I went through the list of calls recorded on my phone today, and found six more calls with 12-digit numbers starting with 44. Since I didn't speak to anyone during those calls, I don't know if the company would've been identified as "Financial Services" of Atlanta, GA as last night's call revealed. But I did put in a complaint for each call on www.donotcall.gov. That site accepts complaints if you know the number but not the company or vice versa, although I think it's better if you can supply both. Still, anyone looking at the complaints I filed would see the pattern. They were all 44 numbers, with the next three digits being 207 or 208. Beyond that, all the numbers were different, so probably each operator has a separate number, probably in an attempt to make it look like it's someone different calling each time so calls can't be blocked by entering a full number in a blocker. I suppose I should look into whether my phone can set up blocks for all numbers beginning with 44207 and 44208.
When I looked through the call detail of my recent bills, I saw the calls went back to Nov. 14, 2007, so there haven't been a whole lot of calls. But still, it's seven more calls than I should have gotten.
I'm not sure if the reports will amount to anything. If I don't file complaints, it definitely will not amount to anything and I might continue getting calls unless the woman I spoke with last evening really did get me on the company's do not call list. Who knows, maybe they really don't want to call pissed off people to try to sell them stuff. Some companies aren't that bright, though, so we'll see.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Monday, January 28, 2008
Do Not Call
I was watching Bush lie to the nation, talking back to the TV telling him how full of crap he is, when I got a phone call. I don't get a whole lot of them, and like too many recently, it was a call from a 12-digit number starting with 44 - 442074121208 to be exact (I looked up 44 as a country code. It's the UK.). I've gotten way too many of those calls over the past few months, and every call has begun with 44.
At first, I would just hang up on them without ever speaking to anyone since it looked like a call from outside the country, and nobody I personally know outside the country has my phone number. When I did listen, it was some company promising to lower my interest rates on credit cards, although the recorded message never identified which of several card companies they might be calling from. So I'd just hang up. After a few times, however, I decided I'd listen a little more and see if they offered a button to push to keep them from calling again. They did. I pushed "2" on more than one call, but the calls continued to come in. Not very often, really - sometimes a week or more would go without a call.
But there shouldn't have been any calls because I'm on the government's Do Not Call list and have been for several years. With only a few exceptions, it's worked pretty much as I expected it would.
This time I answered, and as the recorded message played, I got a pen and piece of paper. The option to push 2 on the phone came, I pushed it, and then started to write down the number showing on the phone. I was interrupted by a person coming on the line, so I switched gears. The woman on the other end started her spiel, but I interrupted her by asking what company she represented. She said "Financial Services" which isn't very helpful. It's just as evasive as them pretending to be calling from a credit card company I do business with. I wrote it down. Then I asked where the company was located and she said "Atlanta, GA." I wrote that down, wondering whether either bit of info was true. I've since Googled "financial services atlanta" and have found National Financial Services Group, but she didn't say "National" and that company appears to be concentrating on doing business in the Southeast, not the Northwest. I don't think that company was calling me. There was no company in Atlanta called Financial Services that Google came up with.
I then asked her if I had a business relationship with the company, which I'm very sure I don't since I'd never heard of them before. She asked if I had a Visa or Master Card, something a legit company calling me about credit cards would already know, one would think. I asked how her company got my number, and she said through Experian, one of the major credit reporting agencies. I don't know whether to believe that or not, although I wouldn't doubt that any of those agencies would sell numbers.
I then let her know my phone number is on the Do Not Call list and I shouldn't even be getting this call. I also told her I'd gotten previous calls and had pressed 2 on my phone on at least two occasions to stop further calls. She asked for my number and since I'm sure it's already on record there somewhere, I gave it again, and that was the end of the call.
Since I'm a phone drone myself, I didn't enjoy giving the woman a hard time, but her company (or probably her company's client, since she probably works for an outsource company like I do) had no business calling a number on the Do Not Call list. I wasn't very polite, but I didn't yell, didn't use profanity, and didn't insult her or even her employer. But she could have no doubt I was not pleased to be having that conversation.
After getting off the phone, I went to www.donotcall.gov and filed a complaint, listing the phone number as shown on my phone, and the company name the woman had given, even though I'm pretty sure it's bogus since Google couldn't find it. It's the first time I've put through a complaint on that website, mostly because there have only been one or two occasions before this outfit started calling and I didn't get information needed for a complaint then.
