When we outsource our jobs, do we outsource common sense along with them?

[Horse with no Name]

Yesterday I spent 4 hours on the phone with Sprint.
On January 27, I decided to add another line to my account.
My bill was due on January 30th, so I paid it.
I changed my plan from a single line to a family plan.
My new rate was supposed to be $109.99 a month.
I did it at a local radio shack where I purchased my phone.
The guy tells me as I am walking out the door that when the final window came up, something looked "funny" and gave me an 800 number to call to make sure that everything was as I wanted it.
So yesterday, I had some time to spare, I call this number.
Come to find, they had charged me a single line plan for one phone, and a family plan for the other phone.
No problem they tell me. They said they fixed it.
Oh, by the way, the secondary phone on the account is now the primary line.
Why is this I asked? Oh it was just the way it worked out. It is fixed they assured me.
Fast forward to last night. My daughter is out with friends.
She calls me to tell me her phone has been cut off.
So I call Sprint in whatever godforsaken country they outsource to.
I explain to the person that there was a problem and I was told it was fixed.
No problem he tells me, if I will only pay the balance of $768 they will turn my phones on.
$768??:mad: For what amounts to one week of service? On what was supposed to be $109.99?
I tell him this has to be a mistake. He tells me no, that is what the computer says.
I ask for a supervisor. He assured me he had it all under control.
I explained to him that he didn't.
So he transfers me to supervisor and amazingly, I get disconnected.
So I call back and wait another 15 minutes to talk to a live person.
When the person answers and asks if they can help, I said the only help they can give me is to connect me to the supervisor that I was disconnected.
The guy is a jerk and told me not to be so demanding.
I told him never mind the therapy, just transfer me.
I get disconnected again.
This happens three more times.
I finally get through to a supervisor.
The guy tells me the bill is correct.
I ask him how a cell phone bill that is supposed to be $109.99 a month for two lines can be $768 for one week?
He said it was a two month bill.
I gave him a receipt number for the bill that I zeroed out on January 27th, 3 days before the due date.
After seeing that he wasn't going to look into this, I asked for his supervisor.
He said he didn't have one. I was amazed. In all of Sprint, this man has no supervisor? I can't imagine I reached someone so important on a late Saturday night.:sarcasm:
Anyway, he transferred me to Customer Service.
I get this lady from another country.
She again insists this bill is correct.
I cannot make her understand that $768 in charges for one week is absolutely insane.
She then said, well you DO have four lines.:banghead:
No I tell her, I only have two.
So she tells me that she would do a temporary adjustment to the bill to get the phones reconnected until we can figure this out.
I was promised this would be done in 4 hours.
Now it is almost 12 hours later and no phones still.
Wish me luck as I dive back in.:mad:

[BlueJazz]

1. ...And Folks wonder why that some people "Go Postal"

"He seemed like such a nice man"
"What on earth would cause somebody to go into an office and shoot everyone in sight"

[tecelote]

2. Careful of what you say on these international calls!

One wrong word and you're a terrorist suspect.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

4. Yeah..... if you are an entomologist.... be very clear when you

say (Cicada)

[atommom]

6. LOL!

:rofl:

[atommom]

3. My suggestion: Go to their website, find the # for the corporate offices,

and call the highest-ranking person you can find. Don't mess with the customer service people. They are hired to impede you and make you give up prematurely. This is the only way I've had success in dealing with Sprint problems.

[salin]

7. Good advice

however one probably won't get a live person until after the weekend.

[Horse with no Name]

10. I will try that, but first

I am taking the phones back to Radio Shack and my stack of receipts, papers, and notes of who I talked to and let them fix it. They are the ones I gave my money to.
In setting up the second line, someone made an error. I don't know if it was Sprint or Radio Shack, all I know is that it was not me.
Let them spend $6 an hour paying one of their employees to fix it.
I have spent all the time that I am going to on it.

[punpirate]

5. Had a conversation quite a while back...

... with a telephone lineman. I'd had some problems with the phone and called customer service, didn't get much help. When they finally sent out a lineman, he found the problem, and in the course of explaining what the problem was, he said, approximately, "in the old days, when people like me got too old to climb poles, we were put into the offices--inside repair or customer service. As a consequence, the people you talked to knew the system inside and out. Now, they have a computer with your billing information, a help screen and an automated line check system, and that's about it. If that doesn't cure the problem, you're out of luck. Now, people like me get laid off, or laid off and are hired back as independent contractors to work outside."

So, yeah, when there's outsourcing, it often means outsourcing common sense (and institutional knowledge, too).

[Horse with no Name]

9. I remember those days vividly

and I sure miss them.

[XanaDUer]

8. We stopped calling them

Once, we had a small question on how to block a freeper's e-mail from our inbox.

45 FUCKING minutes with this one guy. To learn that there is really no way to do so. He could not just come out and tell us that there was no way to block the offending freeper e-mails!

I have no idea what country he was in. I understand that these jobs have high turnover because of the rudeness of British and Americans.

The whole thing is a joke.

[lindisfarne]

11. I got the 'NO SUPERVISOR' available response once. I changed

my long-distance service to another company (not one of the majors).

[dogday]

12. I had to wrestle with earthlink last year

Both my cable company and earthlink were trying to charge me for internet. I pay to the cable company and they are supposed to pay earthlink.

First off I am connecting to some named Prace.. After asking 5 times what his name was cause I could not understand it well. Then I explain the problem and he goes well what does your invoice say? I said look at the screen in front of you, don't you have that information? Why do I have to tell you this? I asked him where he was located and he said " Our main offices are located in Atlanta Georgia" I said I understand that but where are you? He was really reluctant to tell me he was physically in India, but finally admitted it.

If this is the future of customer service in our country, we are fucked!!!!