I have a few minutes before leaving for my &%$#*@ job so I'm writing a quick update. Life is going well, though my job gets more and more unbearable. I no longer care whether I stay with Verizon or not and as soon as I'm done writing in here I will be calling in about substitute teaching and looking for part-time jobs to go with it. Subbing usually doesn't give one benefits or holiday pay, but the service I've been told about (by someone I trust who used the service in the past and is going back to it because she hates verizon as much as me) offers both. I could easily do substitute teaching, since I do have experience with children and teaching. It would get me out for the day around 2pm, I'd have weekends and holidays, I would rarely be in the same place twice, and I would much prefer it to listening to full grown adults complain about their bill or service or phone for eight hours a day. I've also been applying for administrative assistant jobs at Yale, Albertus Magnus, various hospitals and law firms and so on. I apply for something else almost every day. This week has been hectic on it's own due to the fact that I spent every morning at my church doing vacation bible school and then went to work almost immediately after. No breathing time at all. Neal and I took Monday off of work but I'm beginning to wish we'd worked on Monday and taken today off. Even so, we're going in to work (sigh) and on the way I'll be calling into Kelly Services to talk with someone about subbing. It sounds great, but I've begun to wonder about summertime next year and the days I've taken off in September to fly to Ohio and how that time would give me no pay at all. So I'm praying about it, but I'm also calling for information. Tomorrow Neal and I are headed to Southington for a friend's son's birthday party (pool... thank you Jesus) and then to hang out with her and her husband for a bit afterward. I was somewhat surprised by the invite but really like the person who invited us so it wasn't a big deal.
Either way, to sum up: my job sucks, I'm finding another, but I'm making good friends and enjoying the time I don't spend chained to a desk. Pray, HARD, for me because it's going to take strength of will to not just walk out of my job.
Friday, August 21, 2009
Monday, July 27, 2009
Almost Famous
The longer I have my job the more I wish I was doing something else. I hate customer service. Last Monday I was in tears on my way to work and even after I arrived and I actually ended up in discussion with my supervisor about whether or not I feel this is the right job for me. She told me that I'm very good at my job and that once I've developed that hard skin I won't hate the job so much anymore. I sincerely hope that is true. Otherwise she suggested that I keep the job while searching for another or that I stick it out and find a different department that suits me better. As we talked I told her about college and how I really don't know what I want to do with my life, that I love to write and draw and create and she watched, smiling, as my face lit up and she said, quietly, "You're a creator. We need creators at Verizon Wireless". So now I'm beginning to wonder about going into Marketing and Advertising with Verizon Wireless and whether it's a real possibility. I still have to finish transition and get through the remainder of the year but I will continually be looking for positions in marketing and advertising, even though I have little experience in that field. I don't really want to leave the company because, if my future goes as I currently believe it will, getting a job outside of Verizon will make the transition to a new life in a different place harder because I will have to find a different job instead of transferring to the same in a different location.
Meanwhile thoughts of trying out for American Idol float through my head, along with painting or building sets for a big deal production in New York or California or Chicago and becoming a published writer and selling books to the masses. Anything but working for Verizon. The problem is that I rarely have time for writing anymore. I mean, it's the 27th of July today. The last time I wrote was two days before my sister's wedding. I went to Ohio, came back, and continued to work and spend time with Neal and neglected any time spent by myself doing anything other than cleaning or bringing my poor plant back to life. My apartment is a disaster, I've volunteered to help with VBS at my church, my family was in town this weekend, and I haven't had time to myself other than when I'm in the shower. I look forward to a normal shift, colder days, and a job I enjoy going to.
