Strap yourselves in, this is likely to be a long one. First off, I saw five ayem in the morning for about the first time in at least a year - had swapped scheduled days off with a guy who had his kids (divorcee I'm guessing) today as opposed to Wednesday two weeks away, and I was doing bugger all with my time off, but as part of that swap had to take his actual shift for the day - and people actually VOLUNTEER to get up that early in the morning, for chrissake it was still dark outside LOL.
And hopefully it will be another year at least before I wake up that early again LOL. The whole atmosphere of the quarter past six in the morning train was almost that of an overtired airport lounge late at night or early morning, five or ten timezones out of whack - you know, the neon lights, the people trying to doze with their necks in bad positions, and just the overwhelming sense of jetlag around the place. And trying to avoid the nutters nodding, shaking their heads, smiling and winking in their sleep LOL.
Sat in the park outside our building for ten minutes at lunch. Just in major relax mode. Looking up at the sky through the branches and palm fronds it was pure azure (if I have the right word) - the kind of blue you only get on beachside holidays or on jigsaw puzzles. Not a cloud in the sky, the sun a white spot but not hot, just enough to keep the chill off. Looking down, the grass had been neatly cut, with an ibis looking to see whether I was likely to give food, before wandering off to find a better food source. I could almost see the bird giving me a cheeky grin as it nosed around - and it had a mate scoping me out from the tree as well. Ibis as lager louts, well it could happen couldn't it LOL. The light scent of the flowerbeds - just one of those near perfect moments. If it wasn't for the sound of the traffic (downtown central Brissie) it could almost have been perfect.
Got back into the office and the afternoon went pear shaped big time. When a customer rings in and says they have been trying to talk to someone about their problem for five hours and haven't gotten anywhere, should you really transfer them through to the 'appropriate' section, or should you take ownership, especially if the problem is something you can fix? And then, on a secondary and tertiary follow up call now that the customer has your name, are you really going to fob them off at that stage, even if it is a more complex issue? Especially if the change that went through yesterday (from the 'appropriate' section) was fucked up in the first place grrr. And on those secondary and tertiary calls, she did not have my number, the people who took the calls put them in the too hard basket and I'm obviously an easy touch. Grr.
The thing was that it needed further investigation, that would require a follow up section to sort it out - now me being primarily on the phones, I had done my bit of investigation getting the initial (minor) query sorted out, anything more goes to the follow up section, by rerouting in our work queues. Now even with the best will in the world, you can't do that major an investigation in half hour blocks, which was how many times this customer was ringing back (and no one else knew how to do anything?). Sure, I admit I made a mistake in not taking the issue to a superior as soon as it got complicated, but hmm, around lunchtime on the floor, team leaders are a bit thin on the ground. Anyways, when I did take it to the team leader, on the third call when the customer was screaming at me (hate it when that happens), the team leader made me feel like I had done something wrong by taking ownership in the first place, and for not forwarding it directly to the people that fucked the order up in the first place.
Hey, if a customer has been trying to talk to us for five hours, in my book that is a customer of our company, not each individual subsection GRRR. To external customers I thought that we were supposed to give a seamless company experience, sure transferring is fine, but not to any extent.
Second thing to go wrong with the afternoon was, again, an issue with customer ownership - one section rang through to me, saying that the customer on the other line wanted something that I knew a secondary section was supposed to do - oh, they had already spoken to the secondary section that had advised that I was the best to talk to. I said can I talk to my team leader about this, to which the reply was oh the customer has been on line for a while, can't you take the call and figure things out from there, stupid muggins here said sure, again taking ownership for something that wasn't particularly mine, and the stupid bitch brought the customer through with the phrase 'Hi, I've got Paul on the line to help you, and he will put you on hold before being able to do your order'. I was just in TOTAL fucking SHOCK at that, whatever we say to each other internally you do NOT say that sort of thing in front of a customer GRRRR. We are a call centre, we do NOT open with the line we have to put you on hold right from the start.
