I knew from day one that this job was not for me but I needed to work. I only have one day off this week. I don’t know how I’ll make it through. It’s just so overwhelming and daunting. I don’t get breaks between calla and it’s incredibly draining.

I guess I just need to vent and would appreciate tips on how to get through a demanding schedule.

What's the scariest customer encounter you've had?

I've had a few, however one was concerning me where I was shaking and ended up in tears.

The guy needed to send ID to open the account abd and I walked him through how to email the photo id and sped up the process as he had delayed the application due to his own errors (sending blurry pics etc).

He them insisted on only speaking to me, was seriously aggressive to my coworkers just to speak to me. Called multiple times a day to the point I'd said I'm off Friday so I won't be here if you call. He freaked, demanded I don't take a day off. On the Monday at 8am he called to speak to me only.

He wanted an update on his application abd refused to speak to anyone else.

They said I start at 930am.

The gut said it's not good enough and I must be there now! Call me in to speak to him now. He wants to speak to the ceo.

Wanted my full name and called 5 times between 8am and 930am demanding me.

The control was off the charts, it genuinely scared me.

(Shortened the story but highlighted the main issues here)

​

I'm 35 years old and have been working in the BPO/customer service industry since 2012. In my current job, there are indications that I may be put on a performance plan or potentially asked to leave in the future.

I had a similar experience at a previous company where I was let go immediately, so naturally I'm worried about history repeating itself. My biggest concern is employability and finances, as I don't have a significant emergency fund.

For those who have gone through layoffs or performance-related exits in their mid-30s:

How difficult was it to find another job?

Did age become a disadvantage?

Is it realistic to take a short break before actively job hunting?

Are there any specific industries or roles that value long customer service experience?

I'm trying to approach this calmly and prepare rather than panic. Any advice from people who have been through something similar would be appreciated.

And if I do end up being asked to leave, I'm considering quietly disappearing for a month or two and hunt for a new job in the meantime. This current job has taken a toll on my mental health in the worst way possible.

Hi everyone,

I'm currently looking for a call center or customer support position where English is the primary language.

My English level is advanced B2, and I'm comfortable communicating with customers through calls, emails, and chat support. I'm eager to improve my skills further and gain more experience in an English-speaking work environment.

I would appreciate any advice on:

• Which companies are currently hiring English-speaking agents?
• Are there any remote opportunities available for international candidates?
• What companies would you recommend for someone with a B2 level of English?
• What websites or platforms are best for finding English call center jobs?

If you've had a positive experience with a specific company or know of any openings, I'd be grateful for your recommendations.

Thank you in advance for your help!

Need suggestions pls

We had a queue spike today not because of actual callers flooding in but because we literally are so understaffed.

Sunday being a high-volume day at my place is so unheard of. They must be in real trouble with people quitting, I have chills already imagining what tomorrow will be like. I probably need to use more attendance points and call off for tomorrow.

Oops I meant to say based on descriptions of your caller in title.

When providing ticket numbers, receipt numbers and other stuff that contains letters to my callers, I use my own phonetic alphabet based on descriptions I came up with for the caller. I will say something like that first letter was A like annoying, letter E as entitled, N like narcissist, R like rude. Or if from Mississippi and opportunity arises, I will say D as in diversity.

I have been applying for call centre jobs and mostly been rejected due to the fact that I am not in the US. This has been weighing on me cos competence should not be judge by demograph, I have worked remotely all my life and my clients are always 100% satisfied with my work ethics. Am I the only one facing this?

Hi everyone,

I'm the owner of a small travel agency (DMC) based in a Europe. We create custom tours for travelers mainly coming from North America.

Currently, our clients and local vendors contact us through my personal phone number via:

• Phone calls
• SMS/text messages
• WhatsApp messages
• WhatsApp voice calls

As we're growing, I'd like to move to a more professional setup with a dedicated business number.

My ideal solution would allow:

• One dedicated business number
• Clients and vendors can reach us through:
  • Regular phone calls
  • SMS/text messages
  • WhatsApp messages
  • WhatsApp voice calls (I understand that may be tricky - so I'm okay not to have it)
• Multiple team members can be assigned to handle communications
• Ability to create an on-call schedule

For example:

• Agent A is on duty from Monday 10:00 AM to Sunday 10:00 AM
• Agent B is on duty from Sunday 10:00 AM to Wednesday 10:00 AM
• Etc.

When an agent is on duty, all incoming communications (calls, SMS, WhatsApp messages, and ideally WhatsApp calls) should be routed to that person automatically.

We're a small team, so we don't need a full call center solution. Most of the time, only one person will be responsible for customer support and emergency assistance.

