I've been a Death Star (see the logo) customer since February 2006. It is now December 2011. You would think that I'd get great customer service from them, but even one of their automated systems kicked me out plus told me to go to a retail store. I've been a bit annoyed, very understatedly.
Hubby and I both have an iPhone 3GS. Over 75 minutes, I attempted the hell to communicate with AT&T about transferring from the 550 minute a month plan (since we never use our minutes) to the 10 cent a minute paygo plan while keeping our data services. I've heard this is possible from the interweb plus from 3 of the reps I talked with today, even though this possibility is nowhere to be found on the AT&T website. This should be easy to accomplish, yes?
No. Not only no, but a booming resounding HELL NO all Moses and Ten Commandments and lightning from the top of Mount Olympus style.
The first call went well until there was no option to get to a customer service representative on the GoPhone side. I got booted out of the system because my wireless number wasn't in their system and because I did not have documentation needed for activating a new phone.
The second call sucked major ass because I could barely hear the person on the other line. (I actually giggled about calling about a phone issue while being on a line with horrid quality. I now know this was wrong. Giggling was soon replaced by thoughts of beheading and smiting, especially after many fake and obligatory apologies.) I was transferred to someone who could allegedly better help me, but that person was also difficult to hear, and ended up giving me the 800 number to the first person.
The third call was answered by a very friendly and helpful lady. She was genuinely apologetic and gave me two good numbers to call. Yay!
The fourth call ended with the same result as the first call, so I tried the second number given by Helpful Lady.
The fifth call featured me lying about having documentation and/or SIM cards and/or I don't know what else, just to try to get to a person on the GoPhone side. The automated system told me I'd have to go to an AT&T retail store and speak with someone there.
Seriously? The automated phone wench didn't have a human serviceperson to boot me to at all??
Have I mentioned that it feels so barbaric to use a land line and have to dial 1 before the 800??
The sixth call was answered by someone who sounded like Denzel. He was extremely helpful and knew exactly where I needed to be in the phone labyrinth. He also mentioned (unlike the other reps) that hubby's phone is actually still under contract and wouldn't be up until April. Well, alrightie then.
Denzel hooked me up with someone who was freaking incredible to talk with. (Benjamin Prius, I hope I didn't mangle the spelling of your last name. Mad props to you sir, and I hope you get lovely snow this weekend in Lubbock!) Apparently the iPhone is an exception to the GoPhone rules and doesn't count as a regular smartphone. Balls. After some chatting and some amazement on his part since he could see that I'd talked with a few people within the hour, he hooked me up with some better rates on plans not normally offered. The upshot is that we'll save $20 a month, which will help since we're planning to move across town in two months (aah!). I'd hoped to save $60 a month with getting the 10 cent a minute plan for both of us, but oh well. At least I tried and something good happened out of the ordeal.
Maybe in April when hubby's contract is up, we'll look at paygo again, but the iPhone 5 should be hitting about then (or news about it, anyway), so we'll see. Technically we could go paygo now, but I'd have to buy a different smartphone and he'd have to get a new phone too plus fork up the early termination fee. No thanks. We're both happy with our 3GS phones and use our computers way more for computery things anyway, but I'd still love a better phone cam. I could get that now with the 4S on a new contract but I'll wait. I'll be busy packing and jobbing and job looking and crashing so I might as well wait.
In other news for today, I'm still frustrated at not having my personal website finished. I'm streamlining the holiday card list and putting everything together for mailing. I finally got my certificate of creditable coverage from UHC so added that to my BCBSTX certificate and faxed them to Cigna today. Now they'll pay several of my doctors for working my pre-existing conditions plus pay for labwork (well, when I call everyone back with the all clear to refile the claims). It's been so annoying at trying to get this from UHC since like, oh, June. Of course, while cleaning while packing last night, I found the original one they sent to me in April in an unopened envelope, so that's very much a my bad and I feel utterly stupid for not realizing I've had it all this time!! I'm a day late for making sure our tags are registered but am glad there's a 5 day grace period. I was hoping to have already been to the local Tom Thumb (to do the tag thing) and be back home by now. I haven't even showered yet! Gah, it's 3:45 pm and I haven't even eaten lunch yet. I suppose I should do that next.
