To be pissed off with shit call centres...

[FirstTimePetitioner]

I absolutely dread having to call companies as I invariably have bad experiences.

Just been on hold to Electrolux for 15 minutes only for someone to finally answer then the line goes quiet - I suspect I've been put on mute - then the call eventually cuts off 2 minutes later. Now I have to call back and wait for ages again, listening to their shit hold music. Argh.

Other experiences include hundreds of broken promises and failed call backs, missing notes and general rudeness/poor attitude.

I've worked in call centres for about 10 years (luckily no longer) so I know how shit it can be dealing with difficult callers, so I always make a point of being polite and friendly. It just annoys me that so many companies don't care about customer service. AIBU?

No YANBU - I dread anything going wrong. The thing that really drives me mad is when the recording says 'we value your custom' or some other such nonsense.

I’ve noticed that a lot of them take you round in circles with recorded messages, so it’s nearly impossible to get through to a person. Ticketmaster is impossible to navigate, every option is just some long recorded message, so you have to try a dozen times just to speak to someone.

Yes and yes! It's like they hope you'll just hang up and not bother them, but actually I need to get through to someone to resolve whatever the issue is - it's not going to go away by itself! And if you value my custom, help me out!!

I hate the ones that tell you to go to their website. Well DOH, if I could look up something on the website I wouldn't be wasting time and money calling would I?

I’ve found talktalk the worst ever. Was having issues with the WiFi for weeks - kept going down so I did an o line chat who said I had to call.

The person I was speaking to kept kept speaking in English then going back to her native language. I ended up apologising and saying you have a very strong accent and I can’t quite understand you would it be possible to speak to someone else. I was then transferred to someone else who I could also barely understand and they still did t sort the issue. Spoke to manager who still didn’t sort the issue.

I switch provider in the end and made a complaint and they let me cancel for free as a “goodwill gesture”. Damn right the bloody thing barely ever worked!

Urgh rant over

I find it helps (in a very small way) to tell myself that these poor people are also suffering from a real lack of training and investment in their ability. It's not their fault they don't know what they need to; or they don't have authority to actually Get Something Done. It must be a rubbish way to work.

Customer Service can be done exceptionally well, everyone knows that (amazingly I had it from British Airways recently, who normally go mind-bendingly out of their way to avoid even speaking to mere passengers, let alone actually help them), so it's patently quite unnecessary to do it badly because that demotivates their employees and pisses off the customers. Lose:lose.

(Apart for the blinkered head of finance who is quids in, of course )

@hannah1992 we had the exact same with PlusNet!

Toally agree that it's short-sighted of the management of these companies to not link poor customer service with loss of custom!