tonirosesmiller

You can find people with actual technical knowledge that work at these outsource locations, it's just their numbers will be low. You will find people there from all levels of education even people with a master degree.

If you call in and be polite, you can get the best results. If however the agent you are speaking to is just a complete and total idiot, then your best bet is to hang up and call back and hope to get someone who not only is nice, but has a brain.

I do work at a call center and have worked there for years. I have worked on different accounts (different main clients) and had to relearn my job and metrics a number of times. I know there are idiot agents and if I am trying to help a customer and the agent I need to transfer to is an idiot, I will place the customer back on hold and keeping hanging up on agents until I find one with a brain. However if the customer just wants to keep ranting, and throw all logic out the window, and I need to transfer them to another department, then that customer will get transferred to the first agent I get. If the customer is unhappy, he/she can call back in and try the whole process again.

csr_hell

I went out of my way to help every customer, not just those who were nice to me, because frankly, most customers weren't. Customers used to ask for my direct extension, which I would have gladly given them if I'd had one. After a few months, though, even though I am technically knowledgeable and I like to help people, and I'm single and didn't really mind the pay so much, I got tired of having to fight for my job due to how screwed up your metrics get when you actually help people.

One thing I brought away from this experience, however, is the Residential number to get the button-push prompts instead of that evil IVR system. That number is 866-268-4630. Press 1 for Tech Support, 2 for Billing, 3 for Orders, and 4 for the Retention department. We weren't supposed to give this number out to customers, but I gave it out all the time anyway to anyone who complained about the IVR.

VermilionSparrow

The bar was really, really low, however. Basically if you showed up consistently and followed the rules you pretty much had it nailed.

duskglow

I'm not entirely sure why you feel entitled to "leverage" in dealing with Verizon's customer service. The confessions post was interesting, illuminating, and provided not one, but two very helpful tips that certainly better equip you as a consumer:

1. Don't buy Verizon phones or service if you don't want to deal with these particular tricks. Research alternate phone companies and see if you can find out if things are any different with them. Voting with your wallet against poor management of the customer service department is consumer power at its best.

2. Be polite and avoid the angry, abusive designation that makes you least likely to be helped, as per the post.

If you heed these two suggestions, and have a legitimate need, you should have no trouble dealing with customer service. It's when you're asking for something you don't deserve that you need tricks and "leverage," and if you're into asking for what you have no legitimate reason to demand, I suggest you leverage your phone back into the receive and re-examine your priorities.

Saydrah

MikeTylka1

Bottom line is, many customers want service the company is unwilling to provide. The nicest way possible to tell the customer no is send them in circles until they give up. Try going to most larger company websites to find their customer service telephone number. They've likely buried it on a backpage, or require you contact them via e-mail first, just to get to speak to someone. Fair? Maybe not, but effective? Yes.

jackjackjack

I've been a CSR for 10 years, and everything in this article is true. But in addition, what needs to be said here is that customers need to take some responsibility for themselves. When the company messes up, that's one thing, but 90% of a tech support agent's calls are about stupid questions that the customer could have answered themselves with a 5 minute search on Google. So when instead of taking charge of the problem and trying to learn how to fix it themselves, these customers get lazy and want someone else to fix it over and over, it's not hard to see why so many tech agents are frustrated all the time.

Don't be an idiot. If you have a problem, spend 5 minutes and try to fix it yourself, BEFORE you call tech support. If you have no intention of following the advice of the tech support agent, or if you're already convinced you know more than they do about the problem, THEN DON'T CALL. I can't begin to count how many times someone has called me with a problem only to refuse to take any of the steps I asked them to follow.

