Shop Talk

What would you consider a loyal customer?
I don't buy tenure or the ability to pay a bill on time "loyalty" especially when you're using it in the same situation where you're going to jump ship over a broken phone.

Mind you, it's summer and it's hot outside, keep the flames on this one low.

👿 So here it is...she was about 70ish, 4 feet tall and 5 feet around with black wooley worms for eyebrows, and looks like she fell out of the ugly tree smacking every branch on her way down...anywho...this stupid b*tch has the NERVE to tell myself and my co-worker that her phone should be lasting 2 weeks on one charge and that 3 days is unacceptable and makes the phone unreliable. She KNOWS that phones should last 2 weeks because all of her friends charge their phones every 2 weeks. SOOOO....I feel sorry for her "friends, if she even has any, if she is with them every single time they charge their phones. One meeting with this woman was enough for us. I wanted to help improve her looks by smashing her nasty ugly face with the 5 pound st...
(continues)

I work at a call center taking calls from Cingular prepaid customer's, and the calls we get are specifically from the South East USA.

These customer's are very different than the ATT Postpaid customer's I dealt with for the last 5 years.

Now I hate to stereotype . . . But the people I talk to definitely make it difficult not to. They are credit challenged, uneducated, and lie about anything and everything.

They must either be hard of hearing or not paying attention, because all they can say is huhhhhh, not pardon me, or could you repeat that, just huhhhh, they sound like geese, it is so annoying.

They don't press the buttons on their phone, they MASH the buttons. I almost fell on the floor when the man I was talking to said, " ...
(continues)

Ok, so I made this site while bored at work, home, in the car, etc...

It's mostly done out of boredom, but customer's are actually using it and I'm getting alot of emails from it...

What's everyone's thoughts, good or bad on it?

http://www.geocities.com/cingularinfo »

because you skipped a payment!

Just wondering what you all think about the sidekick 3. Is this one gonna have as many problems as the first two? This could be a gross exaggeration, but it seems like most of the sidekicks I have sold, I have seen the customer back within a few months because they are having one problem or another.

Sidekick color/bw
It always had hardware problems or reception problems. The screen didn't light up etc.

Sidekick 2
Seemed like it always had software problems and again reception is always the biggest complaint I get.

Sidekick 3
I like the sound of an removable battery. It would definately make troublesooting power issues better. But did they fix the software and the reception issues?

Anyone know if sharp is manufacturing the...
(continues)

There's a woman that's visiting her daughter near me for several months in an extended network analog only area. If she were on a local plan, she would be able to use her phone fine. However, the national plan doesn't recognize towers in that area for reasons unknown to me. She has an out of state number that I can't access, and I don't know if I can put her on a local plan on an out of state number anyway. Since I can't access the account, I call customer service:

Me: This customer is interested in changing her plan to a local Wyoming plan even though she has an Iowa number. Can she do that?

CSR: No, we don't offer local plans any more.

Me: What? I set people up on local plans all the time.

CSR: We no longer offer local...
(continues)

There has been no postage for the last 16 minutes. I find it hard to believe. Screw you guys, I'm going home...





not really, I just wanted to say it... But in 40 minutes I will!!!

I'm just trying to get a better feel for the industry. I'm currently an assistant manager at an indirect location in Rhode Island and I think I might be relocating soon. I'm just trying to get some people's opinions that have worked for both branches. What's your preference?

This guy comes in to get service because his son is booting him from his plan for going over his minutes.

I talked with him for about an hour before convincing him he didn't have to pay an early term fee because he could transfer the number to his name. His son filled his head full of crap and now he's so confused. (he's an older guy). He is still using a gait phone from 3 years ago... but his son upgraded the number to get himself a new phone.

I stayed 45 minutes (overtime baby) later than my shift was scheduled, and still couldn't help him because his son wouldn't answer his phone.(we called him no less than 5 times over that hour he was in the store).

The saddest part is he didn't want to get a line in his own name because he ...
(continues)

I work for a 3pty company inside of Costco. So everyday I'm asked to look at phones, plans, etc. It's not my job but this location is so slow I do it to pass the time by. Anyway, I have this customer who always come in trying to be a big shot. Our conversations always go like this:

Me: Looking bored, spacing out.

Him: Hey, What's the most high tech phone you have? I want everything on it.

Me: Proceeds to show him what we have. Tells him the price.

Him: Price doesn't matter. But I'm thinking on adding 5 lines. So I'm going to need 5 of those phones. ( Being loud)

Me: How about I put your information in the system see how many lines you are eligible for, and take it from there?

