How do I cope with being a customer service representative for a company that offers bad service?

[Kim]

Let start off by saying that the service we offer is crappy, and my boss puts out false advertising. I work for a company that "helps" people find jobs at the airlines. However, the way we advertise our services makes it seem as though we are offering them a job. Desparate people looking for a job pay $100 and are led to believe they are guranteed a job at the airlines. Then when registered customers get transferred to our department, and we tell then the steps they need to take, many of them are dumbfounded or pissed because they thought they were interviewing with a job when they really just spoke to someone in our sales rep dept. Our boss just writes this off and basically tells us to sugarcoat everything and make it seem as though we are really offering great service when we are not. We have to be especially careful as to what we say and to so that a customer does not catch on and get irate. Many, many customers call asking for their money back which means that my boss geta even more upset when we supposedly "provoke" a customer into asking for their money back. Today, I got a complaint because a customer who paid for our services went to the airline website we refered them to, only to find the airlines did not have many job positions open. He was not happy, however, I attempted to assuade him by refering him to other job openings that I personally researched online. I also put together a decent resume.<br />
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*For those of you who are puzzled, no, we are not a job agency. All we do is research job openings online, give the customers a template resume, give them some information to read, refer them to websites where they can apply for an airline job and tell them to wait 4 weeks for an interview (which may never come, even though we lie and say its guarenteed) all for the good ole price of $95 .*<br />
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Well the customer was not happy. The positions I refered him to he was not really qualified for and he was wondering what he paid $95 for, because he thought he was guranteed a job. I didnt think there was anything else I could have done, because there were not many airline openings, I did what I could. But my boss was upset and gave me a long speech. This basically boiled down to me not sugarcoating my words and telling the customer to wait 4 weeks for the airlines to call him about a job opening that was not available. <br />
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And of course, we always get the customers who contact your supervisor and tell them you said such and such, when that is really not the case. Unfortunately, we are a small company so we don't have recorded phone conversations to save our a**. <br />
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I am not planning on working for this job long term, but this is something that pays the bills for now. How do I cope with working for a customer that offers crappy/scam services?<br />

 

[Andrea]

I think you need to find another job as soon as possible. Try to comply with what your boss wants you to do for now but get out of there as quickly as you can. It can't be easy going in there every day, knowing that you are participating in a scam like this.

Good luck.

 

[LisaW]

They are unethical! You just need to find a way to stay mentally healthy until you leave. Try exercise and looking for a job and maybe that will give you what you need to stay optimistic.

 

[mickbw]

Hmmmmm. I wondered why no one was posting an answer with a work at home link.

That really does stink and it would be hard to go in there every day. There are too many customer service companies out there that may not provide optimal support but don't purposely attempt to defraud their customers.

As a veteran of a less than ethical work environment I would suggest starting your job search immediately and make sure to document questionable decisions by your employer in case they try to blame you later.

A couple good resources you may be interested in

 

[sasil85]

Yeah I have been there before. It really took me a long time stress/emotional wise to get over it. People constantly yelling at you and blaming you and saying you need to do this and that. Bottom line is if the company isn't allowing it or can't afford it there is nothing that can be done. I worked for a company where all the equipment was broken and the stuff that worked was being held together by rubber bands. Constant complaints, but they couldn't afford to fix anything because they were to busy buying new cars and not going to work. Of course now they are in the crapper, but horrible experience. And its not like the customer understands what is going on behind the scenes. Really some people need to think about that before they vent on some poor person just trying to earn a check.

Really I would recommend finding a new job asap. I couldn't work for like 3 months after I left. The thought of having to work with people was horrible, but now I got a better job and rarely ever hear people complain.