Hate to disappoint

No interesting calls tonight.

Well except for the poor cantonese speaking only lady who's lost her dial tone 4 times since installation one month ago and usually gets home at around 9 pm. (when chinese gate closes) But hey, that's normal for us. There's a reason why I DO NOT promote SDP to our chinese customers. Just when you thought our service could not get any worse, voila! And god, that is one huge run-on sentence.

On the other hand, coffee really does improve my mood. I am much less cranky / unenergetic on the phones after my coffee intake. Heh, they should just shoot caffeine straight into my veins every morning and I'll never be tired. Er, at least that would be a good idea if I wasn't deathly scared of needles. I literally shake just thinking about getting a shot.

Oh yeah, got coached again today. Surprise surprise, coaching on calls that no other supervisor would coach on, aka SDP and Cantonese. Haha, I got slammed for saying "No problem" to a customer when he said thanks to me. Oh I'm supposed to say "Thank you" back. Kk. *rolls eyes* Whatever you say boss.

There were only 87 on hold for repair queue at 8 pm. That's a pretty good number I'd say. Totally manageable with only 30 minute waits! Woo!

*puzzled*

So my sup finally gave me my raise and cheque. Took forever but what can you do right? Part timers are of the utmost unimportance... only not really. They need me dammit.

Anyways, I'm happy. It's the max raise that most will get. I was actually pleasantly surprised, wasn't expecting that much seeing my phone stats are kind of subpar comparatively to some I've seen I suppose. Maybe they just give the max to China gate members to keep their mouths shut since chinese calls suckass so much.

Speaking of which, proof again that my chinese is severely lacking...this lady didn't know what outlook express or a keyboard was in english. So here I was, trying to awkwardly explain what a keyboard is. Here's the rough translation of how I approached it in chinese:
"Do you see the CTRL button on your keyboard?"
"Keyboard? Please don't speak english, I don't understand."
"Uh... ok.. I mean the CTRL button on your (damn, how do I say keyboard?)... well it's the thing that your hands hit on to get 'a, b, c'."
"Where??? I don't see anything on the screen." (Of course she has a chinese keyboard as well)
"... Nooo, it's not on the picture thing in front of you... it's on the keyboard!! Uhh where your.. (shit, how do I say fingers) .. hands hit stuff to umm.. get stuff on the picture."
"Oh, you mean the *insert term I have no frigging clue of*"
"Uh. Yes sure >.>. Do you see a label CTRL in the lower left?"
"Oh yes!"
*Whew*
I still don't know what a keyboard is called in chinese... one up for me! When those calls come in, I always feel like an uber loser. *sigh*

Another funny call I got was a concerned customer who wanted to watch "Super size me", but saw that it was to cost $9.99 for 1 hour. The documentary itself is an hour and 40 mins to watch so he was like wtf @ the price and the duration seeing that normal movies are $3.99 for 24 hours. Usually we charge $9.99 for adult movies, so I was thinking... oh my god? super size me? What if... *DOUBLE CHECKS* And I then sighed in relief when I found it to actually be the documentary hahaha.

Anyways, I transferred down to sales, and the person that picked up of course didn't know anything as usual. Man it seems like the seldom few times I do have to call down there, I always get a new hire. There's a reason I stopped transferring for a long time... this must be the first transfer in a month at least.

Don't remember much other than those two calls, except that I nearly failed my Database quiz. That pissed me off just a little much, to say the least. Maybe more funny stories today will be posted. After all, it's the weekend eh?

Ahhh, Mr TSR 2 where is my project? Screw the call volume!!! I want my project/break 7. You know you need me. :P

p.s. D never figured out what the number was that you wanted me to test to Macau, so I couldn't do it. Send it to me via email if you want and I'll take care of it.
p.p.s. What're your days off next rotation S?

Power to the little people.

It's been awhile since I've blogged eh? Usual too lazy too tired too non motivated excuses etc etc. I did call a sick day on wednesday though. *whistles* And yesterday, there wasn't anything notable except for my work time being 55 seconds (best ever yet... for the past 2 months?)

Speaking of which, I found another girl in my BCIT class that also works at this company... and also as a TSR. It's a small world after all eh? The funny thing is, we both skipped out on Wednesday HAHA. Ah.. anyways..

Why do people ask if they should plug their power cord back in? I should say "NO, KEEP IT UNPLUGGED YOU TARD." If I wanna get fired fast that is...

I've seriously ran out of stories to tell. Nothing out of the ordinary happens anymore. Not that I would want it anyways. It's quite quiet today. 20 on repair, 3 on cantonese. Crazy for a Saturday night. Maybe people finally realize it's futile to call us. Good stuff.

