I’ve worked on several accounts for a large call center operation for years - for one of the largest call center providers worldwide - and we never had ticket numbers. They are not at all standard for non-technical questions, and even the technical account I was on did not have them except for issues that got escalated to a senior technician.
Does the smiley face indicate a joke?
Cuz, you’re kidding, right? Am I being whoosed? Do I need another cup of coffee???
You are a guest, so your lack of understanding of our Rules is perfectly… understandable. Might I refer you to the link at the top of the page that says, " Rules " and suggest you read them most thoroughly? 
RickJay, I do in fact agree with your last post. If all call centers used a ticketing system that was keyed to an employee’s ID #, then great- you bet- I don’t care if they want to call themselves Cecil Adams. My goal- and I did state quite clearly for those who bothered to read my post up there- that I either wanted a real name, a name that could be used to track dealings with my case # ( or ticket number, if that is what it is called ), or an employee ID number or extension number that was real.
Nothing more. Doesn’t make me a racist, or a King Shit. Again, it goes to the issue of adult responsibility, and being able to be accountable for your work. I paid for a product. I paid a fee for support. AppleCare is a perfect example. I am given a first name and ID # when I call AppleCare. Do I care if it’s their real name? Nope. Do I care if it is a name that is used to track them within the framework of the company, and of the contract I have paid for? You betcha.
I’m talking to Cartooniverse, of course.
I had to scroll to make sure I knew which smiley. It was not at all my intent to whoosh or make fun of you. And, I was not joking.
It is completely unacceptable business practice to hide behind false identity in the pursuit of such total anonymity that you cannot be held responsible for the technical support you are there to render. It is your job. Give your real name, OR your employee ID #, or a Ticket ID #, or an extension.
But, be clear, I was not trying to whoosh you or anyone else in the expression of these sentiments, ok ?
That’s a lie. You don’t have any support contracts that give you the right to deal with people in first tier support using their actual legal name, and you know it.
You have a contract guaranteeing that you’ll be provided with technical information under certain circumstances of speed, time and format, and nothing more. Nothing in your precious contracts gives you the right to demand that someone not use a nickname or a pseudonym. If Nuwan wants to clal himself Neil so assholes don’t call him racist names, that’s his (or his firm’s) prerogative and you haven’t any right on Earth to say he can’t.
What’s also the truth is that you’re an asshole. You have no contractual right, no legal right, and no moral standing to be abusive and contemptuous to someone who’s just trying to do their job to way they’ve been taught to. I bet you enjoy abusing clerks at stores, too, when you don’t like the store’s return policy, or you enjoy going berzerk on airport gate attendants when the plane is late. People like you are all the same; anyone in the unfortunate position of having to serve you is a lesser being and it’s permissible to treat them with “comtempt” (your word.) Jerk.
Yes, it’s clear:
- You’re a liar.
- You’re a jackass.
And… I used racist epithets WHERE in my posts?
Oh right. Nowhere. Nice. Well, it’s the Pit, where people get to curse at other people and still feel like they’re right.
What I said was that I resented the insult to Americans by folks who won’t use their legal names. In fact, I’m decrying racism against Americans, not expressing racism towards Indians but apparenly your knee jerked so fucking hard upwards into your mandible that it’s given you a whale of a concussion.
And, I am not a liar though you apparently have a very deep need to believe I am, so there ya go cupcake- I’m a liar ! In point of fact, I do have a right to first-tier professional support. Support that is given by adults who are held accountable for their instructions to customers.
I’m very sorry you are incapable of seeing that, and we can disagree but calling me a liar is far cry from admitting we disagree. More to the point, other posters in here have agreed that many call centers do NOT use a tracing/tagging/coding/file numbering system for incoming customer support calls and so… if I do not exercise due diligence, I am left with no trail by which I can- at a later time- prove with whom I spoke, and what they told me.
She doesn’t include Christine in the examples.
I’ve recently accepted a position in Switzerland. On government papers and contracts, I’m using my whole name (two lastnames included). Since the Spanish government unilaterally decided to drop the two middle words in my four-word firstname, that brings me down to a mere 6 words.
For the banks, I’m using two initials and the first lastname. So, two letters and three words.
And the name plates in my mailbox and my door have the two initials and the first word of my lastname. Fitting the rest in would be a dang pain.
For the record, the Spanish government considers all those combinations “variations on the legal name” and not aliases.
My nickname ends in z. That z is mute if anything goes behind it. When I introduce myself to people, I make a point of leaving the z mute; foreigners have been known to choke trying to pronounce my name. They insist in making the R strong (nope, it’s soft, just use a regular English r) and do some amazing things with that Z. Oh, and the nickname is also considered a “variation on the legal name” (my legal name can be deduced from the nick instantly) and not an alias.
Are you telling me what to call myself? Cos in that case I hope you can pronounce a Spanish Z without choking.
