#it is 20-fucking-24 and people still need to be told that customer service workers are human beings deserving of respect

[icedteaandoldlace]

One of the weirdest flavors of rude customer interactions you can have is when there's the customer who's just an absolute ass from the moment they walk in, snapping at every turn, getting huffy and rolling their eyes all dramatically when you ask them to repeat something, or ask a very normal question that you need an answer to before you can help them any further ("And what's the address you'd like to have this delivered to?" for example). And there's also the person they walked in with, usually a spouse or otherwise significant other, and you're a little wary of them, too, at first, 'cause you're not sure if they're both grouches or not, because the first one is doing most of the talking. But then you see them react to their partner's bitchiness, and for a moment, you wonder if you should feel sorry for them, having to live with this person. But then eventually, the first person sighs a little, and apologizes to their partner, and explains that they're just hungry, or stressed, or tired, or whatever, and the partner says something soft and reassuring in return—and no one says jack shit to you, the person the majority and the worst of the bitchy attitude has been unleashed on. They'll apologize to their partner right in front of you for treating them not half as bad as they've been treating you, but there's no apology directed at you, not even a sidelong glance your way as they're apologizing to their partner, not even their partner apologizing on their behalf—not even a slight improvement in the way they treat you afterward. They're both clearly capable of recognizing this behavior as inappropriate, they just don't give a damn how it may make you feel, because servers and cashiers and all manner of other customer service workers just aren't people, apparently.

[marvelann]

So something happened and I’m feeling too humiliated to talk about it with my loved ones yet, hence me posting it here. Sorry in advance (?).

Disney+ is starting in Europe at the end of March and so is the customer service for it. I went through an interview for it because it actually looked pretty ok for a call center job:

-20000€/year for customer service representatives, 23361€/year for coordinators, supervisors and quality assurance agents (I was told that the interview was for the latter position).

-39, 30 or 24 hours a week morning, afternoon and night shifts (I was particularly interested in the late night shift).

-It involved working weekends but I didn’t really mind. I’ve worked in a call center before and racking up free days and going in short vacations is pretty easy and makes it somewhat worth it.

-It wasn’t a permanent contract per se, but after a short trial period you were supposed to stay until the service was over. So it’d put me in that neurosis state, I guess, “fuck Disney but also I hope this shit succeeds”, idk.

So I passed the interviews and they told us that we’d have to go through a two weeks training period, from 9 to 15 (Monday to Friday), take an exam on the contents at the end, and whoever passed said exam would be employed. They made us sign a paper that said exactly that, it all looked pretty legit. The training would be paid with the first salary.

All good, training begins. On the fourth day we found out that even though most of the people in our group had interviewed for the coordinators, supervisors and quality assurance agents positions, none of us were aiming for them, we were all to be customer service representatives. I was actually really interested in the quality assurance thing, so that was kind of a kick in the gut. Things would only get worse from there.

Last day on the first week they tell us that the service is from 8 to 24, so that’s goodbye to the late night shift also. They didn’t disclose any of this information willingly either, we had to pretty much chase after HR, as they were always in reunions or too busy for whatever reason. Ok, whatever. It still isn’t so bad, I have already wasted a week here and I quite like the people I’m going to be working with. I’ll push on.

Next week on Tuesday, I think? they tell us that the salary will be 19000€/year IF we can demonstrate we have a C2 level in English (or were natives in the language). For people who have B2 and C1 levels, they pay goes all the way down to 16000€. This is almost everyone in the class, mind you. At the end of the process only 5 people had a C2 level in English. They reached that conclusion with a shitty 20 minutes English test that had a couple of errors, btw.

This didn’t really affect me (I do have a C2 after all) but I still wonder why most people didn’t just fuck off at this point. It’s 4000€ less than the initial pay we were promised!! Anyway, tensions are high, HR is still avoiding us whenever they can. We don’t know shit about our schedules, although they did deign to tell us that they also needed workers in the afternoon shift, and that the people who originally said they had complete availability would have to be consistent with their words. Which is rich, considering they weren’t consistent with pretty much anything they told us. Oh, also there’re not 30 hours shifts in the end and the 24 hours shifts are for weekends only.

We get to Thursday pretty fucking frustrated with the whole situation, let me tell you. We all pass the exam and are told we’ll be discussing our schedules on Friday and signing our contracts on Tuesday.On Friday HR person comes around asking for some Social Security numbers she didn’t have yet. I’m sure I haven’t provided mine, and I tell her so. She tells me they did have it and I ask it to write it down for her just in case. As I’m doing that I mention that I don’t really trust much of what goes on in the building.

She gets the blankest, dumbest expression on her face and asks me, what do you mean? I just tell her that we haven’t been given any reasons to trust them so far and sit down. She leaves, after asking me why I’m even here if I don’t like it and the rest of the people in the class tell me I said exactly what everyone was thinking.

The afternoon drags on, they call us outside to record a video for the Disney+ workers in USA, all very corporative happy yey Disney, get back inside and HR woman from before asks if she can speak with me for a second. Tells me to gather my things. You can probably tell where this is going.

She gives me an opportunity to “explain myself” (???). I apologize for being rude and passive aggressive, but I don’t think I said anything that wasn’t true, and she can probably tell. She apologizes in turn because after this behavior she’s afraid they can no longer consider me for the position. She asks me to please leave.

I don’t know what to do, or even if I want to do something about it. I told the rest of the people in the training what had happened and they all agreed it was some messed up shit they pulled. One told me that blasting them on Twitter might work, since Disney is so concerned with its image. Thing is, I don’t even have a Twitter account and I don’t think I want those lying sons of bitches to take me back. I feel humiliated and like I was made an example of. “We’ll mistreat you and lie to you but you better never complain about it out loud, remember what happened to Iziar”, that kinda thing. I haven’t told anyone yet and my family keeps asking me when I am starting. It just sucks all around. Idk what to do.

Also I really hate how sly they were about the whole thing, they were clearly using the sunk cost fallacy on their favour. It worked though. I hate it.