Oh I did remember the time they had to take me off our weekly meeting cause there was literally no one manning the phones for SDP. So I grudgingly go away from my meeting and find that there are 12 on SDP queue holding, and surprisingly 8 on Cantonese. O_O doesn't even begin to describe it cause the first SDP call I take has waited half an hour. This doesn't mean alot for say an internet/cable hold, but for SDP?!@!# That's atrocious when our average pick up time for SDP is probably like... < 1 minute.

Speaking of atrocious hold times. WTF? I'm continuing to hold here waiting for chinese billing to pick up. I think I've been waiting for half an hour at least. Shit, I can't even release myself cause I have to explain to the CSR what's going on... 54 minute call already. Fantastic.

The surprising thing is though, the queue basically died at 8 o'clock tonight. Literally no calls waiting. That is absolutely insane. For a Saturday night. Jealous anyone?

YAY MY WEEKEND IS BACK.

I was seriously contemplating skipping work today. Like seriously. Then I thought, shit what if I see the sup tomorrow that marked me as sick. Then he'll be like eh? Unsick so fast huh? That sure would be awkward hahahaha.

Anyways, people are too reliant on the boob tube nowadays. There was this guy who said that his wife was counting and naming gummy bears while waiting for me to bring back the TV. I mean hell it was funny but uh.. sad when you think about it hahaha.

For a Saturday though, it was not busy at all tonight. And I thought it would be pretty standard, except that just after 11 pm I got a crazy ass guy call in. It went like this:
"Thanks for choosing SDP, how..."
"WHO'S AUTHORIZED TO MAKE CHANGES ON MY ACCOUNT."
"Uh, what?"
"I SAID, WHO THE HELL IS AUTHORIZED TO MAKE CHANGES ON MY ACCOUNT."
"Well, whats your account info first?"
"Yadda yadda yadda."
"Okay, well... you sir."
"Then why the fuck are your employees using my voicemail to commit fraud? You guys are really fucking with me and I'm tired of it."
"Uh..."
"And another thing, why the fuck was that S tech out here today to install my internet?"
"There are no pending work orders or service calls or anything on your account sir and we've confirmed that this is indeed your account."
"Why the fuck are you lying to me now? You're trying to cover each others butts!!"
"Sir, I'm reading what is in front of me and I don't see anything."
"I JUST PHONED THIS MORNING AND TALKED TO BILLING. THEY SAID THEY HAD A TECH TO COME TO INSTALL INTERNET."
"I don't know whom you were speaking with, but I see no such thing."
"You guys are fucking with me. Cancel my SDP NOW."
"Uh, I can't. I'm tech support. I'll send a template in and we'll have someone call you back tomorrow to discuss that."
"What's my balance on my account?"
"350."
"THE CSR TOLD ME IT WAS 272 TODAY."
"I'm reading what your account says sir. You may call in again to confirm, but we have no record of any other such information."
"Just get someone to call me tomorrow. I want SDP cancelled immediately. Can I get two voicemail passwords set up?"
"No. We'll call you tomorrow."
"Fine, bye."

Oh yeah, another CSR pissed me off today. I know, I know, some of you are like GOD! FINALLY A CSR STORY. Anyways, she called me up from billing and it seemed like an average transfer, but no - she introduced the customer to me, and guess what. She stayed on the line. How can we tell? Well the conference light stays on red, indicating the other person hasn't hung up yet. So I think to myself, oh okay, she's just finishing uh, her trouble ticket... I mean NS notes... I mean... ?? Well she'll be gone soon. But no - she stays with me and the customer for the whole damn call which, btw was like 25 minutes. I was thinking to myself, who the hell is this woman?? Is she really a CSR or a TSR in training? I was tempted to ask her while the customer was playing around with the wires, "Hey how you enjoying the call so far..."

Anyways, I look her rep number up and lo and behold she is listed as a CSR. I was thinking, what the hell, maybe her RLS (release call) button is broken or something?! But no, she must have been at least semi-listening to my call cause she released just before I said my goodbyes to the customer. I figure she must have been slacking off and talking to her co-workers or something in mute while keeping on the call so she doesn't mess up her stats majorly.

I pondered on it for a bit, and let it go after a few calls. Then what do you know, I get her. AGAIN. And guess what. She does the same goddamn thing. AGAIN. Holy fricking hell. At this point I really wanted to ask her wtf she was doing. I get very uneasy when I know someone else is listening in on my call. I mean I get it from time to time, but most of the time, the transferer will ask for my permission before listening in on the call. That's why I was totally thrown off by this call. Anyways, that's a weird thing to be pissed off about, but I was. *shrug*

Who knew. I shouldn't drink coffee at night. I get so wired after my shift is over it's not even funny. Yay my weekend now.


