Courteously Courteous.

14 Feb

I have been holding off on this post for a few days, as I hate to be preachy so early.  But it strikes me that today is Valentines Day, so maybe it is appropriate to bring this up at a time where love and bitterness are comparable.

I would by no means consider myself to be a polite person 100% of the time (anyone who says they are, is a flat-out liar).  I’ve often coined this as my ability to be brutally honest.  The truth is, it is probably more of a laziness to find the right words in an eloquent and pleasing fashion.  As uncouth as I can sound at times, I am an overall courteous person.  And being overly observant as I am, lately I find myself surprised at the increasing lack of basic courtesy that exits in the area I live.

I say ‘basic’ because I am not looking for Ms. Manners School of Polite Behavior – anything over a grunt is impressive today.  – And I say this ‘area’ because I have been in other parts of this country and world, and people do not act in this egotistical manner the way that we do around here.  I realize that the greater NYC/NJ area is a rough place. That is after all where my natural intolerance stems from. But where did this sense of complete entitlement and self-importance in every aspect of our existence come from exactly?

At first I thought it was the mix of economic classes in close proximity;  Nope. The hooptie and the Lexus both equally and effectively cut me off (without blinker of course) from the emergency lane.  Then, I thought maybe it is an age issue; Perhaps it was just the youth as a result from the ‘everyone gets a trophy/don’t bully my kid mentality’.  Wrong again.  At least half of the rudeness I am met with is from folks older than me.

My Recent Experience:

The Youth

Each week, the same 20ish girl barges in on my professor in the middle of his lecture.  Loudly and abruptly she walks into our 11am class at 11:30, or 11:45 announcing “hello” to no one in particular as she saunters across the room.  This last time, when she requests to sign the attendance sheet, she is declined.  Later, I overhear her proclaiming how disrespected she felt.

The Quasi-Wealthy

I attend a lecture series weekly where the average age range is about 35-70. This time, it is the same 60ish woman – who cannot turn the ringer off on her phone ever, and takes a call at least once per session, consistently causing disruption as she runs into the hallway.  She is so loud that I can hear her conversation over the person giving the lecture – and each time, as she returns she lets the door slam behind her.

The Middle-Aged

Last week I am grocery shopping and there are only a few lanes open, on an evening before (gasp) snow. We all have full carts, but the store is by no means busy.  As a cashier opens I see a visibly frustrated father with his 6-year-old son in tow, race over to secure first place. This man is so worked up that he literally almost knocks his kid out cold with the carriage – luckily another shopper grabbed the boy out of the way.  Did it faze Dad as he was hastily unloading? Nope.

The Thirty-Something

Yesterday, I am in the library. While browsing I come across a gentleman upgrading his cell phone plan – with the call on speaker-phone.  I am graced with listening to his concern for overage charges, and this carries on until I leave the area. Did I mention this is the library?

Over It

We treat each other so poorly, and then we complain that everyone else around us should treat us better.  I am more important than you.  My time is more valuable.  Traffic should yield to me, because here I am – I’m going to accelerate and it doesn’t matter that I have the sign.  I am Queen. I am King. My feelings. My needs. My ego. Me. Me. ME.

Please do not take my pleading for politeness as an indication that I am some dreamy, soft doormat.  I do not let others push me around – if you pick a fight with me, you will certainly get it.  If you are rude to me, I let you know.  But up until I have to deal with choosing my path of bitchiness. I am the person holding the door or saying “Thank You” when most people scoff and take off into their egotistical oblivion.  Maybe I sound self-righteous just like everyone I am complaining about – that’s for you to judge me as I am judging you.

But if we do nothing else today, just give a small act of humanity a try.  Maybe the smile or graciousness you get in return will make your day a little bit better, and someone elses day better too.

Stepping off my soapbox,
OfficeWench

How To Call Customer Service – Asking the Right Questions

7 Feb

This time, I thought I would share techniques when calling into a faceless corporation.  I hate excessive hold-time, dropped calls, rude service reps. and refund games.  The trick is to get your problem solved on the first call correctly – hopefully with minimal hold time.

