bmustang said:
i knew some moron would reply like that, in that case, you simply say we dont have a plan like that sir. And if they ask for escalation, put them through.....l if your supervisors asks why, reply " because the customer asked"

the point is there is no one in the company that would give a customer that, IE that customer is NOT right

I believe Ben Affleck had it right in Mallrats when he said, "The customer is always an a$$hole."

I was waiting for someone to use that quote 🤣 Priceless.

my manager has more important things to do t han to take those types of calls. if they dont beleive me when I tell them we dont have anything like that, I point them to the web site for rate plan information or send them to a store to pick up a rate plan brochure so they can be on their way. now if they were givin miss informatioin from another rep and dispute my information, sure, I'll be more than happy to get them to my manager.

no im a customet happy with my current provider, old plan from years ago, no need to change or get more free minutes, if I do, then I will sign a contract for one or two years, knowing what it means......no free car with 19.99 plan.......no unlimited anytime minutes for only $2.00 month......but you miss the point, it isnt up to you to agree or disagree with a customer, when they ask for escalation, whether you know they wont get further or not,

In my case, I have no problems getting a customer to a supervisor but most times I can turn the customer around from wanting one and they are satisified with my resolution. However, in the times that they still want one, I have no problem with getting a super on the line.

What gets me is that when I educate the customer about the timeframe a super can get on the line, they wish to become irate and say that I am intentionally making them wait. Why can't some customers understand that many call centers have 1 supervisor for every 12-20 reps and that maybe our supers work and are not just sitting on their butts eating bon-bons?

how many times a day do you all need to get your sup involved with what you are doing anyway?

We're selling cell phones and service here were not brain surgen consultants. Most things here are cut and dry. you might want to try changing your aproach if someone is not beliving you i.e. there is something called 'building rapport' you might want to check into.

My sup belives that i have a brain in my head and capable of handling situations with my customers. If I go and bother him with every little problem i have it makes me look bad. Besides I like when a customer presents me with a problem and I take pride in solving it without having to escilate.

In short: Escalating is a cop out for rookie reps when they have nothing else to fall...
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Both you and I know that your last staement is complete BS. Some customers just cannot be satisfied without a 2nd, 3rd, or 4th opinion. In most cases, these are the same customers who probably TimeWarner (or whoever) if they're pirated cable goes out. I agree that a good rep can keep a call from escalation but in some cases we need a sup (or res rep) to drill the word NO into their thick skull. Everyone is not as reasonable as they should be. If they were, Bush would not be in office for a 2nd term 😁

I don't think so. Well not entirely. I work for the company and I have seen a lot of reps escalate for a problem that don't know how to fix. But alot of times, We have to. And even when we do, our customer care sucks sooooo terribly bad. They won't even help half the time. Even cingular employees agree that the call center does nothing. Except make things worse with their rudeness. Either they are too afraid to change something because they will get in trouble (such as rerating a bill when it was cingulars fault) Or they are too new and have been inporperly trained on how to do anything. For years we have had the worst reputation for our service. When I'm in the store with my crew, we do our best to sell the cingular advantage, but soon as t...
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no actually for something like that, I get in trouble for escalating instead of point the customer to the proper resources. if they are an existing customer and ask for a manager, I dont even ask why just simply get them to a manager. non customers who simply need to be educated, there isnt a need to speak with a manager unless they were previously misinformed.

We as reps have very specific Policies and Procedures that we have to follow no matter what. And at least in my dpt, the sups are held to the very same Policies and Procedures and cannot bend. So in cases like these where the cusotmer is not happy with what we can provide them and they escalate to our sup, and the sup cannot help them either, the customer gets very upset. And its not our fault, it is the P&P that we are forced to follow. And when I say forced, I mean FORCED!!! I have just had disiplinary action taken against me for giving a customer a promotion that they were not eligible for. All I was doing was trying to make the customer happy, and I got in trouble for breaking P&P. Its a no win situation, but as reps there is nothing we ...
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Ouch

bmustang said:
i knew some moron would reply like that, in that case, you simply say we dont have a plan like that sir. And if they ask for escalation, put them through.....l if your supervisors asks why, reply " because the customer asked"

If you would spend as much time taking calls as you do calling people "morons", you would know the first rule in customer service: "The Customer is Always Right- because we make them think so".

🙄 You're a corporate dork aren't you!

