vB Easy Archive - Has working in wireless retail affected your life?

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Has working in wireless retail affected your life?
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Posted by: MrAlifEkin

I just want to know If I'm the only one who feels this way. Do you find yourself hating customers more and more everyday? I don't know. Maybe I need professional help. I'm serious. I'm genuinely not saying this to be funny.

I have this reoccuring nightmare every week or two. In my dream I'm at the store. Most of the time the store looks different. But what's always the same is the fact that there are always a ton of customers. A TON! So many customers in fact that they are lined up across the walls and taking up any seat available. It's closing time and I go to lock the doors. But people are somehow still coming in. I keep locking the doors but more and more customers still manage to get through! I then proceed to tell the people who are coming in through the doors that we're closed, instead of turning around and leaving they get mad and demand that their phone be fixed. By this time the sun has already set and it's around midnight and the store is still full of angry customers. I'm working my butt off when all of a sudden I see the sun come up! It's already the next morning and i'm still taking care of these crappy customers!!!

I always have this nightmare. Sometimes the scenary of the store is different. But it's always the same story.
I seriously need to get out of wireless retail, guys. This place is driving me nuts. Never in my life have I been so motivated to finish college and tell everyone of those people called customers to F**** OFF! My last day at work isn't going to be pretty...

This comes to my original question. Has this place turned you into a different person? I've worked at retail stores (circuit city, staples, office max etc..) but never in my life have i seen customers as difficult as those in wireless retail. Everyone wants everything free, they all want credits, they argue with you over the most minute details. I don't know how to use the payment machine, why doesn't my phone work? i dropped a call i want a new phone. AAAUURRGH!!!!!

I've come to the point that when I go to resturaunts, movies, anywhere where I see people and their cell phones, I automatically hate them. I despise them! I want to shove their crappy razr down their throat! Look at them chatting with their friends, "Isn't my phone cool? Aren't I the Sh*t?" BLAH BLAH BLAH!!! I've never been this way. I never really hated people. In fact I usually love talking to others and meeting new faces. Now when I'm doing my own shopping, I see customers at the mall or at the grocery store, I always see a whiner and a complainer and I automatically put up a wall and hate them all......

whoooo..... sorry for the long post. I really really really needed to get that off my chest. I can't afford a psychiatrist so I guess this forum will have to do

Posted by: SoCal91302

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrAlifEkin

I just want to know If I'm the only one who feels this way. Do you find yourself hating customers more and more everyday? I don't know. Maybe I need professional help. I'm serious. I'm genuinely not saying this to be funny.

I have this reoccuring nightmare every week or two. In my dream I'm at the store. Most of the time the store looks different. But what's always the same is the fact that there are always a ton of customers. A TON! So many customers in fact that they are lined up across the walls and taking up any seat available. It's closing time and I go to lock the doors. But people are somehow still coming in. I keep locking the doors but more and more customers still manage to get through! I then proceed to tell the people who are coming in through the doors that we're closed, instead of turning around and leaving they get mad and demand that their phone be fixed. By this time the sun has already set and it's around midnight and the store is still full of angry customers. I'm working my butt off when all of a sudden I see the sun come up! It's already the next morning and i'm still taking care of these crappy customers!!!

I always have this nightmare. Sometimes the scenary of the store is different. But it's always the same story.
I seriously need to get out of wireless retail, guys. This place is driving me nuts. Never in my life have I been so motivated to finish college and tell everyone of those people called customers to F**** OFF! My last day at work isn't going to be pretty...

This comes to my original question. Has this place turned you into a different person? I've worked at retail stores (circuit city, staples, office max etc..) but never in my life have i seen customers as difficult as those in wireless retail. Everyone wants everything free, they all want credits, they argue with you over the most minute details. I don't know how to use the payment machine, why doesn't my phone work? i dropped a call i want a new phone. AAAUURRGH!!!!!

I've come to the point that when I go to resturaunts, movies, anywhere where I see people and their cell phones, I automatically hate them. I despise them! I want to shove their crappy razr down their throat! Look at them chatting with their friends, "Isn't my phone cool? Aren't I the Sh*t?" BLAH BLAH BLAH!!! I've never been this way. I never really hated people. In fact I usually love talking to others and meeting new faces. Now when I'm doing my own shopping, I see customers at the mall or at the grocery store, I always see a whiner and a complainer and I automatically put up a wall and hate them all......

whoooo..... sorry for the long post. I really really really needed to get that off my chest. I can't afford a psychiatrist so I guess this forum will have to do

In the telecom business it is common to feel that way. Some providers even include mental health coverage with their benefits... t-mobile is one from what I have gathered in their forums.

Posted by: brealmp3

yea my reseller includes that kind of stuff in our benefits, i think it even includes drug and alcohol.

Posted by: NukuCamui

very possible. Last night we were trying to leave a restaurant and there were TONS of people in the street (big festival last night) and my husband and I have our windows down screaming at people to move.

I dont have a person. I hate people. Working in retail for several years and in CS did that to me.

