T-Mobile rep warns customers about what is going on in his store
A social media post from a T-Mobile rep was made to warn customers about shady behavior taking place in his store.
T-Mobile rep spills the beans about bad behavior in his store | Image by PhoneArena
A T-Mobile rep is warning the carrier's customers about how certain employees are violating the company's policies by tricking them into applying for a T-Mobile branded Capital One VISA. You might recall that we've written about reps who have tricked customers walking into T-Mobile stores, both COR and TPR, into submitting applications for the credit card without their consent.
Who would have thought that credit card applications would be an important metric for a T-Mobile rep
In those situations that we wrote about, the reps involved tricked these T-Mobile subscribers because the volume of credit card applications submitted is a performance goal. It is one of the metrics that Mobile Experts (another name for reps at T-Mobile) must meet or else they could lose their bonuses and even their jobs.
T-Mobile pushes its reps to get subscribers to apply for the T-Mobile VISA card. | Image by T-Mobile
A Reddit subscriber with the username "lilsqueezysqueeze" posted that his store has joined the "sad list of locations" that is "handling VISA entirely outside of policy and guidelines in order to prevent documented conversations and write ups."
T-Mobile customers had credit card applications submitted for them without knowing
He has witnessed several reps helping customers fill out an application for a T-Mobile VISA card without informing them exactly what they are filling out and affixing their signatures to. The rep gives an example of a customer coming into the T-Mobile store to upgrade his phone. The rep will tell the customer to fill out these forms to get started, and send them the link for the VISA application.
My suggestion would be either stop counting it as a metric, since it cost the company zero dollars and they make $200 in revenue every time (aka, be happy anyone is buying it at all) or just trash the thing. It will bring a whole new stack of issues when people default on the card payments. You KNOW they will come yell at us before Capital One every time. Is everybody just too afraid to actually tell the higher ups how bad of a product it is? I’ve noticed that T-Mobile encourages “transparency” but if you call them out for their faults (or try to kindly explain to a higher up who has never been on the front line) why an idea won’t work, you get punished for it.
lilsqueezysqueeze, Reddit subscriber and T-Mobile rep.
Comparing the intelligence of the customers in his store to the feeble-minded townspeople from the television show Parks and Recreation, the rep goes on to say that these customers do what they are told and fill out the application. They do not understand, nor do they know, that they are having their credit run in order to obtain a new card that they didn't ask to apply for.
T-Mobile CEO Srini Gopalan has a history with Capital One
The rep says that keeping track of credit card applications submitted is a "dumb metric." What does this have to do with selling mobile devices and accessories? But as this T-Mobile employee points out, new T-Mobile CEO Srini Gopalan came from Capital One, the bank that is behind the T-Mobile card, which might have something to do with this seriously ridiculous metric.
Which "Big 3" carrier will be first to get rid of metrics to measure reps' performances?
Now folks, I want you to check this out. The T-Mobile rep says that he was told by his managers that if a customer does figure out what is going on and says, "I don’t want my credit card" or "I don’t want to run my credit today," he is supposed to tell them, "Well let’s just do it anyways for fun!"
The rep says that there are problems with T-Mobile that go beyond the VISA card. T-Life is also mentioned in the T-Mobile employee's social media post along with the same day DoorDash delivery of devices purchased. This salesman says that T-Mobile wants all of the reps to be positive about these new products but pointing out a flaw is frowned upon.
The same rep had a great line when he wrote, "Oh please if a lawyer spent 10 minutes in a T-Mobile store, they’d have information enough to own the company." He goes on to say that T-Mobile is loose and open with customer information.
Other reps are beginning to ask questions
This rep has recently spoken with his "teammates" about all of the things that concern him about T-Mobile, and he says that it's beginning to register with them. He writes that they are "starting to scratch their heads and ask the 'why' questions too."
Personally, I just can't understand why this isn't a bigger deal. Part of the problem is that the C-suite has to know what is going on and yet it is not addressed. The reps who do report what is going on are allegedly getting punished and this could be keeping T-Mobile employees from talking to their managers. But there is another issue and that is that some of these managers are also involved in the wrongdoing.
Eventually, the full truth of what is going on and how pervasive all of this is might get out. But right now, the powers that be either don't know, know but don't care, or don't want to know what is going on.
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