WIBU to Shout at the Young Man in the Call Centre?

[19lottie82]

OL this is longggggg but I need a rant..... sorry!

I'm an eBay business seller, i.e. That's my main source of income. My local Post Office offers a drop and go service, where I top up a pre paid card then drop (and go) off my parcels each day for the branch to process.

Around a year ago the couple of ran the PO retired and a youngish guy took over the franchise. He is however useless. He closes the PO early whenever he feels like it and sometimes doesn't open at all.

Anyway..... I dropped a bag of about 30 parcels in on Friday about 230pm. And when I drove past 30 minutes later, it was closed, and is still closed as I type.

I called the PO call centre and reeled off my complaint / concerns. I told "Daniel", that I was sitting outside the branch in my car and it had been shut for three days, and my parcels must be in there, unprocessed. I need them back or sent urgently.

"please hold while I try and contact them"

4 mins later "I'm sorry I just called the branch, no one is answering"

Again I reiterated I needed my parcels, do they not have alternative contact details for their franchisees? Nope.

What would they do if the branch remained closed indefinitely?
They would send a letter to the branch, apparently.

How did they keep in touch with him during the franchise application process.
They can't disclose that information.

Look..... I really need to get these parcels, telling me to "wait until it opens" isn't acceptable. This is my business, my income. Please can I speak to a manager."?
There aren't any avaliable, sorry (he didn't even check).

Are you telling me one of the largest companies in the U.K, with a nationwide call centre, there isn't a single manager around to speak to me?
That's correct.

This went on for a long time, then I was put on hold for 40 minutes.

He came back and said I can get someone to call you back.
I told myself to stay calm......

OK that's fine. Please can you confirm a manager will call me back today.
Oh no sorry. I can't promise that.
When WILL someone call me back?
It will be within 10 working days

Are you joking?

"Why do you want to speak to a manager anyway, they won't tell you anything that I haven't already".

I started explaining that speaking to him wasn't resolving the situation so I wanted to speak to a manager, TODAY.

Then he started speaking over me, and I'm ashamed to say I lost the plot and I SHOUTED.
Eventually he said, yes, someone will call you back today, but I'm fairly confident that they won't

WIBU?

This is a very sad example of a small business trying to survive and make money and a living, being prevented from doing so by a near monopolist outfit that should be either be run correctly or disbanded.

Like that other POS BT!

OP obviously you shouldn't have shouted (I think you know that right?) but I can totally sympathise with your frustration. It sounds like a crock of shit and it is so infuriating dealing with these monoliths

I hope you can get it sorted

I agree with PP re social media - this seems to be the only way things get picked up these days. Great story a few weeks ago about a guys battle with Virgin Media, whom I've had many a frustrating call with. He used the power of Twitter to get their attention

www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3753164/Man-just-wants-cancel-contract-live-tweets-FOUR-HOUR-call-Virgin-Media.html

Those virgin tweets are hilarious!

This is making me think I really need to learn how to tweet....

Tweeting is probably more effective than shouting at someone because they don't have a magic wand.

Well YABU for shouting yadda yadda yadda, but to be honest I don't really blame you. I've been shouted at in a call centre role before and it was clear that the poor man was just absolutely at the end of his tether and I was just the poor sod who answered the phone.

I am shouted at on a daily basis as I work in a call centre so YABU for shouting as it is really horrible to be on the end of it. Especially when your hands are tied. The guy on the phone can't contact the franchise and he can't break dpa by giving you his contact details. He also probably genuinely couldn't get you a manager. We have times when there are literally no managers available we also aren't allowed to make any promises relating to the time of a call back in case they can't be kept. If he's anything like me he probably was just as frustrated by the lack of managers as you but can't say anything for risk or losing his minimum wage job.

The problem is that the customers only have the poor person at the end of the phone. In most all instances you just cannot get to the useless senior "management" most of whom can't make their way out of a brown paper bag. If they were running the firm as it should be in the first instance most these problems wouldn't arise anyway.

Justaboy is right.

Shouting at the call centre bod is the verbal equivalent of sending abuse or foul contents back to companies in their prepaid reply envelopes. It gets nowhere near the ears and eyes of the people who can actually make a change; and just makes life shitty for the person on the receiving end.

YABU. I've worked in a call centre and in many of them, the workers have very little power to do anything except be there as sponges for customers to take out their frustration on.
I very much doubt he was sitting laughing with his friends. I've never seen that.
I have seen people crying at having to just apologise over and over to shouting customers without any power to actually solve their problem.
In your own words, he was on the phone to you for a long time trying to find a solution. Write a complaint and put it through their official complaints process but don't take your frustration out on someone who is likely in a minimum wage job and doesn't have a choice but to take it.

Notapodling

"I have seen people crying at having to just apologise over and over to shouting customers without any power to actually solve their problem".

That's the point, why cannot they be empowered to solve the problem?.

Who is managing that fiasco? Mis -managing rather.

Totally stupid that!