Thank you to Doc, Alex and noozguru for all the great info. Let me tell you of my adventures yesterday with Verizon the Obsequious. For my first foray they used the Bold Strategy of having me be hung up on while waiting for Customer Service. But being the dauntless lass that FFL has made me, gratitude all around, I dialed in again, waffled through the automated menu and this time got an actual person! Christian. Christian who kept putting me on hold. And then thanking me for being patient when he returned.
Dear Christian of course had no way of knowing that I loathe and detest when someone, even in 3D life, thanks me for being patient. What in God's name makes them think I'm being patient?! I'm pure pitta for God's sake! There's not a patient bone in my body. Instead I follow Mark Russell's advice that the secret of patience is to do something else in the meantime. Now that's a strategy dear to any pitta's heart. But back to Verizon. Then Christian passed me to another person, Michelle. Michelle with the Bad Customer Karma, where Bad refers both to the Customer, Me, and to her Karma. Anyway, she made it clear how lucky I was that we didn't have to wait 72 hours to access my account history. They quickly located my December 2012 balance which was $208.25! But, you gotta love how the buts keep coming, but I had to buy another month for $15 to even find out if they would credit my account! So I did. Then she announced the total fee, $16.38 which dismayed me because for 8 1/2 years, as I told the hapless Michelle, the monthly amount with taxes was $16.05. She floundered about, probably thinking at this point that I was a test customer. Rather than simply a testy one ha ha. We soldiered on, she put me on hold again, thanked me again for about the 6 billionth time for being patient and then informed me that the amount was not only too high for her to authorize but also too high for her supervisor to authorize! Talk about cults! Soooooooooo, I will have to wait, patient person that they think I am, probably another 72 hours to see if I get the $208.25 credited back to my account. They now know that I got other options. But if they don't do what's right, by gum, I'm outta there and may they spend my $224.63 in good health. Poor little Verizon, I had no idea they were so strapped for cash! ________________________________ From: Bhairitu <noozg...@sbcglobal.net> To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, March 25, 2013 6:01 PM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Bhairitu will enjoy this Better known as customer retention and also works with cable companies. ;-) You can get all kinds of unadvertised deals this way. Just say you're going to walk. On 03/25/2013 01:07 PM, doctordumb...@rocketmail.com wrote: > Whoooaaaaa. Call up Verizon, and get a real person on the phone, and explain > your situation. Very much worth it. They will both work with you to fix your > problem, and often have packages to offer you that aren't advertised. You > have been a customer for eight years and they know that. Remind them if > necessary. > > I just went through getting my DSL + landline (att) and cell phone(t-mobile) > coverage waaay down. With t-mobile I avoided a $200 contract termination fee, > and was able to xfer to a much cheaper plan w/o contract, and free texting > for 2 years. > > My father-in-law using Virgin Mobile just received two years of free service, > because they f*cked up his account. > > What I do whenever I am negotiating for better price or service is find a > competing offer, and let the incumbent know it, in addition to mentioning any > inconvenience I have suffered with current service. > > It works! Happy hunting. > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Share Long <sharelong60@...> wrote: >> noozguru, any feedback appreciated. Here's the situation: Verizon >> basically stole $200 from me. I've had their plan for 8 years. Only use >> cell phone when I travel so that means hardly at all. To keep it active I >> must buy at least $15 worth of time every month which I do. In December I >> added $15 and had a little over $200 on the acct. But I forgot to renew in >> time, mainly because of the holidays. And guess what? Now my account is >> zero! And trying to reach them by phone is a nightmare. I have emailed >> but hold out no hope for a reply. So I'm outta there! >> >> Meanwhile just at the right time, I received an ad from AARP for their cell >> phone service, Consumer Cellular. $60 for a senior friendly phone and both >> a $10 and $15 monthly plan. I mean really, I don't want to have to put on >> my reading glasses to use my cell phone, especially when I'm in the car! >> >> >> AAA also offers a $10 month plan with Affinity Cellular. Are these what >> you're calling scammy contract phones? Would T Mobile give good coverage >> both in Iowa and in Maryland when I visit my family? Thanks for any info. >> >> >> ________________________________ >> From: Bhairitu <noozguru@...> >> To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com >> Sent: Monday, March 25, 2013 11:55 AM >> Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Bhairitu will enjoy this >> >> >>  >> On 03/25/2013 09:17 AM, Alex Stanley wrote: >>> Until now, I've always been too timid to root my phone, fearing that I >>> would surely brick it. But, my grudge against factory bloatware, Slacker >>> Radio in particular, got the better of me. So, this morning, I used this to >>> root my Galaxy S2: >>> >>> http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2050297 >>> >>> I then bought Root Explorer and used it to completely nuke Slacker Radio >>> from my phone. >>> >>> My phone has more than enough app space, so it doesn't bother me that there >>> are apps I don't use that take up space and get updated. But, Slacker Radio >>> did an update a while back, and then out of nowhere, it sent me an alert >>> about its new features. WTF? The only time I want to hear my phone make >>> that sound is if I get a text message or an incoming Gmail. >>> >>> Does this mean there's a custom ROM in my future? I don't know... depends >>> on how badly I want Jelly Bean. US Cellular is very slow in getting Android >>> updates, and I only upgraded to Ice Cream Sandwich a few months ago. I'll >>> be getting a 4G LTE phone in October (most likely the Galaxy S4), and it >>> would be really stupid of me to brick my phone only months away from >>> qualifying for a new one. And, from what I've read, it sounds like rooting >>> a stock ROM is all I really need. >> I got my phone from Google and the updates come out shortly after >> release. I'm current with Jelly Bean right now. >> >> T-Mobile is making waves in the tech world by doing away with >> contracts. I have their $30 a month plan but then I don't use the phone >> much for talk and get 5GB data. Contract phones are a scam and mainly >> only known in the US. In other countries you buy your phone outright >> and and use whatever carrier you want. Of course Turq will probably >> tell us that France has unlimited talk, texting and data for the >> equivalent of $20 a month. :-D >> http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57576023-94/t-mobile-kills-off-the-wireless-contract/ >> >> The $30 a month plan I have is a prepay and has been only available from >> T-Mobile online or from Walmart. >> >
