I am a sales guy, actually working in a situation where I cannot hang up on customers or accidentally "disconnect" them.
It pisses me off, and I read it every time I get onto this forum, the completely condescending attitude you people have toward the customers at the call centers.
is there ever a reason to charge a customer 100+ dollars in overages when unlimited plans for texting are, at most 10.00 a month? really? Even if it IS their fault why would we do that? Especially if they have paid their bill on time since the very first day they became a customer!
This is amazing. I can't believe we treat people the way we treat them over the phone.
You guys really need to start putting yourselves in the customers shoes. A lot of y...
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Why would I make a customer pay the $100.00 for texting overages? Because it reflects their usage. If customers don't have a texting plan and they choose to use the feature, they shouldn't expect to not pay the $0.20 per message.
I'd be happy to add one of our texting options, or change them to a plan that includes text. But, I cannot just pretend they didn't use the feature. Heck, we're limited to $25.00 of credit we can put onto an account. Anything above that has to be done by a supervisor. With the way that our center is cracking down on unnecessary adjustments I'd have to be able to articulate why the charge wasn't valid in order to get the credit for the customer. In this case, the charge is valid, so I'd be unable to credit for th...
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I hate how people don't take responsibility for their actions. It's always someone else's fault. Grow up!!
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You mean like the cell phone companies sending bills choc full of overages to a customer AFTER they are unable to help the customer reduce the charges????
Are you telling me that this behavior is acceptable? That it is OK to fleece the customers that pay their bills? Some of these people are paying the equivalent of a car payment for their monthly plan, and we give them even more when they make a simple mistake? What does a thousand texts cost the company? make a wild guess, the answer, NOTHING.
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ochneMay 22, 2010, 4:30 PM
Please refer to historical statements (I think it was Barnum):
1) A sucker is born every minute
2) This way to the great egress (follows well based on 1 above)
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are you tellin me that thievery is acceptable, cause that's what you're gettin at!!
someone has to pay for that network usage & again you need to refer back to the arguement that i had earlier with the other holier than thou store rep that thought it was ok to excuse the ginormous bill that this lady THE LADY, not the carrier created!!
as the rep before me stated, reality check bub..you use it? you pay for it!!
grow up!! ๐
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so again, you are justifying fleecing the customers with the "you're an idiot because you have our phone provider" argument.
1. It's absured that we have policies like this in place in the first place.
2. It's insane that the attitute reflected in your statement above is tolerated.
What are you, a construction worker "bub" really?
grow up.
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actually, i don't tolerate stupidity BUB!! ๐คฃ Especially when you sound like a whiney customer that doesn't want to take responsibility for his actions BUB!! you're the epitome of the fast food attitude that is present in society BUB!! i want it cheap, i want somethin for nothin & i want it now BUB!!
do yourself a favor & grow up BUB!!
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so lemme clarify...i give away quite a bit of money on a daily basis accordin to what the issue is, how the mistake occurred, how often it occurs & whether or not the customer is takin responsibility for his actions or blamin it on everyone else but themselves. i understand that mistakes happen & rep error is definitely a possibility but for pete's sake if you're going to (for example) say go to europe with 20mb of international data & due to gross negligence of your own, i.e. not checking your usage through sso (real example by the way)incurring a $600.00 international data usage charge & then demand that you get it back because you felt it was owed you? nah, nah, nah get real, you were given options to check it online, from your phone or ...
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I love the one "my daughter would NEVER text she is at school all day" ๐
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That is always a good one. the bill would show not only who the text was sent to but at what time it was sent.
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wow i think you hit the nail on the head with that one. sales job is to sell phones, not go over the bills but while we are talking about issues with how the system works, maybe sales reps should be more willing to waive upgrade fees and shipping costs instead of charging a rediculous amount for these. Or even better, charge less for the phones because cell phones should be a reasonable rate for the customer. oh wait we are a business that has to make money somehow.
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If carriers start crediting every little "mistake" a customer makes, than customers will call in claiming everything is a "mistake" just to get credit. Carriers have to draw the line somewhere, and it's not a carriers fault if the customer chooses not to put text messages on a phone for their text-aholic teenager and they run the bill up. That was a decision they made to not add the text messaging package and they should pay for any texts sent no matter the cost.
