Posts by daystar

46

"Customer Service" Pet Peeves

by XJW4EVR in

jw
friends

i hate when people use the "i'm new here" excuse, and then do absolutely nothing to try and find out what you are inquiring about or at least transfer you to someone that can help.. what are some of your "customer service" pet peeves?.

daystar

I have a perfect example of a pet peeve I have as a CS rep so to speak. When a client calls in, there are certain pieces of information I need before I can begin anything at all.

I ask for the person's name first. Then I ask for their account number. (Our company policy says to ask for account number, then name, but I think that's just rude, so I refuse to do that.) Most of my clients know what theirs is, but some don't. It's not that big of a deal at the beginning if they don't know it off hand. We can usually figure that out later.

But then I have to know what software package they're calling about. We develop and support numerous, numerous software packages as a company, and I don't support all of them. So I ask, "What software are you calling regarding today?" And a good portion of the time, they completely ignore my question and move right on to what their problem is. Sometimes I can tell from context what software they are using, but not very often. I politely let them finish their two minute spiel. Then I ask again. Often enough they come back with "your tax software"... well, just about all we have is tax software. So they could still be talking about one of well over two dozen different packages. They might get a bit more specific, but not quite enough. "Ok, what is the exact name of the software you are calling about?" I mean, these people use this software every day. The splash screen they see every day tells them the specific name. The title bar tells them the specific name... come on, throw me a bone here.

It's sort of like if you call a general Microsoft support line and when asked what app you're calling about, just saying "D'uh, well, Microsoft of course!"

Is it too much to ask that a person know who they're calling and what they're calling about?

46

"Customer Service" Pet Peeves

by XJW4EVR in

jw
friends

i hate when people use the "i'm new here" excuse, and then do absolutely nothing to try and find out what you are inquiring about or at least transfer you to someone that can help.. what are some of your "customer service" pet peeves?.

daystar

Me, me, me, I, I, I... Pretty egocentric guy, that Lord.

59

Big Question

by choosing life in

jw
friends

i know there may not be an answer to this question, but i am truly interested in other's views.

i know many are of various beliefs and some do not believe in god at all.. the question is: why does god not stop the suffering?

i watch so many suffer for no reason and no matter how i try to figure it out, i always come back to the fact that a loving parent would not allow their child to suffer needlessly.

daystar

Siddha

what we consider reality is ever changing, there is nothing permanent. The realization of the "permanent" is enlightment .

Sure, impermanence. However, you should note that you contradicted yourself above. If nothing is permanent, how can permanence be realized?

Relativism, even, is something I struggle with. The paradox of relativism vs. objectivism is something I really don't see a resolution to.

Siddartha's path is merely one of many, and not one that is very appealing to me. It's like the religio-philosophical version of Prozac... to me.

46

"Customer Service" Pet Peeves

by XJW4EVR in

jw
friends

i hate when people use the "i'm new here" excuse, and then do absolutely nothing to try and find out what you are inquiring about or at least transfer you to someone that can help.. what are some of your "customer service" pet peeves?.

daystar

Oh, and I'm not trying to make excuses for bad phone reps. There is absolutely no excuse for bad service, and I don't put up with it.

46

"Customer Service" Pet Peeves

by XJW4EVR in

jw
friends

i hate when people use the "i'm new here" excuse, and then do absolutely nothing to try and find out what you are inquiring about or at least transfer you to someone that can help.. what are some of your "customer service" pet peeves?.

daystar

Here are some tips for calling into customer service lines:

Always take notes. Include the name of the rep you speak with, the date and time of the call, and all pertinent information.
Always get the name of the person, no matter how trivial a thing you called for. If you can, try to get their extension as well. This creates a sense of ownership on their part at the very least.
Try to get a case number of some sort of call tracking number. I can't imagine a call center not using some sort of call tracking system and they're going to have some way of looking up prior cases.
Rather than getting ticked off if you feel like you're not being treated fairly by a rep, try this: make it personal. I once spent four months trying to get automatic payroll deductions for my ex-wife's child support payments. Each time I called, I would get one more piece of the puzzle, but never did someone give me all the steps. The final time I had to call I pleaded with the woman, "JoAnne, I am simply at my wit's end here. I need your help... please..." and explained how hard a time I'd had and that I just needed to know every step, every form, everything I needed to do to make this work. And it was taken care of within a matter of days.

