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[VCRClock]

working at a call center made me hate myself. I stuck with it through dumb and boring and angry for just about two years

at my company, new hires got trained extensively and were immediately placed on the main line -- like the call could be about billing, or any model of equipment not working, or contracts, or requests for service. customers could be talking about this stuff with someone who had very little experience, or someone with very little experience and an accent, if they didn't get an american rep, or we could have lost people but not replaced them yet, leaving customers waiting forever. I could go on about other stuff that was maddeningly inefficient and specific weak links in the chain, but that's all kind of boring and in the past. basically the job amounted to either putting out the fire yourself, or passing the buck to whoever actually fucked things up

there were all kinds of stereotypical calls, but a classic pain in the ass timewaster when I was taking mainline calls:

"hey uh my service stopped and I'm just trying to pay a bill here so I can get it turned back on but I can't figure out your website"
"oh ok well to start with, on the main page, did you see the user guide"

literally we expected people to download a pdf with images explaining what to click on because somebody thought it was a good idea to just throw a customer facing section on our inscrutable internal database/payment processing system instead of building a user friendly website right away. they'd usually be using that, except there were one or two platforms where it was a totally different website and you had to transfer them to someone else who could process their payment and turn service on, which meant they had to wait forever again

"ok i'm in. wow this is absolutely the worst, most confusing website I've ever seen"
"holy shit I know I keep trying to tell them"
"this site is so fucky I can't even figure out where to see my bills let alone pay them, god forbid I have to add a credit card"
"ok well I can attempt to walk you through navigating this stupid website over the phone forever, but there's shit even I don't understand and I'm pretty good at my job. I can try to add a card for you though"
"ok can I give you the number over the phone"
"guess what I can't take your credit card number over the phone because I literally can't enter it manually, you have to be on this special phone line where you can dial it in"
"o god"
"listen (now that I'm an experienced rep) I might be able to pick the call back up once you're transferred to the new line, but if you don't get me here's your reference number so the brand new person can see what we've been trying to do"
(credit card entry system fucks up several times to indefinitely, possibly without the customer doing anything wrong)

later i was taken on for a higher level position where my job was talking to specific clients, about the same few pieces of equipment, never having to get into hairy billing or contract issues with irate people. more pay for what was basically an easier job, but what really ground my gears is that when we were shortstaffed, they'd have us take mainline calls that could be colossal wastes of time, or angry customers, or require followup that was totally outside of what I was responsible for in the new position. most of the time, the people I was talking to didn't care too much as long as their shit got fixed -- they weren't the ones paying for it. the dumbest call I got went something like

"our box is showing an error message. it has a virus"
"ma'am it doesn't have a virus, did you try loading the update we s--"
"no. it has a virus. it needs to be replaced"
"heh uh listen it is literally incapable of getting a virus, they don't exist, trust me i've been working with these things every day for two years, we can fix this"
"let me talk to your supervisor"

we replaced it

[miracle fruit]

magic fruit advice of they day : dont  end up working at a call center bexause mom says “ur sooo good at computers”

[miracle fruit]

never worked at a call center but i grew up in a town with a large one and it was one of the only places u could get a job. almost everyobe i knew in high school went through this place. i knew a guy who worked there taking red box calls from dummies who still used red box/couldnt figure out red box and when people would get super lippy with him he would put them in the penalty box and basically the penalty box is him putting his corded receiver in his desk drawer and slamming it open and closed until they hung up. i think he got fired

[patriotclock]

dont  end up working at a call center

fr fr

luckily new job I barely have to interact with any customers but when I do it’s still the worst. some dude ended up with my email and then proceeded to email me every time he had an issue subsequently and no amount of “reach out to customer support” emails would do the trick. eventually had to stop responding at all for him to get the hint

[NintendrCkolc]

Speaking of call centers, I sometimes fart into my phone and let my girlfriend listen to it.

[VCRClock]

lmao @ penalty box

some dude ended up with my email and then proceeded to email me every time he

this happened to me but I had to quit my job for them to get the hint

some say the hint's still out there

[RobClock]

Boy howdy it sure has been a week in the sphere of 'Shit Rob Likes'
DUSK dropped yesterday
[u2]LbqNRDPd5_k[/u2]

DOOM turned 25 and we got two developments out of that. The lovably infamous John Romero announced 'SIGIL'! A free-to-download megawad for DOOM that acts as a fifth episode following Thy Flesh Consumed, full episode title 'Sigil of the Baphomet'. There will be a limited physical release for collectors, a $40 version (the one im going to buy, obviously), and a $166 version with a fuck ton of extras.
[u2]4VibM9vCguc[/u2]

Our friends at the soulless mega-corporation of ZeniMax are using this anniversary date to pimp DOOM 5 with this cutesy trailer and a free skin in the previously mentioned upcoming game for those of whom sign up to their website
[u2]eF7dqyZ1S6E[/u2]

There's a new screencap for Ion Maiden floating around


A new trailer for Godzilla: King of the Monsters came out and had me squeeing like a six year old girl with .5 seconds of Mothra footage
[u2]WiSSOT90fW4[/u2]

and to round it out, here's a 2 hour documentary about Half Life
[u2]BQLEW1c-69c[/u2]

[KarkasmolenKlok]

When is the third hour coming out?

[Slurpee]

When is the third hour coming out?

[FLOUNDERMAN_CLOCK]

[RobClock]

[KarkasmolenKlok]

Jango o o jango e e
Tsamina mina tsangalegwa
Anawa a a

[GreyClock]

dont you just fucking hate it when you want to order a book online and theres two versions: one with a shitty alternate cover that can be delivered tomorrow and one with a good or even iconic cover but the estimated dod is like five to seven weeks from now

the thing is going to end up on a bookshelf anyway so it shouldnt really matter but it really chaps my little ass

eg
vs

spooky doorframe photoshop explosion

[Slurpee]

to be fair h.p. lovecraft was famously enthusiastic about doors and door frames
friends called him h.p. lovesdoors

[GreyClock]

[GreyClock]

vs

a graveyard, okay i guess?

[GreyClock]

& vs

[GreyClock]

although sometimes...

vs

[NintendrCkolc]

[KarkasmolenKlok]

That's how I felt when buying new copies of the Lord of the Rings books. The ones from my childhood looked like this:



Vs. these days usually...



Granted, that particular series has some ridiculously lovely hardcover versions widely available