Lived Experience Forum

[florencefifty]

I remember a TV show that played when I was a kid.

It was about a hamster that was secretly a spy. Whenever someone would call him cute, he would slowly charge up, saying “don’t call me cute” and lose his […].

I have been angry. I watch a radio station on YouTube. At least three of the hosts are stereotypical New Yorkers, yelling and waving their arms even when they’re agreeing LOL.

Anger is a secondary emotion.

I had a call from a client yesterday and it went left. I was a little rude.

We have a feature that helps you make a transaction over the phone, but we don’t offer that anymore.

For that, you need a PIN, and she said she never got it. Sorry, lady, but you did. She can’t get a new one, because they don’t send new ones out, they’re phasing out the feature.

The problem, though, was that I was upfront about it. I mean there were several problems.

To begin with, I wasn’t listening at the beginning of the call, I was closing up the previous call.

In the end, she asked to speak to my manager. This is VERY rare in this job. It’s not a retail-type call centre.

I transferred her and then today, my manager talked to me about it. She was cool about it, but she essentially said that I could have handled the whole thing better (including listening to her question) and met her objections calmly. She said that would have prevented it escalating.

In that particular situation, I kind of agree. But I don’t think that’s always the case. Sometimes the request is so absurd that you just have to say “no”. And just “no”.

Earlier that day, I had a client get up in arms because some of our forms have to be done by hand, and all of them have to be signed by hand. You may think it’s “pre-historic”, but I really don’t care. I personally think it’s way too risky to allow online transactions like we used to.

The annoying thing is, I really hope she doesn’t make a big deal out of this one interaction.

I had a client in my previous job. A call went left, and this time we were both at fault. A MONTH went by. I literally just said “hello” and she said “is this […]?” I said “yes”, and she said “I’m not talking to you, I remember how arrogant and rude you were last time.” I didn’t even recognise her voice, I thought “who the […] was that?”

Firstly, I wasn’t exactly arrogant and rude, and secondly, are you literally going to go forever like that?

The client I had yesterday said that she will e-mail the form but she really hopes I don’t pick it up. My manager asked me not to deliberately pick it up.

It’s a small team, I think there’s only five of us that regularly take calls. It’s MORE than likely that I will get her on the phone again. I was distracted, and then I was pissed off, it doesn’t mean I’m a […] monster. 

I don’t lash at anyone, but I do get worked up nowadays, especially at work obviously. I don’t know if that’s just my inner New Yorker or whether it’s something to be concerned about.

[tyme]

Thanks for the update @florencefifty .

Good to see you. 

I hear something that is really not that uncommon - unfortunately. Phones are not easy by any means. And sometimes, trying to explain changes is certainly not easy either!

I hope you are taking steps to look after yourself, especially now that we are heading into Christmas and the new year.