I Hate My Job... Old post recycled from 8/24/14 AKA The ugly truth about customer service over the phone

I know no one wants to hear me complain about my job, so this is your only WOB warning. This is a major rant. So major I wrote in in word before I copied it to Blogger. This is why I hate my job. I used to love helping people; my job makes me feel bad about it now.

I sit in a cubicle, in a row of twelve cubicles, staring at a small monitor, connected to a slow running machine, in a warehouse filled with these same rows. The only change is the daily move from row to row so you never sit in the same place twice in a week. This is supposed to be meant for moral, so we don’t get bored with our jobs. They constantly upgrade the software we use to make our jobs “easier” and “more efficient”, when in reality all it does is make it harder to attain these high standards they set because they refuse to spend the money to upgrade the hardware required to run the software.

This is what we as reps must maintain for goals daily, weekly, and monthly:
Average Handle Time (AHT) – no more than 530 seconds or 8.83 minutes. This is up from the 507 seconds it used to be.

Optional Courtesy Credits (OCC) – no more than $1.80 per call average. It used to be $2.30 per call but when they raised the AHT they lowered a few things.

Disconnects (Disco) – no more than an average of 1%, which was also lowered from 1.3% per day when the AHT was raised.

Earned Representative Performance (ERP) – must be no lower than 93% and this is based on surveys customers complete randomly chosen by an automated system. You know those survey calls you get which are automated? They ask you to rate the representatives over performance from 0-10. Well just FYI that affects the pay of the representative you are rating. We are as nice as we can be, but remember that if you are angry with the company, don't take it out on the representative. We don't get paid enough as it is, and we are forced to work overtime to make up what we lose in pay when our stats are down. Hell we're forced to work overtime as it is in my site as my site requires mandatory overtime to be worked, five hours to be exact. I know, I shouldn't complain, it’s extra money.

Rep(resentative) Resolve (RR) – must not be lower than 95%, this is also on those surveys that are sent out, and it’s based on whether or not the representative you spoke with resolved your issues or not. Unfortunately, some issues just aren't able to be resolved, like if your kid uses 10GB of data and you had a 3GB share plan and you didn't call to up your data limit to cover the overage, that $150 charge is valid. But I get customers with this excuse, “But my kids used it. It’s not fair that you're charging me for something my 8 year old did. I shouldn't have to pay that fee because a little kid used it and not me. I gave junior the smartphone for emergencies only. Just because he used all that data doesn’t mean I should be charged for it.” No, I am not kidding, I did get that from a customer recently. We can offer to up the data plan and add precautionary features like Family Base (which will be your best friend if you have Verizon and have kids) and I can do a re-rate of your bill to cover SOME of the overages, but if you aren't willing to work with me, and just want all of the valid charges credited, I can’t help you. The most I am able to offer is a $20 courtesy credit, and only if my supervisor approves it, which they won’t if you aren't willing to make changes that will help prevent the overages in the future.

All of this affects my pay. It also affects my ability to move up within the company. Yes I know ATT and T-Mobile and Sprint are offering unlimited data plans and family plans, but read the fine print. Read it with Verizon too. You’ll find everything you need to know in the fine print. Don’t sign anything without reading it first. DON’T trust the reps in the store!!!! They make commission. They don’t care about you; they care about their bank account!!!! I don’t know how many times a day I have to fix issues a store rep has caused with outright LIES to a customer. IF you go to an indirect retailer and they charge you fees in store and you see those same fees on your bill, GO TO THE STORE for the credit. KEEP all of your receipts. See, when you pay an indirect retailer the fee (which you shouldn't because upgrade fees and activation fees are AUTOMATICALLY billed to your account which WILL show up on your bill) the retailer has now been paid TWICE! The retailer must credit your bill because they need to pay Verizon back. That is what the upgrade fee and activation fee is really for; paying premium and indirect retailers for selling our product.

Yes, we know their practices are shady. No, we won’t do anything about it. Not that I wish we couldn’t. We can file a complaint against them, but all that does is earn them a slap on the wrist. And it does nothing for future consumers. This is a consumer beware business.

But what really gets me is that I get dinged for genuinely helping my customers. When I help my customers with credits I believe are valid, it hurts my ranking and prevents me from moving ahead in my job. Helping my customer disconnect a line they no longer need therefor should not have to pay for, it lowers my ranking. Yes, you can disconnect a line, but we are forced to attempt to prevent that. So listen to the reps offers and don’t get mad. Please let them do their job, because our disconnect calls are listened to, and if we don’t follow the procedure properly (which when a customer is angry because we are trying to prevent a disconnect we bypass the procedure and then get written up for it) it hurts our ranking and we have write ups, and after so many of those write ups, we can and do lose our job.

I used to have a heart. I used to care about my customers, genuinely care. Now after 13.5 months with this company, I could care less whether or not I save you money, or whether or not you were hornswoggled into a plan that actually costs you more than your car payment. I will tell you the charges are valid because there aren't notes in your account validating the conversation you had with a previous rep, because we won’t listen to the call to validate that what you’re stating is the truth. We are trained to believe what is written in the account, not what you say over the phone.

Yesterday, a little old lady called me. Sweet as can be. Is living on a fixed income and has bundled her Verizon bill with her Century Link bill because it gives her a discount (please for the love of all that is good don’t EVER do that no matter what company it is). She calls because Century Link has shut off her home services because she has a $3300 bill with us. She called last month to change her price plan because her daughter kept going over their 1400 minute plan causing $30 a month in overage. The More Everything plan would prevent that and save the customer an additional $15 a month. The rep made the plan changes and notated the account that the customer called in to change the plan to prevent overages in the future. The rep changed the plan and told the customer she now had unlimited talk and text. The customer was happy. The customer went over her 1400 minutes by 6,982 minutes, which at .40₵ a minute, is $2792.70 because the rep actually future dated the plan change rather than doing it on-demand and still LIED to the customer and told her she had unlimited minutes.

I had to get the credit approved for her, and I didn't want to because it would affect me if I gave her the credit. It negatively impacts me when I have to credit someone for something that is a valid credit reason. We are not in the business to help our customers. Last year, at this time when I was still new, I wouldn't have batted an eye at getting her the credit, I would have fought to give her the credit and THEN some for the inconvenience of being lied to by a previous rep. Yesterday I looked for anything to avoid giving her the credit. I came home and bitched about giving a $2800 credit (before taxes, after the taxes are credited it will go up to $3150) and Scott had to slap me with reality. The reality is I did a GOOD thing. The Company has trained me to believe otherwise.

I am losing my humanity in this job. I feel like Gollum and your lines of services are The Precious. We loves The Precious. My hair is thinning at a rapid rate, and what I am not losing is turning gray. I dread going to work in the morning. I have panic attacks thinking about my job. I get the shakes whenever Scott tells me it’s time to go to work. As soon as I get to work, Gollum comes out and takes over my body. I had a customer who lost her son in the war in Afghanistan, and all I could think of while expressing condolences was, “How am I going to prevent her from cancelling his line of service?” There is something wrong with that. I know it, you know it, but because it negatively impacts me at work, it sits there in my mind to try and prevent her from cancelling his service. Last year I would have disconnected without batting an eye and seriously meant the condolences I was expressing.

I know all of this sounds too awful to be true. But it is. We don’t read from “scripts” but we are scripted and coached to speak a certain way.

In conclusion, what I want to say is this: When I say I hate my job, don’t see it as me being finicky or unwilling to stay with the job, it’s me stating as loud as I can that I want my humanity back. You would feel the same way if you worked where I work. I guarantee it. Rant over, for now.