Call centre rant
Thank you for your interesting rants about idiot customers who call in.

I have every sympathy for people who work in call centres, and I have never been rude to them. I will just say one thing though - the thing which DOES make me absolutely furious:

When I call because of a complicated account query which REQUIRES a human operator to deal with, and cannot possible by dealt with automatically, or via the company's website - why oh why do these fucktard companies INSIST in making customers sit through five minutes of bullshit with automated telephone options (Press 1 for option blabla, etc), with constant messages about how you can do business on the company's website - with NO option which simply says "Press 0 to speak to a human operator"?

It absolutely pisses me off when I am forced to go through all of this - and then finally, when I do get the Operator option, I am put in a queue which does not tell me my place in it.

I have dealt with several companies which use a very simple but ingenious queuing system, which tells customers "You are number 7 in the queue", every 30 seconds or so. This is absolutely fine. I don't mind waiting in a telephone queue. I perfectly understand that there are other customers, and I am willing to wait my turn. What I am NOT willing to do, however, is to spend 20 minutes, listening to muzak, with no idea if I'm going to be the very next person, or if I still have an hour to wait. I am therefore unable to make a decision whether or not to bother to continue, or to just call back at another time.

OFTEL should make a law stating that:

1) ALL companies with telephone queuing systems must use the technology which tells customers their place in the queue, and;

2) Companies are REQUIRED to have a "Speak to a human operator" option in the FIRST set of menu options, without being forced to listen to several minutes of crap and go around in circles.

Just wanted to get that off my chest.
(EuroSong I love horse meat: best of all the animals, Wed 10 Sep 2008, 16:42, Reply)