Wednesday, September 27, 2006

The Fine Art Of CSR Bluffing

This evening, I decided to call the customer service number of my mobile phone provider to inquire about the status of my supposed-to-be loyal subscriber incentive. The customer service representative on the other line appears uninterested to hear my concerns. Eventually, after countless explanations and counter explanations about my single issue, I ended up threatening her that if I don't get a convincing explanation before I drop my phone, I will cut my line and move to another mobile service provider.

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Me: Look [name of CSR] , I've been a very loyal subscriber of Globe for many years. Check my account and you will find that I'm paying 2 thousand pesos every month just to maintain my phone. I'm sorry but if my 2-year old phone breaks down anytime, I would be forced to find a new subscriber. Yun lang ok? Yun lang."

And there was silence.

CSR: "Ok sir, let me forward your account to the Rewards Department.

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The threat I made somehow snapped sanity back at her. Immediately, she acted on my behalf, ensuring that whatever moves she will take would be in my favor. At sino namang hindi maasar. I've been bleeding huge amounts of money every 15 days just to pay for my bill, and still, I'm using an old phone. Those who uses the pre-paid service would waste their precious load forwarding stupid and impersonal text messages every fucking day of the week. At hindi pa nakuntento ang mga walang magawa ha! They will send you crappy forwarded text messages at least six times a day.

Sino ba namang hindi mapipikon sa ganun?

Buti kung isang message lang. At buti kung yung forwarded message niya eh original.

Seriously, I find the CSR, unsympathetic and unconcerned about my issue. I could have let things go away, but when she said that Globe only gives reward to subscribers who upgrade their accoun, I immediately told her that I'm paying so much for my phone, upgrading my account for no reason at all would be sheer stupidity. My issue here is when I could get a new phone since I already ended my contract with them. According to their marketing policy, they could encourage new postpaid applicants to sign-up with them while providing a mobile phone based on their plan. Since I'm an old, established account, I deserve such incentive as well. Don't get me wrong, I can buy a decent phone anytime I want. But since I have the priviledge of getting a new phone without throwing a single centavo. San pa ako kundi dun na sa libre.

I sincerely hope that she forwarded my inquiry to the department that handles such problem. I also hope that whoever is in-charge in the QA room have monitored our conversation so that they would know that some of their people needs more training when it comes to courtesy and appearing enthusiastic to their "VIP" clients.

At syempre, I'm one of the VIPs no. Ilan lang ba ang kilala kong may mga post paid account sa kanila? Besides, mine is a good account. Bwisitin talaga nila ako, lilipat ako sa SMART. I'm sure, once they see how updated my payments are, they would take me in without clowning too much around.

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