Posted by: tkdlove

i don't hate them i just feel sorry for them...
knowing that they go home and either bother or will bother in the future some other poor soul who has no choice but to stay married to them and live that pathetic existence...
simply tell these people what is what! i have never let a situation get bad because i de-escalate it by telling them that i don't care how important they are! that at this very moment:
"you are in my world and i am the king because i hold all the answers and kings don't like to be yelled at!" this works 75% of the time because the person laughs and the situation deflates the other 25% either get pissed and storm out or change their tone to match mine.
if that don't work, wear a t-shirt that says "i will f**k you up!" under your cingular polo and pull it out when people i mean

Posted by: kirbo20

My problem is with people who get their phone online, telesales, Amazon, and Wirefly. These people come in obviously with non-working phones and want me to fix it. They have no mobile number no account number and they still expect me to be able to activate their phone. Why can’t people just go to a store and get it? So what if they save $100.00 in a 9 month period by getting their phone from Amazon or Wirefly. To me customer service is much more valuable than a free Razr.

Posted by: Infornography

I have to say working wireless retail has changed me as well.

It's a problem. An embarassing one really. Before, I could walk the street and not have a care in the world. I could argue, tentatively and passionately about foreign policy and the rising interest rates. But now, whenever I walk the streets and I see a GSM phone out, I start feeling flushed. My blood pressure rises and hearing the words, "1900mhz" makes me think of the most wrong and pleasurable things. I have to hide my face whenever I go to a local import phone dealer and hide my purchases in a ralph's bag. I've had to explain to my GF that I'm not cheating on her, and that "Symbian" was just the name of an operating system on a phone. I know it's not normal to start panting when I see the sensually designed curves of a sony ericsson phone, but it's a part of me now, and I have to accept who I am and what I've become. Sure, many people would figure a phone fetish as being somewhat peculiar, but I can tell you and my therapist that I sleep with motorola, nokia, HTC and Sony Ericsson and they don't mind. My GF gets annoyed at times, but she appreciates Sony Ericsson for what it is. A Wonderful, fantastic and sexy phone. This is wireless retail. And this is how it's changed me.

Posted by: shorty28

Retail in general sucks, but i'm fortunate for this gig because it pays better than my other crappy jobs and my management is cool and they are real flexible about my school schedule. that hours are cool, plus we close at 7pm mon-sat and closed on sundays ( a major day to have off after a hangover sat night!!!). However, the flipside to it is that i've never been so stressed @ a job ever until i was hired @ cingular. it's the customers! and it's strange that most of those customers that i grew up about these past years are the same ones that come into the store and b***h for a free phone and credits for their bills. It sucks that most of those same customers that i've been knowing around the way for years are liars, when i remove the battery from the phone and discover that the dot is pink and i've asked them if the phone was dropped in liquid. The first response is always a no! Its sucks when u gotta keep up your numbers and because of that u treat certain customers differently because they refuse features, accessories, combined billing, etc. Cingular, as i soon discovered, is a persistant company. They will push, push, push, until they will get results. And surprisingly it works. It really doesn't bothers me anymore because i need the job, the money is good and i'm soon about to graduate and get something better. i think i'm gonna go into computer animation. its good to have a job that u would love to go to every day. i'm sure no one would wanna be in retail if they had too! so, heads up guys and girls. there is something better out there for all of us.

Posted by: Cingular13

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrAlifEkin

Everyone wants everything free, they all want credits, they argue with you over the most minute details. I don't know how to use the payment machine, why doesn't my phone work? i dropped a call i want a new phone. AAAUURRGH!!!!!

You just summed up 75% of all of my customers!

You really have to learn to say this as much as possible, ".................(long pause)......I'm sorry to hear you are having trouble.................(long pause)"

People just want to complain and want someone to listen and its even worse in wireless retail because people are depending on their phones more than they do other retail itmes (clothes, ipods, etc). I am in no way excusing the behavior of whiney, abusive, loud, rude, and flat out idiotic customers that we get every day - just telling you how to help calm them down.

Posted by: Carl G35c

Im the same way. Ive done cs and retail for 6 years. Im not racist or anything, I hate everyone equally.

Posted by: MrAlifEkin

Thanks for the feeback guys. Glad to see i'm not the only one stressing out with this job. I'll tell you one thing. Not just anyone can work here...

Posted by: Freakshow105

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows 98; PalmSource/hspr-H102; Blazer/4.2) 16;320x320)

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrAlifEkin

amen! holy **** I thought I was the only one that had nightmares about work and you can't get out of the dream! I was the person who stayed late many nights because it was busy all day and we didn't get the chance to count inventory, I always took ownership (like the lame customer rules) etc. all I gotta say is now that I have nothing to do with cingular, I had withdrawl because I always looked at the positive what I missed. but after reading your post, man I feel so much better that that hell customers put me through is over

Posted by: VCI_Cell

You're definitely not alone. I put in my two weeks on Saturday at Sprint, and I'm counting the days. Wireless customers are positively the worst, and will send you to an early grave if you're the type of person who can't shrug it off a hundred times a day.

Posted by: shorty28

cingular and other wireless companies should provide and counselor that works at each store that can help us vent a lil. i don't smoke, but i'm beginning to understand why my co-workers do it.

Posted by: SuxBeingU

On the positive side.......

I ahve been doing this for close to 20 years. I have seen alot of changes on prices phones coverage etc. BUT I have also had free trips to Hawaii, Vegas and VZW paid for my honeymoon, 7days cruise in the bahamas and $400 to spend. I have boughten 2 houses IN SO CAL. and continue to provide a decent living for my family. I have gone from an employee to my own store and have met many many great people. I have connections for just about anything and everything I will ever need. I have made some good friends along the way.

There are the down sides as well, the commissions getting raped on a regualr basis, more competition, company policies that make no sense. In the end, I have had a pretty good run and hope it continue for a little while longer.

Posted by: StattlichPassat

It was worth it for me.

http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php?t=1005362