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Cell Phone Customer Service Ranked Next to Last
Paulrothrock writes "A recent report shows that cell phone companies are the second lowest ranked industry in terms of customer service, just above cable companies. Also, they are second only to car dealers in number complaints to Better Business Bureaus. Complaints include being charged a fee to cancel a cell phone contract for a deceased husband and being double-billed for using an online bill-pay system. I guess I've been lucky, the only problem I've had is getting reception."
I do believe this is a repost of an older story.
The only two industries I've ever had to deal with Customer Service extensively are the worst! Very much in line with my own experience...
[este]
You already know the answer to "can you hear me now?!"
I was told that I could listen to the radio at a reasonable volume from nine to eleven...
can it be because of the fact that domestic customer support just doesn't exist anymore? Nahhh. couldn't possibly be a reason.
That's ironic...I guess they're not doing a very good job of hearing us now.
Pretty widgets? What pretty widgets?
mean companies like Rogers up here in Ontario Canada.
Their service for both cable and broadband internet is horrible.
A psychopath can't tell the difference between right and wrong. A sociopath knows the difference - he just doesn't care.
After you sign that contract, you become their bitch. I learned the hard way with Verizon. I only found out that they had stopped me from writing programs for my phone despite that the salesman told me I could, and they wouldn't fix my broken phone that was under warranty because they thought it was because of physical abuse.
After you sign that contract, they get your money no matter what, so there is very little incentive for them to improve customer service(also note how customer service is never touted in television commercials for various carriers). But damn do they make those phones tempting. I wish that the manufacturers didn't charge you out the arse for them if you buy them directly...
I remember reading a true story in a book. It was about a man who was having problems with his cellphone [it had been disconnected]. When talking with the lady working tech support, the lady worked up the idea he was an 'arrogant bastard'. The call ended by normally but the next month the client recieved a bill with a $148 charge. The charge was for 'penalty for being an arrogant bastard.'
Shows how good cell phone customer service is.
Here's the deal. The BBB only thinks that they have a bunch of cell phone complaints. Most of the time they only can make out something like "fucking cell pho..." before the call is dropped, so they mark it as a complaint about the service.
Until Slashdot fixes the funny modifier, use insightful or interesting. The poster knows your intentions.
Top US wireless companies by customer:
- Verizon
- Singular
- AT&T
- Sprint
The most hated cell phone companies (their customer service has something to do with it, I think):
- T-Mobile
- Sprint
- AT&T Wireless
- Cingular
I work at a call center here in my hometown ( I'm in college, it's not my fault ) and we have a line group dedicated to things like AT&T ( now.. Cingular I believe ) customer support and the like.
The biggest problem with the line group is that ANYONE can be on it. If you can read at a 5th grade level, type at 10 wpm, and spell decently, you're on. I've heard all sorts of horror stories from the team leaders of people sitting there for 10 minutes going "umm... umm.. I don't really know.. let me give you a different number, maybe they will know.."
If call centers like ours would raise the bar on entry requirements and actually train the agents better, I'm sure we'd see less complaints.
Slashdot sucks
When Voice over IP becomes even more ubiquitous. The likelihood of it taking over #1 as top irritating support is all but assured.
Also, they are second only to car dealers in number complaints to Better Business Bureaus.
The difference is, the cellphone companies at least use Vaseline.
Car dealers use motor oil and road salt!
... Maybe in India people don't use cellphones! They should outsurce people to Singapore... hmm... wait a minute
"Mine has got Dance Dance Revolution on it."
--Chag
Commenting upon their second place finish, Verizon and Cingular Wireless both vowed to try harder next year.
Unknown host pong.
If you know urdu/hindi, here's something rather funny you might like to listen:
http://mobilink.uni.cc/
note, NOT work safe!
Since when?
Ave Molech Setting
I've sold Sprint, Verizon, and Cingular at various jobs and its rare that anyone is ever coming in to the store satisfied with the service and looking to continue their contract or upgrade. WLNP should be putting the spurs to the wireless companies by now, but I haven't seen any evidence of any company stepping anythig up. I'm currently a Sprint customer and don't have anything bad to say about them right now, but I know damn well that if I did I might be on hold for 10 minutes before talking to an unreceptive operator.
"Cell Phone Customer Service Ranked Next to Last IN USA" is what it should read.. and the companies are saving at the wrong spot.
If they provided better coverage and better service usa wouldn't be a 3rd world country when it comes to cellphone service and usage(so - they'd probably make even more money if they'd just bothered to do it properly)...
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
...so here's my contribution to it.
I added a second phone to my plan for my wife when we got married. This cause Cingular to silently erase all my vaunted "they're yours -- keep 'em" Rollover Minutes, of which I'd accumulated about 1,800. I started getting big overage charges on my bills. Each month, I'd call them up to straighten things out, and each month they'd be screwed up still. This went on for about six or seve months, till I finally got someone who seemed to know which end is up.
After all was said and done, I was told the initial erasure happened because I altered my plan on some day other than the first billing day of the month.
Nice system, Cingular. Dorks.
"A great democracy must be progressive or it will soon cease to be a great democracy." --Theodore Roosevelt
it's not likely to be slashdotted, and there's no registration required. chill on the karma whoring.
But have you ever had a billing error in YOUR favor?
LS
There is a fine line between being a cultivated citizen and being someone else's crop. - A. J. Patrick Liszkie
I love the pictures in the article. They just show people merrily using their cellphones. It would make more sense if they showed the angry users, you know, the ones who smash their phones to teeny tiny bits, feed the bits to a squirrel, and then smash the squirrel into teeny tiny bits.
I also reply below your current threshold.
I once had to make a long distance call to a company to order a development board, and being a bit paranoid at the time I wanted to ask my provider (T-Mobile) about cell phone security. (I don't have long distance service on my landline) Here's how it went down from what I remembered:
Me: Yes, I'd like to know if your cell phone service is secure for making an order over the phone?
Support: Ah, you want to buy a new phone?
Me: (?!!) No. I'm asking about the security of cell phone usage. See, I'm planning on placing an order over the phone from a company.
Support: You have a phone from another company?
Me: No. I want to know if someone can intercept my cell phone call.
Support: T-Mobile does not record and monitor your calls.
Me: Thanks.....have a nice day.
I was hoping for a "Yes, the service is encrypted" or something. Guess that's what I get for being lazy to research myself.
$cat
Disclaimer: Didn't RTFA
This seems to be a very common complaint about wireless phone, and one of the main reasons I haven't migrated to it. Seems like every person I ask says their plans' customer service stinks, but they've heard such-and-such has a good system. I'll then find someone who is on said system, and they'll tell me that theirs stinks, but they've heard another system is good. Repeat the process ad nauseum.
What I'm wondering is, is the service in the industry really this awful, or is it a "grass is greener" syndrome? Seems to me that it's the perfect opportunity for a smaller wireless company to *gasp* invest in non-outsourced, quality customer care representatives. Word of mouth will spread, and theoretically, people will say "Yes, I like the customer service on this plan" instead of referring you to another company. This will in turn lead to increased customer base, increased satisfaction, and most importantly increased profits.
Of course, then there's still that pesky reception issue to deal with...
If the entire industry has abysmal customer service, "churn" is reduced
<grrr>
"Sweet. Contracts are up by %15, we cut half our customer service department, and this new report shows that people don't like it. But they keep buying it, so we'll keep shovelling it!"
"Life is good."
-Adam
God knows, Sprint is the worst of the lot. Poor coverage, poor roaming, billing issues, bad customer service. You name it, I've had it with them. Too bad Verizon isn't even an option in my area, not that they are any better!
Urge to post... fading... fading... RISING!... fading... fading... gone.
Back in Nov, when portability just started i was switching my prepaid US Cellular number to a contract with Cingular. Not only did it take 2 weeks, and Cingular blamed US Cell, and for some reason US Cell blamed AT&T... But one of the numerous times i spent hours on hold with US Cellular i was transfered to some fruit market. A FRUIT MARKET!!?! Thats when i knew they were just fucking with me for the hell of it and i went and lodged various complaints with the US Cellular customer "service" persons supervisor, the BBB and the FCC. Also prior to all this, one of the times i was getting more minutes (you had to do that in-store for whatever reason) i had to wait in the store for 45 before they got to my name on the sign in list, this was after being skipped over several times (to my vocal objections) by people "just paying their bills", as i was about to walk out the door i loudly proclaimed that they'd just wasted half an hour of my life when all i wanted to do was give them my money, and that was why i was switching to cingular next month.
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
Customer service anywhere is alot like sales anywhere, only the duplicitious or the masochist survive. Especially when jobs are on the line based purely on numbers and not customer service in any kind of conventional sense. Thats what you get when you corporatize SERVICE I suppose...
"Do you suppose that's why God lives in the Heavens? Because he lives in fear of His creations?" - Steve Buscemi
... and these fuckers often remind me of The Horned One, but...
We don't expect undertakers to work for free. Why shouldn't a charge be made for closing a deceased person's account?
Here is the list. Throw out Sprint, Charter, and Comcast. These dogs are skewing the numbers.
Have you Meta Moderated t
I can beat everyone on this post. i use to work for both AT&T Wireless and an OUTSOURCED customer service for T-Mobile. Boy the stuff i could tell.. From double billing, to fees posted in error.
I made the mistake of buying a 2 year GSM subscription with AT&T and a Motorola T720 telephone. I did this in response to having major issues with my previous non-GSM phone getting reception. This turned out to be a remarkably poor decision, as AT&T's GSM service was inferior even to their older-technology service, and this particular Motorola phone wasn't even "Alpha" quality (it effectively powered down without notice if it couldn't find service for more than a few minutes, which happened CONSTANTLY).
Anyway, they sold me this stuff, it didn't work, and I was on a 2 year contract. In going back and forth with them for a while, they explained to me that this was an 'unusual' problem, that their GSM service was good, and that the telephone was not buggy (and perhaps I should warranty mine). This greatly conflicted with reports from fellow users of their GSM service and this Motorola telephone that I'd been reading on the Internet....as it turned out there seemed to be a great number of people in my situation.
So I called AT&T and told them our contract was at an end, and to cancel the service immediately. They of course demanded a $175 cancellation fee. I informed that they would not need this fee, as the reason for the cancellation was their failure to provide the services which were set forth in the contract, i.e. cellular telephone service. It takes a LONG TIME to explain how this works to any customer service rep. Eventually, they actually figured it out and agreed to part ways without additional costs. I consider myself lucky for not having to take them to small claims over the $175.
What has *science* done?!? -- Dr. Weird (ATHF)
Thank god you posted this, I was afraid CNN would be slashdotted in a heartbeat. Here, let me provide an even more useless post with this tinyurl link to the article: click here.
I also reply below your current threshold.
