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LMAO! Good to see that they haven't lost all sense of humor.
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LMAO! Good to see that they haven't lost all sense of humor.
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE let this be a semi-AI chat bot. Because then the guy who programmed it deserves a hug.
@GitEmSteveDave_WantzTaunTaunBag: No, it's a person. A corporate chat bot would not have written \"do no\" when it meant \"do not.\"
@dwasifar: I don't know - I know when I did customer service like this we had a huge array of pre-written canned responses that we just copied and pasted...something like this that we would have used over and over never got written out each time. So it's possible - probable, even - that it's a canned response with an error in it. Something either a bot or a real person could use...
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@GitEmSteveDave_WantzTaunTaunBag: Are suicidal thoughts an indication that software will pass the Turing Test?
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Typo in title of this article: A&T Rep Wants To Die. Correct in the main page summary.
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Hilarious!
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I really enjoyed Darlene's response to that. Let's you someone has a sense of humor, even if it is a bit on the darker side. I rather have a humorous, human CSR than a bot.
Sadly, probably because of this, some AT&T rep is tracking down who 'Darlene' is right now to get her fired.
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@Taliskan: Which would be sad, as Darlene is probably in India, and working her way up to lower middle class wage.
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@pecan 3.14159265: There is a company in TX that contracts with AT&T for this type of work. I almost got a job there until a better one came up. They have employees in TX and India, so it's possible that \"Darlene\" is from TX if they're using the same company to which I applied.
@Taliskan: You beat me to that comment. Customer's name should be better obscured; it's actually readable.
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@Smashville_Flippin the Bird Before Bud Adams: But it is probably an assigned name that one person always uses - they do need a way to track what their employees are doing
@NJDave: Oh yeah, didn't notice the customer's last name first time around... but now that I look at it, I see what you mean.
@pecan 3.14159265: I was thinking something similar, but with all the CSRs I have dealt with over in India, this person has a quick-English-wit that I don't think you'd find with many Indian employees. My opinion, though - and it isn't worth much. :)
@Taliskan: Next time you get an Indian call center rep named \"Tommy\" or \"Lisa\", say \"Wow, where y'all from?\" I bet you'll get at least a snicker.
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@Taliskan: Well not to boast or anything, but there is anecdotal evidence to contradict your claim. And if you know ANYTHING about internet arguments, is that anecdotal evidence trumps everything else.
I am an Indian, who has been here only for a very short time, and people apparently find my humor to be quite incisive and witty. /brag /argument.
QED. You Lose.
Unfortunately due to the constant posting and re-posting of this image \"Darlene\" is likely no longer with AT&T and all reps are told to no longer be \"personable\" or \"sympathetic\"
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Having just gone through a horrendous process dealing with AT&T and our bundled business services, I totally see where Darlene is coming from.
It may be one big happy company, but AT&T Wireless is not connected with the rest of AT&T. You can put it on one bill, but if you need wireless help, the regular AT&T folks can't do anything for you. And it's frustrating the hell out of them.
@OldSpinDoc: I can't even get it all on one bill! I've tried 3 or 4 times over the past few months to get Wireless and U-verse on the same bill, and they just can't make it happen. The CSRs are sympathetic and frustrated but have no answers.
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I'm going to step out and risk being labeled the \"no fun police...\"
Please don't joke about hurting/killing yourself. Especially online.
It's very hard to tell when someone is joking online and so it's generally better to be safe than (very, very) sorry and follow up on comments like that.
I'm probably being over-sensitive, but I'd gladly be marked as over-sensitive 1,000 times if it meant saving one person who wasn't really joking.
And I'm a little bit miffed that someone from AT&T would encourage that kind of inappropriate humor. Sure, maybe this customer is a bit happier with their experience now. But I would hate to see something happen to a customer after a representative said something like that.
Anyway, that's my two cents.
@plamoni:
In context it was pretty obvious it was a joke. Coming from someone who has had a nice little stay in the psych ward I can say that 9 out of 10 people there would agree that humor in the form of a customer service rep is much more important than a cust. service rep's input on whether or not to try and kill yourself.
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@plamoni: Deeply depressed, the article made me remember the joy of common laughter, the liberating power of irony...but then I read your comment. Goodbye.
@plamoni: Well, he did go \"lol\" and that seems to be indicative of someone who has turned a frown upside down.
@plamoni: If the only thing stopping you from suicide is some random person on the internets, it's probably time to become an hero.
