We’ve all had them. The annoying phone conversations with customer servicepeople who seem to have an I.Q. of around 12, refuse to help you, and won’t connect you with anyone else. My sister-in-law came up with “I’m glad to see your company believes in hiring the mentally handicapped.”
I always say in a very tiny voice “Boy, am I going to have fun on the Internet tonight.” An astonishing lot of people see this as a threat.
I hang up and call back and hope I get someone else.
Just ask to speak to the supervisor. That either gets you better service or it gets the trained monkey on the other end to pay attention.
MR
Be sure to get their name before you hang up or ask to speak to the supervisor. In the next call, someone will ask you, and get an attitude when you say you didn’t write it down (perhaps they never even said it.)
Tell them in a calm and quiet voice:
“you don’t get paid enough to be yelled at, may I speak to your manager? Perhaps you could tell them that I am irate and angry.”
I’ve had this work distressingly well.
As a (as you put it) “Trained monkey” I take GREAT offense to your statement. For your information some trained monkies are educated individuals. I for one have an AA in Mass Communications and a BA in Anthropology. I took my job as a trained monkey as a steping stone to a better job in a large telecommunication company. So perhaps the next time you are on the phone with a customer service representative, you should be mindful who is on the other end of the line and not assume they are trained MONKIES! Maybe you will get better results
I thought that you meant, “What do you do when annoying people call you?” In that case, I’d write a little note to my mother to yell at me in two minutes. Then, sure enough…
Person: Blah blah blah…
(“Welfy! Get off the phone now!”)
Me: (interrupting person) Oh…my mother is calling me. I’d better go and see what she wants. Bye! click
I guess that would work in your situation.
pezpunk wrote:
I’d say you need some re-training – it’s “monkeys”, not “monkies”.
Me: Hey wanna’ hear a funny noise?
Them: I… suppose? (or) Sure.
-::Click::-
Picky picky picky…correct but picky! 
Yeah, I was thinking the same thing about what pezpunk had to say, but bagging on someone’s spelling is lame.
In any case, I work in tech support. I talk to some of the dumbest fuckin’ people on Earth every day. I can’t rightly express what I want to say about this here, so I am going to reference this idiotic thread in the Pit and have my say there. Feel free to join me there. That’s not permission, that’s a friendly invitation.
The thread title is “trained monkeys? Suck my white ass, shitbag!”.
I would like to see you all there.
Yeeeahh…but when that person is going on and on about how well-educated and well-trained they are, it’s fair game.
Well, I guess you have a point as usual, GreenBean. But really, it could be just an honest mistake that happens to make you look like a jackass. It’s like saying how smooth you are and then tripping and falling in a puddle in front of everyone.
That’s why I don’t go off on how wonderful and smart and “the shit” I am, because sure enough, as soon as I open my big mouth I’ll do something to prove how much of a jackass I really am. Which is why I am often known for saying “You listened to me? Haven’t I made it abundantly clear over the tenure of our friendship that I don’t know shit?” (thank you Kevin Smith)
Pride goes (goeth?) before a fall, and all that.
I like humility better anyway. If everyone would just try to be like Buddha, everything would be a lot better around here. Around the whole planet, for that matter.
**Welfy ** suggests: "*I thought that you meant, “What do you do when annoying people call you?” In that case, I’d write a little note to my mother to yell at me in two minutes. Then, sure enough…
Person: Blah blah blah…
(“Welfy! Get off the phone now!”)
Me: (interrupting person) Oh…my mother is calling me. I’d better go and see what she wants. Bye! click
I guess that would work in your situation."*
Actually Welfy, the best thing to do is to hang up while YOU’re talking. Your caller would never expect to get hung up on while they’re not talking. If they call back, you can feign some disconnection. Works pretty well.
I was trying to make a point NOt show how brilliant I am (if I were brilliant, I certainly wouldn’t have majored in Anthropology). I was in a rush and didn’t have time to check spelling. Please accept my humble apologies.
PS; I find it very humorous myself
Oh, I have a story about customer service reps that would make you cry, so please allow me to hijack the OP and rant. We wanted cable. That’s it, just cable television. We wanted to give them so much of our money each month and in return, watch A&E or Discover every so often. Is this a complicated request?
Husband called- made an appointment for a Saturday, sometimes between 9 and 1. The cable guy never showed; he called the company at 1:30. Rep said, no, your appointment was for between 1 and 5. Oh. Cable guy never showed. Hubby called back at 5:30. No, sezs the rep, you never made an appointment, sir. She’s possitive. He asks to speak to a manager/supervisor type person. She’s reluctant. He insists. Manager/supervisor tells him that he never made an appointment. Hubby tells him when and with who he made the appointment. He makes new appointment.
Cable guy comes, and he’s quite nice. But, he can’t find the hook-up. It must be in a section of the celler of the apartment building that is kept locked. Well, it is no use getting a hold of our property management place on a Saturday for anything less than a fire or a bomb threat. We make a new appointment, directly with the cable guy.
We call the realtors Monday. Why, no, the cable hookup is not in the basement. They don’t know where it is, but it sure ain’t in the basement. We poke around and find the cables over a back door. Okay, we know where it is; this’ll be easy from now on. Cable guy doesn’t show, and we can’t get ahold of him with the number he gave us. Husband calls the supervisor guy again. Why, no, we didn’t have an appointment. Our cable is already hooked up. The bill is in the mail. The call degrades to the point where my husband is holding the phone directly to the fuzzy staticky cableless television, yelling “See! See!”.
He says he will check into this and call us back within half an hour. He doesn’t. I call. He’s left for the night. The woman we talk to says that she will check into this and call us back within ten minutes. She doesn’t.
On Monday, after we recieve our first cable bill, Mr. sugaree calls the president of the company. He talks to his secretary/assistent person, and we get an appointment for that day. We get cable. It only took us 7 weeks of trying.
I think it was in a Dilbert book that this was mentioned:
“Cable companies exist to employ the people that couldn’t get jobs at telephone companies.”
His words, not mine. Not that service with some telcos are much better though. I could go on and on with the shitty service our cable company gives us here, but I would be so mad towards the end of writing it, it would probably be illegible.
Eric