Not every position in the company is as terrible as customer service, and for those who show initiative and smarts, the lowly position can serve as a launching of point to better positions within the company before the employee's annual review. Working in customer care is awful though. Customer's often have no idea how to work their systems and it frequently becomes evident during the course of the conversation that the salesman either lied about the system's capabilities or failed to instruct the customer properly. The system itself is a good one and in many ways is cutting edge in the industry. But lots of customers clearly do not want the product after they have had it for a while and the novelty has worn off, replaced with frustration with false alarms that go on screeching for hours because they don't know how to clear the system. It only takes one two AM false alarm that lasts two or three hours to make an enemy out of a formerly excited and supportive customer. Worst of all is the contract's auto-renew provision that extends what was already a five year contract for another year if the customer does not properly notify the company of their intent to end the contract during the specified window of time. Auto renewals are slimy no matter who uses them, and yes it is the duty of the customer to read the contract before they sign it, but forcing the customer into a sixth year of a service they absolutely hate, or simply cannot afford is such a repulsive task that I flat out refused to do it during my time with the company. One such example was a very elderly woman whose husband had recently died, leaving her completely alone and just eeking out a living on her meager social security payments, which was not even enough to pay her monthly bills for necessaries, let alone the monthly payments for an alarm system that she didn't even use (because she didn't know how). Listening to this woman was heartbreaking, and I am not a bleeding heart in all honesty. So, consequences be damned, I canceled her contract in the company's computer system and told my direct supervisor to look the other way, which he did. Lucky for me though, knew my time with the company had a very final expiration point, since I was only working at the place until I moved out of state to attend medical school at a great school in New England. Other employees who did not have the luxury of being able to walk away from the job and never look back have no choice but to play ball with company policy and procedure.