And the cherry on the top was me making a stupid mistake (as usual), not checking an order fully - yeah, I will take it on the chin and such, but the person sent the notification of my mistake back by email with the title 'this isn't the first time'. Now how the HELL am I supposed to react to that? Is it like a threat? Will the Krays do me over if I do it just one more time? Krays as in sixties London gangsters LOL. How fucking rude LOL.
Vented to KRE a bit, who agreed that the only mistake I made today out of those three cock ups was not to take the first case to a team leader earlier. And LDU who had been sick the past three days was at work today, and basically said what are you doing helping that customer, it's not ours, and later in the day was a hint of I told you so about the whole thing. I was near meltdown by the end of it, and am I the only one in the company that takes ownership when a customer is unhappy LOL? Man, I was steamed by the end of work, and just remembering it all even this many hours later still has me hot, obviously.
Let off a bit of steam by catching Sin City at the movies half an hour after work. Was a bit of legwork to get there on time, and I missed half of the first trailer (Wedding Crashers, had seen it last week) but got there in time from then on in. Sin City is awesome, simply awesome. Took a couple of scenes to get into - Josh Hartnett, despite Pearl Harbor, is actually an OK actor, and the prelim Bruce Willis story I was still getting used to the black white and colour (think Pleasantville with ultraviolence LOL), but as soon as Mickey Rourke's storyline came on, with the violence and action and all, I was sucked all the way in.
Also could have helped the gratuitous g-string shots LOL, mmm Carla Gugino, major eye candy find of the movie LOL. And yes, there is a string of drool coming from my mouth :) Clive Owen is having a blinder of a time at the moment movie wise, and Elijah Wood is totally creepy. Oh, and THAT'S where I have seen Nick Stahl before, Terminator 3 and Carnivale. Much more a comic book turned into a movie than a movie based on a comic book, if you know what I mean. Very much a boys movie - guns, gstrings, bullets and boobs.
Had a quick three minute raid into JB's after the movie - ten minutes to my bus with walking time to JB's and back as well, the bus had arrived by the time I got back. This week's selections are Black Hawk Down and 2001 A Space Odyssey, and yes, two more different movies you could not get I am sure. Got home and got most of the way through Black Hawk before parents decided to go to bed (well, Dad, as Mum isn't into war movies).
And on here, and still venting big time about the work thing :)
Pauly
And hopefully it will be another year at least before I wake up that early again LOL. The whole atmosphere of the quarter past six in the morning train was almost that of an overtired airport lounge late at night or early morning, five or ten timezones out of whack - you know, the neon lights, the people trying to doze with their necks in bad positions, and just the overwhelming sense of jetlag around the place. And trying to avoid the nutters nodding, shaking their heads, smiling and winking in their sleep LOL.
Sat in the park outside our building for ten minutes at lunch. Just in major relax mode. Looking up at the sky through the branches and palm fronds it was pure azure (if I have the right word) - the kind of blue you only get on beachside holidays or on jigsaw puzzles. Not a cloud in the sky, the sun a white spot but not hot, just enough to keep the chill off. Looking down, the grass had been neatly cut, with an ibis looking to see whether I was likely to give food, before wandering off to find a better food source. I could almost see the bird giving me a cheeky grin as it nosed around - and it had a mate scoping me out from the tree as well. Ibis as lager louts, well it could happen couldn't it LOL. The light scent of the flowerbeds - just one of those near perfect moments. If it wasn't for the sound of the traffic (downtown central Brissie) it could almost have been perfect.
Got back into the office and the afternoon went pear shaped big time. When a customer rings in and says they have been trying to talk to someone about their problem for five hours and haven't gotten anywhere, should you really transfer them through to the 'appropriate' section, or should you take ownership, especially if the problem is something you can fix? And then, on a secondary and tertiary follow up call now that the customer has your name, are you really going to fob them off at that stage, even if it is a more complex issue? Especially if the change that went through yesterday (from the 'appropriate' section) was fucked up in the first place grrr. And on those secondary and tertiary calls, she did not have my number, the people who took the calls put them in the too hard basket and I'm obviously an easy touch. Grr.
