Cell Phone Customer Service Ranked Next to Last

Paulrothrock writes "A recent report shows that cell phone companies are the second lowest ranked industry in terms of customer service, just above cable companies. Also, they are second only to car dealers in number complaints to Better Business Bureaus. Complaints include being charged a fee to cancel a cell phone contract for a deceased husband and being double-billed for using an online bill-pay system. I guess I've been lucky, the only problem I've had is getting reception."

There's also:

[prostoalex]

Top US wireless companies by customer [itfacts.biz]:
- Verizon
- Singular
- AT&T
- Sprint

The most hated cell phone companies [itfacts.biz] (their customer service has something to do with it, I think):
- T-Mobile
- Sprint
- AT&T Wireless
- Cingular

Sure this will turn into a cell bitching thread...

[Atario]

...so here's my contribution to it.

I added a second phone to my plan for my wife when we got married. This cause Cingular to silently erase all my vaunted "they're yours -- keep 'em" Rollover Minutes, of which I'd accumulated about 1,800. I started getting big overage charges on my bills. Each month, I'd call them up to straighten things out, and each month they'd be screwed up still. This went on for about six or seve months, till I finally got someone who seemed to know which end is up.

After all was said and done, I was told the initial erasure happened because I altered my plan on some day other than the first billing day of the month.

Nice system, Cingular. Dorks.

Actual Numbers: Throw out Sprint PCS

[eltoyoboyo]

Here is the list. [theacsi.org] Throw out Sprint, Charter, and Comcast. These dogs are skewing the numbers.

Re:An interesting story.

[Engineer Andy]

This is true and can be found at NZ herald story [nzherald.co.nz]

Re:Well what did you expect?

[pauljlucas]

After you sign that contract, you become their bitch. I learned the hard way with Verizon.

This is an instance of YMMV. In my case, I've been very happy with Verizon (and, no, I don't work for them). My $399 Kyocera 7135 (out of warranty) recently was acting very flaky. They replaced it with another 7135 after me explaining what it was doing in a reasonable manner (as opposed to me having to really bitch) at no charge.

FWIW: whenever possible, I try to go to a (in this case) Verizon store and deal with a person face-to-face. I get much better results than calling the main CS number because you're talking to an entry-level CS person and you have to convince them you're not an idiot to get them to transfer you to a level-2 CS person.

Re:Not to sound like a conspiracy theorist

[captain_craptacular]

In a round about way yes...think it's been 6 months now and not a single bill? Gawd I love corporate beaurocricy :D

I'd be careful. You signed a contract detailing what you would pay for what service and you have been using that service. Technically, it's not the companies responsibility to remind you to pay. In other words they can perfectly legally charge you interest, late fee's, or just refer you to collections and shut down your service.

sprint sucks

[Trailer Trash]

Ironically, I just got off the phone with sprint, my cell and local land line provider. They're charging me for calls from 7PM to 9PM, but I thought they'd changed that.

Well, for another $5/month they will. What utter bullshit.

But it gets better. I'm paying $65/month for 800 minutes. I get charged 40 cents/minute after it. They can't charge less per minute, or so they say, but I could get 1100 minutes each month if I want. The price? Well, the same $65, they just don't automatically move customers.

Fine. I say switch me. She says there's a two year service agreement. Again, bullshit. I've been with them for 5 years. Then she tells me that I have some 2 year agreement that's up next year. I didn't even know about that faux agreement. It was verbal, according to her, but she was a bit short on details.

I asked to speak to a supervisor and, after a few minutes, lost the connection.

This is stupid. If anybody knows of a better provider, let me know.

Re:ATTWS

[Feztaa]

ATTWS will hate me... ;)

If you port your number away from ATTWS, the LNP system is really weird. It'll prorate your monthly service charge and your monthly minutes, but then it'll debit your MRC back so that you're paying a full MRC but getting prorated minutes. This happens to every single person who ports their number out of ATTWS. Just call us, we'll credit it back to you if you complain loudly enough.

True story: I had a guy who was on some $79.99 plan for 900 minutes IIRC, on his bill he ported out in the middle of the month so he only got 450 minutes for the month, but was still paying the $79.99 for the full month of service, and he had overage charges on the bill, too, for going over his 450 minutes, even though he was well within his 900 minutes. I offered to either credit him half his MRC so that his bill would be for half a month's service with the overage charges, or to credit him the overage charges so that he'd be paying for a full month's service. Since the MRC credit would have been $35 and the overage charges were $77, he obviously decided to pay the for full month's service and get the full month's minutes.

Re:US Cellular...

[rainwalker]

I had an even more annoying experience in their store. They made me wait for more than an hour and a half with a fussy one-year-old, as I was trying to renew my contract. Then, the rep wouldn't let me get any of the "promo" plans, which was what I was interested in switching to, despite the fact that they were listed as for both new and renewal customers. I politely declined and left, intending to switch to the only other major carrier in my area (Sprint, ugh), but the wife convinced me to call their phone service first. They promptly transferred me to Retention, who got everything set up nicely with the new, promo contract, waived all fees, and gave us the "new customer" price on two new phones (ie, free), and let me stop in the store again to get them (she added a note to my record to stop f*cking around and give us the phones).