Frankly I think if you can't figure out how to use a piece of technology, you should not expect someone else to figure it out for you. License the internet, and license computers, so that Billy-Bob won't ever have to worry about whether he can check his email, and neither will I.

handle2001

I had been on CQ for a while... our equivalent of the 'imaginary supervisor' ... we'd take call from other techs for their questions as well as escalations. It was by far a better position to be in than on the floor as a regular tech. Well, one day I was delayed getting back from a short break by a manager... and then was chided by my direct manager for being late (albeit, only by a bit.) The net effect would be that I'd be taken off CQ for no less than a month. So basically...I told her 'What I'll do is go get something for supper... and when I get back, I'll let you know if I even work here anymore.' I hit the local taco bell, took about 45 minutes to myself, went back and laid it on her that I'd had it. She asked if it was because I had a problem with her (which I didn't, she was like the only nice person in the whole place, but had the misfortunate of having to be my supervisor that day.)

As far as I am concerned, no amount of pay is worth the abuse we techs had to take in that kind of job...

jeturcotte

--Again, true. Many irate callers can save themselves the trouble if they only bother to read the manual. Then again, many would be out of a job if people learned about that. ^_^

Milliardo

Anyway, Our company ran a lot like how described here, it all started out well and good and we had all kinds of queues and systems for dealing with customers in a kind friendly way. It is difficult to offer this kind of service. You have to have some sort of metric to measure people and reward good agents and work with bad ones. The handle time was used as well as quality reviews.

Since my group wrote and managed the software for the phone system and customer service system we called whenever they suspected people of dumping etc. One tactic used was to have agents call directly into the queue from common phones or cell phones to pad down times. Another popular one was dumping. We tracked down and fired an agent from our highest level support group, and highest paid, for dumping calls down a level.

Anyway the company soon discovered you can't offer high customer service AND low prices and since no one wants to pay higher prices for better service they had to lower service.

By the way CLECs still tend to offer better service on average than the incumbent carrier (ILEC) like AT&T or Quest or whomever is left. If you are a business customer, residential customers don't make enough for companies to care about, and you want better service google up a CLEC in your area. I guarantee there probably is one and they are just itching to get your business.

Do expect to have more problems with conversions, however, as CLECs have to depend on the ILEC to make the final connection and since the ILECs are loosing business they make it as difficult as possible to make the move.

Iowa Consumer

Being polite is reciprocated by politeness. Being an ass will be reciprocated in turn. True story: Had a customer who had internet service, it was working fine, the only issue was streaming video on one particular site. I assured her that if that was the only site that was having problems, then it was most likely a problem with that site. She called me an idiot and asked for my supervisor. I complied, the supervisor (yes, an actual supervisor) tried to walk through step by step to troubleshoot the problem. She ended up calling the sup a moron because the sup didn't put "www" at the beginning of a URL that she was reading off to her, then she hung up the phone. Supervisor's response was to sit at her computer and reboot the cx's data circuit every few minutes. Is it right? No. Does it happen? Yes.

Simply put: Hey, might be good if you were nice to people that you require help from.

cambiata

What? We get one week and a 13 minute handle time.

rabiddachshund

A lot of what you listed is exactly what I did at a outsource company, or you have someone from upper management from a outsource company.

Folks remember that Verizon is a volume based business so the 100 people they piss off today are replaced by the 100 people who just picked up their service.

daddyman77

7. "The Supervisor You're Talking To Is Not Actually A Supervisor". Yes, most definitely true. Current supervisors at my call center are just Level 3 agents who were transferred to the new agency

6. The Metrics that Rule our Lives
a)Handle Time: Current maximum Average Handling Time(AHT) is 16 minutes. Whenever an agent goes over than he gets chided constantly by his floor supervisor. Myself? I don't care less for it. I got caught hanging up on people and was punished for it. So now I will be with a customer as long as it takes. My own personal record is four hours.
b)Hold Time: Current maximum holding time is 5 minutes at a time, but we're supposed to refresh customers every 2-3 minutes

5. To meet Handling time...: Myself, I have an intense dislike for agents who transfer people without warning. It means I know have a potentially irate person on the other side of the line. On my own end, it is likely the agent did not save his own ticket right there and then, but will save it - usually - one or two hours later, after I have saved my own ticket. To the system it looks like the customer called back after we disconnected, and it affects my First Call Resolution (FCR) rate.