The thing was that it needed further investigation, that would require a follow up section to sort it out - now me being primarily on the phones, I had done my bit of investigation getting the initial (minor) query sorted out, anything more goes to the follow up section, by rerouting in our work queues. Now even with the best will in the world, you can't do that major an investigation in half hour blocks, which was how many times this customer was ringing back (and no one else knew how to do anything?). Sure, I admit I made a mistake in not taking the issue to a superior as soon as it got complicated, but hmm, around lunchtime on the floor, team leaders are a bit thin on the ground. Anyways, when I did take it to the team leader, on the third call when the customer was screaming at me (hate it when that happens), the team leader made me feel like I had done something wrong by taking ownership in the first place, and for not forwarding it directly to the people that fucked the order up in the first place.
Hey, if a customer has been trying to talk to us for five hours, in my book that is a customer of our company, not each individual subsection GRRR. To external customers I thought that we were supposed to give a seamless company experience, sure transferring is fine, but not to any extent.
Second thing to go wrong with the afternoon was, again, an issue with customer ownership - one section rang through to me, saying that the customer on the other line wanted something that I knew a secondary section was supposed to do - oh, they had already spoken to the secondary section that had advised that I was the best to talk to. I said can I talk to my team leader about this, to which the reply was oh the customer has been on line for a while, can't you take the call and figure things out from there, stupid muggins here said sure, again taking ownership for something that wasn't particularly mine, and the stupid bitch brought the customer through with the phrase 'Hi, I've got Paul on the line to help you, and he will put you on hold before being able to do your order'. I was just in TOTAL fucking SHOCK at that, whatever we say to each other internally you do NOT say that sort of thing in front of a customer GRRRR. We are a call centre, we do NOT open with the line we have to put you on hold right from the start.
And the cherry on the top was me making a stupid mistake (as usual), not checking an order fully - yeah, I will take it on the chin and such, but the person sent the notification of my mistake back by email with the title 'this isn't the first time'. Now how the HELL am I supposed to react to that? Is it like a threat? Will the Krays do me over if I do it just one more time? Krays as in sixties London gangsters LOL. How fucking rude LOL.
Vented to KRE a bit, who agreed that the only mistake I made today out of those three cock ups was not to take the first case to a team leader earlier. And LDU who had been sick the past three days was at work today, and basically said what are you doing helping that customer, it's not ours, and later in the day was a hint of I told you so about the whole thing. I was near meltdown by the end of it, and am I the only one in the company that takes ownership when a customer is unhappy LOL? Man, I was steamed by the end of work, and just remembering it all even this many hours later still has me hot, obviously.
Let off a bit of steam by catching Sin City at the movies half an hour after work. Was a bit of legwork to get there on time, and I missed half of the first trailer (Wedding Crashers, had seen it last week) but got there in time from then on in. Sin City is awesome, simply awesome. Took a couple of scenes to get into - Josh Hartnett, despite Pearl Harbor, is actually an OK actor, and the prelim Bruce Willis story I was still getting used to the black white and colour (think Pleasantville with ultraviolence LOL), but as soon as Mickey Rourke's storyline came on, with the violence and action and all, I was sucked all the way in.
Also could have helped the gratuitous g-string shots LOL, mmm Carla Gugino, major eye candy find of the movie LOL. And yes, there is a string of drool coming from my mouth :) Clive Owen is having a blinder of a time at the moment movie wise, and Elijah Wood is totally creepy. Oh, and THAT'S where I have seen Nick Stahl before, Terminator 3 and Carnivale. Much more a comic book turned into a movie than a movie based on a comic book, if you know what I mean. Very much a boys movie - guns, gstrings, bullets and boobs.
Had a quick three minute raid into JB's after the movie - ten minutes to my bus with walking time to JB's and back as well, the bus had arrived by the time I got back. This week's selections are Black Hawk Down and 2001 A Space Odyssey, and yes, two more different movies you could not get I am sure. Got home and got most of the way through Black Hawk before parents decided to go to bed (well, Dad, as Mum isn't into war movies).
And on here, and still venting big time about the work thing :)
Pauly
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