That post seems to be missing.

Shirasho 208 points 2 years ago

You aren't wrong that telecom companies are trashy, but being a dick to a support agent isn't the right way to go. Support staff are more willing to help and work with you if you aren't yelling at them right out the gate and blaming them for something they have no control over.

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Garbanzo 93 points 2 years ago

Most are just going to laugh at you and be as unhelpful as possible if you come at them like that. You're just giving them an excuse to stick to the script and tell you to pound sand. If you let them know it's not personal but you're angry at the company and keep your approach professional they're much more likely to think outside the box, bend the rules, or escalate your issue to get things taken care of.

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criticon 48 points 2 years ago

I worked a while for phone customer service (don't recommend even to my worst enemies) and we only gave nice stuff to angry people. Basically I couldn't do anything on my level other than follow the script, but if they asked for a supervisor they usually they got their issues solved more quickly and with some free stuff included, so after that experience I always try to be polite at the beginning but if they are not being helpful I ask them to escalate my issue and play angry

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corsicanguppy 4 points 2 years ago

I ask them to escalate my issue and play angry

Like, obviously play-angry, or is it convincing? The 'crazy gaijin' scene from Rising Sun (1993) or what?

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Chev 16 points 2 years ago

Work in customer care, can confirm that.

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GladiusB 6 points 2 years ago

Here is an idea. Hold the companies accountable that implements these sorts of things. Oh wait we can't because it's a monopoly of the same shit. Let's have the government intervene, oh wait. We did and they made net neutrality null and void. And people wonder why they are pissed off at the crappy company that takes them for a ride while still being crappy.

Not taking it out on the person is 100 percent not fair. But they represent the company that is shit. And this crap was predicted back in the 90s by countless artists. Musical and performance. Buckle up. It's gonna get worse unless they get some pushback and start losing billions.

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phoneymouse 15 points 2 years ago

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nilloc 4 points 2 years ago

Yeah this ours likely screaming into a void.

Almost 100% of the time, when the human actually comes on the call, you end up having to explain your problem again, and usually even “confirm your account details” that you already entered into the automated service before waiting.

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LifeOfChance 12 points 2 years ago

If you look closer they aren't with an agent. They're liking only getting an agent because of what they said. So many of these companies play games with auto generated messages that to get an agents requires either 100 different messages or 1 really angry sounding one. You gotta do what you gotta do to get someone nowadays.

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LifeInMultipleChoice 3 points 2 years ago

I go above and beyond for those who deserve it. People who act like an asshole only ever get the bare minimal from me and most support I have seen in my fields. Often times it takes much longer to help them as well, as if I have 10 people I need to call, and 9 have been nice, I certainly am not starting my day off by calling someone who acts like an ass to me. Probably send an email instead so it is in writing, once I'm done helping everyone else who has been nice.

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Gullible 10 points 2 years ago

Yeah, find their executive offices and steal packages, piss on the doors, light a few fires, harvest some thumbs. Support agents in India can’t alter company structure, but fear and confusion can!

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Aurenkin 5 points 2 years ago

Yeah, usually I save this rant for the end when I ask if I can provide some feedback on the company policy specifically.

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snooggums -9 points 2 years ago

It is typed text, not yelling or throwing slurs around.

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brbposting 12 points 2 years ago

TIL repeated exposure to abuse is consequence free in the absence of audio or capslock

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snooggums -4 points 2 years ago

TIL expressing any level of frustration with a company is abusive yelling.

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null 2 points 2 years ago

expressing any level of frustration

Not what they said at all, but sure.

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SnotFlickerman -1 points 2 years ago

When half the comments in here are claiming its just a bot, it's more about dehumanization than yelling my dude.

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Soulg 7 points 2 years ago

Doesn't matter in the least, customer service reps will not give a single fuck about helping you if you treat them like that

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distantsounds -1 points 2 years ago

Not sure how to tell you this, but they don’t give a fuck to being with.

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null 4 points 2 years ago

Tell me you've never worked in call center without telling me you've never worked in a call center.

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SnotFlickerman 76 points 2 years ago

The person who will be helping you is not the person who made the rules and policies and chose how much to charge you per month.