I know its not cell phone but Tiscali cut us off one day without any warning and gave a recorded message every time we dialled out, there was no number given to call, there was no number on the bill even! none of the support numbers we found would connect to Tiscali's own bloody service, and the message didnt even mention the name Tiscali! it just said contact your service provider. after spending time calling on (a separate) mobile going through several departments we were led around a total farse, different people saying different things, someone saying it was a billing problem but wouldnt let us pay the extra we apparently owed!? in the end one of their own customer service people told us he had switched providers and gave us a rivals name!
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
They charge for roaming at random. They add fees that were never discussed. They sign you into a 2-year contract and charge you $200 to get out of it when your service wasn't ever reliable.
Tmobile has screwed me over so many times it isn't funny. I have had 3 different days where I could place or receive no calls. All three days happened to be times where I was trying to coordinate events that involved people travelling. Needless to say, I had a lot of people pissed at me. During the blackout in New York, my brother's and my Tmobile phones would not work while everyone around us were talking on their cell phones. When we tried to access the other networks and force our phones to roam, they would allow emergency calls only.
For about a month of my contract, only half the calls could be completed. Oh ya, Tmobile also guarantees nothing about calls being made inside. So, I can't use my cell phone in my own home.
This isn't just Tmobile, though. I had a contract with Sprint. During the first week of the contract, I had trouble getting good service and my calls were getting dropped. They assured me I had 14 days without fee. Then, they sent me a bill for $235. Then, I called them and had $200 removed. They sent me another bill for $35. I also called and had that removed. Then, they sent me to collections for $235. I was able to settle for $0. I wonder how many people ended up paying that $235 or even the $35.
They have confusing minute plans. Tmobile assured my brother that he had free nights and weekends with his $35/month plan. Then, after recklessly using his phone as a camp counselor after 9pm on weekdays, he got a bill for $450. It turns out that he needed a $39/month plan to get the free nights part of the free nights and weekends. Tmobile also kindly let him know that nothing they ever say is contractual - only what is in fine print.
I could seriously bitch about cell phone companies all day. I heard Sprint is making something like $230million this year in fees for saving peoples' old cell phone numbers. That is bullshit. The entire goddamn industry has put fees for every damn thing.
At least when you buy a car, it generally works. There is no cell phone service that works everywhere - and there is no such thing as a cell phone customer who never gets dropped calls (unless they never really use their phones.)
--- We need more Ron Paul!
I have never, ever, had a single complaint about my cell phone service. Seriously. Nothing's late, no billing problems, no mis-answered questions, no problems with coverage. Nada.
Then again, I loathe cell phones, and don't have one. Since 98% of what I hear about cell phones boils down to these two things:
1) Cool faceplates, games, ringtones, etc
2) The service sucks not just raw eggs, but last year's roadkill raw eggs with salmonella and poisonous spiders crawling all over them
why on earth would I want one?
" I work at a call center here in my hometown ( I'm in college, it's not my fault ) "
Why apologize? It's not like you're a mass murderer or something. The fact that you have to says more about people's attitudes, than the employee themselves.
"If call centers like ours would raise the bar on entry requirements and actually train the agents better, I'm sure we'd see less complaints."
And pay better. Funny how we want all the good things (e.g. movies, and music, customer service, long lasting products, teachers who can teach). But we're not really willing to pay for it.
Being an English (only) speaker living in Japan, I have had no problems with contacting my cell provider (NTT DoCoMo) and getting the answers I need.
I won't go into all the bells and whistles of how great the phones are &c. save to say the only limiting factor I could find was that I had to get a certain brand of phone that had dual language capabilities. Once I chose my phone, everything I got with it was in English, and not the broken English manuals and instructions I expected.
Any time I have had to talk with an operator or contact NTT directly, all I have to do is say Eigo and the person immediately switches to English.
Apparently NTT won't even hire you for customer service unless you speak English as well as Japanese.
I had a setup problem with my e-mail service on my phone, I was getting spam and wanted to know waht to do about it. I called them expecting to be shuffled around or misunderstood, but instead, the woman helping me gave me the answers I needed right off the top of her head without a stutter even though I was not doing the best job of explaining what I was trying to accomplish. In the end, she sat with me on the line and helped me to create an accept list for e-mail messages. Anything not coming from the 20 odd addresses I punched in would not be accepted by my phone. I think this is much better than any block list you can hand me, and much easier on the system side of things too. At the same time I had a question about my home internet connection, also with NTT, and instead of transfering me to another division, she again answered my questions as if she had them written on the back of her hand.
After having had to deal with Rogers and Bell in Canada , and having a nightmare of a time even getting someone who spoke English, dealing with my issues become secondary to being able to communicate, I have found the service and quality of personel here amazing.
As to TV operators, we here have to pay a tax even if we don't have a television or cable, somthing along the lines of the U.K. the only experience I have with the TV guy is when someone comes to the door looking to sign me up so they can collect the monthly tax automatically. Here, not speaking Japanese pays off. I feign ignorance and confusion repeating over and over again TV nai and they go away for a year. So far this has been my only contact with them. Now whether they have tried to contact me by phone or not, I will never know because as soon as some one on the line realises I don't speak Japanese, they usually give up, and so far no one has contacted me in English about the TV tax. I can't wait till they do, in English, so I can practice my French...
flinging poop since 1969
I've recently moved to California, and I'm thinking about changing from ATT&WS to Cingular. (Comments on this particular switch are well appreciated...) I've been kind of going back and forth because Cingular has a better rate plane, but AT&T has the cooler phone. Well what has clenched it for me is that I went by the ATT store and they had a hand written sign saying "Computer's down, we can't play with your records." About a month earlier, I called them and their computer was down. Uh... not that I think their computer has been down a month, but that seems awfully frequent.
So is Cingular any better, or is the grass just greener?
I would be interested to know if the fact that cable companies have the lower customer satisfaction, based on the fact that it is much easier for customers, and 'anomolies' in gerneal to interfere with the service. Having worked for a cable company for a good portion of my working years, I know all to well the type of problems that can arise from customer intervention.
When customers are approached (admitedly, not always with the best method) regarding their handiwork, they do become defensive on the matter, perhaps citing poor customer service in the process. Additionally, the broadband RF spectrum that cable providers make use of (53MHz to 850+Mhz) is filled with oodles of sources of interference. (Pagers, Ham Radios, etc)
Also, my work in the cable industry has been entirely in Canada. I think that the canadian cable industry is a lot more mature, and two of the 3 major companies have strong family roots. I believe there is a stronger sense of customer responsibility north of the border when it comes to cable.
Today I got my phone bill and it said:
"10 Dollar Credit: -$7.24"
then calling Dell....
When the nifty new features that modivated you to purchase the phone in the first place don't work, or when "customer support" uses paying customers to beta test nifty new features, THATs MLIFE.
When you have to hold for AT&T's billing department FOR OVER AN HOUR to explain to them that you canceled their so called service a month ago, and that you just ain't gonna pay 'em any more, THAT'S MLIFE.
When AT&T bills you after you've canceled the contract because AT&T didn't deliver the promised service, THATS MLIFE.
When AT&T sends you to collections because you are so f$cking fed up with AT&T's complete and utter lack of service that you just can't stand another Minute on hold, THAT'S MLIFE.
When you carefully read the terms of service and contract before you sign up, then try to cancel the contract within 30 days without penelty as specified in the contract, you your life goes to hell, THATS MLIFE.
When you've been on hold for so long that you start writing sarcastic replacements for AT&T's marketing, THATS MLIFE.
When you start looking at cell phone sales droids as generally having less integrety than your typical car salesman, THAT'S MLIFE.
When you've had such a searingly horrible experience with a big nasty f'ed up corperation such as AT&T that you VOW that you will never use ANY service from them EVER EVER AGAIN, THATS MLIFE.
I only found out that they had stopped me from writing programs for my phone despite that the salesman told me I could,
As with all else, get it in writing. They put it into writing in the form of that neat little contract you sign, why shouldn't you?
Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known. -- Carl Sagan
Who cares if it's encrypted?
Do you think someone is sitting around listenting to people's cell conversations until they hit on one where someone is placing an order, and then write down your information?
If that actually worries you, do you ever actually use your credit card?
Credit cards are not secure. Any clerk at pretty much any place you use it has access to your number, as does any IS employee at any internet company you've ever placed an order with.
The time and money you spent calling T-Mobile to ask about their network was greater than the time/money lost if your call had been intercepted times the chance your call was intercepted. Now, stop driving up my cell phone bill by making T-Mobile pay people to field your stupid questions.
paintball
Last year my grandmother was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease and swiftly took a turn for the worse. She had a cell phone through Verizon and was on the family plan with myself and my mother. Once her condition degenerated to the point where should would never use a phone again, my mom tried to cancel her line with 6 months left on the contract. They said flat out "no", even after my mom's explanation, sending her home in tears from their complete lack of compassion.
2 months later after the funeral was behind us, I decided to call and see just how high up I could get by asking for supervisors. At this point, with 4 months left on the contract, and my grandmother actually deceased instead of just of ailing health, despite my explanations and disgust with their customer service, I didn't get very high up and got shut down within minutes.
That was 5 months ago. The INSTANT we paid our last bill on contract, I waltzed into the nearest verizon store with a typed letter of open digust to attach to the form for my reason for no longer choosing their service. We have since moved on to a different provider with inferior coverage but much superior customer service.
It amazes me that with all of the competition in the cellular market ANY company can get away with treating people like that and not suffer a mass exodus of customers. I suppose its because of the fine tradition they have of locking us in to contracts - fortunately, laws (such as California's new cellular fairness law) and competition are slowly starting to change the landscape. When a 30 trial period, a ban on small print, and much shorter contracts are the norm I would not be surprised to see the customer service shape up industry-wide.
"This is Zombo Com, and welcome to you who have come to Zombo Com" - www.zombo.com
And this is surprising because?
Ironically, I just got off the phone with sprint, my cell and local land line provider. They're charging me for calls from 7PM to 9PM, but I thought they'd changed that.
Well, for another $5/month they will. What utter bullshit.
But it gets better. I'm paying $65/month for 800 minutes. I get charged 40 cents/minute after it. They can't charge less per minute, or so they say, but I could get 1100 minutes each month if I want. The price? Well, the same $65, they just don't automatically move customers.
Fine. I say switch me. She says there's a two year service agreement. Again, bullshit. I've been with them for 5 years. Then she tells me that I have some 2 year agreement that's up next year. I didn't even know about that faux agreement. It was verbal, according to her, but she was a bit short on details.
I asked to speak to a supervisor and, after a few minutes, lost the connection.
This is stupid. If anybody knows of a better provider, let me know.
Do you have ESP?
The question isn't always customer service or cellphone reception, but which of the two is easier to find.
/dev/random /dev/cellphone
The unluckiest people are the ones where cellphone reception is EVEN HARDER to find than customer service!
ln -sf
I have not gone over my minutes since I got the phones, my bill is [drum roll].... $78 per month after hidden charges.
It would cost about $3 more to have the phones on 2 separate plans and they wouldn't have to share the same bucket of minutes.