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This is like that in all puplic service industries. when I was a technician for a nation wide catv company i have had a customer that would call in when his bill was due and complain that he did not have service for half the month and should be credited for that. We would explain to him we would need to troubleshoot his connection to get it repaired after we credit his account for half month of service. we would run out on the call and cannot get in the house to check it and find nothing wrong on the outside. after 3 months and several truck rolls we disconected this user because we were not making money but instead losing money. his bill was $40 a month it cost $30 to roll a truck and tech, we credit $20 so we were -$10 a month on revenue. ...
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yeah but you try to tell that to these bleeding heart store reps who make their money off of lookin good in front of the customer & they don't get it. seriously, that's why they should all be made hourly. it's not in the best interest of the customer if the rep is only interested in the sale. ๐
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It was cool because our General Manager told us to turn this guy off because we were basically pay for him to watch tv.
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ochneMay 22, 2010, 4:48 PM
And....keep crediting because the customer refuses to change anything to prevent it? I don't know how many times I hear how it's the evil company's fault instead of the user. Making assumptions by the user does not mean the company has to honor it.
Perfect example: You go out of town on a trip, you leave some item on (doesn't matter what), you are still responsible for it. The utility company is not responsible for it because you were stupid and did that.
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It's called capitalism.
If you got a problem with it, then you must be a Commie who hates America.
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Alot fo call center reps get jaded and start hating customers.
The reason for that is the abuse we take. Customers will get an attitude and are alot more likely to turn nasty when they're not face to face with someone and after a few hundred of these type of calls it's not unexpected for the rep's attitude to turn sour. I say this with the understanding that you guys in the store will take abuse as well.
Bad apples are every where. If big companies would start hiring managers instead of baby sitters alot of the problems could be resolved.
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Fair enough, I like the last statement you made, sounds about right to me.
We do take a LOT of abuse. We get yelled at and publicly embarrassed and what can we do but try to be cool and let it go. It sucks.
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no if companies would start hirin managers that back their agents instead of gettin on the phone & tellin the customer yes & breakin policy to make their own tail ends look good & me look like an @ss after i've already told them no accordin to policy, then there might be fewer bitter agents to deal with ๐คจ
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That complaint isn't how Management Works, though. I was once a supervisor in a big box retailer. The example was given for a person wanting to return an HDTV without receipt. CLEARLY, that is against policy, and nobody in returns would do that. A MANAGER has to look at it a different way, if summoned. Even a high ticket item is a drop in the bucket of sales. Most people will give you that money back. So managers are supposed to bend policy for customers on a variety of occasions.
It is my job to say "No," to uphold policy, and get the customer to understand tthe charges. Many times customers accept the No, and we've saved some money for the company. If it escalates, many times policy has to be bent, especially as it travels up the chain...
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Hey, I read it and I agree. I have dealt with a number of escalated calls, and I have had to bend policy more than once. Bottom line is, if the manager bends policy, usually it is because escalating further would cost the company money, so we bend policy for that reason.
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Which is why that story about the $18,000 data overage flabergasts me. Really, is it worth the bad press?
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I have an issue with that story. I work for sprint, so I NEVER see data overages that high because we cap them at $75. Verizon has since been told by the FCC that they need to cap theirs and I'm pretty sure that they only waived that overage to avoid a lawsuit and/or bad press.
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i get that part but if that's the case then we don't need to be flagged for excessive credits either cause that costs the company money as well. it's that double standard that frustrates me.
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Well, yeah. That's irritating. I think I learned more about actual call center service when I was restricted from giving credits, though.
I'm not Mr. Sweetness & Light, but I try to do my job as well as I can. And at least 1/10 of my calls daily involve me telling a customer I can't give a credit & why. I'm surprised how often it works.
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You're assuming quite a bit.
We don't set policy.
We don't train ourselves.
We're just doing what we're being told to do.
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I work in a store and we haveprograms where we call customers who are getting averages. Some customers are happy we called and eagerly add features but more often than not they actually tell us they don't want the feature, even when we explain that a $5 feature will eliminate $25 in averages.
Every time that happens I make sure the customer is aware and comment the account that no credit should be issued for that type of average
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aux2May 22, 2010, 3:44 PM
*data#
as simple as that to check your usage. (att)
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The company I work for will normally credit back one month's overage charges as long as the customer adds a feature or changes a plan to prevent the overage in the future. However, if the customer refuses to make a change to prevent the overage, we won't credit.
