Shop Talk
Dealers
Where do I start. I might have more luck trying to single out the one or two things they are good at. 1. Stealing my customers and giving them to other carriers. 2. Confusing the hell out of customers, I usually spend about an hour with people on their first call to CC after activating via a dealer. 3. Wasting my time. Every AWS dealer knows that they are supposed to go thru distribution services. So why bother calling care. Any rep who knows their **** is gonna put you on hold and transfer you to them anyways. Which brings up the side issue of dealers calling and pretending to be the cust until I VID the acct and they have to turn and ask the cust for the info. NOTE: I can hear you even when your not talking directly into the phone...
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I feel your pain. I think that some of them think that we'll either be nice and handle the call or a green rep and doesn't know, or even bother looking at the policies on dealer calls. For me, it depends on the situation, if you are calling in on a customer account off to distribution services you go. But a general inquries such as specific feature of a phone, or rate plan sort of thing anything that does not require me to pull up specifics on a cusotmer account I will assist.
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I've definitely taken some calls from some shady dealers but I've also taken some calls from some shady cc reps. You've gotta figure no matter what department of what company of what industry you're talking about, there's going to be good employees and bad employees. I'm sure dealers would complain about certain cc reps as well. It'll always be a constant feud between departments. And unfortunately, whichever end you're coming from, if somebody's complaining about a particular dept., the good reps are going to lumped in with the bad reps.
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shiroitora said:
I've definitely taken some calls from some shady dealers but I've also taken some calls from some shady cc reps. You've gotta figure no matter what department of what company of what industry you're talking about, there's going to be good employees and bad employees. I'm sure dealers would complain about certain cc reps as well. It'll always be a constant feud between departments. And unfortunately, whichever end you're coming from, if somebody's complaining about a particular dept., the good reps are going to lumped in with the bad reps.
this is true but more often than not a dealer is likely to not be on the up and up when compared to a customer care rep, and for the same reason car sale...
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Well, I am a dealer, but as I said in an earlier post I try to make to make my store as much like the direct store as possible. I figure that in the long run I will make far more sales by earning a reputation for honesty and customer service. Ask anybody who has done this for a while and the successful ones will tell you that a huge chunk of thier sales come from referrals and repeat business.
BTW: tryptophanatic, are you really THAT crazy about turkey?
BTW: tryptophanatic, are you really THAT crazy about turkey?
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That is the problem, dealers aren't up front about the fact that they are dealers. Customers wouldn't buy from dealers if they knew that they were going through a third party. So dealers like yourself make your store look just like a company store so you can confuse the customer. The major problem with agents is that all they do is sell, but never do any type of customer service, they leave that for the company stores, and believe me the agents are shady.
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wow, you got some hate for the third party. I guess i understand that, but not all of us third party dealers are that bad. For one thing the company i work for always tell the customer if they have a problem with the service or their phones to call us or come in and we will take care of them. That my friends is how to bring them back and to get them to pass the word that we are a great place to get your service. Now granted there are some things that we (third party dealers) can not do for them. In those cases we will call customer care for them. Which all of you who work in a customer care center should be grateful. Why you ask, because as a third party dealer we may not be as up to date as the cc reps, but we have a much better idea of wh...
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well, i don't think that the boss would like it much if i post our name on this site. so i wont. but we do our best to help out any customer with any of the 3 sevices we carry, regardless if they got there service through us. that way the customer remember that it was us who helped resolve the issuse, thus they come back for phone upgrades or new sevices.
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You have no idea who I am or what my store is like, so you can stop right there. I don't try to trick my customers, and the fact that my store is not corporate owned is obvious to anybody but a moron. We are also a camera store and studio, and a processing lab. On top of that, if I sense any confusion whatsoever I explain clearly what a dealer is and what I can and can't do. However, I also make every effort to follow up with customer service, including training them on their new phones, attempting to solve billing issues, calling in warranty replacements, and basically doing anything I can to help take care of their problems. This is what I mean by building customer loyalty to earn repeat business. There are no direct stores in my tow...
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angry there buddy??
agents are bad news and no one will convince me otherwise.
agents are bad news and no one will convince me otherwise.
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I'm not angry in general, but I am angry about idiots who talk **** and make generalizations about ALL dealers. And anyone who says "I believe blah, blah, blah, and nobody can convince me otherwise" is basically admitting to being a moron.
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we need more people like you where I work, JDigital. I work as a t-mobile rep at a sam's club and almost all of the people that work there would lie to customers about something. I'd go out there and correct them when I hear a lie but they'd just get mad at me. I don't care though. If they are going to get mad at me for being honest to a customer, then I won't try and help them straighten something out when the customer comes back when they find out they were lied to. đ
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if your read the msg it said not all dealers. agree with the msg that started this because you can't count the customer we get saying they don't want to go to the store because of how they have been treated there before and all the misinformation they recieve. samething can be said about all other departments as well. misinformation is given by all depts. there are care reps that sit beside me and i hear them giving wrong info as well. it goes both ways. just the same you probably have trouble with care, we have trouble with SOME dealers not all but some
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we called them agents at cingular and god we hated them. they would screw up everything!!! it was like a war going on with true cingular wireless employees and cingular vendor agents. we wished the company just did away with all of them./
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Well, if Cingular did way with all of the agents, then they wouldn't be as big as they are and wouldn't have been able to buy ATTWS.
Many reps at customer service seem to forget that dealers, corporate stores, tele-sales and customer service are all on the same team.
Without dealers, NO company would be as big as they are, and anyone who thinks that is true is fooling themselves.
Our company reps have repeatedly had to go to the corporate stores and make them stop telling lies about the company I work for, saying that we charge extra fees, and only sell used and refurbished phones. They do this because 9 times out of 10, our regular price is at or below the lowest they are allowed to go.
So just remember that we are all ...
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Many reps at customer service seem to forget that dealers, corporate stores, tele-sales and customer service are all on the same team.
Without dealers, NO company would be as big as they are, and anyone who thinks that is true is fooling themselves.
Our company reps have repeatedly had to go to the corporate stores and make them stop telling lies about the company I work for, saying that we charge extra fees, and only sell used and refurbished phones. They do this because 9 times out of 10, our regular price is at or below the lowest they are allowed to go.
So just remember that we are all ...
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i'm not denying that on a corporate standpoint agents and dealers help gain and increase revenue for the company as a whole and we're on the same team or at least supposed to be. and i'm not trying to say that all agents are bad. however, the problem happens when individual agents or individual agent stores are blatantly doing things that cause customer's problems and/or cause the company internal problems. doing things that could increase backouts and churn. for example, promising customer free equipment, stating that "you will see the equipment charge on the bill but just call customer service/sales to credit it off." or "ok we'll port in your number, we're going to start you a new account with a temporary number, then when you get the pho...
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megs72979, you are a child and like all children they repeat what has been said to them. We are all in the same business and like all business their are good and bad. One of the major problems with this industry is the carriers do not want their direct people in contact with the indirect. Both sides are on different playing fields, but we can not live without each other. My advise to you, is do or say something positive instead of the bullshit bantering you keep repeating.
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Actually, in my experience, indirect agents do not put anywhere NEAR the amount of time into career development and continuing ed that direct agents do. At least with my company, there is simply no excuse for this, as both channels have access to the same resources.
I have worked in both channels with various companies, and know that in many cases the same is true with others. The resources are there, but don't get used.
I have worked in both channels with various companies, and know that in many cases the same is true with others. The resources are there, but don't get used.
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THE MOBILE SOLUTIONS.
Now that is a dealer that really sucks. They hire kids to sell service & lie to customers. Always tell customers not to go there. Unless they want to get ripped off. For one thing, they don't know what the hell they're talking about. They are dumb, & stupid about the wireless industry. They will tell you anything you want to hear in order to get the sell & get a commission.
But wait, there is more. It seems that these sales reps from this dealer company get moved to other locations so that when people come back to return a phone for whatever reason, they are not there & therefore cannot return the phone. This creates frustration with the customer & before u know it, grace period to return phone is up.
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Now that is a dealer that really sucks. They hire kids to sell service & lie to customers. Always tell customers not to go there. Unless they want to get ripped off. For one thing, they don't know what the hell they're talking about. They are dumb, & stupid about the wireless industry. They will tell you anything you want to hear in order to get the sell & get a commission.
But wait, there is more. It seems that these sales reps from this dealer company get moved to other locations so that when people come back to return a phone for whatever reason, they are not there & therefore cannot return the phone. This creates frustration with the customer & before u know it, grace period to return phone is up.
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Okay, so now you are bashing indirect agents and dealers. Hate to say it, but all you are accomplishing is to prove that some people [read:you] are only alive because there are laws against killing them. Get over the fact you had a bad experience and move on!
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phonepimp- i don't like bashing dealers,but mobile sollutions is really bad ,i had a customer yesterday call in their bill was chagred for overage as they signed them up for the wrong plan,wrong contract,they swapped out her phone,but never had the IMEI changed so the phone was never downloaded with the IRDB,and was now going out into the suburban areas,and picking up reception,so i spent almost an hour last night straightening out that mess ,this all happened fro a obile sollutions location,which is becoming a regular event,and they are making sure they sign the agreements between them and the customer FYI,you upgrade in their store the customer gets charged a 150$ upgrade fee,and if the customer cancels during the first year-even within b...
