....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 used to work in one of these places, I can honestly say it was the worst job I've ever had (& I've had some shitty ones), I cried every day for 8 months because I hated it so much. It was for the company that calls you 10 minutes after you've bought a new washing machine to try to sell you an extended warranty and then when it does break does everything in it's power to avoid fixing it or having to pay a penny.

I had 2 weeks of intensive training on basically how to avoid seeing the person you are calling as any kind of human being & to just think of them as a cash cow. I worked with people of took pride in scaring the elderly out of their pensions (although selling on fear is against company policy & illegal) & would laugh about it. People who would deliberately put call backs for customers with TPS or who just politely declined so that they were called every 10 minutes for an hour. And those are just some of the milder things that went on.

If I hadn't been so desperate I would have left as soon as the training finished. It's a disgusting industry & that company in particular sickens me. To be honest being told to "fuck off" by people was the highlight of my day.

This thread is such a contrast to another recent thread: You might think my job is shite but yes I do actually enjoy it.

Which is about a lower paid potentially shitty (literally) job which is fills a massive genuine need and for which I would pay solid gold if I could.

Totally different from cold-calling, which is frequently done illegally and causes misery to householders and to callers in pursuit of money for people further up the chain.

I am always careful about ticking/unticking boxes and I never answer random adverts or anything like that.

However, I go through phases of getting multiple cold-calls a day on my mobile which is a right pain in the backside when I am at court.

Quite often these people don't take "I'm not interested, please take my number off your database" for an answer, but keep saying they will call back, and then do.

I am vaguely polite the first time. I am very, very far from polite the next time!

"I don't have an effing unsecured loan so why don't you just bog off and bother someone who does" being recently yelled at full volume across a crown court foyer - people looked surprised.

haha! just got one right this minute....how do they get your home phone number?

he was michael and he was calling from the technical dept of my home broadband....

just for you op i said
"im fine thank you but im not interested" before i hung up, there you go!

I get these "computer error" or "your computer is really slow" phonecalls every so often. I normally end up shouting at them, because when I tell them I'm not interested they start going "but madame, but madame, you are being a bit silly.."

Once someone called and asked for my husband, and I told him he'd gone out and whether I could pass on a message, and I got told to "calm down bitch".

So all-in-all my experience with people like you OP is not good. But it's nice to hear your side of the story too. Sorry if I've ever made you cry.

Oh and I don't leave my phone number on any sites, and always opt for the "contact me by email only" box, but I still get calls about debts and shit.

I used to be polite to cold callers but, having read the patronising bollocks spouted by HannahHack about how it's all the phone line owners fault that people with fuck all empathy ring them unsolicited, I won't any longer.

The calls I really hate are the recorded calls where you can't even ask them to take you off the list or tell the caller that perhaps they should consider a more ethical career in drug smuggling or people trafficing

bruffin I'm sorry that your MIL felt harrassed, our charity is not in the business of upsetting elderly ladies (or anyone else for that matter). A complaint to HO is the right thing to do, then the charity can sort it out.

One thing that needs to be sorted out is the various opt ins / outs. I strongly think it should be consistent across all companies so people aren't confused and don't receive calls from companies they haven't agreed to be called by.

I think there's a special circle of hell for people who ignore TPS regs, and those idiots who call from 'Microsoft' to tell me my computer is running slow...

I feel quite sorry for anyone having to work in a cold calling centre. Crap job, crap money, regularly abused, etc. It's not that easy to adopt the "well don't do that job then" approach because needs must for most people. You could say the same thing to toilet cleaners and prostitutes. People generally take crap jobs because they desperately need the money. I shouldn't think anyone who works there has gone in as the result of saying "when I grow up I want to work in a call centre". The trouble is, once you're in there, the only way to survive in that environment is to downplay the unpleasantness of what you do, which is undoubtedly easier when you've got the company line being fed you on a daily basis and it's part of your job to repeat it.

I never swear or use abusive language at callers but I treat as I find, and if a caller is persistent/haranguing me I reserve the right to raise my voice or hang up.

Round here it's mis-sold PPI most of the time.

@Waspie Where did I say that? I only said that people have to take some personal responsibility for being horrible to other people.

I didn't suggest it was the phone line owner's fault if they are called. Just pointed out how some of the situations that arise could be resolved. Would you rather no one ever showed you how things that annoyed you could potentially be reduced?

DH made an online insurance enquiry a couple of years ago. He made a few actually, but one particular company, who wouldn't give a quote without all contact details filled in and genuine, followed up with a letter, phone call and email. They did the same again, a year later and then again, this year. The only information that was solicited was the damned online quote.

Sorry you hate your job, but YABU.

Is there any way to ban companies from overseas taking advantage of the loophole that allows them to bypass regulations?

Perhaps EU-wide rules on the manner of telemarketing might help as well. I get really fed up of the deliberately misleading ways in which people try to either get your information or get you to buy something.

For example, I always take part in market research if I can because I get fed up seing quotes like "8 out of 10 women..." Which 8 of 10 women? Wasn't me or anyone I know and I dont't think that, so how do I know that they've got a representative sample? I'm doing my bit to redress that.

However, many information gatherers working on behalf of companies trying to solicit 'invitations' to cold call, phone up pretending to be market researchers and you're often a fair way in before the first underhand questions start, such as "would you like cheaper electricity?" Of course, I would. Who wouldn't? The point is you're taking a "Yes" answer to mean "I give you permission to give my phone number to every electricity company in the world" and you've done it deliberately by ensuring that the preceding questions lull me into a false sense of security. The worst ones are "would you consider donating to charity" which usually follow innocuous questions about income and lifestyle.

