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Wow, this is a doozy. Okay, I work in the Activations Dept in a call center for a well known cell phone company. This means that I run credit, activate new lines, give add on approval for additional lines for existing customers, etc. Mostly I only deal with sales reps from sales offices who call in on behalf of the customer to make changes to the account. You'd think that they would be easier to deal with than actual customers and most of them actually are very nice to work with, but then you get the EVIL ones. This happened last week, but I found out just how far it went this morning. WARNING: this is verrry long.
So Friday morning, an Assistant Sales Manager (ASM), Betty called in for add on approval. Basically the customer had a non-pay suspend and couldn't add on without a deposit until next month. I told Betty this. They also had an outstanding past due amount that they needed to take care of before next month if they wanted to do an add on then. I gave this info to the Betty as well. She told me that it was a billing mistake and blah blah blah. I told her that the customer would need to call customer care to get that straightened out. I promptly forgot about the call.
Later that afternoon, we find out that Jane, a sales rep in the same store as Betty, has been calling repeatedly to get an add on approved for no deposit for the same account. She ended up calling both departments a combined total of 4 times (the customer called 4 times to cust care as well) before my supervisor got on the phone and asked her to stop calling because the decision would not change no mattter how many times she did. Then she put her ASM Betty on the phone who also argued with him. I was able to hear my sups side of the conversation and she got owned (or so I thought) and he promised to let someone higher up know about what she'd been doing and hung up.
Here's the chronology of the phone calls:
9AM: I talked to Betty about adding a line (deposit required unless they wait until August to activate because of a non-pay suspend they had previously) and that there is a past due amount that will need to be taken care of regardless of if they activate now or before August. Betty tells me that the customer should not be past due and that it is a billing mistake, I tell her to figure that part out with billing.
I clearly told her that it was b/c of a non-pay suspend that they had to pay a deposit unless they waited until August. Then I also told her about the outstanding balance so that the customer could get it taken care of and wouldn't have to worry about anything once August hit. Less than two weeks away from being able to add a line with no deposit and they make it into this huge situation.
9:15 AM: Customer calls cust. care saying that she isn't supposed to be past due. She is told that a payment was backed out a month ago and was never paid. Customer decided she would call her bank to make sure.
10:15 AM: Customer calls back, very upset that she owes more than she thought. She is told all charges are valid and the cust demands to speak to a supervisor but hangs up by the time one shows up.
10:30 AM: Customer calls back to cust. care and pays bill in full complaining that she didn't get a bill last month and couldn't add a line b/c of the past due amount. She pays and will go to sales office to get third line. (( the way the memo from cust was worded, Betty/Jane interpreted it to mean that cust. care said the customer could add a line that day with no deposit. There's no way customer care would say this b/c they know that activations handles that. What probably happened is that cust. care just parroted what the customer said and told her she would need to go to a sales office to activate the add on without knowing that the past due was not the reason she couldn't add a line)) The payment goes through at noon.
12:30: Jane calls Activations to do the add on and is told no due to the non-pay suspend and is backed up by my memos from before.
12:50: Jane calls again and is told no by a different activations rep.
12:55: Jane calls customer care wanting to know why the deposit is required. Customer care tranfers her to activations b/c they have nothing to do with that.
12:56: Jane argues with activations rep about the deposit. Manager is standing behind the rep and tells him to tell her to stop calling because the answer will not change. Manager ends up getting on phone and tells her to stop it.
1:30: Jane leaves memos saying that the customer was upset b/c customer care said she could add the line that day with no deposit (not true) and that the customer would cancel. When she called back, the manager she spoke to was rude and yelling at her and interrupted her when she was trying to explain. Apparently she was trying to save the customer from cancelling her account. Even if that was the case, she would have to file a credit waiver with her DSM first because even if the customer wanted to cancel if she couldn't add a line, we couldn't do anything unless her DSM approved it and sent us notification AND SHE KNOWS THIS!!!
2:10: The customer calls cust care again upset b/c she was getting "the runaround" The cust care rep left memos with what the customer said and how the cust wanted to cancel. The cust care rep also put that the dealer wouldn't contact the manager to get an override on the decision because she didn't want to lose commission. I don't know if the customer said this or if the CC rep put in her own two cents. But it's bad if the CC rep did this since Betty and Jane have access to the memos and can read them.
Anyway, the submit a credit waiver to the DSM and he emails the credit waiver person on my team and the add on is approved for no deposit and is activated Saturday morning. I don't know why she didn't just do that in the first place.
Here's the kicker, in the email she sent to her DSM trying to get him to approve the add on she said that my manager was very rude and wouldn't listen to her and was yelling at her. She also said that the last memo left by customer care was a complete lie b/c the customer called in front of them. Which is stupid because the customer DID threaten to cancel and that is why they had to "save" the customer.
