suspended from work in call centre

polmack2000

on friday afternoon i was called into a meeting with 2 managers and told i was to be suspended on gross misconduct for logging outbound calls on a feedback form that i had spoken to them which they say is impossible as the calls were too short and there was no way i could have completed the full call for the questionaire.this has happened to 3 others this week too.

my job is outbound calls to current customers to chat and feedback if any problems with there services.there is no sales involved just a courtesy call and customer checkup.

the dialer they use is unreliable and prone to crashing and not working but they have printouts of call times against the claimed feedback forms.
the system overall is so unreliable and is open to errors which is what i think it is, i would never claim a call unless i had spoken to them. so there stats are wrong !!

i will recieve a letter recorded delivery soon to confirm disiplinary hearing.
so any advice is much appreciated.

i have worked there for just over a year and originaly applied for inbound relations jobs which 4 months ago we were changed and pressured into new job roll which would now be outbound.

dmg24

What call system do they use?

How long are they saying that the calls in question were open for?

polmack2000

the dialer system is AVIAR / aviah or avvia , (the phones are aspect (old big cream colured phones)

there saying 1 call lasted 16 seconds!!!! which isnt even enough time to say my introduction and ask if its ok to talk. a few calls are around 2mins.....but some calls are short some are long, all dependant on who your speaking too. i have always had 100% on past call monitorings the manager sits right b ehind me and can here my calls, ive had recognitions from customers and company executives...so 99% of my work is excellent, there trying to pick on that tiny 1% where they believe is false information? help

YoungBean

If they dont believe you, get them to ring back the customers and do almost a "customer satisfaction interview"

Asking if you behaved and so on, how long you were on the phone for, you asked all of the questions, etc

I work in in telemarketing, and use Callview, so not familiar with AVIAR

All you can do is just fight your corner

Sorry Im not much help

Sooz xx

dmg24

Are your calls recorded?

cheepskate_2

polmack2000 wrote: »

on friday afternoon i was called into a meeting with 2 managers and told i was to be suspended on gross misconduct for logging outbound calls on a feedback form that i had spoken to them which they say is impossible as the calls were too short and there was no way i could have completed the full call for the questionaire.this has happened to 3 others this week too.

.

I would get in touch with your union rep if you have one.
If they have not shown you the proof or have no proof, and how long you have been on a call i would say is not proof then should not be a reprimandable offence. , but they can suspend you i beleive on full pay until they look into it..

SoozyJ22

polmack2000 wrote: »

the dialer system is AVIAR / aviah or avvia , (the phones are aspect (old big cream colured phones)

I think it's probably spelled Avaya?

Sorry, I don't know anything more about it than the name as I know one of our customers uses them for their telephone banking system.

guardianangel

cheepskate wrote: »

I would get in touch with your union rep if you have one.
If they have not shown you the proof or have no proof, and how long you have been on a call i would say is not proof then should not be a reprimandable offence. , but they can suspend you i beleive on full pay until they look into it..

I agree with contacting your union rep if you have one. Also when you receive your diciplinary letter with the date and time of meeting, make sure you either take your union rep or a colleague that you trust to the meeting. In addition it could be worth contacting ACAS, Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service, on 0845747447 if you wish to get further legal advice. Their service is free and they offer advice and guidance on employment and work policies. Good luck.

timbellina

Hi;

I've got an Avaya sysem at work - and I'm dumping it first chance I get. But I know a lot of people who really like it.

I don't know ANYONE who believes all the statistics it produces.

It's PC/Server based; it's very complex to set up; and I kind of suspect some of the data I get out of it. It tells me I've received no phone calls, when I know I have. It tells me the last ten people who have phoned me - unless they have withheld ID, when I suspect it combines calls in some way.

Basically - it's only as good as the idiot that installed it and set it up.

I don't think it would hurt to approach this disciplinary hearing with an attitude of "I know that I'm innocent; and that means the company needs to do something about it's telecomms service provider before it ends up in an industrial tribunal brought by all it's ex-employees when one of them finds a way of proving the reporting system is rubbish."

It might not hurt to e-mail Avaya and ask them if it's theoretically possible for their systems to report a call as 16 seconds long when it was, say, 1 minute and 16 seconds". And if they don't say "No", (and they won't); then produce their weasel-worded response to support your case.

I'm guessing that your employer, having paid a lot for this, is placing a lot more reliance on it than it really warrants........

Good luck!

Tim

omen666

xI work on Avaya telecoms systems and it is possible for incorrect raw data, we see it all the time. I suspect though that your calls are being recorded on another system, there are many out there now. I would ask them for the call recordings and not hte Avaya data, that should sort out the discrepancies