"We'll get back to you," but they never do.

Flukey

This comes as a result of the recruitment agencies thread but it is a wider problem. Ireland has a very easygoing nature, which is often a good thing. Sometimes we get this "Don't worry about it", "We'll look after that" type of attitude. How often do you ring a professional organisation and they tell you they will get back to you by a particular time or date, but you don't hear from them. When you then ring them, they give you another date and more assurances, but the same thing happens. Recruitment agencies are bad for it, but companies are too. I suppose the agencies suffer from that themselves, which is why they don't get back to you. What are your experiences with people who are supposed to get back to you, but never do?

RE*AC*TOR

Professional organisations are made up of people like you and me. Sometimes they are overworked, under-managed, used, abused, constipated, shat-upon, etc etc. Sometimes they are just muppets. Either way, they know that we are the ones with the problem, and if they don't call us back, we will call them back. Often, partly due to the society we live in, with our no-complaining-complex, we end up sticking out the poor service companies despite all this.

Sleepy

When i was last job hunting I came across an interesting thing. Out of the 200 odd CV's I sent out (I was just leaving college at the time and not overly discriminating - my mistake) I got a couple of calls about interviews etc, three "Don't call us" letters and surprisingly, four from companies that had since gone under but wished me all the best in the future etc.

I'm not the first to say it but it certainly seems that people have more time for you when they're down on their luck. The money that came into this country in the Celtic Tiger buggered it.

koneko

Everyone here says that. They never do get back to you though. Fobbus offus.

It's very annoying.

optiplexgx270

going to the companies directly is much better as the agencies are made up of overworked, under-managed, used, abused, constipated, shat-upon muppets (modified quote from reactor) so dont expect much from them.

Deadwing

I went to an interview yesterday. (whiched sucked, but thats another thing).
Got told the usual "well call you this afternoon or tomorrow!"
Im still waiting. Right on the edge of my seat :rolleyes:

Imposter

I'll get back to you with an answer when I get a chance.

climaxer

NTL are the worst ever IMO - I had awful trouble with them a few years ago. Just one or the things they did was when I informed them I was moving house they changed my address BUT left the mailing address as my old address. I didn't get a bill and said feck it I ain't ringing them to let them know I wasn't getting bills and even if I did it would take me a couple of hours/attempts to get through to them BUT a good few months later they cut me off. Made me pay a re-connection fee. I wrote a letter to the manager and after numerous phonecalls etc. I got 3 months free rental. I said it wasn't my fault they didn't send me a bill and were sending them to my old address etc. Also the remote control for the digital broke and I rang zillions of times to get them to drop me in a new one. Still waiting. Luckily though I spotted an NTL guy going into a neighbours house and he had a spare one in the van and gave it to me.

Another thing that annoys the ****e out of me is recently we've been looking for a new office to rent. My boss told me to ring some auctioneers. I rang at least 15 of them and asked them to post me out their list of offices to let. All of them said no problem etc. and I only got around 4 replies.

Flukey

Saying they are overworked etc. may be true and all very well, but that is not good enough. They are professional organisations and should provide a proper service. They will lose clients that way, as customers will go to where they get the service. If they are overworked, isn't that all the more reason to get new staff in? You get told they are very busy from the people when interviewing you and again when you ring to see what is happening, so wouldn't getting the new staff in quickly not help? An efficient service will benefit a company in the long run, so it is worth putting in the effort and getting things working. Countries doing business with Ireland often find our approach very annoying, as many are used to working more efficiently. So if I am told that they will get back to me tomorrow I should be able to expect that they will. I would much prefer them to be honest and say "We'll be back on to you three weeks from next Tuesday." :rolleyes:

Spalk0

Had a similar problem when i ordered a tv and dvd package from ESB!got the tv delivered but no dvd player!....Was ringing them up for weeks afterwards trying to get it sorted out!they kept saying theyd ring me back and but never did and i had to ring them!Eventually i had to go into Swords and pick up the dvd myself!.....Would think twice before i shop through them again!

AdMMM

Some people maybe overworked, but others are just incompetant and have no interest in helping you out!

pickarooney

I've been to interviews on a couple of occasions, even got called for a second interview once, and never heard anything from the company again. I just hate the way they let you hope for a week, two weeks and then slowly realise they didn't want you. How hard is it for them to ring or mail you, for feck's sake? Each time, I hesitated to contact them, but stopped myself, as I knew I would have been sarcastic and screwed up any small chance that remained (I didn't go through recruitment agencies).

Sposs

Sleepy wrote:

four from companies that had since gone under but wished me all the best in the future etc.

.

That why they went under spending money sending letters out to people to say "good luck in the future"

Jack Feeney

Flukey wrote:

This comes as a result of the recruitment agencies thread but it is a wider problem. Ireland has a very easygoing nature, which is often a good thing. Sometimes we get this "Don't worry about it", "We'll look after that" type of attitude. How often do you ring a professional organisation and they tell you they will get back to you by a particular time or date, but you don't hear from them. When you then ring them, they give you another date and more assurances, but the same thing happens. Recruitment agencies are bad for it, but companies are too. I suppose the agencies suffer from that themselves, which is why they don't get back to you. What are your experiences with people who are supposed to get back to you, but never do?

