We’ve Heard It All Before, I Promise!

[TAG] cell phones, cell, mobile device, mobile, phones [/TAG]

I have been working at an at&t (Formerly Cingular) call center for 3 years now, 2.5 of those years have been in technical support in some fashion. I thought I would share with you some of the claims I get from customers who think they are being original.

1. “This is my business phone!”

By far this is the biggest claim I get from customers who have lost service or are having other issues. They claim to have lost thousands of dollars because their cell phone did not work properly. One even claimed to have lost $100,000 from missing one call. This same individual had a pre-paid phone with less than $1.00 on it. I suppose people think if they tell me it’s their business phone I can magically make it work again immediately. I honestly don’t care if it is a business phone, I treat all calls the same. Besides, all business accounts route to another call center, so if it is a “business” it’s some fly by night, “I’ll mow your lawn if I can get my pickup truck to start” business.

2. “I’m going to call my lawyer!”

This means what to me? NOTHING! People try to scare me by asking for my name and then threatening to sue ME because their phone isn’t working in a no coverage area. I gladly give them my name and then politley remind them about thier contract and the fact that we do not guarantee coverage at all locations or at all times. This usually ticks them off and they mention something about the commercials and false advertising, etc. All these people do is guarantee that I will not offer them ANY compensation for their misunderstanding of the coverage areas.

3. “I’m disabled and I HAVE to have my cell phone for emergencies!”

OK, I can understand and sympathize with this, I’m not a cold hearted person. However, if you are THAT bad off, maybe you should not live alone. Again this relates back to the nature of cell phones. they don’t work everywhere or at all times. Maybe a land line would be a good investment.

4. “..but Verizon gets good service where I’m at!”

Well, that’s great, maybe you should use that service. Our cell phones work in areas where they don’t as well. You just happen to be in a area where we don’t have service but they do. You have 30 days (Most companies give you only 14) to return the cell phone and void the contract, no harm no foul. If you find that the service is not meeting your needs, don’t wait until day 40 and tell us you want out of your contract, it’s not going to happen.

5. “I’m paying for service I’m not getting!”

Ok, well, you’re paying for a service, this is true. We try to make sure that we have coverage in as many places as possible. It’s not possible, and this is stated in your contract. Perhaps 1 out of every 100 people actually read the contract, most just sign it without another thought. The commercial says “More bars in more places”, not “All bars in all places”. If your phone doesn’t work for 30 minutes because we have an outage, deal with it and stop wasting my time. If you have a real technical problem I’m happy to help, but don’t split hairs.

These are a few of the complaints I get that are not valid each and every day. I love my job and love to fix real issues, but people like the above try my patience. They think if they claim they are loosing money, going to sue or other things that we will shake in our boots and kiss their butt. All it does is make us likely to do the minimum to take care of their issue.