WOW! you know a lot about being professional, "i knew some moron would reply like that" ohh and dont forget "open lil pea brain." Do you even work in the wireless industry or are you a customer just complaining because you didn't get unlimited anytime minutes and a free car with activation?

ok, open your own lil pea brain, I'll give you a specific example. A lady called in on a $39.99 PROMOTIONAL plan that had long expired. Her plan included 1000 anytime nation wide minutes for that price. No free mobile to mobile, no free night and weekend minutes. Only 1000 anytime minutes. She wanted to add an additional line for $9.99 to share her current plan. First, her promotional plan had expired, so any changes to be made would have to be to a current rate plan. Second, even if her plan had not expired, the plan was not shareable. There was no way to attach another phone to share that bucket of minutes. That plan was specifically for a single line of servcie. Thirdly, with the current, valid plans, additional family lines cost $19.99 o...
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again pea brain, you are taking it upon yourself to get mad simply because they wont take your answer for it, stop trying to hang on, its obvious you cant explaint it to them because THEY wont accept your answer, move it along as requested, stop giving them the power to manipulate you and get you frustrated,

I did not get mad, she got escalated. I'll do my best to explain what can be done, but if you have your mind set on something that cant, it's your problem not mine. I get calls all day for people who dont get the concept of 'Free AFTER mail in rebate' and tend to get rather irate about it too. this is what the offer is, this is the service we have, no this isnt a swap meet and I cant haggle over minitues or costs of accesories. now mr.mustang, can you wrap your pea brain around the concept that my job is not worth the customer 'always being right'

but you got frustratd enough you complain about it here, far longer than that customer is recalling it.........and btw pea brain, are you on the job as you type this or personal time

nope not frustrated, just relaying examples that maybe you can comprehend, more than likely you cant since you tend to make all manner of inferences to my attitude and being frustrated. there have been some customers frustrate me but not that they will ever have know it.

i make no inference to your attitude, simply stated you tell them what is policy, if they ask to escalate, do it, if you aregue and sqay they will say same thing, it boils down to YOU, thinking you have more power than YOU do,you arent the end all be all, whether someone up the line sticks to P&P or deviates, isnt up to you......

Hey mustang did you even READ his post? He DID escalate the call.

Part of the CS job as we are trained, is to try and find an avenue for a customer. Help them find a middleground between what they want and what we can do. 95% of what customers ask to speak to a manager for, is something that any CS rep can do with a little effort. ALOT of CS reps know what we can do for the customer at our level. Also CS reps are the first line of defense to protect our managers from BS calls.

You DO know there are people who call into the centers and IMMEDIATELY ask to speak to a manager right? It isn't because the CS rep is incompetent or rude.. It is because the customer thinks they can get something free by speaking directly to the manager/supervi...
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see you are a typical customer....here actual CUSTOMER CARE REPS, that actually work for the company that you are assuming to know the policies and procedures for, are telling you the way things are and the limitations are, are telling u how unreasonable some of the requests that we get are, and you resort to juvenille name calling.....you wonder why you get attitude.....KEEP IT PROFFESSIONAL

Okay then. I've got a few gauntlets to throw down for you then.

When you can get the rep to physically come though the phone and fix it for you.

When you can get a "magical" rate plan.

When you can get a phone that will work anywhere, any time, regardless of weather, terrain or nuclear holocaust.

When you can get a free Motorola RAZR.

Then and only then, after you have achieved these actual customer requests I have recieved, will the customer always be right. Until then you need to remember that no one in infallible, not the Pope, not the Prime Minister, not the rep, and certainly not the customer.

Do you work for a paycheck? If so, then you have to do what you are told to do in order to keep getting the money. Was that a little too complex for you? I am told to say "NO" for many things. IF you want to scream and escalte ... fine ... just don't expect the next person to fold because THEY are also told to say "NO".

Here's a news flash: Cingular MANAGERS have a lower limit on the amount of credit they can give than AT&T Care Reps used to have.

Cingular is NOT in the "give money away" mode.

elihuspeaks said:

DrDialtone said:
A person is only a customer if a company makes a PROFIT on them. Otherwise they are not a CUSTOMER.

If a customer calls in every month to complain about useless stuff such as "Why should I pay taxes?" and uses up 30 minutes of customer care time, they can easily eat up the razer thin profit we really make.