I once had a phone with the same provider a few years ago and they has my SSN wrong, it took my nearly 4 months to get them to let me discontinue the service because my SSN was not the one on the account.
I was like "look, either admit it is my phone and let me discontinue service or admit it is not my phone and quit sending me the bill, but you can't have it both ways!"
I spent 6 hours on the phone the day I finally got rid of the service. One rep left me on hold for nearly 3 hours before I hung up when I asked to be xfered to someone that could credit my account, she wrote in my account that I hung up on her. I spent the 3 hours she had me on hold writing a letter to the BBB.
I recently had to upgrade my service with the company to GSM to add a second phone, I had to buy 2 phones for $300 and give them my old phone that I paid for. None of their towers have been upgraded to GSM so I paid $300 + $78/month for 2 phones that can rarely ever complete a phone call.
If people want to call me they can leave a message on my Vonage phone and I can still check my voicemail away from home. That is one phone company I don't hate.
Saying Java is nice because it works on all OS's is like saying that anal sex is nice because it works on all genders.
1. Purposely put defects into phones and their service so they know the users will call the support/customer service. 2. Charge them several times the normal rate(for minutes) while they wait on hold for hours. 3. Profit!
Every time you post an article on Slashdot, I kill a server. Think of the servers!
That's right in line with my own personal experiences. I've had a TON of problems with Verizon lately. Those people are horrible to deal with.
We were on a family plan with Verizon. After a while we realized that we were always going over out alloted minutes each month, so we decided it was time to switch to another plan. The friendly associate who sold us our phones informed us that we were allowed to switch plans any time we want. Seems fair enough right?
Wrong.
The catch is that they won't let you switch plans unless you sign another two-year contract. Unfortunately this would lock us into using our already ancient Motorola-Startacs for another two years too. We were not pleased. I almost canceled right then and there, but I discovered that the cancellation fee would be greater than just paying the bill until the contract ran out. Consequently we threw our Verizon phones in the drawer, signed on with Alltel, and canceled our Verizon plan the day the contract ran out. End of story right?
Wrong
They sent me a bill for a $400 cancellation fee even though I canceled at the right time and the customer service rep said nothing more was to be paid. I called back and they said they would take care of the problem. Unfortunately they did it for only one of the phones as they sent me another bill two weeks later for $200. This time when I called them back they started making references to "turning the bill over to outside agencies". Trust me, I was freaking angry. Eventually I got to another "nice" customer service rep that said it would be taken care of.
We'll see...
I bet that most people pay the $400 just to quit being harassed. These people a freaking crooks! It's unreal! They're threatening to ruin MY credit even though I followed the rules, had perfect pay, and did NOTHING to violate the contract!
No wonder they've got one of the worst customer satisfaction records in the business.
I use Sprint in the San Francisco bay area. I have had nothing but great service from them. I rarely have a signal problem, I've never been overbilled, never even NEEDED to contact customer support. Their website leaves a bit to be desired since there are accessories for my phone they have, but don't have listed on the site. But that's so minor it's really not really worth mentioning.
I've been with 4 different companies now, Nextel, AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint. Lemme tell ya, If your in the bay area, Sprint is the way to go. I had nothing but troubles with the prior 3. Nextel...as a IT tech, the fact their signal doesn't like being around computers of any type is a real problem, not that their signal was all that great to begin with. AT&T, not bad, but signal is weak. Verizon....don't EVEN get me started.
I've been working as a Verizon Wirless agent for the last.. three or so years. Give or take a couple months.
I'm quite happy with the fact that I do not work at a company owned store. I'm very pleased that I'm an agent, not a representative.
When a customer comes in with a complaint I tell them I'll handle it. This usually involves calling into Customer Service. Which means it may take a while. So I write down the customer's name and number and tell them I'll give them a follow up call once the issue is resolved. No need for their time to be wasted while I argue with some half trained reps in Customer Service.
Now there is the problem.
The requirements to be a rep at a call center are low.
Plus there is way too much information to take in during one or two training sessions. Yet the newer reps are placed in Customer Service, which deals with general problems. They're half trained in issues and can't always help out.
It would be much better to have them trained in a specific area and actually know the topic they're supposed to be helping you about.
I've had to tell reps specifically, detail by detail, what I want them to do in regards to a small issue they should be familiar with. I call in to get credits on bills and after twenty minutes on the phone I'm told that they're not sure what I want them to do, after I just specifically told them. I know more about billing and proration than 95% of the reps in the customer care. I've been working much longer than they have but I'm not a rep, I don't even have access to the billing system. I shouldn't have to know how to re-rate a bill. I know this information because I want to make sure the bills are fixed in a correct manner.
Training for the reps needs to be improved.
Most importantly the reps need to have the attitude that they are in Customer Service. They are here to help you out in any way possible. Which means they can't always follow the book and exceptions must be made.
Now there are some things that have to be done. Some things cannot be changed on a whim.
- Say your husband/wife activates an account under their name, but it's your phone. You can't try to assume the service into your own name, even if you are the user, without the company having permission from the contract holder.
- A family member dies. The company can't cancel the contract without paperwork backing up that statement. It's a horrible thing to hear during a traumatic time in your life.. but take into consideration how easy it would be to sneak out of a contract if you didn't have to send them that paperwork.
However most people don't read their bill. They just pay it. They don't realize they were placed on the wrong calling plan until roaming charges or such comes up. For situations like that policy should not be followed. It was an error on both sides. Unless you want the customer to leave, don't tell them that it's their responsibility to read the bill. Give them credits, tell them you're sorry, you're in Customer Service after all.
The problem is most reps don't know when exceptions should be made and when the rules need to be followed. Most of the time they'll stick by the book or go by their gut feeling of defending the company if they're not sure what the specific policy is. They need to be better trained.
You should also know what you're getting into when you sign up for service. Many customers do not read the terms and agreements. Knowledge is good for all. RTFM. It sorta applies.
About half of the complaints are not truly the companies fault. Yes, you use your minutes when you check your voicemail. It says so in the information provided for you. If you got your phone wet and did not take advantage of the insurance offer when you purchased the phone, do not be upset with the company for not providing you with a free phone. You're responsible for your own equipment. There is a warrenty but it does not cover liquid damage.
Now I've had my frustrations with Verizon Wireless customer service but it's not that bad.
Honestly I don't th
I liked Dudley's take on this...
around here they were called cellularone first
they still owe me $300 and their blemish remains on my credit history even all these years later
i've tried talking to them like 15 separate times for hours and every time i'm told by some bitchy black woman that everything is taken care of
basically i moved 2x inside 6mos and they lost my deposit after telling me that theyw ould be taking money out of the deposit until it ran out on a month by month basis because i had already had service for an entire year without incident.
i've had multiple collection agencies, various bills ranging from $283 to $89 and even a check for $100 sent to me from them, tehy're totally clueless disorganized and basically if business infrastructure had to be inspected like building foundations do they would have been condemned a long time ago.
I'm always amazed I hear such bad experiences from Sprint, my experiences are ok if not stellar. Granted:
1) Their customer service is ok, generally whatever I call with gets resolved in a fair manner.
2) Calls rarely drop, this is in Santa Ana, California for the most part
3) Their rate plans are fair if not dirt cheap
Some bad parts about them though:
1) The contracts, why do they have to keep locking me in dammit. No I have no real incentive to want to switch but I'd like to be able to cancel temporarily if needed (for example if I lose my job, take a long vacation in a remote area, etc.)
2) The ringers and downloads, the ones on Sprint's own site aren't all that hot, and they have limited time licenses. Though I've found sites that are cheaper with indefinite licesnses. And if I'm not so lazy, someday I'll make my own.
Overall Sprint gets a 3.5 outta 5 stars from me. Sure there's room for improvement but I'm not looking to switch.
...in bed
Of course customer service is horrible.
I've been a Sprint PCS customer for five years. I originally used them because at the time they did not require any type of 'contract'. At any rate, I went through about three phones (all were completely CRAP). Every time I purchased a new phone, I was forced to pay full retail price for the phone ( > $150.00 ) while new customers were getting a new phone for almost nothing (gratis or ~ $25-$50) for signing a 'contract' which I was not even allowed to sign in order to get the discount on the phone! This makes absolutely no sense. Anyway....when my last phone broke I went to the store and bought a new cell phone. The only decent phones they had were the ones with the new color screens.
I took the phone home and activated it on-line. First, Sprint made me change my service plan because my new phone was a 'vision' phone and I had to get a service plan compatible with my new phone (bullcrap). I got a new service plan that costs $5 more a month and I get less minutes and no new services (no, I'm not using the 'vision' services). A couple of months later, I was reading my bill very closely I noticed that one of the 'features' on my account was a "Sprint PCS advantage agreement" that doesn't expire until this September. I had no idea how it got there until I called customer service. Basically, I got a year 'contract' for paying full retail price for a crappy phone and paying $5 more a month. When I complained, they said it was in the fine writing on the website. I asked them to send me some sort of proof that I signed a contract. Of course they couldn't. The lady just kept saying that I could pay the $175 fee and get out of the contract.
I asked her again, explaining that I had been a loyal customer for 5 years and had no intention of changing my service. She refused and kept saying it was in the fine print and I should have read it when I got my new plan.
I proceeded to cancel my wife's, my mothers, my in-law's phone and the Sprint PCS phones for my business (5 phones). In all I cancelled 9 cell phones. They are horrible. They don't treat customers fairly -- not even loyal ones.
BTW: Does anyone know the laws regarding online 'contracts'. They seem a little scary to me since there is no proof that a user actually 'agreed' to something on-line, much less the context of that agreement.
After seeing what many of my friends have gone through with other carriers (including corporate accounts with a couple of them), and considering a few hassles I had with Verizon - I can still say that I see why Verizon is usually on top for customer service.
For starters, the majority of people don't really consider their phone a seperate issue from the service provided by a given carrier. EG. If you use a cheezy phone with relatively poor reception and/or battery life, you're likely to blame the resulting dropped call issues on your carrier. While this isn't really fair, I think Verizon does an "above average" job of only offering people phones that work pretty well at these basics. Therefore, they manage to keep these complaints down a little bit.
Also though, Verizon seems to have a pretty good customer satisfaction policy. Despite them screwing up my billing at least 2 different times, and giving me hassles about a new phone I purchased that starting acting up while still under their warranty, they always have resolved the issues in the end. Basically, with Verizon, you'll get to talk with your share of clueless cust. service associates, just like with the other carriers, *but* unlike some of them, Verizon mandates that if you complain enough, you will eventually have your issue resolved.
The biggest thing I think any of the carriers could do to please customers would be easing up on the contracts. That's likely the LAST thing they'll ever do, though, because it's too much of a cash cow for them.
