They don't want my help

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Chris Pisarra - 27 Apr 2005 23:32 GMT

So I tried to call *2 today to tell them of a persistent dead spot near my
house.

Claire, of course, doesn't recognize "dead spot", so eventually I got a
person.

The person then needed my name, (which she surely had in front of her
from the caller ID), my phone number (ditto) and the last 4 digits of my
social (which I had already entered). All this, remember, not to increase
my spending or to borrow money to buy a house, but so I could help THEM
improve their system.

So after all this, she asks a couple of questions and then wants to
transfer me to someone else.

Since I was certain that the someone else would proceed to ask me all
the same stupid "security" questions again.

I don't what I then suggested is physically possible, but I sure
hope she tries to find out.

Chris

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Chris Russell - 27 Apr 2005 23:38 GMT

Next time, ask them to connect you to the "Trouble" Dept. I think they will
take you much more seriously there. By the way, they must have that info
for them to even discuss your account with you.

Chris

> So I tried to call *2 today to tell them of a persistent dead spot near my
> house.
[quoted text clipped - 18 lines]
>
> Chris

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Chris Pisarra - 28 Apr 2005 01:53 GMT

Chris Russell burbled to the world:

> Next time, ask them to connect you to the "Trouble" Dept. I think
> they will take you much more seriously there. By the way, they must
> have that info for them to even discuss your account with you.

Sez who? Why? What possible difference in the universe can
it make?

You're falling for their "security" bullshit. I was
calling to tell them something, not to discuss my account. The last four
digits of my social security number were utterly irrelevant. I wanted no
secrets from them, was making no changes to the account. I just wanted to
report a problem. If they had the slightest tinge of common sense, they
would have taken the report, said thank you and then tried to improve their
system.

Chris

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Jerome Zelinske - 28 Apr 2005 02:08 GMT

I certainly would not want them spending man-hours and resources in
running down "problems" called in by just anybody.

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Steve Sobol - 28 Apr 2005 02:37 GMT

> I certainly would not want them spending man-hours and resources in
> running down "problems" called in by just anybody.

You don't act (on a large scale) on just a few reports, or reports where
everyone has the same phone; if lots of different people are having problems
and the problem is not isolated to one phone model, it may very well be a
problem with the network.

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Isaiah Beard - 28 Apr 2005 04:08 GMT

>> I certainly would not want them spending man-hours and resources
>> in running down "problems" called in by just anybody.
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
> problems and the problem is not isolated to one phone model, it may very
> well be a problem with the network.

Which is a beautiful illustration of why account info needs to be pulled
up and kept track of when troublre reports are filed.

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Isaiah Beard - 28 Apr 2005 04:07 GMT

> Chris Russell burbled to the world:
>
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
> Sez who? Why? What possible difference in the universe can
> it make?

It's a security procedure.

> You're falling for their "security" bullshit.

I'm sure that if someone called *2 and they didn't bother to verify
any of this info, and someone posing as you decided to activate their
own phone on your account and make all kinds of calls, you'd be singing
a different tune.

But if you think it's "bullshit," then I'm sure TMobile would LOVE to
have you as a customer. With several high profile security lapses over
the past year where customer's voicemail passcodes and account data were
revealed to hackers, they seem right up your alley.

> I was
> calling to tell them something, not to discuss my account.

On the contrary. It IS about your account, and it can also be about
your phone, which can have reception issues just like the network can
have coverage holes. It's the CS Reps' call to determine what it is and
direct an equipment swap if it's needed, which most certainly affects
your account.

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John S - 28 Apr 2005 18:14 GMT

> Next time, ask them to connect you to the "Trouble" Dept. I think they
> will take you much more seriously there. By the way, they must have that
> info for them to even discuss your account with you.

What always gripes me is that I am not discussing my account but I am
discussing THEIR system problems. It has nothing at all to do with me, my
account, or my phone. It has everything to do with Them finding a problem
with their system and fixing it.

However this is true of all carriers. I just opened a trouble ticket with
Cingular this morning as the coverage here where I live has simply gotten
bad. Signal strength has deterioated terribly.

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Steve Sobol - 28 Apr 2005 22:30 GMT

>>Next time, ask them to connect you to the "Trouble" Dept. I think they
>>will take you much more seriously there. By the way, they must have that
>>info for them to even discuss your account with you.
>
> What always gripes me is that I am not discussing my account

But they need permission to access your account, if only to place notes about
your problems on it.

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Isaiah Beard - 28 Apr 2005 04:02 GMT

> The person then needed my name, (which she surely had in front of her
> from the caller ID), my phone number (ditto) and the last 4 digits of my
> social (which I had already entered). All this, remember, not to increase
> my spending or to borrow money to buy a house, but so I could help THEM
> improve their system.

Uhm, pray tell, what does buying a house have to do with your warped
perception that you are somehow helping Sprint with anything?

> I don't what I then suggested is physically possible, but I sure
> hope she tries to find out.

What? This sentence doesn't even make sense! I can only assume that
you're somehow frustrated by CS, but I imagine if you were THIS coherent
on the phone with them, getting nowhere is certainly a predictable outcome.

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Joseph Huber - 29 Apr 2005 03:56 GMT

On Wed, 27 Apr 2005 23:02:50 -0400, Isaiah Beard

>> I don't what I then suggested is physically possible, but I sure
>> hope she tries to find out.
>
>What? This sentence doesn't even make sense! I can only assume that
>you're somehow frustrated by CS, but I imagine if you were THIS coherent
>on the phone with them, getting nowhere is certainly a predictable outcome.

Chris was just trying to be clever, but in his haste to impress the
Usenet community, he couldn't get all the words out. I think he was
probably trying to say:

"I don't [know if] what I then suggested is physically possible, but I
sure hope she tries [it] to find out."

Had you made such a suggestion to me, I would have cancelled your
account on the spot.

Joe Huber
huber.joseph@comcast.net

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John S - 28 Apr 2005 18:12 GMT

> Since I was certain that the someone else would proceed to ask me all
> the same stupid "security" questions again.
>
> I don't what I then suggested is physically possible, but I sure
> hope she tries to find out.

Well, you were makingsense until you got to this sentence. This makes no
sense at all given the context of your message to this point!

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