Dropped Laptops Saturday, Apr 5 2008 

Record Book and call center and tech support , , , , , fishnut89 10:21 pm

Here’s one for the CITCC Record Book: A customer called in awhile back to tell me he dropped his laptop, but the good news, according to the customer, was that it only fell two feet before it hit the floor. Now if he could just get all of the buttons back on the keyboard in the right places. No matter, the hard drive was destroyed. “But I only dropped it two feet”.

I was barely able to refrain from asking how high it came up on the second bounce.

Another classic moment was the caller who informed me that he fell down the stairs with his laptop. After thumping down the steps it came to rest on the landing. Needless to say this happens and just as needless to say is the fact that it’s a total loss when it does.

 

Bill Collecting and A Christmas Card Friday, Apr 4 2008 

Record Book and call center and collections , , , fishnut89 9:15 pm

My first forays into the madness of call center life were in the field of bill collecting (Please spare me the hate mail, I wasn’t very good at it, which is why I’ve had all the other jobs in call centers.) I did truly hate being a bill collector and certain consumers that I had to call only enhanced my displeasure with the job.

They used to tell you when you went to work at a collection agency that debtors were to be called consumers. One consumer whose account was assigned to me was on a weekly payment plan. I had to call him/her each week for payment arrangements and each time I got an earful. Consumers would sometimes mail a check or money order and often included “love letters” with their payment. One day when the mail came I was handed a Christmas card from the consumer and in it was a note thanking me for helping him/her get out of debt. I was stunned, of course. This was a rare occurrence, but that it happened at all is amazing.

 

Customer Tirade Friday, Apr 4 2008 

Record Book and call center and charity , , , , , fishnut89 9:04 pm

In the mid-1990’s I was doing a fund raising job raising money for a museum in Chicago. This was outbound calling to previous donors to the museum to ask for more money. The project was, ahem, interesting, because the database was outdated by about 50 years. Many calls went like this:

“Can I speak to ‘John Doe’ please?”

“Nope, he’s gone”

“Will he be home this evening?”

“Nope.”

“Tomorrow maybe?”

“Naw, he died in 1959. Who’s callin’”

After a month of that I was completely off guard when I called a certain person who cut me off in mid-sentence and flew into the most ridiculous tirade I’ve ever heard. He said that he was a database marketer himself and had offered to do this project for the museum and so on and he regaled me with stories of how he is the best in the country at fundraising and how he should have gotten the contract etc. For those of you who have never worked in the field, you aren;t allowed to just hang up on people, so I just sat there for about half the night listening to this guy rant. When he finally stopped to breathe I cut in and thanked him for his time.

 

What’s XP? Friday, Apr 4 2008 

Record Book and call center and tech support , , fishnut89 8:53 pm

Every now and then I get a call that is one for the record books. I don’t expect everybody to be experts on the use of their computer, that’s why I have a job after all. I do however expect you to be able to answer

“Ok, ma’am what operating system do you have ?”

“I don’t know”

“Is it XP?”

“What’s XP”

“That’s an operating system”

“You mean on the computer?”