Cosy by name, c*nty by nature
I was coming to the end of a call centre shift (Vodafone customer service again). It was about 8pm and most of the supervisors had left by that point, and most of the other departments had closed, so it was always a bit more challenging dealing with peoples’ queries at that time of day.

A call came through from a fairly young sounding man from the London area, who was named as a user on an account in his mum’s name (probably had a poor credit rating and couldn’t get his own). His name was Cosi, and he wanted to lift the automatic “content bar” on his account. The motivation for doing this is usually so that you can look at porn websites on your WAP internet. I know you have to be 18 to get a mobile phone on account but the policy was to apply a content bar until the customer chooses to remove it, and they need to verify their identity and over-18 status by either going into a Vodafone shop with ID or paying a nominal fee on their credit card (not debit card) over the phone, which they’ll then get credited back to their account. A bit of a hassle, and seemingly pointless, but that’s the rules.

Anyway, as the account was in the mother’s name, I realised that this was likely to cause problems with the system. I asked if I could speak to his mother and get a payment from her credit card, and he said that wouldn’t be possible. He was coming across as an unpleasant fellow, but being ever-helpful, I asked if I could put him on hold and go and check with my supervisor what I should do.

I spent a couple of minutes talking to the supervisor and she told me it probably wasn’t possible to remove the bar without speaking to his mother, but that she’d go and check with another department if I could go back to talk to the customer and suggest other alternatives.

“Hello again,” I said, taking him off hold. “I did just go and speak to my supervisor, and she’s gone to check whether we’ll be able to take the content bar off for you…”

He interrupted me. “Yeah , you’ve just put me on hold for five minutes and gone to chat with your friends, that’s what you’ve been doing.”

“No, I am really trying to help here. An alternative way of getting the bar lifted is to visit a Vodafone store with some proof of age and identity. Would that be possible?”

“I’m too busy to go into a store! Look I just want to get this bar lifted, you jobsworth, it’s not difficult…”

“Sorry, the problem has been caused by the account being in your mother’s name. You could ask her to call at another time with her credit card if it’s not convenient for you to go into the shop…”

“Look, I just want to get this sorted now, I don’t have time for this....” and on he went, using various insulting terms and accusing me of being lazy/not helping etc; obviously he knew his way round talking to CSRs rudely because he didn’t use any swear words, meaning that I couldn’t threaten terminating the call. He didn’t raise his voice either; he was just generally unpleasant. I told him I needed to go back to my supervisor to see if she’d managed to find out what I could do, and he went off on another rant about how I was just skiving off, chatting to my friends, etc. I had had enough by this point, he really didn’t deserve my energy and effort, and my finger jabbed down on the ‘end call’ button before I could stop it.

I decided to check back on the account a few minutes later, to see if he’d called back. I saw the notes from the next CSR saying that he had mentioned various threats about what he’d have done if he’d been talking to me in person, I should watch my back etc. Then it said they’d given him £5 credit on his account for ‘any inconvenience’.

Always lovely to be undermined. I should have put a bar on his phone. All that hassle because he wanted to look at porn on a tiny screen, which surely can’t be that exciting.

Better apologise for length on this one. But it was therapeutic to write.
(Ovaltina, Wed 10 Sep 2008, 18:48, 4 replies)

Back in the day...
on my old sony phone (pre ericsson) I was looking for the lottery numbers on my tiny green screen WAP connection, and I found animated porn.


I couldn't sit straight for 3 days.
(powervator and NONE SHALL PASS, Wed 10 Sep 2008, 20:42, closed)

Undermining
I really hate that. And I especially hate that people know they can kick up a fuss and get their own way.

Btw - I had to get my auto bar removed so I could access B3ta on my phone! And I could tell the CSR thought I wanted it removed so I could watch some pron!
( El Lazarus is calm now, Ish,, Wed 10 Sep 2008, 20:50, closed)

Length?
Don't apologise for it, but it was probably longer than his.
(nothingworn didn't eat cheese on, Wed 10 Sep 2008, 21:10, closed)

If by 'porn', you mean facebook and b3ta, then yeah.
The content block is an absolute pain in the arse. Bloke was clearly being a twat though.
(Merrep, Thu 11 Sep 2008, 9:51, closed)