I won't be surprised if that company robocalls me again, and if they do, I'll file another complaint.
At first, I would just hang up on them without ever speaking to anyone since it looked like a call from outside the country, and nobody I personally know outside the country has my phone number. When I did listen, it was some company promising to lower my interest rates on credit cards, although the recorded message never identified which of several card companies they might be calling from. So I'd just hang up. After a few times, however, I decided I'd listen a little more and see if they offered a button to push to keep them from calling again. They did. I pushed "2" on more than one call, but the calls continued to come in. Not very often, really - sometimes a week or more would go without a call.
But there shouldn't have been any calls because I'm on the government's Do Not Call list and have been for several years. With only a few exceptions, it's worked pretty much as I expected it would.
This time I answered, and as the recorded message played, I got a pen and piece of paper. The option to push 2 on the phone came, I pushed it, and then started to write down the number showing on the phone. I was interrupted by a person coming on the line, so I switched gears. The woman on the other end started her spiel, but I interrupted her by asking what company she represented. She said "Financial Services" which isn't very helpful. It's just as evasive as them pretending to be calling from a credit card company I do business with. I wrote it down. Then I asked where the company was located and she said "Atlanta, GA." I wrote that down, wondering whether either bit of info was true. I've since Googled "financial services atlanta" and have found National Financial Services Group, but she didn't say "National" and that company appears to be concentrating on doing business in the Southeast, not the Northwest. I don't think that company was calling me. There was no company in Atlanta called Financial Services that Google came up with.
I then asked her if I had a business relationship with the company, which I'm very sure I don't since I'd never heard of them before. She asked if I had a Visa or Master Card, something a legit company calling me about credit cards would already know, one would think. I asked how her company got my number, and she said through Experian, one of the major credit reporting agencies. I don't know whether to believe that or not, although I wouldn't doubt that any of those agencies would sell numbers.
I then let her know my phone number is on the Do Not Call list and I shouldn't even be getting this call. I also told her I'd gotten previous calls and had pressed 2 on my phone on at least two occasions to stop further calls. She asked for my number and since I'm sure it's already on record there somewhere, I gave it again, and that was the end of the call.
Since I'm a phone drone myself, I didn't enjoy giving the woman a hard time, but her company (or probably her company's client, since she probably works for an outsource company like I do) had no business calling a number on the Do Not Call list. I wasn't very polite, but I didn't yell, didn't use profanity, and didn't insult her or even her employer. But she could have no doubt I was not pleased to be having that conversation.
After getting off the phone, I went to www.donotcall.gov and filed a complaint, listing the phone number as shown on my phone, and the company name the woman had given, even though I'm pretty sure it's bogus since Google couldn't find it. It's the first time I've put through a complaint on that website, mostly because there have only been one or two occasions before this outfit started calling and I didn't get information needed for a complaint then.
I won't be surprised if that company robocalls me again, and if they do, I'll file another complaint.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
The Snowflake Man
Just after I started my new job, I encountered an article about Wilson A. Bentley of Jericho, Vermont. He's known as the first person to take pictures of snowflakes. He took well over 5,000 pictures of snowflakes beginning in 1885 until he died in 1931. Bentley combined a bellows camera with a microscope to take his amazing photos, which required a lot of patience and holding of breath to keep his subjects from melting. People still use his pictures as references and as springboards for arts and crafts projects.
My aunt and uncle (I have the same first name and middle name as the uncle, my father's brother - both now deceased) lived for many years in Jericho, not far from the village green in Jericho Center, where there's a roadside marker commemorating Bentley. Many years ago, I'd seen some of Bentley's photos, most likely in our family's mid-1950s copy of The World Book Encyclopedia. When I first saw the marker in Jericho Center, I knew why it was there. He was certainly in the right place to become a snowflake photographer. Jericho is just to the west of Vermont's highest peak, Mt. Mansfield, and east of Lake Champlain, so it would get some lake effect flurries until the lake froze, and lake effect snow sometimes even reached Jericho from Lake Ontario on the other side of the Adirondacks.
