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Data Provocation
May 22, 2003
The Data Protection Act prevents us from giving out details
of a customer to anyone who is not entitled to it. This
is, in essence, what the law is there for.
Only the customer and BT can view the information, so when
3rd party caller ask why they can't get through to the number,
we have to say. "I'm sorry I cannot tell you. The data
protection act prevents me from disclosing that information."
A third party caller is anyone who isn't the customer.
A neighbour, a relative, anyone trying to call a number
is a third party caller.
Sometimes they can't get through because there's a fault,
or the line is genuinely busy (sometimes with people on
the Internet), and sometimes it is because the line has
been terminated for non-payment.
All I can do is test the line. If it returns a signal of
'Line Busy', I can tell the third party caller. Also, if
the line tests faulty, I can report it. But if there's a
fault with the equipment in the house, I can't report the
fault, because that means a BT engineer would turn up unannounced
and if the fault was a broken telephone, the customer would
be charged for the call out.
Some people get very stroppy at this point and demand to
know what is wrong. I still can't tell them and explain
why.
Really it comes down to: "Would you be happy if some stranger
called us saying they couldn't get through to you, and we
told them it was because you hadn't paid the bill?"
Net Gain Zero
May 28, 2003
A customer called wanting a gain increase, nothing unusual
about that, happens all the time when the Internet is running
slow for customers. Basically it boosts the "volume"
on the line.
Then the customer mentioned that the line was noisy intermitently.
I advised that it would be best to find the cause of the
noise, as increasing the gain on a noisy line only makes
it worse.
Customer said No, she wanted the gain increased.
I told her it might make the noise worse.
The customer insisted.
I said that if I increased it and it made it worse it
was difficult to reduce it back to normal.
Customer said she had had the fault "diagnosed" by a friend
and had been told to get the gain increased.
I increased the line knowing full well that it will probably
make her line unusable and the Internet won't connect at
all. You have to give the customer what they want.
Deaf AND Psychic?
May 31, 2003
The most annoying kind of customer to get.
"Good morning -- faults, CSR speaking, can I hav-"
"Yes, my phone is faulty. What's wrong with it?"
"Well at a guess I'd say some clumsy oaf spilt coffee
into the handset last night while looking for the light
switch."
"Really?"
"No not really, I need your number before I can check
what's wrong with it!"
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