4. Customer Service Is More Important Than Technical Ability. Yes, most definitely true. Myself I'm way better at technical resolutions. Got a computer issue, whether it's windows, mac or linux? I'll help you out. Router issue? Bouncing back between Verizon DSL and your router manufacturer's tech support? I'll help you out. But you get helped MY WAY, and excuse me for interrupting but let's get back to the point. If you want to complain you're not talking to the right agent. This is a line I actually use, and use it often.

3. "Premium" Technical Support Means They Had 1 More Week Of Training. Also true, although we don't have any of those agents at my own call center. If you get me *and* you're nice to me - something I have emphazised before in my comments - I will help you out, regardless of the problem you have. Oh, I'm forgetting something here... IF YOU HAVE A MACINTOSH COMPUTER, PREMIUM TECHNICAL SUPPORT WILL *NOT* HELP YOU. They will transfer you to the main macintosh tech support queue.

2. "Quality," The Department Everyone Hates. Yes, most definitely. Once, one of their kind told me it was because of people like me our call center wasn't in first place of the standings. You see, when a call center is on the top three of rankings management gets a nice fat CASH bonus. The people in Quality Assurance get their bonus regardless of what happens. Me? If the QA guy says I messed up on something during a call, I get the shaft.

1. We Must Implant The Word Outstanding In Customer Brain's To Score Higher On Satisfaction Surveys. The specific verbiage goes something like "On a scale from 1 to 10, with 10 the high score, how would you rate my own personal customer service to you". Then the customer is supposed to rate it. Now, if someone hangs up before I can ask it, I get screwed. If I don't ask it, I get screwed. If the customer bases the rating on the resolution of the call rather than my "customer service", I get screwed, specially if the issue wasn't fixed. It is the single most hated part of the call for us agents.

Now, whoever sent this in saved me the work of thinking up what to send... but still, for me it's important people know what's going on. I'm somewhat doing this in spite because of office politics, since I got transferred to the morning shift and getting up at 5am to be at work at 6am is no fun for me. My supervisor dislikes me and would love to have me fired. I recently got monitored live by Verizon and then I was told I had been rude to the customer... but hey, if people call in just to have me listen to their own troubleshooting instead of performing the officially verizon-approved troubleshooting it's fine by me. It'll just make my AHT go up and up. Yes, I know you all hate troubleshooting, but If I don't show we actually did it on my notes your ticket gets closed if it was escalated and I get the shaft.

I type this as I get ready to get up at 4am and be at work at 5am, since my country is an hour behind the US, after an unjustified two-day absence. I could use one of my sick days... but nah. I'll just look at my supervisor in the eye and say MYOB when he asks why I was gone.

Xeelee

If you treat me respectfully I am WILLING give up my outstanding review in order to make SURE your complaint is resolved. I amswer to a "higher power" than my supervisor and take pride in doing the best job I can with the limited tools I am provided. I take my job seriously & nothing makes my day more than making a frustrated person happy. ( I love passing calls to my supervisor so that you can tell him what a great job I did. )

If not, I'm not your therapist and frankly @ the rate of pay I'm making I can't afford a therapist for all the agony uncivilized people heap upon us.

Besides, didn't your Momma ever teach you common courtesy ?

AMetamorphosis

I just wanted to add that this is so true. I, too, worked in a call center and always tried to do my job the best that I could even if it meant sacrificing my numbers. One time, someone threatened my life over the phone because he felt it my fault one of the companies that we partnered with wasn't fixing their equipment. I had absolutely no control over anything and the issue was actually with the other company altogether. I don't think any electronics are worth threatening a human life and it was very upsetting. I turned him in to the company that he worked for (and calling on behalf of) and he got fired. I don't think that anyone working in customer service should have to take verbal abuse from their clientele. People working in all types of customer service should be treated with respect and just remember that they probably don't get paid very well to get yelled at all the time.

joebob778

Tech support will never get better guys. You as a consumer will pay for it if it does. I could write a novel about the industry's gaping flaws and how the whole system could be completely steamlined. But this country only likes to look at the bottom line. Companies will say "how can I mak my wallet fat" And until this coutry can look beyond the dollar it will no doubt continue.

