Today I had to fight with a company which, as far as I am concerned, is quite nicely taking the piss out of us. I now realize that even in the companies that do not have the call centre/customer services on the other side of the planet, the departments are totally separated, specially those most in contact with the client: the one actually producing the service and the one receiving our complaints and tantrums.
Otherwise I can not understand that getting angry with them is so useless and the service is so non-existent, and the fact that they so efficiently hang up the telephone on you the moment your voice sounds more upset, disregarding the very important information that you are giving them right there, and without which it is impossible to advance an inch in the problem solving process.
I was explaining my grievances to the young lady in this call centre for the n-th time, and she simply would not listen, she could only repeat, like an answering machine “we are trying to solve its problem at this very moment, ma’am” “my colleague is dealing with your request right now, madam”. The poor girl had to put me on hold every time I asked her something in order to ask some one else, or whenever my voice was raised resoundingly. “They receive very good training indeed”, I thought, because the result is they do not bother themselves more than strictly necessary, sometimes even missing important information the person at the paying end of the communication is giving, and no effort is made to establish communication with that paying end. The result for me in this case has been a greater frustration, but I suppose that it will have meant a smaller danger of stomach ulcer for her, and I might have to feel glad for her.
But how sad it is that we have got to a society where the lowest rank is paid simply to receive the angry complaints and annoyances to pass part of that information to the technician. If they are receiving shouts for eight hours a day, it is therefore not surprising that they need mechanisms like hanging up the telephone when the client complains too much, counting the times s/he calls passing him/her with a technician the eighth time s/he calls. I think all this is degrading for all involved: the customer, the shouts receiver and the technician.
And I bet that in the Annual General Meeting of shareholders the big cats do not mention any of the three, and they fill their mouths with expansion and profits.
