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![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) howardtayler | |
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I know, I know, they won't notice. But I'm done doing business with them. (Note: If you work for Qwest, please read on, and feel free to respond. After all, it only takes one person to completely destroy your company's image. It's possible, though only remotely, that one person can save or restore it.) So... I'm hard at work trying to bang out the last two pages of Bonus Story for the next book. I have seven more rows to color, the flooding is done, and I'm painting. My music is blaring, the house is empty for the next three hours, I'm in my happy place... And the phone rings. Number Unavailable. Private caller. I pick up. "Taylers', this is Howard." "Are you Howard Tayler, of Blank Label Comics?" Sounds like a salesperson, but he might have legitimate business with our little collective. "I am." I say, with that practiced inflection that says if you have legitimate business with me, now is the time to get to it."Has anybody from Qwest talked to you about lowering your small-business calling rates?" "No, they haven't. Please put me on your no-call list." And I hung up, cranked the tunes, and got back to work. The phone rang again. Number Unavailable. Private Caller. Ohhh-kay. This is either ILLEGAL (No-call means just that, and there are legal ramifications to calling in spite of it), or accidental, or it's a coincidence. "Hello?" The same voice I spoke to before begins, as if we were old friends who had been cut off accidentally: "Why would you want us not to call? We're trying to lower your rates, not raise them." I let him have both barrels. "You are quite possibly the rudest salesperson who has ever called me. When I-" "I'm not a salesman," he interrupted. "I'm trying to lower your rates, not-" "And I said put me on your DO NOT CALL list." (Note: I may have actually raised my voice at this point.) "-lower them. And you're the one being rude. Maybe we'll raise your rates instead. How would you like that?"* And then he hung up. Had I the presence of mind to get his name (and had he lacked the presence of mind to refuse it) I would be on the phone with Qwest right now demanding an apology. Or maybe I'd be contacting an attorney, trying to find a way to sue these people for what has to be the most flagrant violation of "do not call" I've ever experienced. Regardless, I don't currently do business with Qwest. Our land-line is provided through my ISP, Comcast/AT&T. If this guy had my phone number, he also had the ability to look that information up, and could quite easily have determined that "lowering my rates" also required him to sell me something. In fact, I doubt he's calling existing Qwest customers. He's calling FORMER Qwest customers, trying to get back their business. Hey, Qwest! At this point if you want to get my business back, you'll beat AT&T's best rate by 95% or more for a period of no less than two years no, wait... screw that. You want me as a customer? Fine. Free phone service for two years, no strings. If I'm satisfied come August of 2009, maybe I'll decide not to switch back to the folks who are currently taking pretty fine care of me. These folks, after all, are the ones who provided me with high-speed internet access back in 2001 when you said it couldn't be done. You whined and made excuses about how the line between my house and the switching station was too long for DSL. AT&T came by and laid new cable -- no excuses, just great service. In fact, now that I think about it, I still have quite a bit of loyalty towards my current provider. Forget it, Qwest. You could offer me free phone service for life, and I'd tell you to offer it to one of my fixed-income neighbors who needs it. But I'd warn her that your salespeople are pushy, and should be hung up on at her earliest convenience. (*Note: The conversations above were not transcribed real-time, nor do I have recordings. I've paraphrased as accurately as I can, but rest assured, I've made nothing up. This guy really did threaten to raise my rates.)I feel:  infuriated
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From: xnrrn |
Date: August 16th, 2007 09:45 pm (UTC) |
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Hmm (sorry, I may be missing my latin keys, or pressing extra ones, although Im doing my best not to)
Anyhow, I'd say, he shouldn't be fired.
He should be fired repeatedly. Repeatedly. So says I, the phone technical support person (in my past). Not sales.
Sales should fire, and execute him, just to resurrect (haha Im not sure how this word is wrote when I am drunk! Bite me, Im russian!) him, and fire and execute him. Repeatedly (for some reason I suspect that there are some extra letters there, but that might be paranoia. ZAP ZAP ZAP PARANOIA!).
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Y'know... Maybe, just maybe, it might not have been a call from Qwest. It sounds too much like some sort of scam or crank call to me. Most likely, a little investigative work through the Blank Label Comics site, or a little social engineering over the phone could have gotten enough information about you to glean a phone number from somewhere (unless your number is unlisted and unpublished).
I've encountered a few companies who have "unavailabvle" as the CID name, but they ALWAYS have a telephone number attached to it. I've never seen "Private" as the telephone number. That raises my suspicions (and a few red flags) right there.
Since your current phone service is from AT&T (whom I work for, by the way. Thank you for being an AT&T customer), Qwest has no jurisdiction to "raise your rates."
To me, it's smelling more and more like someone wanted to "sell" you something while, in reality, wanting to get as much personal information from you as they could. But you nipped the whole thing in the bud when you hung up on them.