As aforementioned my family is currently in town. On Friday they came to see my apartment and to take Neal and myself out for lunch in Middletown before work. On Saturday Neal and I got up early and went to West Haven for an outreach where I painted faces and he passed out fliers before we headed off to Windsor for a cookout at my aunt and uncle's house with a ton of people and even more food. On Sunday we woke early and drove out to the church where I practiced with the praise team at the Vineyard and sang during the service (this is where the American Idol ideas came from, since everyone came and told me what I phenomenal singer I am) after which my family and I headed to Neal's parent's for lunch/dinner and games. This morning Neal and I went grocery shopping and watched a movie and here I am, writing before work. Very little time is granted to me for my own use, though Neal would be happy to give it to me if I asked for it. Tomorrow Dad is coming to help me with my checkbook after I go to the church for VBS stuff so that alone time will begin on Wednesday, starting with a long workout to get rid of the food I ate this weekend. And life goes on. And on. And on. Suddenly 30 years feels like much too long... heck, TWO years is too long! We'll see where God takes me.
And the thing is, I know it'd be harder to be famous... but even that feels like a better proposition.
Meanwhile thoughts of trying out for American Idol float through my head, along with painting or building sets for a big deal production in New York or California or Chicago and becoming a published writer and selling books to the masses. Anything but working for Verizon. The problem is that I rarely have time for writing anymore. I mean, it's the 27th of July today. The last time I wrote was two days before my sister's wedding. I went to Ohio, came back, and continued to work and spend time with Neal and neglected any time spent by myself doing anything other than cleaning or bringing my poor plant back to life. My apartment is a disaster, I've volunteered to help with VBS at my church, my family was in town this weekend, and I haven't had time to myself other than when I'm in the shower. I look forward to a normal shift, colder days, and a job I enjoy going to.
As aforementioned my family is currently in town. On Friday they came to see my apartment and to take Neal and myself out for lunch in Middletown before work. On Saturday Neal and I got up early and went to West Haven for an outreach where I painted faces and he passed out fliers before we headed off to Windsor for a cookout at my aunt and uncle's house with a ton of people and even more food. On Sunday we woke early and drove out to the church where I practiced with the praise team at the Vineyard and sang during the service (this is where the American Idol ideas came from, since everyone came and told me what I phenomenal singer I am) after which my family and I headed to Neal's parent's for lunch/dinner and games. This morning Neal and I went grocery shopping and watched a movie and here I am, writing before work. Very little time is granted to me for my own use, though Neal would be happy to give it to me if I asked for it. Tomorrow Dad is coming to help me with my checkbook after I go to the church for VBS stuff so that alone time will begin on Wednesday, starting with a long workout to get rid of the food I ate this weekend. And life goes on. And on. And on. Suddenly 30 years feels like much too long... heck, TWO years is too long! We'll see where God takes me.
And the thing is, I know it'd be harder to be famous... but even that feels like a better proposition.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Ugh, Life!
Give me a moment to reread my last post...
So, life continues to press on. After next week I will be halfway through transition and, according to my supervisor, I am well on my way to being a leading customer service rep and, after that, a senior rep. After 6 months as a senior rep or so you can move into whatever other department you choose! I have a contact in the Human Resources department (she's the sister of one of my college professors! Small world!) and she told me that she would be more than happy to meet with me after I'm out of transition to discuss my career path. Even if I don't end up in HR, my main goal is to have a job where I deal with employees instead of customers, or where I don't have to talk on the phone at all. There are all kinds of opportunities with Verizon once you've gotten started so all it takes is me persevering through another year of dealing with customers and blowing everyone out of the water while I'm at it so that when the time comes I can move on to bigger and better and more enjoyable things. In the meantime I do my darnedest to help everyone to the best of my ability, keep calm, and leave work at work so I don't dwell on escalations or stupid mistakes. This week, thank goodness, has been a relatively slow week but from what I understand, next week is going to be hell so I'll enjoy the slowness while it lasts. All in all it's a nice preamble to a weekend home in Ohio with friends and family.
