and how am I supposed to help??

[CellPhoneSlave]

Me again, cell phone slave from the worst cell phone company.... This wonderful conversation happened last night.

We get calls from agents from our stores, who have no training about pre pay service and then we have other stores that arent corporate, but do sell our stuff..

I dont know which one is worse.


Well, this one made me want to leave my job.

Me: Thank you for calling the worst cell phone company, this is cellphone slave, may I have your name and your ten digit mobile number?

SC: Yes this is ignorant jerk from blah blah blah. I am having trouble adding these minutes on to this account.

Me: (This happens, not upset yet) Okay sure I'd be more then happy to help you here mr. ignorant jerk. Can i have the mobile number.

SC: *reads off a number*

Me: Okay, I am not finding this in my system as an active prepay number. Let me make sure this is the right number *repeats the number*

SC: Yes, thats the number.

Me: I am not finding this in my system which means that ethier it is no longer active, or is with another cell phone company that uses our phones.

SC: Its active, I just called it.. call it, you can tell its your phone.

ME: Sir, I am unable to find out what company the phone is with by calling it. What I can do is give you the number to another company that uses our phones.

SC: So you aren't going to add these minutes?

ME: Since it is not with my company, no I can not add these minutes for you.

SC: Yes, it is with your company.

ME: Sir, if this phone number was a worst cell phone company number, it would come up in my system.

SC: Is there anyone there who knows how to do thier job that can put this minutes on the account?

Me: SUre, there are several others people here, but there is nobody that can add minutes to an account that does not exist. What i can do is provide you with a number for another company that could help you.

SC: I'll just hang up on you and call back and find someone that will do this for me.

Me: Okay well sir thank you for calling the worst cell phone company, have a good day.


No, its not over yet....


Five minutes later, I hear someone a couple desks away from me saying that this is not an account, and they could not do anything. Same thing i just told him.

Finally the jerk talked to a supervisor and got it thru his thick skull that this wasnt our phone number..


People, how can you not know what cell phone company you have???

[AFpheonix]

The same kind of people that motor through my pharmacy, swear up and down that they dropped off their script with us not 2 hours ago..... until they sheepishly realize that they are at W, not Rite Aid. Then they leave, no apology. Yep....gotta love them arseholes....

[Becks]

Don't you know? Every company, service and item is interchangeable. It makes no difference who you call, where you go, what you need. It's all the same!!!

[CellPhoneSlave]

thanks to my roommate, who also works with me, I have a response to the people who want to use our prepaid cards on another phone.


Well, thats like going to mcdonalds and getting a whopper.

And then I made this one up, for people who want me to fix their phones while they are on it.



Thats like changing a tire while you're driving down the street.

[DGoddessChardonnay]

Don't you know? Every company, service and item is interchangeable. It makes no difference who you call, where you go, what you need. It's all the same!!!

And everybody's computers are interconnected with everyone else's. Meaning that WM is supposed to be able to tell you the exact number of X item on hand at the nearest Target store of your choice.

Same w/pharmacies: drop off your scrip at CVS and pick it up at Eckerd's - Eckerd's can just pull up your file.

Maybe in the town of Perfect it can be done. But we're not in Perfect, are we?

[pbmods]

Same w/pharmacies: drop off your scrip at CVS and pick it up at Eckerd's - Eckerd's can just pull up your file.

Wouldn't you like that? Let's just share your medical records with Everywhere Else!

[chainedbarista]

god forbid we try to clear up the issue with franchise and corporate stores; that really throws them (but not nearly far enough...).

[ThePhoneGoddess]

cellphoneslave, I also deal with prepaid accounts. I actually work for a payment processing company that deals with the prepaid accounts for multiple major cell companies. Could we be in the same building?

[protege]

The same kind of people that motor through my pharmacy, swear up and down that they dropped off their script with us not 2 hours ago..... until they sheepishly realize that they are at W, not Rite Aid.

What's even better, are people that go to one store location to drop something off...then go to *another* location to pick it up.

I'm actually guilty of this one Many years ago, it happened with the Mazda dealerships in town. Pittsburgh has 2, at opposite ends of town. Anyway, if the car needed minor work, what I'd usually do, is drop it off at Dealer #2, then walk the 4 blocks to work. At 4:30 or 5pm, I'd call them up, walk down there, then drive back to work, or if it's after 5, home.

That didn't happen one day. As usual, I dropped the car off and walked to work that morning. Usually, Dealer #2 is pretty good about calling when the car's done. This time though, noon passed, then 2pm, 3pm...and no word from them. Wondering what's up, I pulled out my phonebook and called.

...and then the fun began. As I'm on the phone with them, they said they couldn't find my car and that there was no record of it being there. I was getting a bit pissed, since my car was gone, and I couldn't get home! But, after about 20 minutes of this, it dawned on me. Stupid me called *Dealer #1,* the same place where I'd *bought* the car...instead of Dealer #2, where it was being worked on.

...and yes, we all had a good laugh at my expense Throughout the whole exchange, I was pretty polite about it, and I apologized for wasting their time. Why should I get pissy over *my* mistake?

[CRXPanda]

People have no clue when they are returning either...all auto parts stores that begin with the letter "A" are really the same store chain. (ahem, yeah shure they are) I can't say how many times I have been handed an AdvanceAutoParts receipt for a refund. Worse than that, having the person get angry for waiting so long in the queue before being told they were in the wrong establishment...

Well E-T-F-O-M!!
Mind reading isn't a job requirement, never has, never will.
Now, go across the street, boohoo, I know, hear it all day.
Big baby!!!

[protege]

Protege, we all have 'duhh' moments like that.

Hehe in fact, as soon as I said "is this Dealer #2" and they said no, I was like "D'oh!"

[pbmods]

Well E-T-F-O-M!!

Erm... ETFOM?

[CellPhoneSlave]

cellphoneslave, I also deal with prepaid accounts. I actually work for a payment processing company that deals with the prepaid accounts for multiple major cell companies. Could we be in the same building?

No, I don't believe we do... The building im in is just one cell phone company

[Barefootgirl]

People, how can you not know what cell phone company you have???

I'd say, "you'd be amazed at people's stupidity", but obviously, you wouldn't....

Back in the day (about a million years ago), there was a thing called GlobalRoam, which allowed UK mobile phone users to keep their own numbers when travelling in the US. Basically, we did a simple forward at the switch which connected the Cellnet or Vodafone UK number to a GTE AMPS phone, and forwarded all calls to the Cellnet/Vodafone number onto the AMPS phone. It was perfectly transparent to the end-user - all they had to do was give us their detials and we couriered a pre-programmed AMPS phone out to them before their trip, and picked it up from them when they returned. It cost an absolute bomb to use, but for many businessmen, it was a lifesaver.

The problem was, even in the days before mass use of mobile phones, many people had no idea who their operator was. Every day, i would speak to some wally who, when asked whether his phone service was with Cellnet or Vodafone would proudly answer, "Neither, its a Nokia / Ericsson / Philips". Some people actually refused to believe that Nokia does not provide phone service in the UK and would get quite shirty. I was allowed to hang up on the rude people, which was the most wonderful part of my job.