We got deathstar, we got deathstar....
Hubby and I both have an iPhone 3GS. Over 75 minutes, I attempted the hell to communicate with AT&T about transferring from the 550 minute a month plan (since we never use our minutes) to the 10 cent a minute paygo plan while keeping our data services. I've heard this is possible from the interweb plus from 3 of the reps I talked with today, even though this possibility is nowhere to be found on the AT&T website. This should be easy to accomplish, yes?
No. Not only no, but a booming resounding HELL NO all Moses and Ten Commandments and lightning from the top of Mount Olympus style.
The first call went well until there was no option to get to a customer service representative on the GoPhone side. I got booted out of the system because my wireless number wasn't in their system and because I did not have documentation needed for activating a new phone.
The second call sucked major ass because I could barely hear the person on the other line. (I actually giggled about calling about a phone issue while being on a line with horrid quality. I now know this was wrong. Giggling was soon replaced by thoughts of beheading and smiting, especially after many fake and obligatory apologies.) I was transferred to someone who could allegedly better help me, but that person was also difficult to hear, and ended up giving me the 800 number to the first person.
The third call was answered by a very friendly and helpful lady. She was genuinely apologetic and gave me two good numbers to call. Yay!
The fourth call ended with the same result as the first call, so I tried the second number given by Helpful Lady.
The fifth call featured me lying about having documentation and/or SIM cards and/or I don't know what else, just to try to get to a person on the GoPhone side. The automated system told me I'd have to go to an AT&T retail store and speak with someone there.
Seriously? The automated phone wench didn't have a human serviceperson to boot me to at all??
Have I mentioned that it feels so barbaric to use a land line and have to dial 1 before the 800??
The sixth call was answered by someone who sounded like Denzel. He was extremely helpful and knew exactly where I needed to be in the phone labyrinth. He also mentioned (unlike the other reps) that hubby's phone is actually still under contract and wouldn't be up until April. Well, alrightie then.
Denzel hooked me up with someone who was freaking incredible to talk with. (Benjamin Prius, I hope I didn't mangle the spelling of your last name. Mad props to you sir, and I hope you get lovely snow this weekend in Lubbock!) Apparently the iPhone is an exception to the GoPhone rules and doesn't count as a regular smartphone. Balls. After some chatting and some amazement on his part since he could see that I'd talked with a few people within the hour, he hooked me up with some better rates on plans not normally offered. The upshot is that we'll save $20 a month, which will help since we're planning to move across town in two months (aah!). I'd hoped to save $60 a month with getting the 10 cent a minute plan for both of us, but oh well. At least I tried and something good happened out of the ordeal.
Maybe in April when hubby's contract is up, we'll look at paygo again, but the iPhone 5 should be hitting about then (or news about it, anyway), so we'll see. Technically we could go paygo now, but I'd have to buy a different smartphone and he'd have to get a new phone too plus fork up the early termination fee. No thanks. We're both happy with our 3GS phones and use our computers way more for computery things anyway, but I'd still love a better phone cam. I could get that now with the 4S on a new contract but I'll wait. I'll be busy packing and jobbing and job looking and crashing so I might as well wait.
In other news for today, I'm still frustrated at not having my personal website finished. I'm streamlining the holiday card list and putting everything together for mailing. I finally got my certificate of creditable coverage from UHC so added that to my BCBSTX certificate and faxed them to Cigna today. Now they'll pay several of my doctors for working my pre-existing conditions plus pay for labwork (well, when I call everyone back with the all clear to refile the claims). It's been so annoying at trying to get this from UHC since like, oh, June. Of course, while cleaning while packing last night, I found the original one they sent to me in April in an unopened envelope, so that's very much a my bad and I feel utterly stupid for not realizing I've had it all this time!! I'm a day late for making sure our tags are registered but am glad there's a 5 day grace period. I was hoping to have already been to the local Tom Thumb (to do the tag thing) and be back home by now. I haven't even showered yet! Gah, it's 3:45 pm and I haven't even eaten lunch yet. I suppose I should do that next.
We got deathstar, we got deathstar....
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