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So, I get to my phone bill in the stack o' bills. And lo and behind, my provider for local toll/long distance has been changed. Except, we did not change it. So I have $8.70 in fees for "changing" to a provider I don't want from one I do. I call my phone company immediately.
They register it as a slam, set the carrier back, and they give me contact numbers for the previous and current carriers to sort it out. I call previous first. The number is no good. So I hit their web site, and call the customer support number. IT is no longer in service. My eyes get big. I call their corporate number. It's answered, and she's surprised to find the customer service is not working.
She says they switched carriers, so the change in providers reflected that. I say I wasn't notified and was charged $8.70. She says the notification will be in this month's bill. First - I get my statements online and seldom review them, for those guys, because I have not needed to. Second - she said it hasn't (or may not have, not sure which) gone out yet. She does say they'll reimburse me if I mail in or fax in the bill. Wait, now I have to pay money (the fax number is not an 800 number, and mail is not free) to get this sorted out? Excuse me! I want reimbursement for that money too. I can't fax, because I can't use the work fax on long distance numbers, so I'll have to mail. And you bet I'll be asking for the extra money for the postage. (I take some small pleasure in the fact that, since I pay no monthly fee, pay 5 cents a minute for long distance, and seldom call long distance, it will take them months to get back the money it costs to reimburse me for the change fee.)
The whole system is somewhat wrong, to require me to call two phone companies when one slams me. The current company is wrong to switch things and not provide ADVANCED notice. Jerks.
The jerks in question are, by the way, GTC Telecom, who have very good rates if you don't call long distance much, but apparently a lousy sense of how to handle customers.
So I called Verizon back and of course my account is thoroughly horked up by their attempting to change it, in spite of the fact that GTC telecom said it should be okay - all sorts of details got changed. So I'm cancelling the order and then doing the freeze and hopefully that will work. If it doesn't, every fee and annoyance will be billed to GTC Telecom.
They register it as a slam, set the carrier back, and they give me contact numbers for the previous and current carriers to sort it out. I call previous first. The number is no good. So I hit their web site, and call the customer support number. IT is no longer in service. My eyes get big. I call their corporate number. It's answered, and she's surprised to find the customer service is not working.
She says they switched carriers, so the change in providers reflected that. I say I wasn't notified and was charged $8.70. She says the notification will be in this month's bill. First - I get my statements online and seldom review them, for those guys, because I have not needed to. Second - she said it hasn't (or may not have, not sure which) gone out yet. She does say they'll reimburse me if I mail in or fax in the bill. Wait, now I have to pay money (the fax number is not an 800 number, and mail is not free) to get this sorted out? Excuse me! I want reimbursement for that money too. I can't fax, because I can't use the work fax on long distance numbers, so I'll have to mail. And you bet I'll be asking for the extra money for the postage. (I take some small pleasure in the fact that, since I pay no monthly fee, pay 5 cents a minute for long distance, and seldom call long distance, it will take them months to get back the money it costs to reimburse me for the change fee.)
The whole system is somewhat wrong, to require me to call two phone companies when one slams me. The current company is wrong to switch things and not provide ADVANCED notice. Jerks.
The jerks in question are, by the way, GTC Telecom, who have very good rates if you don't call long distance much, but apparently a lousy sense of how to handle customers.
So I called Verizon back and of course my account is thoroughly horked up by their attempting to change it, in spite of the fact that GTC telecom said it should be okay - all sorts of details got changed. So I'm cancelling the order and then doing the freeze and hopefully that will work. If it doesn't, every fee and annoyance will be billed to GTC Telecom.
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In general, I have been quite pleased with GTC Telecom, so I'm willing to cut them a little slack on this. But you're right, they should have proactively warned us.
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And I think it sucks that every way you can get reimbursement, costs money. :P