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@Applekid: yeah, I couldn't even get to the page, so i just posted the link. Here's probably a better page:
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Awesome. My niece works for ATT and she regularly says things like that. Then again, she and her friends - and her boss - regularly share how much they hate ATT on Facebook.
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@osiris73: I was seriously considering working at the new call center (AT&T) here in the area. Thanks for the heads up!!
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@osiris73: As much as I despise ATT, I feel for the CSR group who are getting it from management as well as us. I just hope the ATT DeathStar doesn't start spying on their Facebook accounts. I guess they dont have to worry, ATT management can't even read emails.
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This made my day. Absolutely hilarious
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@downwithmonstercable: I'm about 30 minutes into my work day. I was all kinds of grumpy and tired, but that turned me around quickly. Luckily I'm alone, because I laughed pretty hard.
@Smashville_Flippin the Bird Before Bud Adams: Oh, come on. It's not nearly as fun to bash you when I know you don't mean it :(
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@Smashville_Flippin the Bird Before Bud Adams: Admit it, you only posted this so that people could fill in their bingo cards.
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@Rectilinear Propagation: Indeed. We've only got 3 hours before commenting is disabled. People have bingo cards to fill!
@Smshvll_s flng dsmvld: Is the conversation going to take up on Twitter? If so, I finally got my account to work, but I have no idea who is who on Twitter. Darn all of you and not naming yourselves after your Consumerist accounts.
catastrophegirl is catastrophegirl
katstermonster is katstermonster
gitemstevedave is gitemstevedave
i am bendersgame. and from there you will find others.
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Hours till \"right behind you\" memedon: 4
Hours till \"right behind you\" expired memedon: 24
Don't do it, Darlene! DJ will miss you, and so will Becky, even though she's usually a c*nt to you.
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Maybe it was part of the script?
photoshop. or pain.
cut and paste is easy.
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I wish I had a recording. Last week on a local call-in radio show the caller was known to the host:
P: Hi Bob what are you up to these days?
B: I'm the new sales manager at Dish Network.
P: Dish Network? Are they a good company?
B: Well .... (silence) ... they're a good company to work for.
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@secret_curse: Oh god....laughing so hard I could puke...
@MostlyHarmless: This is so wrong, and somehow...so right!
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I just pictured Darlene from Roseanne saying this. Made my day.
My mild addiction to the Roseanne marathons on TVLand doesn't help either.
She will now be sentenced to 11 weeks of \"corrective labour\".
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Sorry about your unemployment.
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I'm hoping that neither party were exercising a bit of dark humor. Suicide isn't something o joke about...
That being said, I hope the AT&T Reps don't stop being 'real' people with personalities. I have a blast when I need to call into them... some can be quite funny.
**Subject drift... I needed to call to have the text feature blocked from my daughters phone ( failing grades ). The fella said he'd wish parents found other ways to discipline their children.
I can't imagine the number of calls they must get about it.**
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@JackieEggs: \"The fella said he'd wish parents found other ways to discipline their children.\"
Good sales work on the fella's part...he must love his job.
@JackieEggs: Re text block- how hard would it be to make texting an opt-in option protected by a password, available only to the account holder (parent)? I mean, it should be pretty easy with a smartphone, ya know?
You'd think there'd be an app for that.
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My AT&T account is snafu'd, too. It was my personal phone, but then I had them change it to my business account (since I've always used it for business). Now I can't pay except by mail or going to the AT&T store - pay-by-phone doesn't work, nor kiosks, etc. I can't access any information on-line at all. You see, you can't have a business account with social security number, but now that it's a business account, you can't remove the SSN and replace it with a EIN. And you can't put in the EIN, because there's an SSN. And despite spending nearly an hour in the store to get it resolved, no one knows how it could have happened or how to fix it.
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I read the transcript and thought Darlene was channeling Cleavon Little:
Darlene: They said you was hung!
Robert: And they was right!
I wonder if he was calling from Rock Ridge?
This a true SIGN OF THE TIMES. People are angry and not happy with their situation; whatever is may be.
Hahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
This was a live rep
Nice that it's wasn't out-sourced. A truly American response.
Yes, let's please point out the hypocrisy here. The Consumerist is a website dedicated to informing the consuming public of questionable or poor behaviors. The headline on this story was and is misleading. This AT&T rep does not want to die. The headline \"AT&T Rep wants to die\" is not even close to what the story is about. Shame on you Consumerist for doing what you point a finger at others for doing.
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I like Darlene. I hope she gets a raise
@coffeeswirl: Much agreed!
@coffeeswirl: If you ask me, she needs to keep her feet on the ground.