vB Easy Archive - Anyone else forced to add 'fees' to invoices?

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Anyone else forced to add 'fees' to invoices?
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Posted by: StattlichPassat

Here's another ethical violation (IMO) that hasn't come to a head yet between management and me. For every activation or upgrade we do, management wants us to add a $5 'programming fee' because on a ~$170 invoice plus tax, customers won't know the difference (they claim). They will even encourage a $10 fee here if we could sneak it in there. Why? "Pure profit" is the response I got. They want about $1500 in fees per store per month. Walk-in SIM card copies/data transfers? $10 programming fee (unless done with new phone upgrade). COE phones on upgrade/activation? $18/$36 in-store activation fee (plus normal upgrade/activation fee still coming on their bill). There's not even anything in it for us, if I didn't care. Making one little dollar on a phonebook transfer is worthless for the labor put into it (slow USB 1.1 SmartTrust card readers that only work successfully half the time anyway) if I earn a 10% commission off total profit of all products and services I sell.

I used to do this for the last few months until I realized that while a customer never called me on it, it's just not right. So starting this month, I stopped adding irregular fees, period. I'm not too hot on the idea of confronting management about this yet and questioning just how this is an ethical practice. It'll probably come up soon when they ask why I haven't collected any fees yet this month.

Sorry for the rant. I'll go back to looking at jobs again in the corporate non-retail office up the road now.

Posted by: ivwshane

You work for an agent though right?

Posted by: Tstright

Unless it's posted I would think it's illegal.

Posted by: BellaDea

I haven't heard anything like that at all but I work in a COR store..... are you at an agent location?

Posted by: tennessee31

Yuck. I can understand how that makes you feel "unclean." Put yourself in the customer's shoes, and I'm sure you'd agree that you'd be pissed if you found this happening to you. If Cingular wants to charge more, fine, but let's be up-front about it.

One of the other dealers in our area automatically adds Roadside Assistance and Voice Dialing to *every* new activation or upgrade they do to drive up their feature adds, and claims that these are required additions. I'm sure a lot of these get charged back when the customer removes them in a month or two, but still...

Posted by: pauldg

Quote:

Originally Posted by tennessee31

One of the other dealers in our area automatically adds Roadside Assistance and Voice Dialing to *every* new activation or upgrade they do to drive up their feature adds, and claims that these are required additions. I'm sure a lot of these get charged back when the customer removes them in a month or two, but still...

Guilty

we also charge $5 for a SIM card, and i think that's bogus unless it's a SIM-only kind of thing

Posted by: Lambert

Quote:

Originally Posted by tennessee31

Yuck. I can understand how that makes you feel "unclean." Put yourself in the customer's shoes, and I'm sure you'd agree that you'd be pissed if you found this happening to you. If Cingular wants to charge more, fine, but let's be up-front about it.

One of the other dealers in our area automatically adds Roadside Assistance and Voice Dialing to *every* new activation or upgrade they do to drive up their feature adds, and claims that these are required additions. I'm sure a lot of these get charged back when the customer removes them in a month or two, but still...

The Northridge California store is notorious for doing that.

Posted by: sharksfan

How does the $5 charge appear on the bill? Isn't this a form of slamming?

Posted by: cingman66

We don't get paid for RS or VD anyway, so adding these "free" features has no financial consequence if customers cancel them. We do it like this...it gets added at the time of the sale, then it is explained to the customer as we go over the CSS...if the customer really doesn't want the features after it is explained, then we cancel it. Many times the features stick, so it is worth adding each time...but we would never "slam" customers like so many other agents do.

As for SIM's...I think there should be a charge for the initial SIM and any replacement SIM's. There needs to be value associated with everything we do, and giving things away for free helps no one. That's why I have always been against "free" phones.

Posted by: tennessee31

Quote:

Originally Posted by cingman66

As for SIM's...I think there should be a charge for the initial SIM and any replacement SIM's. There needs to be value associated with everything we do, and giving things away for free helps no one. That's why I have always been against "free" phones.

Free phones are the scourge of the wireless industry.

Posted by: Canadian Maniac

Quote:

Originally Posted by tennessee31

Free phones are the scourge of the wireless industry.

I agree, I've said many times that people won't treat their phones with the proper care and respect until they are forced to pay for them.

Posted by: SuxBeingU

this is illegal forget about unethical its against the law. If you work at a Corp. store you should contact the reginal. If an Agent store, get out as quick as possible then call their master agent. I would think Cingular would want to know about this too.

Posted by: cingman66

Quote:

Originally Posted by sharksfan

How does the $5 charge appear on the bill? Isn't this a form of slamming?

It is not slamming if you invoice the SIM card out at $5 at the time of the sale. It doesn't appear on their Cingular bill because it is an equipment purchase...just like an accessory.

