Calling the shots (2nd installment)

The other night, February 14, on my third attempt to get through the PayPal hotline, I was able to speak with a certain Gary.
Take note that I was calling IDD. I have been sending them e-mail through their Contact Us option but I guess they have not defined yet what they meant by shortly when used in their autoresponder that I’ll be getting response from them shortly.
As a background, I signed up for PayPal a couple of months ago. Honestly I can't remember what account type I got. I just learned about it when a friend wired money to me the other week. The amount was deducted with some $3.00++ for the transfer. A charge only applied to Premium account holders. I'm not getting big bucks through PayPal so I have decided to request for the plan downgrade to Personal.
As I am expecting another fund transfer from someone, I know that it's economical to have the free plan right away.
The IVRS of PayPal is so unfriendly. You need to first state your telephone number (including the area code) and the robot can't seem to understand what I was saying. You will only be allowed to type in your number after three attempts and unfortunately, the number that I was keying in can't be recognized either by the robot. (I'm wondering if I have to encode + 63 then my telephone number.) At this time you'll be prompted that your call will be forwarded to live operator.
I was able to reach this point when my call was put on queue for about five minutes. Since I'm calling IDD, I had no choice but drop the line.
Second attempt, I was prompted that the office was closed. Another IDD charge.
Third attempt, same long process but luckily I was able to speak with a monotonous operator named Gary. I don't know if he's trying to intimidate me or it's just his natural graveyard voice. I felt uncomfortable but I know that I was in control since I was the customer then.
The transaction ended with the assurance that my plan will be downgraded in a matter of minutes. I even asked him if I’ll be getting an email about it. He said yes. I think this info should be volunteered by the operator.
True enough, in less than an hour I've got an email from PayPal confirming my downgrade. I was happy but I told myself not to deal with PayPal CS anymore because IDD call is not an option for aftersales concerns.
I'm a walker. If I don't get satisfied with the service, I'll just walk away without saying anything and won't come back.
When I opened my email last night, there was an email from PayPal asking me to participate in their CS survey. All the things that I have said here, I put in the survey.
I even commented that if they can’t get local or toll free CS, they might want to consider hiring me to manage their e-mail aftersales support. They are trying to play global so the CS accessibility and quality must also be global.

Update:

I've got 3 replies today in my inbox. It all read:

Thank you for contacting PayPal. We believe we responded to your recent
inquiry either through a call into our service center or through another
e-mail from you.

Please know that we appreciate your business and we want to address your
questions in a timely fashion. If you still need to speak with a PayPal
representative, please feel free to contact us at 888-221-1161 or
402-938-3570.

Yey!

Calling the shots

Being in the call center industry almost all my professional life, I know the focal point of the business. That is delighting our customers all the time.
Call center is big in our country. Reports show that US and European countries are investing their customer services in call centers here. For two major reasons, cheap labor and Filipinos adaptability in terms of shift changes and accents.
Usually, the call centers here cater to US and British clients so one must pass through rigid training to ensure that the agent would sound American or English.
So when I call international offices, it makes me think if I'm speaking with my people. I usually try to make comments in my native tongue just to check if I'm being understood and if the person on the other line would reply. Ofcourse with call handling checklist, he/she would not answer back even if he/she understood otherwise, he'll/she'll be marked X.
I work for a local telecoms call center as an e-mail correspondent. Majority of our trasactions are postpaid accounts and when the situation calls for it, we do call outs. Ofcourse before we do that, we should be equipped with the right customer profiles. More often that not, we also handle foreign clients who are living in the country. Good part is, we don't have to pretend that we are of the same nationality. Thing is though, we love to make fun of ourselves. When we know that we are about to speak with foreigners, we would tell our teammates to pray not to suffer from epistaxis. Here on our side of the planet, difficulty speaking or understanding English would cause brain hemorrhage or just a simple nosebleed which is a figure of speech obviously. Though we are confident about our good command of English, talking with foreign clients makes our hearts flutter and become diaphoretic no matter how cold the environment is. Oh well, I'm speaking for myself here. Plus the fact that you'll be heard by your teammates you can expect that you'll have your not so good 15 minutes of fame after the transaction.
So where I'm exactly pointing at?
Wait for my next installment.
I need to doze off.
Hint: it's about Paypal.
For now, I'm leaving you with a sidestitch. Just click on the image to enlarge or use a magnifying lens whichever delights you. LOL