The Dark Side of Call Centers: Uncovering the Scandal at MK3 Marketing
In most workplaces, it is common to use your real name.
However, at the call center MK3 Marketing, based on the Costa del Sol in Spain, things are done differently. This call center operates on behalf of the controversial IT company Dansk Online Service.
Søren Herman Heskjær, who worked at the center for a few days in March this year, sheds light on the disturbing practices at the call center.
According to the 43-year-old Dane, he was taken aback when he arrived for his first “listen and learn” shift at the call center in Benalmádena, outside of Malaga.
Names were flying around the room on the phones. Suddenly, the colleague he was supposed to shadow during his shift was also named Søren, just like him, he recalls.
When Søren Herman Heskjær questioned this practice, his colleagues allegedly indicated that they all used fake names when making outbound calls.
– I had a strange gut feeling about it, why couldn’t you say your own name?
– Right there, I was quite shocked.
Taking Pictures of the Script
Initially, everything seemed promising to Søren Herman Heskjær when he first encountered the call center.
All the young colleagues seemed friendly and welcoming.
– They had some cool events. They drove Porsches and went out to eat. It sounded exciting. I thought I could be a part of that, says Søren Herman Heskjær.
However, it didn’t take long before he was out again.
And Søren Herman Heskjær brought back several pictures with him.
DR has been in contact with a wide range of primarily small business owners who feel deceived and misled by Dansk Online Service.
Most of these business owners were under the impression that they were speaking with someone they already had a business relationship with – and therefore, they agreed to a so-called maintenance of their company profile on Google, typically around 5,000 kroner for three years.
Dansk Online Service records this ‘yes’ on tape – and the audio file is used to demonstrate that they agreed when they subsequently refuse to pay because there was no prior collaboration.
These business owners would likely be particularly interested in one of Søren Herman Heskjær’s photos.
He reveals that he took a picture of one of the most important documents in the company.
Dansk Online Service’s script: