New bold methods from Swisscom customer service

As an IT professional, I have been dealing with Swisscom on a regular basis for many years and could therefore unfortunately fill volumes full of absurd stories about shocking incompetence and brazen rip-offs by Swisscom. But I don’t want to rehash old stories here, I’d rather go into detail about a recent customer service contact in which two new (to me) dubious tricks were used. My affected customer has recently been experiencing an unusual phenomenon (in addition to regular Internet outages) that I have never had before, but which could be diagnostically traced back with a high degree of certainty to a malfunction of the (notoriously unstable) Centro Grande router. So I contacted the Swisscom hotline, not because I assumed that the problem could be solved, but rather to be able to organize a replacement device for the customer after the usual harassment (reset orgy, etc.). At least the first part of my expectations was of course completely fulfilled: Due to a lack of IT knowledge, the hotline employee was only able to classify the problem with difficulty and then went on to the expected router reset orgy. (Needless to say, that didn’t help. But at least she didn’t want to do five resets in a row. I’ve had troublemakers like that on the hotline too…)

What happened next surprised and shocked me: Instead of negotiating for a replacement device, the Swisscom customer service representative referred me to the telephone number of the paid “Swisscom MyService”, where I could be helped for a paltry 160 per hour. Unfortunately, she doesn’t know that much herself (at least: self-knowledge), but the experts at “MyService” come out much better than she does. You have to let it all sink in: the free support for Swisscom problems refers me to an expensive support hotline to solve a Swisscom problem of this kind, the actual purpose of which would be to solve problems that are not Swisscom problems. problems are. And that after I had already made the diagnosis. So here’s a double mistake:

1. The problem is passed on from the actually responsible Swisscom support to a non-responsible but expensive alternative location (whose revenue would then coincidentally flow into Swisscom’s coffers.)

  1. The referral to the paid MyService would undoubtedly have led to nothing, since the hotliners there cannot teleport a non-defective router to the customer. (But a little more time would probably have been wasted, then after everything I’ve experienced with Swisscom so far, I highly doubt that there is anyone working at “MyService” who can make a better diagnosis than me. Rather, it would be probably turned into an expensive embarrassment, as we know well enough from Swisscom’s technician visits). But that’s not enough. At the end of our conversation, the customer service representative really wanted to know the customer’s email address. I pointed out to her that this had little diagnostic relevance, but she insisted. I was to find out why a short time later. A few minutes later, “purely by chance” a message landed on this same email address, according to which Swisscom had discovered that the customer was still using an “outdated router” and that they were recommending it for better stability to change to the new IB2. There is a “loyalty offer” for him where he can get the IB2 at a discount. AHA… that’s the other new scam from Swisscom (in addition to the dishonest reference to a paid hotline):

When talking to the customer’s IT specialist on the hotline, you don’t want to know anything about a replacement device, but at the same time you send the customer an email to sell them a new router. Here, disguised as a “random loyalty offer”, an attempt is made to get the desperate customer to buy his spare part himself. Presumably in the hope that the question would not arise as to whether it would be honest if Swisscom replaced its faulty compulsory router with a new compulsory router free of charge. Seriously Swisscom… I haven’t really expected anything good from you for a long time, but you manage to surprise me negatively on a regular basis.

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What is the problem now when the warranty for the Centro Grande has expired and the Internet-Box 2 can be purchased for Fr. 99.00?

We customers here in the community have long known that support doesn’t always run 100% smoothly and should certainly be improved, but it’s certainly not always the norm.

There are also a lot of positive things that unfortunately aren’t published as much as the negative ones.

[https://supportcommunity.swisscom.ch/t5/Diskussionen-%C3%BCber-weitere/ihre-Meinung-ist-uns-important/m-p/495807#M6 470)

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Installationen, Netzwerk, Internet, Computertechnik, OS Windows, Apple und Linux.

I think @cslu is more about the incompetence of customer service than the router:smileyvery-happy:

You can’t lump all customer service employees in the same pot per se

Tschamic

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Thanks for your answers.

First of all, I have to say something about the router warranty. (Of course, I knew that would come first.)