I've got quite good at heading these off now, but they are so underhand. It should be illegal to obtain information in this way.

I have worked in a call centre, I would only apply for jobs on unbound call, I have dine some requested outbound calls but refuse on principle to cold call. It is at the discretion of the caller to delete the number if requested.

Often I have asked for my number to be removed and it has clearly not been. Aldine landline is a London number abs has been 'recycled' so I get weird calls.

In fact now I am so anti social, I don't answer the door and the landline is unplugged

You have to realise how important timing us with phone calls, dh requested info from HSA, they phoned at an inconvenient time, then again and again repeTedly for 30 mins. He had wanted info but that kind of behaviour drives you to distraction. He even Nswered the phone (Tom tom app was being unterupted) and said "not now I'm driving" and the silly woman rang straight back! So at that pony I answered and indulged in the silly get one over on the caller games you mention.

SecretNutellaFix, the error messages on your computer screen one is an actual criminal scam though, not simply cold calling or distance selling. So TPS isn't going to be any use.

Whilst the guy almost certainly was still just a poor low paid call centre worker so abuse is perhaps not that nice, there's no requirement for politeness either.

Unfortunately having people be rude to you really is part of the job, because you are being rude to people by calling them, not all of them will have provided informed consent to being called, mistyped numbers, illegally sold numbers, confusing forms (ie not informed) so YABU to expect better treatment I'm afraid. Whilst you can try and improve your working conditions, starting with the suckers customers is not the right place.

I'm sorry you face such shit on a daily basis but the companies involved are vile. They have even resorted to tick box A if you don't want to be contacted and tick box B if you do want to be contacted.

It's all very well to say contact TPS or get an answer phone. The fact is people shouldn't have to do that to avoid being harassed by repeated calls.

Once you've had an elderly relative targeted by these people - one who's 'crime' was being in the phone book - you understand why people get so irate. 6/7 calls a day from companies pushing to get her to make an appointment for sales people to come to her home. It was very obvious she was old, you could tell from the electoral role she lived alone, and they wouldn't stop calling when told to.

We had one of those "you have complained about your computer" calls - he said he was calling on behalf of "the Windows company". He didn't even know what it was called! Now that's a rather insultingly sloppy scam.

I'm with tps and I deliberately change the numbers round when a website demands one.

Last month I unplugged my land line never to be plugged in again after a cold caller called at 10.30.

Anyone who wants me can call my mobile (never give that out) and the rest can feck off.

HannahHack... I'm surprised that you left the 'industry' actually. You seem to have no understanding of why people are annoyed. I don't find your 'information' very helpful either given that these companies use bad tactics to extract money. Why else would special training be needed then if it's as easy as somebody saying "no"? Why don't people have the right not to listen to unsolicited crap?

The 'industry' is completely unwanted by the vast majority of the people being inconvenienced by it. It might supply jobs but really that's a sop. The jobs aren't fulfilling to the employees and there seems to be a heck of a lot of illegal behaviour that surrounds it.

I have recently had a new work phone. The number obviously beloned to somebody else at one point as I get quite a few cold calls on it. I tell them that the person no longer has that number and to remove it from their list... only to be told that the product that is being sold is just as relevant for me. How rude and presumptious. Why do they do that? Why can't people take 'no' for an answer?

I too add coldcalling companies to my 'never buy from' list. Some companies just will not stop. They need to be stopped and hopefully, the situation will get so bad that the cold sales market will implode. Can't come soon enough for me.

I find SmilingandWaving's post really interesting actually. I'd like to know the tricks that are used by these companies, along with the methods of training if anybody is inclined to post them.

"Can I interest you in . . ."

"No, but I work for the International Telecomms Research Unit of OFTEL and I can and will have this call traced even if you are ex-directory and have your phone cancelled unless you end the call now."

Usually works and quickly. There is no such unit (AFAIK!) but it sounds impressive.

i done a bit of outbound at the call centre op. I moved onto retention. I though great it will be easy compared to in bound.

i had to open the mail from customers who wished to disconnect and ring them.

Some of it was hillarious

YOU Fing B get the S**t OUT NOW., one had just a noose and some were 7 page complaints.

I then had to ring them up and tell them they would recieve a months free service or an upgrade for staying. Some gladly took it some didnt. I then had the unfortunate task of one month later receiving letters again to disconnet and telling them they had to give 30 days notice or would you like andupgrade. The reply was normally

bleep bleep, bleep bleep bleep.

It truely is sole destroying. Im never nasty to call centre workers unless they are extremely rude.

I wasn't rude to the cold caller who just phoned. But I did hang up.

Go on the TPS register - I am
Get an answerphone to screen their calls - Err, no.
carefully check any form or enquiry they make and tick the 'do not contact me in the future' box I do if there is an option, which is not always the case
and:
STOP PUTTING THEIR PHONE NUMBER INTO WEBSITES I do and I will if I order something and I need the company to be able to contact me.

Sorry, but I think this is total bullshit. Don't call me with your unsolicited crap and I will not be rude.

A BT cold caller gets told

I'm always polite to people who ring me, even when they (ALWAYS) mis pronounce both my names. But what REALLY bugs me is that as soon as I say something that means I won't be buying their stuff (usually the words "it's a rented house") THEY HANG UP ON ME, MID-SENTENCE when I'd given them my time and been polite thought they were disturbing my bloody evening, and, more often than not, disturbing baby