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Oh god, Mobile Solutions SUCKS!!! They are shady. greedy, and they flat-out lie to their customers. the one in our mall tells people to cut out the UPC from the phone box to get the mail-in rebate that was offered. Then if that customer comes back to return their phone Mobile Solutions won't take it back because the box is cut. They lie about coverage, put customers on the wrong price plan so they can get more commission, give customers accessories they didn't ask for and then CHARGE them for it... GET THEM OUT OF HERE!
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To be fair, it does say in the contracts that if you bring the phone back it must come in the original complete packaging. I tell customers to wait on sending for the rebate until they are sure they are keeping the phone.
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my boss was just telling me he used to work there,.,and how you got wrote up or fired if you werent talking to customers, and how he used to have to go to other stores and try to steal thier customers...
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the UPC thing isn't a scam....its required for rebates
Also i used to manage a location for The mobile solution.... My reps didn't lie. Some people have morals and run the show the way it should be.
I will agree that they aren't the best for who they hire, but the turnover is very high. You're gonna get bad apples. If you're located in a mall then you're not really gonna get people with a 4 year degree coming up for a job. You're gonna get kids applying, and you're gonna have to turn them down because you have to be 18 to work there.
ATTWS (and TMobile i think) gets more acts from The Mobile Solution than they do from themselves....so yea, you're gonna get some complaints....and yea if most of your acts are coming from a particula...
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Also i used to manage a location for The mobile solution.... My reps didn't lie. Some people have morals and run the show the way it should be.
I will agree that they aren't the best for who they hire, but the turnover is very high. You're gonna get bad apples. If you're located in a mall then you're not really gonna get people with a 4 year degree coming up for a job. You're gonna get kids applying, and you're gonna have to turn them down because you have to be 18 to work there.
ATTWS (and TMobile i think) gets more acts from The Mobile Solution than they do from themselves....so yea, you're gonna get some complaints....and yea if most of your acts are coming from a particula...
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Darn, now I wish I had one close to me...sounds like we could have some fun showing their ticked off customers what REAL service is...lol.
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I realize the UPC is required for the rebates, it's the same for our rebates. The problem is that at our malls, they are telling the customer to cut them out RIGHT AWAY, not after the 30-day guarantee, in order to prevent them from returning their phone. Scam artists! đŋ
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Um, guys... it's called a "photocopy"; if the customer makes one of the label and mail it with their rebate, they don't have to rip apart the box. And before you say "they don't accept photocopies", I know that photocopies of labels ARE accepted, at least on the US Cellular rebates we've been sending into our market since, say, our market launch last November. I have not received even a single complaint from a customer about not getting their rebate back due to the label being a photocopy... NOT ONE.
Or here's an even more customer-friendly suggestion: use the photocopier or scanner/printer combo in your store to copy one off FOR the customer and staple it to their rebate coupon and the extra copy of their sales receipt you were also s...
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Or here's an even more customer-friendly suggestion: use the photocopier or scanner/printer combo in your store to copy one off FOR the customer and staple it to their rebate coupon and the extra copy of their sales receipt you were also s...
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Nos4a2 said:...
Um, guys... it's called a "photocopy"; if the customer makes one of the label and mail it with their rebate, they don't have to rip apart the box. And before you say "they don't accept photocopies", I know that photocopies of labels ARE accepted, at least on the US Cellular rebates we've been sending into our market since, say, our market launch last November. I have not received even a single complaint from a customer about not getting their rebate back due to the label being a photocopy... NOT ONE.
Or here's an even more customer-friendly suggestion: use the photocopier or scanner/printer combo in your store to copy one off FOR the customer and staple it to their rebate coupon and the extra copy of th
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Whoah guys, I'm in customer service, so I hate all commissioned sales people equally. Direct, indirect, it doesn't matter. You're all swine. j/k đ
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I work for a dealer, like mobile solutions. I have seen first hand how under-handed their sales tactics are.
I have seen some of their locations that are legit, but only about 2 or 3 and they are all in the same mall.
They are bad enough that they were actually kicked out of one of the malls that they were is.
A couple of guys had a good scam going, until they got caught.
They would do credit checks for t-mobile and at&t. The customer would get approved for 5 lines, but only wanted one. So after they were done with the customer, they would go back into the system, add 4 more lines, and cancel them after 30 days. This way they figured that they would still get paid. But they got caught.
