Another Phone Conversation

The other day as I was going through all of my mail (that procrastination issue again, sigh) I came across my Alltel bill. Alex was elected to stop by the local Alltel office to drop off the bill and a check. It's the least he can do since he is the one who gets the most use out of my Alltel account..

His phone died a little over a month ago and we went in there so we could decide on a course of action. The phone needed to be replace and I told him that he could select whichever phone he wanted WITH THE UNDERSTANDING that he was going to have to pay for it himself (it would be on my bill, but he would need to pay me for it...sort of like how he pays for the unlimited texting feature...over 4,000 incoming texts a month AND over 4,000 outgoing texts a month???? How does a person get their thumbs to move that fast?).

Anyway, the lad chose a Blackberry of some sort. I'm sure there are several models of Blackberries out there, but I have no idea which one it was. It was $120, with a $100 rebate (of course they didn't tell me that the rebate was in the form of a Visa gift card...shame on you Alltel for not making that clear).

I knew my bill would be pretty high because of the phone, but I got the rebate and Alex was going to pay for his texting and the $20 he owed me for the phone. He was in a hurry to leave, so I wrote out the check, and then scrutinized the bill after he left.

*RED FLAG*

Thank goodness I look at those 10 pages of that bill closely.

According to Alltel, on the phone that I exclusively use, I went over my texting limit, shame on me. They SAID I had 105 outgoing texts and 107 incoming texts. I was charged a total of $1.80 for these overages.

HOLD EVERYTHING

I called Alltel.

I told them that I did NOT send 105 texts, nor did I receive 107. They insisted that I did. I told them that there was a definite problem because I rarely text. I told "Sheree" that it's much easier for me to leave a voicemail than to text. It's too hard to try to get my fingers on the right keys quickly. She checked for the current billing cycle and said that I sent THREE texts. I told her that was probably correct, but the 105 was NOT.

Sheree insisted that those texts came from my phone. Eventually she removed the $1.80 charge and I told her I appreciated that. However, it was the principle of the matter.

I mentioned that there was obviously a problem, either on my end or Alltel's end. (I was trying to be nice. I did NOT send out over 100 texts. I did NOT receive over 100 texts. I think in the past year and a half I've received a total of 12 texts.) My concern was that if they made a mistake on the number of texts I sent/received, then there could be other errors.

She finally told me that I could talk to a technician.

"Julio" was not much help either. He emphasized that the texts came from my phone and maybe someone else used it. I said that the phone was always in a case in my purse when I wasn't using it. My purse is kept on the counter at home and everyone else has access to their own phone and wouldn't need mine. At work, my purse is in my desk drawer and no one else gets into my desk.

Julio insisted, yet again, that the texts came from my phone. I told him at least twice that I rarely text. It's too much of a hassle.

We went back and forth for about 5 minutes on this. Finally I asked him if he could tell me the date and time of these texts.

"We can only do that with a court ordered subpoena."

Well, I'm not going that route, so I told him that he was obviously not going to see the point I was trying to make.

Then he said what I'm sure they're required to say, "Have I answered your questions satisfactorily?"

Uh....NO.

And I told him that. I went on a 2 minute rant and ended with "Goodbye" and hung up.

Like I said, it's not the $1.80, but the fact that if they screwed that up, what else are they screwing up? I go over my Alltel bill with a fine tooth comb because with so many pages and so much information, there's a huge chance for error.

I wonder who I'll get into it with today?

Gotta love spring break...it gives me so much time to do things like this.