I went through four cable company reps today. Does that make me a sucky customer?

[CKoch]

Rant alert!

I wanted to get set up for basic cable. By basic, I mean basic. Nothing more than a few broadcast channels, no HD, and no internet or phone. The prior owner of the property told me I could get it for $20/month. I looked all over the cable company's web site for the package and could not find the package in question.

So I call the cable company and tell them what I am looking for. No joy. I have to buy the enhanced version with the international package for $33.99 even though I have no interest in any channels broadcasting in Mandarin, Filipino, or Russian. Or I can get digital for $50/month and pay for a bunch of channels I don't want. The kid finally admits that there is a cheaper package but "no one buys it" and he is not willing to confirm the price or channel lineup in writing, claiming the information is on the company web site. No it is not, I already checked, but thank you for your time ~hang up~

So I go to the web site to see if maybe I missed the info. Nope, it is either not there or buried so deep no one will ever find it, but a window pops up and asks me if I want to chat. Sure! Why not?

I go through not one, not two, but THREE chat representatives, all of whom put me "on hold" for several minutes and none of whom would confirm that there is a basic package for around $20/month. I bid them adieu, log off, then provide some ~ahem~ frank feedback on their customer survey.

After doing some other stuff for a while to take my mind off it, I decided to call the number for one of the local offices, which, of course, put me back in the original queue. Oh great, I think, here we go again.

Au contraire! A very sweet sounding young lady with a southern drawl not only set me up with what I wanted withh a confirmation e-mail and no intolerable effort to get me to "buy up," but also congratulated me on my new home, wished me an early happy birthday, and exchanged pleasantries about the weather. I e-mailed the cable company back after the transaction to tell them that this young lady would serve as a good role model for her peers. Pleasant, efficient, and provided me with what I asked for.

Why the other four reps would not provide the same service is beyond me. I understand they are all trained to try to sell you a more expensive plan, but are they all trained to lie?

Sometimes it's just dumb luck that you get a rep who has a customer focus.

[Hyndis]

I encountered the same problem. I wanted just a dumb phone. I work with computers all day long, and I do not want to have yet another computer in my pocket everywhere. I wanted a phone to make and receive phone calls. NOTHING MORE.

It took some doing to get that taken care of. Its astounding at how hard it was to find someone willing to just sell me a simple, no frills phone.

I get internet from this company so I was hoping to add on a dumb phone in addition to internet, so everything could be taken care of all at once. Turns out that can't happen. For some reason. No one ever explained it to me as to why.

Eventually I just went over to the rival company, and they got me set up within 10 minutes. Also their phone is a helluva lot cheaper and does exactly what I want. Which is just to make phone calls.

[MoonCat]

Tracfones are simple and cheap. Some models can go online but it uses up your airtime so I don't bother. They even have monthly plans, although I just buy the time cards when I need them.

My guess on the cable reps? The first four were new or fairly recent employees and had been trained to upsell-upsell-upsell!!! Probably with one of those extremely annoying supersales training programs.

The nice lady, I would guess, has been there a while, has seen sales programs, promos and bosses come and go, and knows that the best way to keep a customer is to sell them what they need, not what the company wants them to buy.

[raudf]

I encountered the same problem. I wanted just a dumb phone. I work with computers all day long, and I do not want to have yet another computer in my pocket everywhere. I wanted a phone to make and receive phone calls. NOTHING MORE.

It took some doing to get that taken care of. Its astounding at how hard it was to find someone willing to just sell me a simple, no frills phone.

I get internet from this company so I was hoping to add on a dumb phone in addition to internet, so everything could be taken care of all at once. Turns out that can't happen. For some reason. No one ever explained it to me as to why.

Eventually I just went over to the rival company, and they got me set up within 10 minutes. Also their phone is a helluva lot cheaper and does exactly what I want. Which is just to make phone calls.

After listening to my hubby rant about something similar.. because in his estimation, selling a smart phone to 80 year old ladies who have no idea how to use a computer is a BAD IDEA.

It turns out that most companies don't make money off their voice minutes any more. It's the data that's doing it, so they want you to upgrade to a smart phone so you'll have at least the minimum data package and then when you get hooked and go over that pittance, they can hook you up with a more expensive plan. Nice little loop isn't it? So most carriers are phasing out the dumbsets.

[telecom_goddess]

Yeah but what about when tablets take over and phones will just be phones again.....cause it's gonna happen I know it.

[raudf]

Yeah but what about when tablets take over and phones will just be phones again.....cause it's gonna happen I know it.

More programs like Skype, only owned by the telco, me thinks.

[Wordsworth]

Nah, you were only a sucky customer if you acted like one. Ya know, the name-calling, the baseless accusations, the meaningless threats.....

[smileyeagle1021]

The nice lady, I would guess, has been there a while, has seen sales programs, promos and bosses come and go, and knows that the best way to keep a customer is to sell them what they need, not what the company wants them to buy.

This is why I love buying cars through Larry H Miller dealerships (sadly, none where I am living now, but hopefully won't be needing a car soon). The sales people are commissioned, like almost every other car dealership, but their commission isn't based on the sales price of the vehicle, but rather the profit margin, which is pretty consistent among price brackets, so the salesman has no motivation to upsell you over what you need... and the dealership is fine with this because they'd rather sell three Sonics and make say $1000 a piece profit than try to force those buyers into Malibus that they make $2000 profit on it, but have two of them walk away. Not only that, but by not trying to force me into something more than I need, they now have me giving them a glowing review that could earn them more business.

[PepperElf]

no you're not sucky.

you stated what you wanted and what you intended to pay. the first 3 reps tried to strong-arm you into something you didn't want for a price that's higher than your intended budget.

there's nothing wrong in saying "no deal" and walking.