14 DAY TRIAL // A recently conducted survey from OneCompare reveals that mobile phone operators are not as qualified as should be and often know very little about their own network's tariffs. The price comparison service called each mobile phone operator 100 times, asking a range of rather usual questions regarding call costs or roaming charges. In over 40 percent of the calls made, OneCompare received inaccurate information.
OneCompare director Anthony Ball said: "Comparing these results with our research last year, Vodafone still remain as one of the providers with the least knowledgeable staff. Alarmingly, O2 had the best phone manner and the third most knowledgeable customer service team last year but are now rated as having the poorest standards when mobile users require assistance."
So why is the information given by the customer service team all that important? Well, most of a wireless carriers' customers will at some point in time need to call for some information they can't get anywhere else or, in quite a few cases, for mobile phone configuration. And obviously, what the customer should receive is accurate information from a person that was trained to do just that, provide that information.
In the case of this study, it looks like O2's customer reps gave out wrong information regarding roaming charges 39 percent of the time. Incorrect information about peak rates and hours was also frequently given. Another survey from OneCompare.com revealed that 49 percent of mobile phone users actually had no idea that they were paying to receive calls when abroad.
Virgin can at the moment take pride in having the most knowledgeable staff, followed by Three and T-Mobile, while customer reps from Orange seem to have the best phone manner and Vodafone's staff will give out the most accurate roaming information.