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Had a whopper of a day today. Here are some highlights worth sharing:
Early into my shift, a flaming mad geezer calls in disputing his bill. He was charged $56 dollars and was told the bill would be prorated since he activated and canceled within 14 days. He had the service 5 days. Ok, sure, checked the account and found that for some reason the system didn't take off his Activation Fee, so I take that off and let him know he only owes $15. He then tears into me about how he didn't get service in his home and that we shouldn't have ever offered him service in the first place if we knew he didn't get service there (funny thing about that - we didn't know) and that we misrepresented our service to him and he shouldn't have to pay anything. I explained that he used 22 minutes in the 5 days he had service and he started screaming about how can we charge $15 for 22 minutes. Well, bucko, it's because we're not a prepaid service and we don't charge per minute. The bill was prorated for the days it was active, nothing more and nothing less. He tells me he's going to tear up the bill and throw it in the trash, we won't get one cent out of him. Ok, fine. Do what you want with the bill, but understand that if you don't pay it, you will have to deal with the consequences (i.e. a collections agency coming after you). He then demanded to speak to a supervisor, who, after I told the customer would not credit the charges, and told my lead to not give this guy a credit (because sometimes he's just too dang nice), he gives the jerk a credit and now I look like the evil ice queen and my lead is his hero.
The next fun call was from this dingleberry who was irate because his wife called in and changed his plan on his line and he just found out about it. He wanted his old plan back, which was a promotion from about 3 years ago that isn't even in the system anymore, meaning no one can give that plan back to him. Oh, and guess how long ago his wife changed his plan? September 2005. A bloody year and a half ago! The customer's defense was (one of my favorites, by the way), that he never looks at his bill, he just pays whatever it says to pay. Well, guess why we send you a bill? So you know what you're paying for and can make sure everything is exactly the way you want it. If you don't bother to read it, then you can just look in the mirror and call the person staring blankly back at you a moron. Then he said our competitor sent him a letter offering him 5000 minutes for $99.99 a month. I pulled up their website (guess he didn't know I'd bother to research this) and, lo and behold, this plan doesn't exist. In fact, they don't have a 5000 minute plan period. So then, of course, he decided he would think things over and decide what to do, meaning he'll probably keep calling back until he's satisfied that he's A) not getting his old plan back and B) we can clearly see he's full of crap.
Next comes a guy who opened his flip phone only to have the hinge snap. But we should replace the phone because it's not damaged. Uh, broken hinge = not damaged? Sorry, we're not in Bizzarro World. Oh, it's not his fault, he never dropped it or anything. The only way a hinge breaks is if you use excessive force opening/closing the phone. Usually it happens from guys who try to look cool using their phone by flicking their wrist with enough force to make it swing open/closed. Anyway, the manufacturer doesn't care how the damage got there, it voids the warranty regardless. 20 minutes of screaming at me ensued.
Had about 10 people cancel because they're moving to China. What this means is that they activated a new account from a store in Chinatown because the dealer is a friend/relative who makes commission off the newly activated service. Then they say they're moving to China because they think I don't get this day in and day out and don't know what's really going on, so I won't even bother trying to talk them into keeping the old account. And most of the time it's the dealer calling in pretending to be the customer, like I'm not going to hear all the customers in the store and sales being rang up in the background.
Let's not forget the ray of sunshine that crossed my path later in the afternoon. The rep who transferred her to me told me this lady was at a store and she had warned the customer to stop screaming at the sales reps, so I knew this was going to be a blast. She upgraded her plan and agreed to a contract in January, and was offered a free phone at the time. She had been in her car and couldn't see the phone, so she wanted to know if she could call back later that day and still get the deal on the phone. The rep told her she would be eligible for the discount any time, even though they already renewed her contract, and she somehow took this to mean that if she called back 2 months later, we'd give her the free phone without changing her contract date. I let her know the rep in January had not lied to her, he had been under the impression that she was going to call back later that same day, not 2 months later. She then told me to stop trying to "sell" her the phone, and remarked how horrible it was that they train us on how to lie to people and mislead them to get a sale (they don't, actually. We aren't "selling" a damn thing, that's not our job). She told me to stop "talking out of both sides of my mouth," 3 times, and on the last time I opened my mouth and had to hit my mute and take a deep breath because I almost snapped back with "No, you need to listen with both ears." She wound up saying that she was going to report me to the FCC and hung up. Oh dear, now my life is over.
Then there came the last call of the day, which ran 45 minutes and took me 15 minutes over my time to logout and go home. This lady wanted to upgrade her phone. She had a 2 year old RAZR and wanted something "similar" but not the RAZR because she said it was a junk phone and everyone she knows has problems with it. I must have gone over every single phone we have right now, and with each one she wanted to know the size of the device compared to the RAZR, the features compared to the RAZR, and constantly reminded me how bad the RAZR is. Now try to imagine my face twitching as she says, after tediously slogging through all the phones, that she'll take a RAZR. Don't choke on it, sister, and by the way, thanks for wasting 45 minutes of my life that I'll never get back!
