The Tour of Duty concludes.

My 3 week 'tour' with the tinpot excuse for an outsourced solutionised call centre has finally concluded as the 'Census' campaign has now finished. A lot can be said about the operational and management side of this company however I do not really want to have myself end up on the end of a law suit so I will keep it zipped. All I will say is that queue stats come before customer service. Excellent trainer and excellent cannon fodder (the CSR's) pity about the pay rate.

Interview today with Telecom down at 'The Cube' for a management position within their Managed Services Department. Remuneration and perks sound great so I am keeping fingers crossed.

The end of daylight savings is sucking big time as my sleep is all buggered up with that and the night shift. Also its too dark now in the evenings for the BBQ mishes so it sux2bnz.

Saint Paddy's has been and gone .. so did my phone.

Saint Patrick's Day for 2006 came and went with it's usual accompanying muntedness and jollification. The Pre-Match 'function' was held at the Grafton residence and in attendance was Shay-fu (up from down Welly) and 'The Commander' (suitably attired with a green tie). Guiness and Ales flowed freely over the course of about 2 and a half hours later and on leaving the place, a litter of containers filled the front porch - this was to be the downfall of the m33r because as the rest of the night progressed, that 'very full feeling' was starting to wreak itself upon the body. First stop was this place on K-Road. I thinks its called SPE or SPF or something like that - they make wood fired pizza's there and serve a wide range of ales and concoctions. First m33r quote went down here as the barmaid that was serving looked like she didn't want to be there. Whilst I was waiting for my change, the quick comment was something like:

m33r: "Do you like your job here Miss"?
b-maid: "Yes I do"
m33r: "Well FRICKEN well smile then"!

Needless to say it went down like a lead balloon but these things happen and jeebus she looked sour :P Next stop was the Play House (aka the Dolls House). Starting to forget things a bit now but we did make it to the QF Tavern and enroute gay young leprechauns crossed our pathes - erk. The planned Itinerary of:
Claddagh -> Black Penny -> The Bog -> O'Carolls -> Muddy Farmer -> Viaduct -> QF Tavern and others went totally out the door. A combination of muntification and bloatedness bought a sudden halt to the proceedings where I desserted the ranks and went home and the others succumbed to the temptation of something up near the top of Queen Street :P
The tour home saw a stop at Wendy's for a burger and then a taxi home. Because the fare was only from just above mid-city to Grafton, the 'foreign' taxi driver didn't want to take the ride. Needless to say he got the full lay down from myself in regards to his ethnicity, religion and inability to be a successful and customer orientated businessman. The taxi behind this imbecile offered to take me home so that was OK and enroute I found out that this driver was a mate of the guy I just bollocked - great. Abuse started again where upon I asked him to stop and I walked the rest of the way home which was only about 150 meters. Although that guy got an earful and a slim fare, he has the last laugh because in my 'current state' I left my cell phone in his car. In respects to this cell phone I have been advised by all and sundry that Jesus had a better one than mine so in all honesty its good riddance to the phone.

Such was Saint Paddy's for 2006 :)

So many and I mean soooo many different hats ...

Well 7 March went and what a laugh. It would not be proper to comment on the happenings on the night so I will abstain from mentioning anything. We are still sending out stuff and most of the calls are when are they going to pick them up (read through that and you'll have it in a nutshell). Even more hillarious is the fact that this call centre appears to answer every 0800 number on the damned TV screen. One minute your fielding inbound from company A then the next call is from company B and then one from church M - never been so confused in my whole life. Pay went through last night and I nearly fell over dead with laughter (and despair). What I got was a third of what I used to get under the 'Farmers Lead Telco' - such is life outside of a corporation :)

Speaking of that Telco, the incentive went through. What another bloody fiasco. Got the paperwork and the break down on it in the mail today and looking through it, I accepted that what I received, although pathetic, was a fair payment. The cupboards and freezer is now stocked up a bit and Mister B33r Fridge is looking healthy again - no less than 6 dozen of assorted ales including a dozen of Guiness for St. Paddy's on Friday!! Also a 40's of Seagers and some lime and soda :)

"Nights" aint too bad ...

Been shovelling in hours from 1200 through to 2300 of late and I am finding it not too bad. Coming back home and demolishing a few coldies before 'dinner' and watching the late late show on Sky then turning in around 0300 is quite amusing. Only bugger is that 99% of everyone is asleep IRL or OL. Work has finally got less busier and the majority of queries are now 'when they going to come to pick them up'. Everyone appears to be scared stiff of the $500 fine and the $20 per day penalty. Had a great call last night where, quite obviously by dialogue and accent, I had an pacific islander on the end of the line. He was adamant that the form was going to identify all 'his cuzzy's that shouldn't be here' and no way in hell was he going to fill in the form. He then went on by saying that there was no way I knew who he was or where he was. He obviously didn't know what Caller ID block was and when I rattled off where I thought he was going by STD and EXCH code you could have heard a pin drop. Poor TCL got a blast today as I lost my patience and blasted all and Sundry so you can ignore my comment now in the previous post :)

A trying week

Blahhh! Well its the weekend again and because of stuff happening during the week, the blog took the back row. Lets recap on the week past.

I have a 'temping' job at the moment working for a company (for all intents and purpose, it shall remain nameless) that 'helps people fill in a particular little form' - no prizes for guessing what I am doing. Its not toooooooo bad, the pay sucks but at least it will pay off this and that and bring forth an ale or two. The customers arent too bad compared to Telco/ISP customers and they aren't too bad to talk to. The average talk time for this fiasco is 80 seconds (what ever happened to customer service). On my first day what happens - an elderly lady that wanted a step by step walk through of both forms :( Result - that call took 28 minutes! Other calls bought that call length down but then the last call was another walk through so that blew things out of the water again - brilliant. Team Leader passed mention at the end of shift that the calls were long. I replied asking what do we do then? Tell the person to foff off? No reply :)

My previous employer has still stuffed up my partial incentive payment that was due by end of February. I am pleased that I haven't (as is usual) lost my temper and abused all and sundry over this but have instead bit the tongue and taken things as they have come. Hopefully next week something will come through.

BBQ Whole Chicken tonight accompanied by coldies. ODI today with Windies vs Black Caps @ Eden Park so should be a great arvo.