Calling in to Call Centers

A few days ago I ran across a blog during my entrecard drops. While I agree with some of it, I definitely have to stand up for myself and my coworkers on a few points.

First, if you call me, I give you my real first name. I say " Thank you for calling blah blah blah, This is Vanessa, How may I help you?" If you ask for my last name i will give you the initial but that's all. Why? Well see it's like this.......There are weird ass people in the world. DUH. I can't tell you how many times, i've been proposed to, asked out, asked to go fishing, you name it. Some are harmless, others, not so much.

Now I know you're thinking, "Nessa, how could someone find you?" So lets talk about that.
You call me, during small talk you ask me where i'm from.
I say Texas.
You say oh i have friends in Dallas.
I say cool, i'm not that far from there.
Sometime in the call you say, i'd like your last name for my notes
I give it to you
If you REALLY want to, i gave you enough to possibly find me or at least bug the hell out of anyone with my name in any close vicinity to Dallas.

So, ask for agent ID's, but don't get pissed off if we refuse to give you our last name. It's for our protection and you don't need them anyway. I laugh with Hunni and the kids over jackasses that call, but i don't give them your information either. So I see that as fair.

Next, believe it or not, some agents answering calls on 800 numbers are working from home. When they say they don't have a supervisor available, they aren't lying. The great thing about this is, that if we don't have a Supervisor to transfer to, we are usually capable of handling your request or we have someone handy who can, they just can't TALK to you. So stop acting like a 4 year old whining " you aren't my mommy" or ummmmmm supervisor in this case and just tell us what the hell you want. If they ARE in a call center and they say a Supervisor isn't available, guess who told them to say that? That means the agent is doing what he/she was told. Nothing more, nothing less. So don't get mad at them, get mad at the jerk who got promoted.

Last, this is to help you, if you call to order something you saw on an infomercial, don't give that credit card # til you are positive that you want to order this item. Reason being, some of the less reputable companies tell their agents that if you get hacked off and hang up, to put the charge through anyway. They tell them to assume you were disconnected and still want the offer they called in about. So if you can order it online..........do it, at least you maintain some control.

There, now I feel better. Did you learn something? ::GRIN::

Nessa