In one sitting, I spent 6 hours on the phone with Dell. This was right around the time outsourcing was a new word to most consumers – myself included.  I spent an unnecessary sum of money to find my problem not fixed.  So, I filed (and won) a claim with the BBB.  It took me months to resolve. Plus, I never got my time back. When I received a recall notice 3 years later on the exact problem I fought to have fixed, I vowed never to let my time get wasted like that again.

Below are some ideas on how to ask the right questions and make the person handling your problem or refund personally accountable for their interaction with you. Asking certain questions and saying specific things to any representative (and following through) will get you the respect and service you deserve.

Identify First:

Most people wait until the end of their phone call to ask the representative their name or any other sort of uniquely identifying information.  The problem with this: by the end of your call you may not be having the most pleasant conversation, especially if they are denying you a credit and the only offer is to “have a supervisor get back to you” – the universal corporate blow-off.

Instead, start off with a pleasant greeting and ask them to repeat their name if you did not catch it.  Next, ask them if they ‘have an operator ID’.  Sometimes this puts the rep on defense – or they do not have one (not everyone does). If they do not have an ID#, ask them ‘what call-center are they working out of’ (typically the rep will provide to you a city and state).  Most representatives might know to lie about their ID# if they are not planning on being any help to you, but they do not think quick enough to lie about the city they work in – suddenly “Amy” is narrowed down from 5 call-centers across the country to one.

Playing the Game:

When looking for a refund or repair, it can turn into an endurance competition between you and your representative.  Your representative usually does not have a stake in the company, but they are trained to handle customers in a certain way.  Yelling? Expect to get put on hold repeatedly for 5 -10 minutes at a time. At the end, you may just get disconnected.  If you start to feel push back from a representative ask to speak with their supervisor.  You are calling to be helped.  They are there to help you – if the person on the phone is telling you they cannot help you, then you need to speak to someone who can – before they start playing the hold game with you. You already know what their name is and who they are, so there is less of a chance your CSR will just hang up on you if your problem proves to be difficult.

Take Notes:

If you are disputing a bill, use that month’s statement or invoice for your notes.  This cuts down on information you could potentially lose, and allows you to detail your report.  It is your responsibility to make sure you know what you are dealing with, the more information you have – the less of a chance the corporation has to make you go through the same process over and over without resolution.  This is particularly helpful if you are making 2 and 3 phone calls on the same matter –you will rarely ever speak to the same person twice.

If All Else Fails, Instill Fear:

There is a reason you are taking notes – incase the problem isn’t solved on your first call. Sometimes the company will still drop the ball (especially if they owe you). You may have to take your problem to the Better Business Bureau (BBB), Consumer Affairs, or your state’s Attorney General – depending on what agency the industry is governed by.  Now you have a list of people you can name, who did not help you – this makes your case incredibly strong and shows that you went above and beyond to give them chance to correct their mistake.  It also can help to let the people on the phone know that you intend on personally naming them in your complaint – like anything else, fear is always a motivator.

Tips:

  • Do not curse.  I personally do not agree with the fake outrage over cursing.  I think that we are all adults that watch the evening news, and if that garbage is allowed to be put out there – everyone should be able to deal with the ‘no-no’ words.  But I digress, cursing gives the rep the out to disconnect you for “abuse” – you can get away with being irate, but walk the line!  I have learned this lesson repeatedly and it just costs more time – by all means refrain.
  • If your call starts of badly, don’t be afraid to just hang up, call back and try someone else before even getting into your problem.  If you sense a ‘bad attitude’ its worth it to roll the dice again.
  • Be pushy.  If you ask for a supervisor, they may tell you one is not available – this is a normal tactic.  Do not back down or become intimidated – persist. There is someone available to take your call.
  • Have faith in the consumer agencies and report your complaint as detailed as possible.  This is easy and can usually be completed and processed through the website.


How to Spot a Fake Job Advertisement on Craigslist

6 Feb

With the job market worse than it has ever been, more and more people are using Craigslist and other employment services websites to conduct their daily job searches.  Unfortunately, along with this trend another one has grown; job scams are on the rise in a new way.