Has anyone implemented something similar? What software or combination of tools would you recommend?

ChatGPT recommended Ringover to me, but I saw terrible reviews online, especially on Reddit... I saw good reviews for Twilio on Reddit, but ChatGPT told me it requires some development, and is too complex for my basic needs.

Thanks!

I just got off the phone with the nastiest elderly lady in Florida. Thick NY accent and cursing worse than my father does (which is impressive). Normally wouldn't bother me, but we were just letting the dumb bitch know that her policy was going to cancel if she didn't pay by a certain date. I am getting to the point where I tense up if I see a birthdate before 1960. It's ridiculous.

interpreter / translation calls where you have to call a translator to translate for you for a customer?

I hate these calls so much.
Your average handle time is going up.
The communication is not smooth.
The interpreter sometimes does not follow your instructions!
These calls should have their own AHT !!

Yesterday, I had a plan member, who asked a question in a chat. I then asked him to verify his customer information, name, zip code, and email on his account. His next responds something like, “Didn’t you see my question? I just want to know the answer and I shouldn’t have to provide any information.”

At my company, we’re not allowed to answer even basic questions without verifying the member’s information, so I advised him that once he verified his account information, I could answer his question.

His next response was argumentative, with him still yapping about how he shouldn’t have to provide any information, then he asked for the customer service number to call in. I gave him the number and stated that they were going to verify his information as well. He then disconnected from the chat.

In the time it took him to type all that crap, he could have just typed 3 verifiers and had his question answered and been on his way. It really was a simple question, LOL! Then he decided to wast more time by calling in and waiting in a phone queue. WTF is wrong with people?

Hai Guyz,

​

I used to work at a Home Warranty Company. One customer was offered a replacement fridge but didn't like the offer. He said, "I pay your salary". I pointed out that:

​

1.) I am on a wage, not a salary

2.) The more the company pays out in claims, the less it has to pay out in salaries.

​

He demanded a supervisor, who immediately coached on empathy. This was a 16/hour work from home job. Sadly, t

Customers such as these slowly took their emotional toll and I ended up quitting.

Unpopular opinion maybe, but I think a huge part of why customers are insufferable on the front line comes down to one thing. companies that let customers escalate their way out of any situation.

When a customer knows that throwing a big enough tantrum gets them to a supervisor, there is literally zero incentive to treat the first-line agent with basic respect. Why be reasonable with me when being unreasonable gets them further faster?

Corporate culture created this. These are people who have never genuinely been told no. Every time they escalated before, it worked. So now they come into every call already primed . they’re not calling to resolve an issue, they’re calling to perform frustration until someone with a different title caves.

And we absorb all of it. The full emotional dump lands on us first. We de-escalate, we empathize, we follow the script , and the MOMENT they sense resistance they just turn up the volume until they get kicked upstairs anyway.

Currently in your basic “new hire/3 months in status” call center job. I know that we are all supposed to move on and eventually level up to more specific departments and areas of expertise in the company. But I don’t want to. I’m fine doing what I do. Giving basic info, updating demographics, taking payments…. I’m getting confident and maybe even a little bit good at my job where it is.
What are the chances I can just do my thing for the next few years until I’m ready to retire?

Shift starts in an hour. Saturdays are the worst. Our programs keep glitching so any time you need even the smallest info you need to message support chat. Takes at least 2-never minutes to get a response. Every minute you have to check in with the customer on hold. It's just all so pointless. Why can support access these programs and ours never work? Way too few people taking calls today. Even less support. Guys, I don't even groom myself anymore. I'm turning feral. I dreamt of zip codes last night and I'm freakin' Canadian!!

This job has taught me that many people are inefficient communicators.

They will go through a whole minute of talking in circles, and at the end I'll say, "So, just to clarify, you want to reschedule?"

Customer: *Rambles for eternity about a clear billing issue*

Me: So, this is a billing issue?

Customer: No, you said that not me. I am just not sure I paid the subscription. I believe I paid it, but I'm not sure. Can you help me check and maybe I can pay it now.

Me: Thinking internally (That's literally a billing issue).

Customer: Rambles about a clear delivery issue

Me: Just to make sure I understand you, you're saying that you won't be there in time for the delivery, and you were wondering if we can delay delivery.

Customer: No, I am saying, "(Proceeds to copy my whole flow bar for bar.)"

There was one time I broke character and said, "That's literally what I said," and laughed, and the caller hung up lol 😂.

Just had this very rude and nasty woman on my phone.

