The wireless SCs part 1

[Josh]

other payment types you forgot (or tried to erase from your subconscious):

I can't believe you turned off my service for failing to pay my phone bill and now I have to use the money I needed to feed my starving kids to pay you.

My name is "Joe Smith" as if that magically opens the customers information screen showing the payment and account info, bonus as they stop there and are bewildered when you don't process the payment instantly. extra extra bonus if your business accepts payments for multiple carriers

The 'I don't know my account number, cell phone number, carrier, but I bought the phone here" type.

The bum who panhandles for change close by, but comes in monthly to pay his phone bill with a crisp $100 bill.

I's sure there are others

[icantbelievethesepeople]

other payment types you forgot (or tried to erase from your subconscious):
<snip>
I's sure there are others

Oh, dont worry, those are coming in part 3! I didnt want to create a tl;dr for my first post, im new here!

Why? None of the above reasons. She was actually told that was the only way she could pay. By one of the reps there.

Then that rep is an idiot and I hate him/her. There really is no reason, at all, to pay your bill at the store, it is a waste of everyone's time, including your own. Exception for kiosk stores. As I said before, those things are enormous, you have to be blind not to see them. Good move btw "big check" is a ripoff, ive worked for them and all the big carriers.

Only time I pay in person is if that bill needs paid like yesterday and I happen to be in the town the store is in.

Actually, that doesnt really bother me. There isnt anything wrong with "oh crap I forgot to pay my bill, here is a store" It is the habitual idiots you see every month that gives me a case of the murders.

[ComputerNecromancer]

Could depend on the carrier. All the ones I have worked for encourage auto pay by actually charging you less or charge you nothing at all at the kiosk or automated phone payments, or online payments for that matter. You may also have a SOC code preventing online payments, you might want to check on that

Some of us won't *ever* do auto-pay because we've been burned by it. I wound up without a bank account for seven years because The tax people grabbed my bank account and when the auto pay came up the bank treated it like I'd written a bad check, rather than as an "oops".

So they reported me to the agency banks use for the equivalent of credit reports. And since they had a policy of *never* removing such reports, that meant that I couldn't open an account with any other bank until it aged off the system. Which takes seven years.

Since I can't always be certain I'll have money at the right time, I don't do automatic payments.

I will pay online for the companies that don't charge extra for it. But there's one (the power company) that charges $2 for the "privilege". So they still get a check in the mail (they don't have an office that accepts payments and the various stores that'll act as payment stations charge $1 or a stamp & envelope is still cheaper)

BTW, the Verizon stores around here have some weird policies about accepting payments. I don't recall what they were, but that was how I wound up going online.

[DGoddessChardonnay]

Actually, that doesnt really bother me. There isnt anything wrong with "oh crap I forgot to pay my bill, here is a store" It is the habitual idiots you see every month that gives me a case of the murders.

Hence the reason my Mom set up autopay for our wireless bill each month. She's also set up our Satellite Company payment that way as well. Being on quite a few different meds (diabetes, HBP, cholesterol,) her short term memory can have an "oops" at times.

And if I'm at work, I may not have time to make a quick phone call to make payment myself (or with Blue Ball wireless, I do have an app where I can check my billing and make payments that way) Mom prefers to take care of it herself (don't argue with Mom - it's useless even though she claims my brother and I never pay her any mind.)

But yeah, autopay takes some of the load off. We know what's coming out, so Mom can go ahead and subtract when she's balancing the account.

[Aethian]

Could depend on the carrier. All the ones I have worked for encourage auto pay by actually charging you less or charge you nothing at all at the kiosk or automated phone payments, or online payments for that matter. You may also have a SOC code preventing online payments, you might want to check on that

This is at our Verizon store here in Kalamazoo. She is also prepay, not a contract account. When paying that through the kiosk it always adds the 911 fee, something I do not have to pay when I make the same payment to a person at the desk.

When I was talking about logging on I meant the username password part. Verizon has to send the initial password through email or mail. But even after changing her email through the store it still will send the email to a account she can't access.

So she then has to wait for the snail mail to arrive and when it does the pass code is usually timed out. This has been happening since she was drawn in when she had Altel.

Before the swap I had my debit card hooked up to her account and whenever needed funds could add money from her phone, my iPhone, or from the computer. She's just stuck in a no man zone.

[DGoddessChardonnay]

other payment types you forgot (or tried to erase from your subconscious):

I can't believe you turned off my service for failing to pay my phone bill and now I have to use the money I needed to feed my starving kids to pay you.

This I don't get. If you have the money to pay the bill, say on the 3rd of the month but fail to, then where did they put that X amount that was supposed to have went to the phone bill when they get shut off and call in?

Sounds to me like they've spent the money elsewhere and are trying to deflect the blame on the big, bad company rather than making sure they paid the bill when it was due whether or not the "received a bill."

I know when my bills are due . . . they get paid each and every month before the due date and I view the monthly statement as a courtesy (most of my bills are the same amount each month, except for electric and water.) The 3rd rolls around and Mom is on the phone, or I'm on the computer after work making sure these payments get made (except satellite and phone, which are now auto pay) and by the 6th or so of the month we have everything covered except for electric (due usually around the 3rd week of the month) and water (last week of the month.)

Are me and my Mom the only ones who look forward to getting the bills paid first week of the month?

[icantbelievethesepeople]

Before the swap I had my debit card hooked up to her account and whenever needed funds could add money from her phone, my iPhone, or from the computer. She's just stuck in a no man zone.

The carrier I work for allows you to also add prepaid funds by calling the service numbers or buying prepaid packs at local retailers

[Aethian]

Yea, so does Verizon. That's not my point. I was trying to give a reason WHY some other people do not use the kiosk.

[Synaid]

Cell Phone Service Technician

I, too, worked for a wireless company many years ago. Not as a commissioned sales person, but as a wireless technician. Basically, I fixed cellphones / mobiles. While my experiences were different from sales people, a coworker of mine summed up the difference perfectly. As a commissioned sales person, the customer might walk in having a good day, and you might get a sale, the customer might be having a bad day, and you're probably not. Everybody that sees the service tech is having a bad day. My one and only job was to walk out ensuring they at least had a hint of a smile.

I'd like to think I did a good job, feedback I was given at the time of my departure, and even years later, tells me I did, but I would occasionally get customers there really was no helping.

Here is the story of one of the first.

I watched a customer walk in, through the rain, talking on their cellphone. They held no umbrella. After discussing issues with their bill, loudly, and threatening to cancel, repeatedly, with the service rep they finally announced that they weren't paying for service due to the fact that their phone wasn't working right. The customer service rep opened the account and stuck a note in knowing I was watching. "NAME, drop her. She gets credits every month and -" etc. Everything you need to know to say "go ahead and get her to quit."

She comes over and slams her phone down so hard on my counter top that the screen audibly cracks. She states her phone has had some troubles and that I had better fix it as she doesn't want another of our phones. I state that I will be unable to, as it has water damage.

"it's never been wet!"
"Ma'am, I watched you walk through the rain while talking on it."
"I've done that lots, that's not enough to break it."

At this point, I pick up the phone, pop the battery case off, and pour out about a teaspoon of water, WATER, onto the counter. She looks me right in the eye and says...

"That doesn't mean anything."

[blas]

Auto pay can burn people. It happened twice with the Deathstar logo cell company. One of the reasons we dropped them like a bad habbit.

Twice, they "lost" my mom's payment, although it was on her bank statement, they shut all of our phones off and charged us to reconnect, although she said she'd fax her bank statement, they refused and said pay the reconnect charge.