Pat’s post about his horror story with Vodafone reminded me about a post I wanted to write about AT&T. It’s one that may spare many business people who are customers frustration and be a benefit to them. The same applies to Verizon here in the USA.
Qualify to be a business customers as soon as you can.
Why? For starters you get a dedicated and local account rep. Second, the reps know the ins and outs of the system. Third, you get earlier cracks at the better devices and most of all, you don’t have to stand in line.
But most of all, you save money. That’s right. Unlike consumer deals you can usually take better advantage of bundling plans and also get the kind of service where the rep says “you know, judging by your usage pattern…” you end up saving a goodly amount each month.
Here’s an example. My AT&T corporate rep cut my monthly bill overall by $1200 a year and increased my minutes by a thousand minutes a month? How? He realized that some retail rep put one of my data cards on the wrong plan and that my two separate accounts when combined put me into a better bucket overall with AT&T.
Same with a past experience with Verizon where we have two data cards and one phone.
Bottom line. If you’re a business person, and can qualify, then the business account will end up saving you hours of consumer frustration, as the time you save will make you money.
Also, hat tip to Pat Phelan for spotting the cranky Mr. Geddes and his continual disdain for T-Mobile’s crappy customer service. Ironically here in the USA they tend to be better….
Excellent post, and completely true. I am registered as a business user with AT&T, as well, from a previous employment, and the difference in regular CS and business CS alone is worth it.
I have a grandfathered MEdiaWorks package that can’t be beat by any carrier currently, and a ‘smart’ little rep in a store decided to flip it (change it to the current package so he could get commission for doing nothing) several times (he’s also now unemployed) and AT&T’s business care didn’t ask me to explain or prove anything or hassle about. They immediately looked at my past bills, put the right feature back on my account, and apologized profusely, even though it obviously wasn’t their fault directly.