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That used to be our policy, then it became 50%, then 25%- and now we can negotiate, but no more than 25%.
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ok, first of all if you dont like it...leave
second...if you think that you are that awsome..how come you are not president of the company.
third....if the customer uses the service they should pay for it...you cant get something for nothing.
Your Welcome.
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It's the Circle. The Circle of Life.
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...And everything The Bill touches, is your kingdom....except for that little credited part over there.
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Here's the issue. I've been working in a call center for going on 2 years now, but not much has changed other than adjustment limits. The problem in these cases is more often than not an issue where the customer feels cheated because we are not providing something to meet their needs. The other half of that is that the customer sometimes refuses to change the plan to accomodate their increasing usage. If they refuse to help themselves, we cannot help them. The bottom line is that the customer as an adult has to be responsible for their own usage. Our department has a program called the high balance team that calls customers when their bills are unusually high, but other than that, they need to continue to be responsible enough to go to...
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I understand where you are coming from, I have worked with customers face to face before...but you have to also understand that customers are far more nasty over the phone to us due to they cannot see us nor can we them. They say things to us that they would not really say to you face to face (for most of the time) which makes our phone job a little more hostile and I think that would explain why the customer would go into the store and complain about technical support or customer service they received over the phone.
Do keep in mind we also get complaints about how horrible they were treated in the store. I don't really think it is the employee but more the customer that is exaggerating. Kind of like I have been on the phone with YOU pe...
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OwenuMay 24, 2010, 1:38 PM
WE don't charge customers anything, the WIRELESS COMPANY they have does. i simply answer their questions of why they got charged what they did. the customers choose their plans, therefore they KNOW how much they can use their phones. the majority of overage charges are VALID.
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This thread is sad. Seriously.
I have a few minor points to make:
1. Wireless companies are here to make money.
2. We are NOT here to babysit the customers.
3. There is a big difference between being fair to give good customer service, and bending over backwards to lose money in order to satisfy some jerk-off who disregarded policy.
4. The amounts we are able to credit have gone down because PEOPLE HAVE ABUSED IT. They realize they were idiots but pretend they did nothing wrong in order to avoid the consequences for not adding that unlimited text pack to 12 year old Johnny's phone like that store rep advised.
The moment it becomes OUR job to babysit several million ADULT customers is the day I give up hope on America and fl...
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Reminds me of a call I had today... Lady's son had made a ton of downloads on his phone, and charged around $50.00 to the account. She felt it was not her responsibility to teach him how to make intelligent decisions (after admitting that he told her that he did see it would charge, and 'thought it really wouldn't'), but that it was instead our responsibility to monitor the phone and make sure he doesn't charge anything to the account.
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i h8 those people... we dnt sit there and monitor ur phones all day everyday... gah
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Downtime24 said:
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i h8 those people... we dnt sit there and monitor ur phones all day everyday... gah
And if we did they'd sue for breach of privacy.
Effing hypocrites.
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madmatg said:
truff!
DOUBLE TRUFF!!
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I always handled these calls as such - if the person downloading is an adult, they are responsible for the charges, however if the downloader is a minor I will reverse the charges with the caveat that we add a download block to the line. I advise and notate that the customer is aware that all charges are valid if this block is removed. Done.
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Cry me a river, build me a bridge, get the F$ over it. I learned to wipe my own A$$ a long time ago and don't wipe anyone Else's no matter how long they have been a customer. Admittedly my standard operating procedures (billing research) provide leeway to a customer's dispute, but at the same time responsibility for one's actions is also a sign of maturity.
If you want to hold customer's hands and make them feel less responsible for their mistakes then by all means waste your time, but don't think just because you may put a request into a dept like mine we are going to waste ours. Price plans are plainly named and simple to understand. Additional services are available if you know or even think your going over. We can even back date serv...
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when are we gettin married? ๐คญ ๐คฃ ๐
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I'm single and available ๐ When would you like? ๐
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*grabs bouquet, sprints for the door* *sniffs armpits* "do i smell like desparation to you?" ๐คฃ "ok i'm ready!!" ๐คฃ
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Desperation by Sinister
A new fragrance for the dry sense of humor that drives men wild
Desperation...
