back and apologise for being rude to me!

There's a big difference between providing a customer service on incoming calls (e.g. when I call the bank, or insurance company or to fix the washing machine). It is very easy to be polite in these situations as you have initiated the call and even if they try to sell you a product, it's usually a very soft sell 'would you like me to tell you about our new home insurance deal' type thing.

The other type of calls are awful, outgoing cold calls (I very much doubt everyone fully consented to the calls in the true sense otherwise why are they so annoyed, more like tricked into it). I wouldn't work in that type of sales, basically lying all day and trying to trick people out of money/use their confusion against them. I have worked in telesales and it was awful, although you were offering a service, the need to 'sell up' would mean sometimes you were parting little old ladies with cash they really needed for things they didn't. Horrible job and I left it very quickly and would not return (supermarket work or cleaning or other lower paid jobs don't require you to tell bare-faced lies to the customer).

if you dont want to receive these calls please contact your phone company.

Wrong

If I don't want you to call me and I've made it plain by registering with the TPS and making my phone ex-directory then you are not allowed to call me. It's your responsibility to obey the rules. Not mine to find a way to stop you.

knitted "Sorry point them in direction of bt, if you dont want to receive these calls please contact your phone company."

This is rubbish. BT, O2 etc will tell you it is not their responsibility, because it is not.

If you do want to know, there is a service called TPS (telephone preference service), where in theory people can register their details and marketing co are legally obliged to check their lists against TPS to make sure they do not call people who do not want to receive these nuisance calls, only it does not work! Do check your facts knitted...

i would agree, ive done both. much prefer my current job

ThePopsickleKat, what I think is that people who go to a supermarket or a petrol station are WANTING to use the service that those places provide, adn have actively sought out somewhere selling petrol or food. Just as I would seek out somebody to recover my PPI costs if I thought it was needed, or would seek out a company selling double glazing if I wanted that.

I don't expect a petrol station I have never been to to ring my phone, asking me if I would like to buy petrol from them, and certainly not outside of normal office hours. If I want petrol, I am perfectly capable of finding a petrol station, and the same is true of any other goods or services I may require.

If I have ever been cold-called by a company, that company will NEVER get any of my money. So surely cold-calling is having the opposite of the desired outcome in my case?!