Most problems appear to be people with unreasonable ideas of what coverage is "OMG I"M STUCK ON THIS MOUNTAIN AND MY CELL PHONE DOESN'T WORK". The U.S.A. is a HUGE place with extremely varying geographical coverage. It's just not possible to be perfect here. Japan doesn't have this problem, most countries don't. I live in the middle of the desert and all I hear from some people here is that their cell coverage sucks. Well duh, when the company has 10 customers it just doesn't pay to fully cover the area.
On the other hand, the contracts are bullshit. I will never EVER sign a contract. If 10 years from now all there is for phone service is cell and it's done by 3 companies and you're forced to sign a contract then I'm sorry, I won't own or use a phone ever again. Contracts are for buying houses, renting cars, financial agreements etc etc. Not for phone service. It makes as much sense to me as signing a contract at a restaurant to return 4 times a week when all you want is the ocassional hamburger. I had a cell as part of my job a few years ago and I used it at most, twice a day and that was just a quick 1 minute convo with the boss. Yet he was paying upwards of 160$ a month for that phone (top of the line service contract). It just doesn't make sense to me. A girl I work with has a cell and pays 50$ a month for it, not counting the over charges (she showed me an $800 bill once). That's just nuts to me. Maybe I'm cheap but I just don't have unlimited funds, nor do I feel secure enough under the current economic climate to contract out a 50$ payment each month for 2 years with no recourse should I need to cancel. Hell my bank gives me ways out of my loans if I need it, even refinancing should times get real hard. I can also negotiate settlements with them if I need to file bankruptcy. None of that is possible with the cell phone gustapos "FUCK YOU PAY ME" attitude. All in all, why sign up? Other than to fit in with the cool crowd and have equally obnoxious cell phone jangles. I don't see the value and "cool gadget, must have" feelings aside, I just can't make myself buy one again.
I've worked in customer service for a large retail chain. I now run my own business and I'm in the process of setting up another one. My attitude to customer service is simple...
Always follow the BIG MAN IN A PUB rule.
Imagine you're sat in a pub and there's a big, tough-looking man who's maybe had a bit too much to drink. That man is your customer. Make sure that every policy, every rule, every clause in a contract, every apology or excuse, everything about your customer service, is something that you would comfortably say to that man in the pub while you're sat right there next to him.
If you think there's a part of your customer service that might provoke the man into hitting you then you wouldn't say it to him, would you? So why would it be okay to say it to him over the phone, by letter or by e-mail? Why would it be okay to have an employee say it to him in person?
Keep the big drunk man happy and everyone else will be happy too. Including you.
As any consistently ethical business person will tell you, it isn't a myth or a fantasy -- the better you treat your customers, the better your bottom line will be. You may occasionally get ripped off. You'll even get the odd one or two customers who decide to take a disliking to you for no good reason. But at the end of every day you'll always have a business that is more popular and more profitable than it was at the end of the previous day.
Short term gains generally lead to long term losses.
"Ironically, I just got off the phone with sprint, my cell and local land line provider. They're charging me for calls from 7PM to 9PM, but I thought they'd changed that."
Do you have that in writing?
"Fine. I say switch me. She says there's a two year service agreement. Again, bullshit. I've been with them for 5 years. Then she tells me that I have some 2 year agreement that's up next year. I didn't even know about that faux agreement. It was verbal, according to her, but she was a bit short on details."
Verbal agreements need to be taped. Usually a supervisor will help with that step of the process. Otherwise it's noenforcable.
"I asked to speak to a supervisor and, after a few minutes, lost the connection."
Get names, get numbers but always remain calm, but firm. Indicate why you are there and what you want them to do to resolve the issue (be fair).
The key to resolving these issues is to start with being educated. Not just your rights, but also what you've signed. Pay attention to what they send you [1], and if you have any questions, ASK.
Start a trail. From the first time you've dealt with them to the final moment. Who did you speak with, and when, about what. What were the results? Don't be afraid to escalate, and have good words for those who do help you along. Remember more bees with honey, than vinigar.
Legal action can be considered, but make certain you have a firm foundation for the judge to look at. That's why you establish a trail.
[1] The idea of a document control system applies as much to individuals as it does corporations. Get one, or build one. An investment that's worth it.
...is whether or not you even _need_ to contact customer service. Personally, I've never really had much trouble with any cellphone company or service simply because I hardly ever call them. They send the bill, I pay it, the phone works. I guess I'm one of the lucky ones.
-- Stu
/. ID under 2,000. I feel old now.
A SprintPCS store in cincinnati once, the man was picketing back and forth every day taht week with a giant sign that i can't remember exactly what it read but it was something about his bill and the message was clear. He was pissed enough to sit outside all day in the summer sun wiht a sign and his kids and yell about how shitty sprint was
that was enough to keep me away from them forever
It seems that in the past year or more OLD, I mean OOOLLLLDDDDD stories have been appearing on Slashdot. I guess that the dot.com fad wasn't the only thing to go with the wind :/
If you're planning on getting a GSM phone with ATT(which I'd think you were, since they're the cool ones) you end up on whatever network you can find now without roaming. If your phone works in the US, its just normal usage. I've taken my ATT phone and had it say 'Cingular' when I was 'roaming' but since roaming doesn't exist, I got the benefit of the cooler ATT phone, though I have a cheaper plan then they currently offer.
It's not just with Cingular. I had a very similar problem with AT&T Wireless (before the whole merger/buyout started) and it was fixed after about three billing cycles.
What happened was that I got a cell phone, and after a while my parents decided to get cell phones as well, so we switched to a family plan. Or so we thought. We started getting multiple bills with amounts of money owed that made no sense at all. Three times I called and after waiting for about an hour each I was assured that the problem was fixed. They finally stopped screwing with the bills the last cycle, but we still get two extra letters for my parents' cell phones with $0.00 owed.
Personally, I'm not looking forward to the merger. I hate to think how things can get screwed up when transferring information over, especially with my family's screwed up account.
But not all is bad with AWS. My service has been excellent, I have never had a dropped call, and recently they made their "national" plan into a true national, no roaming charges, plan, with free in-network calling.
---
Your hair is reminiscent of a digesting yak.
Well... honestly if you sign up for a calling plan and a better plan comes out, by law the company cannot change you. It's a good idea to check in every two months or so to see if a better plan has come out.
Also all companies ask for a new one or two year agreement whenever you change your calling plan. They do it to keep you with them. However, you are getting a better deal. You get a new promotion, the company is just asking for something in return.
Also it's important to be on the correct calling plan because high usage and roaming charges are harsh. That's why they have a number of plans to select from. That's why most companies have a free number for you to check how many minutes you've used. Phones have a roaming indicator on them. Know how much high usage and roaming charges are before you lock yourself into an agreement.
Now.. I am a Verizon Wireless rep so I will suggest Verizon wireless to you because I know the goods and the bads. However,it depends on what is more important to you. If you don't care about the quality of your calls (in regards to dropped calls and static) but really want unlimited data features (internet access, text messaging), then maybe T-Mobile would be better for you. If you want really good quality in regards to your service and the company that has been rated #1 by Consumer Reports, Newsweek, and a number of others then go with Verizon. Each company has its own little perks.
Here's my best advice to you. Read the terms and agreements. Know what you're signing up for. The information is all there. It's also better to get a phone through a store location. You know the person you speak to, you can go back to them at any time. They're there to answer your questions and explain everything. Oh and I don't mean some store at a mall or a little booth. I don't mean Radio Shack or Best Buy. Go to an actual store location. They're often found in little mini malls, nearby grocery stores or electronic stores.
Also don't go in with a chip on your shoulder and thinking you're going to get screwed. I work at a store location. I can easily tell when someone is being defensive and when someone just wants information. I'm more willing to help out a customer when they're polite and understanding. I'll be nice to a customer no matter what attitude they have, but I'll do more for someone that treats me with respect. You have to understand that there are contracts. There are terms and agreements you have to follow if you sign up.
Don't like the fact you have a contract? Well here's your answer. Buy a prepaid phone. More expensive, but there is no service agreement.
Incorrect. Sprint never said they would change customers on older calling plans to the newer night and weekend plan. Cellphone companies Cannot change a calling plan or promotion without the customer's permission. Thus people on older plans stay on older plans.
Just because the plans have changed doesn't mean you'll suddenly be on something better or newer. You have to call in and request that change or else your plan stays the same.
" Trust me, I was freaking angry. Eventually I got to another "nice" customer service rep that said it would be taken care of.
We'll see..."
Well in the defense of CS (I don't work for Sprint). We deal with a great volume of people. That's why I ALWAYS document conversations with customers[1]. Complaints and promises. helps the customer AND covers my own butt (you'll be surprised some of the stuff customers make up).
[1} I should point out I could do this because the company allowed it, and made time allowances when appropriete (Tech support naturally, doesn't quite work for order takers).
I have had AT&T for 3 years now, and had problems when I upgraded my phone to GSM. Though some of it could have been my fault (they thought I signed up for a new line instead of upgrading, don't think that was the case, but it was the explination). I found that the most important thing you can do is talk to someone who has been there for a while, over 9 months. The turnover in call centers is very high, and traning is a joke (one of the new reps told me the instructor showed up 1 out of the 3 times). When I managed to get someone who knew what they were doing, they not only stayed past when everyone else left, they called back if the call was disconnected, and followed up to make sure the problem was fixed.
Everyone can talk to the supervisor and complain about the service, but I prefer to give praise when i finally get someone who does a good job. positive vs negative reenforcement.
One other trick i know that works well, is if your contract is up, the best customer service reps are in the cancelation department, just get transfered over there, and try to have them fix your problem. They are the people who have been there the longest and gotten promoted. Normally by the time you get there you are just so pissed and fed up that you don't want to explain your problem again, but they are the ones that know how to fix yoru phone.
If they were not such assholes, they would not have to worry.
Fight Spammers!
When I relocated from the Poughkeepsie area to the Rochester area (NY) I was somehow able to send and revceive text messages for no charge. This continued up until I signed a new contract when I got my LG VX4400. That was well over a year.
"If you think there's a part of your customer service that might provoke the man into hitting you then you wouldn't say it to him, would you? So why would it be okay to say it to him over the phone, by letter or by e-mail? Why would it be okay to have an employee say it to him in person?"
CS: "I'm sorry sir. The warrenty doesn't cover you running over the product repeatedly."
Seriously. Some of it is the customers making NO effort to understand what they bought. From what the name of the product is, to the warrenty covered. Some don't even know how much they paid.
And as a "businessman" you also have to deal with the frauds. The customer is always right, while a nice ideal, doesn't match reality, and will get you bent over the financial table when word gets out.
I'm also in Japan, with en AU KDDI phone, bilingual, the manuals are all in japanese, you can dowload a 30 page PDF of an Engrish version.
