From a Facebook comment:
"I went into a local cell phone office today to get some personal help, only to have to wait 20 minutes while the sales associate was talking on her cell phone!"
Maybe she was demonstrating how well their cell phone service really is.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Monday, October 12, 2009
How to not sell your business
I just saw this from an investor friend of mine on Facebook:
Wanna know what I find hysterical? OK, so I'm gonna tell ya anyway. Clicking on a link for a web development company and their website says "Website under construction" -- NOT a confidence-inspiring move on their part!
Saturday, October 3, 2009
What Happened To My Business Line?
Earlier this year my wife started a job with the local cable company. At the time we had a package deal for internet, phone and cable TV, plus I had an additional line put in for my real estate investing business. As part of my wife's job, we received many of these services for free or nearly free.
I planned a working vacation "back home" where I grew up, and shortly before I was scheduled to leave, my wife became frustrated with the company and their attitude towards helping customers. Many of the employees (including managers) in Customer Service didn't care if they fixed your problem correctly, their main concern seems to be around how long you were on the phone with the customer. If you're on too long, you get reprimanded. Never mind the fact that sometimes you have a customer that needs their hand held more to get their problem resolved, and each problem is unique. But I digress....
So, my wife quits the job, and as part of her exit interview, she clearly specifies that the services we are receiving need to go back into my name, just as they were prior to her starting work there. A week or two later I leave for my work-vacation, and stop to stay the night at my niece's place part way "back home." I get a call from my wife. She says we do not have any of the premium channels we are supposed to have. I call the cable company and speak to a Customer Service Rep. (CSR) about resolving the problem. I tell him the story and that we had a package deal prior to her employment, and everything was supposed to be put back the way it was before she started work there. At no point did I mention canceling the second phone line. I did say that "everything needs to go back to the way it was prior to her working there." The CSR finds the package deal and gets it "fixed." A few minutes later my wife confirms the channels are back. All is good, right?
Before I had left, I forwarded my business line to my cell phone. While on my working vacation, I received a few calls that could have been routed through my business line, but they could just as easily been direct calls to my cell phone, as they knew or had access to both numbers. When I returned from my work-vacation, I noticed the light on my business phone was lit, which indicates no line signal. I figured there must be a loose connection, but I'm not concerned about it because I have the line forwarded to my cell phone.
Now, granted I do not get a lot of calls to this line, so I didn't notice a lack of calls. One day I decided to call the business line to make sure the forwarding was still working. To my surprise, someone answered the phone. I figured I fat-fingered it, and said I had the wrong number. I was not so sure I had fat-fingered it, so I pressed redial. I dialed the right number, but who was answering? I called back to find out how long this other person had my business number. It went to the answering machine and I left a message asking him to call me back. So far he has not.
After a bit of research and reviewing of the past few bills, I determined it was that night I had to call the cable company to straighten out what they couldn't do right the first time, and the CSR I talked to canceled my business phone line. (dude, you suck at your job).
It was three months after the fact that I determined this problem. I have business cards floating around, and signs on my Blazer that says "I Buy Houses" with the phone number on it. I am advertising for some guys home phone. I hope he is getting bombarded with calls for me, and that he is complaining to the phone or cable company.
I am currently determining how much the cable company owes me for new signage, new business cards and my time to resolve this. I will not get my business line through them again, I am going to add a line to our cell phone account.
I planned a working vacation "back home" where I grew up, and shortly before I was scheduled to leave, my wife became frustrated with the company and their attitude towards helping customers. Many of the employees (including managers) in Customer Service didn't care if they fixed your problem correctly, their main concern seems to be around how long you were on the phone with the customer. If you're on too long, you get reprimanded. Never mind the fact that sometimes you have a customer that needs their hand held more to get their problem resolved, and each problem is unique. But I digress....
So, my wife quits the job, and as part of her exit interview, she clearly specifies that the services we are receiving need to go back into my name, just as they were prior to her starting work there. A week or two later I leave for my work-vacation, and stop to stay the night at my niece's place part way "back home." I get a call from my wife. She says we do not have any of the premium channels we are supposed to have. I call the cable company and speak to a Customer Service Rep. (CSR) about resolving the problem. I tell him the story and that we had a package deal prior to her employment, and everything was supposed to be put back the way it was before she started work there. At no point did I mention canceling the second phone line. I did say that "everything needs to go back to the way it was prior to her working there." The CSR finds the package deal and gets it "fixed." A few minutes later my wife confirms the channels are back. All is good, right?
