The mystery call center caller
Just a few minutes ago I got a call from someone in India. He told me that my computer had some virus or malware that was slowing me down. I asked him how he knew that, and he wouldn’t stop talking. I told him that call center workers need to LISTEN as well as reading scripts, and that they need to give straight answers to questions. This guy wouldn’t stop talking until I interrupted him harshly.
In any case, he said that he got my information from some database somewhere from microsoft, and that he was in Brooklyn, NY. But, his phone number was from India and had the 91 country code in it. Bizarre. I asked him where in America I was located in and what my name was. He could barely pronounce my name and mispronounced most English words which disqualified him in my mind from being employable in Brooklyn. I had to ask him three times where I was located, but he couldn’t say.
Then, he asked me to go into my open file mode and try to open up a file. Since I didn’t know who he was, and since he didn’t introduce himself properly to me, or identify me or my location properly, I didn’t trust him. He said that he was going to save my computer from crashing, but I thought that perhaps he was going to supervise me on installing spyware or a virus. Was this guy a scam, or just poorly trained? I was not going to take chances.
I don’t really understand what the call was about. But, the bottom line is that he didn’t act professional. A good call center worker introduces themselves, and verifies who they are talking to before commencing on their speech. This character raised his voice at me and refused to answer simple questions. His English was spoken in a nasal monotone, and his pronunciation was understandable but far from standard in either the U.S., or England.
Have you ever had this type of experience?
A mystery caller should have complete knowledge of a particular task on which he is going to talk.