I know that at least one guy has...
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I have seen some of their locations that are legit, but only about 2 or 3 and they are all in the same mall.
They are bad enough that they were actually kicked out of one of the malls that they were is.
A couple of guys had a good scam going, until they got caught.
They would do credit checks for t-mobile and at&t. The customer would get approved for 5 lines, but only wanted one. So after they were done with the customer, they would go back into the system, add 4 more lines, and cancel them after 30 days. This way they figured that they would still get paid. But they got caught.
I know that at least one guy has...
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Let me say one thing my friend, if you say that all reps don't lie..then you too are a liar sir! I worked for that moral free company for 3 months...not a long time..because I had a little thing called a conscience! To make a buck you had to pressure the victim into something they didn't want from the start, load them up with features they don't need, and feed them whatever bul****t you figured they needed to hear. And even then...if there was one small error in anything you did during the process, TMS had NO issue at all with denying you your commission. If there really is an honest rep working for TMS then they must have messed one up on their screening process.
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I used to be in upper management with TMS. They filled me with these great promises and ideas. I helped train the new hires to do the right thing. I used to work in cust ser and I had to clean up messes from dealers. Since these gusy were doing the right thing they were not making sells. The MD pressed me to pressure them to make sells. I compromised my morals for about a week and then I left. That was the worst company I ever worked for. They are a bunch of KIDS that flash thier money, most don't make a lot, to try to impress people. The good people they hire don't last. They leave and go work for a real company.
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Hi,
I'm a customer, not a dealer, so since I'm treading in your domain here I'll be quick. The Solution Solution definitely sucks. I don't have any better words than that for the company. When you sign up with them, they make you sign a contract. The contract states that if I terminate service with att wireless, I have to pay attwireless the early termination fee, but I also have to pay the mobile solutions a fee of $400. The contract states that the 400 dollars is a fee that mobile solutions has received for providing the cellphone at a discount. Now I don't know a whole lot about pricing, but just to let you know I paid $120 for my cellphone from them. So that means that they are claiming that the nokia 3100 that they sold me a f...
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I'm a customer, not a dealer, so since I'm treading in your domain here I'll be quick. The Solution Solution definitely sucks. I don't have any better words than that for the company. When you sign up with them, they make you sign a contract. The contract states that if I terminate service with att wireless, I have to pay attwireless the early termination fee, but I also have to pay the mobile solutions a fee of $400. The contract states that the 400 dollars is a fee that mobile solutions has received for providing the cellphone at a discount. Now I don't know a whole lot about pricing, but just to let you know I paid $120 for my cellphone from them. So that means that they are claiming that the nokia 3100 that they sold me a f...
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That is bad one. I can shed a little light on this for you. Dealers of ATTWS pay about $95 for the Nokia 3100. I will not get into commissions on here, as they vary by market but never in the ATTWS world to they hit the $400 mark, unless you include the bolt-on's. the period in which you can be charged back is called a vesting period, and is usually 181 days from the activation date. That fee should only be charged if you cancel within that period. There are some sleazy Deaers who charge their own processing fees on top of the carrier's activation fee. Shame on them, that is why they get paid for the actvation. Early nights requires a 2yr and is only good on $59.99 and higher. I hope this helps and you are able to get some things work...
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Early nights requires a 2yr and is only good on $59.99 and higher.
unless you are retention and meet the requirements for the promo. it is a save promo
unless you are retention and meet the requirements for the promo. it is a save promo
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OMG this threat must be old. It's dated for 2004 so I guess it is. I miss the old AT&T days. If it was still AT&T I might still actually be working there.
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I used to work for the Mobile Solution as a regional manager for a few years. I left the company because they seriously screwed customers. When i was there, the reps were trained extremely bad practices.
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alot of indirect dealers have contracts like that. that is why you are better to go to a direct dealer. AT&T's phones can be bought regular retail from about 89.99 and up with no contract. although when you activate new service it does require a contract
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Oh- My god, I could go on for ever about Mobile Solutions. I worked an agent owned ATTWS exclusive kiosk, with the highest levles of integrity and service, no churn, proper id collections etc. Mobile Solutions was down the lane from us in the mall. They were so aggressive and rude to customers. No returns allowed, they made up rate plans, no service skills, worse than the worst car sales people. Not even good selling techniques, just bad people.
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You are very aggravating, and thats why JDigital's tone may seem angry to you. Wake up, not all salespeople are money hungry liars. Just they way not all cc reps are ingorant drones spitting off scripts.
