Some wireless sales pros admit to “Cramming” and lying to customers at the behest of their managers،
A huge thread on
Reddit contains posts from current and former sellers who work or have worked for wireless service providers and their authorized retailers. Some of them admit to having lied to customers to encourage them to add a new line when there was no need to benefit from a promotion on a phone. This practice is called Cramming and it is typically used to improve a seller's or store's metrics, and would often be done at the request of a store manager.
An employee of an AT&T authorized retailer wrote this on Reddit: “ATT Authorized Retail Employee here. I [have] I have been with the company for over a year and I can say without reservation that ATT is in the scam business! My manager actively encourages us to lie to customers about needing to add a “promotion needed” line to “refresh account” and “activate new promotions” so customers can get their trade-in credits for any trade-in. Obviously this is a deceptive tactic, but is this considered fraud? »
Cramming is often carried out by a salesperson under the direction of their manager
The message continues: “He forces us to make these wild claims and berates us if we don't! Obviously, it's to inflate commissions (we became #1 in the district thanks to this deception tactic). Do I have a basis for further legal action? I don't feel safe at work because many customers come back and want to fight us in our store!! All because of my manager. I would need to help here because I don't want to lose my job but I don't want to work in an unsafe environment, plus I refuse to move.”
Most, but not all, of the alleged wrongdoing was allegedly committed by a wireless company's authorized retailers.
Other editors quickly passed on their stories. “I worked for an authorized retailer almost 8 years ago and they made us do this to get our numbers or we were fired. I left too.” Another post said: “They will fire you if you don't meet sales quotas, that's what they will do…so there is a gray area and a loophole. I saw a manager in my district bouncing from one store to another because he was “snapping” customers.” the accounts then leave in 3-4 months to avoid customers.”
Other illegal acts were mentioned in these messages, including the practice of SIM card swapping. Usually, this scam requires an inside person who can order a new SIM card for an existing subscriber, but have it mailed to the criminal's address. When the scammer inserts the SIM card into his phone, he asks for new passwords for financial applications and since he has the customer's “new SIM card” in his phone, he receives the codes necessary to verify his identity. allowing you to change passwords.
Check out this article: “The AR (Authorized Retailer) I worked for discovered that the district manager was involved in fraud with my store manager. They were doing Sim trades and allowing people full access to other people's phones. The week I had “We hired, we brought in 4 Secret Service guys to do an investigation. It was crazy. We met about 4 store managers in the 3 months I worked there, crazy experience.”
Not all of the messages concerned suspected fraud at authorized retailers, as some came from people working at a store run by the company. In addition to Cramming and SIM Swaps, some sellers claim to have been pressured to add services, such as insurance coverage, that the customer had not requested.
“I was personally fired after being threatened in the back where the phones are stored that if I didn't comply they would pressure people to put water wipe protection on their devices and was selling cleaning rags I would be fired. I reported this to HR. and was let go the next day after they claimed while I wasn't there that I was missing, citing three people, again on a day I wasn't there. It was Verizon though but I fully support the idea of sticking it to the AR stores because I feel they commit fraud and rip people off every day .”
Check your wireless bills for services, phones and lines you didn't order
The AT&T Authorized Seller whose post started the thread and this article also explained the mindset of the managers of these stores. He wrote: “Yes, actually, I have been chastised in the past for being 'too helpful' (I swear to God). We get a lot of older people who come in with boring but simple technical questions, and we are told NOT to fix their problem on their phone, but to accept that it is “broken” and sell them a new one. I have also been told that we are not “technical support “, we “simply sell phones and services”.
The truth is that salespeople who want to “clean up” the company risk being fired if they complain to their superiors. The U.S. government's USA.Gov website suggests that “If you have problems with your telephone company's products, services, or billing, start by contacting the telephone company directly.” » If this does not resolve the problem,
click on this link to find the consumer protection office in your state to contact. Or you can contact the FCC by
by clicking on this link.
You should review your wireless bills and check for phones, lines and services that you did not order. If you see something you don't remember asking for, call the carrier's headquarters immediately.
