Call Centre

And I hope I won’t have to work in a call center ever!

Thanks to a friend of mine, after sending my résumé, I’ve got an interview last week at a small Web developement company for a Web developer position. Everything went great; the interview was actually fun.

Yesterday, I got the big news: they offered me the position. Flexible hours, possibility to work from home in case of emergencies (for example, snowstorms), small team, better pay, and not a call centre. A call centre is the worst environment for a Web developer. Obviously, I didn’t think twice before accepting the position.

I wrote my resignation letter today, showed it to my operations manager, who was really understanding, even glad that I was able to find something I like and was glad to waive the usual 2-week notice time. When I handed the letter to HR, though…

Human resources departements always make me laugh. Most of the people working in there seem to look down on all the other employees; they feel superior. I handed my letter to the head of HR and it’s like if I was insulting her, like she was deceived. I explained her about my new employer’s need for me to be in as soon as possible. I won’t lose my vacation pay, but she said that because I didn’t gave a notice two weeks before I leave, it is the company’s policy to never hire me again.

Well, big deal. The operations manager didn’t mind me leaving. I got my contacts… if ever I need them. (And I don’t think I will.) Besides, the company was doing a laying off a lot of people recently. Even though I was worried that they’ll let me go, it would have probably never been the case, but it’s better that I find something right away and not wait for a layoff to happen!

Tomorrow is my last day in a call centre. I’ve been waiting for this day since four years, and maybe a few months more. I’ll celebrate Friday by taking the day off.

“Thank you for calling! My name is Rémi. On which side of your face can I punch you today?” (Disconnects.)

And I couldn’t care less.

CNet has reported about a new call centre opening in the Philippines.

Oddly enough, Dell announced the opening of a new call centre where I live, in Ottawa, Canada. Of course they didn’t brought that up! Instead, they just want to give the whole world the idea that everyone on the phone for Dell has a thick foreign accent.

To tell you the truth, I often get an American saying right after my greeting “Thank God you speak English!” When they tell me that, I purposedly bring out my strongest French accent. That pisses them off all the time. (Besides, I wonder how an American, who I would get on the line right after an immigrant, would react if I tell them that.)

When the social committee is selling something and keeps the profit, like during their pizza days, for example, I wonder why I buy things from them.

Each time the committee organises a free event (with free food, for example), it’s always on a Wednesday or Thursday. Usually Thursday. Many people I know who takes the same bus than mine on weekends are off on Wednesdays and Thursdays, including me.

Events, organised by the precious social committee, a.k.a. our friendly people in HR, seems to be made to fit them. And only them. That’s odd — they all can’t stop reminding us that we work in a 24/7 hour. I thought they understand what it meant. I guess not.

I hate this dead end job.

That’s what I said after a customer tried to “connect” to the Internet, after getting an error for not having a dial tone. The customer thought she had cable Internet. After saying such, she asked me to please calm down and she felt bad because of my comment.

“I know you’re this brilliant person while you have to deal with unintelligent people such as me.” Should I thank you for trying to appeal to my ego? I try to be a modest person, so don’t ruin it. Just go grab some self-confidence somewhere. Maybe do you have a over-jealous husband who can help you?

I’m good at computers and at speaking Japanese. I always look and sound angry even while I’m often not. Why didn’t people get that yet? As funny as it may be, I just get angry when someone just tells me “Are you angry?” I’m not perfect, and I know it. I don’t want to be perfect. If I’d be perfect, I’d turn crazy for sure.

“No one is good at everything, but everybody is good at something!” I wish customers would finally keep that in mind.

It’s true! One of our call centres in Mumbai, India is flooded. (I’m sure you heard about all the rain that has been going on over there!) For that reason, our place is “flooded” with calls. Pardon the pun.

All customers complain about waiting. All agent complain because about being unable to wait. As for the supervisors, they run across the centre with their two-way radio to chase after people not doing their job and not coming back on the phone on time. They are like chicken that just got their heads cut off!

On the same line of ideas, the discussion between my sociophobia self and the customers is so predictable that it can summarised in the little script below!

Me: Thank you for calling technical support. Rémi speaking. May I get your name and order number please.
Fool: My name is George, G-E-O-R-G-E, and my phone number is 412-3…
Me: No. May I get your order number please.
Fool: Oh! I thought you said “phone number”. I got a case number. Do you want that?
Me: I can take that.
Fool: 49711211.
Me: That’s an order number… What can I do for you today?
Fool: I’ve been waiting 30 minutes on the line to get you and you better help me.
Me: (Oh, I’m scared.) Yes…

I will write the rest of that “average” discussion later, but it gives you an idea for now.

[image:50 align=right nolink=0]My vision of how unfortunately Windows may become like in 2 years, because customers just a) can’t see anything, b) can’t read, c) too lazy, d) all of the above and the list goes on! FP stands for Fisher-Price.

Don’t forget Windows RG (Really Good) Edition!
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/ This!
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It has taken 20 minutes to explain to my customer what it is. Even if I specified more than once that I’m talking about the slash on the question mark key. The problem? Corrupted PST file. (Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 197316: “How to use the Inbox Repair Tool to recover messages in Outlook 2000 that is installed with Corporate and Workgroup option”)

I’m taking the day off today as I’m way too tired. I really need to sleep.

While it’s technically false, today is my 10^th “sick day”, considered by my employer. (I’ve taken of hours off before instead of doing my entire shift, but apparently it’s legal for the employer to write that you’ve taken the entire day off even if you worked for the majority of the day. Thank you, Canada.)

It’s the forth of July! Happy Independance Day, USA… To be honest, I couldn’t care less.

Besides, I’m still working!

The customer was saying “Ah, poor you, you have to work on the 4^th of July.” Hypocrite. If you think I’m so sad, why do you call us? I worked on Canada Day as well, and I didn’t get anyone of you saying that it was so sad for me to work on that day.

“Okay, let’s type in the address. It starts with the word ‘tiny’… Alright. Now, the letters U, R, L. ‘Dot com.’ ‘Forward slash’. Now, ‘A’ as in ‘alpha’.” I was giving her a direct address to download the redistributable Windows XP SP2 setup file. “‘A’ as in ‘apple’?” “Yes. H as in ‘Hotel’, M as in ‘Mike’, the number 6, T as in ‘tango’. Then hit ‘Enter’.” “Okay. It’s not working. E as in ‘Edward’, H as in ‘hotel’…” Dammit! She doesn’t even listen! She confirmed the spelling herself with me prior to hit Enter and she still got it wrong! A! Not E!

Idiots.

Below are a few links or steps for troubleshooting new problems or new troubleshooting techniques I’ve tried today for problems I’ve encountered before. (Of course, its possible the problem is not resolved after those steps, as its cause could be something completely different.)
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Windows Me: Missing SYSTEM.INI file

Restart in DOS using the OS CD. Change to the C: drive, and change directory (cd) to \Windows\Sysbckup. Do dir /o rb*.cab to list package files of backed-up system files in order. Use the most recent (for example, rb005.cab) and use the following to extract to extract the SYSTEM.INI file: extract /a /l \windows package file name system.ini

Windows XP: Missing HAL.DLL file

Use the OS CD to start the computer using the Recovery Console. Do the following commands:
attrib -h -r -s c:\boot.ini
del c:\boot.ini
bootcfg /rebuild
fixboot
(Refered page with more info.)