Mystical Angels

Helen Mirren: "Britain has become a rude, bitter and angry nation"?

Agree or disagree with Dame Helen? I agree. All you have to do is come on Yahoo Answers to see that people are condescending or jump to conclusions and become agitated and rude. I work in customer services and the people who call our office and unimaginable rude. Sometimes I feel like i'm dealing with a bunch of yobs. One woman called in and said "Is this a premium rate number?", I said "Yes!" and she replied "Can you call me back?". I said "Unfortunately not Madam, it is an inbound call centre" and she started shouting "My monies running out on my phone, this is disguting! this is rediculous!". I said "I could give you the address if you prefer to write in". Her response was "How long is this going to take?" (as if I was some kind of fortune teller). I said "It can take anything up to five days!". She started huffing and panting and asking me to call her back. In the end I said "there is absolutely NO way I can call you back whatsoever. I am not authorised to do so and any grievance would be subject to the five day period to allow time to investigate. Would you like the address to write to madam?". She hung up. People are so bitter and unaccommodating!

Public Comments

1. Your totally right to hear a quote and believe it's true because of one person.
2. You work in customer services and you're surprised that you have to deal with angry customers?
3. "I work in customer services..." No further explanation necessary. Clearly you are going to be faced with an unrepresentative number of angry people, most of whom have just wasted a chunk of their life sitting in your call queue listening to a prerecorded voice telling them how wonderful your company is and that their call is important to you, and knowing from past experience of customer services calls that you will either transfer them to someone else, tell them you can't help them, or tell them you will get back to them (which you won't).
4. You only have to look at any similar site or blog based in the USA to see they are in a far worse state. Many people cannot write anything without using four words all of which are connected with excreta. Racist abuse reaches the depths of reciting a single word over and over again; revolting attitudes to women are usual. Pointless and useless threats are made. This is a society at war with the world, frightened, unable to understand what is going on or accept what the world actually is. Inasmuch as many young people - and some older ones too - live to admire and imitate everything from the USA as more exciting and relevant than anything in Britain, Helen Mirren's quotation is likely to be applicable to many.
5. As you work in customer service you should realize how frustrating it is to call a premium rate number and having to listen to a recorded voice telling you all the different options, then as has happened to me on numerous occasions being cut off at the last hurdle or being put in a queue because all the operators are busy - in the meantime the cost of the call is going up all the time. When we apply for a service it is free but when we need a problem solved we have to pay - how fair is that. You on the other hand sound smug and condescending and you obviously have a job that suits your personality, it's firms like yours that help "Britain to become a rude, bitter and angry nation." So in conclusion I agree with Helen Mirren but not with you.