The Laughing Wolf

A Reminder On Consumer Affairs

Be sure that what you have is what you really think you have. Last September, I changed over to T-Mobile service on my cell phone and have generally been happy with it. The coverage area is not nearly as good as some, but the service I have gotten, both general and customer has been fairly good. Until yesterday, that is.

I thought I had signed up for a 5,000 minute plan, based on a very limited time special at the time I signed up. What shows up now, however, is a 1,000 minute plan which has left me extremely unhappy with the bill I just got. With the surgery and everything else that has gone on, I have made good use of my cell phone, and it was more than 1,000 minutes.

My call to T-Mobile Customer Service was not a happy one. I got loads of accurate and factual information, none of it truly germane to the problem at hand, namely the issue of the number of minutes for which I had signed up. The person at the other end also repeated several times that she had never heard of a 5,000 minute plan. Gee, I’ve seen advertising on it in print and on the WWW, and know people on it. All of this together did not give me a warm fuzzy.

So, I went to the T-Mobile office where I had bought the phone and service, but none of the regulars I’ve dealt with were there. So, I ended up dealing with a gentleman I don't really know. He started confused and stayed confused, even asking me for my phone number and such even after I had given him the bill with said information prominently displayed. He did not remember the special, couldn’t find anyone who could or could spare any time for him (they were quite busy), and generally was not able to tell me much of anything. In fact, the best he could do was recommend that I call back customer service and get them to change me to the 5,000 minute plan (the one they never heard of). The only thing he could tell me was that I was signed up for the 1,000 minutes according to the records, but he never could seem to access the original contract, and I say that because he gave me the wrong date for my start of service.

Somewhere, I do have the original contract but I have a growing suspicion that I was either signed up for the 1,000 minute plan (and didn’t catch it) or that I agreed to change down to the 1,000 minute plan and that my memory has been faulty from the start. Given my memory, this is a distinct possibility.

Either way, I am going to be stuck with a large bill, and customer service that has left me very cold. This is not what I am used to getting, and I do expect better of them. I also expect better of me, and plan to make triple sure of any cell phone contract I take in the future.

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