[shendley]

I called last night about ten until ten - the time the CSRs for anything other than technical support go home - to bring up a problem with my bill. I got someone right away and after looking into the problem she was explaining what she had done when suddenly we got disconnected. I glanced at my watch and noticed it had just turned 10 p.m. Does directv automatically disconnect you at 10 no matter where you are with a CSR? If so, that seems pretty bad form. They should at least allow the CSRs to either finish a call or let the customer know they'll need to call back tomorrow to deal with it. Or was this just a wierd coincidence? Anyone know or have any clue whatsoever?

 

[inkahauts]

I'll bet the csr hung up on you so they could go home...

 

[Greg Alsobrook]

Similar thing happened to me... http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=132660

 

[johnck78]

I too have had this happen!

 

[shendley]

I don't believe the CSR herself hung up on me as we were disconnected in the middle of one of her sentences. On the basis of others' experiences, it looks like directv has an automatic system which simply cuts off all calls even if CSRs are in the middle of dealing with a customer. I personally think that's just rude.

 

[dshu82]

In call centers I have run, the phone queue will shut down, but not disconnect current calls. Bad system or plan.

On another note, if an agent hung up on a customer because they wanted to go home, that would be grounds for corrective action.

As always, we would pay for the time they run over their scheduled shift.

 

[Crunchy]

What a way to run a business. :nono: We need more sat providers to level the field.

 

[ajtmcse]

Crunchy - WE know your intentions for that statement were good, and not to get off-topic, but you do realize that anyone looking to startup a SAT-TV service to compete with Dish or DirectTV would need literally BILLIONS of dollars, right?

DirectTV needs to retrain all of their people one site at a time as to proper procedure, and customer interactions. Then they need to terminate whoever setup their ACD phone system to kill any calls that were active as of 10pm.

Don't take this as anything more than I'm in one of those moods and wanted to get that off my chest.

 

[curt8403]

CSRs are not supposed to hang up on customers, but accidents do happen, (there are indeed times when a phone system does indeed disconnect, so much so that you cannot prove that a CSR hung up on you) and some CSRs do bend the rules. As long as Directv and affiliates pay the rates that are currently used, Bad things are going to continue to happen.

 

[shendley]

That's true, but I'm not sure I've ever had a CSR hang up on me in mid sentence. Typically, it's when I've been on hold. And if others beside me are noticing being cut off precisely at 10 p.m., that's very suspicious. But I agree with an earlier post that this could be a badly designed system rather than a system designed with bad intentions.

CSRs are not supposed to hang up on customers, but accidents do happen

 

[Herdfan]

On another note, if an agent hung up on a customer because they wanted to go home, that would be grounds for corrective action.

As always, we would pay for the time they run over their scheduled shift.

But they still may have had 2 hours left till 10pm for Mountain and Pacific zones.

 

[blurredvision]

That's true, but I'm not sure I've ever had a CSR hang up on me in mid sentence. Typically, it's when I've been on hold. And if others beside me are noticing being cut off precisely at 10 p.m., that's very suspicious. But I agree with an earlier post that this could be a badly designed system rather than a system designed with bad intentions.

Back when I was 19/20 years old, I worked 1st level tech support for the HP Pavilion consumer line of printers. Being young and all, I didn't quite have the work ethic that I do now. However, my point being is that if it was time for me to go home and I didn't like the person I was talking to, I would ALWAYS hang up mid-sentence. Hanging up while you have someone on hold was too obvious. All you had to do was hit the button while you were talking, and off you go out the door.

This person absolutely hung up on you.

 

[newsposter]

is it 10pm EST?

 

[Johnnie5000]

Keep in mind that almost all of the call centers will hire anyone that can walk in, say their name, and pass a drug test.
There are good csr's out there however. But I would try to call a bit earlier, its not hard to do. For example, I can only access my account between 11am and 6pm mountain time.

 

[shendley]

Maybe you're right but I thought everything was quite pleasant between us. In fact, she said she had corrected the problem and was explaining to me how it would appear on my next bill. I can't imagine it taking more than another minute or two at the absolute max to finish the call. But, I guess it's possible. Actually, I hope you're right because the alternative - directv having a system built in which either intentionally or not terminates all calls at 10 no matter what - is worse.

Back when I was 19/20 years old, I worked 1st level tech support for the HP Pavilion consumer line of printers. Being young and all, I didn't quite have the work ethic that I do now. However, my point being is that if it was time for me to go home and I didn't like the person I was talking to, I would ALWAYS hang up mid-sentence. Hanging up while you have someone on hold was too obvious. All you had to do was hit the button while you were talking, and off you go out the door.

This person absolutely hung up on you.

 

[Upstream]

A company I worked for used to have a problem with CSRs disconnecting customers at closing time (and the CSRs would always disconnect while they were talking, so the customer would think it was an accidental disconnect). We solved the problem by scheduling the CSRs quitting time to be 30 minutes after the end of their phone time. So even if their last call of the day ran 20 minutes after the end of their schedule, they still had another 10 minutes before they went home. They use the additional time at the end of the day to finish paperwork, review notices, etc.

 

[xIsamuTM]

I've talked to a billing rep at 10:32pm mst, found out that yes, even though I'm an employee, I still have to pay if i want HD extra pack and also the dvr charge is valid and not just a service error. Phooey, I have to pay a whole 5.99 a month for a 6 receiver set up!? Pricing is just out of control, why i remember when (insert off topic old man complaint here.) so I don't think the billing queue closes at any time, but who knows, maybe I ended up with a fellow tech who knows how to read a ledger and can navigate DORIS....

 

[rudeney]

This also could be a defect in the phone system that disconnects calls when it does an automatic rerouting of incoming calls at 10:00pm.