As previously stated in the blog before this one, Neal and I took a trip into New York City to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We awoke very early on Saturday morning to take the train into Grand Central. As neither of us is very familiar with the city we began to walk to the Met... a location that was a good 42 city blocks from Grand Central. An hour later we arrived, sweaty and exhausted, but excited to see what was inside. Due to the train schedule and the evening we planned with friends we only spent a couple of hours in the museum before taking a cab back to Grand Central. Both of us fell asleep on the train on the ride back, though after 42 city blocks that's really not surprising. The evening with our friends was great fun, the food was excellent, and we have pretty much been cemented into people's minds as a couple.
Speaking of Neal, he has now signed a lease to live in the same apartment building as me! He will be living right down the hall, which will make commuting to work a little cheaper gas-wise, and he also intends to pay for part of the cable bill so he doesn't need to get his own internet. Also, the fact that I referred him means that I only have to pay just over $400 for my August rent. The extra $200, plus the extra holiday pay I earned for working on Independence Day, and the shift differential earned by working after 5pm every day will give me enough money to buy some new tires for my car and a wedding present for my sister and her husband! As my friend Kenny so aptly put it, I'll be rolling in dough... till I buy the tires, of course.
Speaking of friends... Not too long ago, maybe a month or so, I realized that one of my good friends from back home had suddenly and mysteriously defriended me on Facebook for no apparent reason. He detagged all pictures in which he and I were both present as well. This left me very upset and rather angry because not two weeks prior he and I had been texting amicably about his upcoming visit in the middle of June. I sent a couple of texts to find out what was going on and received no response, so I wrote him off completely, figuring that he'd found some new girl and decided to forget me forever. Until last night. Last night I went on my final break for the day and pulled out my phone to find a text from said friend. Basically he wrote that he was sorry he hadn't gotten back to me and that he'd just gotten through a trying time with a girl who had issues with him talking to his ex-girlfriends and he'd had no idea she had done anything. He and I sent texts back and forth for awhile until I got the full picture: he had been friendly with this girl who found the last text conversation he and I had had and she went completely berserk, deleting all of his texts and my old phone number, getting into his facebook and defriending any girls he was too friendly with, myself included, changed his email and password on the account so he can't get into it at all, and never told him. When I realized I'd been defriended I sent a text asking about his visit in June and apparently she received the text, deleted it, and then told him I'd written saying I never wanted to see or hear from him again. He believed her until this past weekend when she told him God told her they should just be friends, that she had changed and defriended and deleted on his phone and account, and then refused to give him the new user name and password in order to save him from his moral discrepancies. Basically, she's a super-Christian, controlling, psycho maniac and I told my friend when he explained this to me that he needs a screening system for the girls he meets from now on. He's in the middle of an email war with Facebook in order to prove it really is his account and that someone else locked him out of it. But once he explained everything life was good again, we had a decently long conversation, I told him that I'd moved and that I have Neal now, and he may still come for a visit. All I can say is that I'm very, very glad I was never as ridiculous as that girl when I was 18, and Neal is thankful too (he heard the whole conversation, since I was in the car with him at the time). In my personal opinion, people like that should NOT exist, or if they do they should be put into a commune so they can be tyrannical with each other instead of the rest of us normal people.
Anyway, that's my life up to this point. I get to fly out to Ohio on Saturday morning for my sister's wedding and write a check to my best friend so she can pay for gas. I'll be visiting my brother so we can chat about Verizon plans and phones and deals, and also my friend Adam, who has been begging for a back massage since the day I moved here. Oh! And I've been invited to begin practicing with the Praise Team at my church! My schedule will make attendance interesting, but I'm going to do my best. :-) So except for my job, all is well with the world, and I really can't wait for Saturday....