Posted by: StattlichPassat

Yeah, I work for an Agent. For the sake of throwing information around on the open Internet, I won't say who and will take this task into my own hands to try and deal with it myself very soon. I don't think COR locations have this kind of flexibility, but Agents or third party dealers with their own invoicing systems can come up with all kinds of fun stuff like this to increase revenue. It's really terrible.

The fee shows up as 'PROGRAMMING FEE ...... $5.00' in the middle of the invoice, usually between the phone, activation ZA discounts on an upgrade and the SIM card ICCID line. It's hidden pretty well, and can easily be adjusted to any amount.

They also want us to do the Roadside and Voice Dial on everything we can get away with as well, but they don't enforce it, so I don't do it. Wouldn't do it anyway, and why? Yeah, it's just going to get charged back within 3 months anyway, then piss the customer off. Any customer that goes through me gets no surprises, whatsoever- I point out anything and everything that could be and even remind all of the activation/upgrade fee that they'll legitimately receive from Cingular on their next bill, just in case they aren't aware. I'll take the heat from management and call them on their actions if it comes down to that, but I'm a customer too. And I'll treat them the way I would want to be treated.

Posted by: Canadian Maniac

Quote:

Originally Posted by StattlichPassat

Yeah, I work for an Agent. For the sake of throwing information around on the open Internet, I won't say who and will take this task into my own hands to try and deal with it myself very soon. I don't think COR locations have this kind of flexibility, but Agents or third party dealers with their own invoicing systems can come up with all kinds of fun stuff like this to increase revenue. It's really terrible.

The fee shows up as 'PROGRAMMING FEE ...... $5.00' in the middle of the invoice, usually between the phone, activation ZA discounts on an upgrade and the SIM card ICCID line. It's hidden pretty well, and can easily be adjusted to any amount.

They also want us to do the Roadside and Voice Dial on everything we can get away with as well, but they don't enforce it, so I don't do it. Wouldn't do it anyway, and why? Yeah, it's just going to get charged back within 3 months anyway, then piss the customer off. Any customer that goes through me gets no surprises, whatsoever- I point out anything and everything that could be and even remind all of the activation/upgrade fee that they'll legitimately receive from Cingular on their next bill, just in case they aren't aware. I'll take the heat from management and call them on their actions if it comes down to that, but I'm a customer too. And I'll treat them the way I would want to be treated.

So you work for an admittedly shady agent and you've created threads about care reps? Oh, the irony.

Posted by: StattlichPassat

Irony? I don't see your point. This has nothing to do with another thread I posted.

Posted by: stevOh

We charge $5 for transfering contacts using our UME Machine (but thats understandable because the machine is very expensive. We give sim cards away unless they have been damaged by user error. Then we charge $5 but it used to be $35.

Posted by: Canadian Maniac

Quote:

Originally Posted by StattlichPassat

Irony? I don't see your point. This has nothing to do with another thread I posted.

Then let me break it down for you, we constantly get calls concerning Roadside Assistance and Voice Dial that was added to a customer's account unbeknownst to them. So the aggravation goes both ways.

Posted by: StattlichPassat

Quote:

Originally Posted by Canadian Maniac

Then let me break it down for you, we constantly get calls concerning Roadside Assistance and Voice Dial that was added to a customer's account unbeknownst to them. So the aggravation goes both ways.

But I don't do that. You still have yet to make any sense.

We charge $25 for SIM cards, though if it's an obvious defect, I replace them for free.

Posted by: Cingular13

Quote:

Originally Posted by StattlichPassat

Irony? I don't see your point. This has nothing to do with another thread I posted.

This has nothing to do with any other post. I understand that you are doing your job and trying to be as fair as possible. Your job is your life (money to pay the bills) but it is nice to hear that you will only do what you think is reasonable. I think that you are being "lumped in" with the "somewhat shady" people who you work for which is not fair.

Posted by: sheila627

Charging a customer for a sim or your own activation or upgrade fee is not illegal

That being said i used to work for a cor store and i quite to open my own store my own money ......

Just fyi we pay $280 for the razer and if they activate on a add a line and we sell for the $149 corp store price we LOOSE money Not make money so as agents we have to add additional fees sometimes to make up

I don't do any of the things mentioned However READING THE POST i'm thinking i should..

I refuse to loose money If its a loosing prop i will just send them to another store or walmart OH YES WALMART

Posted by: cingman66

Just fyi we pay $280 for the razer and if they activate on a add a line and we sell for the $149 corp store price we LOOSE money Not make money so as agents we have to add additional fees sometimes to make up

I don't do any of the things mentioned However READING THE POST i'm thinking i should..

I refuse to loose money If its a loosing prop i will just send them to another store or walmart OH YES WALMART[/QUOTE]

Pet peeve: It's LOSING, not LOOSING.