[Johnnyboy003]

This is something I decided to create to make your experience with E-care and our experience so much easier. I find there are a lot of Myths about E-care out there.

1. I noticed that Rachel has a tips about good customer service for the phones, basically ALL of these apply when writing into e-care.

- Don't write in angry, cause we can tell when someone is really being mean and/or rude about their situation. We don't feel so apathetic anymore when you demand something. I would rather help someone who asks for something rationally than someone who demands it. Its one of the worst things you can say.

- Don't get angry if we ask you to verify your information, in most cases although the reps don't always explain why like they should, there is a reason we are asking for it, it could help us get a better perspective on a situation.

- If I ever see you write a one sentence email, I will personally curse you lol these are the most frustrating because there are so many questions that we can ask that may or may not be what your actually wanting. Give us some details of your situation so we understand why you need whatever it is.

- We can file specific complaints about stores, give us all the information as to the situation and the address of the store. We can't tell you what has happened after its sent off though. Honestly, in your own work place you can't find out how someone else was deciplined, do you think we're going to tell our customers? We don't even know anyways.

- Stupid questions, gawd, please do not ask us why another rep did or did not do something. We don't know. They're not sitting beside us and even if they were, we can't tell you that they didn't like you or something lol. We can only apologize and move forward.

2. Ok now a little more ecare specific, to start off although we can do some small things that just regular customer care has a harder time with, we do not have any special powers lol if a rep tells you to write into e-care, I have yet to see a good reason for this. They can do just as much as us or at least get you to someone on the phone that can do it.

The only things we can do a little faster/easier than most, is maybe caller I.D. changes.

3. Please PLEASE stop asking us for free stuff just randomly. (Specifically SERO plan customers, you guys are the worst for that, you have an awesome plan, your just being greedy after that) All of those promotional offers that people get are not supposed to be used just for fun. I know some reps have given it anyways but most will tell you no. I've seen you people that spam us with emails and its not appreciated and we do notice it.

4. We are usually really good with billing problems. Actual problems, not just you don't understand why you don't have a past due balance. We have the time to fix them and as long as you don't mind waiting for the answer, saves you time too.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE actually read the bill before writing in though, SO many people ask what the extra charges are on the bill, and don't bother to look at it. All we're basically doing is rewriting out your bill for you. Ask specific questions like what is this on page this.

If you have a past due balance, you just didn't pay your bill one month or you have always been behind. Trust me, when we tell you you have a past due balance, you almost always do. So many people ask why their bill is high and it really is just they didn't pay the last one so it rolled onto the new bill.

5. Spending limit customers, don't ask us to remove it or increase it. This is your own fault, your credit class is not the best and it only gets increased or removed when the system sees you making payments on time every month and never suspended. Just keep it up for long enough and it will get increased or removed.

6. Data card customers, if you get a new lap top thats not compatible with your card, why is it our fault? Did you think to check what was compatible with the card, probably not, so all we're going to tell you it to buy a new card that is compatible and unless your eligible to upgrade the card, your not getting discounts on it. Thats not our fault.

7. Read your contract people, I really suggest everyone do this because you really don't understand what is really included in it.

Heres a link for the most updated one:
http://www.sprintpcs.com/common/popu...msPrivacy.html

You guys always threaten us with legal action, at the reps level, we don't care lol it means nothing to us, you may as well be threatening to send me a virus or something, I go home at the end of the day and nothing has effected me personally and it will get you no where with us. Its like a swear word, we just look over it. We can't stop you and trust me, you are not the first person to say that. Also, its in your contract that you can't really file much legal action anyways. Check it out lol.

8. Don't ask us to credit something that has been going on for two years, even if it was technically our fault, when you pay your bill, you are agreeing that it is correct. We don't have to credit up past 60 days ago, also in the contract lol. Com'on though, like anything past 6 months, you obviously have not been looking at your bill which is your own fault. We will sometimes go back depending on how much it is but your lucky if you get a rep whos just feeling generous.

9. Don't ask us something really technical, like how fast the data cards run or I dunno, but we're just regular people with no special technical background. Someone asked about CABS billing and we had to google it lol.

10. When you write in to "executive services" or you submit feedback on the website, it all goes to the same E-care people. Even when you make plan changes through your account, it sends the information to us through an email. Same people again.

A lot of people think they need someone higher up to deal with their problem but in almost all cases, the lowest level rep can take care of the same things a manager can, they just may not want to because you were rude lol.