So, life continues to press on. After next week I will be halfway through transition and, according to my supervisor, I am well on my way to being a leading customer service rep and, after that, a senior rep. After 6 months as a senior rep or so you can move into whatever other department you choose! I have a contact in the Human Resources department (she's the sister of one of my college professors! Small world!) and she told me that she would be more than happy to meet with me after I'm out of transition to discuss my career path. Even if I don't end up in HR, my main goal is to have a job where I deal with employees instead of customers, or where I don't have to talk on the phone at all. There are all kinds of opportunities with Verizon once you've gotten started so all it takes is me persevering through another year of dealing with customers and blowing everyone out of the water while I'm at it so that when the time comes I can move on to bigger and better and more enjoyable things. In the meantime I do my darnedest to help everyone to the best of my ability, keep calm, and leave work at work so I don't dwell on escalations or stupid mistakes. This week, thank goodness, has been a relatively slow week but from what I understand, next week is going to be hell so I'll enjoy the slowness while it lasts. All in all it's a nice preamble to a weekend home in Ohio with friends and family.
As previously stated in the blog before this one, Neal and I took a trip into New York City to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We awoke very early on Saturday morning to take the train into Grand Central. As neither of us is very familiar with the city we began to walk to the Met... a location that was a good 42 city blocks from Grand Central. An hour later we arrived, sweaty and exhausted, but excited to see what was inside. Due to the train schedule and the evening we planned with friends we only spent a couple of hours in the museum before taking a cab back to Grand Central. Both of us fell asleep on the train on the ride back, though after 42 city blocks that's really not surprising. The evening with our friends was great fun, the food was excellent, and we have pretty much been cemented into people's minds as a couple.
Speaking of Neal, he has now signed a lease to live in the same apartment building as me! He will be living right down the hall, which will make commuting to work a little cheaper gas-wise, and he also intends to pay for part of the cable bill so he doesn't need to get his own internet. Also, the fact that I referred him means that I only have to pay just over $400 for my August rent. The extra $200, plus the extra holiday pay I earned for working on Independence Day, and the shift differential earned by working after 5pm every day will give me enough money to buy some new tires for my car and a wedding present for my sister and her husband! As my friend Kenny so aptly put it, I'll be rolling in dough... till I buy the tires, of course.
Speaking of friends... Not too long ago, maybe a month or so, I realized that one of my good friends from back home had suddenly and mysteriously defriended me on Facebook for no apparent reason. He detagged all pictures in which he and I were both present as well. This left me very upset and rather angry because not two weeks prior he and I had been texting amicably about his upcoming visit in the middle of June. I sent a couple of texts to find out what was going on and received no response, so I wrote him off completely, figuring that he'd found some new girl and decided to forget me forever. Until last night. Last night I went on my final break for the day and pulled out my phone to find a text from said friend. Basically he wrote that he was sorry he hadn't gotten back to me and that he'd just gotten through a trying time with a girl who had issues with him talking to his ex-girlfriends and he'd had no idea she had done anything. He and I sent texts back and forth for awhile until I got the full picture: he had been friendly with this girl who found the last text conversation he and I had had and she went completely berserk, deleting all of his texts and my old phone number, getting into his facebook and defriending any girls he was too friendly with, myself included, changed his email and password on the account so he can't get into it at all, and never told him. When I realized I'd been defriended I sent a text asking about his visit in June and apparently she received the text, deleted it, and then told him I'd written saying I never wanted to see or hear from him again. He believed her until this past weekend when she told him God told her they should just be friends, that she had changed and defriended and deleted on his phone and account, and then refused to give him the new user name and password in order to save him from his moral discrepancies. Basically, she's a super-Christian, controlling, psycho maniac and I told my friend when he explained this to me that he needs a screening system for the girls he meets from now on. He's in the middle of an email war with Facebook in order to prove it really is his account and that someone else locked him out of it. But once he explained everything life was good again, we had a decently long conversation, I told him that I'd moved and that I have Neal now, and he may still come for a visit. All I can say is that I'm very, very glad I was never as ridiculous as that girl when I was 18, and Neal is thankful too (he heard the whole conversation, since I was in the car with him at the time). In my personal opinion, people like that should NOT exist, or if they do they should be put into a commune so they can be tyrannical with each other instead of the rest of us normal people.