What can you do? READ THE FUCKING MANUAL.

kismatastrophy

Rando

Greg P

1) The first we knew of a new phone release was when we started getting calls on it. No training, no advance notice, nada.

2) We did not have the actual phones to look at. Nearly all the phones have differant menus/buttons. All we had to work from were screen shots from older models. Which of course had differant menus

3) Our training for the Vcast service was watching the online advertisement video (about 90 sec long) and looking a screen capture from that video. That was it. Go support it.

4) 3 outbound phone lines availible for outbound calls to differant deparments. No no, not 3 per agent, 3 total... for about 100 agents.

5) Read only database access. The Knowledge base (the instructions that the agents had to follow) required resetting functions in a computer program that we had no access to. We had to call a differant Verizon dept. to get someone that did have access to that system. See item 4. Most of the time I had better luck searching HowardForums and TreoAddicts than I did with our internal KB.

6) Scripting, Ever wonder why agents sound like idiots when opening/ending a call? There are call opening scripts and closing call scripts. We had to read them VERBATUM. We were written up for changing/missing even one word.

7) Ever wonder why there is ALWAYS a hold time? It's because hold times aren't allowed to drop to zero. If the hold time drops to zero, agents are pulled off the phone. This however; almost never happens because of agent turnover causing there to not be enough agents, thus 30+ min. hold times. Our company was penalized if the service level was too high.

8)Metrics. 15min average call? I would have given a testicle for 15 min A.C.T. Try 6, with 30 sec. after call time

9) Supervisors that will not take escalations no matter how much the customer screams obscenities at you.

10) General BS. Things like; not turning the Air conditioning during a heat wave and not allowing us to open the doors or turn on fans. It got up over 90 degrees in the office. Things like; writing employees up for obeying the State Patrol's warning to stay home during a blizzard.
Things like; forcing people that are eating lunch/on break to go back on the phone. For this reason, I ALWAYS left the office to eat lunch.

Leohat

unklegwar

Mike Daisey, author of "Dog Years: Doing Time at Amazon Com" admitted to getting his average handle time down by simply hanging up on people. Unfortunately he miscalculated one period and got his handle time down to twenty seconds.

SuperJdynamite

metalhaze

Flame

toridactyl

Although he never did solve it (not from lack of trying), he was friendly, courteous, and get this, he called from their head office in Singapore! I'm in Canada.

Didn't have the heart to tell him that I payed a total of $1.00 (plus tax) for the router (purchase price of $30.99 with a $30 mail-in rebate).

killerbean

danseuse322

danseuse322

--I so agree with this. Metrics are evil--they are hell for the agents and does not help in supporting issues. It can actually ruin a company's otherwise good reputation because the agent has to hit his metrics but fail to support the customer.

Milliardo

bt0133

tamoko

Fist-o

boss_lady

boss_lady

elf6c

I fail to see how this was funny/tip. If the technician felt his/her life was in danger, by all means he needs to put that in the ticket notes. As for closing out the ticket and not specifying if it was the actual customer who pulled a gun on the technician or a passerby, it should have been noted but the ticket shouldn't have been closed. I wonder if authorities were notified or if this was just a hoax.

Imakeholesinu

Bay State Darren

strokz1

Catperson

SoCalGNX

nevin

I work with tech support(different industry altogether), and when the customer gets abusive, he gets BANNED from the center.

And your frustration with Verizon does not have to be vented on a poor tech support. It shows your lack of education and respect to a HUMAN.

Victo

Also, I don't see anything about how Verizon's tech support center is housed in Bangalore. I don't think I've EVER spoken to a Verizon tech without a thick Indian accent.

