SC Calls Back Multiple Times in an Attempt to Get a Different Answer!

[baileysinmycoffee]

I work for a major cable company (cable/internet/telephone) as a CSR in their call center.

A few nights ago I received a call that went a little something like this:

Me: Thank you for calling ------, my name is ------. How may I assist you?
SC: I just received my bill and I've been over-charged. I want this corrected immediately! The sales rep quoted me $--- a month and you're charging me over $---!!!
Me: (Verifies caller identity and pulls up his account) I will be glad to go over your bill with you sir. I see you are at a monthly rate of $--- + tax which brings your total monthly bill to $---. I see you just had your service installed on 3/11, is that correct?
SC: Yes
Me: OK. Here's where we come up to $---...

( I explain prorates to the customer. The 1st bill is always prorated. He was installed on March 11, during a billing cycle. So the company billed him a partial month from March 11-April 8, and then the next full billing cycle, April 9-May 8. So he basically had more than one billing cycle on the 1st bill. The company always bills 1 month ahead. I explained this to him about 4 times, and he kept insisting that the bill was wrong. 75% of our calls are due to customers not understanding prorates)

SC: Your company is scamming me. (hangs up)

So I chuckle to myself and make notes on his account. Our system has it so that only one rep can be on an account at any given time. About 1 minute later, I get a message from another rep saying that SC is on the phone and I need to get off his account so she can get into it. I message her back and tell her why he's calling, what I already told him, and that he hung up on me because I didn't tell him what he wanted to hear. I don't recognize her name and then I find out she is one of the newer reps. I wish her good luck with him and then go on my 10 minute break.

I come back to my desk and I see that she messaged me again, asking what is wrong with his bill and why it's so high?!?! I advised her that it's prorated and that she just needs to look at the billing dates and she will see it. She's only been working there for 3 weeks so I helped her out as much as I could. Apparently the SC was talking in circles and putting words in her mouth in order to trick her into lowering the bill!!!

Eventually the SC demanded a supervisor...and about 30 minutes later the supervisor on duty messages me and says "wow what an asshat that SC is..." LOL. The supervisor explained the bill to the SC another 6 times and then he muttered something about canceling the service and hung up on him too.

About 2 hours later I go back into the SC's account just to see if he called in again and sure enough, he did.

*sigh*

Whenever I enter an install order, I always make it a point to fully inform the customer about the prorated 1st bill. Technically we are always supposed to inform the customer about the prorated 1st bill while doing an install order but most reps don't. Still, March 11-May 8 is more than 1 month, so obviously the bill will be higher. Going forward, each bill will be for 1 billing cycle, and will be for the monthly rate he was quoted.

I also hate when they call multiple times in one day to get a lower price...I had one SC try to tell me that he saw an advert for a triple play for $65 a month?! Our cheapest triple play package is $99.95 and it's only at that rate for 12 months. If you can't afford $100 for cable+internet+phone then perhaps you really shouldn't be buying these services!

Oh well, at least customer ignorance = job security!!!

[underemployeed]

gotta love "well so and so told me!" and from then on you can't tell them otherwise.

Something tells me one of your supervisors will eventually comp the guy to make him go away, because I wonder how much in wages the company is wasting dealing with him, compared to what he wants.


About the $65 a month, also great when it a different company they want you to match that is something different.

[Cloudy Sky]

Yep, baileysinmycoffee, we must work at the same place! I get those customers all the time, and they drive me crazy! And most of them don't have a copy of their bill with them when they call in, so you can't even point out the dates that are there in black and white.

[TelephoneAngel]

I also get customers who have called several times asking the same question and getting the sme answer from different call centre agents.

Answers are not something we make up in our heads, they are what we have to work out given the customers circumstances, therefore it is always going to be the same answer providing that the sc does not sneakily change the question in some way between calls.

