Call Centres / Con Centres

[superbigal]

Scott from Accident Assist, handily based today in a call centre in Strathaven according to his phone number, was just wanting to help me for the 27th time this year, with my accident in the last 2 years.

I was quite happy to proceed on the basis I was drunk, had mown down 2 Vicars, a teacher & 3 cats while driving my ambulance. 

Currently just released from the Pokey after being found not guilty due to Polis corruption. 

Plenty Compo in the offing.

For some reason at this point there must have been a problem with his phone.

I wonder if anyone on P&B will actually admit to having an absolute worthless career involving cold calling and carefully scripted lies ?   

Or a grim job like working for a debt collection agency.

 

 

 

Edited June 27, 2023 by superbigal

[Venti]

7 minutes ago, superbigal said:

Scott from Accident Assist, handily based today in a call centre in Strathaven according to his phone number, was just wanting to help me for the 27th time this year, with my accident in the last 2 years.

I was quite happy to proceed on the basis I was drunk, had mown down 2 Vicars, a teacher & 3 cats while driving my ambulance. 

Currently just released from the Pokey after being found not guilty due to Polis corruption. 

Plenty Compo in the offing.

For some reason at this point there must have been a problem with his phone.

I wonder if anyone on P&B will actually admit to having an absolute worthless career involving cold calling and carefully scripted lies ?   

Or a grim job like working for a debt collection agency.

 

 

 

Pretty sure that's a 5 star wanted level in GTA.

[Inanimate Carbon Rod]

If you answer the phone and tell them the person they are phoning for has died they tend to hang up and not phone again.

[MONKMAN]

49 minutes ago, superbigal said:

I wonder if anyone on P&B will actually admit to having an absolute worthless career involving cold calling and carefully scripted lies ?   

I worked in a bank briefly for about 3 months when I was in my late teens, and it was pretty much the same thing. Old lady comes in to withdraw £16 out of her savings account and I'm getting harassed by management, for not signing her up for a credit card or at least scheduling a review meeting with one of the financial advisors who'll try and sell her all sorts of products. 

Edited June 27, 2023 by MONKMAN

[TxRover]

6 minutes ago, Inanimate Carbon Rod said:

If you answer the phone and tell them the person they are phoning for has died they tend to hang up and not phone again.

Don’t you wish, they’ll usually start on “well, what about you?”

I’ve taken to using the absurdist approach…call for an auto service policy, “Aye, I have a 1976 Ford Mustang II with 357,000 miles”…health coverage (U.S. problem), “I’m dying from cancer”…PC infected, “OK, I opened Safari…”…

[tamthebam]

I tend to find that answering the phone "Hello, Police Scotland" tends to solve a lot of problems. 

[Bonksy+HisChristianParade]

I worked in a call centre just after uni, although it was an inbound centre so the people on the other end were actually needing to speak to you about something. I think cold calling must be horrendous, I certainly couldn’t do it. I don’t really get what people who piss these people about are getting out of it tbh, it’s seldom even remotely amusing.

I just tell them I’m sorry but I’m not interested and we can both go about our day. People aren’t doing these jobs out of a passion for cold calling. I actually rarely even answer the phone to a number I don’t know.
 

 

[itzdrk]

41 minutes ago, superbigal said:

I wonder if anyone on P&B will actually admit to having an absolute worthless career involving cold calling and carefully scripted lies ?   

Or a grim job like working for a debt collection agency.

 

 

 

I will admit I worked for a debt collection agency in my previous job.  Half my time there I was on furlough so probably fonder memories than they should be 

I'd been unemployed for two months after quitting a job that was treating me bad and I had more confidence in my CV than it seems I should have had at the time so kinda had to take what was going. 

Job I finally escaped to is more a career than a job and small parts of it probably helped me get in so there's that.  

[TxRover]

Just now, Bonksy+HisChristianParade said:

I don’t really get what people who piss these people about are getting out of it tbh, it’s seldom even remotely amusing.

I just tell them I’m sorry but I’m not interested and we can both go about our day. People aren’t doing these jobs out of a passion for cold calling. I actually rarely even answer the phone to a number I don’t know.

Must be a different group of people you’re dealing with. Here it is usually the electronic “boink” as the call is routed to an available “agent”, and then someone with a horrendously thick Indian accent starts pitching something, starting by saying “This is Scott/Ralph/Vanessa/Judy…”

[Bonksy+HisChristianParade]

1 minute ago, TxRover said:

Must be a different group of people you’re dealing with. Here it is usually the electronic “boink” as the call is routed to an available “agent”, and then someone with a horrendously thick Indian accent starts pitching something, starting by saying “This is Scott/Ralph/Vanessa/Judy…”

If that happened I’d hang up. I wouldn’t stick around chatting for some hilarious ruse to wind up some poor guy in India on £1 a day or whatever.

[itzdrk]

My Pixel has call screening and not one of these places has confidently told the screening that they are calling me about windows or something they just hang right up 

[TxRover]

5 minutes ago, Bonksy+HisChristianParade said:

If that happened I’d hang up. I wouldn’t stick around chatting for some hilarious ruse to wind up some poor guy in India on £1 a day or whatever.

