So, I've been using a particular pre-pay service for awhile now, and except for my discovery that it doesn't work at all in the state of Michigan (meh, rare that I go there anyway), I've been pretty happy with it. Get the whole "unlimited everything" for $40 per month (though, I do have a limit on fast data, but it's not really tight). No contract. Everything's been fine.
Needed up pay again, so I did so on Friday, and received a confirmation in the form of a "welcome back" text, same as always. Later that night, went to make a call - account was suspended. Checked around on their site, but since I've been paying through a 3rd party, I don't have an account. Figured maybe the payment just hadn't fully processed yet since I'd waited until the last day to pay (as I usually do; I haven't been able to determine if it counts the time properly otherwise).
Got up Saturday - still suspended. But the message that tells me so redirects to a payment line. Went through that a few times, hoping to have some chance to talk to a person, but no - it's just a completely automated payment line. So I checked their site again. Made sure I didn't have an account attached to any of my email addresses. When to the "first-time login" thing then, had no trouble entering my phone. Next page asks for my security pin (well I don't have an account, so I never set one) or the zip code where I activated my phone (I move a lot, and this was technically my second activation with them, so hell if I know!). Fine, I'll try - or I would, if the freaking submit button worked.
So I wait for Mist to get home so I can use his phone to call the company. Call, get taken through the usual "turn it off and on" thing, and then service dude tells me to put the SIM card in a different phone. I explain to him the problem with that: their cards only work in phones that are either unlocked or (some) T-mobile phones. Mist has Sprint. One of my other housemates uses AT&T. The third, I don't remember, and he's hard to grab anyway. In any case, I was using the ONLY other phone that I knew I'd have access to for the rest of the day, possibly for a few days (yeah, it's hard to keep track of people in this house). And all he can tell me is that they can't provide any more help until I've tested the card in another phone.
I'm not getting anywhere, so I hang up. Mist tries next. Same thing, but the lady he talks to at least thinks to suggest trying a phone retailer, and says they have been partnering up with some. (Necessary, since places that sell phones and plans usually only sell locked.) And, fortunately, turns out that there's one at one of the malls in downtown Portland (we had to figure that part out ourselves, though. So we hop on the train, we get to the shop, and the lady there is actually pretty cool and bothers to explain why the company's making me do this (she doesn't work for them, mind you) - apparently, SIM cards sometimes get just the right damage they they'll still show a perfectly good signal, but they don't pick up that the payment was made. I don't really know how, but okay. Lady pulls out a phone, we test it - same suspended message. She then gives my a card in case the company wants to be able to call for proof that I tried.
We head to the nearest table, Mist calls them up again (yes, my phone is the problem, but he's better at these things), tells them we tested it in another phone, the SIM card is bad. They still want to confirm my identity, so I still need to give them a security code or the zip code where I activated it, or the month and year I activated it (don't know, don't even know which time they mean). Hang up, try going through the site again (they actually told us to). The broken button actually works on his phone. We try all the zip codes I've lived at since I've known him, since it was Mist that first mentioned the company to me. No luck. We try a few things I might have used as a security code, in case maybe I did have some half-dead account I'd forgotten about. Nothing. So we give up for the time and head home to try to figure something else out.
Called again today, this time ask if there's any other way we can confirm my identity. They had mentioned security questions - any that weren't the date of activation? Did they have any kind of address on file they could send something through? Somehow, Mist managed to make some more progress, possibly only because he mentioned that this was the third day we'd been dealing with this. Lady finally says that since their SIM card croaked, I have to go buy a new one. They won't send a replacement, I have to go buy one.
Rather than dealing with shipping time, we head back to that store, ask if they sell the right SIM cards. They do. Ask if they have micro SIMs, since that's what I need - they don't, but they can cut it for me (already expected). For an additional $5 (not so expected). Fine, the shipping prolly would have been about the same anyway. Aside from that fee, the people at the store were, again, pretty cool. I also get the feeling that they've had to calm a lot of people with this company down.
They activated it for me, and I have a working phone again. I'm happy to have a working phone again. I'm just not happy about what it took. But, I have two reasons why I didn't just jump to another company. 1. There's gonna be crap with any company, and I'd like to have use of my phone while figuring out who else I might be willing to deal with. 2. I already paid that $40 and no refunds are offered. But, whenever Mist's contract wraps up (prolly gonna be awhile), we can look into getting a shared plan.