[Magpie]

I feel very sorry for you, because I'm sure that even explaining this to non-sucky customers can get tiring. My husband freaked out at our first phone bill, despite the two months being itemized on it! Took me 5 minutes to show him that it was for more than one month. (Don't worry, he pays more attention than that in the lab).

[BowserKoopa1]

Sounds to me like he's trying to scam you guys, trying to get you to lower the bill in some way. He'll just keep on calling back until he gets someone to do it. I just hope your mananger/supervisor is not a kiss ass and will give in to them just because they're afraid of losing the guy's business. Eventually after he's been turned down enough times, he'll give up. He may go to another cable/phone/tv company, but at least you'll be minus 1 sucky customer

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

I really REALLY hope you have a retention/cancellations department with a spine. I took a lot of calls about proration when I worked in a wireless call center and I would say 9 times out of 10 the customer would threaten to cancel, be transferred to our retention team and then promptly credited for all the proration because the company was apparently terrified of losing customers.

Not to mention this whole thing made me look like an idiot. "Oh he's just a big meanie, here let me give you exactly what you want Mr. SC!"

[Sauletekis]

The ol' employee bingo game! Particularly hilarious at my current gig, as we are a small team, so when someone keeps calling back, we're all sitting together and are able to make sure that we maintain the same response and have a little laugh at the futility of playing employee bingo with us.

[BaristaTrav]

In the SC's (slight) defense, I have been caught off guard by the pro-rating thing a few times and it was usually do to the rep or installer not really explaining how billing would work. So like the SC, I'd open my first bill and get heart palpitations.. Of course once it was explained I calmed down, and usually the cell phone carrier or whoever would take partial payment if I couldn't pay the bill in full right away. But I do see how it can be a recipe for SC antics.

[Peppergirl]

I love it when they call back over and over like that, and it's a call center that has a maximum of 5 people on it at a time (like mine).

...so the chances of one reaching the very same agent back for one's attempted asshattery and shennanigans are pretty good.

[baileysinmycoffee]

Cloudysky: Ohhh yeah...about half of my calls about prorates are made even *more difficult* because they don't have a copy of the statement in front of them. Plus the dates are right on there, clear as day!!! Some days I wonder if I wouldn't be better off working at Timmy Hortons LOL!

Crazed Clerk: Yah our "cancellation" department is pretty spineless LOL...they always make me look like *the bad guy*

BaristraTrav: I do agree with you. If I didn't work where I do and go through 2 months of programming/training I wouldn't even be able to make any sense of the bill. I hate the callers who immediately jump down my throat and make demands before I even have a chance to explain the bill.

BowserKoopa: My supervisor is pretty good about standing up to SC's. We usually trade stories about SC's and have a laugh. Although if the SC makes their way to the cancellation reps, usually they will find some way to appease them and keep them as a customer.

Sauletekis: Yeah I like to have fun with a repeat caller and flag the account as insane customer so the next rep knows not to give in. Good times!

Peppergirl: Yeah I've had an SC hangup on me and callback only to get me again!! Sooo funny! I work the late shift so by 11:30 there are like 2 of us there...so if someone doesn't like what I'm telling them...they'll have to call back the next day to try and speak to someone else, hehe.

[Hyndis]

The ol' employee bingo game! Particularly hilarious at my current gig, as we are a small team, so when someone keeps calling back, we're all sitting together and are able to make sure that we maintain the same response and have a little laugh at the futility of playing employee bingo with us.

Yup.

I work for a small company, so they're going to either get me, or the person sitting right next to me who overheard the entire conversation just minutes ago.

It is hilarious when the same person keeps calling back, fishing for a different answer, and he keeps getting the exact same person. Surprisingly they don't realize it is almost invariably the same person picking up the phone.

They don't get a different answer.

[QASlave]

I know EXACTLY what company you work for. ;-)

[Jack Doe]

I know EXACTLY what company you work for. ;-)

Eye and Ear Cable by any chance? *Look at the logo*

[baileysinmycoffee]

No I don't work for that company *eye and ear* as you put it.