[Hamp]

ALERT!
I know of a neighbor who works for AT&T. She always tells me about how customers call in mad and give the service reps grief. Some of them even curse out the reps and all the reps can do is take it. Why do people act as though the customer service reps determine policy within the telecom companies. These people are just like you, trying to carve out a living but people act as though they are personally responsible for problems.

Has anyone ever stopped and wondered how we treat the people that serve us our food, deliver our packages and assist with managing our utilities? What if they stopped working? we've all heard horror stories about fast food servers dropping food and other things then serving it to customers because the customer embarrassed them or treated them like crap.

Does anyone realize that these people hold a lot of power over our bills, contracts, and services? A person who doesn't care and has been mistreated can do major damage to your phone bill after you yelled at them as if they created the company. A few clicks and now you have a $500 bill and no way of catching anyone responsible. My neighbor says it's that easy. She was terrified when a co-worker said if he wasn't nice he could easily do it.

When I was in the military as an engineer, we maintained the base. All services, utlities, etc were under our control. One bad moment and we could cut power to whole housing areas. Military engineers are trained to sabotage equipment if they are overrun to prevent the enemy from using it against us.

So think about it the next time you call in mad to AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, etc and fuss at the rep as if they are to blame.

They work there and follow rules, they don't set policy! The reps work hard to do their best but they have to answer to bosses for approval of your requests.

Thanks for reading this far. Please feel free to copy and post in other forums and social media.

[esk369]

I hear what your saying but there's a flip side to that coin my friend good and bad on both sides I have had some truly wonderful experiences with various cust service reps but i have also had some truly horrible experiences also at the end of the day everyone deserves to be treated with respect.
You definitely make a valid point.
Also if I read it right you are or have been active military thank you for your service

[raino]

First off, thank you for your service.

Second, regarding your post: a lot of companies now offer chat based correspondence as well with an option to email yourself the chat transcript. What level of support they offer via chat may vary, so let me narrow it down to my experiences and my carrier (T-Mobile).

I pretty much interact with TMO exclusively via chat. There have been a few instances where there have been billing discrepancies, and I've been able to fight these based off of chat transcripts emailed to me (that too from a @t-mobile.com address). In one instance, a supervisor took one look at the chat transcript and reversed the charges without say anything else except "I've reversed the charges."

So, in short, if the companies you do business with offer such a trackable option, it's a good idea for you, as a customer, to use them.

[kbz1960]

I hear ya but if the rep does anything to your account that shouldn't be done they will be held accountable for their actions with needing to find a new job. They do know everything the rep does and record all calls. Just because a customer is an azz is no reasons to add charges or whatever to their account.

[travaz]

I remember an incident that happened at Ohare Airport several years ago on American Airlines. I was traveling from Phoenix to Hartford CT. Arrived in ORD and all flights were cancelled due to a bad ice storm. Told to go to main ticket counter for rerouting. As you can imagine there were long lines and lots of Irrate passengers. I stood in line and watched people scream at ticket agents as if it was thier fault the weather got bad. ( I really dont weant to climb into a plane that may crash) When it became my turn to speak with the agent I approached the desk and asked the very nice lady if she would like me to stay here and let here have a break after all of those people yelled at her. She sort of chuckeld but you could tell she was relieved that I wasnt going to unload on her. After a few minutes of discussing my options and getting a flight set for the next day she thanked me for being kind and slipped me a hotel voucher and free drink coupons. Not to many other people were getting anything but a bench at the airport. The point is customer service reps do have the power to make things better. Treat them with respect and you will get the same in return