Call Center Jobs

byron66

Why do people hate call center jobs so much?

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infield13

I am going to guess because there isn't much variety in the work they do. Some of the problems vary but most days it is the same old bs.

markulous

NetworkNewb nailed it.

I have better things to be doing than not being proactive at all just waiting for an angry customer to rip my head off over something that isn't my fault. I hate answering back to back calls. Of course this is exactly what I'm having to do at the moment and it sucks a lot.

kohr-ah

It depends a lot on the call center.

I did call center at a hospital as part of help desk and it wasn't horrible.
I know others who describe it exactly as above.
I know some that do call center for companies like T-Mobile and it is a hit or miss between the two. You may get people with basic issues otherwise you may get people that are angry that something doesn't work and can't realize that it isn't you that is at fault but the product.

So they all aren't bad and a lot of times are the first step (if not help desk) to getting the IT career going.

jamesleecoleman

Getting cussed out, thrown under the bus, not being allowed to move up or if you can.. its difficult. Always gotta be on the phones because that comes first. Time limit to how long it takes to help someone... I've been on the phone with a customer a few times for over an hour.

Stay out of the call center if you don't want drama, people hating on you, being stuck there with low pay and high restrictions depending on what you do for work at the call center.

The best thing about working at a call center is that you can help someone and get paid for it and work on your soft skills.

EnderWiggin

I used to work in a call center, but it was as on-site support. So if the issue was a bad cable or something, I'd just walk to that person's location, and replace the cable. People were MUCH less likely to have an attitude, knowing they'd possibly see me in person. Just goes to show that it's not just on the internet people act tough like that

thomas_

People calling wanting help, but not wanting to try things or do the things that you suggest.

People complaining about how they don't have time for troubleshooting, but don't let you troubleshoot the problem. If those people had just shut up and do your job the call would take a quarter of the time.

Taking back to back phone calls without having time to update tickets in between, then having management complain about the tickets not being updated, even though you haven't had any time to update them. All of that is after being told to not to take yourself out of the queue after a call to update tickets because it was a high call volume.

Staring at a computer monitor all day.

Being easily disposable, particularly if you are temporary, hired help. As soon as the call volume drops expect to be fired without a second thought.

Arbitrary times to get the customer off the phone.

Not having a chance to grow and learn if you are tier 1/level 1 support. Often you will hit a part of the scriot that tells you to escalate to the next tier.

Very strict in regards to arrival/departure times for beginning/end of the work day and for going to/from breaks.

Constantly changing guidance on how to handle certain situations.

I would only recommend it if you can't get any other job. I would also be on the lookout for other jobs so you can get a better job at the earliest opportunity.

YoshiExcel

I come from a call center background. It is what I have done for a job most of my life but it was not for IT/Helpdesk. It is some of the most stressful work, depending on where you work. I quit my last call center job to go to school and get a career in IT (networking), now that I am out of school, I am afraid that the only types of jobs I will get for IT are call centers because of my experience and that is really scary. I know how terrible people can be, so the thought of me having to do call center again is very depressing.

TechGromit

EnderWiggin wrote: »

I used to work in a call center, but it was as on-site support.

I do not consider help desk and a call center to be remotely the same thing. Help desk is when users call when there is a problem, you might field 5 or 10 calls a day and have breaks up to hours between calls. A call center is a constant stream of calls where people are on hold waiting for the next available tech to assist them. Soon as you complete one call and hang up your get another, and another. Some people have been on hold for an expended period of time, and may be less then civil when they finally reach someone. Not only are you answer call after call with no break between calls, but your statistics are tracked, take too long to close call you hear about it from your supervisor. Call centers can be thankless place to work.

alias454

I was on a helpdesk and between two of us, an average day was between 60-100 calls most of the time, sometimes slightly more. It really depends on the environment and how much hand holding the company wants. Also it depends on the admin staff and how much they give a hoot about the poor bastards on the helpdesk. With that said, it is a mostly thankless job and when something big goes wrong, you will get the brunt of it. I had done residential/SOHO support prior to my stint on the helpdesk and found the latter to be unappealing.

Terminator X

Yeah...I worked at a help desk and received upwards of 70 - 100 calls a day easy.

goldenlight

*** The main reason no Career advancement.., Call Center Matrix, Pissed off customers. Unless you want to be a supervisor or work in Quality assurance.