2. Written by Don't shoot the messenger., on 29-04-2008 19:46
I wanted to comment on what Ms. Suzanne wrote above. i happen to work for ILD out of one of their phone offices. When i 1st started, i had NO clue what ILD was, or what they did. after i went through training, i still wasn't terribly sure other than that it was a 3rd party billing company (which a lot of people have NO idea what that even means) but i really learned my lesson when i hit the floor.
Allow me to explain to you what my 8 hour day consists of:
I answer calls from individuals that have questions about their bills. Maybe they don't recognize a charge, or see a jump on their bill. Sometimes people's phone companies direct them to us, more often than not it's people calling in that already know what the charges are on their bills (like collect calls or for a long distance service they use or even internet access), and just simply have questions.
A majority of my time is spent explaining what ILD is :we basically print the charges from a 3rd party -- (again no one seems to know what that even means so i get to explain that as well) on their bill, and some of those companies that are billing them allow us to do only a limited amount of things:
1) refer the customer directly to the company thats billing,
2) cancel and block the services and then refer to the company for credit issues, or
3.) cancel, block, refer and credit on the companies behalf.
VERY few of the clients ILD has allows us to credit on their behalf. What was said in other article's is true, we are pretty much the middle man. (some companies even do print their customer service #'s on their bills as well, next to the charge itself...hardly anyone looks at the itemized portion of their bills though to see that)
Lots of my calls are from people that receive correctional facility phone calls. Most folks just don't realize what the charges are and i get a lot of "Ooooohhhh....okay thats right thank you!"'s type calls. That probably takes a good 1/3 of my call volume per day.
Another chunk is people that call in and have services on their bills they don't recognize. 99% of these are from companies where their services are signed up for online. I will admit that it *** to find out that your kid, your husband, your brother, your girlfriend or even yourself has done something boneheaded like fill out a survey online and actually given the company your personal identification, or tried to get that "FREE!!!" Bluetooth headset, and again have given out info online. then ...all of a sudden you have a bajillion companies billing you...for a lot of people this is a wake up call that you probably shouldn't be doing that sort of thing, or they need to have a serious talk with the people that do get online and use their phone # when filling out crap like that. I'll even tell folks, you know you don't have to give out your info...just use a separate email address that you use only for that type of thing, and if it asks for your phone #? Use 555-555-5555 or something like that. Just try not to make up a # because it's probably someone else's #. If you DO happen to win that free iPod, or new Versace bag....you'll probably get an email about it 
The last chunk of my time is dealing with small business owners that have gotten telemarketed services billed to them. This is the almost amusing part of my day, since we have the ability to call into a voice recording line that actually records all these calls. I do believe that the telemarketers will do anything and say anything to convince you that what you are about to agree to is SUPER AWESOME and usually FREE! (haha yeah right) but i hear day in, and day out the exact thing the customer hears when they agree to the services. The recorded message lays it all out in no uncertain terms what you are agreeing to as it is the company's legal LoA (letter of authorization) and how they get to charge you. It's pretty plain. Please don't use the excuse that you just wanted to get off the phone and you weren't listening so you just said yes to everything. Simply HANG UP if you can't be bothered to listen to what you are agreeing to.
There are cases when unauthorized people that work at that place of business have just agreed to something, and i know that we issue a lot of credit every single day to people where this has happened. *** -- i even issue credit to the people that call in, hear their own voice, and just tell me that they felt pushed into or whatever the excuse may be, (even the people that claim the voice isn't theirs, but they have the exact same lisp or accent, or claim "someone stole their voice" to set up the service...no lie i've heard that excuse too.) Buy honestly i always tell people (if they want to hear it or actually use the information is another thing) is that if ANYONE calls, and is asking to either sell you something, have you answer a few questions, verify information..whatever the case may be...just decline and hang up. If it's a serious verification procedure from your phone company or something like that, they will 1) ask for a specific person and 2) more than likely not have anything to say about setting up anything NEW.
anyhow, i know my reply is long, and maybe doesn't address all of the concerns folks have about what an operator at ILD does all day, but thats the basic outline. I've worked for them for only about 2 months, and so far i've learned some major things:
DO NOT give any information to a telemarketer, just hang up...always. (unless you want to be billed for something)
DO NOT fill out surveys, sweepstakes, banner ads, email ads, free crap giveaways online with your personal information....ever. (unless you want to be billed for something)
If you take a collect call...expect to have to pay for it. (or if someone in your home takes it...expect to have to pay for it -- unless its for 3 min and under -- you can usually get credit for those unless it's from a correctional facility)
I will agree that i think that ILD should take a good hard look at it's client list (which i know they do frequently but perhaps with a finer tooth comb) and boot the ones that have constant complaints from (we just within the last month have had 2 companies we no longer handle, but still of course get calls about and all we can do is refer then to the company)
Best way to say it is what i used as my name: Don't shoot the messenger.
|
![]("http://www.pissedconsumer.com/templates/pc2/images/spacer.gif){kind=spacer}
Comments
Comments (4)