They brought it on themselves because if she had shot off an email to her DSM earlier in the morning, he would have approved it and sent notification to us (all four credit waiver activation reps were here on Friday, so one of them would have gotten it within an hour of the DSM having sent it) and the add on could have been activated before three o clock instead of the customer having to wait around for like four hours. It's so stupid because Betty, being an ASM knew this and actually has direct contact information for the DSM.
So Friday morning, an Assistant Sales Manager (ASM), Betty called in for add on approval. Basically the customer had a non-pay suspend and couldn't add on without a deposit until next month. I told Betty this. They also had an outstanding past due amount that they needed to take care of before next month if they wanted to do an add on then. I gave this info to the Betty as well. She told me that it was a billing mistake and blah blah blah. I told her that the customer would need to call customer care to get that straightened out. I promptly forgot about the call.
Later that afternoon, we find out that Jane, a sales rep in the same store as Betty, has been calling repeatedly to get an add on approved for no deposit for the same account. She ended up calling both departments a combined total of 4 times (the customer called 4 times to cust care as well) before my supervisor got on the phone and asked her to stop calling because the decision would not change no mattter how many times she did. Then she put her ASM Betty on the phone who also argued with him. I was able to hear my sups side of the conversation and she got owned (or so I thought) and he promised to let someone higher up know about what she'd been doing and hung up.
Here's the chronology of the phone calls:
9AM: I talked to Betty about adding a line (deposit required unless they wait until August to activate because of a non-pay suspend they had previously) and that there is a past due amount that will need to be taken care of regardless of if they activate now or before August. Betty tells me that the customer should not be past due and that it is a billing mistake, I tell her to figure that part out with billing.
I clearly told her that it was b/c of a non-pay suspend that they had to pay a deposit unless they waited until August. Then I also told her about the outstanding balance so that the customer could get it taken care of and wouldn't have to worry about anything once August hit. Less than two weeks away from being able to add a line with no deposit and they make it into this huge situation.
9:15 AM: Customer calls cust. care saying that she isn't supposed to be past due. She is told that a payment was backed out a month ago and was never paid. Customer decided she would call her bank to make sure.
10:15 AM: Customer calls back, very upset that she owes more than she thought. She is told all charges are valid and the cust demands to speak to a supervisor but hangs up by the time one shows up.
10:30 AM: Customer calls back to cust. care and pays bill in full complaining that she didn't get a bill last month and couldn't add a line b/c of the past due amount. She pays and will go to sales office to get third line. (( the way the memo from cust was worded, Betty/Jane interpreted it to mean that cust. care said the customer could add a line that day with no deposit. There's no way customer care would say this b/c they know that activations handles that. What probably happened is that cust. care just parroted what the customer said and told her she would need to go to a sales office to activate the add on without knowing that the past due was not the reason she couldn't add a line)) The payment goes through at noon.
12:30: Jane calls Activations to do the add on and is told no due to the non-pay suspend and is backed up by my memos from before.
12:50: Jane calls again and is told no by a different activations rep.
12:55: Jane calls customer care wanting to know why the deposit is required. Customer care tranfers her to activations b/c they have nothing to do with that.
12:56: Jane argues with activations rep about the deposit. Manager is standing behind the rep and tells him to tell her to stop calling because the answer will not change. Manager ends up getting on phone and tells her to stop it.
1:30: Jane leaves memos saying that the customer was upset b/c customer care said she could add the line that day with no deposit (not true) and that the customer would cancel. When she called back, the manager she spoke to was rude and yelling at her and interrupted her when she was trying to explain. Apparently she was trying to save the customer from cancelling her account. Even if that was the case, she would have to file a credit waiver with her DSM first because even if the customer wanted to cancel if she couldn't add a line, we couldn't do anything unless her DSM approved it and sent us notification AND SHE KNOWS THIS!!!
2:10: The customer calls cust care again upset b/c she was getting "the runaround" The cust care rep left memos with what the customer said and how the cust wanted to cancel. The cust care rep also put that the dealer wouldn't contact the manager to get an override on the decision because she didn't want to lose commission. I don't know if the customer said this or if the CC rep put in her own two cents. But it's bad if the CC rep did this since Betty and Jane have access to the memos and can read them.
Anyway, the submit a credit waiver to the DSM and he emails the credit waiver person on my team and the add on is approved for no deposit and is activated Saturday morning. I don't know why she didn't just do that in the first place.
Here's the kicker, in the email she sent to her DSM trying to get him to approve the add on she said that my manager was very rude and wouldn't listen to her and was yelling at her. She also said that the last memo left by customer care was a complete lie b/c the customer called in front of them. Which is stupid because the customer DID threaten to cancel and that is why they had to "save" the customer.
They brought it on themselves because if she had shot off an email to her DSM earlier in the morning, he would have approved it and sent notification to us (all four credit waiver activation reps were here on Friday, so one of them would have gotten it within an hour of the DSM having sent it) and the add on could have been activated before three o clock instead of the customer having to wait around for like four hours. It's so stupid because Betty, being an ASM knew this and actually has direct contact information for the DSM.
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