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Well I dunno about other dealers, but I am always upfront with our guests that we are not VZW owned, and that we are an indirect agent.
No one in my area seems to mind, and they get better service from us than they do when they try to call VZW anyways. So most are more than happy to buy from us.
No one in my area seems to mind, and they get better service from us than they do when they try to call VZW anyways. So most are more than happy to buy from us.
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a dealer on the up and up, as opposed to the actual company?? That is insane, and you are in denial.
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Megs you probably have been burned by a dealer. That would explain your attitude towards them.
No my dealership LOOKS like a dealership. We have signs in the store that say VZW authorized retailer. Our biggest sign is the store sign which is much smaller than the VZW sign. The difference is we dress with a shirt and tie set up AND WE KEEP TABS ON OUR CUSTOMERS. We greet people and tell them who we are when they step in the door. I'm not a kiosk. I am a store front. There are about 20+ locations for us. We keep a digital database of every customer we sell to. We service any equipment we sell and in many cases replace it for the customer.
We follow our customer with their conract through the first year to make sure they have ZERO problem...
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No my dealership LOOKS like a dealership. We have signs in the store that say VZW authorized retailer. Our biggest sign is the store sign which is much smaller than the VZW sign. The difference is we dress with a shirt and tie set up AND WE KEEP TABS ON OUR CUSTOMERS. We greet people and tell them who we are when they step in the door. I'm not a kiosk. I am a store front. There are about 20+ locations for us. We keep a digital database of every customer we sell to. We service any equipment we sell and in many cases replace it for the customer.
We follow our customer with their conract through the first year to make sure they have ZERO problem...
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I have seen plenty of my customers burned by agents, i haven't been.
If you run your business like you say, you are one of the few.
If you run your business like you say, you are one of the few.
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Here is a message from another one of "the few." All of our locations have signs from all of the companies we sell for that say authorized dealer. We have company shirts with OUR logo on them, not theirs. We tell EVERY customer that we sell to that we are a dealer. We also handle quite a bit of customer service for the phones we sell long after we have sold them and our actual responsibility has officially ended.
I personally have had to fix many issues that have been caused by corporate stores and customer service. Quite often it is fixing problems cause by out & out lies from the stores or customer service. Usually because we have lower prices. Very often customers are told that they will have their activation fees waived, or get...
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I personally have had to fix many issues that have been caused by corporate stores and customer service. Quite often it is fixing problems cause by out & out lies from the stores or customer service. Usually because we have lower prices. Very often customers are told that they will have their activation fees waived, or get...
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This is a very good point. I was just thinking about that myself. Most of the time that I call in to activations or customer service for something, I'm amazed at how friendly and professional the person on the other end is, considering they take these calls non-stop for eight hours. However, maybe ten percent of the time I get somebody that basically needs me to walk them through what they are doing, and is just totally clueless. This happens with Verizon and T-Mobile even, both of whom have highly rated customer service. As far as sales reps go, any place where people are being paid on commission there are going to be occasional problems, whether its corporate or agent. People are just generally greedy, and some people don't know wher...
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I agree that there are some bad company stores also, but I work at a company store that is surrounded by agents and i see issues everyday and i see agents screw over our customers.
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I take offense to the implications, and to the fact that anybody who works for a dealer is automatically "walking in ****". That is a real dumb-ass comment. First of all, I'm a dealer for several carriers and I handle everything from sales to inventory to paperwork. I'm an extremely honest person, and I take my non-diversion agreements with each carrier very easily. If a customer comes in asking about a particular carrier I NEVER try and steer them elsewhere. I also take great pride in knowing the price plans, equipment, and T & C of each company as well or better than the morons they like to hire directly. Often when I have to call something in I know what's going on better than the rep on the other end, who sounds like they are about...
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JDigital said:
I also take great pride in knowing the price plans, equipment, and T & C of each company as well or better than the morons they like to hire directly.
Hey!
Some of us morons resent that.
âšī¸
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Sorry, I was flaming at the stupidity of the original post... For the record, MOST of the reps that I come into contact with are very knowledgable and usually very friendly. About one in six times I get somebody who sounds like it is their first day on the job. I can always tell when they ask me to repeat the same information five different times.
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Work for distribution services, HAH. I don't think I could make myself speak slowly and simply enough for you dumbasses to understand. I dont know how any one could stand spending all day speaking to people who's IQ closely resemble's their age. There, I've taken my cheap shot, now back to business. If you had taken the time to actually read the first post you would have realized that I took the time to realize that not all dealers are bad and even took the time to appologize for lumping you in. And I am sorry if you don't see it my way, but when you work for a group with a bad reputation such as dealers, that reputation will end up rubbing off on you. In this case I felt that a nice steaming pile of **** best summed up my feelings on ...
