Cingular Reps - Where Stereotypes Come From!

Well - the surprises keep on coming.

Today I was greeted to find a bill in my mailbox. This bill for a total of $300 some dollars. Needless to say I was shocked!

As I glanced down the bill I was amazed. I was being assessed the liquidation fees (early termination fee I later discovered), the activation fee, prorated usage for the media package I never asked for, and a prorated charge for the plan which I never activated or used.

The early termination fee was a shocker considering that I had canceled well within the remorse period. The activation fee was a shocker because the phone was sent activated, and was in transit for five days. Needless to say, I quickly called into Cingular.

I told the representative that I wanted to speak to a manger and began to give a short description of my problem. I told her that I was trying to remain calm despite my continued frustration but that I felt like I could spit fire.

As it turns out, I never spoke to a manager. The representative was helpful and gave me an explanation that I could understand, despite the fact that it never should have happened. Apparently according to her, there was some checkbox or something not selected and I was assessed these fees.

The charges were charged to my account, and eventually credited back. However, before the charges were credited, the bill had been printed and delivered. Apparently the manager I spoke with prior to receiving the bill, who made it clear that she was angry about the level of service I received, discovered this and placed a call to a national (I think, I forgot the exact terminology) center and saw to it that the proper actions were taken to credit my account.

As of yet, I still have yet to receive my refund. With this happening, I am now more concerned that I will. I inquired what I should do when and if I receive a notice that the charges are due and late or if I do not receive my refund within the time frame quoted (which thankfully she quoted to me as the same as the manager who took action). While she insisted this would not happen, she also gave me another number to call in case it does.

I told her that I was glad I remained as calm as I had, else I would have felt foolish after her explanation, if indeed that what she told me turns out to be the truth.

As it stands, this is another negative experience I have had with Cingular only offset by a couple qualified representatives.

I'm hoping there are no more surprises

Ps. For those of you involved with the company, I would appreciate you considering this proposition for your company.

On the bill, instead of listing "Liquidated Damages" charge as the title of the charge for the ETF, I would suggest using "Early Termination Fee".

When I looked at my bill, I interpreted this to mean the phone had been damaged to liquid. Perhaps it was due to my ignorance though.

Cellboob01- thanx for posting UR issues as i think other people's experiences can help & I think that is what this site is about. Sharing knowledge & helping others. Some of the replies from others N industry were quite "revealing" about attitudes & why there is such problems . I didn't notice U cussing & being out of control N ur 1st thread, maybe I missed it. Know working N customer service would be a pain sometimes but like you I have been lied 2 so many times N recent past & no, I'm not cool with that . But I think the "system" is set up wrong. Many great , knowledgeable people N industry. "System" needs revamping some . Anyone N industry have any ideas on how to help with communication issues. Know it is not a good sign concerning feedback when I can't get someone's callback # when I have just obligated myself to spend several thousand dollars with their company. Anyone disagree ? GL

I find that every time I call customer service and show politeness, I am shown a good amount of courtesy myself. It takes patience, but you get better results if you are patient. IMO.

I'll go into a little and very little detail on how I am with customers.

I may have a bad day at work and may not be in the best mood to take calls from frustrated customers but I try my best to leave my problems at the door and walk in with a clear mind.

The one thing I think people fail to realize is that we are all human. Although you may be pretty upset at a problem or high bill, we all have that situation at one point in our lives.

When you call into customer service, it's just that. We are here to HELP you and fix anything that may be wrong. Talking to us in a demeaning manner may not help anything. We will fix the problem but things could go a ton smoother without hostility.

Ultimately-Bills:
When it comes to your bill, there may be occasionally issues that Cingular is at fault for. We will fix them. We won't cancel your service and we won't penalize you for something that is our fault.

1. Please keep an eye on your account. It's not our job to monitor your usage. When you have a high bill, you are responsible for those charges. We offer a number of ways to check balance, mins and other usage.