The moral is, call retention and bitch. They are the only people who care. If they don't care about you, well...you're SOL :)

In Sprint's defense....

[tekiegreg]

I'm always amazed I hear such bad experiences from Sprint, my experiences are ok if not stellar. Granted:

1) Their customer service is ok, generally whatever I call with gets resolved in a fair manner.
2) Calls rarely drop, this is in Santa Ana, California for the most part
3) Their rate plans are fair if not dirt cheap

Some bad parts about them though:
1) The contracts, why do they have to keep locking me in dammit. No I have no real incentive to want to switch but I'd like to be able to cancel temporarily if needed (for example if I lose my job, take a long vacation in a remote area, etc.)
2) The ringers and downloads, the ones on Sprint's own site aren't all that hot, and they have limited time licenses. Though I've found sites that are cheaper with indefinite licesnses. And if I'm not so lazy, someday I'll make my own.

Overall Sprint gets a 3.5 outta 5 stars from me. Sure there's room for improvement but I'm not looking to switch.

Re:Similar thing happened to my family

[B.D.Mills]

If this sort of thing ever happened to me I would fight them with the business world's equivalent of nuclear weapons. I would go straight to the media. There's bound to be a few media organisations looking for just such a story.

People with poor service fear media exposure. It's like a bright light shining into a cockroach-infested hovel - watch the creeps run for cover. And watch as your previously intractible problem is suddenly solved.

Re:A joke (by me)

[NintenDoctor]

You laugh like it's not real [konami.net].

Cingular Customer Service

[Rai]

I worked for Cingular Customer Service for a year or so and I can safely say at least 75% of the employees in the call center with me were underqualified, undereducated, partially-trained (and rushed thru that), and had bad attitudes towards their work and their customers. These reps were notorious for giving inaccurate imformation. If you called 3 difference reps with the same question, you were going to get at least 2 different answers (the joke was "This is Cingular. We have no consistency here.")

They were mostly unfamiliar with Cingular service/plans/phones/etc because Cingular's training system is basically a webpage called 'The Learning Edge' that reps could just click thru without reading (the test at the end even gave you the answers if you knew how to cheat it.) The main tool for communicating was email which few reps read. There was also a problem with getting user accounts set up so a lot of reps didn't have access to all the tools and information they needed to do the job. And God help you if you needed a password reset.

Twice a month, a Quality Assurance rep will monitor a rep's call to make sure the rep says the right verbage ("Thank you for calling Cingular Wireless where our goal is blah blah blah...") and handles the call correctly. However, on every call, reps are scored by call stats which basically tell how quickly the rep gets the customer off the phone and moves on to the next caller. Giving accurate information and being courtesy to the customer seemed to take second priority to call handle time.

Managers weren't much better. Most of them don't want to be bothered with customer's calls and will keep sending the rep back to the customer until they hang up. Some managers were just lazy and rather than take the call, they would just tell the rep to give the customer want they wanted. Of course, this was fine for most customers, but after millions of dollars in unjustified credits were given, Cingular decided to implement 'protocol training' which basically says no more credits on customer's bills unless there's an unquestionable mistake on Cingular's part. Actually, this seemed somewhat fair because there are a lot of customers who call in and make up some bullshit story to get a late fee or some roaming charge taken off (one lazy guy I spoke with didn't even bother to make up a story. he just called and politely asked "I need a courtesy credit on my bill.")

I finally got fed up with being one of the few reps who actually cared about the job and made a decent effort towards correcting customer's issues. I quit and moved on. I still use Cingular service because it's the best in my area, but I only call customer service when there's no other way around it. If I can, I go into company-owned store to make changes and such (though there are some things that stores don't have access to.) Here's some advice on calling in if you have to.

1. Always get the name, CUID (cingular user id), and call center location of the person you are speaking with. They are required to give this to you. Document this with the date and time and reason you are calling. Keep this information for the next two billing cycles (or whatever length of time applies to your situation.)

2. If you make any changes to your account, find out when the changes will go into effect and if any charges or service will be prorated.

3. Even if the call goes perfectly well, call back and verify everything the previous rep told you and make sure any requested changes have been done. This may sound unecessary, but I once changed a rate plan with a feature addition that took 3 calls to get it right. Yes, THREE calls!

4. Be polite to the rep. Attitude begats attitude. If you're nice, most of the reps will be nice to you. If you're an asshole, the rep will do nothing for you (and probably note your account so no one else will either.)

Hope this helps.

Re:I wonder why...

[wan23]

Yeah, with Sprint, instead of the heavy Indian accent, you get a heavy Ebonics umm...accent? They're just as hard to understand and much less likely to be able to read.

I'm not sorry to be harsh when it's the truth based on not only my experience, but also that of everyone I know and everything I've read.

