Shop Talk

So, I work in a call center for Cingular wireless through an indirect agent. We sell phones to people in many states, who call in from seeing the ads in AAA magazine and newsletters. Basically it is all old people. well at least 60-70%. I am trying to figure out a way I can get features, and what tactics to use. any advice is helpful! thanks in advance

-Frank

customer: how do i delete pictures?
me: find the picture you want to delete
customer: ok, this one (okay, i didn't need to see it, thanks anyway)
me: press options?
customer: where?
me: top right button below where it says options.
customer: ok, now what?
me: scroll down to delete.
customer: *after some time, frustrated* there is no choice for delete. it only says send, get new, set as, rename, lock, erase, erase all, and zoom view.
me: try erase.

i don't know how i let myself get surprised...

oh and someone just asked me for napkins because their kid dropped their drink... why the hell would i have napkins? does this look like a pretzel stand?

mmm... a pretzel sounds really good...

Just had a customer insist that I had to give him about $700 worth of free phones because he has had insurance on 3 phone for 4 years and never used it. His kids want new phones for Christmas, but they're not eligible for upgrade. I told him the insurance premium is not treated like a credit toward a new phone. He said "don't try to tell me how insurance works. I'm older than your are. I know more than you about life." Here's the rest.

me: "Ok...let me ask. Do you have insurance on your car?"

customer: "what does this have to do with phones."

me: "Answer the question and you might understand."

Customer: "yeah...I have insurance."

me: "When's the last time you had an accident?"

Customer: ???

me: "humor me..."
...
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i work for an agent here in charlotte, and when i go to work today, neither the phones worked or the internet. which means no business. when i picked up the phone is said service suspended due to lack of payment. 😳 Then our DSL was out, which meant we couldn't even log in. our freakin owners need to get their sh!t together. it's frickin embarrassment. oh, and our door lock has been almost un-openable for the last 8 months, and they won't fix it. do they WANT business? 😲

Is it just my company, or does Employee Customer Care totally SUCK?

I have been trying to get international dialing added for almost two weeks and STILL haven't got the approval text message. Finally when I called today the dude I talked to said that there was one additional code missing which is just ridiculous (he's the 4th person I talked to about it). Every time I call customer care I get the runaround or end up talking to someone who doesn't know ****.

I hate it. Although I do love 'so happy Chriiiiistmaaaaas' being belted out by John Lennon 🙂

This is Shop Talk. Defined as a "Discussion area for employees of wireless carriers, including retail and customer service."

This is not the place for you to discuss who you think somebody else is. I don't care who you think they are.

This is not the place to give me your random thoughts about what you ate for dinner last night. Still don't care.

This is not your place to have a personal conversation, especially when you get pissed off because somebody else jumped into the conversation. IT'S A PUBLIC FORUM, DEAL WITH IT. And I still don't care.

This forum is for talking about the industry and to basically vent about the 'tards we deal with on a daily basis.

And if you have a problem with that, too bad! Take it to the Lounge ...
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This guy's had his phone less than four months and it's in non-paid disconnect. He's only made 1 payment the whole time he's had the phone and he didn't understand why his balance was so high.
It doesn't help that my colleague noted that he asked her to take the vision off, and then she didn't take it off. I felt like I'd lost all credibility with him through no fault of my own. And I was right in the middle of a TOL when he came up and he asked me to look up his account. I told him I would be just a moment and he said 'why didn't you tell me that in the first place' and I was thinking 'when? between the time that you walked up and started spouting off or when your non-English speaking mother started chiming in?'
God. Today sucks.

And my boss be damned. He's creepy, watches the store on a webcam(because, y'know, owning your own business is no fun if you have to work the store more than one day a week for four hours, but you need to be able to let the employees know that they can't be trusted, so you watch over their shoulders all day from home), and I'm tired of, every time he notices a customer who's been a b!tch to me(like the woman who just gave me the hand and told me not to bother because she wants to buy in New Hampshire and not pay tax), being accused of not doing my job by saying whatever magic abracadabra I'm supposed to be saying that makes b!tchy people go all doe-eyed for me and eat out of my hand like a dog.

/end rant

I want to hear your most rediculous customer experience ever. please post. I need entertainment on this oh so busy day

/end sarcasm 😳

The Twelve Days of Christmas EMS Style...


On the First day of Christmas, my Dispatcher gave to me...
Grandma who fell and hurt her knee...

