Some telecom retail store staff don't know their products

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Some telecom retail store staff don't know their products

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#460082 18-Apr-2011 12:48

robbyp:

It was the Masterton outlet. I personally have found the staff at telecom stores to be good and knowledgeable, which is why I actually told them to go into one of the stores to get a microsim and to sign up to their prepay mobile broadband plan, but the staff member said they didn't offer it on prepay. I have never been to the Masterton store myself, instead I have only been to wellington ones, but in this case I will probably now just get it online for them.

I'll just throw out here that the Masterton store is an ORB dealer, not a Telecom-owned store

As Akia said, the difference between company-owned stores and dealer stores is vast.

edge

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#460102 18-Apr-2011 13:27

I'll just throw out here that the Masterton store is an ORB dealer, not a Telecom-owned store
As Akia said, the difference between company-owned stores and dealer stores is vast.

Small correction (?!) - think you will find that it was <old3eyes> who made the comment:
"I've always found that the staff in the Telecom owned stores are very good but the agency ones sometimes leave a lot to be desired.." ,
- not Akia (perhaps for obvious reasons

"It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of what he was never reasoned into."
— most commonly attributed to Jonathan Swift, author/theologian

munchkin

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#460150 18-Apr-2011 14:50

My bad!

The broken IE6 install on this computer renders the same display pic for every user...I don't read the names that often, just glancing at the avatar !

LAC

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#460214 18-Apr-2011 16:33

I have to agree, went in to the store to get a prepaid XT mico sim for my iPad. Looked on the site and saw a deal if I spend 29.95 I will get it as credit for 500MB. They didn't know what this means, so after 30 mins of calling and website browsing I was good to go, but said I didn't have the money till the following week, after I got it I was happy, speeds great and all. Then 30 mins later I get out of credit message, checked my usege via the iPad and I Only use 50MB total. So I rang up and turned out my account was in the wrong profile and that they didn't put on the right one while I was in store. Another hour later I get what I want and get credited back.

Dick move from Telecom?

Edit: Btw they too didn't know what a Telecom Mico SIM was.

Starplay

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#460233 18-Apr-2011 17:23

robbyp:

It was the Masterton outlet.

Well theres your problem... What else would you expect from Masterton?

eXDee

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#460734 20-Apr-2011 00:45

I had better service from the Telecom Kiosk in Chartwell Hamilton than from the store at the base.
Chartwell provisioned new numbers (gave a selection too) and did plan changes and stuff for me on the spot. The store in Te Awa told me they couldnt do it and to ring *333 in store.

No complaints really about either, just thought i'd comment that Chartwell for being a kiosk was actually quite good. The guys at Te Awa seemed to know their stuff fairly well though and aside from the *333 thing which chartwell proved wrong, they had good service also.

akia

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#460740 20-Apr-2011 02:18

Well my offer still stands. If you have a bad experience with a store. Please PM me details on what store it was, what the staff members name was and what happened. As to date I have received no PM's, therefore I can't help fix things :)

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LAC

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#460747 20-Apr-2011 07:07

Thanks for your support akia, But I don't think any further action can be taken.

robbyp

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#461035 20-Apr-2011 18:55

akia: Well my offer still stands. If you have a bad experience with a store. Please PM me details on what store it was, what the staff members name was and what happened. As to date I have received no PM's, therefore I can't help fix things :)

Thanks, because it was my parents who had the experience, I don't know who the staff memeber was, but it was the masterton store, so I can't really add anything that I have already said. But I have now sourced a microsim online, which was an easier process.

kfixx

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Wannabe Geek

#462600 26-Apr-2011 16:54

When I got an iPhone 4 about 2 months after the NZ release, I had similar problems with staff not knowing what I was asking about. I went into the store to get a microsim and they didn't have any (which is fine, at least they knew what I meant). I ended up putting my iphone on 2degrees.

Then I needed to top up my t-stick (which was XT). I followed the online prompts (a window pops up saying you're out of credit and takes you to a page where you can top-up using a credit card). I did all of this.... and at the end, after charging my card $40, I'm provided with a VOUCHER CODE. Seeing as my t-stick sim will not fit in my phone.... exactly how am I supposed to use the voucher code?

