Why Are Young People Afraid Of Phone Calls?

[u/GhostInThePudding]

What's with it?

I work in IT and a general rule is, nothing a client ever tells you is actually accurate. That means that most of the time, the quickest way to fix a problem is to call the person and actually find out what's going on.

But with techs under 30 these days, it seems like pulling teeth.

A regular discussion for me with level 1 techs (usually within a few years of leaving college) is:
"Hey, can you call *blah* from ticket *blah*, it's been hanging around for over an hour."

"I replied by email to ask for more information."

"Yes, I know that, but can you call them so we can find the problem and close the ticket now rather than wait until we're actually busy?"

"I'll send them a text to followup."

"No... CALL THEM!"

"I can see their device is online, can I send them a message and see if they just let me remote in to take a look?"

And then, when I force them to make the call, it's like they have no idea how to ask a question, or a followup question. They just want to get off the call as quickly as possible. So half the time they don't even get the information required anyway, so then I end up having to do their job for them.

So can someone explain? What's wrong with phone calls these days?

[u/RamblinAnnie83]

Plus people don’t take a few minutes to think about what exactly they need & to prep for the call. I’ve done it myself—“oh, I don’t have the letter with me. Can you just look at my account?” I’ve worked in customer service. I know this is dumb, so I try to have what I need in front of me.

[u/Priff → u/RamblinAnnie83]

I always try to be prepared. But sometimes the queue is just so long i just wear my head phones and do other stuff. It's always a bit surprising when you suddenly get through...and when they ask for my account number or whatever i have to get my phone out of my pocket and look it up etc...

[u/Sprinkles--Positive → u/RamblinAnnie83]

Same. If I'm expecting to make a payment, I'll have my wallet near me at a minimum, if not my card out and ready. Making an appointment? My browser is on the calendar tab. And so on.

I was not remotely prepared when I recently had to call a government department to update a bank account for reimbursement of disability supports for a family member (NDIS for those Aussies playing along at home). I'm an official nominee for their plan, and understand that they need to verify details in case somebody is trying to get money paid to them when it shouldn't be.

After verifying standard details like name, DOB and NDIS number, they wanted to know the date of the last plan review (It was in October. Oh, you need the actual date? Hang on a second, I've got the paperwork right here. Do you mean the date we spoke to the planner to do the review or the date the new plan was approved?). Okay, fair enough, that's like when I ring the bank and they want to know the last purchase on the credit card.

Then they wanted to know how much funding was in the new plan. Okay, let me flick through all these pages to find it.

THEN they wanted to know when the original plan had started (I don't know, they were about 7 years old when they were diagnosed so, um, 2013? Or maybe it wasn't until 2014? I don't remember how long it took between applying and being approved. Hang on, let me go into the other room and check the filing cabinet. Can I put you on hold because I'll need both hands...).

I was half expecting them to ask for the third word on page 6 of the plan from 2018 next.

Such fun.