Ravenwood - 01/12/05 06:15 AM
We've all heard it. You call up any company nowadays and you get a disclaimer saying that 'This call may be monitored for quality assurance'. CNET reports that someone actually is listening, and what they hear can be surprising.
Most callers do not realize that they may be taped even while they are on hold.One call monitor even ratted out a female operator for getting a little too friendly with a cell-phone customer. After some flirtation, she apparently coughed up her personal phone number to the caller on the other end.It is at these times that monitors hear husbands arguing with their wives, mothers yelling at their children, and dog owners throwing fits at disobedient pets, all when they think no one is listening. Most times, the only way a customer can avoid being recorded is to hang up.
Next time I call and get put on hold for any length of time, I might just leave a few goodies for the monitor. Some heavy breathing, maybe some orangutan sounds. The only limit is the imagination.
I used to work in a call center for a large bank, taking loan applications over the phone. Several times I had guys on the phone who thought nothing of using the bathroom while discussing thier financial needs.
Posted by: Susan at January 12, 2005 12:02 PMSusan's specific circumstances may be different, but I could easily see a man or woman making a logical choice between going to the back of the line ("Please hold for our next available representative...") by hanging up or simply taking the phone with you when nature calls halfway through a wait cycle. I doubt people actually initiate phone calls from the bathroom.
Posted by: mikem at January 12, 2005 2:47 PMI dunno. I used to work telephone tech support for an internet provider, and on several occasions people would call while they were out driving around town or doing something else. It wasn't because of a long hold time either, they just didn't realize that the best place to troubleshoot a PC is with the user sitting in front of it.
Of course we also got some of the comical calls too.. "Can you see me through my montior?" or "It's on fire!"
Posted by: Ravenwood at January 12, 2005 2:56 PMDo I have to suggest the obvious background sound to interject into the tape? GUNFIRE!
Posted by: geekWithA.45 at January 12, 2005 3:00 PMGeek,
Better yet, how about gunfire, followed by a cat screetching, followed by "Take that y'furry bastard!"
Posted by: Ravenwood at January 12, 2005 3:09 PMI love it!
Posted by: DaveJ at January 12, 2005 9:38 PMI learned this the hard way about four years ago. I was on hold to a company in an attempt to file a verbal complaint with their products. While on hold I was complaining about their product to a person on my end and whoever answered the phone heard about the last minute of my conversation because she made references to it. I was surprised about it, even more so that not very many people know they can monitor you.
Posted by: Rhett at January 13, 2005 12:26 PMThere's a guy named Tom Mabe who sells CDs of recordings of his conversations with telemarketers. He did the gunfire/screaming thing at least once.
Posted by: Thibodeaux at January 14, 2005 2:04 PM(c) Ravenwood and Associates, 1990 - 2014