For the woman that wants to tell the world how she really feels and what she really needs
Desperation...
At fine retail store near you ๐
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lmao...priceless ๐คฃ ๐คฃ
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well as the other youngin put in his thread...lol writin a check would be like givin me an i.o.u....lol so ill just take your waller ๐ ๐คฃ
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My wallet and I rarely part. Would take quite a bit to get it out of my pocket... think your up to the challenge? Wedding Bells would certainly answer the challenge, but do you think you could get to it otherwise? ๐คจ ๐
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PM me with your answer ๐
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oh yeah...get you all nice & tipsy, slip in a mickey & take it while you're out for the count ๐คฃ
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Hope I don't fall asleep on it. I love it like a teddy bear and protect it like I'm a bear hibernating. ๐
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ha! i'll find somethin to lure you away from it...hmmm, bears like fishies don't they? ๐คฃ
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wait wait...look over there!! it's brittney ๐คฃ *ganks wallet* ๐
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I hate brittany and my walet is empty anyway. I do need my VA medical card back. It's not good for anything except for my medication. โน๏ธ
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lol ok no brittney wait wait elton john? ๐คจ
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Why would you waste the customers time by calling care to begin with? Just apply the credit and change the text feature from the store
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๐คฃ ๐คฃ ๐คฃ what? WHAT? AND affect his store credit? NOOOOOOOO.....he can't do that!! ๐คฃ ๐คฃ
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aleeMay 25, 2010, 4:10 PM
Ummmm...maybe because we dont have that ability.
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If you think call center is a honkey dory then come work at one and have people screaming at you for something you can't change and cuss you out or threaten to kill you because you voided their warranty. When you have to deal with the same ish every effin day we are nice to the people who deserve it but there on ones who try to push you last button and those are the ones you try to inconvience as much as you can. Don't talk about something you have no idea about call center reps have the heardest jobs in our field. We put up with mean and stupid people all day. And dont lie you would get tired of it too trust me.
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Well put goddess, you really can't know unless you're in a call center. I know you would get people in your face at stores and kiosks as well but over the phone any old pu$$y can call in and try to talk tough to you and try to get under your skin about aspects of their account that is under their control. We definately provide good customer service when possible, but some people frankly don't deserve it. For example, last week a lady called about her balance, says a credit was to be applied. I advised the credit was applied to the account but after her bill had printed with a past due balance. She says a previous rep had told her that the balance would be lower. I apologized but let her know her bill is still high because she didn't pay for ...
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The person that started this thread is just out to get ppl upset...in this industry it is uncalled for...he must enjoy pissing customers off so they call us and make our lives hell...Dude if you are that bored in your job, clean the store, wash the windows....oh wait that would require effort on your part, nvm have another starbucks $3.00 coffee and stand there with your hand in your pocket..what a dou#$% bag.
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Yeah, suck it you wuss. ๐ฟ
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Hell no the original poster, lol!
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oh ok lmao...was i right? or what?
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It's true people don't show their A$$ as much in person when their hidden behind a phone they can say whatever they want. This stupid poster should work in a call center for one day I bet he would take back this thread really effing quick.
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atthdMay 26, 2010, 11:14 AM
honestly it's u reps in the stores that mess the cust acct up.cust care reps put up w a lot of crap over the phone cuz the store promises the cust something that we can not do like waiving act fees, proration cuz the store does not adv the cust of proration when in deed the stores have the ability to credit the accts just as well...and like everyone else in the world if they use the service they have to pay for it..if i have to pay my bills then the cust shld to...it's the cust responsibility to watch their acct for overages so if they go over then that is their problem not ours...store reps need to take responsibility for their actions instead of letting someone else take the rap for it......seriously it's not that hard to do ur da** job at...
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were we separated at birth? ๐
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blame everything, but blame custs first. If they were told something 9 times out of 10 they will hear/interpret things the way they want, or just plain lie to try and get it their way.
The worst culprit is your carriers (and mine) internet portals. Special deals that only last 1 hour, seriously, and you can't even go back and look it up. They advertise waived fees, etc. but they have fine print and you can't even count on custs to read it so they have bad information bc they didn't do due diligence.
We all need help from the custs "thinking they know".
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My ME Time is When I am Apolgizing for Something I had Nothing to do With
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