Anyway, that's my life up to this point. I get to fly out to Ohio on Saturday morning for my sister's wedding and write a check to my best friend so she can pay for gas. I'll be visiting my brother so we can chat about Verizon plans and phones and deals, and also my friend Adam, who has been begging for a back massage since the day I moved here. Oh! And I've been invited to begin practicing with the Praise Team at my church! My schedule will make attendance interesting, but I'm going to do my best. :-) So except for my job, all is well with the world, and I really can't wait for Saturday....
Friday, June 26, 2009
Realizations and Reality
Something makes me think I've used that title before...
So far this week has been pretty amazing, although with each passing day my eagerness to do my job drops significantly. We spent four and a quarter hours on the phone today, and I only handled fifteen or so calls in that time. A good rep handles 48-52 calls in a single eight hour shift. I know I'm only in training, but sometimes it's really tempting to sit in call work until the time runs out so I don't have to speak to more customers than necessary. So many of the problems are identical, even if the people who call in about them aren't, and it gets monotonous. Today I spent an hour and a half on the phone walking a woman through registering for My Verizon and upgrading her phones so that she wouldn't have to call in later to ask what mistakes she made and why the second phone costs $69.99 when it originally said it was free. A different woman hung up on me. I really have no sympathy for her, though, because she's at the lowest possible price plan with the lowest possible minutes. The last time she called in she was offered save and loyalty plans and could have accepted it then. Prices were given, and she CHOSE the 300 minute Nationwide Basic and yet she felt the need to call in and complain that it was only a $5 difference for a 150 minute difference and we don't offer rollover minutes! She threatened with leaving for a different company, but in looking at her remarks I know all she wanted was the loyalty plans that suddenly sound much better now that she got her bill. There was so much I wanted to say to that woman... She's paying just over $40 a month for a phone. There are people who pay hundreds more than that who have legit reasons to call in whom we could be helping while this woman complains about a $5 difference. Basically people call customer service so we can take the blame for their mistakes.
And the point of my rant is to say that people are the reason I love and hate my job. The only reason I'm putting up with customer service is so I can pay for rent and eventually get my masters and move up to Human Resources where I only deal with employees. Much more my style than listening to the greater percentage of 80 million customers complain.
On a different note, my weekend is jam packed. Early Saturday morning Neal and I leave for New York City for the day and we will return that evening in time for dinner with friends from church! Apparently homemade egg rolls, games and a movie are also involved and I'm just a little excited. Then on Sunday I intend to clean my apartment, finally. I just haven't been home enough to do it lately and it desperately needs it. Living on your own definitely has its perks, but when it comes to fixing the toilet I really wish my dad were here.
Besides my job I'm enormously happy. Life is good, and God is greater.
So far this week has been pretty amazing, although with each passing day my eagerness to do my job drops significantly. We spent four and a quarter hours on the phone today, and I only handled fifteen or so calls in that time. A good rep handles 48-52 calls in a single eight hour shift. I know I'm only in training, but sometimes it's really tempting to sit in call work until the time runs out so I don't have to speak to more customers than necessary. So many of the problems are identical, even if the people who call in about them aren't, and it gets monotonous. Today I spent an hour and a half on the phone walking a woman through registering for My Verizon and upgrading her phones so that she wouldn't have to call in later to ask what mistakes she made and why the second phone costs $69.99 when it originally said it was free. A different woman hung up on me. I really have no sympathy for her, though, because she's at the lowest possible price plan with the lowest possible minutes. The last time she called in she was offered save and loyalty plans and could have accepted it then. Prices were given, and she CHOSE the 300 minute Nationwide Basic and yet she felt the need to call in and complain that it was only a $5 difference for a 150 minute difference and we don't offer rollover minutes! She threatened with leaving for a different company, but in looking at her remarks I know all she wanted was the loyalty plans that suddenly sound much better now that she got her bill. There was so much I wanted to say to that woman... She's paying just over $40 a month for a phone. There are people who pay hundreds more than that who have legit reasons to call in whom we could be helping while this woman complains about a $5 difference. Basically people call customer service so we can take the blame for their mistakes.
