cell phone complaints
How to Deal With Your Cell Phone Complaints
Every person that has a cell phone has dealt with bill shock at one time or another. Usually, the first reaction is to go back to the store and start fussing. These are the reasons why that sort of cell phone complaints are a really bad idea, and how to prevent these cell phone complaints in the first place.
1. The blighters in the store are usually NOT customer service reps. Their paychecks are based largely on commission. They sell cell phones. Their job is to make sure you leave the store with a phone that works, some accessories, and as much of both as they can get you to buy. They aren’t your friends. They do not WANT to be your friend. They want to move on to the next paying customer as quickly as possible, making as much money as possible in the process, then go home at the end of the day and forget about it. That’s all. Listening to your cell phone complaints rank right up there with a visit from upper management. Now, occasionally you will encounter that rarest – and most valuable – of person who truly wants to help you, won’t rip you off and will go to the mat for you with higher management if there IS a problem in the future. If you should be so fortunate as to encounter this person, be nice to him (or her). They will generally be your biggest help in navigating the myriad of service options to solve your cell phone complaints. The biggest trick, however, is to not be abusive of this person’s time and goodwill. If you do this too much, that person will avoid you like the plague. Remember, you’re cutting into his paycheck with your demands. Be respectful of this.
2. In nearly all domestic U.S. call phone carrier organizations, the customer care reps are available either via online chat – a relatively new and very useful tool – or via a 1-800 number. Learn this number as soon as is practicable. Save it in your phone. Write it down on a business card and stick it in your wallet. Cell phone complaints are usually not handled in the store anyway, the rep will just stick you on the phone with customer service, wasting their time and yours. The only major carrier that has in-house reps is Verizon, and since October 2010, they have eliminated most of these positions as a cost-cutting move, except in some larger markets such as New Orleans, LA, New York, et cetera. Was this a smart move on their part? In a business sense, yes. They eliminated salary and overhead on these people, and moved the job responsibility to remote call centers. For customers though, this was an unfortunate happenstance. They eliminated most of the tenured store employees. These were usually the folks who could solve problems expediently.
3. Walk in with a bad attitude? The amount of help you can expect to receive just plummeted to be exactly what the policy guide the rep uses says that they HAVE to do, no more. Generally, the nicer you are to a rep, the more he or she will be willing to help you. I know this from experience. They don’t like being yelled at any more than you do (unless you’re a psychopath, and I have my theories there, but that’s another article for another time). BE NICE!!!!! You’ll probably get what you want, within reason. Generally, cell phone complaints are the last thing on the rep’s mind.
4. Don’t automatically ask for the manager. The manager has other stuff to do, and it is likely that the last thing he (or she) wants to do is hold your hand over something that another rep could easily handle.
5. Learn what your plan covers – in its entirety! This means do your homework before purchase AND after. The Intertubes are your friend in this regard. Use Google, or Bing, or Yahoo Search or whatever moves you. Ask questions of other people that use this carrier. What issues have they encountered? What did they do to correct them? Being educated is perhaps the best thing you can do for yourself. If you’re traveling outside the country, can you expect your phone to work? If it does, what roaming fees can you expect? Be especially cognizant of Internet usage overseas – it gets very expensive very quickly, and even fairly intelligent people can get caught with a huge bill; for example, one of the Mythbusters (a fairly intelligent fellow) was hit with a tens-of-thousands-of-dollars bill recently when he used his laptop on a cruise ship docked in an international roaming area. He thought he was still using the cruise ship’s internet, turned out he wasn’t.
6. If you have other people on your family plan – especially children or not-too-bright adults – make sure they understand what they can do and what they cannot. For example, if they don’t have a data plan on their phone, and they start using the Internet… costs can get dramatically high very quickly. If the carrier offers tools to monitor or limit certain types of usage, learn how to use them, then USE THEM! They will prevent a lot of heartache in the future. This is usually one of the leading causes of cell phone complaints.
7. Lastly, LOOK AT YOUR BILLS WHEN YOU GET THEM, not right before it is due. Generally, if a credit or other adjustment is needed, you’ll be asked to pay your bill in its entirety, and then you’ll get credit on the next bill. Obviously this is sometimes not a good thing, especially if you have to pay a $500 phone bill when you were expecting one much lower. Give the company time to fix whatever is wrong. Don’t demand results right then and there, it probably won’t happen. Cell phone complaints are best addressed early in the billing cycle.
Basically, the key to having a happy relationship with your cell phone carrier is to treat them like you’d want to be treated. If they made a mistake, the reps will be happy to help fix it (usually). If it WASN”T their mistake, though, (you had a 900 minute plan and used 1500), be prepared to have to accept the consequences of what you did. It’s really no one’s fault but your own. Dummy.
Your cell phone complaints are irrelevant!