11. When your phone is stolen (or anything that makes it non-function), you don't have TEP on your line and your not eligible to upgrade yet, thats not our fault. Be more careful with your phone. You are really s.o.l. at this point. You'll have to pay full price for a new phone if you get it through us.

12. Don't complain that you went over your minutes because the minute counter wasn't working because you changed something in your plan. Again, how is this really our fault? You know how many minutes you have, your a grown person, you should be able to keep track of your usage on your own, the minute tracker is just to help.

13. Stop asking for call details, text message details, we can't give it out at all. Nothing, just what you see on a regular detailed bill and even that we can only give in the form of your bill. We have privacy policies in place and no rep, phone or ecare is supposed to give out further details. We can only see it so we can verify if it is billing correctly or not.

14. Saying you may cancel if we don't do something for you, will not get you anywhere. Honestly, its like throwing a tantrum. Again, we just apologize and move on. I can't really stop you if you want to cancel. We're not Account services (rententions) and we can't do what they do.

If I think of more later, I'll add it.

[kentonese]

Good tips. I know we've had a couple of these threads before but I find them useful because I like to see what's going on from a rep's point of view. I want to be fair to them and help make their job easier while they assist me. Thanks!

[Johnnyboy003]

I know, it was mostly just me venting, so many things that I always wanted to tell those particular customers but I'm not allowed cause its too harsh =)

I have a lot of nice ways to tell someone no, but I can't tell them its their fault too often lol even though it usually is, or at least part of it is their fault but they don't want to own up to any of it.

[Yazz]

Good Post! It's good to see things from the other side.

The only things we can do a little faster/easier than most, is maybe caller I.D. changes.

I'm gonna contact ecare about this right now!

[mikewest]

Originally Posted by Yazz

Good Post! It's good to see things from the other side.

I'm gonna contact ecare about this right now!

Be careful doing it after hours...if you get an outsourced one like I did, they misunderstand and change your ACCOUNT HOLDER to the Caller ID change, like they did to me! (including in account history back to the time I opened my account!)

[kulnet]

Awesome tips! Thanks for sharing.

[dimm0k]

While I agree with everything you've listed, I have a slight issue with #12. I check my minutes usage from time to time throughout the billing cycle to make sure I'm not going over my minutes, however there seems to be no sure way to find out usage. *4 seems to be in sync with sprint.com and they've been known to be wrong. I have 3 lines on my account and one of them seems to always be incorrect until the bill is printed. How is one supposed to see where they stand in regards to minutes used if there's no accurate way of determining this? I've even called in to have the rep figure out what my minutes usage was, but all she could tell me was basically what was stated on sprint.com.

[Johnnyboy003]

I'll agree our systems are not always the best but you also have to remember that its really hard for it to keep up with your usage when you are using it all the time, it can take a day or two for it to update with all the recent calls and anything roaming can be delayed usually by no more than a week but it can happen that its up to 60 days. Not likelythough.

I just find it a little childish to blame you going over your minutes on the systems. Some people aren't as bad as others. I can understand you going over like up to an extra 100 minutes but I've seen people that go over by 500 min and say its our fault cause the system didn't work.

Com'on now, didn't you notice you were making just a few more calls than usual lol. Those are the ones that kinda bug us. If you only went over by like 50 min, and you ask us REALLY nicely and explain that the system wasn't all that accurate, as long as you don't do it all the time, a good rep will likely credit it back, especially if you normally stay under your minutes every month.

Caller I.D. changes are one of my favourite lol they don't take a lot of effort. Regular cs doesn't have access to change this, only Tech on the phones can.

[Dan]

Originally Posted by Johnnyboy003

Caller I.D. changes are one of my favourite lol they don't take a lot of effort. Regular cs doesn't have access to change this, only Tech on the phones can.

I have emailed eCare for caller ID changes and eCare did them previously. Maybe someone just called a tech rep and had it done for me?

[Johnnyboy003]

Sorry, I meant when you call into customer care a regular rep can't make the change for you but an e-care rep has access to do that. Not that we're anything close to being tech lol.

[kupikunskio]

I have a few to add, I admit though I am on the phones, not e-care, but I am Corp/Gov so I can do much more than regular care, and I am on the Nextel side.

1. Please do not call NEXTEL'S care number and ask me to look at your SPRINT acct, until UBP is completed I just can't do it. And when I tell you this, don't yell at me that I should have access, I agree I should but I don't.