I've been trying to remember where I saw the article. I thought it was Wikipedia, but I can't see where the entry for Bentley was featured anywhere. So I probably saw it someplace else. I did use the Wikipedia entry as a source when I decided Bentley would be a good subject for a Squidoo lens (aka web page). The first thing I did on Squidoo was make sure nobody else had started a lens on the same subject, and nobody had. So I started looking around. Wikipedia had the picture I've used at the beginning of this post, which I edited into its separate images to scatter throughout the book listings. In addition to the books on the page, I also found links to some businesses in Jericho related to Bentley, a link to the University of Buffalo, and of course, Wikipedia.
I called it Wilson A. Bentley - The Snowflake Man. I got enough done the first day to publish it, then added some finishing touches the next day.
During my research, I discovered a book illustrated by Mary Azarian, a Vermont artist who specializes in woodcuts. It's aimed at children aged 4 to 8 and written by Jacqueline Briggs Martin. Mary Azarian won the 1999 Caldecott Medal for her illustrations. I remembered Mary from my folk music days back East, when I helped run a coffeehouse in a Unitarian church basement in Fitchburg, MA. It's where I met Joanna in 1980. Joanna and I were together for six years, and she introduced me to the New England Folk Festival in Natick, MA (late April - and the festival moved to Mansfield, MA starting in 2007) and the Old Songs Festival near Albany, NY (late June). I encountered Mary's artwork at these festivals, and Mary herself on one or two occasions. I may have said a few complimentary words to her, but didn't get into any real conversation. I really recommend you check out her website at http://www.maryazarian.com/index.html. One of these days I may do a lens about her. I'm not sure how widely known she is outside the Northeast.
Darn, now I'm feeling all nostalgic about Vermont and folk festivals I used to love going to. One of these years I'd love to go to Old Songs again. I went every year from 1985 to 2000 except for '88 and it was like going home for a weekend. I was reminded of that feeling this past summer when I went for the first time to the Oregon Country Fair, which has been running in one form or another since the late '60s. As the bus entered the grounds, I saw a sign that said "Welcome Home" and knew exactly how people returning year after year felt on seeing it.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Even Better News
Seems like the company I'll be taking calls for was more than a little embarrassed, at last, to come in dead last in customer service ratings among the five major cell phone providers. I believe they were in the same position when I worked at the place before, and I could've told them you get what you pay for, and this place pays about the lowest they can (currently five whole cents an hour above the state minimum wage, which is one of the highest in the country at $7.95/hr.). Needless to say, they don't attract the best employees, as one look at some of the people I'm sharing training with would prove.
So today we were told that starting Feb. 9, we're getting a $2/hr. raise to $10/hr. After 90 days, the pay begins to be based partly on performance, so the rate drops to $9.50/hr., but by then they pretty much expect people will be able to make up the other fifty cents and possibly more. Ten bucks an hour with the very short commute compares very favorably to what I was getting downtown. There's also the possibility of increasing the pay by being good at offering what they call "service solutions"; in other words, selling extra services.
The possibility exists that I could get more money than I've gotten at any other job since I moved, if I can get better at concentrating on doing what they expect and not insisting they're not making a whole lot of sense even if they're not.
A lot of times in the past when the employer has announced something and said it will benefit the employees, what they said needed a large grain of salt to go with it. They used to offer a 25 cent per hour raise every three months to a certain limit and then it went to six months, which is how I got to $10.25/hr. before I left. Then they changed things, but it only affected people hired after a certain date. It was a definite step back for them, with quite a bit longer between increases, and a lower cap on hourly rates, but they made it sound like it was a great new program. It was, but not for employees.
So maybe, just maybe, they've learned something. I'm feeling encouraged, but past experience tells me to believe it when I see it. But if I can perform better than last time around, I could do better paywise.
So today we were told that starting Feb. 9, we're getting a $2/hr. raise to $10/hr. After 90 days, the pay begins to be based partly on performance, so the rate drops to $9.50/hr., but by then they pretty much expect people will be able to make up the other fifty cents and possibly more. Ten bucks an hour with the very short commute compares very favorably to what I was getting downtown. There's also the possibility of increasing the pay by being good at offering what they call "service solutions"; in other words, selling extra services.
The possibility exists that I could get more money than I've gotten at any other job since I moved, if I can get better at concentrating on doing what they expect and not insisting they're not making a whole lot of sense even if they're not.
