Shop Talk

What is so hard about setting up voicemail? I hate it when a customer comes up to me and asks me to help them set up their voicemail. I usually tell them about holding down the "1" key and then I call it and hand them the phone. I tell them to do what the prompts tell them and that is it. Then, they stand around for several minutes setting it up. I hate it even more when they ask how to set up their voicemail and when you show them, it turns out that they already have their voicemail set up, but they've forgotten their password.

I had a customer ask me a question the other day and I want to know how you guys answer this:

What is the difference between the Blackberry and the other data devices?

I have very little experience with PDAs and smartphones. Please tell me if the following is correct and add any additional info you might suggest.

RIM Blackberry

From what I understand, Blackberries are more for corporate usage. They allow you to connect to a corporate server via Blackberry Connect; although I believe that most data devices now support this feature (Am I right?). Until recently (Pearl and Curve), they did not include cameras or media players. They also run off of RIM's proprietary OS instead of Windows Mobile or Palm OS. From reviews and customer i...
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So, lady comes in on 24th........yes, just this past Thursday. Upgrades after her and her 3 annoying kids pick and prod and flip up, flip down, up, down, up down, etc.. on every single model of phone. Finally after about an hour, she went with the moto 315....why?? I don't know....she felt like being cheap? Deep in her heart she wanted a camera phone (I could tell). She comes in today, phone and charger in hand.

"Can I exchange this, this phone sucks?!"

"I need the box to do a return/exchange"

"I don't have the box"

"Then, I can't exchange it"

"Well...then upgrade me"

"You upgraded 5 days ago, you want a different phone, you pay full retail"

"How much is the venus?"

"$385"

"That's ridiculous....
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cust calls in and is eligible for upgrade on both lines. cust said he received email offer about renewing contract and getting "two free months of service". i told him we have no record of that offer and that most offers we send out are for renewing contract and getting discounted prices for phones. customer told me he had no need for new phones but wanted to take advantage of this offer he supposedly received. i asked him to fax me the offer and with complete sincerity he said "oh well i just deleted it by accident"...yeah. sure... then he had the nerve to tell me "your company should keep record of these types of offers you send".
well sir. we do. and we most definitely did not send that offer.

So I'll make this one short, I couldn't stop shaking my head though.

It's a chat, turns out customer has a credit block. Now the whole chat has been a little weird, like he's using slightly odd verbiage. He tells me he has the block, he knows about it, he also tells me what he says his credit score is.

Well the credit block requires he visit a store and fax in some info. I don't make the rules, he actually made that rule himself when he set up the block, I can't legally proceed without the fax.

He says (I don't have the chat in front of me so I won't quote) He can't make it to the store as he has an important meeting in the AM and needs these phones by 5 pm Friday so I should just finish the order Deal or No Deal?

What is this...
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Is it just me or is sprint the most funked up bass-ackward disorganized company ever? I get so frustrated navigating our customer service web. It seems like each department has such small responsibilites, and no department understands what the other's job is. The department that does sales can't track orders, the department that makes payment arrangements can't resolve disputed charges...etc. Is this kind of fragmented service typical of a large company or is it just Sprint? No wonder my customers are so grumpy.....

Ok, so I have no voice... my friend/co-worker is running around calling me Mini-Mouse because I'm squeaking. It's not really a squeak, I just have no voice, I've been ill and coughing has torn my throat up. I sound way worse than I feel, I actually feel mostly fine, just a little drained but I sound like death warmed over.

But I get a chat.

She wants me to call her. Chats are in cue, phones have agents available, she could have gotten through twice as fast and already be done if she'd just called.

So I let her know that I have little voice so she should make sure she lets me know if she doesn't understand me and I will try to speak up. I dial the number she provides and it rings and rings and rings. No answer. Now I'm already ...
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the phone is frozen and will not power off- tried the "reset" button on the side of the phone and still nothing, any ideas?

Ok so this mean lady came in to the store yesterday. She wanted to pay her bill. We take payments as a curtusy for customers. To make a cash payment there is a $3.00 processing fee with the system that we use charges us. So I expalined to her that she would have to pay that and she flipped out on me saying that its bullSh%% and she isnt paying that its a rip off. I told her that she is more then welcomed to pay it online or go to a store with a kiosk. SHe says that she isnt driving way over there and I just wont get paid today. I told her she isnt taking money out of my pocket if she doenst make a payment here I dont get paid to do it anyway (but im not the one with the past due bill) So she storms out talking about cancelling her service I ...
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Why Why Why?!