2. Don't complain that you have been on hold for ___ minutes, when you are on hold, that means that I am taking other calls, I am not just sitting around joking with my co-workers. and complaining about holding just wastes time and makes the people still in que have to hold longer.

3. I know you think you should be able to make changes without verifying on your account, but my boss doesn't, so just provide me with the info I need to do my job and stop hassling me about it, the policy is there to protect your account.

4. Please be clear about what you want, I don't need your life story about your dog getting sick and you smashing your car into a fence and that's why you went over your minutes, just leave out the story and tell me you want overage relief minutes or whatever you actually called for.

5. Own up to your mistakes, don't blame me as you are likely to get much farther with me.
-I hear every excuse in the book, every day, If you are honest we can usually help.
-If you are making excuses for your actions and then blame me, you will go nowhere.

6. Please don't tell me you need to talk to my supervisor before you have told me your problem, my sup expects me to know why you are calling before I get them.
-Going along with that, if I tell you I can't do something them my sup isn't going to be able to do it either; as my sup and myself have the EXACT same access in Ensemble, don't get angry, that's just the way it is and 9 out of 10 times I can help you anyways, so just tell me why you are calling.

7. Complaining to my sup about me because you couldn't verify / had overages / lost your phone without insurance / exceeded your spending limit or whatever and I tell you no is useless, if I have correctly done my job they will always side with me, and you just wasted their time. Please also see #8

8. Don't call back because the last rep said no to you and you want a different answer, we document everything and if the notes say that you were told no, I am just going to tell you no, especially if you are a jerk, on the other hand if you are nice I will probably go back and look.

9. Going along with #7 of the OP, Threatening to sue us means nothing, as care reps it doesn't affect us, and it gets you nowhere. It means nothing to us. You agreed to the terms of the contract AND Sprint has an excellent legal department and staff of attorneys working to protect us. Also threatening to cancel doesn't affect us either, it does nothing to help you when you threaten us.

10. When we tell you that we can't give out our last names, it is not because we are afraid of you complaining about us, that's Sprint's policy, I would be more than happy to give you my ID number though. I also cannot give you the exact location of my call center, that is a safety issue and policy.

One last thought... We have a lot of leeway in what we can do for you, but on the other hand we also have a lot of leeway in the ability to deny. The nicer you are to us, the nicer we are to you. Attitude is everything, even if the issue is the same.

Moral here:
BE:
NOT:

[cbrutananadilew]

Johnnyboy,
Thanks for the great tips. While I thoroughly enjoy free stuff, I don't wanna piss anyone off.
I've got a question. I've got most of my family on sero (separate accts) and I've been trying to get my wife set up with free 500 txts and something earlier for N&W. They (separately) offered her 100 txts and want her to renew a 2yr for the n&w at 7pm. My brother just got 7pm w/ no contract renewal, and 500 txts only took one try for him (and me, and my father).
From your tips I've gathered that its not worth her saying "but my brother-in-law has 7pm n&w!" or "my husband has 500 txts!". Getting to the questions- if I'm not offered something that I want, should I pursue more with that same ecare CSR or should I thank them for their time and let it go? Do you guys usually review previous conversations?
I'm so sorry Johnny! I don't like hassling anyone, and I know I'm being one of those guys! I know I should be content with what I have but when I get something so easy on the first try for me or another family member, its tough for me not to say "why?" for my wife.
And a funny story about threatening to sue. My loud-mouth sister threatened tmobile, and now they won't talk to her! She still has service, but the CSR's are not allowed to converse with her. Made total sense to me, and I wish for your sake Sprint would say the same.

[ovigomez]

Originally Posted by Dan

I have emailed eCare for caller ID changes and eCare did them previously. Maybe someone just called a tech rep and had it done for me?

What is caller ID changes? Thank you.

[Beer_Warden]

Originally Posted by ovigomez

What is caller ID changes? Thank you.

Caller ID changes...lets say you have a family shair plan. You, your wife, and your kid. Well when your kid calls lets say grandma your name "Ovigomez", whatever whatever, pops up on the caller ID. Since your the account holder your name pops up. Now you have to call Sprint or email them to get his name, or your wife's, for their number.
Also you can tell Sprint you wanna block your name or his/her's, so it says something like "unknown".... hope this helps.

[Opeth]

Originally Posted by Dan

I have emailed eCare for caller ID changes and eCare did them previously. Maybe someone just called a tech rep and had it done for me?

About two years ago I called CS 4 times to fix my caller ID. All the reps said it would "take effect in 24 hours". Never happened.