PS. S, that is one faaaaaaaaaantastic idea. Link me up plz :D. Btw. COMX delay = too awesome.

I'm convinced...

That I'm a masochist. Who else would be crazy enough to wake up bright and early to go to physio, do exercises, then get killed? All before 10:30 am. My god, that's too damn early for anything, much less exercise. Geez, I actually fell asleep on the heat pad this morning and they had to shake me to wake me up. Droopy eyed, I then crawled through the exercises and then got a major torture session with my physio. Fun.

A funny thing when I went in today was we usually have a waiting period in a room for the physio to show up cause he's busy with other clients. So the minute he walked into my room, the Moonlight Sonata, movement III starts playing. For you who don't know what that is, it's a fast/angry classical piece by Beethoven. Very dramatic. And I make a point to tell him, to which he laughs and then proceeds with the torture.

Anyways, onto the good stuff. Oh wait there is no good stuff. Tonight was an easy night. Almost too easy. No irate customers wowzers. And it wasn't busy. Crazy. What will I complain about then. Where is my f***ing raise/bonus cheque. I think my sup must have gone on a vacation or something damn.

Database. That useless textbook. I do my whole assignment based on the notes that come from the textbook, just to go to the lab and have my instructor tell me a competely different method today. Wow I sure was ticked. Useless textbook yay! Oh well at least I didn't buy it like a moron haha.

Mmmmm company barbeque tomorrow. How fun. Free food and rides. I get nauseus easily though. I better take some dramamine before hopping on any rides, or I can expect to throw up alot :(. Oh speaking of bbq, you're going to it now, S? Thought you had to work?

Anyways, I'm off to do homework. Yum, lets redo the whole assignment.

Fuh. Fack. Fuzzballs. Etc etc.

I think Wednesday evenings are problematic. Maybe it's cause it's in the middle of the week and everyone is kind of cranky. Every customer who calls in seems to be pissed. About legit issues too yay!

Today I had this insistent SDP customer who wanted to know exactly what the problem was and exactly when it was going to be fixed. I told him the truth that well, we don't know since he was one of the first few to report it. He requested a callback when we got an update, but by the time we were updated on our website that only gave us the street addresses affected, the problem had already been fixed. So I called him back to let him know that. And again, even though the issue was resolved, he demanded an explanation or what the problem was. He even wanted to know the location of our hubsite for gosh sake's (building that holds our equipment supplying the services) when I told him, being told by TSR 2, that the outage was due to a "faulty ac power supply". Then he got all freaky deeky on me when I told him he's like "How come Telus ac power supplies don't become faulty every other week." And I'm finally like like "sir, I have no idea." Finally that ended that call.

Ok, so maybe that was a stupid call. Nevermind. But whatever. It just seemed like it was one pissed off customer after another phoning in to bitch about random legit issues that naturally make me feel bad. I really hate coming into work more and more nowadays. Plus, I still haven't gotten my frigging bonus/raise yet. Where the hell is that supe.

Oh on another note, a certain TSR 2 sent me on a nice joyride today before work. I asked him where I could confirm whether or not I was on the list for our company barbeque on Sunday, and he told me to go find a lady named lets say, Debbie on 9th floor. So I go to 9th floor and ask the receptionist for Debbie, and she's like kind of in a bad mood or something so she's like ON THIRD FLOOR. So I go find Debbie on third floor and she says, NONO you're asking the wrong person it's actually Michelle on 9th floor. So I go back to 9th floor and the receptionist is even pissier. She was glaring at me :(.

Thanks mister. I owe you one for that.

At least it was relatively quiet today. Hardly any calls on wait... thank god. Enjoy it while it lasts.

It's September alright...

Just for Ms J's comment, I'll do another blog tonight about yesterday. (Yes, I do love comments hint hint)

Yesterday, we had aklsdjfkl I mean too many f***ing people on hold. It was like constant 100+ on hold for JUST repair. I think people said 150+ for internet. I wouldn't know though hehe. Holy cow, I've never seen it that bad. Everyone customer call you take they have to bitch and moan at the beginning of the hour and a half wait they waited to talk with you. Woohoo!!! Then I got stuck on a 1 1/2 hr call for HDTV wiring. I hate wiring calls. They always take forever and a day to complete.

And to top it off with a cherry, I had an 8 1/2 hour shift with only a half hour break too. Lol. That's so funny. Of course I talked to someone about it but man... retarded.

