Okay, so last month I changed my cell phone plan to include more “anytime minutes” because I realized that 500 was not going to be enough. It was in the middle of my billing cycle, so I called the customer service for, let’s call them… Shrint DPS. The VERY VERY nice and cordial lady on the other end informed me that she was changing my plan over to a plan including 800 anytime minutes, and I recited back to her my verbal agreement for this to take effect. It was recorded. During this recording, she informed me very specifically:
I had her repeat that later in the conversation to verify it, just to make sure.
So, I noticed on my last bill that I was charged for 763 minutes. Fine. Except that I was charged for 500 minutes, and an additional 263 over-age minutes. Not cool.
So, on the 2nd of this month, I called up customer service and spoke with another bright, nice young lady named Amanda. I explained to her that I was misinformed about my ability to use up to 800 minutes immediately, and she told me that it was a common occurance for this sort of mistake to happen. After being on hold for about 10 minutes while she “consulted her supervisor,” Amanda informed me that she was going to immediately credit back 263 minutes (or rather, $105.20) to my account. I thanked her and hung up.
A couple days pass, and I check my bill online to make sure what’s done is done. Err…well, it hasn’t shown up yet. I’ll give them a call back to make sure.
So I called back, and spoke with a different lady. She told me that a representative had credited me with $10.00 on the 2nd. I explained the situation to her, and she was sympathetic. She couldn’t do anything since another rep had initiated the matter, so she e-mailed Amanda to call me back to discuss what the problem was. This was on the… 9th?
Flash forward to 20 minutes ago. I feel like Amanda has had ample time to return my call, so I call Customer Support back. I speak with Vivian, to whom I explain the situation once more… Vivian tells me “you were told, sir, twice that we were not going to credit this back to you.” Because that’s what the comments on my account say.
WHAT???
I tell her there must be some mistake and ask to speak with her supervisor. Bad idea. “Michael” comes on the line about 10 minutes later, identifying himself as a supervisor. I explain to Michael the situation, but all he can do is reply with “Sir, there will be no adjustment to your account.” I inquire about the fact that “all calls are monitored for quality assurance” and that he can go have a listen to verify that this representative indeed told me she was crediting me. Michael explains that calls ARE recorded for quality assurance… yes, I know. “Then there appears to be a lack of quality here, so I’d like to request that those records be examined.”
Apparently no one asks that recorded conversations be listened to, because now he gets stupid. “Sir… those recordings are to verify quality control.” …WHERE is the quality in being told one thing by one person, and another thing by the next??
I’ve had enough arguing. I was promised that IMMEDIATE action was being taken (so far as having her say “Okay, I entered the credit info and your account is updating right now… is there anything else I can help you with?” before I hung up on our initial call) and now I’m being told “suck it up, you were told one thing, but that doesn’t matter”. WTF?
I got Michael’s name and employee ID number. His tone was demeaning, and he spoke to me as if I was lying to him (“sir, you were TOLD this TWICE”, “no, sir, we’re not wrong, you must be mistaken”, even up to “you know what you were told, and so do we”). His manager is gonna get a phone call from me, and a friend of mine suggested I call the BBB, too. We’ll see.
Fucking… ugh. ASSHOLES.
