I Don't Work For YOU!

It just amazes me how bad customer service has gotten. I remember when all the manufacturing jobs were sent overseas and we were told that we would now have a "service" economy. You'd think that would mean better service, with more people devoted to serving the needs of the customer. WRONG!

Yesterday, I got a call from T-Mobile confirming that they had messed up the rebate on one of the phones we bought. When I filled out the form, I put the phone number that T-Mobile had assigned and the number that was ported over. I also added a helpful note saying that the number on the bottom was the assigned number and the one on top was the ported number. Apparently Young America company, the rebate fulfillment center, is located in China, because they read the numbers from top to bottom instead of across and included numbers from BOTH telephone numbers! Of course, Young America could not simply correct the mistake; no, they had to wait for the rebate to be officially rejected and then redo the record. Initially this was supposed to take a week, but the rebate was not rejected in that time period. Finally, I got tired of having to follow this process and called T-Mobile with a suggestion.

My suggestion was simple; T-Mobile would credit my account with $50.00, the amount of the rebate, and then they, who are being paid to do these things, could go ahead and collect the money from Young America. Well, you would have thought I had asked for someone's first born child! I was told that I would have to contact Young America, that no one at T-Mobile could do this for me. Funny thing is someone from T-Mobile had already talked to Young America, that's how I knew that the mistake had been made. Finally, I asked to talk to a supervisor. The supervisor, Jose, parroted the same line about me contacting YA. I said, "No, I don't work for T-Mobile, I don't work for Young America, and I don't get paid to make phone calls correcting the mistakes of others." I suggested that if Jose did not want to help me with this problem, perhaps I should cancel my service. Jose quickly reminded me that, if I did cancel, T-Mobile would collect a $200.00 per line cancellation fee. I responded that T-Mobile would have to take me to court to collect that fee and that I doubted that a judge would allow them to steal any more money than the $50.00 they were already taking by failing to pay the rebate. I hung up and Jose cancelled my service.

Next, I called the corporate offices of T-Mobile and talked to Anthony in the "Executive Offices." I doubt that Anthony actually works in the Executive Offices, but rather he is probably part of an upper level support group that handles calls from customers dissatisfied enough to want to talk to someone who actually runs the company. Before we became a "service economy," these calls were rare and usually handled by a real executive assistant. There are far too many of these complaints now and a full department is required. Eventually, Anthony followed my suggestion, issued the credit and turned my service back on. Yes, that's right, Jose had already turned off the service. At least there is something T-Mobile does efficiently. Fortunately, they were able to turn it back on just as quickly.

I still don't understand why T-Mobile thinks I work for them. Can anyone out there explain to me why I would have to correct their mistake or why I would find this acceptable? Sounds like spongy-poo to me.