Shop Talk

Oh my God we just had a ridiculous customer who was nice as pie until he found out that swapping the phone on his account restarted his rebate. We generally override those with no problem but he immediately started getting hot saying "WHY! WHY DIDN'T ANYBODY TELL ME THAT?!?!" so of course, there's nothing we can do for him and he has to call customer care 😁

We all see people come in wanting to activate lines that end up with huge deposits to get a phone activated - but this is likely the most uplifting activation (rather, three) I have ever done.


Initially this kid came to my kiosk, and activated two lines with me at $100 a line. ($200) Three weeks later he came back into my store, wanting a third line, and he got a $300 deposit decision. (Too many phone lines too close together at once. But somehow I convinced him to pay another chunk of cash, and now he's $500 into it on deposits. But with how hard this kid works, I'm sure he'll see it back.)

Good kid though. 18-years-old, and he's got three phone lines in his name. One for him, one for his friend - and then the one today he spent $30...
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Ok, I figured this was worth posting, simply to know if my custies are just stupider than average!

Me: *begins filling in the activation form, 1000$ deposit pops up* .. I'm sorry to inform you but there will be a 1000$ deposit to proceed with the activation today.

Cust.: What? I'm not paying that! Can't you just, take care of it?

(At this point I can't help but think, what, do you want ME to pay for your deposit?)

Me: The only way to "take care of it" is actually to .. pay it, and it will be given back to you in a year

Cust.: *pauses* Well, you've just lost a sale bud!

I probably did, but hey, its not my fault if you have a 1000$ deposit for a phone, now try getting a loan for a car, bud!

... 👿

Is that the new saying for scumbag customers that dont pay their bills?

😎 🤣

This happens all the time. I come back from a hold, I've got some good news for the customer, but first I have to explain what caused the billing problem, so they don't think we're just handing out money...So I begin to explain the billing issue and within 5-10 seconds they go crazy like a little kid at the toy store. And after like a minute of mind numbing rambling/whining, I'm like "Mam...Mam...MRS JEFFERSON. Allow me to finish and you'll see there is nothing to be upset about." And the customer goes on...and on..and on. Enough to the point where I am forcing myself to not say "Will you fu**** listen for a second? instead I just take my headset off for a second, place it down, make a comment to my neighbor who is laughing at me, take a dee...
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Dear Mr./Ms. Customer:

You have a deposit for one of a few reasons...

1. You have no credit history. Go develop some credit. If you exist, and you're above the age of 18 - please get some friggin' credit.

2. You have bad credit.


Now to detail reason number two:

You want better credit? Really. Oh, let me explain how...

You know that nice Acura parked outside that the repo man is looking for? Make a few payments on it every once in a while. Creditors like that sorta thing.

Those $150 Jordan's you're wearing and making payments on? Don't do that anymore. Shoes aren't worth financing.

"Rent and Roll" - you rented rims for your car, and never returned them? First of all, lets start with the fact that you attempted...
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has any one in here used it before?

God I'm sick of that phone already...

OK, so a friend of mine has crap credit; she came up with a 1000 dollar deposit on VZW when I ran her, and I know that Sprint is a lower deposit than us, so she's thinking of going there. My question is, what kind of deposit do you think she's looking at with them for two lines?

I saw the most disturbing faceplace I've ever seen on a phone today:

It was a picture of a p*rnographic scene, involving a b*tthole.

By the way - who sells this sh*t?


(It was pretty funny though. Me trying not to laugh and all.)

Why are so many people so freaked out by the idea of a contract when it comes to cell phone service? I have lots of people ask if we have pre-paid so they don't have to sign a contract, and these aren't just the people that have bad credit and don't want to pay a deposit. People act like signing a contract is so horrible.

But really, when you consider the costs of signing up with a new cell phone carrier, I wouldn't WANT to switch unless I didn't get good reception in my area, which I would know within the 30 day return policy anyway. If you switch, you have a new $36 activation fee, another pro-rated bill, the cost of a new phone (and the fact that your old phone is then worthless), purchasing new accessories for your new phone.

Ou...
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So last night AFTER WE CLOSED... we aren't supposed to even be able to take calls after 6 pm on weekends but Customer Care got through to me just after 6. The agent was really hassled and explained that there was a customer who had tried to call us but called care. Well care was super busy at the time and so the customer had a fairly hefty hold time (not my fault, sorry) and wanted to place an order for two lines. I said, well ok, we're technically closed but I'll take it since they've had such a hard time.

They were PSYCHO! Would not listen to a word I said, were convinced I had NO clue what I was talking about with the phones... I went over five phones with them and they didn't like any of the choices and the one (T609) they didn't ...
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I had a customer earlier stop and ask to see our "best" phone.

Cust: Show me your best phone!

Me: What kind of qualities are you looking for?

Cust: Just show me your best phone!

Me: What category of best do you want? Reception? Durability? Camara? Overall Features?

Cust: Just show me your best phone!

Me: Best is a matter of opinion, it depends on what you want the phone to do.

Cust: Fine, I'll just go somewhere else!

Me: Okay, have a nice day.

I know there must be more than one phone you can use for the chaperone service on Verizon wireless.... Does anybody know what those phones are, besides the Razr?

Just a thought; wouldn't it be great to have a store where you had all of the national carriers, and got paid the same for each one? "oh, you don't like Sprint? Have you seen our T-Mobile phones?" "OK you had a thousand dollar deposit for Verizon, would you like to check with Sprint?".

I know there's a store in Massachusetts(I think it's Framingham) that's like that; I just think it'd be wicked cool to have that many options.

ohhh you mean its (the 299.99 blackberry) not free if i upgrade my plan.... one more time...im going to go out in the parking lot and jump in front of a bus!

The owner of my agent company got me this cool name tag that says "hablo espanol" on it. 🙄 He saw me help a hispanic customer speaking spanish (obviously struggling through it) and decided, wow I got to get this kid a new nametag! Yay, a white boy with half fluent spanish becomes instantly advertised as 100% fluent. Fantastic...

I'm doing a port in and need some help.

Here's a creative answer:

"Well, the phone would cost ($$$$), and then there's the cost of minutes, and the agent activation fee. Minutes can be paid in cash or credit card, but the agent activation fee must be paid in cash today, and it's non-refundable."

My personal "agent activation fee" (or as I like to call it, "lunch money"), is $20.

Be creative, because people are complete idiots.

BTW Wayne, I just saw a REALLY sweet ass walk by. I got SOOOO much eye candy here.