Verizon Makes Offering Service Blocks a Fireable Offense 370
Presto Vivace sends in a report from David Pogue at the New York Times, who learned from a Verizon customer service representative that the company has implemented a policy of punishing employees who suggest certain service blocks to customers looking to avoid unwanted or accidental fees. According to the representative, offering (for example) a web access block or premium SMS block without the customer asking for it can now lead to a reprimand or outright termination. The CSRs have also been directed to avoid issuing credits for such charges. "Essentially, we are to upsell customers on the $9.99 25mb/month or $29.99 unlimited packages for customers. Customers are not to be credited for charges unless they ask for the credit. And in cases such as data or premium SMS, where the occurrences may have gone months without the consumer noticing, only an initial credit can be issued."
Surprise? (Score:5, Insightful)
Is this really such a surprise?
Customer Service Is a Misnomer (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Customer Service (Score:1, Insightful)
Now true - it would be a hell of a lot easier if we, as customers, had a list of options that we could choose from so we could make the best decisions possible. But the rub is - what company would ever go for that?
Re:Customer Service Is a Misnomer (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Customer Service Is a Misnomer (Score:5, Insightful)
It is very likely the customer service representatives who are offering those service blocks to better accommodate those customers are the better representatives who are actually trying to do a good job. And people wonder why customer service for some companies is so horrible, it is because of policies like this.
Its the bean-counters' fault.
Revenue losses from service blocks and credits are really easy to measure.
Profits from customers made happy by good customer service are really hard to measure.
So, as is frequently the case when organizations become hyper-focused on metrics,
decisions get made that maximize metrics but don't make good business sense.
Re:Customer Service (Score:5, Insightful)
All snarking aside - this is a case of CSRs forgetting who they work for. They work for Verizon - NOT the customer. They have to keep "what is best for Verizon" in mind when dealing with customers.
All snarking aside - this is a case of Verizon forgetting who they work for. They work for the Customers - NOT the money. They have to keep "what is best for Customers" in mind when dealing with money.
Yeah, I know I am full of crap. I hate big soulless companies too. But if their policy is to screw their customers at every turn, they will lose me as a customer.
Re:Rife (Score:3, Insightful)
Yea, I made seventeen phone calls in to the four departments to get a DSL dry loop line. You have to get really aggressive to get anything done. There ARE some service saints in there somewhere, so when you get one, get their ID number or sometimes first and last name and then ask for them.
Re your last line, I AM willingly a (disgusted) customer because I think Comcast is worse! Last I recalled on the Evil front, Verizon was SLIGHTLY less evil.
Re:Customer Service (Score:4, Insightful)
The extra $ Verizon makes in out-of-plan data charges will easily be lost in good will.
That's why they lock you into a 24-month service commitment and don't let you pay for your phone up front, so that the loss of goodwill doesn't translate to loss of business.
Should be automatic (Score:4, Insightful)
We seriously need a federal regulation making blocking of excessive fees ($5,000 increase in phone bill due to teenage txting) automatic. Allow the user to put a definable cap on their bill which requires a phone call to the telco to exceed. "I never want to pay more than $300 on my bill." It would cut off all but emergency service and calls to the telco itself if it hit the cap. It could even cut off all but voice service as the cap was approached.
Verizon does allow users to turn on and off various blocking services on their website, but more people don't care enough to even make that much of a decision.
Re:Rife (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Should be automatic (Score:5, Insightful)
I really don't understand this attitude. There aren't "plenty of other companies to choose from", there are _maybe_ FOUR of any quality and coverage, and they all do the same thing. Simply taking the 'regulation bad, freedom good' line is moronic. Complaining about telco atrocities is almost a standard pastime here on Slashdot, yet when someone suggests a possible solution via actually forcing the telcos to stop raping the consumer the response is 'no regulation'? WTF?! Like they are going to suddenly get all warm and fuzzy and do it on their own?
Re:Should be automatic (Score:5, Insightful)
No, the one thing we do NOT need is more federal regulation. There are plenty of other companies to choose from; pick a prepaid company and work with them.
As a country, we decided a long time ago that consumer protections are more important than allowing the free hand of the market to work its magic.
In other words: just because there are better options, doesn't mean we should allow abusive practices to continue.
Re:Should be automatic (Score:4, Insightful)
Agreed. I'd go a step further and require everybody to pick a maximum monthly charge when they sign up for their account - it can be as low as whatever number was advertised on the TV set (if they advertise an amount that doesn't cover fees, then the fees are on the telco). The telco can block service if you exceed your amount, but if they provide the service they can't bill you for it, and they can't carry it over to next month either, etc.
If somebody CHOOSES to spend $10k on data roaming that is their choice. I don't think we need price fixing (yet). However, people shouldn't be sold services they have no intention of actually buying. Cell phone companies are like the guys who run up and wash your windows in the city and then demand payment.
Re:Customer Service Is a Misnomer (Score:3, Insightful)
"Since it is generally impossible to measure what is important, bureaucrats instead turn their energies toward making important what is measurable." — J.M.W. Slack, Egg and Ego
Re:Customer Service (Score:2, Insightful)
Shaft your customers enough and they'll switch to a different company.