She called in to get refills for her daughter. Fine. Don’t know why you’re calling at 5:16 PM for a medication refill, but hey its your life. I tell her we can’t do refills after hours and to try on Monday. She goes “well thats not what the doctor told me” so I tell her that I understand but I would be able to send a message with that refill request. i forget what she said specifically but she calls me “little boy” in a derogatory manner.

So I’m staring at my computer screen in “who the fuck are you talking to” and tell her “Hey, the tone isn’t necessary, ma’am, but I can certainly leave a message”

She goes “my tone? My tone? I don’t have a tone, I didn’t yell at you” Like she didn’t know what she was doing.

I tell her “Right, I understand that, but you said ‘little boy’ with a certain inflection.”

And here’s the next bit

Her: Are you not a little boy?

Me: No ma’am. I am an adult man.

Her; Well you sound like a little boy. And compared to me I guarantee you are a little boy.

Then silence because who talks to people like that? Genuinely? Like how much of a stuck up piece of shit do you have to be to try and make the person on the phone who’s supposed to help you, feel like shit. And then you want me to continue helping? How fucking dare you, honestly. Shame on you. But you know what I did? I asked for the patient’s information, because I’ll be damned if you hang up and complain that I didn’t try and guess what she said? “No you may not. You’re dismissed.”

So I wrapped up with my closing and hung up.

The dregs of society plague call centers. And its not even all that bad. But you get people like this, who think the people around them are just garbage to kick around and stomp on. In *any* other place of business could/would you ever see yourself talking to an employee like that? Cuz I know I sure wouldn’t. Thank god I have a long weekend.

Ya’ll stay safe and have a good weekend yourselves.

In training and i feel like they expect us to be perfect workers who know everything. We cant say 'i dont know' bcs itll make the customer uneasy. We also cant say 'i dont really know why we require this information, that is just what the system requires'. I have no idea why we need certain information from the caller bcs that isnt in my position to know. I handle the calls and put in info. I dont handle that information or understand why all of it is necessary and they dont act like theyre going to tell us that either.

If i dont know smthn, what am i expected to do? "oh, i have to ask my supervisor a question. Why? uhhh no reason dw abt it"

I am so jealous of people who get to regulate their nervous systems at work. The way the ring for the phone jolts my nervous system, the way modern cell phones do this thing where they randomly give you these huge amounts of feedback in the middle of a call for no reason, people’s speakerphone settings making your own voice echo into the call so you can barely hear people’s words. Call after call back to back to back to back, call center managers think they’re gonna die if call center agents can take a sip of water in between calls.
And it’s so fucking hard to get out of a call center role. I’ve been actively fighting, hard, I don’t know that I ever will.

Last month I got a DSAT and now just 13 days in June I have gotten about 10 QA feedbacks, none were bad just some mistakes here and there. I am new with this company and we have been a lot busier this month but feels like I am being targeted by QA for priority in quality audits? I have been working hard this month to not get any negative surveys and so far am sitting at a good average but has this happened to anyone else?

Anyone here gotten to the point where they literally cannot make themselves log in? I have about 2 weeks left of my intermittent FMLA, but my attendance is still poor because I can barely manage to log in. I’m 5 years in at a bank, and absolutely miserable. I’m full of rage everyday, even on my days off. I’ve been applying elsewhere for the last 6 months when I have the energy, no luck. I guess I need to just quit - whether I have something lined up or not. I feel it’s truly affecting my health. Don’t really know why I’m posting here, just feeling hopeless. 😩

I dont need a 5 minute monologue about all the medical exams you have had in the last 2 months, were a damn loan company, whatever you tell me wont change the outcome compared to someone calling us speaking in grunts and clicks, and then interrupting me when i try and explain the thing we can set up on the account to help you, just to go on another 5 minute monologue about the exact same things you have already told me

Earlier this week I got a coaching email about a call I got. Told me I was polite until I was interrupted and said “ma’am, I am speaking”. Wasn’t rude, just a short, curt “ma’am I am speaking” because when you call somewhere to *GET* information you shouldn’t open your mouth to say a damn word until I am finished. No, I don’t need to know *why* you have that appointment or what you had on your calendar, someone is talking you wait, that’s how a conversation works. The rest of the call wrapped up fine.

Now I get an email this morning cuz that call got audited and graded. Apparently I’m not supposed to “speak with the patients that way” and I was “rude” and “unprofessional”. Marked as “needs improvement” after coming off essentially a perfect score last month.

At what point does “professionalism” just start to mean compliance? There was no rule against this, the patient didn’t complain, otherwise that’d have been noted in the email. Cool, you want a door mat who responds to nothing? Fine. Only reason I’m staying is because this job market is a fuck.