Illegal Dismissal

[Johnnydoes]

Hello. I am a call center representative and been working for about 4 years in the industry. I am on a sales account respectively. On Oct. 28, 2013 I received a call from a customer asking for help to access his online account, therefore, I walked him through the process by using his email address so that I can generate a new password (Usual process to provide the customer a password is by getting the email address).

 

 

In that case, customer receives the password through an email confirmation, however the password he receive did not work, so I asked for another email if he has and he gave a new email address and generate another password for him to use, in that instance, customer was not receiving the email confirmation for the password, I asked him to check the spam folder but there's nothing,in other words,the email was taking for a while. Then,momentarily he said the page he is up to is asking for his contact no,the license number of the software (we sell software product for business), and the last 4-digit of his credit card number, so I told him to enter all the information including the last 4-digit,then he did it but it failed again.

 

 

Looking at the length of time I'm with the customer on the phone, it's already around 40 min., that time I'd been cramming around so I informed the customer that I will transfer him to another department who could help him with his issue, I put him on hold and contacted a dept. and when I spoke to the agent he said that the issue of the customer is out of his scope, thus, he asked me to return to the customer and ask about the main reason of his accessing the account.

 

 

So I got back to the customer and he proactively said that he is just trying to register/activate:| his software and said why he have to do all of those if he is only registering the software, though I'm cramming on the call, I wasn't able to answer the customer's question and just informed him that I will transfer him to the previous department I had contacted (the previous dept can handle "registration" which is actually also part of my scope), so I put the customer on hold and cold transfer him the the department. (Cold transfer is a transfer where customer is not introduced to the next level/department). I'm not intentionally letting go of the customer, it's just that I was worrying about my handling time which was getting worst.

 

Onset of that incident, the monitoring specialist approached me and said that I released the call, and I told him that I transferred the call despite of releasing it. I was asked by my supervisor to stop from taking in calls and log-out from the phone,and at that moment,my supervisor told me that we will have a hearing with the HR rep,so I've waited and waited until on November 15, 2013 I was asked by my supervisor to put a written explanation about what happened on the call to defend myself prior to a hearing,and only after a few days where my supervisor given me the chance to listen to the call recording which was handed to my supervisor by the monitoring specialist (I was delayed by writing first what happened on the call before listening to the recording). On Dec 11, 2013, a hearing was conducted and I was given a memo about the decision they had came up convicting me as stated herein-- "Call Chat or email avoidance or dropping of call/transaction : Disconnection of Call."

 

That day I was eventually dismissed from my job. Any advise would be of great appreciation.

 

Thank you.

 

Johnny

Edited January 30, 2014 by Conniff

[Conniff]

Have moved your thread to the Employment and minimum wage problems section.

 

 

 

 

Welcome Johnny.

 

 

Was the customer lost because of this?

Did you drop the call?

Have you had any previous warnings on similar actions?

[becky2585]

And how long have you been employed?

[Johnnydoes]

Conniff: No, I didn't drop the call, the customer was still on the phone before the transfer happened until the call was successfully transferred. I knew it because I could see his number appeared on the phone. That was the first time I committed such action and no warnings before.

[Johnnydoes]

becky2585: I'd been there for 4 years and 27 days to be exact.

[Johnnydoes]

Can I ask for legal assistance and file a formal complaint on this issue? Just wanna be sure

[Emmzzi]

You're going to struggle as it looks like you didn't use the internal appeals process? Why are you asking about this a month after the event?

[Johnnydoes]

I filed an internal appeal after the event through a written explanation of my claim subject for review but according to them my case was a just cause though they don't have enough evidence to prove their allegations on me, or in other term, what they depended on was a gainsaid evidence based from what the monitoring specialist had verbally said which caused my immediate dismissal.

 

In fact, I'd been requesting more evidence to prove my innocence but unfortunately they strongly refused to backtrack that particular call, nor they were just defending their side not to commit their mistake.

[Emmzzi]

was there an appeal hearing?

[Johnnydoes]

Yes there was. They strongly insisted that my termination was a just cause but they disregarded my request to provide me a concrete evidence and therefore put me in prejudice. In other words, they weren't listening to me anymore.

 

What shall I do now?

[silverfox1961]

Hi,

This doesn't sound like what would happen in the UK therefore are you in the UK now

[Johnnydoes]

hi silverfox1961. sorry I'm not from UK.

[silverfox1961]

I'm afraid that this site is generally for UK users. We certainly don't have sufficient members from overseas that can assist you.

 

Have you tried looking for forums in your country?

[Johnnydoes]

Oh,that I didn't notice. Now I know. Honestly yes, I asked some legal advices in other forums under our law on the ground of illegal dismissal and some say I need to escalate my case to our labor agency through a semi-formal hearing with the chairman of said agency and the representative sent by the employer, unfortunately nothing happens because the employer's rep opposed my appeal on the said ground of wrongful termination, they justified that my case was a just cause, or, a violation of their policy, it turned out that it was my intention to cause my dismissal which is incorrect.

 

Having that said, I was advised by a legal counsel to file a formal complaint to the higher labor department in order to observe due process of law and be heard and therefore demand for a necessary claims as payment for the damages incurred by the company.

 

Lastly, in your own opinion, what other alternatives do you prefer me to do just to prove them (the company) wrong aside from those mentioned above?

[Emmzzi]

We'd be remiss to advise you on the legal possibilities for laws we don't understand.

[Johnnydoes]

Yeah you're right. different countries with diff laws.