OT - customer service job rant

[Cigarskunk]

Thank god I'm free - as I mentioned in a previous thread, I'm now hired by the PA government - I start Monday morning as a case worker at the welfare office.

But that's not what I'm ranting about...

Now that I'm officially free of my previous job as a temp at a major transfer company (a bank that handles stocks which aren't being held by brokers) I've got a few things to rant about my idiot customers.

1) It would appear that the economy has made a recovery despite the fact that these people I'm dealing with are buying stock rather than because - buying stocks with no clue is an even worse idea then taking a bunch of ebayers on a PoT raid.

2) Brokers are idiots - if I had a dime for every idiotic question a broker has asked me about a shareholder's account or stocks I could pay off my truck and purchase the phattest PC in the world to play EQ on - I actually had to explain to a broker what a transfer agent was and how we were different from the SEC on my last day at work. Good lord man - I learned that my first day of stocks and bonds course back in college - where are these brokers comming from????

3) Short term memory problems in folks under the age of 50 -

me - Thank you for calling shareholder services, my name is, can I please have the names and full address on the account you are calling about please?

(account says - John Doe and Jane Doe, 1234 street road, somecity, ST 12345)

s/h - John Doe

me (after 10 second pause) - And the other name and the full address please?

s/h - 1234 street road

me (after 10 second pause) - And the other name and the city, state and zip code please?

s/h - somecity, ST

me (after 10 second pause) - I also need the zip code and the other name on the account please?

s/h - 12345

me (after 10 second pause) - And the other name on the account please?

s/h - what other name?

me - I show that there's two names on this account

s/h - oh yeah, the other person is my wife.

me - And what is her full name please?

s/h (saying in a tone which indicates that the answer should have been obvious) - Jane Doe

Why the @#$% does it have to be pulling teeth? Why can't people absorb the simple question of names and full address? This is not a problem that I encounter with seniors who might not quite be as quick on the draw anymore - this is universal to all age groups, sexes and enthnic groups and is a "game" I was forced to play with a minimum of one idiot every hour.

4) Job apathy by coworkers - most of the calls we get are just someone wanting us to confirm a peice of info on thier account or just send out some paperwork to them. Now everytime you do something there are notes automatically left on the account by the computer. Yet atleast once a day I have to deal with a customer who was told by one of my coworkers that a peice of mail would be sent to them and that @#$% coworker didn't take the 3 seconds to hit the proper @#$% button to get the mail sent out.

It's not a hard process and we really weren't all that busy, yet the lazy @#$%s couldn't wait another 3 freakin seconds to get back to thier game of solitare to hit the button and send out the mail, so now I'm stuck dealing with an irrate customer and have to run around and generate it manually and fax it out to the person who should have received it four weeks ago.

5) I'm not a broker or an accountant - I'm only a customer service rep - one with more background and education then most of the ones there, but still legally only a customer service rep - I can't legally give broker or accounting advice - if I do then myself and the company can be sued.

Despite my telling s/h whenever they ask for brokerage or account advice that I'm not qualified and legally can't do so, they insist anyway. What part of no, can't and won't isn't getting through. Even after I give these nimrods the whole nine yards, explaining that I'm not qualified and it's against the law, the thick headed idiots ask the same question.

I'm a first rate communicator ****ed it - I can make myself understood to even the most stuborn of political opponents in a debate - why the @#$% can't I make myself understood to an idiot?

6) I'm not company X - many people in the stock market don't seem to understand that it's basically legalise gambling - that there's a very good chance that they can lose all that money the invested.

Despite this, even though I make it very clear to them that I'm working for a company that has nothing to do with the company that the s/h has stock with, these people just don't want to accept the fact that I have nothing to do with thier stock going from $100 to $2.80 a share, with cutting the dividend by 75% or being sued for manipulating the price of thier stock.

************************************************** **

These are just a few of the more minor problems with that job - the rest of the rants require too much background knowledge, company specific or deal with industry issues which I can't legally disclose.

AAARRRRGGGHHH!!!

Thank god I'm out of there and into a better paying and permanent position.

[Ziela]

Hehe it feels good to get job rants off your chest, but I'm sure your new job will have things to rant about too. I can still get worked up over my old job. I was an in environmental lab and when you test water for things like pH, nitrates etc. many of the tests have a short hold time. This means for example nitrates have to be tested within 48 hours of the time the sample was TAKEN, not received. And it's not like this is instantaneous- it took half an hour to run each sample, and each batch of course you had to run QC, and close it out with QC samples also to make sure the batch passed. I can't count the number of times-
-The client didn't put a time and/or date on the sample, resulting in the sample looking like it was run late
-The client brings it in with an hour to spare on the hold time
-The client brings it in on 4:59 on a Friday afternoon and the project manager accepts it- yeah THEY weren't the ones whose plans were now shot for the night.
-All of the above
I guess the universal message here is that people are lazy, inconsiderate idiots

[Lilosh]

One of the very few complaints I have so far about my job at the Porn/Sex Shop is when I am outside, checking IDs at the door, Don't give me grief about wanting to see your ID.


I don't care if you're 25, 30, or 35. The law says If I even THINK that you *MIGHT* be under 35, I have to card you. Once I see that you're 18+, you can go in and buy your movies and toys.

*grin* But other than that, I like my new job.... The titles I see would make mortals blanche....


-Lilosh

[Farnyr]

http://www.workorspoon.com/default.asp That is all, thank you.

Warning!!- May not be work safe(youll understand the double meaning after reading what happened to the owners of the site). Also, may not be young child safe(as for many rants, swear words are not bleeped).

[Ursawraith]

Oh the stupidity!!

I have an MP3 file I bing to all my CS jobs.

The Replacements - The world is full of stupid people.

It makes me feel so very much better after the inevetable call every 30-90 min.

To quote George Carlin ~ "Think of how stupid the Average person is, and realize statistaclly that half of them are stupider yet"

[milkcarton]

I work at an institution for hmmm... " Mentally Challenged" people. You would think that I would be used to a truckload of stupidity.

I am , however, constantly suprised at the stupidy some people are capable of coming up with - sadly more often than not, its the staff or managment who are the culprits. I find some days the clients are a good escape from the reality of so called " normal " people.

[Carmaris]

Cigarskunk,

You have my deepest condolences. Your work environment--despite pay and what not--hasn't gotten any better. In fact, it's gotten worse...much, much worse.