In this beautiful
World, if things happen automatically, it will be good – but perhaps would rob
the charm of effort and reward. When
things do not happen, you talk to people concerned. Humans prefer talking to other humans, it’s a
very complex process. You may have heard the old cliché that a large percentage
of communication is body language or facial expressions. Talking on the phone
robs us of all of this, cutting off much of our usual information, which adds
uncertainty. And people really don’t react well to uncertainty. This is why an
uncertain or unexplained wait always feels longer, which makes it even more
frustrating.
In olden days,
people had time for everything. People
were relaxed – old fashioned ! – they walked to Post Office, cycled to Office
or went by Public transport - in some
places people stood in queues while waiting for the bus and got in, in an
orderly manner. Going to bank was
routine, one stood in queues not only for withdrawal of small amounts of money
but also for updating the passbook – the manual entry – all not required in the
internet age and netbanking. Queues as
also fellow-human beings were thought to be pleasant, if not were endured or
tolerated.
In
modern World, there are milling crowds and there are people who jump the crowd
unmindful of the harm that they do to the disciplined ones who are already on
the queue. At every
traffic signal when vehicles move slowly, people try to cut, overtake, drive on
the opposite lane and choke the traffic, thereby increasing the complications
and traffic snarls ~ at every such traffic jams, people incessantly press the
horns, making more sound, display irritable behaviour and start abusing and
shouting at each other. When the vehicle in front of you stop, why not understand
that he / she has some impediment and has to imperatively slow down or stop ….
It is not as if, they are so happy in stopping and waiting on the middle of road
– be it start of the day, mid noon, evening or closer to dead night –
everyone is mindful of reaching their home / destination faster and have no
happiness or interest in stopping mid-way – yet people start banking on their
horns. Worser still, many do not go to
the left, stop and give way when they hear the siren of an ambulance – some
idiots try to follow the ambulance driving fast.
Away
from all this madness ~ came the ‘interactive voice system’; “chat
experience”and more ..... in the interactive - press 1 for language; then press 3 for your action .... and so on
.... does this actually enable easier conclusion of the desired action or are
you among the Ones who feel that talking and explaining to people was better
? - now too, there is the option of
talking to ‘Customer Service Executives’- though
this generally comes after pushing at least 4 or 5 choice buttons – and there
is not guarantee that someone is going to attend to your call. You may still hear the sweet recorded message
: “All our customer officers are busy –
your call is important to us – thank you for your patience”- and as you hear
this multiple times, one slowly loses patience !!
There are some
advanced mechanisms, which tell your standing – i.e., you are 8th in
the queue and are likely to be answered in 27 minutes – who will have the time
and patience to hold the phone for half an hour or more – everybody knows the
answer ! If you have experienced the
frustration, thankfully, you are not alone as indicated in this newsitem of MailOnline
of date. It
is about a customer who spent 96 minutes and 3,800 words trying to end his
contract with Sky TV has said his experience with the provider was a
'nightmare'.
Gavin Hackwood, 36,
from Newport, South Wales, logged onto the Sky online 'chat' service believing
he would be able to cancel his subscription in a fairly simple fashion. But an
hour-and-a-half later, the father-of-two was still engaged in a war of words
with the Sky representative, who refused to allow him to leave the provider without
going through 'the process'. Mr Hackwood had told his operator Rachael from the
outset that he had no interest in staying with the company after finding a
cheaper deal with rivals Virgin, which would save him £23 a month. But the dogged Sky employee continued to ask
him a series of 'ridiculous' questions, in a rigmarole which took more than an
hour-and-a-half. Eventually, Rachael broke the news that Mr Hackwood was not
allowed to terminate his deal - because he had a separate cancellation pending
on his Sky Movies.
Speaking to
MailOnline, Mr Hackwood said: 'It was just an absolute nightmare. Part of the
reason that I used the chat service was because I had tried to cancel over the
phone before and I thought this would be easier. But clearly I was wrong. 'I
was just in disbelief really. I had made it quite clear that I wasn't
interested in her sales pitch: all I wanted to do was to cancel. But she kept
going on. I found it quite rude and aggressive.' He added: 'I think they knew
what they are doing: it's a tactic. There are plenty of people who would just
give up and stay. That's clearly what they want.' In the transcript of the conversation, which
runs to almost 4,000 words, Mr Hackwood starts to become increasingly
frustrated as Rachael asks him several questions about his service.
The live chat
started this way : Operator
Rachael : info: Please wait for a Sky
Advisor to respond. Your chat may be monitored and recorded for training, legal
and compliance purposes.info: You are now connected with Rachael.
Rachael: Hello,
you're chatting with Rachael, a Sky expert, may I take you name please?
You: Hi Rachael, I
would like to give you 31 days notice to cancel my services please.
You: I'm currently in
work, so I would rather just place the cancellation request please.
When
the virtual conversation reaches the hour mark, Mr Hackwood makes his feelings
heard once more. 'I have now been on this chat
session for an hour and we are no further forward,' he writes. 'I have made you aware I wish to cancel which
is all I am obliged to do under the terms and conditions of the contract with
Sky. I am starting to lose my patience and request that you place the
cancellation request. 'Please cancel the account and stop wasting my time with
stupid long drawn out questions. I have had enough.'
To that, Rachael
responds: 'I am sorry you feel that way Gavin, I am not doing this to annoy
you, I made it very clear that I would need to go through this for you before I
could make any changes to your account and these are not stupid questions. As
the questions continue, he adds: 'You are not listening to me are you?? I said
CANCEL the services. End of. There is nothing further to discuss.'
Rachael, who
appears to be growing more defensive, then writes: 'At the end of the day I am
only trying to help you keep what you enjoy, you may not like the way that I
have done it and I can only appologise for that (sic). Finally, after conversing for 90 minutes,
Rachael delivers the bombshell that nothing can be done because of the pending
Sky Movies cancellation. She tells him:
'I can not apply a cancellation to the rest of your package while a
cancellation is in place. 'You can either remove the cancellation from the
Movies and apply 31 days to the whole account, or you can wait until the Movies
have been removed and then apply 31 days notice to the rest of your package.
You are unable to overlap the 2 cancellation periods.'
Mr
Hackwood said he later contacted Sky over what had happened. Although they
initially said Rachael was right to refuse the cancellation, they later
backtracked and said she had been in the wrong. They had already cancelled his
service as a gesture of goodwill.
Chat start time Mar
19, 2015 8:49:27 AM EST; Chat end time Mar 19, 2015 10:26:10 AM EST... Duration (actual chatting time) 01:36:42
The
Company / Country may be different – experiences may not be !! ~ if it is Danush, one can drink 7Up when there
is feel (fEeEl) up – for others .... ??
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
20th Apr
2015.
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