A.) Why do they feel the need to give us their entire life story in regards to one question. I had a call today with a cust going on and on and on and on about his Samsung phone. I could not follow this guy for the life of me. He kept going on about it being broken and how he took it back to Radio Shack, who sent it to Samsung, and then it was replaced at the repair centre and there was not battery cover. I tried to keep asking question to figure out what was going on. I asked him if he had the phone, no. Radio shack has it. More yabbering. "So to be sure sir, the phone is at Radio Shac"?. No. Repair Centre. I just could not get anywhere with this guy as to how he was getting this battery cover or other repairs.. final...
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ok...i have quite a long rant.

we are going to name this guy george (just bc I like this name)

ok...

george comes in my store wanting to start new service...so we pick a plan, a phone and i start to run his credit. When his credit check comes back with a 500.00 deposit i am quite surprised. he doesn't look like the "type" that would have a deposit.

so george freaks out and wants me to over ride it. what the heck...even if i did have the authority to do that what makes him think hes so special for me to over ride it.

so...he wants me to call my manager and tells me he's not leaving until i waive the fee. This was at 3:30. so after i send my manager an email with all his info i tell the man that I will call him when i ...
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Not really shop-talky but in a way.

It's snowing, it's actually snowing enough with enough wind to be classified as a "blizzard" They canceled school yesterday. This is unusual because in the seven years (off and on) I have attended classes at this college they have never once canceled classes due to weather but they did it yesterday... and today they canceled all evening classes.

It's still coming down. I just heard that the town north of us (which is part of the same overall metro) has lost power twice and is in "white-out" conditions. Goody.

I laugh at this because right before Christmas the guys in one of our other offices shut down because of winter weather. They had, as I recall, less snow, less wind, and better visibilit...
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C: I bought a bluetoob headset last month and sent it back. where is my credit

Me: OK sir, may i have your order # so i can see whats going on?

C: no.

ME: not a problem, may i have you spell you first and last name and verify the last 4 of your soc.?

C: yeah, blah blah blah.

ME: OK sir, I see your original order, but i do not see that it has been returned to us. Do you have the tracking number for the return label we included in the package?

C: no, i just want my money back.

Me: OK sir, you are outside your return period and we do not show that we have it back. you do not have the return tracking #. I apologize but without that information we would not be able to credit you back for that.

C: but i sent it back.

Me:...
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I just had a customer come in saying that when he purchased the phone it was suppose to have insurance on it. Now the phone has been stolen and when he called cs they informed him that he has never had ins on it. He came in with part of his paperwork from the original purchase and said that he wanted his phone replaced. I told him that I would get his "checklist" paper emailed to me and show him where he had to sign stating if he wanted insurance or not. He then walked out and came back with his copy of the checklist. Which does not have his signature on it but clearly states that he declined insurance. Yet he is still arguing with me saying I should replace his phone.

James Cameron is a F***ING genius! I watched the director's cut which is soooooo much better than the theatrical version.

I hate working at our kiosk. Other than the issues with sharing a computer that I have written about before, I hate the openness of the location. What do I mean? Our kiosk is in a grocery store. It is at the end of the registers so everyone walks past it on their way out. Because it is on the way out, people seem to stop and make stupid comments or ask stupid questions. Despite the common theory that there are no stupid question, we all know there are millions of them. When you work in a stand alone store, you hardly ever get someone who comes in for the sole purpose of making stupid remarks or complaining. (Although the latter is more common than I make it out to be.) Anyway, this is what happened today:

I was sitting at my kiosk minding...
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From now on, when a rude customer says they are leaving for another carrier, I hand them my card with their account # written on it, I tell them they will need to to move their # off our service........ I love it!!!

Quite often, I get the real joerks who was everything for free, and if I dont give it to them they threaten to go to vzw......

and some are just pains and threaten to leave for some stupid reason........

We're dead today, so I have compiled a list of things I'd like to see changed.

1. Get rid of the idea of 'Customer Satisfaction Based Bonus'. It's a DUMB idea made by people who never talk to customers, and actually think that customers act like the ones in our training courses. (ie - I'd LOVE to change my calling plan! *Insert Carrier name* is awesome! I can't wait to tell all my friends about the VALUE I'm getting!!)

2. Get rid of Handling time requirements. Do you actually think we WANT to be on the phone longer with a screaming lunatic, or the little old man that has a PDA (no data package) for some reason, and just wants his voicemails? If we have to have handling time requirements, we should be able to hang up on people with out ...
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Is anyone else experiencing slow call volume. We have about 4 minutes between calls.