Rant VII: Now With 25% Less Drama

[strawman]

That's lousy.

Well, I'd cancel anyway. The cancellation fee is probably less than two months of the new payment, so even if you can't fight them you will still get a better deal cancelling now and moving on than sticking with them.

But I think you can fight it. Demand the paperwork, original bill, or phone record of your agreement and point out the flaws. If you're using a credit card to pay for it, call the credit card company, tell them the problem, and indicate that you want to issue a chargeback. See if they have buyer protection against unscrupulous sellers.

It's certainly an amount worth fighting over.

 

[Enresshou]

Yeah; we were just notified that not only will they budge on $110, but we will be required to pay $200 per line (so $400 total) to cancel our contract. I've demanded the original phone recording of our chat with the agent who initially promised us our plan, and informed them that we will be seeking legal recourse if they don't drop the cancellation fee.

Absolutely ridiculous. They admit we entered into a legally binding agreement with them based on false information, and are not lifting a finger to help.

 

[Gared]

Ahh yes... the standard T-Mobile business plan. Sell your customers something, change the contract after the 30 day period is up, tell the customer to go fuck themselves assuming that they will instead keep service with you in lieu of paying the contract cancellation fee. Find a new sucker. Rinse. Repeat.

And that's the thing that gets me the most about T-Mobile and other companies like them. I don't mind paying what I sign up to pay, even if I can get lower prices elsewhere while I'm locked into a contract. I don't mind paying fees if I actually owe the fees. What I hate is when they pull this shit with their customers, time and time again, every year. They get called out for it by their customers, by consumer advocacy groups, by the BBB, they (very occasionally) apologize and say they won't do it again, take their slap on the wrist fine, and a few months later when the uproar has calmed down, they're at it again. Yet there are thousands of people out there who honestly believe that regulation is hurting companies and preventing them from hiring more workers. Regulation of this sort of an issue isn't hurting the companies that don't engage in this type of bullshit, why should we drop regulation so one company can continue to screw people over instead of just running their business appropriately and still making a tidy profit? (That's a rhetorical question, I know the real issue isn't that they want to drop regulation because it's hurting honest companies.)

Sorry you got hit by it too Enresshou. As much as I hate AT&T for their crappy service areas and customer service, they've yet to pull that particular trick on me and T-mobile did (and tried to do it a second time, which I got out of only because I moved to a part of the country where they had no towers and no retailers), so I'm back with AT&T.

 

[LittleSin]

When I worked for Sprint we were told "Tell them whatever they want to hear to get them to stay. Lie if you have to. By the time they figure it out it will be too late."

My husband got fired from there for telling a customer that the previous rep lied and he was better off moving to another company.

I quit shortly after. All call centres I have worked at are like that. They make you dirty.

 

[Gared]

When I worked for Sprint we were told "Tell them whatever they want to hear to get them to stay. Lie if you have to. By the time they figure it out it will be too late."

My husband got fired from there for telling a customer that the previous rep lied and he was better off moving to another company.

I quit shortly after. All call centres I have worked at are like that. They make you dirty.

Yep, I very briefly had a job working for AOL (well, for a telemarketing conglomerate that contracted for AOL), where my job was to lie, cheat, steal, and schmooze customers out of cancelling their accounts. They had a whole lot of reasons why we couldn't cancel someone's account even if we could confirm that they were who they said they were (like for instance, if they put down false information during the account creation). We got paid based on how many accounts we "saved" from cancellation (flat rate of minimum wage plus commission). Luckily, I haven't had to work at any other company that operated like that. I've had some crappy customer service/call center jobs, but never any other jobs where we were required to lie or cheat.

 

[makare]

Im so glad I don't work for the cell phone side of the call center I work for.

The main goal is to keep people customers when they get off the phone and sometimes I do lie. The other day I commented on it and everyone made lawyer jokes. Well, assholes at least the lying lawyers are the BAD ONES not the ones doing what is expected. But really the lies I tell are never very big ones they are mostly about things we can't otherwise explain just to ease the customers mind. We never lie to them about anything that would cost them money. Hehe I am not supposed to tell random people who I work for so i wont but one of the continual lies we tell is telling them we have the power to do something that the machine actually does on its own. We just dont want them to do it on their own because if we arent involved it WILL screw the customers. But every time I tell them im going to do this thing they all act like it is magic. It cracks me up each time.

