My biggest complaint is that phones don't just come with those basic technologies anymore. They all have to have internet, texting, multimedia, demos of games, shopping, etc.

one only wonders what tech support at iPhone is going thru....lol

Yes and no. I don't think it's the customer service rep's job to read someone the phone's user manual. You have in-store reps to resolve legitimate hardware issues, legitimate software issues (like updating the phone's software) and help clear up billing issues. They will also be happy to sell you a new phone. Otherwise, no, I don't see it the way you do.

Cell phone companies (and the producers of other technology) do not printo those user manuals just to add weight to the box. It should be a minimal expectation that the customer has at least referred to that manual before coming in and taking up space in a line full of people with legitimate problems who really need help from these in-store reps.

Many years ago, I had one of those in-store service jobs. When such customers would come in, I'd very politely pull out a copy of the user manual and refer to the part which described that feature. I'd then read the manual out loud as I walked the customer through the process.

Generally, I find these things to be so intuitive that a manual is just unnecessary. Once you understand the concept of smartkeys and menus and what sort of features would be found in certain categories, how to work a cell phone ain't rocket science.

-- and yes, I fully support Sprint's decision not to serve customers who were costing them money.

You're comparing your example of needing help with GPS (which may be something only a few customer service reps are comfortable with) to Soliloquy's example of helping someone take a picture? They're like apples & oranges in the customer service world.

Honestly, the person who helped you didn't handle your situation well at all. A good customer service rep would immediately refer you to someone who knew how to answer your question, without doubt.

But helping someone learn how to take a picture? That should only take a few minutes, which I don't think anyone would be opposed to helping someone do. Its the people you have to spend 45 minutes with because they don't press the button you tell them to, or they don't grasp the concept of zoom. It may be the job of the customer service rep to help that person, but its no less frustrating. (And costly if it comes in via a phone call, which is why Sprint terminated the services of all those people who call in far too often for inane questions that are answered in guides & manuals.)

Whoa there buddy.. I've worked service-based jobs for well over 3 years and did a damn good job too. You don't need to explain to me what my job is/was.

If you don't know how to use the equipment, and don't want to bother learning, why are you going to take it out on the people who work there? I always make it a point to educate myself about technology that I purchase before I call a service center or make a stop at a store. Sure I may have issues with certain functions, but I can pretty much guarantee I will find my answer in my user manual or on the manufacturer's website.

Maybe you should have re-read my post and notice that I said I had absolutely NO PROBLEMS HELPING PEOPLE WITH VALID ISSUES (i.e. their phone has a fuzzy screen, anything to do with a PDA because those things are complicated, media isn't being stored, the problem you were experiencing etc). But if you come into the store because you didn't bother to read the section in your manual that tells you how to use bluetooth, and you tell me to do it... I'm gonna be agitated. I won't let you know that I am, but I will be.

Apparently, you've never worked in retail or in a customer based environment.

And also, the fact that the employees at your particular store didn't know how to help you speaks poorly of the management. Most phones aren't that complicated and employees should be properly trained on how to troubleshoot or explain various tools. So your point that "even the employees didn't know how to use it" is invalid.

I agree with Daemon and Kevin...

true, it is your job to help...when i was at tmobile, i was always showing someones grandma how to turn the phone on. i didnt mind with the older people, but ummm, if you are 20 and can read, you need to give it a shot yourself first.

i also blame the phone companies a little too...some of the customers, like my mom, who had the same phone for years and then couldnt find supplies for it, had to upgrade. there is a need for a simple, basic cell phone, one that doesnt text, take pictures, have games, etc. just call out, get calls in, and voicemail.

Well, customers might be more willing to "do something for a change" if the websites and user-manuals were user-friendly, or just comprehensible, but all too often they are not.

While I agree with Kevin that "It should be a minimal expectation that the customer has at least referred to that manual before coming in and taking up space in a line full of people with legitimate problems who really need help," I also think that it should be a minimal expectation that the user-manual meet some mininal standards of usefulness. I have had my share of those that don't.

I never called customer service or gone into a store with questions about how to use my phone, but I can tell you that plenty of my time has been wasted by trying to find the information I need in the poorly-designed and poorly-written user-manual or website.

I completely agree.

I agree to a point, and I'm usually pretty good at the intuitive route. But I spent 30 minutes last night trying to figure out how to edit a speed-dial/phonebook entry on my mother-in-law's phone. (She'd misplaced the user manual.) I tried every command, every menu and every option I could think of, and I never could figure it out. Intuitive it was not.

See, Kevin that is a GREAT example..but NOT A LOT of customer service reps will do that at a store...then again this is the surse of having so many young kids who don't give a dayum working these kinds of jobs...gone are the days when a friendly person will sit down and take the time to go over those functions....and sure we can say 'refer to the manual' but 2 things that pop in my mind for an older person

1. a 100 to 200 page manual in small print may be intimidating

2. there have been more than enough times where I may have rea dthe manual but what they are trying to tell u what to do is SO UNCLEAR...

