Whether trying to get a fee waived, or calling in to check up a signup bonus, here are 3 quick tips for dealing with phone reps:
1) If you can’t get to a human within 30 seconds, try finding a better number at GetHuman.com.
2) If you ask nicely and don’t get what you want, don’t get mad. Just hang up and try again. You may have caught someone trying to reach a quota or simply on a bad day. If it doesn’t happen in three tries, it probably won’t happen.
3) When you do get what you want, try to have it credited immediately. If it is one of those “it should show up in 4-6 weeks” situations, have them type a note in your account. This can save a lot of research time later on, and helps make sure you get what was promised.
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This doesn’t really relate to financial problems, but when it comes to support for electronic items, I’ve found the easiest way to resolve the problem is by telling them it smells like it’s burning.
I had a printer where the tech support was trying to spend 45 mins diagnosing the problem. Finally I called back and told the next bloke that it smells like its burning when i plug it in, he skipped all the tech support/troubleshooting bs and immediately started to collect my info to send me a replacement unit.
Since then I’ve found this to be the single easiest way to get something replaced. It’s a secret though so keep it on the DL
I like it! 🙂
hehe! good one.
I wonder if i can use that for other scenarios..
Guy: I am leaving you
Girl: Why??
Guy: It smells like it’s burning
Girl: Do you want the engagement ring back.
I never heard of the gethuman.com thing before….that is an awesome database :)..thanks.
4) avoid calling at nearly all costs. start early. use email. write well. take notes. stay out of fixes. stay away from cons/tricks. have many resources so you aren’t stuck with just one.
lots of people talk about how to play the phone game. i want to talk about how not to. if i have to pick up the phone to handle something, i consider it a failure going in. if i can work their people, that’s possibly rescuing a failure. it’s my own.i track contact incidents and disfavor those who can’t just get it right.
I have had a lot of bad luck using email to contact CSRs; a lot of the time, I ask what I think is an easily understood, coherant question, and I get FAQs back. The worst for this has been National Car Rental… An otherwise great agency (hey, I’ve gone without owning a car for eight years, in large part thanks to these guys), who just can’t seem to answer email coherantly.
An example exchange:
Me: Hey, I go to rent cars at the Cambridge location, and the contract isn’t ready when I show up. Isn’t this “Emerald Club” thing I’m in supposed to mean the contract is ready?
Them: Please join Emerald Club, if you do, the contract will be ready!
Me: Yes, I know, but, uh, I am, and it wasn’t.
Them: The location in Cambridge is Emerald Counter, so the contract should be ready when you show up! I’m so happy to tell you this!
Me: …
(this can go on forever).
Ack! At least they have good cars at great prices, and, hey, if my wife ever gets a license, they’ll let her drive them too.
I usually like dealing with humans as e-mail tag can take days. I still value human response time. If a company can’t reliably connect me with a human within 5 minutes, I drop them – examples are Dell and E-Trade.
But, using e-mail is a good alternative, as they do seem to be a separate group of people at a lot of places. I’ve gotten bonuses by sending an e-mail immediately, whereas the CSR may be clueless. It’s hit or miss though.