 

[sixpackshaker]

When I did a short stint at call center it was for handset support. I did not have to lie to them to keep them happy. That was from a contractor for Verizon.

 

[Terrik]

ARGH MY HAND. I fell coming out of the shower and slashed my hand on the metal toliet paper holder. Blood on the wall, the ceiling, the toliet...oooooooooooooh that hurts.

 

[GasBandit]

I was also phone support for a short while, for K-Mart's erstwhile dial-up ISP "Bluelight.com." Often when the problem was a known engineering issue on bluelight's end, we were told to never tell the customer that, to just lead them around the rigamarole of uninstalling and reinstalling drivers, rebooting, rebuilding the stack, uninstalling and reinstalling IE, etc... and hopefully that'd take long enough so that the real problem was actually fixed by then.

The t-mobile story though has me wondering about their "unlimited talk, text and data - no contract - $50 a month" ad.

 

[Piotyr]

There are plenty aspects of my life that I keep hidden from my parents/friends/whoever I decide doesn't need to know it. But my telling my parents I was an atheist was the only way I could get it so that I did not have to attend church (at least without moving away). My dad is a pastor and he expects us kids to go to his church and so he knows every time I didn't show and if I stopped coming it would have come out anyways. So I figured being upfront and honest about it would be better than just stopping going and than having them call me and chew me out for not going and have it all come out anyways.

So you'll give this a month to settle before you have the bronie talk with them?

 

[Hylian]

So you'll give this a month to settle before you have the bronie talk with them?

They already know about my pony obsession.

When my dad found out he just kinda shook his head and didn't say much else. Luckily I have converted my brothers into bronies so that helps me not look quite as insane in their eyes on that particular matter.

 

[Shegokigo]

So yeah, I'm starting to cave to a really bad idea. After becoming a social pariah and hiding myself away from society (outside of work) I haven't really had time to "make a connection" so to speak. It's been longer than I normally care to go.

So what's the bad idea? Well, I've had this customer who's been coming to see me alot. She's cute, very much my type (Very short hair, blonde, smart etc) but not so much personality wise (sports fan, not into nerdom at all, etc). She's a licensed massuse who works literally 30ft away in a plaza next to my bank. She runs a one woman boutique where you can get the full spa treatment (aroma therapy, massage, tea, foot soak etc) and she keeps asking me when I'm going to make an appointment with her. Not one to assume a come-on so quickly some things are adding up in that direction. Good and bad.

She's offered me a free hour appointment, "So I can see how it is". Which she has offered a few times. No big deal, she's obviously offered it to everyone in the bank right? Nope. Just me. Can she get help on her accounts from any of the other 5 reps here? Yep. Does she? Nope. (Maybe she just prefers having one person working on her account, I can buy that). She's also never asked me any personal questions about my relationship status/orientation etc. However I'm sure I've come off flirty at times and if I'm not wrong, she's done the same.

So what's the big deal? Why hasn't Shego already gone over there and attempted to hit that? She's 8yrs younger than me. Oh and she brought her mother in, to be added to her business account, and her mother all but asked me "Do you want to date my daughter?". Ughhhhhh. I just need some release, not a 3yr relationship with someone who just barely became legal to drink.....

 

[sixpackshaker]

Who knows how it will end up....

 

[GasBandit]

Hey you never know, she could be "the one."

Snrk...

Psf...

Heh heh.. ok, couldn't keep a straight face.

 

[HCGLNS]

Do the Mom first.

 

[ElJuski]

I mean, it's not like you could just get your release and break the girl's heart.

THATS THE JUSKI WAY!

 

[Necronic]

A connection requires both a male and a female adapter. I found this out after trying to hook up a molex adapter that had two male ends.

Just saying.

 

[Shegokigo]

I mean, it's not like you could just get your release and break the girl's heart.

THATS THE JUSKI WAY!