2a. and you show that same manual to the customer service person and they are just as easily befuddled....

Now granted, this doens't mean I side against sprint...I just hate bad customer service,period.....BUT if you got a nuisance caller, calling in 4 and 5 times a day about some BS....then yeah....u messing with my money vs someone that needs legit help.

If it's a simple "here's the button! enjoy!" kind of help session, no problem, but what I referred to was an actual case...

Showed her where the button was, how to aim the phone and take a good picture, where she could find her newly taken picture etc. She still didn't understand, so I tried again- explaining a bit more slowly and in a different way, still didn't get it. About 30 minutes later, and a line of people waiting for my help - who were getting agitated that this lady didn't understand what I was explaining to her, she said she finally knew what to do then left.

Guess who came back a day later because they forgot everything I told them?

i would still be on my phone i had in college if they sold a replacement battery. i miss it.

and this is why i bought my mom the same phone that i have. if she has questions, she calls me (from the house phone, tho). i can explain things to her because i have the same thing. i wouldn't expect someone at customer service to know everything about every phone ever made by their company.

however, i've been a sprint customer for about 7 years and everyone i know has had at least one MAJOR issue. things get cleared up after incessant calling or stalking the store employees, but that's the only way to things get resolved. last month i had a "notation" on my account that wouldn't let me pay my bill online because i had called customer service about something earlier that month. that meant i had to call customer service AGAIN to be able to pay my bill.

i wonder if the people who are being dropped called over and over again to get 1 issue resolved or if they really are the callers who go overboard and want to complain just for complaining's sake.

for 1000 out of millions of customers....thats what I am guessing....

I guess their message to them was:

"You won't stop yer bytchin'....we will stop it for ya...and u can go take ur bytching to someone who gives a dayum..."

yeah, and it really needs to stop. The American name thing is absolutely insulting. It's trying to "trick" the customer into thinking the agent is in the US. As far as not straying from the script, you are so right. I asked a guy the other day a question about purchasing a ringtone and he goes "I'm sorry, I know this can be frustrating" - WHAT?? I'm not frustrated, I didn't speak to you in a stressed or frustrated manner, I just want you to tell me what the amount is I have to pay because I couldn't find the info on the phone's screen. I really don't appreciate being informed of what my emotions are.

If the companies who outsource don't get better at it, it'll cost them all the money they're saving doing it.

Old people are no big deal. I'd always go out of my way to make sure they knew how things worked... I'd have them place a call before they left, etc. You never know when doing something like that could really make a difference in an emergency situation.

My boss got a phone for his 80-something year old mother. He tried to teach her how to use it but she refused to learn. She explained that if she were ever in a wreck, she'd just ask the other driver to place the call for her... or the policeman. Can't argue with that.

At any rate, in call centers and with live support, generally, there is a line. In most Sprint stores, to get service, you have to literally take a number and wait as much as (or more than) an hour to talk to a customer service agent. As for their call centers, there's still a queue. The folks with the inane questions which they could easily answer themselves are selfishly dominating the time of people with legitimate problems. That's just not good form.

I'm now in a law office. We routinely fire clients when they don't keep up on their bill or are rude to the staff. We happily field stupid questions, but then again, there aren't too many of those as we bill in quarter-hour increments (if you only talk to us for 30 seconds, you get billed for 15 minutes). That seems to cut down on the inane questions.

I think this is what it seems like, but I don't think that is the intention especially on the agent level. Maybe the management of the company sees the benefits of trying to "trick" the customer, but it also helps the customer to remember who they spoke to for the next time they call in, or it helps them feel like they can communicate with the agent a bit better because they know how to say their name. Amaranath, Srikanth, Sridhar, Amit, Anil, Balaji, Hema, Shunmugam, & Jitender would rather spend more time helping the customer with the problem then trying to tell the customer how to spell or say their name.

The companies who outsource can't get better at accents & scripts, its the company that gets paid who handles those things. Its crazy how we'll send over training material to our outsourcing "partner" and they turn it into scripts for the agents. Its not the business practice of our company, but the business practice of their company. They do it for every campaign that uses their services. The agents get training, not just on the material & the products, but they do get training on the language as well. In fact, if the language trainer doesn't approve you for the phones, you don't get the job. The language trainer is usually someone from the US (the trainer for our campaign is some sassy dude from NYC, he yells all the time "Its WORK, NOT WARK"). And we do have people here, who used to the be in the callcenter before it was outsourced, that do call monitoring, or handle extreme issues from the customers.

^^yes, i dont want to have to guess at how to spell your name, Balaji. :rolleyes:

i do believe the script is the problem. they should be trained to handle each call individually...thats how i had to do it at Capital One. and unfortunately i would get calls from India where we outsourced to that went something like this...

"hi! my name is Linda from customer service i have a customer who is very upset i transfer them now thank you! (click)"

and then id have to field 100 questions and insults about why "some indian dude" was handling their account...half the time id lie and say they were in texas!!