Cannot believe the call handlers at the DWP .. :(

[Ryderr]

So firstly, I'd like to say that: yes, I know, noone is entitled to 'free money'....

Situation :
Daughter meets requirements for DLA.
Received her first 'annual statement' on Tuesday afternoon. Payment made Tuesday morning.
Payment didn't match what was on the letter, so I decided to ring up and ask for clarification of the letters new payment amounts (aware tax years, inflation, bank holidays, and other stuff can, and do, affect this) but wanted to clarify.
(other DWP encounters show sometimes a call is needed to make sure payments are right. Paid me over £900 quid in December when I was only entitled to a mere £4.27. So obviously I wanted to get the money to its rightful owner.)

Spend 4.5 hours on the call. Lovely music. Charged phone aswell! Nice.
Appreciate it was probably a busy day, if everyone had the same idea as me!

Call answered to a lady that sounded so fed up and tired :(
I start off nice, asking how her day had been etc. But that gets shut down.
'ref number and postcode, now' said the voice.
Call proceeded.
Get so far in to the situation and she let's out a big sigh.
Definitely not a good day to have called :(

She calls me stupid, saying how even though the payment increase happened on the Monday, the Tuesday payment was fine, and not wrong.
I then proceed to say sorry for the waste of time, thank her for the information, and wish her a good rest of the day.

I put the phone on the kitchen side , fully expecting the lady on the other end of the phone to end the call.....
NOPE.
she sits there discussing with her colleague saying how I'm 'yet another scrounging caller wanting more free money because I can't be bothered to raise my kids right'.
Meanwhile, i'm stood there, now recording her rant🤷🏻‍♀️

Few minutes pass and you can sort of hear her trailing off and then a 'ohno', and the call is abruptly disconnected.

Its now Friday.
Not sure how I feel about it all still.
No family to discuss this with.
Do I just go nurse my ego with a share bag of minstrels.?

I work in local government and after an imcoming call a pop up section comes up automatically and we select what the call was regarding but sometimes, rarely, when we click to end the call it doesn't end it and the pop up comes up when still connected. Sounds like similar has maybe happened. Just put in a complaint, its all recorded someone with views like that and who spoke to you so badly shouldn't even be working there. To speak to someone like that on a recorded call shows she's really pretty stupid. Our calls aren't audited but are recorded incase of complaints, only for three months though so don't delay.

And what do you mean before op "pushed her" to call her stupid?

Oh this one is going to be catnip for the press, isn't it?

@Ryderr I expect you're going to feature in the Mail online over the next couple of days, so I'd definitely put that complaint in immediately so the recorded call at their end can be checked. (Plus of course the astonishing and incredible wait time!)

And do let us know how it turns out!

😂😂

I hope she's practising her sad face in the mirror for the photos!

I'm not sure why the DWP call handler would call you stupid knowing that calls their end are recorded. Would she risk her job for that?

This is bizarre - I have never heard of this happening

Are you sure you didn't contact the supplier, i.e. the person you were talking to, and ask for a copy of the recording of the call?

I have definitely heard this story recently. As in the last week or so.

It was either on tik tok or instagram.

Out of interest do people really use 'call handlers' in everyday speech? I've worked answering telephones to the public and always thought this was internal corporate speak. I would always say 'the person the answered the phone' or 'staff at DWP' or something. This is not a dig at OP, just interested

As if after 4.5 hours on hold you’d start by asking the call handler if she’s having a nice day 😂

And not even the police can access people’s phone calls in murder trials. Logs that the call took place, yes, but not the actual content of the calls. Can you imagine if the content of every phone call ever made was recorded by the phone provider?!

Well isn't it obvious? You send it to the Daily Mail and get photographed with a sad face (and possibly a bag of Minstrels).

In fact, one of the tabloids might pick it up from this thread, anyway - watch your inbox for DMs. I'll await the end result with bated breath

why did you just put the phone on the side and not end the call? sometimes in call centres they have to wait for you to end the call. So why would you do that?

It’s also unlikely the call handler called you stupid.

So what is your purpose in telling us this story?

As if after 4.5 hours on hold you’d start by asking the call handler if she’s having a nice day 😂

As if someone would wait on hold for 4.5 hours. Would the system even keep you in the queue that long? Not in my experience.

