Techy Wage increase attempt at Convergys in Gurgaon

An account of an unsuccessful attempt of call centre workers in Gurgaon, India, to inflate their wages by forging positive feedback.

Submitted by Steven. on February 16, 2010

Already older news item (August 2005) from major call centre service provider Covergys in Gurgaon.

“Not satisfied with their earnings, some BPO employees feel they can outsmart technology and earn bonuses for themselves. Some employees at Convergys were sacked because they managed to ‘create’ fake favourable ratings apparently from customers of SBC Yahoo, a popular ISP in the USA who have outsourced customer services to Convergys. The employees created new email IDs in the name of SBC Yahoo customers they were handling, sent a positive feedback to their company from this email ID and also updated this email ID temporarily on the customer’s database in their system.
Apparently this was discovered when Convergys noted unusual patterns of excellent ratings for some employees. On pinging, it was found that these feedback forms had been originating from an Indian server (used by Convergys, Gurgaon) rather than from the US servers from where they actually should have come. Customers were also asked to verify if they had actually given such feedback. Possibility is not ruled out that these executives even asked for passwords from customers under the pretext of solving their problems. But Raman Roy, the former CEO of Wipro’s BPO operations, says almost no one can access passwords unless customers themselves disclose the same. “But it’s possible if one has a strong understanding of technology. If these kids could manage that, then they are wasting their talents in a BPO,” he adds. But money seems to have been the greatest lure for such employees, as an excellent rating can get them bonuses of up to Rs 4,000 a week”.

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