2. If something is abnormal, call us. It's our job to assist you with a problem, not give you the world.

3. Read your contract and terms and conditions. Without reading or being familiar, you don't know your rights and you especially don't know Cingulars. We've got the contract in a form that's easily ledgible. You won't need an attorney to translate it for you.

All I can do is suggest that you be courteous. You'll be treated in the same respect you're giving us as a consumer. Nothing less.

Be Patient
Be Courteous
Know we are the ones that are helping you.

You may get a representative who seems like that don't care. If that's the case, ask for their name. If they're doing their job, their name will be on your account as to who you spoke with. Call us back or speak with their supervisor.

Best of luck to all reps and customers.

you also have to remember Cingular is a LARGE company and Policies change frequent not everyone gets the memos on when things change at the same time, so that’s where you getting different answers, also time frames can very from a few weeks to a few months depending on volume. and this would be the same with any company, mistakes happen unfortunately it happened to you,

asking for a manager wont get things done any quicker, the managers will 99% of the time give you the same awnser a rep will, and alot of times they arnt always going to know the awnsers as well and will have to research it,

now in your case as far as the etf fee yes it was our mistake and it was fixed as you saw, activation fees will also usaly be waived but you will always be responsable for any usage

Plus our calls are not recorded so we may not be as courteous

Funny thing, CellBoob. You have a pretty good grasp of your cellular service details. Almost as though (*gasp*) you do your homework! Please, by all means, continue this trend. Recently, I left my position as a CSR, only to be given an offer of raise and position simply to stay on, and lead CSR teams in de-escalation (keeping customers from speaking to supervisors - 85% of the time unneccessary wastes of resources that drive up consumer cost,) and be the final on-phone word in a disputer's relationship. CellBoob, you simply need to read and understand the fine print. Our CSRs will help when they can, (and help more when you're nice - not just when you THINK you're being nice,) and it helps when you do not dispute legitimate charges and issues that are explicitly noted to be your own responsibility, or out of this company's control.

I'm amazed by all the CSR's on this forum. I was a CSR far longer than any of you little kids but I always realized that the training sessions provided by the company were brainwashing seminars. You CSRs are spending too much time on this board defending your companies and not listening to the complaints of a customer, which is EXACTLY the problem with customer service these days. You keep putting words into CellOobs mouth suggesting that he had been rude with the CSR when actually nothing in his posts gives any hint of that. Asking to speak to the manager/supervisor is not rude. I know you CSRs don't like it, but that doesn't make it rude.

Many, many times the issues are the fault of CSRs. Yes, they are human so they make mistakes. We all understand that. But when you call to have the issues resolved you frequently encounter CSRs who don't understand their own policies enough to understand that there is a problem and don't understand their computer systems enough to know how to properly resolve the problem. CellOobs post is a perfect example. Clearly the CSRs who handled his issue did not know what they were doing. He suspects malice, which you CSRs seem to feel is absurd. But you then contradict yourselves in in your posts by stating that you hide behind company policy and enjoy sticking it to "mean" customers, clearly showing that many of you DO operate with malice.

Stop drinking your companies KoolAid and start sticking up for the customers. And understand that if someone calls you and is angry it is usually because your company did something to tick them off. As a CSR, you are the face of your company. You should suck it up and do your utmost to provide the best customer service you can to the customer, despite their disposition. You say you are just human? Well so is your customer. Try to be understanding that they are fed up with having to call again and again to resolve the same issue, only to get another bill a month later. Understand that they are frustrated by having to sit on the phone for 15 minutes or longer just to reach a person to whom you must explain the entire story again for the umpteenth time. You say it costs you too much money when customers ask to speak to supervisors? Then resolve the issue correctly the first time and you won't have to receive repeated, costly calls from customers.

I understand it is frustrating, I have been there. But that is the customer service business. If you can't deal with that, then you are in the wrong business.

Cingular Reps - Where Stereotypes Come From!

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