So begins a fun-filled new week in customer service.
Early into my shift, a flaming mad geezer calls in disputing his bill. He was charged $56 dollars and was told the bill would be prorated since he activated and canceled within 14 days. He had the service 5 days. Ok, sure, checked the account and found that for some reason the system didn't take off his Activation Fee, so I take that off and let him know he only owes $15. He then tears into me about how he didn't get service in his home and that we shouldn't have ever offered him service in the first place if we knew he didn't get service there (funny thing about that - we didn't know) and that we misrepresented our service to him and he shouldn't have to pay anything. I explained that he used 22 minutes in the 5 days he had service and he started screaming about how can we charge $15 for 22 minutes. Well, bucko, it's because we're not a prepaid service and we don't charge per minute. The bill was prorated for the days it was active, nothing more and nothing less. He tells me he's going to tear up the bill and throw it in the trash, we won't get one cent out of him. Ok, fine. Do what you want with the bill, but understand that if you don't pay it, you will have to deal with the consequences (i.e. a collections agency coming after you). He then demanded to speak to a supervisor, who, after I told the customer would not credit the charges, and told my lead to not give this guy a credit (because sometimes he's just too dang nice), he gives the jerk a credit and now I look like the evil ice queen and my lead is his hero.
The next fun call was from this dingleberry who was irate because his wife called in and changed his plan on his line and he just found out about it. He wanted his old plan back, which was a promotion from about 3 years ago that isn't even in the system anymore, meaning no one can give that plan back to him. Oh, and guess how long ago his wife changed his plan? September 2005. A bloody year and a half ago! The customer's defense was (one of my favorites, by the way), that he never looks at his bill, he just pays whatever it says to pay. Well, guess why we send you a bill? So you know what you're paying for and can make sure everything is exactly the way you want it. If you don't bother to read it, then you can just look in the mirror and call the person staring blankly back at you a moron. Then he said our competitor sent him a letter offering him 5000 minutes for $99.99 a month. I pulled up their website (guess he didn't know I'd bother to research this) and, lo and behold, this plan doesn't exist. In fact, they don't have a 5000 minute plan period. So then, of course, he decided he would think things over and decide what to do, meaning he'll probably keep calling back until he's satisfied that he's A) not getting his old plan back and B) we can clearly see he's full of crap.
Next comes a guy who opened his flip phone only to have the hinge snap. But we should replace the phone because it's not damaged. Uh, broken hinge = not damaged? Sorry, we're not in Bizzarro World. Oh, it's not his fault, he never dropped it or anything. The only way a hinge breaks is if you use excessive force opening/closing the phone. Usually it happens from guys who try to look cool using their phone by flicking their wrist with enough force to make it swing open/closed. Anyway, the manufacturer doesn't care how the damage got there, it voids the warranty regardless. 20 minutes of screaming at me ensued.
Had about 10 people cancel because they're moving to China. What this means is that they activated a new account from a store in Chinatown because the dealer is a friend/relative who makes commission off the newly activated service. Then they say they're moving to China because they think I don't get this day in and day out and don't know what's really going on, so I won't even bother trying to talk them into keeping the old account. And most of the time it's the dealer calling in pretending to be the customer, like I'm not going to hear all the customers in the store and sales being rang up in the background.
Let's not forget the ray of sunshine that crossed my path later in the afternoon. The rep who transferred her to me told me this lady was at a store and she had warned the customer to stop screaming at the sales reps, so I knew this was going to be a blast. She upgraded her plan and agreed to a contract in January, and was offered a free phone at the time. She had been in her car and couldn't see the phone, so she wanted to know if she could call back later that day and still get the deal on the phone. The rep told her she would be eligible for the discount any time, even though they already renewed her contract, and she somehow took this to mean that if she called back 2 months later, we'd give her the free phone without changing her contract date. I let her know the rep in January had not lied to her, he had been under the impression that she was going to call back later that same day, not 2 months later. She then told me to stop trying to "sell" her the phone, and remarked how horrible it was that they train us on how to lie to people and mislead them to get a sale (they don't, actually. We aren't "selling" a damn thing, that's not our job). She told me to stop "talking out of both sides of my mouth," 3 times, and on the last time I opened my mouth and had to hit my mute and take a deep breath because I almost snapped back with "No, you need to listen with both ears." She wound up saying that she was going to report me to the FCC and hung up. Oh dear, now my life is over.
Then there came the last call of the day, which ran 45 minutes and took me 15 minutes over my time to logout and go home. This lady wanted to upgrade her phone. She had a 2 year old RAZR and wanted something "similar" but not the RAZR because she said it was a junk phone and everyone she knows has problems with it. I must have gone over every single phone we have right now, and with each one she wanted to know the size of the device compared to the RAZR, the features compared to the RAZR, and constantly reminded me how bad the RAZR is. Now try to imagine my face twitching as she says, after tediously slogging through all the phones, that she'll take a RAZR. Don't choke on it, sister, and by the way, thanks for wasting 45 minutes of my life that I'll never get back!
So begins a fun-filled new week in customer service.
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