A lot of times in the past when the employer has announced something and said it will benefit the employees, what they said needed a large grain of salt to go with it. They used to offer a 25 cent per hour raise every three months to a certain limit and then it went to six months, which is how I got to $10.25/hr. before I left. Then they changed things, but it only affected people hired after a certain date. It was a definite step back for them, with quite a bit longer between increases, and a lower cap on hourly rates, but they made it sound like it was a great new program. It was, but not for employees.
So maybe, just maybe, they've learned something. I'm feeling encouraged, but past experience tells me to believe it when I see it. But if I can perform better than last time around, I could do better paywise.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Finally: Issue Resolved
They finally sorted out whatever it was that was keeping my from having access to programs that others got access to last week, so it looks like I won't be going off looking for another job too soon. I absolutely hate looking for work, and because I keep to myself so much, references aren't the easiest things to come by.
I didn't have the access when I went in this morning, and I mentioned it again to the trainer. I didn't say I wouldn't come back from lunch if access wasn't given, though. It turned out that when I checked during lunch, everything was resolved. I mentioned that to the trainer, and she said it had been escalated yesterday. I'm glad I didn't just roll over and play dead and let them take their time resolving this, even though they weren't terribly speedy about it.
Even better, this afternoon the guy who will be my supervisor after I get out of the training part on the phones came over and introduced himself. I remembered him from my last stint there, and frankly, I think I probably got a supervisor best suited to me. He strikes me as being a relatively serious, conscientious type as well as a decent human being.
Other than the login issue, things seem to be going well. I'm pleased to see that I even remembered a lot of stuff from being there before, so I can concentrate on things that have changed. There's a whole lot of stuff to recall - maybe not to memorize, but at least remember where to go to find out stuff. The search functions on the programs are sort of like Google, but not nearly as easy to use, which a lot more guesswork or just finding out somehow where to go and trying to recall it when needed.
It's a bit of a relief to have things straightened out so I can concentrate more on the learning process. I didn't miss out on too much by not having the login issue unresolved, but there were a few things.
I didn't have the access when I went in this morning, and I mentioned it again to the trainer. I didn't say I wouldn't come back from lunch if access wasn't given, though. It turned out that when I checked during lunch, everything was resolved. I mentioned that to the trainer, and she said it had been escalated yesterday. I'm glad I didn't just roll over and play dead and let them take their time resolving this, even though they weren't terribly speedy about it.
Even better, this afternoon the guy who will be my supervisor after I get out of the training part on the phones came over and introduced himself. I remembered him from my last stint there, and frankly, I think I probably got a supervisor best suited to me. He strikes me as being a relatively serious, conscientious type as well as a decent human being.
Other than the login issue, things seem to be going well. I'm pleased to see that I even remembered a lot of stuff from being there before, so I can concentrate on things that have changed. There's a whole lot of stuff to recall - maybe not to memorize, but at least remember where to go to find out stuff. The search functions on the programs are sort of like Google, but not nearly as easy to use, which a lot more guesswork or just finding out somehow where to go and trying to recall it when needed.
It's a bit of a relief to have things straightened out so I can concentrate more on the learning process. I didn't miss out on too much by not having the login issue unresolved, but there were a few things.
Monday, January 21, 2008
Still No Progress
Friday's entry was written when I came home for lunch, and things seemed to be going well. I had gotten logged into a critical system, although the part of the screen that should have contained links to other training programs and actual work programs was empty. It had taken another day for others to see stuff there, so I wasn't too concerned. I'd go back Monday and they'd be there.
Wrong again. They never showed up today and I made our new trainer, who should be with us (us? or should I say the rest of the class?) for the next couple of weeks, aware of it, but by the end of the day, nothing had happened.
So now it looks like tomorrow morning I'll be pretty much back where I was late last week. I'll go in and let them know that if they want me around after lunch, someone needs to get on the ball. I think I've been more than patient while letting them know how I felt about the issue. If they can't get things working for me tomorrow, that's it. I've wasted enough time on a company that just can't seem to get its act together enough to provide a proper training environment even though it was able to do it for the vast majority of the class, and in less time starting from scratch with them than they've had to try and fix my issues.
And they brag about being a Fortune 100 company. Gimme a break.