On the Second Day of Christmas, my dispatcher gave to me...
2 MG of Narcan for the out of work person who wants to end it all by
taking her Husband's pain pills and won't tell me what she took and is feeling
suicidal....
and grandma who fell and hurt her knee.

On the Third day of Christmas, my dispatcher gave to me....
Three stacked shocks for the 88 year old man who instead of paying the
neighbor kid 5 bucks to shovel his driveway, decided to do it himself
and have the big one in the driveway...
2 Mg of Narcan for the psycho chick trying to off herself...
and grandma who fell and hur...
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I encountered a couple yesterday who had a very interesting cell horror story. They were at a tmo agent in our mall (notorious for being paid on commission only therefore completely ruthless and evil- they yell at you when you walk and often prey on young people) and they were just interested in getting information about plans but weren't out of their current contract yet. The guys asked if he could run their credit to see if they could get service, he also asked for their cell numbers... long story short he ported their numbers to tmo, ending their Sprint contract, and these people never consented to starting a plan, they just came for information. Now they owe sprint 800 for etfs but refused to buy phones from these tmo guys for totally...
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Under most circumstances, I don't let customers get under my skin. 99.9% of the time I just let whatever they say to me slide right off my back. I've got this certain "Northern California" personality to me, where everything just becomes whatever.

About two weeks ago, I had a nightmare-ish customer. And this is about how it went...


A short, tubby man wearing red flannel and khakis walked up to my kiosk, just like every other customer I've ever had... except he just looked comical. (And his toddler son looked comical too, because they were wearing matching outfits.) They looked like something straight out of Fargo.

He asks me, "Hey, let me take a look at the new Blackjack."

Me - "I'm sorry sir, I don't have ...
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would you call to make a payment then when I ask for your checking account number, you tell me to hold on while you go out to your car to get your check book???.... 👿

do you think I care your son is cheating on his wife with the girl down the street...Why are you freaking calling me??? 👿

when I ask for your area code and cellular number do you give me your ZIP CODE???

do you think we"re a non-profit organization that should give you free stuff just for being a long time customer of a whole year... 😡

I don't know what has been going on but someone must think they know me on here but are way off but they are doing a good job of freaking me out 😳 But i think this is stupid if you do not know someone do not say s*** about them and Like I alway say If you do not have nothing to say say nothing at all..... 🙄 I don't talk much

If a visitant comes in with device problems they want fixed, and they got the phone elsewhere, and I allowed to charge them for using my heat?

Ok I really don't understand this so please hopefully someone can make me understand this concept. I have a customer who just came into our store because his phone is not working. He is unable to make or receive calls on it. I told him it would be an hour wait for our tech to check out the phone. When I filled out the ticket and handed it to him, he told me he couldn't drop it off because it was his business phone. If the phone isn't working then what is going to be the harm of dropping off the phone for an hour when you can not use the phone anyway! I think this man fell out of the stupid tree and hit every branch all the way down! 🙄

I love how people act surprised or better yet, get mad at me, when they require a $400 deposit...not my fault your credit's jacked up and you're only 20 y/o 🙄

Please, people, when you call a place of business, speak coherently and in English...leave the slang for when you're with your crew...🙄

Feel free to add on...

So I just had this guy come up and ask me about adding a line to his account. He said he needed to add a line but he had to put a deposit down for his original line. I look it up and find that because his account has been active and in good standing for long enough, he doesn't need to put down a deposit.

I then tell him he can take a RAZR for free today (he requested it and they're on sale). This means he would pay nothing to add a line and he said specifically he wanted to do it. I get like halfway through the activation process and he says "You know...I think I'm gonna wait" and leaves. What the hell? Why did I just waste my time with him? I hate people.

Why is it that customers seem to use no kind of logic when making decisions about their phones? I just had a customer come in who dropped his phone in a bucket of water. He tells me he's pretty sure he has insurance. So I check his account and sure enough, he does. So I give him the info for the insurance company and tell him he just needs to pay the $50 deductible and they will replace his phone. He tells me that's ridiculous, there shouldn't have to pay a deductible. I told him it's the same as any other type of insurance, there's always a deductible. So he tells me he'll just buy a new phone. I tell him fine, they start at $160 retail. He tells me that's too much and he'll just switch phone companies. I tell him fine, it's $175 ...
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