Call Center Opinions?

[videogamesrock]

I literally have to take a day off from work if I need to call any place that uses a call center. For example, my banks, my cell phone company, and anywhere else that has a 800#. I literally once again have spent an entire day being transferred from "specialist" to "specialist" and yet still have nothing resolved. My wife calls her Canadian bank and they answer within minutes and solve her problem quickly and efficiently. Does anybody have a solution?

[gingerbeefE]

I literally have to take a day off from work if I need to call any place that uses a call center. For example, my banks, my cell phone company, and anywhere else that has a 800#. I literally once again have spent an entire day being transferred from "specialist" to "specialist" and yet still have nothing resolved. My wife calls her Canadian bank and they answer within minutes and solve her problem quickly and efficiently. Does anybody have a solution?

I live in japan, if i need to call a state bank or anything i have to wait until midnight or wake up early. As far as having a solution, make sure you have the right department, if someone refuses to help, don't ask for a different specalist ask for a manager. Your SOL if you call and your like 15th in line, maybe try emailing to resolve your issue.

[SweetSecret]

Two potential solutions depending on how big the issue is. The first is to try just emailing the general customer service, which is good anyhow because it takes less of your time and then you have their answer in writing to hold them to in the future. If the issue is a very big deal though, e-mail the head of the company, as they had getting customer service complaints and will usually have someone at the top of the corporate ladder handle the situation... thus it will get resolved faster.

[videogamesrock]

Two potential solutions depending on how big the issue is. The first is to try just emailing the general customer service, which is good anyhow because it takes less of your time and then you have their answer in writing to hold them to in the future. If the issue is a very big deal though, e-mail the head of the company, as they had getting customer service complaints and will usually have someone at the top of the corporate ladder handle the situation... thus it will get resolved faster.

I try to stick to email or web chat as much as possible if offered. Holy cow, the people they hire seem to be so dumb. Nobody can think anymore and everyone is just a script reader. How is it, that I call on a $100,000 mortgage and I get bounced around, yet I call Apple about my $200 phone and I can get a quick solution. I would say I waste about 3 weeks a year, taking the entire day off just to have the expectation that I will be on hold all day long.

I called Equifax the other to get a refund on a product that doesn't work. They use call centers in India which just bounce you around until you give up. My problem eventually was solved after I disputed with my bank, but that also had a bunch of transfers.

[davewill]

Change banks. My local credit union doesn't do that. Neither does T-Mobile for my cell phone. I call, they answer and fix. The local cable company however...

[Leherself]

Change banks. My local credit union doesn't do that. Neither does T-Mobile for my cell phone. I call, they answer and fix. The local cable company however...

This. I don't do business with companies with crap customer service unless I have no other choice. I've had nothing but good experiences with my primary bank. I didn't have any control over who my mortgage ended up with, so I'm stuck with Wells Fargo for that, but at least they have local branches where I can bite people's ears off in person when needed . Unless you're in a situation where it'd cost you thousands to change who you're working with, or there's some sort of monopoly and no one else provides that service in your area, I would walk away and find a better bank. Furthermore, I would also write a detailed letter to that particular business telling them why I was leaving. They should know that their incompetence is driving people away.

[videogamesrock]

I try not to do business with companies with crappy service, sometimes I have no choice. For example it seems like I'm in limbo land with my health insurance. I've been trying to get that renewed for 45 days now. It seems like the only form of communication they respond to is by snail mail. But it is really bad all over, so many dumb people are hired at these jobs. Just tonight I was on the phone with someone who I swear was drunk. He worked for the health exchange and it sounded like Mardi Gras in the background.

[superpotsky]

I'm currently doing a research on this topic "call center agents overseas" and it's very interesting. Citigroup, Chase, Bank of America, American Express, Wells Fargo and other financial institutions, also Insurance companies, even Safeway and many more American companies are outsourcing customer services / human resources jobs to the Philippines and India. Philippines is now overtaking call center jobs because of the cheap labor. The PH agents gets paid $250-300/month whereas American call center agents salary is $1500+ monthly so when you call 1800# expect to be run around and low quality of customer service.

[dfrecore]

I always ask to speak to someone in the U.S. I've heard that they HAVE to transfer you back to the U.S. when that happens, although I can't believe that's true. But, for whatever reason, it seems to do the trick. I've also heard that you can ask to speak to someone who speaks English as their first language. You can say that you have trouble understanding people with accents because you're hard of hearing, and they're supposed to help there too (disability).

Even with U.S. customer service though, it's full of dopes. So when I don't get a decent answer right away, I either ask to speak to their manager, or hang up and call back.

Obviously this doesn't need to be done every time you call, but when you know in advance that it's going to be an issue, or you've had problems in the past, just go right here. I don't waste time anymore. First, always ask for the person's name, ask them to spell it, and write it down. If they don't give you their last name, ask for their identifying number so it's very clear who you've talked to. Also ask for their job title and department. That, seems to have an effect. Tell them you're writing it down for future reference. Use their name a couple of times so they know you know it. Then, if they don't help you, tell them that you'll be speaking to their supervisor, and going up the chain, and getting everyone's name, so that when you write a letter to the president of the company, he/she will know exactly who to have a discussion with about not doing their job.

It also helps to know the higher-up state/federal department that's in charge of the company, so that you can tell them you'll be reporting them if they don't solve your problem.

For phone/cable/utilities, it's the PUC (Public Utilities Commission)

For insurance, it's your State Insurance Commissioner (my mom just had to complain to the CA Ins Comm, and you should see the hoops the company is jumping through all of a sudden - although she also got chastised for "reporting us without giving us a chance to fix the problem" to which my mom replied, "If you'd done your job in the first plan, I wouldn't have reported you at all."

For your bank, there will be a state department - mine is the CA Department of Business Oversight, yours may be something else. The Federal department is the Federal Reserve.

Be armed with the info you need ahead of time, and when it's going to take longer than you think necessary, just shut that person down and move on up to the next person. UP, not over. Not a different department. Tell them you need to speak to the manager of their department specifically so they can't transfer you to another department, ask the manager's name and title. Again, when they know you have written down the information and plan to use it later if need be, it seems to help a lot.

Good luck!

[PonyGirl93]

As someone who used to work in a call center... I still have no answers

Mostly, I would say to email or chat, as mentioned. Usually more experienced people are put on email and chat. Also, if you email and get a worthless response, reply to it and ask your question in more detail. Email replies go into a different queue, which is, again, worked by even more experienced people (under the assumption that whoever answered it first didn't do it properly.)

If possible, get a reference number or a case number & if you call back tell them there's already documentation in the system. Sometimes it helps. Sometimes it doesn't. Some of the more worthless call centers don't even have cases.

I worked at a call center with actually good customer service, short hold times, etc, so I don't have too much insight. If I had stayed after they outsourced and laid off all their local reps, I might have better info