The person helping you will have zero control over anything and have to stick to a script and the whole reason their job exists isn't to actually help you but to help the people who run the company to never, ever have to hear a filthy plebeian complain about anything ever again.

If you really want to chew someone out, do some diligence and find the contact info of the highest person in the organization you can find. Even then, they're just going to blame it on everyone but themselves anyway, and even if they fix your issue, someone's gonna lose their ass over the company actually having to fix your issue. Because these systems don't exist to help solve your problem, but to frustrate you until you give up and stop calling.

Companies are well beyond "How do we attract new customers" because there are no new customers to attract. They have access to the whole planet now, it's a moot point. Now it's bleeding percentage points of performance increase from smaller and smaller groups of customers while being okay with screwing over the "unprofitable" customers until they leave entirely.

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LadyAutumn 24 points 2 years ago

Yep. Telecom corporations are essentially uncriticizable. Even media pushback doesn't do anything. Everyone knows they're pure evil and it doesn't affect them in any way.

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stoy 11 points 2 years ago

VIPs/C-suites, those that make these rules, most likely all have assistants, who will filter out emails like this, it is very probable that even if you find the direct email to ATT's CEO and email, it will be filtered out and you'll either get no reply or a template reply with zero substance.

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distantsounds 7 points 2 years ago

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SnotFlickerman 5 points 2 years ago

Yeah but what's really boring is dehumanizing people in the same class as you while the upper class clinks their glasses together to laugh at you and the worker.

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VubDapple 57 points 2 years ago

"We don’t care. We don’t have to. We’re the Phone Company." Lilly Tomlin on SNL in 1976

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sevan 51 points 2 years ago

https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov/hc/en-us

If you're having problems getting support from a Telecom company, file a complaint with the FCC. You are more likely going to get someone who can/will actually help you. This mainly works when you have a concrete complaint that is running into process/policy roadblocks. For example, if you've been overcharged by an amount that the normal agents don't have authority to credit or if you're having chronic service issues that aren't being resolved.

It is less likely to help if the issue is more subjective, such as asking for a large credit to compensate you for being inconvenienced by an outage (i.e. claiming the outage cost you business or work time). They'll likely offer a prorated service credit and a courtesy credit (like $25-50) and the FCC will likely consider that reasonable.

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ExtremeDullard 9 points 2 years ago

file a complaint with the FCC. You are more likely going to get someone who can/will actually help

Hahaha! That was a good one 🙂

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Trainguyrom 3 points 2 years ago

Also your state's Attorney General can be another avenue to escalate with customer support if you're hitting a brick wall. They'll often have staffers who act as a mediator and have an in with higher tiers of support.

Source: I personally handled some state AG escalations when I worked in customer support

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Omgpwnies 2 points 2 years ago

claiming the outage cost you business or work time

Virtually all service agreements for consumer internet/phone/etc have a limited liability clause that states the provider is only responsible to credit you for the portion of their service fees during the downtime and nothing else. To get compensation for lost business, you would need a special contract with specified uptime/speed/ping/etc minimum and specified penalties for downtime in excess of that minimum.

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cheeseenjoyer 30 points 2 years ago

I‘d let you wait even longer.

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distantsounds -13 points 2 years ago

definitely, but I’m game. I have no choice

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pearsaltchocolatebar 36 points 2 years ago

Also, Kevin is likely being forced to chat with 3+ customers simultaneously, so that's why it might take a minute to get back to you.

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halcyoncmdr 10 points 2 years ago

3 could be a minimum. And the issues won't be similar, they'll be just as random as anything else coming in. And their system to actually look up info and make changes will likely only work on one account at a time. It's possible, but unlikely that the system could use tabs to switch between accounts for chats. That would have required AT&T to actually do something to make the agents job easier, and would cost money to develop.

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pearsaltchocolatebar 3 points 2 years ago

Their CRM software is a steaming pile of shit, but they can pull up multiple accounts at once.

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distantsounds -15 points 2 years ago

I am being forced to ‘chat’ with ‘Kevin’ because the limited options and ‘competitive’ choices in my area (which is a major market city)

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pearsaltchocolatebar 20 points 2 years ago

It still isn't Kevin's fault.