No way to talk without deploying the 10 cm antenna (beeing from France, with GSM and the habit of antenna-less Nokia it's a pain). The phone can do everything and wathever except a correct phone (camera, pocket light, twin color display, GPS -with 600m of circular error probability, 300m precision- and if I paint the stripes it can also make aircraft carrier...) The tech support is of no help, noone speak a single word of english, same goes for Yahoo BB who for a 12Mb service give me a FREAKING 0,8Mb... They didn't even knew what an ethernet port was... (btw the technical limit for xDSL was 6Mb so I don't get how they sell 24 or 48 Mb plans...)
Japanese people are really efficient at giving fakely sincere excuses but the last to be efficient (there was an article on the time in 2002 about the myth of japanese productivity).
As for your comment on the hiring part if you're not bilingual... the japanese society beeing the most racist one in the world they won't hire you if you're not japanese, that's all... unless they are really desperate. Or need you as some kind of "value added cute guy" which works very well for the French these days, but is a definite nightmare for Brazilian or other communities.
Japan from outside is the "Phantasy Island"
from inside it's the "planet of apes" (with lots of Mercedes Benz, and Ferrari, and Corvette, and BMW.)
(good by karma...)
I have a Motorola P280. It's actually the 12th or 13th replacement of the phone, though I swear I think they started shipping me back some of my first phones, again. T-Mobile for the most part was nice about replacing the phone, but they never seemed to care about the firmware issues that kept causing me to want replacements in the first place: calendar appointments set months in advance will randomly trigger an alarm, for example. (This last month, I had two alerts go off for my sister's birthday, which is in September, and for which I set a reminder one day ahead. This has happened for other appointments with various reminder lead times, in the past)
I don't see why they can't just accept the phone back and give me credit towards another phone, having swapped so many out already. They've already spent more than the cost of a new phone on swapping this one out. Of course, now it's out of warranty, so I can't do it again. And though I've been a customer since 2001, their "loyalty discount" is really no different from new customer offers, including the new contract obligation.
I considered switching providers since I was going to have to start all over, but my sister has Cingular, and they're even worse, overcharging her monthly on calls she didn't make, double-billing her, turning off her phone sometimes even after they've noted they have her payment in the system, etc. I guess I shouldn't complain?
(Note: yes, I tried complaining to Motorola about the issue I was having, and they said I had to go through T-Mobile. I hate these fingerpointing games, I just want a working phone)
Get off my launchpad!
yeah, my cell phone provider, sprint, was giving me grief. they kept calling me on my sprint phone to sell me sprint service. I kept yelling at them "i already HAVE sprint service, this is a SPRINT telephone." they kept calling me anyways. i told them that if they didnt stop calling me, i was going to shoot my dog. they kept calling me. eventually i shot my dog. i mailed them the dog in a box. i knew i was screwed with the dogs name on his leash got in their DB cause i started getting calls on my SPRINT phone for the dog, for additional service plans. I miss my dog.
slashdot: where everyone yells sarcastic metaphors to themselves to understand the issue
I missed a chance to Frist Pots this thread because I was on the phone (my nice T-Mobile service) with (suckass) Sprint customer service for over an hour explaining to them that their bill for $260 which arrived 3 months after I cancelled my service was illegal becauae I cancelled my service within the 14-day grace period for cellular services, according to federal law.
I got them to remove the charges for cancellation fees because they admitted I had cancelled within 14 days, and the "late fees" because I had never seen any bills from them, ever, until this one, but I could not get them to back off of the first-month cell service and the activation fee.
I still believe that I should not have to pay those, and I was going to do some research, but maybe a kind Slashdotter already knows whether or not I actually owe the 1st month plus activation even though I cancelled within 14 days. I'd rather keep my $96 out of their sorry hands, to the point I'm willing to pay a lawyer $500 to do it. If the terrible quality of the phone service and their customer service makes a difference, that info would help.
The phone service was such that 75% of stationary and 100% of moving calls dropped before I hung up. The customer service was (and is) such that I was assured I would owe $0 on cancellation, and checked it twice; and of course they billed me $260 three months late, lied about sending two prior bills, lied when saying they were zeroing my account this afternoon (then I called again to get another rep to double check, and yes, nobody had done a thing), then tried to collect the late fees. The first person I talked to today (the liar) basically blurted out the lie and hung up on me the instant I registered my complaint. One person of the 5 that I talked to was actually polite and apologetic for her own mistakes (which were minor and understandable). Half of them were unintelligible half of the time. And not one of them was 100% sure about the reasoning for anything that occurred with my account.
They did all seem to think their job was to get me to pay whatever they could convince me I owed, rather than what I legally owed, though. I bet if I call tomorrow and repeat the process I get a different result. Especially if I have proof I don't owe them anything.
So the problem has gone from simple quality of customer service to flat-out fraud.
This despite the fact that cellular service is exploding in America, with minutes growing at about a 40% annual rate and both customer counts and revenues growing at 10-20%. Or maybe because of it, they think they can get away with anything.
Let me back up again... I've never had a cell phone. I don't remember people needing them back in the 70s, 80s, and most of the 90s, and they still had cars, kids, businesses, and elderly parents. So why should I need one today? Answer: I don't. And Most people probably don't need them either... but they sign up for them anyway.
Cell phone customers are among the highest in customer dissatisfaction until you point out what a sucker they've been, then they immediately switch to defensive mode to let you know that it's not as bad as what some other guy with some other company had to go through, and other straw-man face saving attempts.
People I know actually use arguments for having a cell phone such as:
Nope... I'm not going to run out and buy a cell phone anytime soon. From the mentality of the people I know who have them, it's more than obvious that the radiation from those phones really does affect their brain tissue.
Why else would you put up with such abuse from a company that takes your money for a service you can easily live without?
So am I like the last person on Earth that doesn't use cell phones? The boss bought me one for work, but it just sits on my desk gathering dust. If anyone calls me on it I immediately tell them to call my landline.
Heck, when I mentioned I didn't carry one to my sister she asked, "What do you do if your car breaks down?". I responded, "Um, walk?".
I guess it's amazing humans survived without them for so long. Frankly I don't see the appeal. I like being out of contact when I leave the house. It's relaxing.
The only remarkable thing about this story is that they placed second worst.
Whatever it is I'm complaining about, I'm sure the Republicans did it. This is
I was told the initial erasure happened because I altered my plan on some day other than the first billing day of the month.
You see, this is exactly the problem on slash dot.
You say Nice system, Cingular. Dorks.
While any business person, and most marketing type say "why didn't I think of that one." (and pick's up the phone to call the Nerd group).
They are making millions with this super Database Feature (yes FEATURE).
It took 8 calls over a 3 hour period to get the bastards to understand that I had terminated my service months earlier, and there was no way in hell I was going to pay the bills their system kept sending me. I finally got through to a supervisor's supervisor who was about as dumb as a brick, it took 30 minutes but she finally caught on. The 11 other (alleged) people I spoke to were the most incredibly stupid creatures on the face of the earth. Dealing with their customer "service" was such a treat that I will never use anything Sprint ever again for any reason.
Exceptions to every rule :-)
:-)
Sure, you need to know when to say no, and sometimes that's going to earn you an enemy. Happens to everyone.
The way I used to tell the 'story' was that there were two big guys, both a bit worse for drink, one the businessman and the other the customer. For as long as they're both sitting there, getting along fine, the business/customer relationship is working. As soon as one of them turns nasty, the relationship has broken down. The rule is: Make sure you're not the one who turns nasty or causes the other guy to turn nasty. If a fight breaks out then you lose, whoever started it.
The point, really, is to remove the distance from the business/customer relationship. You aren't talking to someone on the phone. You aren't telling an employee to "just get rid of them" with some BS about "company policy". You're right there, face to face with the customer, and you need to handle the situation. It is NOT about giving in to unreasonable demands, it's about rejecting those demands in a way that the customer understands it fair.
It's all a bit silly anyway, I know that. Different people do business in different ways. My way works for me, my customers are happy and my business is currently 350% more successful than optimistically predicted at start-up three years ago. I provide the best service, undercut everyone and put the customer first. I believe this is the way to do business and, for me, it has been.
With reference to the example about cell phone companies, put it this way: When the big drunk guy sits down next to you in the pub and tells you that his wife has died and he needs to cancel her cell phone contract, are you going to charge him for doing so or are you just going to do it? It's a no-brainer. The reason these SNAFUs happen is that some businesses see customers as merely a part of the equation, something to be managed in the most immediately profitable way. Faced with getting a glass smashed over your head because you made a bad decision, it's a whole lot easier to make the right decision.
Bottom line, you will NEVER lose customers for always doing the right thing. You might lose the custom of a small number of people, but you'll gain the custom of many more. If that doesn't make sense, read it again
I worked for Cingular Customer Service for a year or so and I can safely say at least 75% of the employees in the call center with me were underqualified, undereducated, partially-trained (and rushed thru that), and had bad attitudes towards their work and their customers. These reps were notorious for giving inaccurate imformation. If you called 3 difference reps with the same question, you were going to get at least 2 different answers (the joke was "This is Cingular. We have no consistency here.")
They were mostly unfamiliar with Cingular service/plans/phones/etc because Cingular's training system is basically a webpage called 'The Learning Edge' that reps could just click thru without reading (the test at the end even gave you the answers if you knew how to cheat it.) The main tool for communicating was email which few reps read. There was also a problem with getting user accounts set up so a lot of reps didn't have access to all the tools and information they needed to do the job. And God help you if you needed a password reset.
Twice a month, a Quality Assurance rep will monitor a rep's call to make sure the rep says the right verbage ("Thank you for calling Cingular Wireless where our goal is blah blah blah...") and handles the call correctly. However, on every call, reps are scored by call stats which basically tell how quickly the rep gets the customer off the phone and moves on to the next caller. Giving accurate information and being courtesy to the customer seemed to take second priority to call handle time.
Managers weren't much better. Most of them don't want to be bothered with customer's calls and will keep sending the rep back to the customer until they hang up. Some managers were just lazy and rather than take the call, they would just tell the rep to give the customer want they wanted. Of course, this was fine for most customers, but after millions of dollars in unjustified credits were given, Cingular decided to implement 'protocol training' which basically says no more credits on customer's bills unless there's an unquestionable mistake on Cingular's part. Actually, this seemed somewhat fair because there are a lot of customers who call in and make up some bullshit story to get a late fee or some roaming charge taken off (one lazy guy I spoke with didn't even bother to make up a story. he just called and politely asked "I need a courtesy credit on my bill.")
I finally got fed up with being one of the few reps who actually cared about the job and made a decent effort towards correcting customer's issues. I quit and moved on. I still use Cingular service because it's the best in my area, but I only call customer service when there's no other way around it. If I can, I go into company-owned store to make changes and such (though there are some things that stores don't have access to.) Here's some advice on calling in if you have to.
1. Always get the name, CUID (cingular user id), and call center location of the person you are speaking with. They are required to give this to you. Document this with the date and time and reason you are calling. Keep this information for the next two billing cycles (or whatever length of time applies to your situation.)
2. If you make any changes to your account, find out when the changes will go into effect and if any charges or service will be prorated.