I agree with you. However, there are plenty of fresh customers to take the place of those that leave. It seems like there are just too many people now to attempt the 'vote with your wallet' strategy. Because there are so many damn customers now, you're never going to get enough people to stop consuming that product to make a difference. Look at Toyota. People died due to their negligence. Are they going out of business? Nope.
Re:Rife (Score:5, Insightful)
No, the 10% get fired when their bosses find out that they're trying to help the customers.
Re:Customer Service Is a Misnomer (Score:4, Insightful)
So, as is frequently the case when organizations become hyper-focused on metrics, decisions get made that maximize metrics but don't make good business sense.
Quoted for emphasis. Excellent point. I think this problem is pervasive in our culture right now, even including our attempts to improve education.
Interestingly (at least I think it's interesting), it seems to me to be caused by the right-wing's insistence on "capitalism" as a moral system (i.e. short-term profits are the only thing that matters), mixed with the left-wing insistence on "science" as wisdom (i.e. nothing is true unless it's quantifiable and provable). It's like a perfect storm of dumb ideologies, with some general greed, incompetence, and stupidity thrown in for good measure.
Re:Customer Service (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Glad I just moved to Sprint. (Score:3, Insightful)
I have no spoken to a bad CSR at tmobile.
They go out of their way to help you and generally get the job done.
They will even help out with suggesting service plans and whatnot. I actually had to push to bump my minutes above the next tier. (I kept going over and I decided to just make it impossible to go over.) The csr on the line said, "you don't appear to ever use that many."
My experience with T-Mobile has been the same. When we call (we have four lines), they go out of their way to remind us that we've got a new free phone available on our contract, offered to switch us to cheaper plans than ones we were selecting (when we called to add a few lines) that included more services, let us know when new pricing (their recent plan pricing reductions) were available and offered to switch us to the newer cheaper plans and on and on.
That doesnt even count the fact that due to roaming agreements with almost everyone, we never pay roaming charges.
Then there's the large number of times I have called because I bought a non T-Mobile phone (Cingular, Cingular and AT&T and random unlocked phone that TMo did not sell) and needed help getting data or such working. Those calls all started with "Well, we dont sell or officially support that phone, but here's what we need to do..." followed by the CSR walking me through every step of the setup and phone settings changes while they enabled any changes needed on their end... and ending with "OK, now, hang up, restart your phone and try x service on it - it should all be working fine now" - at that point, I hang up, restart the phone, test, and like clockwork, in under 10 minutes, the CSR rep calls back to make sure all is well and properly working.
On top of that, not a single change gets made to our account without SMS text notifications being sent to all our phones letting us know and letting us know how we can check on the change to reverse it or understand more about it. That's on top of the online notifications, email notification and written notification. No guessing. No wondering when someone on the plan changes something that will incur us lots of charges. No wondering if TMo has changed something that will cost us more. Not with at least 3, if not 4, different notifications being sent to us.
Then there's the TMo Community (aka: forums), where they actually allow whole sections devoted to rooting and modding your cell phone and are very quick to have bulletins and tips on potential phone problems and fixes. Most carriers and cell manufacturers go out of their way to prevent you from rooting your phone and installing custom mods. TMo simply adds a big disclaimer at the top of every rooting or mod section, then lets the community go "hog wild" offering, suggesting or instructing each other on how to root and re-ROM your phone.
Since switching through Sprint (pretty ok with their cust service), ATT (rather make a deal with the devil), Verizon (rather burn in hell) to TMo (5 years ago), I've decided to stay with TMo - at least for as long as they keep providing such stellar customer service.
Are they perfect? No, probably not. Do they occassionally screw something up? Sure. But, in all my cell and landline phone experiences, they are very very far ahead of the pack.
Re:Customer Service (Score:4, Insightful)
How do they get away with... (Score:4, Insightful)
And in cases such as data or premium SMS, where the occurrences may have gone months without the consumer noticing, only an initial credit can be issued.
I'm not sure which legislative body was asleep at the switch, but AT&T does the same thing with billing mistakes. They can make mistakes in billing and charge you too much for months or even years. However when you bring up their mistake, by law they only have to credit you for the amount on the latest bill.
The above situation is one of the many situations that reenforces my belief that the government and corporations do not only not have the consumer's best interests in mind, they also aren't concerned about being held accountable. If I'm a contractor and I defraud a customer due to a "billing error", they can take me to court and sue my ass off. Yet Verizon, AT&T (and probably other telcos that I haven't had personal experience with) can defraud people for extended periods of time, and their liability is legally limited to the last billing cycle.
Customer Service, just like HR (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Accountants don't run customer service (Score:1, Insightful)
a bean counter isn't an accountant -- it's someone who manages based on some odd numbers gleaned from the weekly TPS Reports instead of really understanding what is going on.
Re:Customer Service (Score:3, Insightful)
Actually, every company that provides a contract service does in a very clear and legal sense work for the customer. When companies forget this, the market (and often courts) provide intense and painful reminders to that company.
Re:Rife (Score:3, Insightful)
(I knew someone who decided to quit by just putting his headset on the table and reading a book, still in the phone queue, lasted a month before they found out his calls were just dead air)
Did he get an award for his low call times before they realized? Where I worked we had someone who kept telling people to buy a new printer cable no matter what the problem with the printer was. Ink leaking out the bottom? New cable! Grinding noises? New cable! Windows says you need a driver? New cable! Kept her call times damn low, so much so that people were told to emulate her.