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brbposting 5 points 2 years ago

Office of the Secretary of AT&T Inc.
208 S. Akard Street
Suite 2954
Dallas, Texas 75202

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lady_maria 17 points 2 years ago

Regardless of how shitty the company is, nothing give you the right to take out your frustration on a total stranger who has done nothing to you. Tbh, I find it very strange. The person in the chat is likely just trying to help you, and you're making their job a lot harder.

Customer service jobs fucking suck. A lot. They're probably not even being paid enough for the basic job requirements, let alone getting interrogated/condescended to/yelled at, which they probably experience multiple times per day.

You gain nothing from behaving that way, except to make yourself feel better at the expense of some poor person who's trying to get by, just like everyone else. There are much better ways to take out your frustration.

edit: a few words

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brbposting 4 points 2 years ago

Ya

Those who’ve used LLMs like ChatGPT would wonder why “bots” are taking multiple minutes to reply

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distantsounds -19 points 2 years ago

a total stranger bot. Seriously, I do not think those are hard asks. I am being condescend to and forced to spend over an hour in the system that they designed. Don’t hate the players, hate this boring dystopia.

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lady_maria 3 points 2 years ago

You have presented no evidence that they're a bot. But whatever makes you feel better about it, I guess.

It's obviously understandable that you'd be frustrated by this boring dystopia. Many are. Fucking constantly. You are by no means special in that regard. The problem is that you have so little control of your emotions that you willingly take it out on an innocent person.

No one is forcing you to behave that way; that is all on you. There is a way to express your concerns to a CSR while also being respectful and polite. That's not exactly a hard ask, either.

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SOB_Van_Owen 17 points 2 years ago

AT&T are trash. Took us far too long to dump them. Glad we did. Found much better service at a quarter the cost.

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Coach 4 points 2 years ago

Same! Quit today. The most awkward conversation the rep couldn't manipulate. Good fucking riddance.

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gianni 15 points 2 years ago

Kind of a dick move and frankly embarrassing that you think this is righteous. That is not a bot, that is a real person.

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brbposting 5 points 2 years ago

No look they have job postings for language models

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gianni 7 points 2 years ago

ChatGPT9-5

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distantsounds -19 points 2 years ago

It’s kinda embarrassing when you have to run your business like that

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Catoblepas 10 points 2 years ago

It’s really embarrassing to speak to someone who’s almost certainly being paid a shit wage because you’re mad at someone like 15 steps up the corporate ladder. This is the equivalent of going to a McDonald’s drive through and trying to hold the cashier personally responsible for their pricing. You aren’t helping yourself or them, you’re just making everyone’s day worse.

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paraphrand 8 points 2 years ago

It’s really embarrassing to speak to someone who’s almost certainly being paid a shit wage because you’re mad at someone like 15 steps up the corporate ladder.

This is the source of frustration for me when dealing with some situations. If I could speak to someone actually accountable, that would be fantastic.

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distantsounds -7 points 2 years ago

it’s ok, it was a bot and I did get a better rate.

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Catoblepas 10 points 2 years ago

You are way, way worse at spotting bots than you think you are.

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gianni 5 points 2 years ago

How is that the fault of the individual providing customer support who is likely making minimum wage? What can they realistically do about it?

This is the equivalent of cussing out the person working the drive-through at McDonalds because corporate raised the prices…and then telling everyone about it.

Your anger and frustration is valid. What AT&T did is shitty. How you handled these feelings was a bit cruel and could use some reflection and improvement.

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distantsounds -5 points 2 years ago

Please point to the part where I cussed someone out, and to the unreasonable questions I made.

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gianni 7 points 2 years ago

Forcing someone, who is being paid to help you, to listen to your angry manifesto and then responding passive aggressively to them is a dick move in my books.

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StinkySocialist 13 points 2 years ago

Nobody should pay that much for a cellphone.

$25 dollars a month
unlimited text call and data uses Verizon's network

$20 off your first month with my code:

https://www.visible.com/get/?3P76BG7

Using my code or not please switch to something like this Google Fi or mint mobile and save yourself the money. These greedy telecom giants don't need it.