Echodork

@SVreader:

What you're saying is true. If your CSR is administratively crippled and cannot help you, it does no good to bark up that tree. But what does that have to do with this post? The OP gave us little insight into the company besides the specifics of how they are "graded". I will spare you the blow-by-blow of why nearly all of his "confessions" are useless and go with the summary: I feel absolutely no more equipped to deal with Verizon's customer service now than I did before I read this post.

So, that leads me to my question: what's the point?

Hambriq

MissTic

Mainly because the quality of your service depends a lot on those factors that may seem irrelevant to you! I cannot begin to count the number of calls I had where I had to break some metric (time limits, compensation limits, using particular phraseology, subverting the computer system even) in order to actually help a person who I felt had been wronged and deserved better service. It's ridiculous that so many CSRs feel like they have to choose between proper service and keeping their jobs, and the main consequence is that CSRs who actually give a crap end up quitting, leaving customers with gormless idiots who couldn't care less as the only ones to deal with. These measures which seem like they should only effect the reps themselves in the end do have consequences for us all.

And yes, it's true, the caller's attitude shouldn't matter to a truly good CSR. But seriously, when choosing between risking your job or taking the safe route and toeing the company line (which usually isn't terribly beneficial to the customer), would you choose the former to help someone who just called you a f***ing piece of s***? I know I never did...

weeborg

Catperson

I just moved my Verizon DSL service from my old apartment to a new one. The rep was very nice and helpful. BUT she also signed me up for their online storage and security package. I do recall telling her on the phone that I didn't want it at all. But she kinda played it down and said that I would need to actually install the software to sign up for the service. Wrong.

I logged into my Verizon account and saw that the service was added. It was a 30 day free trial, and around $8 a month afterwards. Luckily, there was a "Decline" button. And I was able to remove it from account.

It really sucks when tech support reps are also sales reps.

LatherRinseRepeat

sleze69

I believe that he wasn't just brushing me off because he then proceeded to call or talk to anyone he could trying to figure out why the hell my DSL wouldn't activate.

ornj

stephenjames716

Dude, calm down! I really enjoyed reading that article!

Dooley

"The most angry and vulgar customers are the least likely to get helped. When dealing with customer support please try to explain your frustration in a civilized manner, and be persistent if you need to. Just remember swearing and insulting us only gets you put on the back burner."

chrisfromnl

Dover-II

Ya hear that Mr. AT&T/refurb iPhone dude??? This is applicable to EVERYONE- not just Verizon. I generally get everything I want when I call a company because I'm a sweetheart that acts like the rep knows everything. They like feeling appreciated, and they like feeling smart.

homerjay

Clipdat

It does no good to say, "I don't care what the working conditions are, just help me," if the CSR is, in fact, prevented from helping customers in order to save the company money. The real problem is that these huge near-monopolies are set up so that they have no incentive or pressure to treat consumers fairly--and that's not going to be solved by yelling at CSRs.

SVreader

zibby

It's not really a chicken-and-egg problem. It's actually pretty simple. As a CSR (of ANY company), your job is to help the customer, no matter how loud, irate, angry, etc. they may be.

The customer is the customer. They are not bound by their job description to be level-headed. You, on the other hand, are. If you choose to treat a customer differently because of their attitude, you are a bad CSR.

Now, on the other hand, I'm not naive. I know my attitude as a customer can affect how I am treated. That's why I don't have an issue with the author of this post throwing in that note. But there is a major difference between explaining how things are, and then trying to defend poor CSRs or put the blame onto the customers.

Hambriq

nursetim

gqcarrick

SVreader

I think maybe one out of ten of these "Confessions" posts have any kind of useful information. What did this post tell us that we either don't already know or have any use for? Let's just go down this list for a moment.

7. The Supervisors Aren't Really Supervisors: Thanks, but I could pretty much have guessed this on my own. Plus, is this helpful to us as consumers? See #6.

6. The Metrics: Why is this important? Does it do us any good to know how you are graded? It's not like we can use it as leverage.

