[ad_1]
English is not my first language, formatting will be wrong because I’m typing it on my phone, yadda yadda.
Also, this crap just happened < 3 hours ago and I’m really mad about it, so I’m not gonna look up the proper english therms for the things I’m going to describe. Feel free to correct me in the comments.
I (obviously) work in a call center for a phone operator in my country. I basically call customers (more like, the system calls them and directs me the ones that picked up) whose discounts are about to end and renew them for 12 months again. The discounts have loyalty, which means you get a fine if you cancel your service package before it expires.
Some little translations you may need before reading the text from now on:
•CPF: Brazil’s equivalent of SSN. We ask clients their 3 initial numbers (it’s a total of 11) to verify they’re the ones who signed the contract, because if they aren’t then it’s a fraud and we’re screwed
•R$54,99: this specific package’s price. Something like 10~12 dollars (it depends on the day really, but $1 ≈ R$ 5
•Expiration Date: the client themselves pick until when they can pay their phone bill. it can be day 1, 5, 7, 10, 12, 15 or 20. it has direct correlation to when the package is renewed every month (it usually renews around 10 days before the ED)
•Percentage Discount: you know when you call customer service to cancel something and they do all they can to convince you to stay? yeah, that discount is one of their ways of retaining clients. And then the system calls them a couple months later so we offer them loyalty and they’re stuck lol
•Central: the people that pick up calls from customers that might be waiting for hours
•Active Contact: the callers that bother you when you ask to change operators, delay payment, or have a discount that is close to ending (say it’s been 10 months: we calling you, bc if that shit ends and your price goes up, you’re gonna complain, so let’s avoid the hassle). I’m one of these people.
•Anatel: kind of like, the mother of all phone operators.
OK, so the system called that customer at 20:50. My shift is from 14:40-21:00. No biggie. Told him he had a 12,25% discount in his package’s phone bill (so he paid R$48,21) and that I could offer him a loyalty discount of R$10, which means it would go down to R$44,99. Dude starts ranting that people from the operator keep calling him because he keeps crossing the expiration date (1st), but he doesn’t get his salary until 5 business days (so 5th-7th) of every month. That is for the central to deal with, but let’s be honest, he’s gonna wait for so long for something I can get done in under a minute. I tell him I can sort it out, but one thing at a time: Do you want the discount?
He keeps complaining. I hold back on telling him off for picking that date when he contracted that package in the first place and explain I will deal with that after dealing with the discount. He agrees with the discount. I say his full name, and he confirms it. Ask him for their CPF numbers. Just those 3 numbers. AND HE GOES OFF ON ME THINKING IT’S A SCAM.
What scammer would know the exact price you pay, your expiration date, how long you delay to pay and all that crap?? and knowing about your delays, why would they decide to scam YOU in the first place??
Ok, I can verify him with his birth date. I tell him the last 3 numbers of his CPF and ask him his birth date. NUH-UH, NOT ENOUGH. I have to say the WHOLE number. But I can’t pull the same “what if you’re a scammer?” thing on him – it’s against our rules – and at this point I’m getting impatient, so I tell him.
HE SAYS IT’S WRONG.
“What do you mean, wrong?” I ask politely. “It’s WRONG!” he says in a condescending tone. “OK, what numbers did I say wrong?” “hang on, I’ll get the document.”
THIS GUY DID NOT MEMORIZE HIS CPF BUT HAD THE NERVE TO SAY IT WAS WRONG. AND COULDN’T BOTHER TO BRING HIS PHONE WITH HIM. HE MADE ME WAIT FOR 3 MINUTES.
Then he comes back. “Say it again.” I repeat the exact same number I said before. “OK, it’s correct.” “Can you tell me when is your birthday now?” still trying to be polite. He says it, but in a Karen-ish obnoxious tone. WHAT WAS THAT FOR??? WAS HE STILL WORRIED ABOUT GIVING HIS BIRTH DATE TO A “SCAMMER” WHO HAD HIS WHOLE ASS CPF???
I proceed to renew his discount. and during the whole time, he is complaining about how it increased in price, and how it isn’t fair that we increase it even more if he delays payment “if we know no one get paid in the 1st of every month”. Would be a valid complaint, wasn’t he the one who picked that expiration date in the first place. I tell him the R$3 increase was due to a tax by Anatel and not under the operator’s control. He 100% ignores what I say and tell me we shouldn’t even bother customers with these calls offering discounts and just automatically renew discounts for them. I explain, again, that because of the loyalty part of the discount, we had to call the client to make sure he wanted it. 100% ignored, too.
And then he complained that his bill was not being sent to him via mail like it used to, and that he had to pay an extra R$3 to get it printed out to pay it at the lottery (yeah paying bills at lotteries is a thing here, not sure about the rest of the world tho). Again, it takes less than a minute to do, so I tell him I’ll do it. I repeat it 3 times until he finally stops complaining and agrees. This one complaint was the only one he was right about (the phone operator I work for suddenly decided to not print out bills for people and send them and that everyone would receive it via email instead, even though most clients are really above 50 years old and can’t really grasp technology and bank apps like the operator think they can.) But he was really obnoxious about that, too. Just reeeally over the top.
OK, I think to myself. He is complaining about the operator and problems with active contact, his bills, price etc that he knows are not under my control. He is frustrated and calling the call center is no use. It’s not personal and in the end most of it will be sorted out and he won’t have shit to be mad about. Whatever.
So, after giving him that R$10 discount (still don’t know how the heck he had credit score for that after delaying so many bills), altering his expiration date (from 1st to 10th) and altering his bill back to be sent via mail, he was STILL RANTING ABOUT ALL OF THOSE THINGS. *AND TWO OF THEM WERE NOT MY JOB TO DO*. I proceed to tell him about my whole course of action and all the stuff I did to help him, confirmed his address, you know the drill. He then thanks me and rants a little bit more about how the calls bother him. I say I understand, but I don’t get to pick who I call. And that the section that keeps calling him about his delays in payment have nothing to do with the discount section. 100% ignored again. I then thank him for his attention (I was just following the script, you can pretty much tell there was no attention whatsoever) and then he thanks me for the help.
BUT!
Right before he hangs up, he says in a low tone: “You can go fuck yourself”. *click*.
I DID EVERYTHING ON MY REACH (WHICH, AGAIN, WAS NOT MY JOB TO DO) BECAUSE I WANTED TO HELP AND AVOID FUTURE FRUSTRATION WITH THE CENTRAL, AND YOUR WAY OF SHOWING GRATITUDE IS TELLING *ME* TO GO FUCK MYSELF???? WHAT THE HELL DID I EVEN DO WRONG????
I clocked out at 21:07 for this guy. These calls usually last like 5 minutes, but his were almost 20.
Right now I am indulging in Skittles and chocolate paid with my food ticket card thinking about how I am not paid enough for this and how people always tell me my section is one of the mildest of that call center.
Thank you for reading this story.
TL;DR: increased a guy’s discount, helped him out with his paying ways in general (which are within my reach but not my section’s job), proved him with every possible way it wasn’t a scam, and he decided the best course of action was ranting endlessly about stuff I was not to blame for/was already fixing for him and at the end told me to go fuck myself.
[ad_2]