And the point of my rant is to say that people are the reason I love and hate my job. The only reason I'm putting up with customer service is so I can pay for rent and eventually get my masters and move up to Human Resources where I only deal with employees. Much more my style than listening to the greater percentage of 80 million customers complain.
On a different note, my weekend is jam packed. Early Saturday morning Neal and I leave for New York City for the day and we will return that evening in time for dinner with friends from church! Apparently homemade egg rolls, games and a movie are also involved and I'm just a little excited. Then on Sunday I intend to clean my apartment, finally. I just haven't been home enough to do it lately and it desperately needs it. Living on your own definitely has its perks, but when it comes to fixing the toilet I really wish my dad were here.
Besides my job I'm enormously happy. Life is good, and God is greater.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
I Am A Promoter!!
I was dreading work this week after that call on Friday, but thank goodness all of my calls have been relatively good, especially today.
Today I had the privilege of speaking with two different customers, one of whom was on the phone with me and I was about to change her price plan when we had a power surge and all the computers turned off! She was more than happy to chat with me while the computers rebooted. At the end of the call she asked to speak with my manager so she could tell him/her how great I was. Another call later was the same way, minus the power surge. I just wanted to brag a little and am going to write word for word what was said about me, information that is sent via email to everyone on the floor.
Due to confidentiality I will call them Customer #1 and Customer #2.
"I had the pleasure of speaking with Customer #1 who had the following to say about Emily...
'I wanted to speak with Emily's manager and give kudos to her. She was amazing and I was so impressed at the level of service she provided as she is still in training. I have been in multiple customer service jobs and know how demanding they can be. She was so thorough, polite and efficient and I was completely blown away by her pleasant disposition and with the rapport she built. I cannot think of a single complaint I would have about the conversation we had, or the way she handled what came her way. Emily is a keeper and I see her being one of your best customer service representatives.'
"This is such a wonderful achievement Emily and an excellent way to start out your time in transition... Well done, keep up the good work!!!!"
"I had the pleasure of speaking with Customer #2 regarding his conversation with Emily. He wanted to let me know that Emily was completely professional and pleasant to speak with. She did a wonderful job and he just wanted us all to know about it! Great job Emily, keep up the good work!"
Needless to say, after a day like today I'm on cloud nine. Both of these customers have had a background in customer service, which is part of the reason why they requested to speak with a manager. I'm sure that if I called their customer service and was helped in a similar way that I help them I would do the exact same thing.
Anyway, I just wanted to brag a little. :)
Oh, and btw, to all who read this... you can follow this blog and have it sent to your email address. I'm not sure how, but I know it can be done, so please feel free!
Today I had the privilege of speaking with two different customers, one of whom was on the phone with me and I was about to change her price plan when we had a power surge and all the computers turned off! She was more than happy to chat with me while the computers rebooted. At the end of the call she asked to speak with my manager so she could tell him/her how great I was. Another call later was the same way, minus the power surge. I just wanted to brag a little and am going to write word for word what was said about me, information that is sent via email to everyone on the floor.
Due to confidentiality I will call them Customer #1 and Customer #2.
"I had the pleasure of speaking with Customer #1 who had the following to say about Emily...
'I wanted to speak with Emily's manager and give kudos to her. She was amazing and I was so impressed at the level of service she provided as she is still in training. I have been in multiple customer service jobs and know how demanding they can be. She was so thorough, polite and efficient and I was completely blown away by her pleasant disposition and with the rapport she built. I cannot think of a single complaint I would have about the conversation we had, or the way she handled what came her way. Emily is a keeper and I see her being one of your best customer service representatives.'
"This is such a wonderful achievement Emily and an excellent way to start out your time in transition... Well done, keep up the good work!!!!"
"I had the pleasure of speaking with Customer #2 regarding his conversation with Emily. He wanted to let me know that Emily was completely professional and pleasant to speak with. She did a wonderful job and he just wanted us all to know about it! Great job Emily, keep up the good work!"
