Call Center employees

[tmobileman]

I like it when a customer calls in and says I dropped a call and I think I deserve a month of free service for that call, so I break it down for them, you pay us 39.99 per month, the call that dropped took one minute of your time, so 39.99 divided by 30 days = 1.33, divided by 24 hours =half of one cent divided by 60 minutes = a negative number so I think the 50 bonus minutes I offered you is fair. Or I would be happy to credit you the 1.33 that you paid us for today. They usually hang up after that.

[tmobileman]

man I had a winner today, this guy calls up and asks, I am not kidding either, I am wanting a discount on my bill due to the gas prices being high right now, I asked him to explain to me how tmobile makes the gas prices high...he goes on to tell me that with all the importing we are doing to bring in phones that are not manufactured in the US...I got such a kick out of this guy I gave him a 5.00 credit on his acct and told him this isn't because of the gas prices this is just because you amused me today. Thanks

[Ddeere2]

LMAO, are you serious? tmobile has nothing to do with gas prices. no cell carrier has anything to do with it. that truely is a winner. sorry I haven't posted, got a little caught up with some other things. I had a real winner today. I'm with Comcast now instead of Sprint, and today when I got in, the first call got was a transfer from another department, I forget which one. But the lady who transfered told me that he had a technician go out and repair his internet for him, but the tech removed some of his security updates. I tried telling her and the guy that the tech shouldn't of done that, and I can't do anything about it, all I or the techs are supposed to do is troubleshoot and repair internet, not touch the customers computers because of liabilty reason. the guy got all mad and wanted to speak to a supervisor, so I got one. I stayed on and listened to the call and supervisor basically said the same thing, just that there's nothing we can do, and he has to call microsoft or his computer manufacture. he got mad at the supervisor and said he was twisting the customer's words. Then the customer goes and says that he's going to call his lawyer, the supervisor was like, fine, we'll go ahead and transfer you to legal, and the guy was all happy. All the time I've worked there mainly at Sprint, I never had a call like that before.

[tmobileman]

today I had a guy try to lawyer up on me it was documented that he did accept a two year contract, and he swore that the rep just typed that in to screw him over I told him...sir at the time you were still under a contract so why would the rep just note it in the acct he didn't get any commission for it, there was nothing to gain, the guy was all upset threatening to sue over this this was my last call for the week as I am on vacation for the next week, but I took an hour with this guy...wanna know what was the best...I reversed his contract and you know what he did....renewed all four lines for another two years tonight and I got commission on all of them...best turn around ever for me he went from swearing at me to eating out of the palm of my hand all because I was up front with him... I told him sir if you want a free phone I can give you a free phone but if you want a nice phone than spend some money and it will last you a lot longer. I almost hung up three times on this guy and man was his wife pissed at him when he got done doing the contracts with me she was all up in his face I said sir I appreciate your business I know it's going to be a cold night for you tonight. Best of luck...but hey man have a great weekend I will be back next monday but I may try and post from my dash this weekend I really enjoy this site.

[Ddeere2]

wow, I'm not as good as you are, I tried calming another sup call I got, but they guy was like i'll hold as long as it takes to get the supervisor on the line. haha, hey, he's the idiot who renewed and knew what he was getting into, he just wanted a new phones. I had a long call also, it clocked in at one hour 15 minutes just trying to help some guy download and install mcafee. and towards then end, he had the nerve to say, "Oh, I've been a computer tech for 22 years, I know how to do this, I'll handle it from here." I almost swore at this guy. I was ready to just release it, he just kept talking to himself the whole call. Ugh...oh well. Awesome man, enjoy your well deserved vacation. I bet they were mad when you asked for it. LOL. yeah, first thing I do when I get home, is check this site for any new news or posts

[tmobileman]

back from vacation man I gotta say what a poor experience I had with the hotel I was supposed to stay at the La Quinta in Provo Utah

So here's my story:

