Call centres. The stress continues - nothing changes...

After my last job - which is where my original call centre stress incident/s took place.  I decided I'd had enough of being spoken to as if I were the scrapings from somebody's shoe after a walk in the park.  After two years, two months and two days too many (yes I counted), I managed a great escape.  I'd had enough I was outta there.  I thought part of the reason the customers were so evil there, other than that I appeared to be on the 666 extension from Hell, was that they assumed (obviously incorrectly) that as I worked for a retailer that I was worth nothing - clearly not intelligent enough to do anything other than speak on the phone to ignorant, rude peasant life. I therefore deserved the sharp end of their tongue - clearly it was my fault the driver had been caught in traffic and that their very basic human rights had now, clearly been breached by my allowing their shopping to be delivered 2 minutes late - or - far, far worse - that their bread was slightly mis-shapen or a grape was squished or WHATEVER piddly excuse for a complaint they could think of in order to call up and demand 'condensation' - I kid you not - half were semi literate at best.

So I left there kicking my heels in the air, hugging the poor unfortunates who remained.  My poor colleagues, I will never forget them.  The staff themselves were all lovely.  Many were there as the company offered the only hours they could work as many had young families to support or some were even university students trying to earn a living.  At least they all had a job.

I got a new job - HURAH - where? It's in ANOTHER CALL CENTRE.  Details of the new job are not going to be divulged on here but the customers are different on the whole as I no longer work on a complaint line.

Yay! New job, fresh start. different company, different workplace, different business. Happy me!

However - and as I have worked in many different call centres over 20 years or so - there will ALWAYS be that 1 in 1000 customers who has called just to be as obnoxious as they possibly can be.  These people are clearly spawned from the bowels of a swamp monster and probably should not be out in public nor should they be allowed access to a phone,  These people will FIND something to wind you up even if there isn't one.

One such example appeared on the other end of my line. I asked this particular example of peasant life what her email address was.  She said it so fast it was impossible to catch.  I asked her to repeat it.  With a huge sigh, and if she were speaking to an imbecile she repeated it - just as fast but this time loudly.  I tried to use phonetics but clearly this was above her level of intelligence and she asked me if I had an issue with my hearing.  I explained I did not have such an issue but it was vital I got the email correct in case I needed to send her details discussed on the call. To this she replied
'OH FOR GOD'S SAKE' and proceeded to repeat it loudly but twice as fast.
There was a short silence on the line as I typed her notes.  She piped up:-
"you don't want to speak to me do you? - I can tell as you are very rude."
She was definitely just trying to get me to bite which I refused to do.  I completed the call but had arm ache where my left arm had been battling with my right arm to press the red DISCONNECT button.  We are not allowed to do this.  Customers are aware of this.  I am new so I am currently on my best behaviour and so am not able to say what I want to say.

I finally ended the call and I was literally shaking with frustration.  In real life she would never have spoken to me like that (trust me).  I have had to come home with that call in my head and even though I had six or more lovely calls after that it is that evil witch which sticks in my head.

Now it is out of my head and on here where I hope it will benefit others who may have spoken to similar dregs.  Now I shall go and tend to my stomach ulcer which is clearly developing nicely.  Perhaps a few rounds with a punchbag would help.

:(