The Swisscom routers are in fact forced routers (even if this has at best loosened somewhat in the last few weeks). They are given (or sold) to customers by Swisscom when the contract is concluded as a package with the Internet subscription and are a prerequisite for the Internet subscription to be able to be used at all. For me, a functioning router is an integral part of the subscription that the customer pays month after month.

The Swisscom argument that such a device has a ‘guarantee period’ that can expire and after which the subscription customer has to purchase a replacement device for a fee in the event of a defect seems to me to be obviously absurd and anti-customer.

I’m not aware of anything like this from any other major provider. For everyone it is a given that you provide the customer with the router that the customer absolutely needs in order to be able to use the services for which he is paying.

But let’s leave these obvious things behind us and accept that, according to Swisscom’s opinion, it is actually the case that in the event of a router defect, the customer has to buy a replacement router from Swisscom at his own expense:

Does this change anything about the problem I have described here? No!

In fact, the customer service representative never admitted/said to me that the Centro Grande could actually be defective and that the customer could/must buy a replacement device.

Rather, she superficially insisted that it was a problem that I had to contact the paid “Swisscom MyService” to solve, but in the background, bypassing me, she directly sent the customer an email disguised as a loyalty offer , with the content that he should buy a new router - but not because his old router was defective, but because it was ‘already a bit old’.

She could have simply said to me: OK, your customer now has to buy a replacement device.

But it didn’t - probably because Swisscom knows exactly how angry something like this is for customers!

Rather, she used a pretext to get the customer’s email address out of me, without even indicating in the slightest that she was using it to send this cover email directly to them.

I.e. WalterB and Dani (CH) your objections miss the point.

My goal from the start was to organize an IB2 for the customer (barring the unlikely event that customer service had another solution in store for the problem).

But instead of simply saying “Yes, the CB is probably defective” and simply sending the customer a replacement device (free of charge would be appropriate, paying for it would be indecent but, from experience, “acceptable”) they played lousy games and, in a completely absurd way, tried to stop us a 160.-/h hotline and then “quite accidentally” sell the necessary replacement device behind the scenes.

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@cslu I don’t think the hotline’s seemingly decreasing competence is okay either. But I can’t say whether that’s actually the case. My few contacts with the hotline have been okay so far.

I was a little amused by your story about the Centro Grande. As far as I know, Swisscom has a lot to do with this router being taken out of service. Over a year ago (!), my neighbor’s router was replaced with the Internet Box standard. Without prior prodding from the customer, and free of charge. Why shouldn’t this work in the case you described?

If you don’t get along with the customer service representative, you’ll just have to say goodbye and call again until you get someone who can meet your needs. Apparently some people do that now.

There are also people at the other end of the telephone lines who are capable of learning. You called with a clear goal (in my opinion, quite achievable), so talk to people about it directly and don’t let them fall into the trap when it becomes clear that they don’t understand. Looking for Easter eggs can also be understood by the other side as “playing bad games”; and believe me, you usually notice something like that very quickly…

Thomas

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Yes, I find it a bit special as @cslu also noticed.

Of course, 99.- is still a better offer than 299 Stutz.

But these customers often installed the routers in the trust and on the instructions of Swisscom, as they do not support third-party routers.

This legendary support ends where a reset via the hotline does not help. After that my service can start 🙂

Or here in the forum you become aware of it and the problem is solved by specialists, otherwise it could give a bad impression if everyone is allowed to read it…

I don’t want to say anything more and I’m probably not allowed to say anything more. But there is even something called a “bad firmware” offer. Hey Bad Firmware!!!! 🙂 From a router that was imposed, er recommended, by Swisscom. Even then, the customer can still pay something. Well, it’s not 99.- anymore…

The letters in which the customer is informed that their router is not the latest generation and cannot use the full performance of the connection are also quite funny.

You can do an upgrade for 99.-, although due to the change in technology in Access, a free, enforced, er recommended, access device is your right or even obligation. Proverb 7390 and vectoring.

And once you have paid the 99 francs for your device, you have to install a beta firmware, er beta of the beta on the beta of the black build, so that NORMAL router functions work as you would expect from Swisscom.

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6 days later

Because it’s so “beautiful” is just another experience from today:

I was at a customer’s house to take care of a few things. Then she asked me to set up her new landline phone as well; she couldn’t do that.