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AngryCommieKender 6 points 2 years ago

You have to pay a full year at a time, but Mint has a $15 a month plan. 5 GB of data, but I'm almost always near WiFi, so that's plenty. I generally use less than 80%, cause I don't always get that message in the last couple days of the month.

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icedterminal 2 points 2 years ago

I use Mint (T-Mobile towers), $120 every 3 months. Unlimited calling, texting and data (your speed is throttled after 40GB). Included is 10GB hotspot data. I have absolutely no issues with it.

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roofuskit 2 points 2 years ago

T-Mobile has the same plan, no commitment. Search for T-Mobile connect plans.

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roguetrick 3 points 2 years ago

What's their data caps before throttling?

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StinkySocialist 5 points 2 years ago

It looks like 50gb of data

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KoalaUnknown 3 points 2 years ago

The 50gb is for the $45 plan. On the $25 plan, Verizon will prioritize others whenever there is congestion.

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roguetrick 1 point 2 years ago

Which are the times you're most likely going to be off wifi (commuting, at an event, lunch break). Not bad if you straight up don't have Internet at home though.

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roguetrick 2 points 2 years ago

That's not bad for the $349 a year price at all, since it also comes with unlimited hotspot. Better than what mint offers.

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WhyFlip 7 points 2 years ago

"an representative".

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letsgo 2 points 2 years ago

Also misspelt "even", and ended a sentence with a preposition.

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DragonTypeWyvern 11 points 2 years ago

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SnotFlickerman 0 points 2 years ago

I'm pretty sure what makes language rules valid is whatever social acceptance of those rules is.

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DragonTypeWyvern 6 points 2 years ago

Many grammatical rules exist to clarify meaning and changing them loses precision of language, but regardless, no one ever actually accepted that rule but stuffy wannabes who weren't even good at the thing they were being stuffy about.

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kboy101222 10 points 2 years ago

Ending sentences with prepositions is fine. Everyone does it. Language evolves. Move on.

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Sam_Bass 6 points 2 years ago

Greed dumbs down everyone that suffers from it

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hate2bme 4 points 2 years ago

Sure shows too by the way op is harassing a customer service rep like it's their fault.

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KillingTimeItself 1 point 2 years ago

what customer service rep? I don't see one!

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dohpaz42 5 points 2 years ago

You’re mad. Fine. No need for the entitled, emotional outburst. Has that actually ever worked your favor?

If you’re that fed up with AT&T, get a different service provider. Know that if you do, you’ll have the same things happen there that you feel so incredulous by from AT&T.

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distantsounds -5 points 2 years ago

Yes, complaining worked in this instance and in many others. Only because I was persistent and demanding. Att could give fuck all otherwise

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Manalith 1 point 2 years ago

Curious what they offered as compensation?

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distantsounds 1 point 2 years ago

I wouldn’t say compensation as much as it was just to change my bill back down and extend the lower rate for a couple months. I didn’t get anything or even expect to. It gives me sometime to find other service options at least

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Revan343 3 points 2 years ago

I have a cocktail recipe you might like

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Persen 1 point 2 years ago

They're the new cable, especially in the US.

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KillingTimeItself -4 points 2 years ago

im just gonna be out there wilding one day, paying for fuck all, not connected to anything, have no services, fuck all insurance. All because of shit like this.

I aim to be a public nuisance when you make doing public good hard.

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aodhsishaj -3 points 2 years ago

Ah the Sovereign Citizen route I see

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KillingTimeItself -1 points 2 years ago

the sovcit except i don't go outside and yell at people online because the world sucks now.

So basically just sovcit without the sov but still with the cit.

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M0oP0o 0 points 2 years ago

yell at people online

How? while also

paying for fuck all, not connected to anything, have no services, fuck all insurance.

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KillingTimeItself 0 points 2 years ago

you might discover that the one thing i soley do in my life is not yelling at people online, therefore it might also follow that i will probably pay for some things.

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Morcyphr -7 points 2 years ago

Wait til you have to deal with telecommunication customers!

Aashole.

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distantsounds 1 point 2 years ago

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MECHAGIC 0 points 2 years ago

Spell "asshole" right first

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Morcyphr 0 points 2 years ago

"Uncle Roach". Better? :)

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MECHAGIC 1 point 2 years ago

You are so bad at spelling

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