Fair enough…but when I was getting 10+ of these a day, it was worth the distraction. Became a challenge to come up with new responses.

[scottsdad]

I had a summer job in 1999 where I was cold calling people in person. The most soul destroying job in the world, door to door sales. Trudging through scum dens in Glasgow, Eaglesham, Kilsyth and so on trying to sign people up to Scottish Power for their gas and electricity bills, and Scottish Telecom for their phone calls. 

[Sergeant Wilson]

9 minutes ago, scottsdad said:

I had a summer job in 1999 where I was cold calling people in person. The most soul destroying job in the world, door to door sales. Trudging through scum dens in Glasgow, Eaglesham, Kilsyth and so on trying to sign people up to Scottish Power for their gas and electricity bills, and Scottish Telecom for their phone calls. 

How do you think they felt when they answered the door and you were there?

[scottsdad]

6 minutes ago, Sergeant Wilson said:

How do you think they felt when they answered the door and you were there?

It really varied! 

I remember one nice couple offering me dinner with them. I was 19, starving and said yes. Over a pleasant dinner I asked if they were going on holiday. They said yes - off to Belfast for the 12th of July. "I don't know about you, but for me they're the Queen's roads, son". 

Another guy about half a mile away had an IRA calendar on his fridge, complete with balaclava-clad guy for the month of July. 

Most folk slammed the door in my face. Utterly no bored housewives looking for an afternoon with a stranger, sadly. 

[Inanimate Carbon Rod]

41 minutes ago, tamthebam said:

I tend to find that answering the phone "Hello, Police Scotland" tends to solve a lot of problems. 

You’d think that, but when I answered these calls at work they’d try and sell office supplies etc and couldnt understand each station didnt buy its own stationary etc. 

44 minutes ago, TxRover said:

Don’t you wish, they’ll usually start on “well, what about you?”

I’ve taken to using the absurdist approach…call for an auto service policy, “Aye, I have a 1976 Ford Mustang II with 357,000 miles”…health coverage (U.S. problem), “I’m dying from cancer”…PC infected, “OK, I opened Safari…”…

No honestly it works. 
 

Absurdist approach works too, my gran had it down well when they’d phone up wjth the ‘you’re owed money’ stuff, she’d just tell them to send her a cheque in the post and hang up. 

[Internet Citizen]

20 minutes ago, scottsdad said:

I had a summer job in 1999 where I was cold calling people in person. The most soul destroying job in the world, door to door sales. Trudging through scum dens in Glasgow, Eaglesham, Kilsyth and so on trying to sign people up to Scottish Power for their gas and electricity bills, and Scottish Telecom for their phone calls. 

Fresh out of uni about 15 years ago, I responded to a job ad requesting graduates in a few different disciplines. 
 

A few minutes into the interview it became clear the job was door to door sales for an electricity company. I didn’t respond to them asking me back to shadow someone for the day. 
 

The thing I remember most was going to the interview and there were at least 20-30 other mugs waiting to be seen at the same time I was.

[Central Belt Caley]

Virgin media tend to cold call their own customers to try and get them on better (more expensive*) deals.
 

When the girl phoned and said we’re going to get you on a better deal for your package and I replied “Great how much are you knocking off a month then?”. She couldn’t wait to get off the phone when she realised she wasn’t going to make anything. 
 

Had a wee guy from HelloFresh at the door a couple months back who was a cheeky wee c**t. Listened to his spiel cause I was bored and then he told me to get my phone out and he’ll talk me through my first order. At no point did he ask if I was interested. Found it interesting that one of his best selling points was “your neighbours have all signed up”(they haven’t). 

[scottsdad]

1 minute ago, Internet Citizen said:

Fresh out of uni about 15 years ago, I responded to a job ad requesting graduates in a few different disciplines. 
 

A few minutes into the interview it became clear the job was door to door sales for an electricity company. I didn’t respond to them asking me back to shadow someone for the day. 
 

The thing I remember most was going to the interview and there were at least 20-30 other mugs waiting to be seen at the same time I was.

The company I worked for was Gill Sales Development in Glasgow. 

It really was the worst job ever. Start at noon, work until 9pm going door to door. Then drive home, phone the boss with the day's numbers, get a roasting over the phone that ran to about 11 pm, then off to bed. And if you didn't hit your targets during the week, they expected you out there at the weekends. They initially paid (if I remember right) £30 for signing someone up to the electricity and £8 for the phones. Then they changed it to £300 a week, but they deducted money off you if you missed your targets. Strangely, for someone like me who was pish, I made more money this way.

I lasted 4 weeks. 

[Sergeant Wilson]

1 hour ago, scottsdad said:

It really varied! 

I remember one nice couple offering me dinner with them. I was 19, starving and said yes. Over a pleasant dinner I asked if they were going on holiday. They said yes - off to Belfast for the 12th of July. "I don't know about you, but for me they're the Queen's roads, son". 

Another guy about half a mile away had an IRA calendar on his fridge, complete with balaclava-clad guy for the month of July. 

Most folk slammed the door in my face. Utterly no bored housewives looking for an afternoon with a stranger, sadly. 

I went in one house that the guy had carved and painted 3d King Billy's out of polystyrene packing. Two of them stuck to the wall above his fire place.