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Well, seeing as I am the person in charge, I don't really work for a dealer so much as I AM a dealer, and a damn good one at that.
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What's the point in dragging it out? I have my opinion and he has his. Nattering back and forth at each other isn't going to change that and is really just a waste of time.
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I would Like to throw in my 2 cents! I work for a Cingular dealer. theDMan, if Cingular decides to keep you after the buy out, you will have to handle certain issues that our CAS system does not if your center still handles CC. Anything that is not an upgrade, new activation, or credit check falls upon Customer Care (ie. billing, number changes, tier 1 tech support, etc...). Get used to talking to dealers, because you will be dealing with a lot of them soon!
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I've got no problem with talking to a dealer if it's part of policy. My issue is with dealers who know that they are supposed to talk to distibution services but think they can get away with having CC deal with it for them. That and the ones who know jack **** about policy. CC reps have 6 weeks of training before they hit the floors, as far as I know our indirect dealers receive no formal training on AWS P&P or rate plans, etc. I can think of many better uses of my time than spending an hour on the phone trying to make a customer understand that everything that they just got told by a dealer is wrong
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Well as far as you know isn't very far at all. I've just gone through all kinds of formal training in P&P and rate plans, etc. Granted, I'm one of the the dealer principals, so maybe other dealers aren't following through and training their salespeople properly. What I don't understand about any dealer is why they wouldn't INSIST that all their people are knowledgable and well trained. Otherwise you create more hassle for yourself when people come back upset because they were misinformed. That's also a lousy way to earn repeat and referral business. My dealership has been extremely successful in a short amount of time exactly because I work very hard at those things. That was I why I took offense to your original post. By the way, I ...
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Im a dealer myself....my store does roughly 300 activations every month....all ATT. Dealers make ATT money, and customers. Which in turn gives you a job. So please dont hate us so much.
There are alot of ignorent reps that dont know what they're talking about, and in time they will learn. Training can only go so far....even the CC reps that train for so long wont be pros right out of training. They have to have first hand experience to know...that means a couple shaky encounters.
I myself will call CC from time to time. The difference is, i know when to. Dist Services is very bad at trying to resolve anything with a customers bill....i guess its not even their job (dunno) they always say CC handles that kind of stuff.
But whatever....i f...
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There are alot of ignorent reps that dont know what they're talking about, and in time they will learn. Training can only go so far....even the CC reps that train for so long wont be pros right out of training. They have to have first hand experience to know...that means a couple shaky encounters.
I myself will call CC from time to time. The difference is, i know when to. Dist Services is very bad at trying to resolve anything with a customers bill....i guess its not even their job (dunno) they always say CC handles that kind of stuff.
But whatever....i f...
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The dealership I've been working for had a lot of problems when I started. The most important thing I've learned is that training can make or break the dealership. We had very high turnover and low sales because our reps were learning lazy habits. JDigital makes a great point in that while our training is improved, along with sales, most dealers still train their reps to just sell phones at any cost. Those same dealers are also the ones badgering our locations and others. Their also the ones who will argue with CC in front of customers which makes everybody look bad. And then their sales go down because they aren't getting refferals and because their customers return to them with billig issues and other issues that could have been prevented....
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The quality and integrity of most Dealers needs to be questioned. They don't understand the value and responsiblity of representing a national company. What other business lets you hang a sign without having to spend $100k to buy a franchise. I was in the wholesale side of the business before and we would turn away people who wanted to be Dealers. They would ask how to churn during an interview or approval process, stupid sh*t like that.
I am now back behind the counter, loving it, and I know in the ATTWS world calling Care is a no no. That is why we have Distribution Services. When I call, I have my sh*t together. I speak slowly and clearly, give my name, Dealer code, etc, I always say please and thank you, I have been doing ...
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I am now back behind the counter, loving it, and I know in the ATTWS world calling Care is a no no. That is why we have Distribution Services. When I call, I have my sh*t together. I speak slowly and clearly, give my name, Dealer code, etc, I always say please and thank you, I have been doing ...
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i work tdma care and when it comes to gsm i know almost nothig. they don't train us for gsm so i fake my way through it most of the time. now we just refer the cust to the store or website so it's not too hard. once in a while i get a question i don't know so i just call gsm care and get the answer. i know what you mean about calling care. we are not supposed to help indirect. i help direct if they can give id number and i can verify it. a lot of the time we don't have the tools we need to help anyway but you would not believe how many dealers call us
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I love the Edge Rewards points program. Just got aCD changer for my car for 52000 points, and a department store gift certificate for $100, that one was 28,000 points. t adds up quick with the bolt-ons. Not much else to say, that is unusual for me. Have a great day all. I am so early today, we open at 11 am today, its 9:45 and I am already here. Maybe I'll catch the early birds. Have a great day all.
