A steadily increasing curve would always be above its average, no?
Call center go brrrrrrrr?
It depends on their window.
If they include call volume data back to the Neolithic period in their calculations, then yes, call volumes are higher than average (the average being 0.001 calls per century, rounding up).
Pretty sure that’s how they do the math.
Or just let’s assume the phones are open 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. The average call volume would be drastically lower than during business hours
It’s even simpler. A strictly increasing series will always have element n be higher than the average between any element<n and element n.
Or in other words, if the number of calls is increasing every day, it will always be above average no matter the window used. If you use slightly larger windows you can even have some local decreases and have it still be true, as long as the overall trend is increasing (which you’ve demonstrated the extreme case of).
It’s even simpler. They just lie about and always say it’s higher than average.
Yeah it’s fun seeing people figuring out which loophole companies use. Is it really anything other than they save a tiny bit of money by not giving a shit about your experience.
Eh, nothing I did was “figuring out which loophole [they] use”. I’d think most people in this thread talking about the mathematics that could make it a true statement are fully aware that the companies are not using any loophole and just say “above average” to save face. It’s simply a nice brain teaser to some people (myself included) to figure out under which circumstances the statement could be always true.
Also if you wanna be really pedantic, the math is not about the companies, but a debunking of the original Tweet which confidently yet incorrectly says that this statement couldn’t be always true.
They’d just need to include the call volume for when they’re closed. Open 9-5 but take the average over a whole 24 hour day.
Also: “Please listen closely as our menus have recently changed.”
because I call the customer service line of any one company so much, that I have memorized their touch tone menu
9 months into my daily call to Maytag: Excuse me, babe. I have to walk into the other room so I can listen. Apparently, they’ve changed their phone menu.
I had so many issues with Scottish Power that I pretty much did. Fucking useless company.
It’s older math, Sir, but it checks out.
Interestingly, British consumer rights guru Martin Lewis is currently running a crowdsourced data gathering exercise on this in the UK.
The purpose being to identify if companies are purposefully playing these sorts of message no matter their actual call volume. (Which we all know they are, but this will help prove it)
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/report-high-call-volumes/
We all know they are, but it will be nice to prove it.
Well, aaaactually, don’t they have more than average calls half of the time?
Not necessarily. They could be constantly ever so lightly above the average value, but then once in a while, a really low value comes along and drags the average down. What you’re thinking of is the median.
Yeah, like at night it falls down to 0
Maybe they’re taking the average for each day over the whole 24 hours, but the call centre only operates from 9:30-4:30.
Easily achievable if you only take calls in working hours. Then all working hours will have more than average calls per hour for a day.
You can also continously have above average per worked hour for the staff if you keep firing people, because then calls per person keeps going up
That would be true for the median, but not for the average
Once a year they receive negative a billion calls on a day that is later erased, and it really skews the average
“Your call is very important to us… but not so important that we would actually do anything about it like hiring more representatives. This message will repeat every 5 minutes until you get frustrated and hang up.”
That’s what it’s all about, saving on overhead and the percentage of people who give up. Its not just corporations to, ever sign up for any public assistance? You WILL be denied to see if you will give up.
Maybe I will give up when the draft happens. The 1% can defend its own country, it’s clearly not ours.
The joke’s on them - my time has very little value anyway
Ugh I still have an air conditioner that was dead out of the box (bought it off season so didn’t use it till summer…summer 2020)
Tried a bunch of times to call in but “due to the pandemic” (what a fucking catchall for anti-consumer behavior…if a huge company hadn’t figured out how to keep their call center staffed 5 months into it, then it’s clearly intentional), nobody ever answered the call in the hour or so I’d wait on hold, several times.
I eventually gave up and just ate the cost.
In the future, chargeback for that?
Charge back for what? Ain’t the stores fault they sold as broken AC.
I know we all had to be way more patient and lenient during the pandemic, but I would say that it’s way more the store’s responsibility than yours for a defective product, and they should take responsibility for the consequences of doing business with manufacturers who have no customer support.
Where do you live that a store isn’t responsible for products they sell?
America.
Retailers are allowed to disclaim the merchantability and fitness for any particular purpose of the items they sell and most do. The customer is free to refuse, of course, via the simple expedient of going away and buying it somewhere else.
This is partially a blame-shifting exercise to reduce costs, yes, but it’s also a shield against the ceaseless horde of dipshits we have in this country who will willfully misuse a product and then immediately try to sue the retailer they bought it from when it doesn’t work or they hurt themselves with it via their own stupidity. It is much easier from a legal perspective to make a blanket “we don’t imply this product is applicable for any purpose” statement vs. having to explicitly predict whatever cockamamie thing someone might try it on and have to say “no, moron, that chainsaw is not suitable for cutting bricks,” etc.
Read all that fine print on the back of your receipt some day. You will be enlightened and, most likely, also infuriated.
Huh I didn’t realise that. I’m Australian but have been living in the USA for around 11 years.
Australia’s consumer laws are far stricter than the USA. In Australia, the store is responsible for fitness and quality of a product, based not just on its advertising but also what sales reps in the store say to you.
Obviously you can’t return something nor ask for a repair/replacement if you’re using it for something other than its intended purpose (like using a chainsaw on bricks or whatever), but otherwise, the law is in your favour as a consumer.
Stores must also accept warranty returns and not say that you need to go to the manufacturer. It’s not legal to say “no refunds”.
Products must last at least as long as a reasonable consumer thinks they should last. For example, a fridge would have to be repaired or replaced under warranty if it stops working after 4 years, even if the warranty is only 1 year, as most people would reasonably expect a fridge to last more than 4 years.
It means some stuff costs more, but it’s absolutely worth it for the protection you get.
Charge back for what?
I read this in Lil Jon’s voice
Now I hear it too. I hear the whole song. GET OUT OF MY HEAD
Yeah…okay.
yeah, but they would be better able to put an rma through for you. it is kind of on them to guarantee a working product actually. if the manufacturer gave them a faulty product it’s up to them to get the manufacturer to fix it. most retailers have an entire system and process for this kind of stuff. things show up to retailers broken all the time. part of their job is to guarantee against that and deal with it if they fail to before you buy it. if you asked them to replace it with a like model that worked or for them to initiate an rma and they refused then you’d be in the right to issue a chargesback.
Also if you aren’t in USA, then your country’s consumer protection laws aren’t a meme and they probably violated them.
It doesn’t help that a lot of companies outsource their call centers to third party vendors who only care about keeping the contract and not about the main company’s customers.
As opposed to the main company, which cares so much that they don’t bother taking your call directly
Yes, that’s why they outsource.
Call the Sales/new accounts line and see how long it takes them to pick up.
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I am experiencing a lower IQ than average. Does that equate? motherfucker ?
If “your call is important to them” they would hire enough people to answer the phone.
It’s still better to hear this lying message and then be kicked off than when they have you talk to the robot that tries to understand what you want but can’t and then ends up telling you what movies are playing right now in Singapore for some reason.
The average is for a good, functioning call center. Their understaffed shitshow is experiencing more calls in relation to amount of staff than they are prepared to.
Actually you can. If you get 10 calls a day and then only 1 day 9 calls the average is a little less than 10, which means most of the time you do experience more than average.
“….so please hold onto that phone with your technically above average number of hands and we’ll help you soon.”
He didn’t say “most of the time” though. He said “always.”
