The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round

Tell me if this has ever happened to you.  You call into customer service and you have a simple thing that you are trying to resolve and you get escalated and escalated and rerouted again and again and yet again.

Let me tell you about my fun.  It all started about 2 months ago.  When KayCee and I moved to the Washington area, my cellular provider, Sprint, did not have coverage at our home.  Rather than pay the cancellation fee, we decided to ride the contract out.  The beginning of December I called Sprint to cancel my service as the end of the 2 years was the first week of January. Side note, did you know that you pay for a month in advance so if you call to cancel on the date  you actually are at your two years, there is a good chance you are going to pay for a month of service you are not planning on using.  When I called, they of course asked for my PIN code.  As I did not set one up when I started, I didn't know what it was.  The security question, right, we all love the security question. What was your first car.  Nope, I apparently don't know what my first car was, and in fact when I listed off every single car that I have ever owned, not a one of them matched.

To my luck, they let me know they could email me the information that was required to cancel to my email on file.  I asked what the email address they had on file was and yep, sure enough, it was one I use.

One day, two day, three days, and still no email with the information.  At that point, (I will take accountability as I didn't call back at that time) I got busy and let it go.  Of course, when I sat down yesterday, now two more months of service on a phone that I don't use totaled another $198 and some change.  Again, I called to make the final payment and cancel the service.  I once again went through the same process as before....no I don't know what my PIN is, and no I do not know what my first car was.  They said, oh, but we will allow you to make the payment, but we can't help you beyond that.......What?  That is odd to me.

Of course, this time being wiser, I said I wouldn't authorize the payment until I knew I could also cancel at the same time.  To my dismay, now there was the issue.  I get transferred to the cancellation department who says, nope, sorry can't help you, but you are in luck, we can email the information you need.

Perfect, (they told me to wait ten minutes), 10 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours, still nothing.  I decide to go to the store to get it resolved in person.  Okay, here is my bad, when we moved from Verizon to Sprint, we changed the name to KayCee, don't remember why but we did, so yet again, sorry, you don't have the PIN when I walked into the store....I can take your payment, but can't help beyond that.

As you can imagine, frustration level RED by now, and I call KayCee.  She buzzes on down to the Sprint store, keep in mind she is in the Tricities Washington, to get it taken care of.  She walks in, they take her money and payment and then say, oh, sorry, we can't help you with the rest of this because you don't have.....DRUM ROLL PLEASE....the, you guessed it, the PIN....you have to call the 800 number to get that straightened out....Oh my goodness.

KayCee calls the 800 number who asks for the PIN and first car and of course as you all know, we have been down that road, and once again, Oh, you are in luck, we will email it to you.

Tick tock, tick tock, alas, no email.

I then call into the 800 number again today.  First gentlemen, Jose', nice fellow, asks for PIN and car, even tries a few cars, just in case he has the magic, and he says, you know, I can email that to you.  Getting wise finally, I say, can I spell my email address for you....and wow, what a suprise, they spelled Kole with a c, spelled Paramount with a pEramount and used and underscore instead of a -.....But, of course, they can't change the email information, because how are they to verify I am who I am. 

So, he apologizes and forwards me to a supervisor.  The supervisor, nice guy named Keven, says you can go online and take care of it.....You guessed it, as I explained to the Employee of Sprint, they ask for the PIN to set it up.....of course he says oh no, you can do it.  With Kevin on the phone, I jump on, try to register, and Well color me stupid, the PIN is required, and I'm back to the same point. 

Kevin says, let me forward this to a supervisor, and I say, but aren't you a supervisor, because Jose forwarded me to you, and he said oh no, I'm the customer support, and I said wasn't Jose', and he said no, and I said Oh my goodness in my head of course. 

Kevin forwards me to Dave who turns out to actually be a supervisor and Dave fortunately was briefed from Kevin and finally didn't ask me for my PIN.  One step ahead.  However, Dave gets a little huffy and tells me how can he be sure I am who I am, and I say how can you be sure I am who I am when obviously the information you have on file for me is 100% inaccurate and I ask him to just fix the email and he quotes an FCC guideline and says I have to go to the store to get it resolved.

I say, well, there in lies my problem as I have already done that, and while you tell me that they gave me the wrong information, I am telling Dave that I have a lack of confidence and no desire to go back to the store to simply be referred back to the 800.

Are you tired yet.  He finally verifies a bunch of information from my bill and says okay, you just missed the billing cycle (I'm thinking weird), so it will be March 5th and you will be done. 

And the wheels on the bus go round and round, round and round, round and round!