Welcome to Thursday’s Coffee Hour. Help yourself to the goodies. This is an open topic thread so jump in and let us know what you want to talk about. What I’m talking about today is the lack of Customer Service in Big Business and not taking “no” for an answer. Follow me through the squiggle for my story.
I have been a T-Mobile customer for over 11 years. I originally went with them because of good service and that they put my Mom in my local calling area even though I lived in Illinois at the time before moving to Indiana where Mom was. Their Customer Service had always been there in case of questions and took action the few times we had a problem.
I live on Social Security. It is all I have. I am less then a month away from the poverty level. With C.O.P.D. and severe arthritis I can no longer work. I am trying very hard to get the art business up and running so I can get some money in. Every penny counts. Last month I called T-Mobile and cancelled the insurance and warranty on the headset I never use. $7.95 a month keeps my cats in cat food for the month. This month I got my bill and there was a charge for $3.20. I know many of you think $3.20 isn’t much but it means I can buy a couple more cans of food to get me through the month. For me it is a big deal. I called T-Mobile and got someone from a call center that obviously was not in this country. He explained that it was prorated for the time I had it in January. I explained that this was never disclosed to me and I wanted it off my bill. He tried to get his Supervisor to help but the Supervisor refused. I tried on line again to day and got a bitch of a Supervisor from the Philippines. She could not deviate from her “script.”
I was not at my best since last night one of the cans of food I was putting away fell out of the cabinet and struck the bone of the outside of my right wrist. I was in intense pain from my fingertips to my shoulder. I had 2 hours of sleep because of the pain. The wrist is swollen and extremely sore. I have no health insurance and nowhere I can go to get the wrist looked at.
I made one more attempt to call T-Mobile and by some miracle got Shane who was in this country. By this time I was in tears of frustration and pain. The first words out of his mouth after I explained the situation was “I will credit the $3.20” and he has. He apologized for my treatment at the hands of Customer Service and told me he valued me as a customer. It was all I was asking for was to be treated like a human being with concerns.
My cell phone is my only phone and I have a package that allows me on the Internet and has GPS on it. I need this phone because I am still not done going up to Indiana to get the house ready to sell. Shane is the only reason I’m not looking for a new cellular provider today. He remembered what Customer Service was all about. He threw the script away and dealt with me as a human being to a human being. You have to stand up to big business and let them know that you have rights too. If they had only explained to me from the start that I was canceling in the middle of the month and prorated charges would be due I would have understood and paid it.
$3.20 is going towards tonight’s dinner. For me it is a big deal. More important someone actually listened to me and understood what I was saying and why I was upset.