Amanda Unvarnished

I had a really hard time getting up this morning.
The alarm went off at 5, I got up at 06:15.
They’ve fixed the ‘Net problem at work, so I should be able to post, or at least read blogs on my spare time.
Yesterday was really bad.
We had constant cue, and my schedule was 09:45 first break, 2PM lunch, and 4PM last break, which I didn’t get to take until 4:30PM.
Today’s didn’t look too bad though.
Lunch at 12:30 instead of 2.
At least having the ‘Net fixed means I can email S during the day, so that makes things a little better.

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My last call yesterday was probably one of the most original ones I’ve gotten yet, ranking it for now in the top sopt of the Pathetic category.
It was from a pharmacist at a retail store, who said I needed to talk to his customer because he was getting a rejection having to do with mail-order only coverage.
Then, he put me on hold, and put the member on the phone.
Apparently he didn’t tell the member who he was calling and having them talk to, because when I started asking for the usual information, the member said she had no idea who I was or what I was talking about, so I had to find a professional way to explain that pharmacist’s lack of competence, laziness, and rudeness.
For the record, if a member has mail order only coverage, then they can’t take that card to their local Walgreens and get a prescription filled.
Furthermore, there’s nothing we pukes on the phones can do about it.
You have to talk to your insurance company about that.
But we have to feed you a line of crap because that’s considered good customer service, and our jobs depend on it.
If we didn’t have to eat and pay bills like the rest of the country, we could give the company and the client a collective shove-off and stage a walk-out.
We’ve all talked about doing that several times, but we all know we won’t.
And it’s even worse when members start engaging in the same games that everyone else is.
Those are the ones who really irk me, and you wouldn’t believe how many calls like that we actually get.
In a lot of cases, the callers are just as unethical as the pharmacists, the company, and the client, along with the insurance companies and the doctors.
Remember that I’m speaking in general terms, and there are exceptions to the rule.
But I would advise that just because you’re having a bad day, or you’re angry at your insurance company doesn’t mean you should take it out on us.
Yours isn’t the first major problem we have to deal with on any given day, it’s most likely the one hundredth or two hundredth, and everybody’s problem is the most important.
After a while, we become embittered, and then it gets to the point where we just sort of treat everybody like you’re items on an assembly line, which means we’re going to do whatever it takes to get you off the phone so we can move on to the next person.
And some of us will even resort to just flat lying to you to get rid of you.
I don’t condone this at all.
But it definitely happens, and in a lot of cases, there’s a reason.

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I got in this morning, and found that they’ve fixed the surf control (that which allows us to surf the ‘Net or not), so I can now post and email from work again.
That’s good.
I was starting to miss it.
I mean, I’m not going to avoid work to do it or anything, but it gives me a window to the outside world and keeps me from being totally sucked in to the cue continuum, even if it doesn’t help me avoid getting screwed.
I should be posting more from this point, until something else goes wrong.

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It’s been a while since I’ve posted.
I haven’t done much over the last week except work, and that’s been a total disaster.
It was OK the first part of the week, (excluding all the system problems, and rude callers and administrative crap that’s the usual fair), and I even had a funny call, from some guy who wanted to know if he could donate his medications to someone else because he was no longer taking them and didn’t tell us before we sent him the order.
Of course, I told him he couldn’t.
Absolutely nothing’s happened on the accessibility front, which tells me everybody who’s been promoted according to the level of their incompetence feels that they’ve fixed the problem.
Not good.
On top of all the system lock-ups, Jaws crashes, and screens that aren’t accessible to begin with, yet another problem has surfaced.
Since Thursday morning, it now takes my system literally twenty minutes to start.
There’s a start-up script (actually a series of them) that runs every time we log on to our systems.
One of them in particular has started taking a very long time to run.
I’ve reported it several times, with no result, except that I’ve been suspected of extreme work avoidance, (at least three hours worth for Thursday alone), and generally brushed off, as if everybody’s annoyed because there’s yet another problem developing around the blind person.
Here lately I feel like all I manage to do is cause problems, mixed in with the little bit (compared to everyone else) of money I manage to bring in for the company and the client.
All I seem to be doing is adding to everybody’s problems, and since I don’t have any solutions that are immediate and don’t require any work, it’s somehow my fault.
And there’s no end in site.
We’re due for another upgrade of the database interface in a couple of days, and by January, I’m expected to utilize certain features that come with the new upgrade that aren’t available in the old version of the interface.
It doesn’t matter whether or not any of this has to be as difficult as it is.
The simple fact is that it’s being made difficult, therefore it is.
I’m finding it really hard to keep a sense of humor throughout all this.
All of this is way past the point of ridiculous, and the worst part about it all is that there’s nothing I can do about it.
They say they’re supposed to have the surf control crap fixed sometime this week, so hopefully I’ll be able to post and check my email from work again.
I also hope to post more frequently.

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Due to the lack of ‘net access at work, (which isn’t supposed to be cleared up for about two weeks), I’m going to be posting the items I wrote while at work this week during the day.
I’ll also be posting items from this summer that I’ve never gotten around to adding to the improved Customerservant.com.
For those reading this via L-J, you should be able to look back through the archives, if the posts don’t get added to your friends pages with the old dates.