Two months ago I called this specific location because I like to stay at this chain if available, I have had good experiences with them in the past so I try to stay loyal. I was surprised when I call because I usually pay about 90 per night but the lady I talked to said if I reserved at least 60 days early they had a special for 59.99 per night so I am thinking sweet I am saving 30 dollars per night times 3 nights that's like getting a night for free right....WRONG, I booked it. Being the skeptic that I am printed my confirmation with the email the rep sent me to take it with me just in case....lol...so I had my wife call on Monday of last week to confirm the reservation all was good rep verified information and rate. Thursday I drive for six hours get to the hotel to check in and the rep tells me that'll be 305 dollars for the three nights, I said how do you figure, my rate is 59.99 per night after taxes and surcharges. She says I have no record of that and unless you have printed confirmation I can't give you that rate, so being the patient guy that I am, I say hows this for confirmation and slam the paper down on the counter, she then looks it over and says this promotion expired the day before, my jaw hit the ground, I said get your boss out here now! This had to be 18 year old girl says to me my manager isn't here right now so I am acting manager and I said I will not give you that rate. I said with all due respect to your "authority" you have about 5 minutes to get somebody that is over you out here before I call your corporate office and file a formal complaint. The girl goes behind a closed door with a phone in her hand, and out walks this smug little man in a tie named Gary Patel, he says sir I am the owner of this hotel how can I assist you. I say well first of all you can fire that little girl that was of no help then you can take a look at the printed confirmation that I have a reservation and locked in a rate specified to be 59.99 after tax and surcharge per night and she is trying to charge me over a hundred dollars per night for a room. The owner looks at me and says I am not going to honor this reservation for you and I am the owner so now you can either pay the higher rate or stay somewhere else.
I lost it, the lady checking in next to me looked at me and I told her to check her paperwork the owner asked me to leave so I said not until I am sure that you haven't charged my card anything he turned his computer screen to me and verified that the card was deleted and not charged anything, also on the screen it did show my rate was supposed to be 59.99 per night I asked him about this, and he said at my discretion I changed your rate because I feel that our rooms are worth more than 59.99 per night.
I went across the street and paid 150 per night today I talked to corporate and asked them what they were going to do about this outrage.
MY FAITH IN LAQUINTA IS RESTORED!!! The corporate officer that oversees the western region and franchises is fining the owner, Mr. My rooms are worth more than this per night, 1000 dollars for not honoring my reservation and the best part for me, for the next year I can stay at any La Quinta FREE OF CHARGE nationwide with at least one day notice, said let me get this straight to the guy today on the phone, you're telling me if I wanted to for the next 365 days I could stay everynight at any La Quinta in the nation and you are making this Ahole pay your corporate office a fine of 1000 dollars because of the way he treated me? The guy said yes sir, you are the customer and this isn't the first complaint about his owner, we are a family business and sir it doesn't sound like we were there for you on your vacation this weekend, so we will be there for the next year for you. I said you know what I would like to have is a written apology from this guy, but I will accept your offer, and I will continue to do business with your franchise, the guy said the written apology will be included, because he feels that it will teach the owner a lesson and he is sure if I made a big enough scene that the guy will remember and probably not like having to write this letter to me, but the he said it was sweet justice and I was entitled to it....I WAS BLOWN AWAY!!! He sent me an email confirmation of the entire offer, I replied and got a reply before I typed this confirming the offer has been accepted and is valid.

What this whole experience taught me is that when a customer is legitamately wronged, there should be no stops when it comes to making this up to your customers. I will keep this in mind when I am talking to a customer that I feel has been wronged and try to make them as happy as this guy has made me.

[Ddeere2]

WOW! that's all I got to say. I feel bad for you man. No one should have to go through that. So you can stay for however long you want within the next year? That is awesome. They should fire that guy or something, he's just hurting their image. I perfer Holiday Inn, but it really doesn't matter because I get a military discount because of my dad. I recently just quit from work. I've been there a while and then when I got to Comcast, they told us at first in training that all we would do is troubleshoot, not billing or anything like that. Then when I hit the floor, they're like oh you are required to make two sales a week. WHAT??!? No sir. They said specifically that they wouldn't require us to sell, then all of a sudden turn around on it. I told them that was not what I accepted when they asked if I wanted to move over. They kept giving me the run around when I asked who said that it was required to sell, so to hell with them. I'm not going to take that, they need me more than I don't need them. I had a good year with them before this happened.

[tmobileman]

that sucks man sorry to hear they jerked you around, good luck finding a job depending on where you live Tmobile may be hiring

[Ddeere2]

Thanks, but I don't really need a job right now. I'm gonna study for some certifications I've been trying to go for. I'll try and remember any "good" calls I got before I forget them. lol. I've had one the last week I was working that the lady couldn't connect to the internet. I had her go throught all that we can do and I told her, its a hardware related issue. We can't help you, you would have to contact your OEM. She got all mad saying, oh your just trying to put off on someone else and this and that. I was like well, for liabilty and because I can't really troubleshoot that, you'll have to call Dell. She was like yeah, whatever, I'm canceling and hung up. That made my day. Surprisingly after that call, the rest were really nice and easy problems.

