Tuesday, March 09, 2010

Charter Part III

Charter Part I
Charter Part II

Damn, it's been more than two years since I last posted about good ol' Charter Communications (our local cable company). One aspect I didn't mention previously was a cool guy I worked with named Soune. He was of Asian descent and I consider myself lucky to have worked with him. We cracked each other up quite a bit.

One of the first things we did when a customer called in was to say, "For security purposes, could I get the last 4 digits of your social?" Many people would have to run through their first 5 digits before getting to the final 4. I used to say stuff to him like, "If I give you 20 bucks, will you give me the last 4 digits of your social?"

We were expected to make sales as often as possible. Soune's game was to get people to sign up for internet (a good moneymaker). He would open the conversation by asking the customer if they owned a PC. Many would say, "What's a PC?"

I ended up leaving because too much of an emphasis was placed on making sales. You could get demerits for not making enough of them. When I gave my notice, I said the primary reason was because I could theoretically be fired for not making enough sales. My supervisor said this wasn't true, but that's the way they made it seem.

I would've loved to see the director of the call center's face when he saw my reason for departure. You just can't treat people like that and expect them to be happy.

3 comments:

Rocketstar said...

Sales, no way, ever.

Nikki Neurotic said...

That's why I don't think I'd ever want to work for commission, though, if I had to...

Unknown said...

hate tele marketing.....been there done that once in england.....people can be so fucking rude sometimes...never hurts to say "sorry i don't need it"....used to make good sale though....there's a limit eh.... fucking blew it couple of times....told few customers to "buzz off"...lol later when i woz called in, handed him my resignation b4 he could say anything...and walked out the door like a princess.....lol