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Today was an ok good day…
School: I am pretty sure I failed another test, which sucks. The worst part is that I understand the material, but I have a hard time applying it to the questions the professor asks. There are just too many what-ifs available in the questions given, so, my answers end up being much different than his. It really irritates me given that our answers are only different because are assumptions about the unstated facts in the problem are different.
Cingular: So today I got my bill for my Atlanta trip. I surely was not ready for that. It was ridiculously high. So I did what any broke college student would do, I called to complain. Now, I was not just calling to complain because I can, I actually had good reason.
First, I have traveled a few places in this country and have never received roaming charges as long as I was within the boarders of the U.S. I told the rep this, and her response was “well, you should have been”. Apparently, I have a “regional” plan and my region only includes Washington and Oregon. So I asked her how come last time I took a trip to California I was not charged roaming. Again, she replied with “you should have been.” She even had the nerve to go as far as to say something along the lines of “maybe you did not get caught.” Get caught? Is traveling against the rules or something? However, I am not overly picky, so if I have to pay roaming charges while I was on the phone in Atlanta, well, then I have to pay roaming charges while on the phone in Atlanta. But wait, what is this…I have a bunch of 1minute phone calls, and at $0.79 per minute, those things are making a huge impact on my bill.
So, I ask her about those, as I know a few of those one minute calls occurred when I did not even answer the phone. She begins to tell me that I do not need to answer the phone to get charged roaming…huh? She explains to me how any call over 30 seconds is considered a call, and would get charged roaming. Ummm, but if I did not answer the phone, how exactly did the call last more than 30 seconds? Her response, “maybe they left a message”. OK, so now this lady is telling me that I get charged airtime when people leave messages?!? Now this run-around is just getting out of control. So I giver her the ol’ “can I just speak to your manager?” She explains to me that the manager is just going to tell me the same thing, and I explain to her that that is fine, but I want to hear her manager tell me. Naturally, on hold I go…
The lady returns a few minutes later, not the manager, but the lady. Before I can even get a half a word out, the lady tells me “I had my manager review your account, and to avoid this conflict….I can credit your account 50% of the roaming charges.” OK, I can accept that. My main complaint was the one minute charges, and looking at my bill, those $0.79 charges equal about half of the charges, so I accept.
Good job Cingular, you just kept one customer (for now), which is good, because I really did not want to have to cancel my contract and lose my rollover minutes. Those things (rollover minutes) are great.