The “work at home” advertisement that was once easy to spot, has evolved into a promising lead that offers health benefits, paid vacation time, and a 401k.  The postings are carefully flooded with key words and it is all with the intention of getting as much information about you as possible.

These scam artists and identity thieves are the absolute lowest! Preying on us at a time when we are most vulnerable, and willing to give more information about ourselves than we normally would.  Spotting these bogus and cunning employment offers out there will assist you in your job search by saving you the effort (and potential expense) of applying to them and exposing yourself in the first place!

Follow these simple steps below and use your own common sense to avoid phishing!


  • Pay Attention to the Job Location:

    If the job post lists a vague location, or no location at all it is most likely fake. Your potential employer wants to know that you can get to work every day without issue and has no interest in wasting time reading through resumes that do not have a chance of actually showing up.  This tactic is to generate a large blanket of interest and bring in the largest number of replies possible.

  • Note the Salary Offered:

    Take a look at the salary or hourly rate – sound too good to be true? Then it is (there’s a reason cliches exist).  If you are looking at a part time job for a file clerk, but the salary is listed as $500 a week, you can safely assume that this is another way to get you to send your personal information and not a quality position.

  • Grammar and Spelling Counts Every Time:

    If the employment advertisement is riddled with spelling and grammatical errors, it is not real.  Your potential employer (especially in any corporate type of position) is not going to allow the representation of their company with multiple errors.  This is common sense, and is usually because the person posting the advertisement is not a native English speaker.  Don’t assume they just forgot to use sentences because the poster was in a rush.  This is almost always a key factor in spotting a fake job!

  • Note the ‘Reply To’ Email Address Provided:

    Websites like Craigslist allow for users to anonymously receive replies to their postings.  Therefore it is virtually unnecessary for anyone to ever reveal his or her personal email address on a posting.  Consider the following when you are looking at the “reply to email”; does the email listed have several unnecessary numbers or characters in it, and is the email from a free service like Hotmail, Yahoo or Google?  Is the email extension that of a corporation or from another country (instead of .com is it .de, .ru or .ch?) Does is the email seem like a very generic or common name? (i.e. “John Smith”). If any of these things grab your attention, you can trust your gut and know it’s a fake!

  • Already Applied?

    So what if you have already applied or responded to an advertisement you now suspect is a fake?  If you receive a reply from your potential employer that is asking you to click on a link and fill out a form to provide them more information – this is another red flag.  Unless you know the company physically exists and the site is easy to navigate and find out about them (like their address and phone number), it is not real.  Websites that send you directly to an information form with nothing else, exist for just that – getting your information!

  • Community Policing Works!

    Community driven websites like Craigslist depend on its users to police the scammers!  Make sure you flag the jobs that are scams as such!  Correctly flagging posts and reporting them to the website is the only way to keep these vultures off our job boards and make the websites do what they are supposed to – help us!  It is so SO important to watch out for one another, so that we can all continue to enjoy free services like this and not have to deal with our privacy being exploited!

    Tips and Warnings

    • Use only your town and state on your resume if you are not sure about the legitimacy of the job posting.
    • Consider sending your resume as only a .PDF. Sending your file as this kind of an attachment makes it a little bit more difficult for data miners to take your information and save it, the more work you are for them – the less they want to be bothered with you.
    • Set up a Google Voice phone number and link it to your mobile phone.  Dedicate this number to your job search and only use this number when sending out resumes and as a signature on your emails.
    • Set up a designated email address with Google (so you can link your Google Voice number to it and received transcriptions of all your voice-mails)!  Use this email address as your contact email on your resume as well.
    • Never reveal too much about yourself personally in a broadcast or cover letter if you do not know who you are writing to.   This is good practice and makes sense.
    • If you suspect the email address to ‘reply to’ might be a scammer, simply copy it in Google and run a search – if the same exact job posting is listed in other cities, then you can rest assured you just saved yourself identity exposure!
    • Above and beyond everything else – trust yourself.  Of course not every single posting will fall under these suggested guidelines 100% of the time, there can always be an exception to any rule.  Intuition can be your  best friend – sometimes we do not pay attention to the most important advice, our inner voice!