I would ask your phone service if there's a way you can set up your CID to automatically reject calls from "Private" numbers. If it turns out it's from an important client, they can always temporarily turn off the CID privacy when they call.
Don't be too harsh on Qwest when it might not be their fault.
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From: deyo |
Date: August 16th, 2007 08:08 pm (UTC) |
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If Qwest were in California, I would totally not switch to them. Instead, I must look on with envy at those in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Nebraska, South and North Dakota, Iowa, and Minnesota who have the option of not switching to Qwest. Unfortunately, I don't share your positive experiences with AT&T. They kept buying out my DSL and phone providers, and there aren't a lot of credible options left, so I'm still living on the death star. |
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From: kengr |
Date: August 16th, 2007 08:11 pm (UTC) |
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Won't do you any good *this* time, but for the next time, you *can* report a "private number" call to your phone company. Unlike "out of area" or "number not available" calls, the caller ID info *is* sent, it just has a flag set that tells your phone exchange to not forward it to you. But if you can get hold of your phone company fast enougfh, they can still get the number.
They won't give it to you, but they will give it to the authorities.
Personally, I think it should be illegal for tele,arketers of any sort to display a false name or to display any number other than one that they can be contacted thru.
Likewise, unless it's a small business making strictly local calls in an area that doesn't have caller ID they should be required to provide it (rather than the current practice of many where they are deliberately set up to not provide it)
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That is, indeed, quite the rudest sales call I've ever heard of.
Second place, in my experience, falls to the second-to-last Netbank rep I ever spoke to.
Capsule summary: I forgot to write down a transfer, nothing had bounced yet but pending checks were about to. We asked if we could FedEx them a check made out to [Unknown LJ tag], for immediate deposit. They said "Yes, we can do that." We sent the check, priority overnight, they received it and deposited it, we called to confirm it has been deposited, they said yes. Emergency averted. The next day, they reversed the deposit, and didn't tell us. The first we knew was a week later when there was a large check against the account that I knew damned well I hadn't written. When we called for an explanation, they said they'd reversed the deposit because it was a third-party check.
"But you'd agreed to accept the deposit!"
"That doesn't matter. We have a policy that we don't accept third-party checks."
"The check was made out to my wife, and you agreed in advance to accept it, and noted that agreement in the account!"
"That doesn't matter. We have a policy..."
During this conversation, the telephone asshat went on to tell us to "think of this as a learning experience." Well, yeah, it was a learning experience all right. We learned that Netbank's word isn't worth the paper it's printed on.
The reason this asshat was the SECOND to last Netbank rep I ever spoke to, was because the conversation with the last Netbank rep went roughly like this:
"Have you received our deposit?"
"Yes."
"Good. have you deposited it?"
"Yes."
"Good. Our account balance is now zero?"
"Yes...."
"Good. There are no outstanding checks. I want this account closed, IMMEDIATELY."
"Uh, may I ask why?"
"Because your account services people are rude, lied to us, went back on their agreement to accept an urgent deposit, and cost us over $100 in NSF fees."
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ON THE BRIGHT SIDE:
I tried out Qwest's free 1 month of service when I bought my home here in Orem last year. At the end of the month, I quit, switched to Comcast, and was done.
But then, maybe two months later, they said I owed them $100+ for some mystery charge. I had to spend half an hour on the phone talking to various people before the charge was removed.
Then I remembered the special cable modem router thing they had lent me, and the box to mail it back in. Oops!
So I got a free useless router for half an hour's worth of my time.
That's me, sticking it to the man! STICK STICK STICK! BOO-YEAH!
I also, however, have a free dish attached to my roof that I wish they'd take down.
Last point: I've hated Qwest longer than all of you, I swear. I hated it back before it was cool to hate it. In fact, one time I saw Mr. Qwest and I keyed his car. I'm totally not making thatI'll shut up now.
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From: mrmeval |
Date: August 18th, 2007 08:55 pm (UTC) |
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From: sr_smith |
Date: August 17th, 2007 03:16 am (UTC) |
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I've taken to selling whatever I've got handy to the poor sod that's unlucky enough to have called me.
'Hello, can I speak to Mr. Smith please?'
'This is Mr. Smith, and I'm so glad you called, are you aware of how important it is to take vitamins? Of course you are. I've got a fantastic deal on Super Once A Day's - bottles of 90 high quality health care tablets, that's a 3 month supply in just one bottle. You are concerned with staying healthy aren't you? Of course you are, so you'll want to take these vitamins all year, do you want to purchase a 6 month supply now, or save yourself a call and order a whole years worth?'
I realize that some of these phone jockeys are just trying to make ends meet, but I'm tired of getting hassled all the time, and simply hanging up I find isn't nearly satisfying enough.
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