I've had plenty of my own "hit it and quit it" situations, knowing that they wanted more than that, which didn't bother me in the least. However, she's a business customer who I work the files for. Granted another rep COULD handle it, 9x out of 10 I'll be the one to field any calls on the account as I've dealt with it the most.

 

[Terrik]

A connection requires both a male and a female adapter. I found this out after trying to hook up a molex adapter that had two male ends.

Just saying.

 

[sixpackshaker]

I've had plenty of my own "hit it and quit it" situations, knowing that they wanted more than that, which didn't bother me in the least. However, she's a business customer who I work the files for. Granted another rep COULD handle it, 9x out of 10 I'll be the one to field any calls on the account as I've dealt with it the most.

Yep, no sex where she gets her checks.

 

[tegid]

We have a saying in Spanish: 'Donde tengas la olla, no metas la polla', which is a gross way of saying 'dont put your dick where you have your pot/stew'. Of course it doesn't really apply, but you get what I mean...
Added at: 22:56
Exactly what sixpack said

 

[Gusto]

Don't dip your pen in the company vagina.

 

[ElJuski]

Actually, and in all honesty, take it from personal experience: having sex with a coworker only leads to destruction. (I want my goddamn Undeclared DVDs back)

 

[Hailey Knight]

I've had plenty of my own "hit it and quit it" situations, knowing that they wanted more than that, which didn't bother me in the least. However, she's a business customer who I work the files for. Granted another rep COULD handle it, 9x out of 10 I'll be the one to field any calls on the account as I've dealt with it the most.

With the whole business aspect--don't go there, even if it sounds enticing.

 

[Shegokigo]

Ugggghhhh I know, it's why I didn't bite sooner. The mother thing pushed me even more away from the idea.

 

[Piotyr]

The latest job assurance my wife had fell through...again. This now marks 8 months since she's gotten her NP degree, and four jobs now that have been interviewed for, offered, and accepted, and yet somehow have fallen through.

On top of that, yesterday afternoon, my brother walked into my office and said that he and his wife of 6 months are getting a divorce, he instigated it because he decided they weren't compatible, and he didn't understand why she was being "so dramatic" about things. He also doesn't want advice, and doesn't think he should've gotten married in the first place, so he just sees it as fixing a mistake he shouldn't have made. They were together for 8 years before getting married, and lasted 6 months. He asked what I thought, and I told him I was, frankly, pretty disappointed in the whole thing.

 

[Dave]

Here we go. His infection is back and his breathing is very shallow. It's a matter of time now. I'm not leaving the hospital. Kerri is bringing my clothes and some food.

 

[Piotyr]

Hang in there, Dave. I hope you and your family can find peace.

 

[Hailey Knight]

I'm sorry, Dave.

 

[Hylian]

 

[Wahad]

Well, I just came back from the hospital after calling the ambulance for my grandfather (I lived with him) in the middle of the night. He's passed away. I'm tired as fuck but I can't sleep yet. So I'm having a drink on him.

 

[Dave]

Well, I just came back from the hospital after calling the ambulance for my grandfather (I lived with him) in the middle of the night. He's passed away. I'm tired as fuck but I can't sleep yet. So I'm having a drink on him.

Hugs from me, dude. This sucks.

 

[Dave]

Man, this deathwatch sucks. Noon yesterday his temp was 98.5 degrees. It then spiked in a matter of hours to 102.3. Put a bunch of cold compresses on him and it went up to 102.7 until finally starting to drop. They just now took his temp again and it's 98.2. Haven't slept yet because his breathing is really shallow and I don't want to miss it if he slips away. Kerri will be coming to take my place in a few hours and then I'll go home to sleep a bit.

But for now he's turned his back on death's door - we think. It's still a matter of time but it's probably not tonight.

Probably. And the rollercoaster goes up...

 

[evilmike]

I'm not sure if this link will be of any help (http://www.amitabhahospice.org/public/helpful_info/signs_of_dying.php), but it's similar to the information they gave us when my Mom passed away.

 

[Wahad]

At least I have the blessing that my grandfather died relatively quickly. Reading Dave's posts makes me shudder to think what could have happened. You have my thoughts, man. Hang in there.