Him: Hmm... I have to see if that phone is enou...
(continues)

So here's a question...

You get callers (this is mostly for sales reps) who do or say something that tells your pretty much right away what they're going to come up as Credit-wise. The ones where you KNOW (you don't think you KNOW and 99% of the time you're right too) are going to have a $500 deposit, $250 if you're super lucky. Or the ones (I wish they weren't so rare) where you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that they're going to be perfect credit and not matter how much some of their quirks bug you you know it's going to go the way you want eventually?

Guy has questions about service for his daughter... he's wondering, should he set her up under his account or in her own name. He's contemplating having her do it in HER name so she can establish her credit.

Problem.

His daughter, she's 14!

You only THOUGHT I was bored before.

Office Warfare, a great portion of how I retain my sanity. Unleashing pure and utter hell upon others using nothing but supplies found at an Office Max.

As the self-proclaimed McGuyver of the Service Center industry, I can, I will, and I must master the arts of all Office Guerilla Tactics.

Start with the canned air dart gun.

Made in one of two ways.

1. Simple. Take a paper clip, straighten it, using a pair of snips, clip it. Stuff it down the end of the straw nozzle. Pull trigger, feel pain.

2. More devious, accurate, and will stick in leather shoes, cork board (fun for testing accuracy), foam cups (don't you love hot coffee?), shirts, skin...etc.

Take a coffee stirring straw, fold ...
(continues)

Ok, so this lady is having trouble placing an order on the web and over the phone, they system is refusing her card and has, for reasons unknown to me, flagged it as fraud. She can't do it over the phone or the web, she's going to have to go to a store. She's been told all this already, twice.

She called in asking for a manager. I probed, asking what was going on so I can explain before transferring her. She tells me that the store is charging more than we do on the site and the phone and that's just not acceptable. She tells me we MUST let her do the set up over the phone. I let her know that while I will get a manager on the line, a manager isn't going to be able to do anything.

This is where it gets weird. Her response was "W...
(continues)

Have you ever had someone come in with a billion papers, coupons etc. from all different companies try to make their own plan? "I want the Razr with Sprint's free incoming and Rollover minutes without a contract." What?

Another customer:
Showing me papers where he went to Shoptalk, I think, online and if he signed up for for a new account he would get an a900 for free after both instant and mail in rebates, free bluetooth, and waived activation fee. He's question: Can you beat it? What? Beat it how? Give you my left arm so you operate your a900 with it?


Some people.....

So we've seen these two kids coming the store not once but twice. When confronted the first time they said "just looking around". Saw them walking up and down the strip mall several times. Towards the end of the day, while we were busy (they peered into the store before coming in) they decided to come into the store again.

So I excused myself (after explaining to my customer what I think these kids were up to) to speak with the kids.

Me: excuse me, guys, what are you doing in here?

One of the kids: we're just looking around.

Me: well I've seen in coming in earlier and walking up and down the strip. What are you up to?

Kid: This is my first time in the store.

Me: No I've seen you in here my question is what are you doing in...
(continues)

Lol so I ran someone's credit today. Instead of the normal "No way I'm paying that much!" or the whole "Why is it so much?!" She looked at me dead in the face and said "That's stupid." I was like "Huh?" She said "That's stupid. I don't have bad credit. i have no credit." I told her, "Actually, ma'am, this credit score is an established history of bad credit." She was like "I have a copy of my credit report at home. I got it from a car dealership." Last I checked, car lots don't do credit reports for people... Anyways, she stood there just saying "that's stupid" about 3 more times after I stopped talking to her. SHe said "That's stupid." And I Got on the cmoputer and checked our sales log for the day for discrepencies. She says again, "That's...
(continues)

I'm determined to TRY to be in a good mood today, we'll see how far that goes. I was sort of meditating last night after my Monday beating (good times) on what's been happening here at work and why I get so ticked. It's all sorts of little things that never used to bug the heck out of me but have gotten under my skin more and more lately...

Things like...

Idiots... that's be number one, the sheer stupidity of the people who call in. I find myself craving intelligent conversation. I always used to think I was simply average intelligence (regardless of what my parents said) until I started working here and realized that most people have the IQ of a tree stump. That fact alone shocked me.

The Noise... my new team just generally pi...
(continues)

Go to www.google.com, type in "Motorolla H5" Not "Motorola H5" You have to mis-spell it with that extra L. I just had a customer who did that and he said "Oh dear! The H5, Bluetooth headset or ..." Well you go find out, if it works you'll get a chuckle.