It’s odd how many times I have had to call the phone company and did not get very pleasant results.  It seems the reps take it personally when they are asked to assist you.  They can seem to treat customers as if they do not deserve assistance.  Wether the customer is asking for help with an issue or if they are asking for a discount, the reps nowadays seem to be bothered by it all.

I have myself worked for the phone company; several actually, and I know it can become annoying when all customers seem to be calling in asking for something they are not qualified to receive.  There are rules involved with how many discounts customers can get sometimes this is calculated on a yearly basis.  For example you can only get one discount per year with Comcast.  This policy is put in place to keep customers from price hopping.  Which basically means going from one company to another on the basis of price alone.

The thing is most customers are willing to pay more if they feel they are getting their money’s worth.  A good example of this is again in my personal experiences.  I recently got my hair cut. I usually would go to a place in Lynnwood called Salon Stephen Crago.  I was referred to him by a friend of mine about four years ago. 

I have since moved to University Place and Lynnwood is about an hours drive for me now.  I did go to Stephen’s salon a couple of times since the move but it just became too much.  So I decided to go somewhere local.  I had passed by a local salon/day spa on more than one occasion.  Brassfield’s is the name of the place.  I called the day after Christmas to make my first appointment.  Tiffany answered the line and she was very polite.  She advised me that I could have an appointment with Dan Brassfield or with a man named Paul both were available that very day that I had called.  I was interested in getting my hair done right away as it has been over a year since my last cut.  I decided to go with Dan even though Tiffany quoted me a much lesser price if I were to go with Paul.  I felt that I wanted an excellent cut and I felt comfortable in selecting Dan since I figured he was the owner of the salon and had a personal stake in making a new customer happy with their first visit to his salon.  Not that Paul would not have done as equally well of a job or had less pride in the service provided in the salon.

Nevertheless, I stuck with my decision and had an appointment scheduled for a couple of hours from the time that I called.  When I got to the salon, I was about 30 minutes early, I didn’t have anything to do that day so I didn’t mind waiting for my appointment time.  The ambiance of the salon was second to none.  The stylists each had an “assistant.”  This was a girl that would get you fitted into a cape and then take you back and give your hair a wash and your scalp a massage.  All of this while you watched a big screen TV. 

After the washing you were seated with your stylist.  Oh I forgot to mention there was fresh coffee both regular and decaf in the lobby as well as tea and lemon ice water.  There were real mugs that you could have the hot beverages in or real glasses you could utilize for the water, not paper or plastic like a lot of businesses would choose to use. 

So there I was sitting with Dan, we were discussing what I was looking for in a cut that day.  I advised him what I wanted and he went to work.  We chatted for quite a long time, he would stop cutting and styling here and there to share with me some of his personal experiences that related to our discussion.  I really enjoyed talking with Dan.

So I payed twice as much as I would have at some drive thru styling salon (Hairmasters, Great Clips, or Mastercuts just ot name a few). But I was so delighted with the conversation and the level of comfort that Dan and his staff provided as well as the cut and style, he hit it dead on for me that day!  I don’t feel guilt for paying more, I don’t feel I got riped off, in fact, I can’t wait to go back and get it cut again, I plan to get it colored next time which will exponentially increase the cost.  Also, that will be right around income tax time so I may even take them up on a spa treatment or two.

So this proves my point that exceptional customer service well outweighs price not just in my eyes but in the eyes of many that I know. This is something that the phone company should get a grasp on, I was dealing with Sprint when I was attempting to get a scheduled upgrade and it was all I could do to justify staying with them due to the extremely horrible customer service that was initially provided to me by phone.  I was told that I had to mail in a rebate in order to get all of the “deserved” savings.  In order to get the phone that was advertised to me as a “free” scheduled upgrade, I would need to first pay $100.00 upfront and then mail in a rebate, wait 6-8 weeks for it to be applied to my account if it would even be processed correctly which I had doubts about.  You see I called a week earlier to see when I would “qualify” for an upgrade since I had been a Sprint customer with wireless for over 3 years now.  I was then told by the rep that “it looked like this month.”  I asked her why the website said July 2009 as the upgrade point on my account and she replied, yeah well then that’s when you will qualify.”  So I didn’t have much confidence that a mail in rebate would be credited and in fact I may just be out the $100.00 that I fronted for this supposedly “free” phone.

I wasn’t willing to allow that to occur so my argument to the phone rep was as follows:

The phone is advertised to me as free after all credits and rebates, why not just send it to me now and apply all credits to my account immediately, afterall it will be free in the end right?

Well, the rep wouldn’t budge she just kept saying the same thing to me over and over and over, as if she were reading the words off of a board or teleprompter or some other type of script. Finally, I demanded to speak to someone esle, she transferred me to a supervisor that continued to read me the same script.  I asked what my charge would be to cancel because I couldn’t stand it anymore and just wanted to get out of the Sprint web altogether.  She couldn’t tell me this information and needed to transfer me to another department.  This department was able to offer me 3 options. I could either get the phone sent to me for free with no need to mail in any rebate, or I could go to a store and pick it up or I could get $30.00 off of another phone that was the same as the model I wanted but it was provided in different colors.  I opted to go to the Sprint store.

Once I got to the store I was helped initally by a very nice gentleman, he said he could definately honor what they told me on the phone.  I was concerned with getting a case for the phone though so I told him I wanted to go look around at some of the kiosks in the mall that offered cell covers.  I went to a couple of kiosks and found that there was nothing that suited me.  I went back to the Sprint store and found that the kind gentleman was now busy with other customers so I was passed on to a newbie who needed a lot of help getting me set up.  He then passed me off to a woman that seemed bothered that I was getting a “free” phone upgrade when she looked into the computer.

She repeatedly had to ask the first gentleman about the notes on my account. Even when he said she had the authority to make the transaction as it was noted in my account that just minutes prior I had been on the phone with a Sprint rep who offered me this deal and advised me one option was to go to a Sprint store.  She decided she would call her manager at home and get her permission too.  Once the manager also gave the clearance she then reluctantly assisted me with the purchase.  She did however, offer to charge the phone for me in order to transfer all of my settings from my old phone to the new one.  I accepted the offer and went to Nordstrom’s to purchase some Christmas gifts.  I came back about 30 minutes later and the phone was ready. She handed me the bag across the counter and told me to have a nice day.

I stopped her and asked if she would mind showing me around the basics of the phone as it was much more advanced than the one I had previously had.  She showed me the basics and then asked me if I were to be surveyed would I give her all 5′s on a 1-5 rating.  I lied and said “yes.” She said Sprint would be calling me in a couple of days to get the survey conducted.  I said, “ok,” and left the store.  Sure enough the survey called a couple of days later, I just hung up on it.  There was no way I could give her all 5′s and there was also no way that I was going to waste another minute of my time with Sprint.  Unfortunately, I am still a Sprint customer and will now continue to be for the next 2 years.  You see, in order to get a new “free” phone I had to sign my life away to the Sprint devil for 24 months.  Whatever, all phone companies are the same, they all want your monthly payment but none of them want to give you much in return.  You’re lucky if your calls get put through on a regular basis, or if you’ll get your text messages in a timely fashion.  My dad uses Verion, my mother AT&T, and I have frineds that have T-Mobile none of them have much of anything “nice” to say about their phone company.  I’m not surprised, the phone company knows that we all want to have the convenience of a cell phone so they hold the cards and we will play the game their way or else!

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