The Ordeal of Giving

Wireless carriers think their products make great gifts. But have you made it easy for customers to purchase your products and services as gifts? Let's see what some CSRs said about the procedures involved in giving the gift of cellular.

U.S. Cellular Total Hold Time: 2 minutes

Transfers/IVR Layers: 3

CSR: Customer relations. This is (name). How may I assist you?

WR: I wanted to buy a cellular phone and six months of service for my nephew. How do I do that?

CSR: You would just have to go into the retail store. They would do a credit check, just to determine whether you would require a deposit or not. You can either go to one of the agent stores, or you can go into the U.S. Cellular retail stores. Where are you located?

WR: I'm located in Kansas City, MO. He's in Des Moines, IA.

CSR: You probably want to go into Des Moines and find a U.S. Cellular retail store there. That way, if he has to go in for any reason, it'll be closer for him.

WR: I'm only going to get six months of service for him. I imagine he would transfer the account over into his name later. That's what the complication is for me.

CSR: That's called a subscriber transfer, and we would switch the information over to his name. Or you can do it with a prepaid service.

WR: I've heard that costs more.

CSR: It's a lot more if you don't have a regular account. With a regular account, you purchase the minutes per month. You get a lot more extra perks also.

Unicel Total Hold Time: 0

Transfers/IVR Layers: 1

CSR: Good morning. This is (name). How may I help you?

WR: I want to buy a cellular phone and six months of service for my daughter. How do I do that?

CSR: Our service is with a year contract, unfortunately. Would your daughter be able to pay for the other six months?

WR: I would imagine so.

CSR: You could come into any of our retail locations, and we'll put up our activation. You would need to have a credit check done, or you would need to bring her in and have a credit check run on her so that we'd be able to set up the account.

WR: I wanted it to be a surprise. Is there a way that I can do it in my name and after six months transfer the account to her name?

CSR: We can do that, but she would need to have a credit check run on her name at that point. Or, we can leave the account under your name, leave her as the user and have the bill mailed to her. But you would still be responsible.

WR: Also, she and I live in two different states. I'm in Missouri, and she's in Maine.

CSR: Oh. That would be hard. I guess the best thing would be maybe a prepaid service. But other than that, you wouldn't have any way of knowing if she got behind (in payments) unless you called in each month. How old is she?

WR: She's 20.

CSR: How's her credit?

WR: I really don't know.

CSR: After the six months, she can have credit run, and, at that point, she can take over the account. But if she has real bad credit or where's she's under 20 and she has excellent credit, she might just need to pay a month in advance for her usage. But if she's already been on six months, I don't see a hard spot there. But if she came in with a lower credit (rating), then they'd have to put a security deposit on the account.

Farmer Cellular Total Hold Time: 2 minutes

Transfers/IVR Layers: 1

CSR: This is (name).

WR: How would I go about buying my son a cellular phone and six months of service?

CSR: Are you just wanting it for six months?

WR: No. He'll probably take over the payments after that.

CSR: The phones start out at $10 with a 1-year contract, and the rate plan is $25 a month with 100 minutes.

WR: How would he transfer it over to his name after six months?

CSR: He could come in and do that.

WR: Can I set up the account via telephone? I'm in Missouri and he's in Mobile, AL.

CSR: No. You'd have to come in and sign the contract.