CURSE THE TOWERS!!!!

CURSE THE TOWERS I SAY! Curse them all. no, actually just curse #130!

Many of you reading the blog are not in the lethbridge area, so I will fill you in. Virgin Mobile does not actually have any of their own towers, but use Telus and Bell towers for the service. This means that we have excellent network coverage, but it also means that we have the same troubles if a tower is not working correctly. Back in November, tower 130 mis-programed to be a Calgary tower instead of a Lethbridge tower. So, if you hit this tower, you got charged long distance. Some people hit this tower every once in a while, so not a big deal. Reimburse them 30 cents per minute that they hit that tower. Other people seem to hit that tower every single time they make a call. At 30 cents per minute for long distance, that adds up to be a hefty sum that they are putting in and having to be reimbursed. You have no idea the headache it causes for us, our customer care call center, and our technicians, let alone the customers!

So this is what is going on. Some people are very nice about it, accept the fact that they have to get reimbursed every once in a while, and are patiently waiting for a fix. Other people, are not so nice. They get mad at us (where we can't personally do anything about it. To deal with anything other then simple questions, we have to call customer care ourselves!) They demand it to be fixed this second, or they demand all the money that they have put into it back. I can refund a purchase of the phone itself (provided it was in thirty days, they have the packaging and a receipt), but I can not refund top up cards. Every receipt I print out says that. When I tell them this, sometimes they get madder and walk away without anything being resolved, or they tell me to cancel their phone right then (again, it takes a call to customer service).

This is the life of in retail sales, and most people are very nice (even when it was your mistake) in how they treat you. This is fundamental in dealing with customer service agents or jobs. The nicer you treat me, the better the experience will be for both of us, even if the outcome is not what you wanted. When you get mad at me, don't listen or things like that, I will still show you the same level as respect as I do with everyone, but the dealings will be less pleasant. I can say sorry for what I can't do, I can tell you what I CAN do, but if you are mad at me for that, it reduces what I can do even further, as they do not want to hear anything but what they want. If a customer is very nice and polite, I can sometimes slightly bend a rule or two, as long as I get it cleared. I never break the rules mind you, such as I can't do a refund with out a receipt or do a refund for a top up, but I might take back a phone with out the packaging, as long as all the components are there. The chances of that happening when you are mad at me are not very good. That may be a double standard for me, but if you are willing to work with me a little, I am very willing to work with you.

So when you have a problem and have to deal with someone in Customer Service, remember that we try to do the best job we can, but are sometimes very limited in what we can do for you. By being polite to us, we even sometimes try to bend a little for you. For you are the customer, and while you may never ALWAYS be right, you are important to us. If you are reasonable in your requests, often a solution can be found.

Even though there are those days when customers are mad at me, I do enjoy my work, and I enjoy the interaction that I have with customers. I think that my people skills are fairly good. I can always do better of course, but I believe it is the personal interaction that I get that makes this job enjoyable.

Baby On the Way

Mike and I just found out that we are going to have a baby. I am currently about 6 weeks. Some of the first clues were when I started getting nauseous with pretty much any kind of food except fruit. Strong smells, especially onions and garlic were the worst. Mike and I went to the store to buy a bunch of fruit. We bought apples, oranges, grapes, bananas and kiwi. On the way home I had a banana and felt so emotional about eating a banana that it made me cry. That is when I knew, at the very least. that my hormones were out of whack. I talked to a girl at church who said that she had just found out that she was six weeks pregnant. She encouraged me to take a test. Mike brought one home on Monday after work and the next morning I tested. The result was a definite positive. I was so excited that I had to take a moment before I could manage to hold a straight face. I asked mike what he thought the result was, he said " I don't know" slowly trying to read my face. I showed him the test and my control broke, I am sure I was beaming. Mike said "Chelseeeey!" overwhelmed with so many different emotions at once. He has started talking to my stomach and I love it. I am excited to see him experiencing the first few moments of being a daddy. He is going to be a great dad.
We are still planning to go ahead with our plans of teaching and studying in china. That means that our baby will be born in China just 4 1/2 months after we get there. We want to fly my mom over to Beijing so that she can be there for the birth of her first grandchild. My mother-in-law knows a lady whose relative is living in china and gave birth there so she gave me her email address. I have so many questions for her.
I am already so in love with this baby of ours. I am so excited to meet him or her.