I detest outsourced call centres as much as the next person, and find the adoption of western names to be silly - though clearly the guy I worked with called Ramajandkrishnan might present us westerners with a bit of a problem - but racist? It’s a commercial decision based on the normal inability of people to retain names unfamiliar to them.
Racist?
You, sir, are fucking mental.
I never said you were a racist. Are you insane?
The hell you are. You’re being an asshole.
But what you claimed was that you had a contract that requires the firm’s reporesentatives to use the name “on their paycheques” when dealing with you. And I say that’s a lie. Because you don’t have a contract that says that. Or if you do, let’s see it. Put up or shut up, chief.
You have no contractual right to know the actual legal name of the tech support person you’re dealing with. Deal with it.
Support that is given by adults who are held accountable for their instructions to customers.
I’m very sorry you are incapable of seeing that, and we can disagree but calling me a liar is far cry from admitting we disagree. More to the point, other posters in here have agreed that many call centers do NOT use a tracing/tagging/coding/file numbering system for incoming customer support calls and so… if I do not exercise due diligence, I am left with no trail by which I can- at a later time- prove with whom I spoke, and what they told me.
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I thought about this thread yesterday morning. I was on the phone with three of my co-workers in Mumbai. These are not call center workers, but rather more advanced IT people, all of whom were competent, but very much needed my assistance.
It may be that I do have better hearing than some as I don’t listen to loud music, but to me the phone does not really make the accents that much more difficult to understand, and it helps in one way. I don’t have to work on my body language as I am listening intently to understand not only what they are saying, but also figuring out what they actually needed. Like all customers, they don’t know exactly what they actually need, but they were as close as any.
I still think that the issues of call center incompetence should be considered separate from language and accent issues. Yes, entry level call centers in India are terrible for the most part. That is because there are plenty of jobs like those held by my co-workers I dealt with yesterday. Those jobs are more interesting, less stressful, and pay better than tier 1 help desk. To me still accents are the least of the issue.
What, are you struggling now to hide behind inference? You stated in not so many words that I called people named Nuwan racist names. In point of fact, I did not and do not.
And, fuck you sir/madame for saying so. You want to paint someone with the broad brush of racism, you ought to know what you are talking about. And, who you are talking to.
Ooops, I missed your post on Preview, lee. Thank you for differentiating between pure language barriers, accents and hiding behind falsehoods. They are distinct issues.
I don’t care what language someone speaks, as long as I can understand them. It is a point of embarassment that I know only one language- not, as RickJay might have us believe, a point of racist pride.
If a person is hired to take calls from a country some of whose inhabitants speak English, it is kind of logical that they speak English. And so, call centers I’ve called are staffed with English-speaking employees. No argument there.
As far as accents go, I mean my god that is a completely subjective issue. Who can say what you or I or anyone else can understand?
My sole issue is with identifying the person offering me help in some legitimate, traceable way. And, nothing more than that.
I suppose it is worth mentioning that I ask for this information when I call The Apple Computer Company in Cupertino, California, or Land’s End in…in… Vermont? Minnesota? Someplace usually darned cold. My concerns regarding phone help have nothing to do with race and everything to do with accountability.
Fortunately for me, being a responsible adult doesn’t mean you are one particular race.
You must be high. My point is crystal clear; many people racially abuse Indian call center workers and that’s why they use English names. No, I wasn’t referring to you when I explained why so many overseas call center operations use Anglicized names. I am saying that you should consider why they have to do this, and how maybe they aren’t using Anglicized names to screw you or avoid responsibility, before going on your ridiculous and mendacious rant on how they contractually owe you a real name, which of course they don’t.
I’m sure you’re an abusive jackass to all service-industry employees, irrespective of race.
Cartooniverse, you don’t know that Apple or Land’s End reps are using their real names.
No, you don’t.
Remember, I managed in a call center and all my reps were given the option of using an alias if they wanted to. Most didn’t, but some did.
They were tracked by how the computer system tracked them when they look a call in the notes section of the cardmembers account.
Adult responsibility, my ass. Do you know for a fact * that these reps are not directed by their managers to use an alias? Do you know for a fact * that they have any choice in the matter? You keep talking about adult responsibilty, but what I want you to do is act like an adult when you’re on the line with these people. Sure, feel all the contempt you want about a situation with which you disagree, but you don’t have any right to take it out on the rep.
And I say that as someone who, when dealing with an irate cardmember, told me that my surname was “stupid”.
I work in a service industry.
Then really, C, you should know better.
I am training the guys in India who are putting me out of a job. We use SameTime instant messaging. I have a hearing deficit and there’s no way I would be as productive over the phone as I am in print.
It’s working out well. I asked him today how long he’s been communicating in English and he told me it is his second language. It is compulsory for all Indian students to take English and his is impeccable. And I’m glad I don’t have to try to decipher anything over the phone because I know it’s me with the problem but that doesn’t make it any easier to get things done.
Forgot to add, our Indian employees are not going to be working with outside customers, so they all use their given names.