Before I had left, I forwarded my business line to my cell phone. While on my working vacation, I received a few calls that could have been routed through my business line, but they could just as easily been direct calls to my cell phone, as they knew or had access to both numbers. When I returned from my work-vacation, I noticed the light on my business phone was lit, which indicates no line signal. I figured there must be a loose connection, but I'm not concerned about it because I have the line forwarded to my cell phone.
Now, granted I do not get a lot of calls to this line, so I didn't notice a lack of calls. One day I decided to call the business line to make sure the forwarding was still working. To my surprise, someone answered the phone. I figured I fat-fingered it, and said I had the wrong number. I was not so sure I had fat-fingered it, so I pressed redial. I dialed the right number, but who was answering? I called back to find out how long this other person had my business number. It went to the answering machine and I left a message asking him to call me back. So far he has not.
After a bit of research and reviewing of the past few bills, I determined it was that night I had to call the cable company to straighten out what they couldn't do right the first time, and the CSR I talked to canceled my business phone line. (dude, you suck at your job).
It was three months after the fact that I determined this problem. I have business cards floating around, and signs on my Blazer that says "I Buy Houses" with the phone number on it. I am advertising for some guys home phone. I hope he is getting bombarded with calls for me, and that he is complaining to the phone or cable company.
I am currently determining how much the cable company owes me for new signage, new business cards and my time to resolve this. I will not get my business line through them again, I am going to add a line to our cell phone account.
Friday, October 2, 2009
Telemarketers - Hanging Up Does Not Work
The past two days I have been receiving calls from "Private Caller" with a 303 area code, which is the Denver area. Since I know a few people in the Denver area, I decide to answer the phone and see who is calling. The conversation went like this.
Me, "Hello?"
Them, "Is Lon Peper there?"
Me, "This is he."
Them,
I believe that is pretty much verbatim how it went. A quick Google search on the phone number reveals several sites, such as, phoneowner.info, whocalled.us, and whocallsme.com, all of which are sites you may be able to find more information on the owner of the number, especially if it is a business that war dials phone numbers from their data base.
This particular caller, from the information I gathered, is a magazine subscription service. These companies either want you to buy new subscriptions to more magazines you do not have time to read, or re-up your current subscriptions you do not have time to read.
Regardless which one they were trying to do, you cannot sell me if you do not talk to me. I'm not sure which part of "This is me" they didn't understand, but disconnecting the call will guarantee you a 0% chance of getting the sale. There is a saying, the answer to a question not asked, is always "No." If these people are working on commissions, they need to find another line of work, because they kinda suck at this one.
I'm sure the company has an auto-dialer, and after the third time this company called back after the hang-up incident, I added the number to our Call Screening service, so we will not get them again.
Me, "Hello?"
Them, "Is Lon Peper there?"
Me, "This is he."
Them,
I believe that is pretty much verbatim how it went. A quick Google search on the phone number reveals several sites, such as, phoneowner.info, whocalled.us, and whocallsme.com, all of which are sites you may be able to find more information on the owner of the number, especially if it is a business that war dials phone numbers from their data base.
This particular caller, from the information I gathered, is a magazine subscription service. These companies either want you to buy new subscriptions to more magazines you do not have time to read, or re-up your current subscriptions you do not have time to read.
Regardless which one they were trying to do, you cannot sell me if you do not talk to me. I'm not sure which part of "This is me" they didn't understand, but disconnecting the call will guarantee you a 0% chance of getting the sale. There is a saying, the answer to a question not asked, is always "No." If these people are working on commissions, they need to find another line of work, because they kinda suck at this one.
I'm sure the company has an auto-dialer, and after the third time this company called back after the hang-up incident, I added the number to our Call Screening service, so we will not get them again.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
What is "You Suck At Your Job?"
You Suck At Your Job is exactly what you probably think it is. Stories and articles about people who suck at their job. I want to collect your stories and experiences with people who suck at their job, and share them here for all to enjoy.
Please send your stories and experiences to me at ysayjob @ gmail.com.
Enjoy the blog, share your comments and stories. This should be fun.
Please send your stories and experiences to me at ysayjob @ gmail.com.
Enjoy the blog, share your comments and stories. This should be fun.
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