• Buddahriffic@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      I deliberately chose to quit on the spot when I got tired of my CSR job so that it would burn the bridge with the company and prevent me from ever considering going back. In case time dulled the memories.

      It was a comcast support line, and I was originally on internet support, which I didn’t really mind. I was just helping people get their internet working, though I’d wonder wtf half the time I needed to do something where I saw their final monthly bill number. There were a few different queues, some busier than others, and there was a trick where you could call some extension and ask them to move you to a specific queue so that you could get a few minutes of rest between the calls.

      Then they moved me to billing. Didn’t really like it but whatever, I could be one of the ones that just gives whatever discounts we were able to find. And then, on my last day (a few days into being moved to billing), our own support system was down with all the knowledge base stuff that told us what was what and they still wanted us to take calls. Internet support I might have been able to do from memory but I decided fuck this shit after one or two calls.

      Got an interview for a pizza delivery job on my way home which also sucked but for very different reasons, and I’d still rank it away higher than the comcast csr job.

  • LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net
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    6 months ago

    I actually like doing customer service in certain respects. The problem is 1: a minority of people are truly awful to service employees and the harm they do often outweighs the larger numbers of kind people, and 2: most organizations don’t do enough to protect their employees from those harmful people.

    It’s not customer service itself that is the problem, but the culture and structures that surround it that make it awful. In a better world I think many people might find it fulfilling work.

    • TrousersMcPants@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      I worked at a Walmart front end with decent managers for a couple years, and having decent managers makes so much difference. Had a lady who came in and was screaming at my manager because I put bread in the same bag on top of her eggs and was “going to giver her baby Salmonella.” She told my manager not to put it on the shelf because it was “infected” and my manager just put it right back up on the shelf where she got it and got a different one. Some people just really want to scream at a cashier man

    • Fredselfish@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      You know it might also be the horrible customer service people are receiving now a days thar set them off as well.

      I worked customer service and most times the angry customers were my best customers. If I just let them rant they let out all the angry and then I could help them.

      I don’t know if it’s the agents or managers but today 90% of customer service agents ( over the phone) seem not to want to be helpful, no matter how kind you are. They stick to the script so tight that they almost not human.

      Every time I have ask for a manager to slove what customer service could’ve but didn’t do.

      But the number one issue with customer service (again call centers) is having to explain yourself to a robot that will not accept “I want to speak to customer service” as a valid response. Then tapping through 22 promts then after a two hour hold all the while listening to the most horrible hold music. You finally get someone on the phone that treats you has if you have burden them with calling. It frustrating and it’s no wonder customers are upset.

      Now far as retail it’s different but you still get shit managers that won’t let you just help a customers. Like going into a grocery store see 6 employees standing around and only 1 line open with cashier. Like what the hell.

      I know they aren’t all trained to be cashiers but why not cross train all employees in retail so they can help everyone.

      • Kiosade@lemmy.ca
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        5 months ago

        They have to pay cashiers more, that’s why. If they train everyone to be a cashier, then they’re paying everyone more, and they sure as hell don’t want to do that.