5. Dirty Tricks: Again, why is this important?

4. Customer Service vs. Technical Knowledge: How is this knowledge helpful to us?

3. "Premium Tech Support" is a Sham: See above: How can we use this information usefully? Chide the person who is trying to help us for their lack of experience? The author admits that this is an "awesome service", so what's the problem?

2. The Metrics pt. 2: Why do we need to know how you are graded?

1. "Outstanding": Thanks. Do I really need another reason to ignore the scripted hellos and goodbyes of the CSRs?

I enjoy the "Confession" posts when they actually have useful information. However, the majority of them have degenerated into self-indulgent job descriptions. Remember authors, the point here isn't to tell the world where you are coming from. It's to give us information that we can use. Typing up the specific inner-workings of your company helps with nothing except whatever bizarre ego inflation you get from seeing your post featured on Consumerist.

Hambriq

1. Why does my DSL service just go out at random times?
2. When my neighbors and I are all without service, why am I never told there's an outage when I call?
3. Why do I have to reset my modem once a month to keep a connection for more than 15 seconds?
4. Why am I grilled about whether or not I'm sharing my connection regardless of what I'm calling for?

luckybob343

so I was "transferred" to the supervisor "department" and was given a number to use to callback with today after work. (after spending another 2 hours last night at it I was fried). I think I will be using the business line instead tonight.

I ended up buying a new router and actually had it working yesterday without a password prompt to get into the wireless network. Silly me...I called in to get help setting that up and the tech f*&ked everything up and ended up telling me my router is bad. (the brand new one that worked fine earlier). he told me he was going to get a linksys rep on the phone to help US out...when in reality he transferred me to some number at linksys that nobody picks up. I finally hung up after waiting 30 min on hold.

BURN IN HELL VERIZON TS!

stephenjames716

Terminal-Alkyne

howie_in_az

Then Verizon kept emailing me, asking to confirm my order. THEN Verizon started CALLING with automated reminders to agree to the package.

Finally after like three months, Verizon gave up.

Very honest, Verizon!

snowpuff

Usually the tone of the call is started by the customer, not the CSR. Trust me, more than anything we would love to answer your question/solve your issue. That way we don't need to talk to you anymore.

Abusiveelusive

mgy

1) Handle Time: I worked billing (which also had to handle tech support for the digital boxes) and our handle time was 5 minutes! It was ridiculously small, and most people were only able to meet it by pulling the same garbage you mentioned.

2) The internal phone #'s: We had such huge problems trying to re-direct customers to the right department. It seemed like everyday we had a new number that we were supposed to use. Then you'd call the number and they'd say that they couldn't (wouldn't) help the customer. I'd spend 20 minutes trying to find the right department for some poor customer wanting to get something fixed, then get yelled at by my "floor Support" (fancy term for supervisor) for spending so long on a call.

But I think stories like this are a good thing, since if the customers can get an inside view of how things work when they call up with a problem, it'll given them a better idea of how to go about getting their problem solved. And yes, if someone called me up yelling and screaming, I'd go out of my way to do as little for them as allowed, whereas if they were nice, I'd bed-over backwards and break all sorts of rules to help.

AddMan

Seems like CSRs always chide us to "be polite" or "act civilized," while they continue to ignore/deride/coerce/abuse/lie to/degrade/hang up on/back-burner their customers. Don't they ever wonder why people aren't always polite to them or don't always act civilized? It's not just because Verizon (et al.) sucks.

It's because the Verizon "suck sundae" comes with an asshat-CSR cherry on top.

DrBologna

DrGirlfriend

It's annoying when you work in customer service, but to keep your job you have to do things customers hate because the company tells you it's good customer service.

SVreader

"The most angry and vulgar customers are the least likely to get helped. When dealing with customer support please try to explain your frustration in a civilized manner, and be persistent if you need to. Just remember swearing and insulting us only gets you put on the back burner."

Abusiveelusive

rainmkr

greatgoogly

brew400