Questions I hate! (ranty)

[angelicafire]

OH MY GOD!

If I hear one more customer ask me "Why is my bill so high?" I think I'll scream. You tell me why your bill is so high! You did it!

Also, "How did I get past due?" Uh... you didn't pay your bill on time? You only paid part of it? What part of "Total amount due on XX/XX/07 do you not understand?

Look at your bills people! It's all there in black and white! I can understand if you don't understand one of the usage abbreviations on the account, but come on. "Roaming-243 minutes @ $.50/minute" is not that hard. Neither is "Balance Forward."

I'm so sick of people who have been customers of ours for years and can't understand their bills. Or they don't even read them and then yell at me when it's high. What's that? You didn't notice you were going over your minutes until you were 1000 minutes over? Well last month you went over by 500. The month before that, you went over by 250. Before that, it was 100. We're not going to call you and tell you to up your minute package. The company WANTS you to go over your minutes, they get more money.

It's the consumer's responsibility to look over their bills. I'm not asking too much, just look over it quarterly, ok? That will at least remind you you have a cell phone bill.

[Boozy]

I think what happens is people just look at the bottom figure (the amount they have to pay) and if its reasonable enough that they can afford it, they pay it and throw the bill away.

So you don't get customers reading their entire bills unless they've already screwed themselves by running up the charges. Then they look at their bills from the perspective of "I'm upset and am going to find some way out of paying this." And because the whole bill is unfamiliar to them, they tend to freak out.

I called my cell provider when I got my first bill because I needed it explained to me. ( I had never had a cell before, and I didn't know what "roaming" was). The woman I spoke to in the billing department sounded very relieved when I explained I didn't have a problem, I just didn't understand.

[Phone Jockey]

OMG, I am with you 100%! If customers would just PAY ATTENTION they'd waste a lot less of their money!!!

[NateTheChops]

This is why I stick to pay as you go. It may seem more expensive than a full contract, but the pay as you go plan is a bit more convenient for my budget.

[rvdammit]

I use pay as you go as well, but if it's been an expensive year I've spent £40 on calls.

[SCSlave]

Oh how I feel your pain. I get that every freaking day.

Here's a question I hate....**I work for a cell phone company in a kiosk in a mall**

F.T customer: "Is this Cingular? (Or ATT, or TMobile, or Verizon...whatever)
Me: **Looks up at big blue and white sign clearly spelling out "Alltel"** "Nope...looks like that spells Alltel..."

Another I hate is people that come up to me and say "I have Verizon/ATT/Tmobile/whatever...and I know you're alltel...but my phone is in roaming and I have a no roaming plan. WHY is it roaming??"

Well I DON"T KNOW! Maybe your plan is NOT a no roaming plan? Maybe your phone is jacked...who the hell knows. They get pissy and complain about how I won't help the 'customer'. Hey guess what F.T? You aren't MY customer. Go annoy Verizon/ATT/Tmobile...whatever.

[1756GR2]

Yep, all of the above.

Your kid ran your 1200-minute plan's bill up to $320 with overage? We offered to credit your overage, raise your plan to 1500 minutes for two lines with unlimited texting and 7-7 nights and weekends so your bill will be for $85 after taxes with no extension of your contract, saving you $235. All you had to do was sign the papers.

Did you do that? Nooooo, you didn't. You got another bill for $300 with overage. You complained. We offered again. You didn't sign the papers again, AND you didn't pay your bills. Your service was interrupted.

Now you're storming up to our kiosk looking and acting like you've been possessed, complaining that you have to pay the additional reconnect fees and your CHIIIILD NEEEEEDS HIS PHOOOOOOOONE. A stroke of the pen would have saved you $450 already and you'd have a working phone that you can afford. You lose, but you win the Ungrateful and Impractical Idiot Award. I'll try not to smile as I embed it into your forehead.

[greensinestro]

Ah, yes, this is why I am glad to not be working in billing any more. I also loved the ones who had their service shut off for non payment, and the question asked was, "Why didn't anybody send a notice or call me first?" Well, we are not required to do that, but at times have done it as a courtesy. However, your actual bill shows the amount due and what date you have to pay it by. It's not up to us to remind you a second time to pay your bill.

How about "When did my rates increase?" They either never did, or you're one of those morons who doesn't read the entire bill under "important information". Notice the word "important". There is useful and valuable information under that heading, and sometimes it's important to know that your rates will be going up. I'll bet you don't bitch and complain about a discount, do you?

[angelicafire]

Ah, yes, this is why I am glad to not be working in billing any more. I also loved the ones who had their service shut off for non payment, and the question asked was, "Why didn't anybody send a notice or call me first?" Well, we are not required to do that, but at times have done it as a courtesy. However, your actual bill shows the amount due and what date you have to pay it by. It's not up to us to remind you a second time to pay your bill.

My response to that has always been "We did send you a reminder. Your bill printed and was mailed on XX/XX/07. The due date is in bold in 4 places on the front page."

[LifeCarnie]

Heh.

You'd love my ex- . I once agreed to take on a second phone that she was payin g for in order to help her out financially. She constantly screwed up her minutes and was consistently over. She swore that she never used the phone that much.

Her phone company eventually cut her off.

Her new Beau put her on his plan with 1000 minutes a month of her own minutes. In the first week she had the phone she used 380 minutes, which was average for her, but you know....she doesn't use her phone much.

[AmericanZero8503]

My most hated phone question:

"Uhhhhh....yeah, did you call me?"
--Usually the result of them finding the number on their caller ID. There are about 20-40 phones in this building that have access to that line...and no, I don't know who called you.

[1756GR2]

Greensinestro, we get those, too. They fall flat on their faces when we remind them that over the past three weeks they were sent a Past Due notice, two tiers of text messages, and then got a call (undoubtedly left on voice mail when they didn't answer) from their activating sales rep (yeah, I get to do sales, customer service, repairs, troubleshooting AND collections work) two days before suspension telling them that they will be suspended in two days if they don't pay. And they get two reminders that they have to listen to before they can listen to their voice mails. We pretty much wipe their ... oh, well. You know.

They try "I didn't get the bill," after which I kindly (like the sweet gramma I am ) remind them that they KNOW when their bill is due, they KNOW when they're getting close to due date, and they KNOW they can call us for their balance or drop in to have their bill printed off.

Sympathy - 0.

[myswtghst]

"Uhhhhh....yeah, did you call me?"
--Usually the result of them finding the number on their caller ID. There are about 20-40 phones in this building that have access to that line...and no, I don't know who called you.

Grr. I hate this as well. We have one generic dial out number for our call center, which includes 8+ distinct groups and a number of management peoples as well, all of whom sit in different areas, including some in a seperate building, during the day. I'm sure someone from here called you, but unless it's the middle of the night and there are only a few of us here, I haven't the faintest who it was or why, and I'm not going to waste the next half hour or more trying to figure it out.

[smileyeagle1021]

the questions I really hate are the ones that are so painfully obviously that you are caught off guard that someone is asking...
like "why are your rates so high in manhatan on (insert holiday)"

...umm, because it's manhatan on (insert holiday)...

[hotelnpa]

When we are sold out, which happens frequently during the week, people ask "Why are you sold ouuutttt???" Because we are full genius..duh...