Slogans don't pay the electric bills. Sorry. Or, to mangle another saying "All customers are equal, it just that some customers are more equal than others".

Bonus points to quote the source.

In regard to the source of your quote - you could be thinking of "all animals are created equal, some animals are just more equal than others" from Geor

...
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Well there are days where this place feels a little Orwellian. 😎

Well, if Cingular was a monopoly, like the post office, I guess they could raise prices at will. Outside of lawyers and drug dealers, I really don't know of any business that make gigantic profits. Having owned a couple of businesses I just might have a different perspective than you.

Let me try a different tack. Let's say that the person you work for asks you to work an extra day with no increase in pay. In fact, he complains that he pays you too much 'cause there a homeless guy on the street who will work for half of what he pays you. Would you like that?

Better start thinking straight. When it comes to money, everything is a business relationship. And this includes your JOB. In that case, your employer is your "customer". The guy wh...
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I actually do agree with you for the most part . . . but the employee/employer analogy is a little off. The difference between me and a bum off the street who would work for half what I'm paid, is that I have certain technical skills that he probably doesn't have. In fact, I might even be able to go elsewhere and make more money. Customers don't have that sort of leverage.

Like I said, I agree with you that people can often be unreasonable about their demands. What I was disagreeing with you about is that I still consider them customers. They are just 'bad' customers at that point! 🙂

My remark about Cingular going into another business was intended to be sort of tongue in cheek, but my point was this: if all or the majority of ...
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Actually you do get the "I'm a business". You get paid more than the bum because you have more to offer, just like why somebody would go with Sprint instead of Poser-Mobile. Would you pay a little more for fantastic coverage and near-zero dropped calls? I think you would. So how is that any different from you getting paid more than the bum?

A "customer" will trade money for "product". That product can be anything from a taco to an hour of tech support. The greater the "value" seen by the customer, the more money they will be willing to fork over.

Another example would be movie star "A" making $5M a movie where movie star "B" only makes $1M. As long as Miss "A" is hot, her "value" will demand a higher price. But the moment she stops bei...
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Exactly! I think you got the part about the value "seen by the customer" completely right. That's what a lot of people don't understand about customers leaving a company like Cingular or Verizon to go to a company with smaller coverage like T-Mobile. Some people don't particularly value coverage area (as long as the few areas that they make calls are covered), and are more interested phone selection or price.

As a side note - it's interesting that you brought up Sprint, because in my area they have the worst coverage out of the major carriers, and the local corp stores aren't particularly helpful to their customers. I get more ports from them than anyone else. Though, from what I hear, in others areas of the country they are a really ...
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Caveat Emptor.... let the buyer beware

hah, yeah...but it seems more and more these days like it should be caveat venditor, or let the seller beware...seriously...

I so was thinking the same thing!

liamdeschain said:
hey, i'm a customer for cingular as well as a sales rep, does that mean that i'm always right as well? so if some uppity customer complains to me on the phone that "the customer is always right" then i'm just going to say "that's fine. i'm a customer too, and now i say you have to give me all your money and your first born child. and you have to tongue bathe my shoes. now"

sorry bmustang, you've been pwned.
|_|r ||07 1337. so there.

xoxo

what is pwned?

read the entire statement, not just the part you want to focus on. " the customer is always right, even when WRONG!"


millions of neurons and only 2 connected

oh believe me, i read the entire statement. at least what parts i could decipher from your monosyllablic psycho babble.

and like i said |_|r |\|07 1337. and you most definitely got pwned.

and i'm sorry about your neuron problem. you should probably stop sniffing so much glue.

focus on that! pwned!


xoxo

liamdeschain said:
oh believe me, i read the entire statement. at least what parts i could decipher from your monosyllablic psycho babble.

and like i said |_|r ||07 1337. and you most definitely got pwned.

and i'm sorry about your neuron problem. you should probably stop sniffing so much glue.

focus on that! pwned!


xoxo

monosyllablic psycho babble? this from someone who has to come up with a punk term instead of the English language?

like fer sure you da bomb of da reps

cingularbentmeover said:
but with calls being as slow as theyare it is killing the time

I second that motion!!!!!!!!!!! 😉

plus, who cares? seriously? who really cares? if i want to waste my time on here, i'll certainly do it. it's almost hipocritical to be like "hey, you guys are wasting thread space" when you just posted a thread about wasting threads space.


xoxo