3. Even if the call goes perfectly well, call back and verify everything the previous rep told you and make sure any requested changes have been done. This may sound unecessary, but I once changed a rate plan with a feature addition that took 3 calls to get it right. Yes, THREE calls!
4. Be polite to the rep. Attitude begats attitude. If you're nice, most of the reps will be nice to you. If you're an asshole, the rep will do nothing for you (and probably note your account so no one else will either.)
Hope this helps.
Turns out unplugging it and plugging it back in (then fixing his wiring scheme) fixed everything, doggone digital crap. But hey, he didn't try to sodomize me or anything. I give their tech support an A+.
The Solution is simple. Don't use a cell phone unless its someone else paying the bills. I used one for a few years. Switched a few times and got so pissed off at phone companies in general, I just don't bother with them anymore. I have local service, and that's it. I'm guessing my phone bills per month are an 1/8th of everyone elses. Use the money for something useful, like buying bleach to wash my eyes.
I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.
I've had a Verizon phone for about 4 years now. I'm ambivalent.
One one hand, I'm *very* happy with reception. I get few dropped calls, and probably 99% coverage.
But, they just can't seem to get billing right. Ever. At least 4 times in the past 6 months I get a $300 bill, only to call and complain, and they correct it down to $110 or whatever it was supposed to be in the first place.
Pitiful that they repeatedly count "in network" minutes as "anytime" minutes...
When I got my phone, I got the Audiovox 9155 GPX phone. I asked specifically for good reception at the cell store, and that things like downloadable ringtones, color screen meant squat to me.
It seems that the phone makes a HUGE difference, as my friend owns a bike shop downtown at which his Verizon phone didn't work at all, while mine worked perfectly. (his worked when he stepped outside)
So, even the decent reception I can almost ascribe to the phone as much as the company.
I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
I have the opposite experience with Verizon stores:
I had a problem with my own Kyocera 7135 last week. Called customer service, walked me through silly but necessary testing, determined it was, in fact, quite dead. Told me I had to take it into a store.
Brought it to a store the next day - and the nice man in the store said "oh, you have to call for this problem", and proceded to go to a phone and call the very same customer service number I'd called, and arranged for them to ship a new phone.
So it's completely random where to go for problem-solving, depends on the person...
paul
Silly Rabbit, sigs are for kids.
Off topic but close ;)
A dude that owned a business on a heavily traveled road in my hometown had a completely burned to a crisp Dodge car with a flashing sign pointing to it that said, "Ask my about Joe's Dodge before buying there" (Joe's is an example, I forget the real name). The car had 2000 miles on it when the fuel line ruptured in the engine compartment. Obviously the thing went up in flames and was destroyed. The Dodge dealer claimed they were only responsible for the faulty part which was the $100 dollar fuel line. Legally I don't know what the dealer is really responsible for but bottom line was the local newspapers and everyone in the town knew the story and saw the torched car.
Bad boys rape our young girls but Violet gives willingly.
I've given up in life on expecting customer service people to understand anything technical. If they knew technical stuff, for the most part, they would have a better job. So I call customer service to do basic things like change my plan and such. I travel to Europe a lot and usually change my plan to a really cheap one while I'm there (I have an unlocked GSM dual-band phone that I use in Europe -- I purchase pre-paid SIM cards for whatever country I'm in; Orange for the UK, Vodafone for Ireland, E-Plus for Germany, etc.) And I try to call at times when I think fewer people would be calling. But there aren't any times when they even claim to have a waiting time of less than 10 minutes -- which really means about 20 minutes. Do they specifically staff their call centers to a certain hold time? I'm not happy with my AT&T service in general, but waiting times improving alone would make me a much happier cell phone user.
I do not understand why people use shitty cell phone services. If you do not like what they offer you, why do not you cancel?
I had only one cell phone contract. It was the biggest mistake in my life (well, not counting that sorority girl). As soon as they started to show me shady charges, I told the CSR that she was a cunt, then I told the manager to fuck off and then I put my phone through the wall. Of course, this happened only because my contract was about to expire within a month, but it left a good impression.
Be your boss. Always tell people to fuck off whenever you feel that they need to fuck off; otherwise, everybody is going to ride your ass. I explicitly told the manager of my cell phone service that I wanted to pay $35USD per month for national-wide service. He laughed. I told him that he was a fat asshole and let the store. Did this improve my situation? Absolutely. I feel that whenever I tell people what I really think, I do not have to have excuses in the long run. I bet if some nut heads who bring AKs to their work places did what I do, we would not have freaking office shootouts. Anger relief stops people like me from doing things that I will regret in the future. If you are angry, do not keep your emotions inside, let them know what is going on. If you sit and bitch and post your shitty messages on slashdot, nobody is going to get the fucking point. What you really should do is take all your complains, roll them up in a tight roll and shove it down managers' throats. If you a person gets 10,000 phone calls a day that say "Your service suck, we cancel!" what do you think is going to happen? What if all Verizon, Sprint, AT&T, T-mobile and other customers decided to send their companies down the drain?
Do not like Verizon? Call them. Tell CSRs and their managers that you fucking hate their service more than your in-laws. Complain. Bitch. Get other people to do the same and you'll make Sprint, Verizon and T-mobile better companies. Remember, all of those cocksucking bastards are after YOUR wallet. Vote with your money.
Ciao.
I've dealt with Sprint many times and it usually takes more than one work day to get any task accomplished. Many times I think it's faster to use their website for most types of information. If you need service though it can take a while to get your problems resolved. If your problem is that you tried to run Windows on your cell phone you should be slapped. -please stop talking on your cell phone and running over my dog at the same time...you hit him right after I said goodbye...-
The nicer you are the more it gives them the feeling that they can walk all over you.
I'm always professional but I'm not always nice.
Sprint has the a absolute worst customer service of any company I've ever had to deal with and I have a business account.
Americans are lazy (I'm an American I can say that) and automatically assume the customer is wrong. (maybe 99% of the time they are?) At least when you call and get Indians, you might not be able to understand a word they're saying but they are courteous and have been trained in basic manners.
The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. - Benjamin Franklin
This is why I like using my Prepaid wireless phone. I can stop it at any time, no canellation fees, and their Customer Service has been quite helpful.
My grandparents did perfectly well without a landline phone. They got their newspaper the next day by USPS (out on the RFD). I never perceived that they felt their lives were somehow incomplete.
How many people that answer their cells so urgently all the time really have life-or-death situations they have to deal with? Very few.
"Obviously, I'm not an IBM computer any more than I'm an ashtray" (Bob Dylan)
A bank credited me US$8000 for a credit line payment made by someone else to the wrong account (mine).
I figured out the problem and knew that some poor bastard was wondering where his $8000 went. I figured that the bank would eventually figure out the problem, so I told them.
Two days later they took back the $8000. Another day later they put in a debit of $8000 for a "cash advance." It took me three months, at least 12 hours on the phone, and letters to the Attorney General to get that straightened out. Of course I was being charged interest the entire time.
Next time I keep it and close the account immediately.
--
dman123 forever!
Filtering out the -1s and 0s since 1999.
I guess I've been lucky, the only problem I've had is getting reception
Err, if that's a problem, why not just turn the infernal thing off?
My blog can kick your blog's ass
I switched to Nextel last year and surprise they are not like any other Telco. First time I've been happy with phone service for a long time. They actually care about their customers and will work to get it right. Nextel has customer service reps who know what they are doing, seem to like their jobs (shows on the phone), and will stay with you until all is right. I would never use AT&T and Sprint or Verizon would have to pay me to use their service.
Dead Last
Anyone seen my jagged little pill?
I am one of those people that, if you start to jerk me around on the phone, I will try to make you fucking cry. Not because I don't like you (I don't even care), Not because I am an asshole (ok maybe just a little), but because if I can help you decide to quit your shit job, your asshat employer has to replace you and pay all the training costs and the drug tests and the unemployment insurance of replacing an employee.
It is my opinion that if they want to cut those costs maybe they should provide me with service I don't have to scream at you about.
I used to have a cool sig, back when I cared
I could have swore that alltel owned cricket, but apparently they have been owned by leap wireless since thier inception.
But anyway my experiance with both alltel and cricket has been the same.
...especially when you cross the Canada-US border. Rogers is bad enough in Canada--It costs $1.25 per minute for air time when I use my phone (on their own network) on the East coast (I live in the West). I never have any idea when I go into the US with my Canadian phone what the hell the US "partner" will extort from me...until I get my bill the following month.
My shocker came when I drove 30 minutes from New Brunswick into Maine and discovered later that the rate went from $1.25 to FOUR DOLLARS PER MINUTE! I expect rates to be high and try to use my phone sparingly, but even a mere 15 minutes can make you bill nasty.
Honestly, why the hell would it be so much more expensive to use my phone in Houlton, ME than in Woodstock, NB just a short drive away? The land-line phone companies, crappy as they are at customer service, seem to have figured out how to make the difference in long distance rates between such locales minimal to nonexistant.
There is no logic at all in how you are charged for cellphone service. I'd blame it on being a "remote" location, but I don't think it's all that remote in that part of Maine, and certainly not any more so than in North Dakota, and the rate there was quite a bit cheaper too. Maybe the Rogers website has changed, but when I tried to get detailed info on US rates it was either absent or too hard to find.
Honestly, what exactly is the reason for all the complexity and inconsistency in cellphone service billing? Is anyone out there in Slashdot-land brave enough to admit they work for a cellphone company and offer some insight? You CAN post anonymously if you're worried about being lynched...
I frankly find this puzzling. T-Mobile has simply provided the best customer service I have *ever* experienced with a service provider.
Hold times are short (under 5 minutes), the CSRs are pretty competent (and they transfer you to level 2 when they know they are out of their league), and the staff is always polite.
Frankly, Comcast isn't bad either. Neither is DirecTV. I don't see what everyone is complaining about (except with Qwest - they put you on hold for an hour and then explain that their DSL network is down and will be down for the next two days).
The problem is that people expect too much. You can't expect level 1 CSRs to be able to fix every problem.
Here are my "rules":
- Act dumb, but not too dumb. If your GPRS WAP service is out, say that you can't connect to [[branded GPRS service name]] and read off the error messege. Let them run through their script and transfer you to someone who can help.
- Be polite. You get excellent results if you say "Thank You" and use a polite tone of voice. Remember, it's not the CSRs fault that your service sucks.
- Don't expect too much. You shouldn't expect a CSR to give you six months of free service because your coverage sucks. Nor should you expect to have your contract revoked.
- Play CSR Russian Roulette. If you don't get what you want, call back. You'll get a new CSR and can try your routine again. This works particularly well for scoring discounted (or free) service when you have network outage issues.
And finally, some tips about wireless:
- Don't expect too much. Your phone, particularly if it's in the PCS spectrum (most GSM, Sprint) will have trouble inside buildings, paritcularly if they are metal. Your best bets for coverage inside are Verizon or Nextel (800mhz, penetrates walls better).
