Queues

[securespark]

I find banks and call centres the worst.

Banks know that lunch time is busiest. Why don't they put more people out?

Call centres the same. I've just rung Plusnet.

"You've called at a busy time."

So now it's my fault!!!!!!

Sorry. I'll tug my forelock and try to remember to ring back at the crack of dawn. Try to remember that I'm only the customer here and if it wasn't for the likes of me and the other customers that Plusnet have, there would be no Plusnet.

Waiting times are now 20 minutes. We appreciate your call and your patience. We will be with you as soon as possible."

I thought they were from Yorkshire...no-nonsense. "We'll do you proud...Paying less shouldn't mean a compromise in service."

Yeah, right. Lip service.

Or does that just mean it was awful before?

You go from one godawful service to another. In reality, they're just the same.

It's not the workers' fault, though. It's the companies.

They cut costs to the bone, cutting workers, putting more work on each person left behind. Yet they want more and more customers. So you get customers ringing up wanting to speak, and there aren't enough battery hens to talk to them......

It'll go t*ts up sooner or later. Got to.

And no. I haven't.

 

[jockscott]

Well SS, I reckon the people in these call centres, have competitions to see how long they can keep people on the end of the telephone (winner gets a cream doughnut)

 

[Whitespirit66]

Maybe partly our fault. Everyone wants the cheapest, so the companies have to squeeze quality to lower their costs.

 

[Big Tone]

I am possibly the most impatient person on Earth SS. Actually, if you're like me, it isn't so much that I'm impatient as it is their incompetence and pathetic non-management. I've been in mega stores with enough time in a queue to count how many checkouts they have.

So I'm stuck in a queue going nofcukin where because of the 36 checkouts they see fit to have just 5 open.

Not for the first time, I will mention America now because they have forgotten more about customer service than we will ever know.

Ever been stuck behind someone while a cheap item doesn't scan or is unrecognised? And then the checkout nob-ed rings a bell to summon an equally completely disinterested slug-mimicking nob-ed who then both spends the next ten minutes 'beeping' Bingo on a screen with a vacant look on their faces?

When this happened to me, in a Stater Bros and Ralphs, in America you know what they did? It's yours for free because they hadn't got their act together. The first time they did this I thought it was a mistake; like she couldn't be bothered to deal with it, but it was company policy.

I have many such stories from personal experience. We are a country of sh1t service! And that, as far as I am concerned, is an immutable fact!

What we do excel at, however, is complaining about a **** service when in fact if you analysed the complainant he or she is at the root cause, and guilty, of the same ****ty attitude he or she is complaining about!

 

[plugwash]

The problem is you have the big providers who are cheap but with terrible service and the small providers who are nice to deal with but extremely expensive by comparision. There doesn't seem to be any middle ground.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

What did you need to know from Plusnet? How to switch the router on?

 

[Bodgeitandleggit]

There was a article in the paper the weekend about the guy who invented the queing system ...you know the ones in the banks,post office ect " cashier no3 please" .....anyway he sold it worldwide and is a millionaire from it

 

[conny]

There was a article in the paper the weekend about the guy who invented the queing system ...you know the ones in the banks,post office ect " cashier no3 please" .....anyway he sold it worldwide and is a millionaire from it

Trouble is he's still waiting in the queue at the bank to draw some of it out!

 

[JBR]

I find banks and call centres the worst.

Banks know that lunch time is busiest. Why don't they put more people out?

Call centres the same.

Tell me about it.

"We are experiencing an unusually high number of calls at the moment..."

Funny, that. Whenever I call, at whatever time of day, everyone seems to be experiencing an unusually high number of calls. I wonder whether they receive an unusually high number of calls at three o'clock in the morning. Well, I'm not staying up to find out.

How unusual.

 

[Dextraneous]

From now on, when you're contacted by a company, maybe it's worth telling them that you're expecting a high number of calls but that theirs is important to you, so please could they hold on?

 

[JBR]

From now on, when you're contacted by a company, maybe it's worth telling them that you're expecting a high number of calls but that theirs is important to you, so please could they hold on?

Good idea. I'll find some trite 'washing machine' music to play to them whilst they're waiting.

 

[RigidRaider]

The "unusually high number of calls" bit is a crap gimmick to make you think they are doing so well that lots of people are calling them. It's also a great ploy for making you listen to their crap commercials in the hope that they can sell you something else or persuade you to do all their work: "Did you know that you can get all this information online by going to....."

All of this is designed to hide the sorry fact that they are trying to field all the calls using a handful of untrained school-leavers.

 

[JBR]

The "unusually high number of calls" bit is a crap gimmick to make you think they are doing so well that lots of people are calling them. It's also a great ploy for making you listen to their crap commercials in the hope that they can sell you something else or persuade you to do all their work: "Did you know that you can get all this information online by going to....."

All of this is designed to hide the sorry fact that they are trying to field all the calls using a handful of untrained school-leavers.

Yes, I know.

Or cheap foreign call centres, of course.

 

[FiremanT]

I find banks and call centres the worst.

Banks know that lunch time is busiest. Why don't they put more people out

?

Because they are at lunch DUH

Why do OAPs and out of workers queue at the docs etc at 8am, when workers NEED to be there early????????????? Grrrrrrrr

 

[conny]

I find banks and call centres the worst.

Banks know that lunch time is busiest. Why don't they put more people out

?

Because they are at lunch DUH

Why do OAPs and out of workers queue at the docs etc at 8am, when workers NEED to be there early????????????? Grrrrrrrr

Why would a worker need to be at the docs early if they are going to be off sick?