Tonight's Episode: Sales people! or The Saga of Blackberry

[azleaneo.livejournal.com]

So we are porting a buncha blackberries (got a 'free' BES in the deal to switch too) Some have gone smooth, some have required me to hang up on the port reps. Tech support has been awesome, but when Company A hasn't given Company B the correct account info the port doesn't go smooth and we have to call corporate port department who are snobs and talk to us like everything is our fault. (Rep told my boss that boss gave rep wrong PIN, rep had misheard a number and snapped at my boss like it was boss's fault.)

The one that I hung up on personally was talking down to me. I was trying to give her the correct account info, like they had called and requested, and she kept telling me that the port won't complete until later that afternoon. Finally, she told me that she *had* the new account information (my boss was handling things by email while I was making the call) and that I would have to wait for the port to complete. So I was snappy at her and said, so you have the information that I've been trying to give you for 10 minutes, and I have to wait for the port? She said yes and I just hung up.

Well, the star of today, was a super special offsite sales person who we just ported a new Company B Blackberry this morning. I did two ports this morning, both went smooth and happy. Got them in an overnight shipping box and sent them to their respective junkies. Not twenty minutes later I get a call.

Recp: I have Sales Lady on the phone for you!
Me: Kk, put her through. *tranfer* Hi SL, your new blackberry is on its way you should be getting it tomorrow! The port went smoothly.
SL: Oh. (disapointed sound?) Well, that's all good, but I was calling because my old (Company A) blackberry isn't working anymore.
Me: (Internalized cry of despair) SL, that's because we ported your phone to the new blackberry and it turns the old one off.
SL: Oh. So this one doesn't work anymore?
Me: No, you will get your new one tomorrow.
End call after polite get the hell off my phone.

Me faking panic: Hey boss, SL just called and said her old blackberry isn't working!
Boss: Ugh, I emailed her twice before the port to explain everything.

Sales people drive me nuts with their lack of intellegence and ability to retain information. People actually want to do business with my company after talking to these people?
Hopefully everything goes smooth with the last few ports we have to do. The Owner of the company doesn't want to go a whole day without his BB, and the look on his face was priceless when he asked how long it would take. I said, if it goes smooth, a couple of hours, if it goes like SalesGuy, it will take a couple days. Owner: -.-

Comments

[major-error.livejournal.com]

Ah, the crackberry. Giving ADHD-sufferers their fix (since what, 2004?)

[mattcaron.livejournal.com]

We always used to call them RIMJobs...

[mouser.livejournal.com]

RIMerror jobs, with their tendancy to fail for NO reason. I thought I was done with them, then an executive "needed" one.

Thankfully, I don't have to run a BES.

[azleaneo.livejournal.com]

Are they difficult? My boss is handling it now, and the only problem we've seemed to encounter (so far) is the one person who had a company B blackberry before the BES was on the internet management and transferring it to the BES wasn't easy.

[mouser.livejournal.com]

They are not hard to run. They simpley die occassionally for no apparent reason. Make sure they sync them on a daily basis.


I'll stick to my normal cell phone.

[blkrabbitofinle.livejournal.com]

We have no problems with ours, but we run it on Lotus Domino.

[azleaneo.livejournal.com]

There's nothing like seeing grown men near tears when they can't figure out how to use the new little scrollball. I had one sales rep ask for their old BB, so I started to hand it to him with a half smirk, here, but it doesn't work. He moped away.

Priceless.

[ravenshrinkery.livejournal.com]

I've found that the most effective salespeople (read: make the most money) actually know the least of anyone in the organization. The custodians know more about what really goes on (hell, in many places they know more than executives). If you train them well and keep them from actually knowing what it is they're selling or anything else for that matter, they'll work like trained monkeys and blindly follow leadership to sales goals.

Of course, dealing with all of their mistakes is support's job, not theirs.

[ptstech.livejournal.com]

We just got a request to order a new one for a marketing droid because "she liked the look of the new ones." GROOOOOOAAAANNNNNN.

It's their budget, but bloody hell woman!

[redswami.livejournal.com]

So this is actual curiosity and genuinely not meant to sound snide or anything: what's the reason the ports occur before the phone arrives? I know if I got a call saying "hey, you can't have your new work-related device yet but we won't let you use your old one anymore" I'd want an explanation for why that is. I mean, it's probably in the stuff your boss emailed, I'm just curious about it.

[yanni85.livejournal.com]

Because the port requires some work on the device itself so they have to set it up in the office and ship it out to a remote user. It's something that one could probably walk the user through doing but really, walking users through ANYTHING on a phone is a huge pain in the ass and I hate doing it. Double that for salespeople, partially because I don't like working with them (the "sales" personality rubs me the wrong way and I've had to clean up too many messes they've created) and partially because they tend to be some of the worst at dealing with technology.

Having it in office means you can set it up correctly and make sure it is working rather than have to troubleshoot over the phone.

[azleaneo.livejournal.com]

You explained this much nicer than I would have.

[zzyzx.livejournal.com]

If I have to deal with one more request for a BlackBerry Curve, I will scream. OUR. PROVIDER. DOES. NOT. HAVE. THEM. YET. You may have a 8703e or a Pearl. Or the people who want to swap a Pearl for an 8703e because the keyboard is too small. *twitches*