As someone calling service or support, we must also take a little responsibility for how things go. But most people simply don't know how things work enough to know what questions to ask or information to give.

46

"Customer Service" Pet Peeves

by XJW4EVR in

jw
friends

i hate when people use the "i'm new here" excuse, and then do absolutely nothing to try and find out what you are inquiring about or at least transfer you to someone that can help.. what are some of your "customer service" pet peeves?.

daystar

When customers won't answer the questions I ask them, meaning they answer with something completely unrelated. If you don't understand the question I've asked, just tell me so. Or when they put me on hold and never come back. Or when they lie to me because they don't want a problem to turn out to be their problem. Or when they eat food while talking with me. Or when I tell them what they need to do to fix a problem and they simply refuse to do it because they don't think that that can be the problem. Or when... Oh wait, did you mean when calling into a customer service line?

I've been working tech support lines for eleven years. If someone says they're new as a reason they don't know how to help you, then simply ask to be transferred to someone who knows WTF they're talking about.

59

Big Question

by choosing life in

jw
friends

i know there may not be an answer to this question, but i am truly interested in other's views.

i know many are of various beliefs and some do not believe in god at all.. the question is: why does god not stop the suffering?

i watch so many suffer for no reason and no matter how i try to figure it out, i always come back to the fact that a loving parent would not allow their child to suffer needlessly.

daystar

Siddha

"Buddhist philosophy is essentially that of pretending that something such as suffering "doesn't exist, doesn't matter" and disregarding the consequences."
Ignorance by any other name is still ignorance.

Namaste! Don't confuse disagreement as ignorance. Among other things, I've studied Buddhism for years and come to very similar conclusions as has Terry. Rather than confront the "problem" of suffering, Buddhism tells us to detach ourselves from the source, to remove ourselves from the equation, rather than face reality as it is. It is little more than popular escapism.

87

[Fluff] - Celebrity Crushes!

by daystar in

i'll admit that for as far back as i can remember, i've picked up little crushes on celebrities.

i think one of my first crushes was on olivia newton-john after seeing her in grease at 5 years old and later in xanadu.. i've had crushes on:.

jennifer connelly (labrynth)gwyneth paltrow (hook briefly and later emma)cate blanchett (elizabeth, pushing tin)meredith salenger (the journey of natty gann, but especially, especially, in dream a little dream)kate beckingsale (much ado about nothing, cold comfort farm (not underworld, though she's smokin' in that.

daystar

While I think Eva Mendez is beautiful, I have to say Eva Longoria has her beat, as does Paz Vega (Spanglish), Salma Hayek, Monica Bellucci (Italian, I know)... well, of the darker beauties.

alt

Paz Vega... gorgeous...

24

I'm out of kleenexes

by gwyneth in

jw
friends

my friend's ex-husband was killed instantly in a car accident on sunday.

my daughter actually probably knew him better in recent years than i did, as she would accompany their daughter tori to his house on his weekends for four-wheeling, fishing, etc.

i have never been to a viewing before.

daystar

We don't choose who touches us, when, and how. You shouldn't feel embarassed about your grief. I've been precisely where you are in most respects.

13

JWS can get organ transplants now??????

by aquagirl in

jw
friends

its true!!!

!it really is a cafeteria religion..pick what suits ya...must be like the weather here in maine.if you dont like it,wait a minute or two and it will change...

daystar

Hmmm, even funnier (maybe just sad) is that I never knew, until I joined JWD, that transplants were ever a no-no. I was only 7 in 1980, but still, I was imbedded and active enough (had my first talk(reading) at 7) that I would think that would have been something I picked up.