Working in Customer Service

Working in customer service sucks. I mean it really, really, really sucks. There is nothing worse. I have seen this show on the Discovery Channel called “Dirty Jobs” and watched the man “sexing” alligators and even that would probably be better most days than working in customer service. Trust me, I know, I have been doing it for a while now.

You sit in your cubicle. If it is like mine, it is in a windowless interior room. It’s like working in a cave. You are tied to the desk with the headset on your head. The headset, if it is like mine, presses against your ear and usually leaves it aching by the end of the day. Your calls are recorded. Then you have the joy of listening to that call in a small room with your supervisor at some point. They sometimes count how many times you say “um” and “uh.” Points are deducted. You have to reach a certain point level to get a good review.

The people you talk to are generally belligerent. As I have mentioned before, people do not call customer service lines to tell you what a wonderful job you are doing. No, they call when things have gone so horribly wrong that they are ready to kill someone. Throw in an automated phone system with a lot of menu selections and by the time they get to you if they could kill you with their mind, they probably would.

So, it was with mixed emotions that I listened to this recording that has been going around the internet of a guy trying to cancel his AOL account. You can find the link to listen to this yourself right here: http://insignificantthoughts.com/2006/06/13/cancelling-aol/. Now, AOL has become legendary for being a pain in the butt to cancel. My own father once made an attempt to do so and he still has AOL so that tells you something.