Lincolnite

Sadly, I could write a book about poor customer service at Alltel. None of the above surprised me at all. The center at 48th and Old Cheney is especially awful, as though no one gives a rat’s behind and they all hate their jobs. I cringe at the thought of going in there and avoid it all costs. I am delighted that I will soon be switching to Verizon.

I have a pre-paid phone and I haven’t found a plan that is as affordable as Alltel’s anywhere else. I’m just cheap enough to put up with poor customer service to save money.

Sounds like you got treated pretty well at Alltel once you got past the nasty greeter.

Having worked for Alltel at one time, I’m not surprised they’re pimping the higher end stuff. More money to be made there. I’m sure they’re letting vendors like Wal-Mart shoulder the expense of carrying semi-obsolete inventory.

Not limited to Alltel.  Cingular/AT&T lost us as paying customers a few months ago.  When we moved back here from Portland we brought a two person plan that was fairly inexpensive.  We wanted to drop my phone from the plan since I now have a work phone and change my lovely wife’s phone to a Nebraska number.  We even said that we would be happy to extend our contract.

They could not have been more inflexible.  They said that Nebraska Cingular did not have the same plan and we would have to take a much more expensive new plan and pay a $100 fee to drop my phone.  I asked them about dropping altogether and they said that we had a year left and would cost $100 for each phone, or about 5 months worth of service.

So,  we dropped cingular and added her to my work plan. Cingular got $200 and never again a single penny more.  If they had worked with us the wife would have re-signed for two years and they would have received more than $800 over that time span.  Penny wise and pound foolish.

They are almost always grouchy at Alltel stores. My best experience, however, was when I needed a new battery for my phone and the salesman went in the back to get it, thinking I was still under warranty (I never said I was, he just assumed it). He comes back with the extended life battery and says these are all we have so we have to give you this one. I accepted knowing how much better of a deal it was, and then after he opened the batter package he goes, “wait, you’re not under warranty anymore.” and I said no, I’m not. He informed me that it was policy to deliver on your word even if it was a mistake, so I got a free extended life battery.

This is why I can’t bring myself to sign up for a cell phone. The one I have currently is an add on to my Mom’s plan, and if that goes away (which it likely will soon) I’ll probably go cell phone less again rather than deal with the crap and 20% tax. 😛

Are there any good cell/telecommunications companies?

I’m still using a prepaid cell phone (TracFone) for myself and my daughter. We don’t talk on our cell phones much, and just need them for convenience, so this works for us. It averages about $10 per phone per month. YOu just have to remember to renew your account when the sign-up time is going to expire (there’s a reminder on your display). Otherwise, I’ve been happy, and I’ve been able to make calls in small town NE (visiting family) when my sisters’ cell phones haven’t worked.

Karin - rather than going cell phoneless, have you considered something like Tracfone or some other prepaid wireless?

I have a family member who worked for Alltel as a salesperson in one of their Nebraska retail sales locations. He is the son of a good salesman, and learned how to treat customers as he was growing up - as he would want to be treated. He’s a good person who only feels good about selling to you if you also feel good about the sale. Exactly the sort of person I would want to encounter in any retail environment.

While working for Alltel, he was (over the course of a few years) written up by his supervisor, and then his supervisor’s supervisor, and on the third occasion unceremoniously fired from his job a couple of years ago. Why? HELPING CUSTOMERS.

He wanted very much to treat people like people and try to help them as much as he could. That meant things like NOT selling unlimited data plans to elderly people or trying to convince the local farmers that they needed packages with nationwide coverage and 1000 minutes a month. He’d also help customers find the phone that best met their lifestyle and needs instead of pushing the phone with the biggest commision that month. Unfortunately none of these crazy, non-conformist behaviors meshed with the corporate demands - screw everyone who walks in the door, or at least give it your best shot with these helpful talking points we have scripted out for you to play upon the customer’s emotions.

In his case, the local management conveinently over hired employees for their office, cut hours down, and raised sales quotas in order to create an environment in which their sales folks were going to have to be cut-throat just to survive.

He predicted his own firing for a year before it happened. He said it was inevitable that he would come to blows some day.

Neat, huh?

In a completely different story - last week I ran into my local Alltel to look at a phone I have had my eye on. I overheard a long and drawn out round and round between a customer who had nursed his bag phone from the early 90’s and it finally died on him. The man wanted a big phone, his motor shills weren’t as good as they used to be and he had a hard time seeing and punching little buttons. Also, holding a phone to his ear was difficult for him. He wanted to know if there was any way that he could order another bag phone, or a big phone of some sort. The employee did her best “are you crazy sir? Small is where it’s at!” sales pitch, completely ignoring his pleas that he wanted BIGGER, not smaller. They eventually got to a place where the customer was angry and left after the lady dismissed him saying something to the effect of “We haven’t sold big phones for 5 years, good luck finding one somewhere else, because it ain’t gunna happen.” It was one of the poorest displays of customer service I’ve seen anywhere. Sir, you are wrong, our products are perfect, go somewhere else because you are annoying me.

You know, if I didn’t have 12-15 family members and the same number of co-workrs on Alltel that I can call at any time without using minutes, I’d be GONE.

I think the Missus should be happy that she got a free headset.  They could have very easily pretended that the headsets in the back didn’t exist and she could have been S.O.L.  That being said, I don’t blame Alltel for pushing the Bluetooth headsets.  Its the new technology, the old stuff is nearly out of date.  There’s no reason to keep the old stuff out on the shelves if no one is going to purchase that.

Now yes…there is bad customer service there.  this has been well documented.

And was the lady at the beginning not being truthful that it was “always” like this?  Why tell her to come back later when its still going to be crazy?

Sounds like she got off pretty easy if you ask me.

Diane-

Thanks for reminding me about TracPhones. Do they work in other areas of the country? I’d like something that works when I travel (even if it costs more).

I remember looking at the prepaid cell plans a while ago- they’re taxed at a much more reasonable rate in Nebraska (something like 7% instead of 21%) - I may just keep vonage and go with a tracphone or something similar. Verizon has a prepaid plan too, I wonder how that stacks up.

CP - I used to work in retail and I had the same problems as your family member. I wanted to sell people the right product for them- even if that meant the cheapest thing in the store. I was only interested in upselling as far as it was good for the customer. Luckily I never was fired or even written up for it, but I did get a stern talking to several times.

My retail experience is part of the reason I decided to go to library school- I like the idea that customer service in a library is all about getting people what they need, not trying to sell them something. Of course, in the case of the library, the person has paid in advance for your services through taxes…

I get by on about $10 a month with my Alltel pre-paid but I use it rarely. Its network, however, is much better than TracPhone’s.

Karin:

Yes, the TracFone (yes, they spell it with an “f”)works around the country. We’ve traveled around the central and eastern parts of the country and haven’t had any problems with making calls.

Their newer models of phones cost a little more than the basic $20 model, and have more features. I haven’t tried those, being happy with my low end model of phone.