GA got a day off out of it, because the area where she works is subject to flooding, and even though it didn't actually flood this time, when it does flood it causes some major problems, traffic wise.
So we stayed home, and decided to use the day to pack up the two Sprint phones we had to return to that brilliantly staffed organization.
You see, she is provided this Blackberry by her employers, who also provide her data services via the Sprint people. And the opportunity arose to allow the employees to add phone service to their Blackberry devices. Great idea. So we figured it was time to switch from AT&T to Sprint for the sake of efficiency.
So they assign this guy to facilitate all these new Sprint customers in their new phone service, and I asked him to recommend a phone for me. I told him I didn't want data, really, but let's get me a good phone. He recommended the Instinct™ and I had to agree it looked like a really cool phone. It has a touch screen, a virtual qwerty keyboard, and other features for the 21st century.
He said that I was almost certain to decide that I wanted the data plan with it, because it is such a cool phone with the data plan. I sort of thought he might be right, and according to what he said, I could add the data later if I wanted for only $30 a month. Awesome!
So after discussing it with him, we decided to go with the $99 a month plan, which included two phones, and the third phone (for my in-laws, who wouldn't otherwise bother with a cell phone) for an additional $10.
And it is a Cool Phone. I loved that phone. But when we got the first bill, they wanted me to send them $228 and some coins. Wm's heart stops for a few beats. Wm is Scottish. That means cheap.
So I called billing, to discuss the matter calmly. I told the nice lady that this wasn't acceptable, and why. She explained that the Instinct™ has to have the data plan. It can't be phone only. So the only way they could give me what I asked for was to sign me up for three separate plans: a phone for Ga, and a phone for me, and a phone for the in-laws. None of this share talk stuff for an extra $10 a month - three separate plans!
So I made her understand that this was not good at all, and that what I was told I could have was the one plan with two extra lines, plus data for one phone, mine. Oh, no, we can't do that. It has to be phone & text for all, or data for all.
"But that's not what the rep said."
"I can't help what he said. It has to be done this way."
Well, I didn't want to pay for data for my in-laws - shoot, I can barely get them to use the cell phone, and they only want to know how to answer it and make calls - but I really liked the Instinct™ and everything. So I guess I could...
So now GA finds out something that makes things really complicated. She can't have the data plan for her Blackberry, because it will conflict with the data service provided by her employer. So now we have a problem: she can't have data, and I have to have it, on the same plan. Now remember, it's only a policy that prevents them from adding data to one phone - it is NOT a technical issue.
I spent 90 minutes arguing with this bimbo about my problem, trying to make it clear that what she was telling me made it impossible to do business with them. So finally, with the phone getting very hot on my ear, GA and I decided that going with Sprint was a horrible mistake. I asked to be transferred to somebody who could cancel our account.
And this person says, sweetly, "Why didn't they just offer you the data on your Instinct™ only?" I explained that this was exactly what I had been asking for for the last 90 minutes, and could we please cancel our account and get instructions for returning the phones. She complied. A week later, we received the return kit, which is a plastic mailer bag and a UPS label, and a sheet of instructions. Now comes our little hurricane, and the resulting day off. We pack up the Instinct™ and the little phone with big buttons we got for the elderly parents. There on the instruction sheet, it says "DO NOT PACK MORE THAN ONE PHONE IN A BAG." But - but - we have two phones and only one bag. I call customer support.
"Oh, you can't mail them to us," she explains, "you have to return them to the store where you bought them. And you have to have the original credit card receipt."
"But I don't know where that store is. We did this through one of your reps, and he brought them to us."
"You have to return them to the store where you bought them."
"But the other person said to mail them in. She sent us this bag."
"I can't help what the other person said. It has to be done this way."
I handed GA the phone so she could get information about where the store was, and it was in downtown Houston, and the hurricane is upon us. Worse, I can't find the receipt.
I called the rep, the original one, and he says that we can take it to any store. It doesn't have to be the same one it came from. And you don't have to have the original credit card receipt. Just the other paperwork.
Another 90 minutes of cell phone air time has gone by.
Off we go, in the rain.
I'm expecting to have more idiocy to deal with, but the guy in the corporate store where we brought the phones says, quietly, "you just need to return two phones for credit? That's all? No problem."
We didn't even have to wait in a line. He was even able to straighten out the billing mess, which hadn't been done, contrary to what we were promised by the billing department. We were only charged for what we were promised would be the cost of the plan we asked for.
The moral of the story is this: if you are a Sprint customer, and if anything goes wrong, go to a corporate store to resolve the problem. The people at tech support are total morons.
Oh, and this: the Instinct™ is a cool phone. Really.
No comments:
Post a Comment