Just file a formal complaint. Tell them you have the recording too but you want them to listen to theirs

The waiting 4.5 hours, then trying to make small talk (so others can wait longer while someone asks about the weather) and then not hanging up is unlikely. For all that the OP is trying to position herself as so nice and kind… none of it adds up to someone with good intentions.

As is the idea that in a call centre so busy people are waiting 4.5 hours to get through are having a leisurely bitch with each other between the massive volume of calls they’re trying to get through.

If you’re wanting to write a novel OP, maybe don’t until you can come up with a vaguely realistic plot. And you can work out how to create characters through the relationships between motivation/intention and action.

I accept that a lot of people are questioning this.

I've been spoken to like shit by DLA staff though. You only have to read the 'DLA wait times' threads and you'll see that dozens, if not hundreds of parents are all having similar experiences. It's a stressful enough situation in itself to go through, never mind moody, abrupt and rude staff on top.

I’m willing to believe you got a really shitty call handler, terrible people exist in ever position.

Half of the rest of what you’ve put is just ridiculous though. Why don’t you hang up your phone? Would you just leave a landline next to the handset? Why on earth would you think your phone provider could give you a recording of your call? When you said you were “now recording her rant” do you mean you actually recorded it, or you thought your phone provider was recording it?

Anyway, just make a complaint. Don’t ring them back to do it, follow their complaints procedure. They will have recorded the call, they can verify what happened.

I am in no way saying that the call handlers should not be professional in how they handle callers, but they are only human. They must get fed up with the amount of callers asking how long it is going to be, to process their claims. All the callers to the DWP are courteous as well, are they?

All those saying " didn't happen". I bet it did. The call centre where I work we have complaints about this sort of thing. It's always recorded and my lord it makes your teeth itch.

Complain.

You do realise those call handlers are on minimum wage, they would be better off at Lidl, and they probably don't have enough staff for the volume of work.

I'm surprised people think this sort of thing never happens. I've worked in a call centre and people absolutely do slag customers off the minute the phone is put down. Many a microphone has been muted so someone can say "what an absolute cunt" too.

We also had a policy where we weren't allowed to end the call, we had to wait for the caller to do so. You'd be amazed how many people just chuck their phone down without hanging up, leaving us sat there listening to them making a brew or talking to their cat or having a wee for a minute until we're allowed to hang up.

So it's entirely possible the call handler thought the OP had ended the call when she went on her tyrade. I've done it, thankfully I was just talking to my colleague about dinner. One of my colleagues started singing thinking the caller had terminated the call and got a "ooooo you should go on X-Factor!". It happens! Whether this particular post happened, I don't know, but it's absolutely not beyond the realms of possibility.

It’s not so much that shit things never happen in call centres than that this OP is at best somewhat exaggerated and doesn’t reflect as well on the OP imagines.

I'd be surprised if a call handler was stupid enough to call you stupid during a call. Maybe mute themselves and have a sigh, but they know they're recorded. I think most call centre staff have ended a call and said something colourful, then had the panic that the caller was still on the other end!

Who are you asking for call recordings from? Not to cast doubt, but I don't believe your network provider records everyone's phone calls. Also weird you just hung on listening...

Absolutely complain though, it's not acceptable.

A bit of insight though, call centre work is fucking awful. Especially with something like DWP where the staff are spending entire shifts being shouted at and treat like shit by most callers. Your 'how has your day been?' isn't friendly or pleasant, it's condescending and patronising and adding to the call handling time that she'll be under pressure about. Getting straight to the point and giving relevant information is much more appreciated.

I’m sorry but I don’t believe she called you stupid.

Your 'how has your day been?' isn't friendly or pleasant, it's condescending and patronising and adding to the call handling time that she'll be under pressure about. Getting straight to the point and giving relevant information is much more appreciated Yes. Good point.

Yeah a customer once complained I hung up on him for no reason
When they played the call back to him it was clear I gave him three warnings after he screamed at me I was a fucking cunt

Your OP - Meanwhile, i'm stood there, now recording her rant🤷🏻‍♀️

So you have your own copy of the call and the insults aimed at you? Even if DWP day they cannot find the call recording, you have the evidence that you need.

Make a complaint.