Doing the Happy Dance
May. 8th, 2003 07:46 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
susandennisSo yesterday when I was doing my PDA/Cellphone investigation, I talked to Sprint several times. I read online about their retention program where, according to the rocket scientists in the usenet groups, if you sound really pissed they will give you their first born son to keep you as a customer.
Other advise says that this is no longer true but if you demand to talk to a supervisor and/or ask a lot of really annoying questions you will get a better deal. There was one post that advised angry tone of voice along with some really amazingly stupid words to say. Great news group. And as it turned out, very helpful.
Everytime I talked to Sprint and to T-Mobile, I was so nice that Kenny - forced to eavesdrop on the conversations - asked me what kind of scam I was running. I got bounced around a lot at Sprint but not really unnecessarily so. I had called the wrong number. Everyone I talked to was really nice.
I finally ended up with Sheryl and she explained how I go about closing down my account after I explained that I needed to go with another company to get what I needed. I then said 'I wonder if it's possible you could give me a special deal on the Treo in order to keep me as a customer?' She asked me some good questions and then put me on hold.
She came back with a very nice deal and then, when I said 'I accept', she thanked me! I asked her how long it would take to get the phone since I was going out of town and wanted to make sure I had some time to learn it first. She said 3 to 5 days. I said that 5 days was really pushing. We chatted some more and then she said that I should call on Friday to get the tracking number and make sure the order was shipped.
We parted good friends.
Friday schmiday. I called this morning. Judy gave me my tracking number and guess what????
Sheryl sent it Next Day! The sucker is 'out for delivery' as I type this!!!
Happy Happy Happy dance.
Other advise says that this is no longer true but if you demand to talk to a supervisor and/or ask a lot of really annoying questions you will get a better deal. There was one post that advised angry tone of voice along with some really amazingly stupid words to say. Great news group. And as it turned out, very helpful.
Everytime I talked to Sprint and to T-Mobile, I was so nice that Kenny - forced to eavesdrop on the conversations - asked me what kind of scam I was running. I got bounced around a lot at Sprint but not really unnecessarily so. I had called the wrong number. Everyone I talked to was really nice.
I finally ended up with Sheryl and she explained how I go about closing down my account after I explained that I needed to go with another company to get what I needed. I then said 'I wonder if it's possible you could give me a special deal on the Treo in order to keep me as a customer?' She asked me some good questions and then put me on hold.
She came back with a very nice deal and then, when I said 'I accept', she thanked me! I asked her how long it would take to get the phone since I was going out of town and wanted to make sure I had some time to learn it first. She said 3 to 5 days. I said that 5 days was really pushing. We chatted some more and then she said that I should call on Friday to get the tracking number and make sure the order was shipped.
We parted good friends.
Friday schmiday. I called this morning. Judy gave me my tracking number and guess what????
Sheryl sent it Next Day! The sucker is 'out for delivery' as I type this!!!
Happy Happy Happy dance.
(no subject)
Date: 2003-05-08 07:48 am (UTC)Sweet! That's customer service!! :)
(no subject)
Date: 2003-05-08 07:54 am (UTC)turnover is a huge problem for mobile companies ..
Date: 2003-05-08 11:21 am (UTC)and i had the same kind of experience when working with cingular to get the crappy v60i they gave me replaced with something cool (http://www.nokia.com/phones/3650). the woman called to give me the tracking number and i said "don't bother--it's here!"
Re: turnover is a huge problem for mobile companies ..
Date: 2003-05-08 11:26 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2003-05-08 07:48 pm (UTC)Pleasant tone of voice helps. Also - a reasonable request. I'll add a couple of weeks to your deadline if you're polite and don't have a history of broken promises to pay. On the other hand, I wouldn't accept an arrangement to pay an extra $10 a month to pay off all the porn pay-per-view that's driven the account over the $500 mark no matter how nice the person is.
And the "Well, if you don't reconnect me I'm just going to ExpressPoo/US dish" threat never works. I've heard it far too many times. I'm too jaded.
(no subject)
Date: 2003-05-08 07:55 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2003-05-08 08:09 pm (UTC)When I was on the phones my favourite calls were the ones that started with, "I'm not very happy with your service!!!" and ended with, "The next time I call, I'm asking for you!"
(no subject)
Date: 2003-05-08 08:25 pm (UTC)