Mobile_el
Mobile_el
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nice. I work my ass off for my points. I have 30,950 and 7800 that need to be update. i redeemed only 8000 so far
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I'm not saying that there aren't dealers out there who know their ****. And for those like you who take pride in knowing it and doing it well, thank you. I was quite irritated at the time of the initial post having just had to clean up another mess. I get mad having to clean up someone elses mess because I take pride in taking the time to try and not leave any myself. One particular case was where I had a dealer activate a cust on 2 TDMA local plans at 59.99 each instead of a GSM local shared 59.99 with an adtl line for 9.99. The cust, who coincidentaly had called and got me a week earlier and been referred back to the point of sale was in store and giving him ****. So he calls and yells at me because we should have known what he wante...
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it's really not that difficult to get caught up with the pricing plans and so forth. Just look through the freaking pamphlet that each carrier has. It says everything very clear in there.
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C'mon guys, there are MANY things that cause problems. Thats why companies have customer service in the first place.
Direct, Indirect, Agents, Customer Service, Technicians, and CUSTOMERS.
The fact is, some of these people know what they are doing and some don't. If any one of them make a mistake it causes problems.
If you want a 'group' to blame then blame lazy people, ignorant people, or greedy people.
We good reps don't need to be bickering amongst each other. Ther very fact that we care enough about our jobs to be discussing it on this forum shows that we probably are not the problem people.
Just my 2 cents.
Direct, Indirect, Agents, Customer Service, Technicians, and CUSTOMERS.
The fact is, some of these people know what they are doing and some don't. If any one of them make a mistake it causes problems.
If you want a 'group' to blame then blame lazy people, ignorant people, or greedy people.
We good reps don't need to be bickering amongst each other. Ther very fact that we care enough about our jobs to be discussing it on this forum shows that we probably are not the problem people.
Just my 2 cents.
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I work AT&T wireless care as well. I agree with exactly what you said. customers never know about 15.00 process fee when the go to store to upgrade. i worn them ahead of time. i actually had a dealer call wanting me to apply credit for the customer towards a phone. i could have given him 20.00 but didn't because the dealer was an idiot. he was telling the customer to tell me he was going to cancel service because he couldn't get a free phone. i told the cust about the process fee and asked him to ask the dealer twice if there were any other fees. he said no. then when i talked to the dealer again i told him he is supposed to tell the customer but not to worry because i already did. dealer was mad. i told him if he thought the customer deserv...
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Cellgurl, glad you brought this up. Need a little clarification on this new $15.00 upgrade activation fee. I am an exclusive ATTWS Dealer in the NY/NJ market. I was first informed of this yesterday by an indirect account rep, guy from ATTWS who visit's stores. He had a flyer on it, I asked him for a little detail, he made a call and said never mind, it only applies in corporate stores. i think he is wrong, what's up with this?
By the way, always enjoy your posts
By the way, always enjoy your posts
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are you a direct dealer? The 15.00 process fee applies at at&t stores and through customer care. it isn't charged in the store but does appear on their invoice. if you have access to ccnet you can see what it says. i stole the scripting and keep it in my book. comes in handy: the purpose of the fee is to recoup some of the costs with providing an upgrade. aws does not profit from the sale of equipment. the price of the equipment does not include costs such as maintaining inventory, processing account changes, assisting in programming phonesand account changes such as changing the electronic serial numbers.
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Cellphone-gurl, thank you so much for the clarification. We are a privately owned Indirect Dealer. You have clarified that the fee does not apply to my channel.
Much thanks
Mobile_El
Much thanks
Mobile_El
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This one ticks me off. As an indirect Dealer we get paid for certain bolt-ons. text, mMode, enhanced International discounted dialing, etc. We only bolt on when the customer agrees to the feature, requests it, or wants to try the mMode free for 1st 30days. Our bolt on rate is about 60% with a 90 stick rate, meaning thye keep it. Our rep from ATTWS tells us to just put it on every account and he gets paid on bolt ons or it is part of his quota. This is a company employee, nice huh? It is simply not worth the compensation or the upset customer to try and sneak something on their account. we certainly try to offer the right enhancements, never without clarification. There are afew of us good guys left out here. It is so sad that so ma...