SDP is retarded. I hate it so much. The more I talk, the more I feel like BS is coming out of my mouth. I especially hate explaining how our battery "backup" failsafe works. My ass it works. Has there ever been an instance where it works? For fucks sake, many times, if you unplug the power to the modem and plug it back in, you'll lose your dialtone till you hit the reboot pinhole in the back of the modem or call tech support for us to reset it.

My god, it gets old really fast when we make some elderly customer crawl on their hands and knees in their dark dusty garage with spiders crawling around to unplug this and that and plug their cordless phone into the modem, just to find out there's no power source for the cordless phone nearby anyways. What kind of insane customer service is that??? And now, the TSR 2's for SDP have moved to the other side too. That makes me sad. Now it's gonna take alot longer for me to run over and get someone to help. Maybe I should move over to the other side. But I like my SDP corner. It makes me feel special. I should have some kind of pride after being yelled at day after day.

Yeah, I really want my bonus cheque now. Screw the pride. Where is that lazy ass supervisor. I hate people who really make you believe that they're going to do something, but in reality, they don't do anything but don't even bother to grace us with his presence at his desk and suck up to the manager to keep their job. Okay, maybe that got a little bit too specific directed to him, but in general it's true. I'd rather know that I can't depend on someone rather than think that I can and be let down instead. It's happened time and time again, and not just to me, but to other team members as well.

Oh well. Life goes on yeah?

**edit** I forgot to mention how fun it was after 9pm to release the callbacks. Basically our phone system has a feature where a customer can leave their name and number on our system so they don't have to wait on hold or lose their place in line. But after 9 pm, oh it's "too late to be calling our customers," so what do we do? Release them HAHAHA. Releasing 20 calls in a row in the most exhiliarating feeling I've gotten working here. It's fantastic.

**edit 2** 50th blog mark. I'm all about keeping track of interesting milestones. Eh, Mew?

Where's my bonus cheque.

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS. They're giving out bonus cheques again. Not alot mind you, maybe $200, but hey whatever works. Free money woo! Now I just have to hunt down my lazy... I mean laid back supervisor to give me my money and my raise whatever it may be. Can anyone say 15 cent raise? *sigh*

Anyways, you'll find I start complaining about school as well as work effective almost immediately cause well obviously that's what my life is right now. School and work, work and school. Whichever order you'd like to place it in, it basically means in big fat letters: FUN IS NO MORE. NIENTE. FINISHED. THE END. Instead what do I get? A nice dose of java, database, frontpage, boolean algebra, and lets not forget, challenged customers.

No stupid customers today. An angry one but whatever, that's normal. You know, I have a bad feeling about working after the china gate closes. Everyone hunts you down to do chinese callbacks. Somehow I can see it happening where I'll be put on a special queue after the china gate closes, and I'll be waiting by my lonesome all night for calls transferred from other TSRs to the chinese queue. *sigh* Fun and games.

One more day of work, then a one day weekend. Woohoo! Celebrate good times, c'mon!

Night shifts...

It's official: I'm part time now. (20 hrs)
Don't expect alot of blogs. I'll either be
a) too tired
b) too cranky
c) too busy with homework
d) all of the above

Btw, night shifts suckass. Yay for 200 on hold. I feel your pain at last Miss J. And shit, there are a ton of cranky ass bitchy customers on the night shift. I feel like it was one stupid issue after the other today.

This guy kept insisting that he has to use resolution 1080i instead of 720p cause 1080i was having problems with pictures. OMG THERES NOT DIFF. JUST LET IT SLIDE DUDE. IS IT REALLY WORTH A MILLION HOURS OF YOUR TIME. Then again, he did have like five 55" plasma TVs downstairs, so I guess he should care after spending that major money. I wish I had a setup like that in my basement... even though I'd never use it.

But yeah, crazy ass. And this woman geezuz christ. She didn't know what a drivers license is even though she provided it to us at signup. She's like, "drivers license?? you mean my plate number."
"No ma'am, your drivers license card number."
"My car number? Ok hold on I'll get it my car's outside."
"I SAID YOUR CARD NUMBER, C-A-R-D. THE THING ICBC GIVES YOU TO CERTIFY YOU CAN DRIVE."
"My car number, gotcha, hold on. I'll go outside."
"CARD! CARD! CARD!"
"Hold on *puts phone down and hangs up*"

At least it gets quiet... for half an hour. Time to enjoy. Maybe. I foresee a porn related call coming in for some reason. Had to check a few of those tonight. *sigh*

*edit* I was SOOOOO RIGHT. Last call of the night was porn related. Man I am good.