Flukey,

You may be interested in how one genius HR (heads up Rectum) department handles the fact that its hasn't a clue of whats going on around it:

Thank you sincerely for you recent application to XX Healthcare

Your application is currently being assessed against the requirements of the
vacancy. If you are selected for an interview, we will be in contact with
you over the next four weeks to confirm interview arrangements.

If you do not hear from us during this time, then we regret to inform you
that your skills and experience do not match those required by this
position and we would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your interest in XX Healthcare.


Yours sincerely,
G. Ob****e
Human Resources
XX Healthcare

Pure genius, huh?

Respect,
Jack. :rolleyes:

Lump

Well personally I found that customer service in Ireland was terrible, but when I moved to England it was much better, perhaps it's because there's more competition in the UK and companies feel obliged to offer after sales service more?


John

][cEMAN**

Flukey wrote:

Saying they are overworked etc. may be true and all very well, but that is not good enough. They are professional organisations and should provide a proper service. They will lose clients that way, as customers will go to where they get the service. If they are overworked, isn't that all the more reason to get new staff in?

Sorry but you're classicly confusing the agent with the company. I agree that there are a lot of muppets who work in telephone support, but from my own experience working in these centres, even when the agents do want to call the customers and give them top level support, restrictions within the companies, stats grinding, and looking to cut corners, means that they can't.

It's the fault of the company not the people you speak to. They look to reduce costs and maxamise profit by cutting the number of people on the phones to the bare minimum they can possibly get volume answered with - and that's at the low times. It means at rush hour times in call volumes often you're waiting a long time to get answered, and the person you're talking to may seem a little distracted because they have their manager in the background shouting "Wrap up that call asap, get everything logged, get all the details, fix the call first time even though it might not be possible, make the customer happy though you can't give them what they want, jump through the statistic hoops we've set for you this week, and smile while you speak to them - they can tell at the other end of the phone!".

It's BS plain and simple. Mostly managers are agents who've been on the phone, but as soon as they get power suddenly forget where they came from and get an ego trip. They literally look down their noses at the agents still on the phones below them. Even if you get a decent manager, mostly they're being crucified by top end management to meet stats, that they have to become a total b*****d.

You have your call time your hold time your statistics on your logging, your not ready time your wait time for new calls (you get told off if it's quiet and you're waiting too long to take a call *sigh*) rediculous logging grading where in most cases you're asked questions because management thought it would be a good idea, rather than it being something that the agent needs to know.

I think the most annoying one i've heard to date is BT asking you every single time you call "In the interest of fair trading I have to ask you one last question. I can see by the last time you called that you told us you use the internet. Is this still the case?" Answer? Yes.....yes F***ING YES! I've answered this now hundreds of times (obviously problems with BT where I have to keep calling) and each time it's yes. GIVE ME THE OPTION TO ASK YOU TO STOP ASKING THE QUESTION!

I get agrivated as well, but I realise it's the company not the agent that's stuck repeating the same BS monotonous crap over and over again. It's degrading to them, condasending to most that their management think they aren't capable of fixing problems without management giving them word by word scripts to go through to resolve the issue.

By now, in most of the major call centres, the best agents have been driven out. Unable to actually FIX your problem by just doing it and not listening to management, they've quit and found jobs stacking shelves or something probably, because there just aren't always jobs out there!

To all those who say "well if you don't like the job, quit". Are you rich? Do you have an unhappy job, and if so are you surrounded by job prospects everywhere you look? I've heard of something called unemployment. There's a lot of statistics for the number of people in the country (in many countries) who can't get jobs. Now lets quell your cinicism and just remind you that they're not all sitting about just to claim benefit. A lot of people out there want a job but can't get one. So when you get a job (nomatter how **** it is) sometimes you have to just grin and bare it!

Sorry for this really long rant, but I just think that a few bad apples in a much larger bunch of decent people, have given the wrong impression. The comments here of "muppets" proves that. If you're not happy with the agents attitude (if they're rude) then that's one thing, but if you're calling them on their committments, it's more than likely the company. Yeah I agree we have a laid back nature in this country, but on the whole it's usually that people are strangled by their own management to the point they can't do the job they're being told to do.

Miss Mann

It's probably because Irish people are too busy scratching their fat arses to get back to you. Or do anything, for that matter...

xx

nlgbbbblth

Flukey wrote:

How often do you ring a professional organisation and they tell you they will get back to you by a particular time or date, but you don't hear from them. When you then ring them, they give you another date and more assurances, but the same thing happens.

the answer is simple
it's a case of "call centre mentality" - which is not confined exclusively to call centres.