It’s always a fun time when a U.S. carrier network’s employee holds an A.M.A (ask me anything) session on an online forum. One such user who claims to be an online sales representative for AT&T recently held an A.M.A session on Reddit and it was very informative.
The biggest thing that jumped out to me was when the poster claimed that online sales representatives are instructed to tell customers that they’re from the United States. This particular employee has to say that they’re from Texas even though they aren’t. They went on to explain that AT&T has sites in the Philippines and Colombia.
This is hardly anything new in the telecom industry. Verizon, for example, does the same thing. One Verizon online sales rep claimed that aside from their location they had to lie about a lot of other things as well: like claiming to be a Verizon user themselves. These jobs are often outsourced to countries where the minimum wage requirements are lower without a loss in profits.
According to the AT&T employee, however, their job actually pays quite well compared to other domestic jobs. The biggest moneymaker is the commissions that employees can rake in if they manage to sell a new line. They’re also eligible for getting a small percentage for insurance or Next Up but they are not allowed to reveal that they get commissions from sales.
AT&T is many customers’ first choice of network. | Image credit — PhoneArena
Another interesting fact about this job is that this isn’t a work-from-home position. Online sales representatives have to work from the designated call centers that AT&T has established in their countries.
Aside from the interesting nuggets of information the employee also provided a very helpful tip. They said that if you need to have your complaint escalated to a higher tier of customer support you need to make that clear from the start. Simply tell the representative that you need a supervisor or wireless tech support and the agent should hopefully forward your ticket.
Lastly the AT&T worker made it clear that online sales representatives cannot add anything to a customer’s account without their approval. AT&T constantly monitors online support staff and this would be grounds for getting fired.
It’s nice to know that AT&T does that, however I do wish telecom companies would stop telling their employees to lie about where they’re from. Then again I suppose customers’ biases may throw entire support departments into chaos if they did that.
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Abdullah loves smartphones, Virtual Reality, and audio gear. Though he covers a wide range of news his favorite is always when he gets to talk about the newest VR venture or when Apple sets the industry ablaze with another phenomenal release.
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