The reason for this was quickly found: She was sold a new “HD Phone Nyon” in the Swisscom shop, but her Centro Business (1) has no DECT interface and therefore cannot be used with the Nyon.

Well, you might say, a typical little mistake that is the rule and not the exception in Swisscom shops. But it gets even better:

The customer then told me that she actually didn’t want the Nyon for various reasons.

She was told in the Swisscom shop that there was no other landline phone other than the Nyon, that it was the only new phone available that still worked on the Swisscom network! That’s why she took it with gritted teeth. Puppy cake! (I then went to an InterDiscount two doors down and was able to choose from a selection of around 20 landline telephones for the customer, none of which exist according to Swisscom :p)

Okay, you’ll say… a typical little mistake and a typical little lie, as they are the rule and not the exception in Swisscom shops. But - hold on - it gets EVEN better:

I asked the customer why she actually came up with the idea of ​​buying a new phone in the first place.

She explained to me that her old phone no longer worked and that’s why she took it to the Swisscom shop to have it checked to see what was wrong with it.

In such cases, the batteries are typically flat, especially if the phone is a few years old and the customer has never changed the batteries.

So did they check this in the Swisscom shop before selling her a new phone?

No, says the customer. The shop employee briefly opened the cover, looked into the battery compartment (without removing the batteries!) and then told her that the batteries were OK, so something else on the phone must be broken. That was the whole diagnosis.

With respect, but if someone believes that they can reliably describe the condition of the batteries as “okay” just by looking into the battery compartment, then they are either completely incompetent or - which I think is more likely based on countless experiences with the Swisscom shop in Lucerne - simply a blatant liar who wanted to sell the customer a new phone.

Because I’ve really had plenty of cases like this. For example, x cases in which customers with small software errors on their iPhones and Androids marched into the Swisscom shop, where they were told that the device was irreparably defective and that they should buy a new one.

I’ve had several cases in which a device that was supposedly “irreparably defective” (in each case it was a software error) worked normally again after a simple restart.

You can begin to ask yourself whether this is simply institutionalized failure or whether this is already moving towards organized mass fraud.

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@cslu

wrote:

You can begin to ask yourself whether this is simply institutionalized failure or whether this is already moving towards organized mass fraud.

Before you unpack the big fraud and conspiracy club here, it wouldn’t have been bad if you, as a so-called IT professional, had informed yourself a little.

Why does your customer have a Centro Business?

If you have a business subscription, Nyon would be suitable. Of course it has to be the Centro Business 2 for the Nyon to work. With the InOne SME subscriptions, it is the only wireless phone offered by Swisscom.

Are you looking:

https://www.swisscom.ch/de/business/kmu/zubehoer/fixednetwork-accessories_new.html?category=fixTelephones_SME&sortCriteria=popularity&contractDuration=24&segment=RES#tab%5Bselected%5D=0

I don’t believe that the SC Shop people intentionally want to cheat, as dictated by Swisscom, as you allege. You are probably overwhelmed by the many possible variants, subscriptions and devices. Every 2-3 years everything is changed, renamed and put together differently anyway.

The shop people probably don’t have to deal with business subscription customers every day.

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@compa

Sorry, but you must be living in some strange parallel world if you really mean what you write.

The facts are:

1. The Swisscom employee sold the customer a phone that she cannot use with her router. Point.

2. The Swisscom employee could and should have checked at any time in his customer database what kind of router the customer had if he sold her a phone that did not work with all routers. But he didn’t do it - or didn’t do it correctly. Point.

3. Any theoretical fantasies about what would work with a Centro Business 2.0 don’t matter to the customer as long as the customer doesn’t have a Centro Business 2.0. Point.

(Furthermore, the customer cannot know anything about this compatibility story, since logically she neither knows which router she has exactly nor that the Superduper HD Phone only works with a router that she does not have.

And to the question “Why does the customer have a Centro Business” - why shouldn’t she have one? As far as I know, she received it from SC at the end of 2014 when she moved to the new office. Met all the requirements for her small office, there was never a reason to replace it. Didn’t Swisscom deliver the thing itself until recently?)