- Don't buy GSM (in the US) unless you know what you are doing. I love my T-Mobile service, but it is not something that I would rely on. GSM networks in the US simply do not provide the quality of service and coverage of CDMA-based networks. You can get good deals with GSM (particularly with T-Mobile - $20 unlimited GPRS; $50 2-phone plan with plenty of minutes), but you must understand that you will not always have service, particularly indoors or in rural areas.
- Stay away from AT&T. Their GSM network is, quite frankly, crap. Not that T-Mobile's is much better, but at least T-Mobile has cheap data. AT&T's customer service is also awful.
- Stay away from Sprint. Verizon CDMA isn't any more expensive and it is far more reliable and comprehensive.
- Go Verizon if you need dependable service. Verizon's CDMA is simply unmatched in terms of reliability and coverage. I had Verizon (CDMA2000, not AMPS) service in Yellowstone National Park.
- Get a good phone. Do research. A good phone makes all the difference. T-Mobile is actually pretty decent with a 1.2W Nokia phone (Nokia 3590). With the 600mW T300 (or the Sidekick with the crappy radio chipset) it is practically useless.
- Test out your service during the free trial. T-Mobile, for example, gives you 14 days to opt-out of the contract. They are throwing you a bone here - you have the perfect chance to see whether their service is acceptable. Go to the tough locations; everywhere you would use your phone on a regular basis, call 611, and keep going through the phone tree (for T-Mobile, you can hit # every 30 or so seconds and it will read you your minute usage indefinately). Listen, walk around, and check to see if the audio quality is acceptable (or if the call drops). You don't have to pay for the minutes.
Seriously though, I come here for cutting edge news...not stuff rehashed from the USA Today blurbs from 2 days ago (literally on this story. It was in Washington Posts 'Express' mini-paper on tuesday).
That 2 year contract they want you to sign in the reason why their customer service sucks. You're locked in for 2 years or you have to pay a huge cancellation fee. If you don't have a choice to leave, they don't have to provide you with good service.
This one is a no-brainer.
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
Actually, it's easy as pie to change a Nextel plan in mid-month, but they made it policy not to do so because: 1. Poorly trained/terminally stupid agents do it wrong and bills can get badly messed up. 2. Terminally stupid customers can't follow their (admittedly arcane) bills when pro-rated amounts appear on them.
I survived the Dick Cheney Presidency 7 to 9 AM 7-21-07
...is staying on the line with people who have crappy phones or phone service. My six months with Verizon Wireless have been pretty much flawless.
There was this glitch in the billing the first month; in our shared minutes plan, we had asked for 800, but the rep we dealt with didn't effect the change, and so we ran up about 700 minutes while still on a 400 minute limit -- oops. But that could have been our fault as much as theirs, and even if it was their fault, it was only one person -- not the company. Either way, we decided if it only happened once, we could bite the bullet. So we did.
I agree. Eventually they'll have to ease up on the contracts, because some new carrier is going to come along that flaunts customer freedom like it's the American way, and people are going to flock to it. With money flowing in, they'll be able to afford high-quality service and hardware, and suddenly the rest of the companies will be forced to join in the fun...
The resistance to this will be the buraucratic side -- not the higher-ups, but the middle management who oversee all the interns handling the paperwork and database maintenance. But IT solutions for keeping track of changes are nothing new, and if wireless technology can be improved, then so can the wireless companies' ability to serve the customer the way the customer should be served.
"I am one of those people that, if you start to jerk me around on the phone, I will try to make you fucking cry. "
Well I'm masochistic. So hurt me all you want. Every company keeps at least one of us around for people like you.
Cingular likes to double dip, anyone sending you a text message, you will get charged. So anyone or spammer can run up your phone bill. If your on an extened business trip, like I was, they charge $.90 /min roming (after taxes) and if your 1 day late paying the bill, because your out of town (like I was), they'll charge you a re-activation fee for every line you have. My bill last month was over $300 for less than 45 minutes of use. Would they adjust? NO! All they would do is listen and reply, there is nothing they can do, it is my contract.
I'm for a line item veto rights on contracts such as this. At least mine is up in December. I cannot express verbally what I hope happens to this company.
Plano, TX
Don't go in wanting a free phone and you'll be fine.
The cell companies are providing a service that is very difficult at best. If YOU think you can do better, then try designing a phone that fits in your pocket without being destroyed, that has un-limitited battery power (at least for a week), that has power enough to transmit at high frequencies (almost microwave) to a tower, while still staying withing STRICT FCC (or other regulatory comissions) rules. You think this is easy? Well it isn't you take-every-thing-for-granted MFUCKERS. This IS Fucking Magic.
. . and it's just taken me months to get out of their contract. I ended up writing the letter below to them, and even set up a blog to post it publicly. . .
2 June 2004
Dear Sir
Reference 6040
Termination of Contract - Tel No. xxxxx xxxxxx
Further to my lengthy telephone conversation with your Customer Disinterest Desk yesterday evening - a call which I fervently hope will be my last.
As discussed, please accept this letter as confirmation of my wish to terminate my contract with Vodafone, with one month's notice prior to the anniversary of my contract.
In the eleven months I have been with Vodafone, I have passed through bemusement, disappointment, disbelief and rage at the abysmal degree of so-called 'service' I have received, and am finally at the point where I am left doubting my own sanity.
In all the time I have been with you, not once - not once - have I been charged correctly for the service I have used. I have had to call innumerable times in desperate and increasingly vain efforts to get somebody to resolve my issues. Average call times have been 40 minutes, normally including drawn-out verbal exchanges with script-wielding, broken-record morons who simply cannot comprehend the meaning of the phrase 'customer service', much less actually implement it.
I am finally left with the unshakeable belief that there is not a single member of staff at Vodafone competent to run a whelk stall, much less administer a mobile phone company.
The final straw for me came this month, when I received my May invoice. Leaving aside the fact that the bill was ten days late - I should, by rights, receive my invoice 14 days prior to the direct debit leaving my account, but as usual was left with just 3 days - I was stunned to note that Vodafone were STILL charging me 15.31 for a text message bundle that I had specifically, REPEATEDLY requested be removed from my package, for the simple fact that I was no longer using the phone.
My second attempt was more successful, in that I actually spoke to a member of the human race, one Mxxxx Vxxxxxx. He single-handedly managed to prove every one of the opinions I have built up over the last eleven months, in that he was disinterested, monosyllabic and unable to deviate from his prescribed script in any way, shape or form. I can only suppose that CPW either hire staff with minimal EEG function, or that lobotomies are mandatory as part of the employment contract. I ended up having to hang up on him and call back - again.
Call three led me - after a lengthy debate over whether there were any managers in the office at 6pm - to one Cxxxxxx Txxxx. Speaking to someone vaguely more senior than the protozoa infesting your call centres is, in itself, a feat on a par with the scaling of Everest. I have come to believe, in fact, that your 'managers' are purely mythical creatures, akin to Bigfoot, The Yeti or an honest Labour MP. This is based on the number of completely fictitious callbacks I am supposed to have had in the last eleven months.
I was impressed with Ms Txxxx initially because it only took her some 15 minutes to comprehend that she had an unhappy customer in her headset. This is an improvement of approximately 100% on every other call centre 'employee' I have encountered. It then only took a further 25 minutes of debate and hold time for her to (finally) agree the following proposal;
1. I will pay the purely fictitious invoice for 33.48 that is masquerading as my bill for May 2004.
2. This will leave Vodafone in debt to me to the tune of 15.31. This will be applied as a credit on my June invoice, against my line rental - effectively ensuring a Zero bill.
3. The June invoice is my FINAL invoice. Therefore, service to 07xxx xxxxxx will be terminated in accordance with this letter.
So yet again, in order to get back money Vodafone/CPW have taken without my agreement or consent, I have had to spend MY time and money on calls, and fight my way through staff w
"This is your life - and it's ending one minute at a time" - Narrator, Fight Club
We also know exactly what is wrong with the cell phone industry.
What would it take for someone to start up their own cell phone provider network and compete with the big boys? Can you lease their towers from them?
I really have no idea how their networks work or how they start up, but I do know marketing and business, and I know that a service that offered good customer service, and DIDN'T screw you over on fees would be EXTREMELY profitable simply because the amount of customers you would have beating down the doors to use the service would more than make up for the lost revenues from the hidden fees and good customer service.
This is a serious question. What would it take?
Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
In the UK (don't know about the rest of the World) that goes "No Shit, Sherlock", from Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle's fictional detective. It roughly translates as "Thanks so much for pointing out the completely fucking obvious". :)
the future's bright, the future's ginger
Judging from the vast majority of the comments people happy with their cellular service are few and far between. Everyone else is itching to bitch and moan about how dreadful it is.
Personally, I think the survey may have been a little off. They're looking for things that piss people off, but they seem to have restricted it to things you pay for.
The BBC recently ran a short series called Brassed Off Britain. Apparently what pisses off Brits most is Junk Mail. Closely followed by Banks.
Where's the Kaboom?
There's supposed to be an Earth-shattering Kaboom.
I just called sprint to modify my plan last night. I was adding and removing some services for a net zero overall change to my bill. The service rep I spoke to was polite and helpful. The rep told me the new plan (which included more minuites) wouldn't start until the begining of next month and that there was not way to have is retroactively start this month. Completely unprompted, however, she simply added 180 minuites to my plan this month free of charge. Realistically it's not that big a deal, I'm sure it costs sprint next to nothing, but I thought it was a good customer relations move and was impressed. Overall my plan breaks down to this. $40 : 500 peak time minuites $5 : Picture mail $5 : Start weeknight off peak at 7pm instead of 9pm Off peak hours (weekends and weeknights after 7pm) calling is unlimited. I find this really useful for playing team WC3 tournaments with a friend from out of state where we will stay on for hours. The 7pm peak time plan required a two year agreement, and while I don't like that I doubt I'll want to change in that period of time anyway. I've been a sprint customer for several years and I refused to get a year contract for several years initially, but after 15 months it costs you more not to get the contract than to get it and pay the early termination fee. Yes I wish the contracts would go away, but I am nevertheless pleased with my service. -Mark
Quote from above story: Consumers' Institute chief executive David Russell said there was no consumer law that protected a customer from being called an "arrogant bastard".
MANY years ago I bought in to GSM in North America through OmniPoint. I knew it would be the Next Thing tech wise. So I had my cool GSM phone (it was like 1995 or 1997) which took full size SIM cards, btw. It was a pre-pay deal that eventually was converted to a regular billing account. financial troubles kept them from continuing the contract and in the end Omnipoint and I parted ways after I paid the bill. They were still VERY nice to me even as they told me my credit score with them was "Q" and that was pretty bad apparently.