Needless to say, after a day like today I'm on cloud nine. Both of these customers have had a background in customer service, which is part of the reason why they requested to speak with a manager. I'm sure that if I called their customer service and was helped in a similar way that I help them I would do the exact same thing.
Anyway, I just wanted to brag a little. :)
Oh, and btw, to all who read this... you can follow this blog and have it sent to your email address. I'm not sure how, but I know it can be done, so please feel free!
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Some Advice...
On Friday I experienced my very first 8hr shift on the phones at work. I both loved and hated it, and unfortunately it has been haunting me ever since. Literally. All night long I had dreams about answering people's billing, equipment, and price plan questions, it was like I never left work! Due to this I did not sleep well at all and therefore Neal and I postponed our trip to New York City due to my fatigue as well as a raging headache and a sudden urge to throw up (which I didn't succumb to). From now on I will be either reading a book or doing some serious prayer before I sleep because I refuse to take my work home with me anymore.
One particular call haunts me, even now. The conversation repeats itself in my head over and over... that woman's voice has been forever engraved on my mind. I spent an hour on the phone with this woman, explaining to her that I will be fired if I give her the phone number of another Verizon customer due to FCC regulations and confidentiality law and that I have no control over what the last representative she talked to did or did not do. She screamed profanity at me, demanded a supervisor, and even cried on the phone as I explained that I can change her plan to the lowest possible plan but that it wouldn't go into effect until the next bill cycle. By the time the call was over she loved me, telling me that I had an A+ in her book and asked for my name and saying that she would refer everyone to me and that even if I hadn't helped with her bill she felt better having spoken with me. It made me feel good at the time, but as the night progressed I began to wonder if she would call in again and tell a different representative a different story and try to get me fired like she's hoping to do to the other guy she spoke to the previous week. Even though I know that she can't touch me due to the fact that my remarks are in the account and every phone call is recorded and I will not be forgetting the date and time of this call anytime soon, it still worries me. I know that by the end of next week I won't be worried anymore, but until then I will pray, hard, for God to watch over that woman and help her in her financial situation and with her temper, that she might treat other people the way she would like to be treated, and if you're the praying type I request that you do the same.
In the meantime, I have advice for all of you who will call customer service of any kind in the future: be nice. The problems with your bill or the equipment or with your plan are not the fault of the representative that happens to take your call and therefore should not be taken out on him/her. If they tell you something that disagrees with what you think is true, don't argue because they know far more about the company than you do and it is their job to do so. We deal with more crap in a given day than just about any other job on the planet, in my opinion, so be nice.
On a lighter note, I'm adding a couple of pictures.
First we have some of the training assistants. TAs only help with transition in two week increments, so this particular set is leaving us and we will be introduced to a new set on Monday. Due to it being their last night with us, we had food and by 10:30 these costumes appeared. Let's just say we have lots of fun at Verizon Wireless.
Finally we have the very first photo taken of Neal and me. We play Scrabble quite a bit, and at the moment I have won three games, Neal only two. I might have rubbed it in his face just a little...
And scene.
One particular call haunts me, even now. The conversation repeats itself in my head over and over... that woman's voice has been forever engraved on my mind. I spent an hour on the phone with this woman, explaining to her that I will be fired if I give her the phone number of another Verizon customer due to FCC regulations and confidentiality law and that I have no control over what the last representative she talked to did or did not do. She screamed profanity at me, demanded a supervisor, and even cried on the phone as I explained that I can change her plan to the lowest possible plan but that it wouldn't go into effect until the next bill cycle. By the time the call was over she loved me, telling me that I had an A+ in her book and asked for my name and saying that she would refer everyone to me and that even if I hadn't helped with her bill she felt better having spoken with me. It made me feel good at the time, but as the night progressed I began to wonder if she would call in again and tell a different representative a different story and try to get me fired like she's hoping to do to the other guy she spoke to the previous week. Even though I know that she can't touch me due to the fact that my remarks are in the account and every phone call is recorded and I will not be forgetting the date and time of this call anytime soon, it still worries me. I know that by the end of next week I won't be worried anymore, but until then I will pray, hard, for God to watch over that woman and help her in her financial situation and with her temper, that she might treat other people the way she would like to be treated, and if you're the praying type I request that you do the same.