*flops*
Needed up pay again, so I did so on Friday, and received a confirmation in the form of a "welcome back" text, same as always. Later that night, went to make a call - account was suspended. Checked around on their site, but since I've been paying through a 3rd party, I don't have an account. Figured maybe the payment just hadn't fully processed yet since I'd waited until the last day to pay (as I usually do; I haven't been able to determine if it counts the time properly otherwise).
Got up Saturday - still suspended. But the message that tells me so redirects to a payment line. Went through that a few times, hoping to have some chance to talk to a person, but no - it's just a completely automated payment line. So I checked their site again. Made sure I didn't have an account attached to any of my email addresses. When to the "first-time login" thing then, had no trouble entering my phone. Next page asks for my security pin (well I don't have an account, so I never set one) or the zip code where I activated my phone (I move a lot, and this was technically my second activation with them, so hell if I know!). Fine, I'll try - or I would, if the freaking submit button worked.
So I wait for Mist to get home so I can use his phone to call the company. Call, get taken through the usual "turn it off and on" thing, and then service dude tells me to put the SIM card in a different phone. I explain to him the problem with that: their cards only work in phones that are either unlocked or (some) T-mobile phones. Mist has Sprint. One of my other housemates uses AT&T. The third, I don't remember, and he's hard to grab anyway. In any case, I was using the ONLY other phone that I knew I'd have access to for the rest of the day, possibly for a few days (yeah, it's hard to keep track of people in this house). And all he can tell me is that they can't provide any more help until I've tested the card in another phone.
I'm not getting anywhere, so I hang up. Mist tries next. Same thing, but the lady he talks to at least thinks to suggest trying a phone retailer, and says they have been partnering up with some. (Necessary, since places that sell phones and plans usually only sell locked.) And, fortunately, turns out that there's one at one of the malls in downtown Portland (we had to figure that part out ourselves, though. So we hop on the train, we get to the shop, and the lady there is actually pretty cool and bothers to explain why the company's making me do this (she doesn't work for them, mind you) - apparently, SIM cards sometimes get just the right damage they they'll still show a perfectly good signal, but they don't pick up that the payment was made. I don't really know how, but okay. Lady pulls out a phone, we test it - same suspended message. She then gives my a card in case the company wants to be able to call for proof that I tried.
We head to the nearest table, Mist calls them up again (yes, my phone is the problem, but he's better at these things), tells them we tested it in another phone, the SIM card is bad. They still want to confirm my identity, so I still need to give them a security code or the zip code where I activated it, or the month and year I activated it (don't know, don't even know which time they mean). Hang up, try going through the site again (they actually told us to). The broken button actually works on his phone. We try all the zip codes I've lived at since I've known him, since it was Mist that first mentioned the company to me. No luck. We try a few things I might have used as a security code, in case maybe I did have some half-dead account I'd forgotten about. Nothing. So we give up for the time and head home to try to figure something else out.
Called again today, this time ask if there's any other way we can confirm my identity. They had mentioned security questions - any that weren't the date of activation? Did they have any kind of address on file they could send something through? Somehow, Mist managed to make some more progress, possibly only because he mentioned that this was the third day we'd been dealing with this. Lady finally says that since their SIM card croaked, I have to go buy a new one. They won't send a replacement, I have to go buy one.
Rather than dealing with shipping time, we head back to that store, ask if they sell the right SIM cards. They do. Ask if they have micro SIMs, since that's what I need - they don't, but they can cut it for me (already expected). For an additional $5 (not so expected). Fine, the shipping prolly would have been about the same anyway. Aside from that fee, the people at the store were, again, pretty cool. I also get the feeling that they've had to calm a lot of people with this company down.
They activated it for me, and I have a working phone again. I'm happy to have a working phone again. I'm just not happy about what it took. But, I have two reasons why I didn't just jump to another company. 1. There's gonna be crap with any company, and I'd like to have use of my phone while figuring out who else I might be willing to deal with. 2. I already paid that $40 and no refunds are offered. But, whenever Mist's contract wraps up (prolly gonna be awhile), we can look into getting a shared plan.
*flops*
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