So I rung the 0800 number as usual. I was connected with a woman who eventually understood what I was saying (well she didnt understand the iphone part, but she realised I meant I needed a voucher code credit to be put on a sim not in a phone). She did it for me.

I then rang back about 10mins later as I realised I needed to change my prepaid broadband plan, which once again you cant seem to do easily yourself without a phone. The man I got to deal with that query.... well, it was ridiculous. A direct quote "data pack? what's a data pack?" So basically got NOWEHERE with that, wasted 20 mins of my life and ended up stealing the next person I saws phone to put my simcard in it and do it myself.

How exactly is it ok to sell a service (prepaid t-stick) but be REQUIRED to own a standard-simcard accepting phone to actually be able to use it?

Not to mention the mobile broadband meter is CONSTANTLY not working. They just tell me to empty my cache... -.-"

Ok sorry, this has definitely wavered a bit off topic. But my point remains... if the customers are better informed than the staff... ?!?!

GH33

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#462835 27-Apr-2011 01:18

In some contact centres they are only allowed to follow the script, they are not allowed to go outside of the script and will count towards not following procedures. There are consequences too if that happens. I know it sounds ridiculous but believe me this is happening in nz non outsourced contact centre too as will as outsourced offshore. So forget it if you want them to think outside of the box as they will generally lack product/ industry knowledge because of the use of scripts. For the example, data pack, of course the telecom prepay staff wouldn't have a clue what you're talking about as data pack terminology is not in the script, easy to blame the people but remember, they have to follow their script and they don't want to put their jobs in jeopardy. You may have a better understanding of the product and rightfully so as you may have experienced the products while they have no experience on the products but some scripts and a bunch of processes and procedures.

heavenlywild

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#462853 27-Apr-2011 08:15

Customer service is always a bit of a hit and miss. There are always superstars out there at each store, however, they are also surrounded by some "not so good" sales reps.

In retail, staff turnover is as high as 40% and so I can sympathise with stores not having competent staff all of the time.

matisyahu

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#463362 28-Apr-2011 13:40

scuwp: Pay peanuts = get monkeys

I tried to go for a job through Telecom's retail stores, they hire through a recruitment company - that alone tells me that Telecom doesn't actually care about who they employ. If Telecom really did care about who they employed they would firstly get the store themselves to do the hiring and interviewing.

Also, something I noticed also with retail jobs - they hire people who 'look the part' rather than on their knowledge; it is amazing the number of people who approach me (the non-employee) when browsing the shelves instead of approaching company employees. Here is a subtle hint to any Telecom big wigs, how about hiring people who know their stuff rather than hiring people who fit into this faux corporate 'Telecom image'.

"When the people are being beaten with a stick, they are not much happier if it is called 'the People's Stick'"

revolushn

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#463373 28-Apr-2011 14:21

kawaii:
scuwp: Pay peanuts = get monkeys

I tried to go for a job through Telecom's retail stores, they hire through a recruitment company - that alone tells me that Telecom doesn't actually care about who they employ. If Telecom really did care about who they employed they would firstly get the store themselves to do the hiring and interviewing.

Also, something I noticed also with retail jobs - they hire people who 'look the part' rather than on their knowledge; it is amazing the number of people who approach me (the non-employee) when browsing the shelves instead of approaching company employees. Here is a subtle hint to any Telecom big wigs, how about hiring people who know their stuff rather than hiring people who fit into this faux corporate 'Telecom image'.

They don't always hire through recruitment company.
They don't always hire people who simply look the part.
Pretty sure telecom does in fact care about who they hire.

I'm pretty surprised that they didn't know what a microSIM was though, that's more than slightly concerning, but not so surprised when I heard it wasn't a TRS. They really do (for the most part) train their staff pretty well.

kfixx

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Wannabe Geek

#463388 28-Apr-2011 15:17

I'd subscribe to that train of thought, in my experience companies who use recruitment companies always miss out. I actually applied for a part time customer service role at one of telecoms call centres. I'm a native New Zealander who knows a pretty decent amount about their product even before training... I received a generic reply and no interview. Not too gutted really, I had applied for about 10 jobs, but I ended up with one better paying and most likely funner.

My parents own a business and I've had quite a lot to do with their HR because they don't care for it much. I feel from my opinion input combined with theirs, we pick good staff. I'm not sure what it is with recruitment companies but I just don't think they're worth what they probably charge...

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