In the meantime, I have advice for all of you who will call customer service of any kind in the future: be nice. The problems with your bill or the equipment or with your plan are not the fault of the representative that happens to take your call and therefore should not be taken out on him/her. If they tell you something that disagrees with what you think is true, don't argue because they know far more about the company than you do and it is their job to do so. We deal with more crap in a given day than just about any other job on the planet, in my opinion, so be nice.
On a lighter note, I'm adding a couple of pictures.
First we have some of the training assistants. TAs only help with transition in two week increments, so this particular set is leaving us and we will be introduced to a new set on Monday. Due to it being their last night with us, we had food and by 10:30 these costumes appeared. Let's just say we have lots of fun at Verizon Wireless.
Finally we have the very first photo taken of Neal and me. We play Scrabble quite a bit, and at the moment I have won three games, Neal only two. I might have rubbed it in his face just a little...
And scene.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
New York State of Mind
Quick update!!
I've been working the night shift for a week now and I must say that I rather enjoy it. We spend most of the 8hrs on the phones now instead of sitting in a classroom reviewing things we learned in training so that we can use them on the phones on a daily basis. Being on the phone really isn't that bad, although the person calling expects you to know what's going on. My only complaint at the moment is the fact that I have given my extension to a number of customers but managed, two days ago, to lock myself out of my voicemail due to not knowing the password! I called IT last night and put in a trouble ticket to get it unlocked but the email I received said it may take until 6/24 for it to be taken care of!! Ah, panic...
On a different note, Neal and I decided to do something a little different this weekend so we're taking a trip to New York City. I'm a little nervous about it, to be honest, due to the fact that the last time I saw NYC I was within a large charter bus and never stepped outside without a chaperone. This time we'll be taking the train in from New Haven and either walking or taking a cab to The Met, where I have never been. I'm excited and terrified all at the same time; New York is NOTHING like Chicago. Also this weekend we'll be spending Sunday afternoon with another couple from the Vineyard, which should be great fun, and on Sunday night we're going out for drinks with Neal's sister and brother-in-law, whom I have yet to meet. They live out of state so this will be my first time meeting them and I've been told that his sister is wild with anticipation...
Work time! Get excited. (God, please don't let me have any angry people today, and if I do, please help me keep them calm and help as much as I can, thank you!)
I've been working the night shift for a week now and I must say that I rather enjoy it. We spend most of the 8hrs on the phones now instead of sitting in a classroom reviewing things we learned in training so that we can use them on the phones on a daily basis. Being on the phone really isn't that bad, although the person calling expects you to know what's going on. My only complaint at the moment is the fact that I have given my extension to a number of customers but managed, two days ago, to lock myself out of my voicemail due to not knowing the password! I called IT last night and put in a trouble ticket to get it unlocked but the email I received said it may take until 6/24 for it to be taken care of!! Ah, panic...
On a different note, Neal and I decided to do something a little different this weekend so we're taking a trip to New York City. I'm a little nervous about it, to be honest, due to the fact that the last time I saw NYC I was within a large charter bus and never stepped outside without a chaperone. This time we'll be taking the train in from New Haven and either walking or taking a cab to The Met, where I have never been. I'm excited and terrified all at the same time; New York is NOTHING like Chicago. Also this weekend we'll be spending Sunday afternoon with another couple from the Vineyard, which should be great fun, and on Sunday night we're going out for drinks with Neal's sister and brother-in-law, whom I have yet to meet. They live out of state so this will be my first time meeting them and I've been told that his sister is wild with anticipation...
Work time! Get excited. (God, please don't let me have any angry people today, and if I do, please help me keep them calm and help as much as I can, thank you!)
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