I went on to find another cellular provider. This time with ATTWS with a DAMPS phone. My credit was still too bad to avoid paying a deposit BUT they had an awesome service that would allow me to pay ahead for a standard bill and if I went over my minute plan it would either shut the phone off until I paid the balance or re-bill my card. That was an awesome plan, I wish more carriers would have done that instead of wanting $500 deposits at the time.
Fast forward a few years, I'd gone through a few phones with ATTWS and a number of years of service without a problem and they start to roll out GSM. This is my big mistake. South Florida GSM was shit through ATTWS. I had changed to a Sony-Ericsson T68i through an ATTWS reseller because of the price ($0 for the phone after rebate, 1 year contract and I heard the phone was excellent). The rep I spoke to said I would have no problem converting my existing DAMPS plan to the GSM phone but I couldn't do it due to the fact that I had bought the new phone through an outside ATTWS rep - this all completely after the fact. So whatever, I dropped the old phone down to the lowest plan and paid $25/month for the remaining 4 months.
The T68 SUCKED here. I don't know what the problem was but it would drop calls almost 80% of the time and it was rare for me to be able to use the phone at all for more than a 30 second call without a drop. I bought a cheapie Nokia 7190 on Ebay and that was quite a bit better but was bulky. When I finally bit the bullet and bought a Motorola T720 all my problems were solved regarding being able to receive and place calls. At a cost of over $200 to me because ATTWS refused to believe that I could have so many problems within two months of new service and they sent me new headsets, blah blah blah.... completely passing the buck. I considered having the T68 flashed to newer firmware because it "might" increase reception but in the end decided against it and just got the T720.
Fast forward more, I had two months left on the ATTWS contract and couldn't WAIT to get rid of them.. I dumped them for Cingular and got a Moto V400. I ported my number, reduced the ATTWS contract to the lowest (25/month) and ATTWS tried to bill me $150 for early disconnect. Never mind that I was with them for 6 years, when I got the new phone it was a 12 month contract, blah blah... I still had a contract with them, just not a phone number. A rather terse email to them was returned with an apology so at least someone there is on the ball.
Cingular is a great company to deal with. My data rates (which i really don't use) are cheaper than ATTWS, the minute packages are all cheaper, I have free incoming and roll-over minutes, coverage is better, etc etc... I'm pleased with the overall experience of Cingular. ATTWS just bit off way more than they could chew when they rolled out GSM and I paid the price for my eagerness to transfer over. ATTWS left me with a bad taste in my mouth and that sucks because I had given them money for many years.
I do love all the corporate double-speak though. If you talk to an ATTWS rep about roll-over minutes, they will swear up and down that you get it for one year and then "poof" it's gone. Cingular states that the minutes expire after 12 months and the service renews the following month until you opt out of the plan. I would be more inclined to believe Cingular, personally. Another good one is the fact that nobody keeps
Reviews with a twist! http://www.sardonicbastard.com
The motto in most call centers is: "The customer is always lying", and truthfully..having worked in Tech support for 3 years before getting a full time sysadmin job, I can honestly say that motto is more accurate than the typical mouthbreathers sitting in the queue will ever admit to themselves.
You'd be amazed how many people will call up and blatantly lie about what happened to the equipment even though you KNOW, through experience, what the cause and the fix is. People will complain just for the sake of complaining, or even worse, complain because they know some idiot manager is going to give them a free month of service. Its all a crock of shit.
I will admit though, that the quality of people that they hire nowadays is quite a bit lower than when I first got in the game late last century. Its once again the McDonalds conundrum rearing its ugly head: The pay is 8 bucks an hour if you're lucky. You expect top notch service, yet you wouldn't take that job for that price, so how do we fix the problem? Answer: There is no fix.
Let me make a POSITIVE post about cell phone companies in this thread. I am sure I will get flamed for going against the grain, but it should be worth it.
I got my first cell phone in 2000 from a campany in Canada called Microcell (aka "Fido" - www.fido.ca) and have had NO problems with these guys. Well, granted I have had a total of three dropped calls, but those were in "dead zones" where there was no signal. They don't lock you in with a contract. You get your bills and pay them just like your nomal phone line. They draw you in with the offer of cheap phones and give you your "cheap price" in the form of a credit on your third months bill or something. I would much rather prefer that then a two year contract! Never spoke to customer support, but I have to the billing department calling about my bill being three months unpaid, and they were polite as hell, and when said I couldn't pay at the moment, they asked when, I said not at least for a month. They say, "Okay!" and I don't hear from them again. Happy campers.
One last comment about security. (For ejaws5 really)
I went overseas a while ago and got international roaming turned on so I could use my phone where ever I went. My phone then was a SonyEricsson T200. When I was in Hong Kong I got a call from a friend and my phone made a funny chirping noise at the start of the conversation, and when I looked at the screen it had an icon that was a triangle with an exclimation mark in the middle. Later I looked up what the hell that icon was and it was a notification that my call was NOT encrypted. Turns out that with digital phones they default to some simple encryption at least, and my phone was giving me an FYI that someone might be able to listen in. I was in Hong Kong (owned and opperpated by China of course!) afterall.
Sorry for the long post,
M
Since Sprint gave away the keys to the kingdom to IBM in late '03 the following things have happened:
1. All customer facing applications are now supported offshore, the final apps slipping away in Q4 '04.
2. All customer care is or will be conducted offshore, the last domestic call center to be closed in Q2 '05.
Yay! Americans lose jobs *and* discover a whole new definition of shitty service!
The sad part is that I have to side with Joe's Dodge in this case. Sure, it's true that Joe's sold the car, but Dodge built the car, and the owner is responsible for insuring against damage and bad luck. For certain, if I was Joe, I'd have pled his case to Dodge, but I see no reason why Joe's Dodge should eat the cost of a manufacturing defect, and I doubt Dodge would have reimbursed the dealership for replacing the car (although they might reimburse the owner directly to avoid a lawsuit).
Virg
the problem was that their service was utterly useless. When my phone (StarTac) dropped 90% of outgoing calls (and most incoming), their only response was "you're in a medium signal area" (OSU campus), That was when I could get a hold of them by lying and saying that I was buying new service (their customer service line puts you on an endless loop, while their website throws multiple cookies a second at you so that you can't get anywhere without leaving cookies on). I solved the problem by buying a Samsung phone, which hardly ever dropped a call in the same area. I dropped Sprint's service because of dissatisfaction with the service and because I didn't use the minutes I was paying for. I don't expect "gold" service, but being able to get someone on the phone (or in person) who could help me is desirable. (I have Verizon now - they're OK).
AT&T Wireless outsourced all their number portability crap to IBM. AT&T Wireless was fined many millions of dollars for blowing chunks following WLNP. Now Sprint has outsourced the entire shooting match to IBM...
I wonder if IBM can't find their asses with two hands?
I signed up for their "singlerate east" plan with 250 anytime minutes. For $10 more per month I could get "2000 night and weekend minutes" or something like that.
Years go by. Suddenly I start going over my minutes. Whats that you say? I request a detailed minute usage report and after careful examination it shows that, for some reason, I'm getting charged anytime minutes during the nights and weekends when I should be burning "night/weekend minutes".
I call them. They are flabbergasted. How can I possibly have 2000 night and weekend minutes with the singlerate east plan? Yes it does SHOW that I'm PAYING for it, but there is no possible way that I COULD have it. How is it even on there? Who authorized this!?
Incredibly they had turned off those minutes months ago, BUT KEPT CHARGING ME FOR IT. Basically it was such an old promotion that noone who was working there had heard of it! There must have been some glitch in the system when they discontinued it, such that they never notified me (in violation of the contract), and they still kept charging me (in violation of THE LAW).
They ended up paying for my last few cellphone bills and then some. But I still dropped them. I can't trust them anymore. I shudder to think about how many other customers they've ripped off who didn't notice!!
I'm with AT&T now and believe it or not I've had a good experience. I guess it just goes to show that it varies for everyone.
...unfortunately no one can be told what The Mat^H^H^HGoatse is...they must experience it for themselves...
Look, you were in Maine, and you got horrified by something. I'm suggesting that as a reward for not getting eaten, the Stephen King aura that surrounds the state decided instead to just give you obscene rates.
Bah. I'm on Rogers too, and actually I've always gotten along with their telephone service people at least. But man, I could tell you insane stories about Bell. But I'm not gonna. :)
my old sig used to be funny, but then slashcode ate it and now it's not funny anymore
Nonetheless, despite being obviously a small-fry customer, the Verizon rep called to let me know that in the past month I had received in excess of 800 text messages. My phone is at the receiving-end of a pretty large Big Brother monitoring system, so I'm not surprised.
He was calling me to offer to upgrade me to a $9.99/month plan for 1,000 text messages, and to do so at once to avoid overage charges on my account.
That's what I consider to be impressive customer service. I've been with other cellular providers in the past, and Verizon is the first one that actually seems to care about keeping me as a customer.
Consider me a satisfied Verizon customer.
I lived for the last 8 years in Europe and have to agree that the mobile phone industry here is DESIGNED to screw people.
I read the "Terms and Conditions" the companies have. Simply put they ARE NOT ACCEPTABLE so I do not use those services. IMHO If you do not read the contract or agree to it even though you know it is bad you have no room to complain.
Most contracts include:
1. Provider adjustable terms - most providers have a clause that allows them to change the terms of the contract by posting it on their website. you agree to the new terms if you use service after they take affect. This means they can basically change your terms whenever they want and you probably won't know (unless you monitor their site constantly).
2. Mandatory arbitration - you can't sue them no matter how bad they screw you. Arbitration is mandatory and oversaw by an organization created by mobile phone companies (I'm sure they're unbiased).
3. Unequal cancellation clauses - they can cancel you anytime but you must pay or meet your contract time (usually 2 years).
4. No number protection - they can change your phone number at any time.
These are a few clauses that are present in almost (if not all) of the companies I researched. These clauses simply show me that they have no intention of dealing with me "the customer" in an honest and fair way. My solution, don't deal with them. If enough people raise their expectations companies will change. INSIST ON FAIR CONTRACTS!!!
I suggest not even reading contracts if they are too long. Pick a reasonable length and if the contract is longer than that they are out. You have to be clever and flexible to make things work in this environment but then you have to be clever and lucky to not get taken in the environment of bad contracts.
In the long run I save money and a lot of headaches by dealing with respectable companies (of which I have not found one in the US mobile market). If anyone can point me to reasonable terms and conditions I would be greatful.
My $.02
Trev
I have this little chiuaua mutt/mix thing that I rescued from the street, and he's got this little quirk. Every time I get the hose, he starts spinning around and around and around in a circle yipping and going nuts, like some kinda berserker rage, but directed at his ass.
It is most amusing, and since the TV is on the fritz, it's all I've got.
Slashdot readers must be as equally amusing when they call customer support.
"Hey, Dave, I've got a caller irrate that we billed him $.05 too much. Let's have some fun."
"Okay, I'll file it with collections."
"Yeah, that'll drive him nuts."
*High fives*
Toddlers are the stormtroopers of the Lord of Entropy.