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that explains all the calls we get from customers that have no idea what the feature is. whenever i have a customer ask what a feature is i ask if they have been to a store lately. it always explains why the feature is there and why they don't know what it is.
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We do it right, I assure you. But, I kid you ATTWS sales reps who visit the Dealer stores pressure them to just add sh*t on. stack it pack it, that's what they say. We have decent bolt-on rate, but a high stick rate, meaning they keep it. They are so many guys doing it wrong out there, it sucks. We are in a young hip upscale town, we a lot of Blackberries, Treo 600's, V.600 E316's. Real proud of doing it right. You are in care right, are you in one of the outsourced centers or direct? I have to say the Canandian call center where the migration/contract renewal calls rocks. Those folks do an awesome job and are so friendly, must be a Canadian thing.
Thanks again.
Thanks again.
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I do it right too, as do most of the guys I work with. We've had our fair share of bad apples, but they are usually caught and either disciplined or fired for doing this kind of crap.
Most of the guys here ask that the customer call customer service and just make sure that everything is set up right. I tell them to make sure that I DIDN'T add text messaging or some other feature that they didn't want. Also to make sure that the activation rep didn't add anything either.
It's even in out paper work. One section that the customer initials actually says that they need to call customer service immediately after activating their phones to make sure it's right. It's even underlined and easy to see.
So there are not only good in...
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Most of the guys here ask that the customer call customer service and just make sure that everything is set up right. I tell them to make sure that I DIDN'T add text messaging or some other feature that they didn't want. Also to make sure that the activation rep didn't add anything either.
It's even in out paper work. One section that the customer initials actually says that they need to call customer service immediately after activating their phones to make sure it's right. It's even underlined and easy to see.
So there are not only good in...
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yea our indirect store cracks down HARD on dealers who try to add bolt-ons w/o customer consent for commission... The dealer and the customer have to sign service addendums in which they agree to give the customer ONLY what they asked for đ
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In our market, Cingular actually has a checklist, they call it the "bunny rabit"forsome stupid reason. It reviews everything from the activation fee to the pro-rated invoice, to bolt-on's. It is a little tedious, it is essentially everything that a quality location or indivdual would go over, but it makes sure nothing is forgotten.
Nextel's is like the bible, it is a seperate document from the contract. Man, if you screw up a Nextel, forget it nightmare city. nextel's 1st bill's are always huge, you've got the start of service fee, prorated month, plus one full month, and sometimes even the phone cost, if you choose to drop ship the unit to the end user. this happens to be a cool option, as you do not have to stock the phone, place or...
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Nextel's is like the bible, it is a seperate document from the contract. Man, if you screw up a Nextel, forget it nightmare city. nextel's 1st bill's are always huge, you've got the start of service fee, prorated month, plus one full month, and sometimes even the phone cost, if you choose to drop ship the unit to the end user. this happens to be a cool option, as you do not have to stock the phone, place or...
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our agent made its own checklist..specifically to cover our butts after our disastrous Indiana launch..we came in poorly trained and unprepared for the volume that an X class 0.00 deposit would bring to us...after realizing we couldn;t sit down cause our asses were chewed so bad, we sat down and made a checklist...covering everything from roaming to proration to downloads to payment location,...and for the most part it works...except one the MEGO people,,, đŗ
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we are not supposed to proactively tell people we are from canada but we hear all the time....i talked to this rep from canada and he/she was so nice. my center is all tdma care and nst...national service transfer for when they change markets and need new number. they really push contracts i had a good day today though....5 valid contracts and 2 boosters towards edge rewards points that we can redeem for things we want. i got an alarm clock so far and once they update my points for this month i will order a wagon for my son. today i won 600 points, a pen and a calculator and i got my name entered in a draw to make my own schedule for 1 month
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Ahhh a good way to cover you a$$ as a dealer, is to have the customer initial on the contract where we added on a text package or declined insurance.
After the first story I heard of a customer saying "BUT I GOT INSURANCE! I asked for it! They didn't put it on there?!?" I started having each customer initial on their contract print out whatever we added and if we declined insurance.
It's good for my own peace of mind. đ
After the first story I heard of a customer saying "BUT I GOT INSURANCE! I asked for it! They didn't put it on there?!?" I started having each customer initial on their contract print out whatever we added and if we declined insurance.
It's good for my own peace of mind. đ
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Dealers propell the sales at the company I work for and I do not think they are any better or worse than our internal sales department for mistakes and misinformation. My biggest issue with them is their inherant disloyalty to our company. LNP has been a boom for dealers because now they are even more motivated to enable a customer to churn. Someone said earlier in the post we are part of the same team I think they meant we are part of the same conspiracy.
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