Wrong again. They never showed up today and I made our new trainer, who should be with us (us? or should I say the rest of the class?) for the next couple of weeks, aware of it, but by the end of the day, nothing had happened.
So now it looks like tomorrow morning I'll be pretty much back where I was late last week. I'll go in and let them know that if they want me around after lunch, someone needs to get on the ball. I think I've been more than patient while letting them know how I felt about the issue. If they can't get things working for me tomorrow, that's it. I've wasted enough time on a company that just can't seem to get its act together enough to provide a proper training environment even though it was able to do it for the vast majority of the class, and in less time starting from scratch with them than they've had to try and fix my issues.
And they brag about being a Fortune 100 company. Gimme a break.
Friday, January 18, 2008
The Wheel Squeaked
I just re-read the post I made yesterday and it seems I wasn't clear that the other members of the class had gotten their logins on Tuesday or Wednesday, so it wasn't like I was reacting to something that had just happened. It's just that yesterday, before I left, I'd been told it could be ten business days before I'd get mine, finally.
So today I made it clear to the trainer, who's a pretty decent guy thrown into being our trainer at the last minute, that being forced to wait ten days was unacceptable. We start at 7 a.m., which was when I spoke to him, and he said he'd speak to his boss when he arrived. A while later, I spoke to his boss - at his request - and let him know I was not at all pleased with the situation. I also explained that I'd decided to give the place another shot after leaving due to an unsatisfactory training situation the first time around. (At that time, I'd been on a type of call for about two years, and they were shrinking the number of people devoted to it. They gave us one whole week of customer care training, which really turned out to be only four days because on the second day we were joined by another group, so the second day was a repeat of the first.)
Around noon, just after we all returned from lunch, the trainer gave me a new ID number. It didn't work right away, but after he checked, he said try again after 20 minutes. I did, and got a bit further. It looks like it will take a while to get everything going, but others had that problem initially as well.
Also, from a brief conversation with the trainer, it looks like the client has woken up to the fact that you don't do customer service on a competent level that keeps customers by being cheap with the people who are actually wearing the headsets and talking to the customers. He said things could be improving within days. No idea how much of an improvement it will be, but he seemed somewhat impressed, so who knows.
So it looks like I'll be sticking around there for a while anyway. It is nice to be so close to home. We're supposed to have a half hour lunch, but things seem fairly relaxed in training, and the guy we've had this week has been giving us an hour, so I've been coming home for a while. We get a different trainer next week, so I'll pack lunch in case we only get the half hour.
Two weeks from Monday we start taking calls. It's always a nervous time, but this time I'll be going back to using a billing system I used when I was with the employer before, and Cingular/AT&T used the same system, although some of their implementations were different.
So today I made it clear to the trainer, who's a pretty decent guy thrown into being our trainer at the last minute, that being forced to wait ten days was unacceptable. We start at 7 a.m., which was when I spoke to him, and he said he'd speak to his boss when he arrived. A while later, I spoke to his boss - at his request - and let him know I was not at all pleased with the situation. I also explained that I'd decided to give the place another shot after leaving due to an unsatisfactory training situation the first time around. (At that time, I'd been on a type of call for about two years, and they were shrinking the number of people devoted to it. They gave us one whole week of customer care training, which really turned out to be only four days because on the second day we were joined by another group, so the second day was a repeat of the first.)
Around noon, just after we all returned from lunch, the trainer gave me a new ID number. It didn't work right away, but after he checked, he said try again after 20 minutes. I did, and got a bit further. It looks like it will take a while to get everything going, but others had that problem initially as well.
Also, from a brief conversation with the trainer, it looks like the client has woken up to the fact that you don't do customer service on a competent level that keeps customers by being cheap with the people who are actually wearing the headsets and talking to the customers. He said things could be improving within days. No idea how much of an improvement it will be, but he seemed somewhat impressed, so who knows.
So it looks like I'll be sticking around there for a while anyway. It is nice to be so close to home. We're supposed to have a half hour lunch, but things seem fairly relaxed in training, and the guy we've had this week has been giving us an hour, so I've been coming home for a while. We get a different trainer next week, so I'll pack lunch in case we only get the half hour.
Two weeks from Monday we start taking calls. It's always a nervous time, but this time I'll be going back to using a billing system I used when I was with the employer before, and Cingular/AT&T used the same system, although some of their implementations were different.
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