4. If Swisscom actually no longer has a phone on offer that works with the Swisscom router that the customer has (as I said, not that long ago!), then Swisscom has to tell the customer to go elsewhere Get a phone instead of selling her a phone that doesn’t fit and claiming that it is the only phone that still works with the Swisscom network anyway. Point.

5. In this case, there would probably have been another alternative to the approach described in point 4: simply telling the customer to buy new batteries for her existing phone.

It really baffles me how there is anything to gloss over about it. Furthermore, it is completely puzzling to me to what extent I should have informed myself about anything that I only became aware of after the damage had been done. Or do you mean that if I click on your link, a Centro Business 2.0 will suddenly magically materialize in the customer’s office?:smileysurprised:

Besides, I didn’t assume anything. I just notice that almost without exception cases of failure come to me from the Swisscom shop in Lucerne and I find that a little noticeable, especially since this “failure” usually results in an unnecessary transfer of money from a customer to Swisscom. Everyone can create their own “conspiracy theories” out of it.

By the way, I can only see your explanation about the oh-so-overwhelmed SC shop employees as plausible to a limited extent. Realistically speaking, the area of ​​knowledge and the innovation rate of an SC shoppler only make up a small percentage (if at all) of what our people have to do in all-round IT support. Nevertheless, it only happens once every few years that we have to take back unsuitable goods - and in these rare cases it is always the case that the lack of fit was due to us previously receiving incorrect information from the supplier or manufacturer received the product.

We would also never come up with the idea of ​​describing devices that are obviously not defective as defective, just so that we can sell new devices instead. These are probably simple principles of human decency and serious business management.

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Each SC Shop has its own team and its own boss.

The fact that they can vary in terms of service quality to customers is probably part of human nature.

However, the fact that poor quality or “selling things like hell” should be institutionalized certainly does not correspond to reality.

As a counter-example to the aforementioned SC Shop Lucerne (which I don’t know myself), I would like to mention the Swisscom Shop Uster.

A nice young salesman recently replaced a defective SIM card on my Nokia N8 without any problems, praised me for the sustainability of my 7-year-old cell phone - and made absolutely no attempt to convince me that such an old cell phone was definitely defective must be, or that something new would definitely be much better…

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Hobby-Nerd ohne wirtschaftliche Abhängigkeiten zur Swisscom

@cslu

Tell us what positive experiences you had at Swisscom, it might also be worth a post.

:smiley-very-happy:

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Installationen, Netzwerk, Internet, Computertechnik, OS Windows, Apple und Linux.

@WalterB

In the last 10 years? Not much. That’s it…

Of course, every now and then there is something that just works (for example, a new connection where the line is actually connected on the announced date). But to be honest, I think something like this is a given and should happen in 99+% of cases. I won’t start a thread here if it actually works in two out of 5 cases.

If my (hypothetical) twelve-year-old stopped shitting his pants, then I wouldn’t praise him for it every day. I just assume that a twelve-year-old doesn’t shit his pants anymore. On the other hand, I would be worried and investigate the matter if he was still wetting his pants regularly at twelve…

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9 days later

The Internetbox2 is the worst device ever offered. Ideally suitable as a space heater. And why should customers buy new devices? They all have a contract with Swisscom! If the contractually agreed functions do not work, Swisscom has to fix it and replace defective devices free of charge.

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@Rico1 wrote:

The Internetbox2 is the worst device ever offered. Ideally suitable as a space heater. And why should customers buy new devices? They all have a contract with Swisscom! If the contractually agreed functions do not work, Swisscom has to fix it and replace defective devices free of charge.

I still can’t understand the statement about IB2. Compared to previous devices - especially the notorious Centros - the thing doesn’t make a bad impression so far. (But of course, next to a Centro Grande, every 25 franc Taiwan router looks like a marvel of technology anyway 😉)

However, I can agree with the rest of the post.

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@cslu

Hello dear topic starter,

thank you for this inexhaustible source of the SC’s ‘incompetences’.

I can now also publish a few pages about it… but the SC doesn’t pay the author’s salary.

What makes me (as a professional colleague in another business) quite ANGRY:

The costs that are charged for IP telephone calls. These are (perceived) in the

increased recently (due to product change concealment) - although, due to

the multiple use of existing infrastructure - this actually decreases significantly

would have to.

Brooding…..

best regards

RDC

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