Friday, November 30, 2007

Sprint F-, Orbitz D

Orbitz
Earlier this year, I booked a flight to Dallas from Milwaukee. Cheap flight, about $180, I was stoked. Then all of a sudden I got a job out in California and had to change the departure to leave from LAX. NEVER do this. It'll cost you at least $100 PLUS the price of the new ticket...it credits the price of the last ticket towards the new one...but still, didn't help much.

When I made the second transaction, I had to switch which card to use. The first card I used was an account I had closed, which was a debit card for the bank account I had in WI. I switched the info to a credit card then made the purchase. The on-line receipt for the purchase STILL HAD THE OLD CARD INFO. So I freaked out and called Orbitz because that account was closed. The woman at Orbitz assured me that it DID in fact charge the purchase to the new card, the site just did not update for some reason. Whew, that was close.

That was May '07.

Fast forward to November '07.

I got a call from Orbitz asking me what my dispute with the purchase was and that I had been credited around $250. First of all, I was not credited any money, I sure as hell would've noticed an extra $250 fucking dollars. Second of all, I never disputed anything. The guy at least was super cool about everything and gave me a direct number to reach him specifically, unlike most sterile corporate customer service centers where you get a different foreigner every time.

After some research through old statements and getting my old bank to e-mail me statements, which were hard to find seeing as the account had been closed for 8 months, I found out that Orbitz tried to charge that account even though they said they wouldn't. Interesting...
The bank actually disputed the charge so they could get their money bank...I guess the money was automatically withdrawn from somewhere? Hell if I know...

I looked through the bank statements and my credit cards statements and SHIT, I could NOT find the second transaction charge. I guess I didn't pay it...lame. I sent all the statements to Orbitz to prove that I didn't get credited $250 HOPING that they wouldn't notice that I never made a payment on the second transaction. The customer service guy noticed this...damnit.
Still he was cool about it, UNTIL I got an e-mail saying that an additional $75 was being charged by American Airlines for the dispute. Wait a minute. I didn't dispute anything, assholes!

Well this morning I had my final conversation with Orbitz, I won't have to pay that $75 (I didn't fuck up, Orbitz did), but I did pay the $250. And the guy even apologized for the Packers losing. So that gives Orbitz a grade of about a D. They were cool about everything and easy to talk to, which probably was because I didn't avoid their calls or e-mails.

Still this should NEVER have been an issue.

Sprint
SPRINT FUCKING SUCKS. END OF STORY.

I text a lot. I work a lot in loud environments where I can't hear anything. Mostly loud damn music. When I got my last bill, I had $20 in text overages, so I changed my plan on-line (which generally is instantaneous) to the unlimited texting plan. I did this at the end of October/beginning of November.

Well I got my bill today. $49.80 in texting overages. I called Sprint IMMEDIATELY. Who answers the phone? FUCKING SOMEONE WHO SPEAKS ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE. Strike one.

She asked me all the basic info to verify who I was. Then asked me for my six digit pin. Six digit pin, oh yeah I think I made one of those once...I can't remember. She put my hold. Awesome. Great. Best way to start a weekend, ever. Finally she came back and asked me my security question. I answered. Then she asked me to spell it out. It took me no less than 5 minutes to spell out my secret answer to her. She could NOT understand the letters I was saying, AT ALL. I usually try to be nice to customer service reps, but by then, I was fucking frustrated.

FINALLY we got to my issue at hand; the $138 phone bill. I explained the situation and she said that the unlimited plan was added to my account November 23rd. What? That's not when I added it. Not at all. She said there was nothing she could do about the charge. Strike two, YOU ARE A LIAR.

I INSISTED on talking to a supervisor; it took me 4 or 5 tries to get me to get her to go get a supervisor. She put me on hold. Fuck. Ten minutes later she came back and said the supervisor was on the other line. Her mistake - Giving me time to plan my next argument. I explained to her my work situation and why and when I made the changes and that changing the plan on-line is generally instantaneous. She said that I should have called to verify. I asked then why the hell is the on-line service offered if I'd have to call to verify the changes anyway? Her response? "Sometimes computers are not so perfect." What, like your comprehension of the english language? I laughed and literally said, "that's your answer? What I'm going to do now is go ahead and wait for the supervisor." On hold for the third time...

This hold only lasted for about 5 minutes. She came back and said the supervisor was still on with another customer. So I guess Sprint customer service only has one supervisor...hmmm. My persistance paid off (somewhat). She said she would APPLY for me to get a $20 credit on my next bill. She couldn't guarantee that it would even happen, but this is still STRIKE THREE. SEE, I said she was fucking lying about not being able to do anything. How can a customer service representative not provide customer service?

So I owe sprint $130 something and paid Orbitz $250. What a day. Rent is next. And you know what? I still can't buy booze, my CA license has yet to come in the mail...

FUCK CALIFORNIA

2 comments:

North Party said...

Dude, i feel for you, i stopped using my US Cellular account and they sent me a bill 8 months after i stopped, saying i needed to call and confirm that it was cancelled after so long...WHAT? that same week i got a ticket in the mail that a camera tooka picture of, fines for running tolls, and got a parking ticket in person...for what you ask...backing into a parking spot! fuck you!!!

bubb

Spamber said...

ya, all phone companies are nazi's and need to burn..