T-immobile
The story starts nine months ago, on my first arrival to the United States. From the start I knew I have to get myself a cellphone and thus I have bought an iPAQ and a T-mobile prepaid SIM card. However, the SIM card was sold without the PIN code required to make changes to the account. This was not a problem for me, as I could still use the phone and add minutes.
Three months ago, I decided that I will spend more than a total of $100 in a year and thus I could load up to a $100 immediately and get extra benefits: 15% more minutes, and the minutes expire only after a year. Assured of my new “gold” status, I did not buy any more refill cards.
And then, suddenly, yesterday I discovered that my balance of more than $50 became 0. I called customer service and they explained that the 1-year expiration applies after the NEXT refill after I qualify for gold, but she agreed to credit my $50 back. All she needed was to confirm my identity with the PIN I did not have. She said I will have to identify myself at a T-Mobile location and get a new PIN before I could get my minutes back.
As I neeed to make a call right away, I added $10, immediately losing 35 cents for not buying the card as Safeway, and decided I’d go to a T-mobile location the next day. At the T-mobile location, I asked to confirm my account, but they said that my ID must match the name on the account. After several minutes of asking for help, I asked them to check whether or not my name is on the account. It turns out it was, and new PIN was assigned. Now all I had to do was call customer service and have them credit my minutes.
Well, in case any more problems will arise, I decided to call customer service from the T-mobile store. After a short wait, the rep told me that they cannot credit my account since more than 48 hours have passed since the balance expired. I asked to speak with a manager, they complied, leaving me on hold for at least 30 minutes. While on hold, I called them back from my cell phone and got the same reply from two additional reps, asked to talk to the manager, and got disconnected, and then tried again.
After more than 30 minutes of waiting, the final rep managed to get their supervisor to credit my account. An amazing waste of time and money for just $50 that were rightfully mine. Once I deplete my balance I will seriously consider switching to another provider.
T-mobile and the color Magenta are registered trademarks of Deutsche Telekom.
Syndicated 2008-06-20 02:31:49 from Alon's Blog