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I spent yesterday at work, doing nothing.
I had to “be specific” about the Jaws cursor at least three times, at one point taking the time to write an email explaining how Jaws acts like a camera, and the cursor is like a lense.
If the lense can’t focus, then it can’t take a proper picture.
Unfortunately, that message was met with “I still don’t understand.”
And this message was intended for people who claimed they understood how Jaws works, and knew all about how to use it.
Right.
By the time the message got through the chain, it was changed to something about tab order.
By yesterday afternoon, I was being told that the guy in PA I trained to do this stuff in the first place was up, running and taking calls, and that we would have a meeting today so he could tell me how it all worked.
I talked to him last night.
He’s in the same boat I am, and in complete agreement with me that the damned thing needs to be fixed, and that nobody’s listening to a damn thing we’re saying.
We’re still having our meeting today, although it’ll probably just be a rehash of last night’s conversation.
The operations manager is having a meeting with the director of corporate HR this afternoon.
We’ll see how that pans out.

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A lot’s happened in my worklife since the last time I posted about it last Tuesday.
First of all, all the access we had (to the share drive where all my work documents are stored, as well as any memos sent by management in order to be able to be read by myself through Jaws along with my mail, and this blog), has been completely blocked, yet to be restored.
But the biggest event by far has been the disaccessibilization of our database.
Not that it was the most accessible thing in the world, (as you’ll find out by browsing the archives of this blog), but it worked well enough to allow me to do my job.
Now it doesn’t work at all.
This has been going on since Friday.
So after everybody in upper management (and that includes upper management outside the local center as well as the upper management from the client) gushed profusely about how it was a horrible oversight, and how it would never happen again, I had a “meeting” about it yesterday afternoon, at which nothing got accomplished, unless you count my unceremoniously being added to the “pilot team” for the hellish database.
An IP address was supposed to be sent down the pipeline that would give myself and the other agent in the client’s office up in Pennsylvania access to the old version of the interface, but that IP yielded nothing.
The end result of all this?
I spent the last two days (Friday and Monday) at work sitting on my ass, doing absolutely nothing, and I’ll be doing that today too, as the answer I got yesterday before leaving was “Just come in tomorrow and we’ll think of something.”
Guys, that’s really brilliant.
But it’s not the most brilliant thing to happen yesterday.
During our little meeting, I asked if there was any way for feedback to be sent directly to the development team. (Why the hell does every group of people have to be a team?) I got to talk to someone from Development at that meeting, who says he’s going to download a forty-minute demo of Jaws and test it out on the interface.
Never mind he’s probably not used the damned software, and has no idea of how it works or how to use it.
The answer: “You talk to your supervisor, who will talk to his supervisor, who will talk to the person above them, who will talk to the client’s representative, who will meet with the supervisor weveral levels above the other guy in PA, and it’ll go down that chain after we all form an “action plan”, and then we’ll go to Development.”
In short, the same system we’ve been using which produced this huge mess in the first place.
Corporate America is indeed lovely, isn’t it?
Actually, let me rephrase.
Instead of “Corporate America” read the Call Center Industry.
And on top of all that, I broke my cane.
Well, at this point it’s in one piece until I can replace it, but it’s really bent, and it can’t be folded because the elastic in the middle is broken.
I’ll have to wait until the next paycheck to start saving to replace it.
This one went to bills, and the next one will primarily go to my rent.
I’m hoping they’ll fix the access at work so I can post during the day today, so that doing nothing takes up less time than it did yesterday.
If not, I’ll post later today.

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I guess things really must be stressful out there on those streets. That’s why things like this should be no surprise at all, right?

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While reading one of the blogs listed on my blogroll, I found out about something called a carnival. Basically, a carnival is an effort by a group of bloggers to cull articles and posts from various blogs fitting specific criteria set out by the host of the carnival, and then having links to the submissions culled together in one article. It’s a way to generate publicity with a group effort. I don’t know how well this works with LiveJournal, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t. You can submit posts to a number of carnivals by going to and clicking on the carnival submit form at the top. Have fun.

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Not that this system is any good on any other day, but today it’s just been absolutely ridiculous.
I’ve had to restart the thing more than once, because of everything from “serious application container issue” messages to the search button not working.
I’d like to know whose semester-end project this was, and how drunk they were when the got it done.
I’ll be glad to get off work.
I’m getting tired of this place.
O … wait … I’ve been tired of it for a while.
On a better note, the site’s got a new look, and I’ll be adding some things when I get home.
I hope to be able to post some things that aren’t work related, yet are original soon, all in the hope of making the content of this site of higher caliber.
There will always be room for the enteraining things that go on at work, but I want to expand things a little.
I have a headache right now.
And I don’t have any drugs with me either.
We’ve been in cue all day as usual.
All of this is really stressful on a person.

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I looked at my paycheck yesterday morning, and got a nice little surprise.
They’ve raised my pay almost twenty cents. And this is before the evaluation coming up this month. Yay me, and thanks a lot, John. He’s really done a lot for me, including going to bat when other people wouldn’t. I hope today isn’t as busy as yesterday, and I really hope my schedule isn’t as screwed up.

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