[Ddeere2]

Yeah, just to see who wins with the "best" customer. to bad i'm not working at a call center anymore. Some of the people I used to work with, whenever they got a angry customer asking for a supervisor they would transfer them to the spanish queue. lol, yeah, I would do that, but sometimes they just go on and on. i mean, i understand they're upset, but come on, it can't be that bad.

[tmobileman]

Originally Posted by Ddeere2

Yeah, just to see who wins with the "best" customer. to bad i'm not working at a call center anymore. Some of the people I used to work with, whenever they got a angry customer asking for a supervisor they would transfer them to the spanish queue. lol, yeah, I would do that, but sometimes they just go on and on. i mean, i understand they're upset, but come on, it can't be that bad.

depends on my mood, sometimes it's fun to argue with irrational people just to have stories to tell later about the call, sometimes if I know that the call is going to be stupid, I just set the expectation from the beginning, that I am here to help, but I also have limits as to what I can do, anything within reason, then if it's not within reason, I tell them no, make them the best offer I can and if they decline and want to cancel, I cancel them, if they say they want to think about it I move on to the next call, but it's not worth waiting my time to argue with too many people, and really it's not worth their time either, so I look at it like I am looking out for them by not waisting their time. You have to treat people like children on the phone most of the time. It's all about manipulation...I am good at getting people to do what I say they should.

[ph0nes4u]

dont they be getting paid a lot for this stuff?

[tmobileman]

Originally Posted by ph0nes4u

dont they be getting paid a lot for this stuff?

uh...If you're asking if call center employees get paid well, that depends on what call center and company you work for. I am compensated fairly for my efforts I believe.

[Ddeere2]

Yeah, your an expert at it when it comes to manipulating people, lol, that sounds mean. I was just beginning to pick it up, I know I was paid okay, i think it was around 8.25 and hour and after 5 you get paid .75 cents and hour extra. Like tmobileman said, he's paid good because he's good and its directly with tmobile and not outsourced like i was haha, but it was still fun.

[tmobileman]

Today the Iphone 3g launches...I should just call in sick now, I swear I am not going to like being at work today. Oh well here goes nothing

[Ddeere2]

Lmao, they should pay you extra. Haha, good luck with all the people not understanding what "Only on the new AT&T" means and people asking if tmobile has 3G. I know they do, but its not fully rolled out yet.

[tmobileman]

Originally Posted by Ddeere2

Lmao, they should pay you extra. Haha, good luck with all the people not understanding what "Only on the new AT&T" means and people asking if tmobile has 3G. I know they do, but its not fully rolled out yet.

I took 45 calls on Friday and only one of them was for the iphone 3G, WOW I renewed 27 contracts and had a cancellation percentage of 3% for the day. This what not the day I expected to have but I'll take it. Just goes to show this is a surprising business hard to predict what will happen from day to day.

[Ddeere2]

Wow, that's it? Your right, some days you'll have nothing but nice people, but others it seems you get the angriest people on earth. haha, well that's how it seemed when I was taking calls. That's good you had a lot of renews. You should see more people as Sprint just stopped the SERO plans.

[tmobileman]

Originally Posted by Ddeere2

Wow, that's it? Your right, some days you'll have nothing but nice people, but others it seems you get the angriest people on earth. haha, well that's how it seemed when I was taking calls. That's good you had a lot of renews. You should see more people as Sprint just stopped the SERO plans.

Funny you should mention that, I had a customer today who said they were going with the employee referral plan with sprint, I asked them really you know you have to havethe employee ID now, and the plan isn't as good as it used to be, she was like um well I get to sign up with the old plan still...I called sprint while she was on the phone and conferenced her in and she was told by a rep over the phone that the plans that they used to offer are no longer available to newly activated customers, she cussed at them and renewed with me. It was awesome.

[Ddeere2]

Really, I was just throwing that out there. I didn't think it would happen. I guess some people don't read the news. Lucky for you that you did that so you can get that renewal. lol, you should of tried and sold her a different plan. haha, jk.

[tmobileman]

yeah you know I have been surprised we have not lost as many customers as expected due to the sprint plans and the iphone release, guess there are some people who see the value in their rates not going up to use the service. It's been easier than normal to get people to recommit this summer than it has been in the past.