From the CIA Factbook entry for the United States [cia.gov]

literacy:
definition: age 15 and over can read and write
female: 97% (1979 est.)
male: 97%
total population: 97%

There, now you've read something that contradicts your "truth". Most Americans know how to read. Maybe you'll be less harsh now? And by the way, if you can't understand people from your own country speaking the same language as you that's probably your fault rather than theirs. Next thing you'll tell me is that they should only hire members of your race with the same level of education as you (no higher or they'll talk too "smart") who live within 2 miles of you (but not in that part of town) to do customer service for you.

Re:They fail to understand what a "contract" is.

[gcaseye6677]

This is not entirely true, regarding the legal means to cancel a contract. If a company misrepresented their service in a major way, the customer could still have an out even if they signed a cleverly worded contract. Under consumer protection and truth in advertising laws, a company could face legal action if they 'grossly misrepresented' their products and services. If someone has copies of company ads promising 'nationwide free and clear service' and all they actually got was dropped calls and roaming fees out the ass, that would be deceptive advertising at the very least. In this situation, the burden of proof for the consumer would be much higher and would likely be rewarding only in a class action situation. But you are correct in saying that companies generally prefer to eat a few hundred dollars in cancellation fees rather than face the bad press that would come along with a class action suit. Then again, this didn't stop Blockbuster from being taken to court over their deceptive late fee practices.

Contracts are evil

[Lord Kano]

That 2 year contract they want you to sign in the reason why their customer service sucks. You're locked in for 2 years or you have to pay a huge cancellation fee. If you don't have a choice to leave, they don't have to provide you with good service.

This one is a no-brainer.

LK

Re:Try Nextel

[aka-ed]

When I was working call center duty for Nextel, I recall one paticular call. A customer whose name matched another customer received a $500 deposit return that was not hers. This customer's bills averaged around 40-50 a month, a very modest amount at NXTL.

She called in; told a CSR about the check. She was given an address to return it. She did so, kept her money order receipt and a mail receipt.

The next bill she received charged her $500 debit amount. She called and was told don't worry, it takes time. The time stretched on. Her bill became past due, she called, was told don't worry. They turned the phone off. She called, got it turned back on, and a ticket was made to investigate the misplaced check. Nobody thinks to take the charge off her bill, even though it's clear this was money Nextel sent to her for no reason, and that she has returned.

Time stretched on. Another month goes by, the bill is coming due again. Another check arrives, the other party's deposit sent to the wrong address AGAIN. This time she sends the check back to Nextel with the bill. OK? No, not okay bcause two things occur.

1. The person investigating the returned check sees in the record that the customer has submitted a $500 check as payment, decides that must be the same check (though the dates make NO sense). She closes the record.

2. The bill that follows carries abother $500 debit.

This call did not start well for me, because I am looking at the past record, with notes like "I have CONFIRMED that she has SUBMITTED THE CHECK WITH PAYMENT. Do NOT issue CREDIT!!!" Customer is very upset and combative (understandably), because she has called so may times on this and NXTL has screwed up on every turn, so it's difficult getting the straight story of what haooened from her.

At some point she realizes it actually is my intention to help, so it gets a littl easier. I get the full story and I can see from the record that it al makes sense. We've been holding $600 of this woman's money for over 6 months at this point and I get the distinct impression that $500 isn't chump change to her, this is all her walking around money and then some.

So. Because my limit is $200 or thereabouts I have to get a supervisor's approval. Well, they've been cost-cutting. There's one sup on the floor, and she is getting yelled at by a customer at the moment thank you.

Now I've worked hard to gain the customer's trust, I am not gonna leave her in the shit again at this point, and she and I wait for about 30 minutes.

Suo gets off the phone, comes by, and I have to explain what happened 3 times before she grasps it. And says no credit.

It becomes a raging argument. The call ends with the customer still out $500 through no fault of her own. I write up a trouble ticket with top priority flagged, for whatever good that will do.

A week later I'm pared out, because of my "insubordination," because my call times are too high, and because they are sending most of the center's jobs to Canada.

I worked there 7 years. Before that I was a writer and editor for 20 years, until I was totally burned out in the magazine business.

I have no idea where I go from here. At 55 I am living in my sister's basement for chrissakes. Nothing like taking shit from the mediocrities who handle management at a call center to break your confidence.

To sum up, NXTL's no exception.

Re:Well what did you expect?

[gront]

Overall, though, I wish that the law required companies to provide sans-hardware contract-free service at comparable rates, and let the market fight it out. Because at that point, the competition would be almost all about service, and the companies that would survive would be the ones with the best service.

They have these, they are the prepaid service ones like Virgin mobile or AT&T go-mobile. You buy the phone yourself and prepay for minutes on a card. There are some strange things like 'You must buy XX minutes every XX months' and so on, but you get the advantage of:

1. No contract of any kind

2. No credit check

3. Phone number portability (at least to Virgin Mobile)

4. And (most importantly for me, being a tin-foil-hat-wearer) you don't have your SSN tied to the phone or any personal information at all.

The drawback is that minutes cost a bit more but since you don't pay a base 20/30$+ a month it all kind of works out.