Tuesday 24 February 2009

Telesales trauma


Telesales was the victor - I the loser. I slinked away tail between my legs. The second job I’ve walked out on in three months. Before telesales there was retail on Oxford Street but earning £5.95 an hour (no uniform allowance either) was to hard to live on. Counting pennies and a constant knot in the stomach from financial worries was too much. Telesales had its own battles. Fake orange office light, everyone talking about their sales figure for the day - in most cases this replaces hello, constant calling, rude people, phone slams, saying the same thing over and over all day. In two months I have had two potential customers asked if I was calling from a pub because of the office chatter.

It’s my second day of unemployment and my internet, my main job searching tool does not want to connect! I’ve tried everything. The network coverage in my house is terrible, one conversation is usually conducted through ten phone calls. My last resort is to wait...

I had a bad experience of a call centre myself today! My mobile company, 3, called me at the end of my lunch break saying I was a valued customer and I would get this, this and this. I decided to go ahead with it, as she said it would take two minutes. Fifteen minutes after my break had ended, I was still on the phone. To be honest I was trying to be nice because of my call centre experience, and I couldn’t afford a good mob after my old was stolen (my bag stolen in a central London pub) and here they were offering me a new pink one. At the end she started talking about my card details and I just didn’t have time, she backed me into a corner insisting she would call me back after work to complete the sale. She didn’t so I presumed she had given up, I was relieved as I had decided against it, more money out each month and tied to the network for longer. It was forgotten over the weekend.

On Monday I was furious to find a pink phone. She had processed the order against my will. And for the credit check she said I needed, accessed my debit card again without my will and without my knowledge. When I phoned them, they asked me why I was cancelling, when I told them, she starting telling me what a great deal it was. SHE WAS TRYING TO SELL ME THE PHONE I DIDN'T WANT IN THE FIRST PLACE!!!

image: Frozen fountain, Trafalgar Square, before the heavy snow fall that stopped London if only for a day

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