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Friday
March 19, 2010 Since 1922 |
Cell problems no picnic
By Jane Howard Lee
Contributor Published July 23, 2009 I hate to admit a dependence on modern technology that we lived so easily without not so very long ago but that’s what I’m doing.
Do you have a cell phone?
Do you have that cell phone insurance that promises to replace the phone if it is stolen or damaged?
If so, pay attention.
There have been times in my cell phone owning history when I did not have that insurance but on this last two-year contract that we signed I opted to take it. It doesn’t cost much and I am quite a klutz. I figured that eventually I would drop my phone in the bay or lose my grip on it while walking across a parking lot and smash it on the concrete or asphalt … something was bound to happen eventually.
And so it did.
It wasn’t anything as dramatic as I expected. My phone just quit taking a charge. It took a while to figure it out. I’d plug it into the car charger and it would charge a little at first, then finally not at all. Turned out that the place on the phone where the charger is inserted was loose.
So I took it to one of the cell company’s stores and asked them about it. Was it the phone or the charger? They checked it out, said it was the phone and said my insurance would cover it. I just had to call the insurance number and it should probably just take a day or two.
If you find yourself in the same boat, don’t believe that.
I called and, after a long time pushing buttons and entering my cell number and hearing recorded messages that had nothing to do with my situation, reached a person who told me “no problem.” She took my phone information and said that a replacement would ship out in one to two days and get to me very quickly. It would cost me a $50 deductible but that seemed reasonable. It would not be the exact same phone because there had been two upgrades to that model since I got it. She said when I got it, just put my old phone in the box and send it to them. Oh, and she also said someone “might” have to sign for the phone when it arrived at my house.
So I waited.
And waited.
And waited some more.
Starting on the third day, I made sure that someone would be around to accept the FedEx delivery of my new phone and that was not always convenient.
Six days later my phone finally arrived and I hated it.
It was a slick-looking model but it had a fatal flaw. It had a little thing they called a joystick in the center that provided the up and down and sideways and select operations, but it certainly did not elicit any joyful feelings.
I just couldn’t work the darned thing and it made me feel pretty inadequate.
I took the phone to work and several of my co-workers couldn’t work it either so that made me feel better. It wasn’t me, it was that stupid joystick that was inadequate.
I called the cell phone insurance company back and, after pushing all those buttons, entering my numbers and hearing those same unnecessary recordings, explained the situation to a service rep and was happy to hear that they would be glad to replace it with another phone. The only problem was that the service rep could not specify what phone model to send so I could well end up with another just like the one with the stupid, inoperable joystick.
Now that’s just silly and I told her so. She said she couldn’t do anything about it so I asked her politely to find me somebody who could.
She put me through to a dispute resolution person or somebody like that and that woman knew just what to do and had the authority to do it. She named off several models of phones that I could chose from and suggested I go back to the phone store and look at whichever ones the store had of those models. Then I could call back and specify which one I wanted as my replacement. Sure wish they had offered that option in the first place.
I did just that. Found one I liked and then called the insurance company again.
Of course it took 15 minutes or so to get through to a service rep then another 10 minutes to explain things to her and then listen to more recordings and push more buttons to get through to the resolution person but I finally did, ordered my phone and was told it would ship out in one to two days.
This time the phone arrived within 36 hours. Nobody was there to sign for it that day but it turned out that it did not have to be signed for anyway.
So if you find yourself in a similar position, learn from my experience. Go straight to that customer resolution person (who by the way is apparently the only person who can actually get a phone shipped out in a speedy fashion), get a list of phones and find one that suits you.
I hate to admit it but being without my cell phone for all that time was not pleasant.
Jane Howard Lee is a reporter for The Baytown Sun.
Contributor Published July 23, 2009 I hate to admit a dependence on modern technology that we lived so easily without not so very long ago but that’s what I’m doing.
Do you have a cell phone?
Do you have that cell phone insurance that promises to replace the phone if it is stolen or damaged?
If so, pay attention.
There have been times in my cell phone owning history when I did not have that insurance but on this last two-year contract that we signed I opted to take it. It doesn’t cost much and I am quite a klutz. I figured that eventually I would drop my phone in the bay or lose my grip on it while walking across a parking lot and smash it on the concrete or asphalt … something was bound to happen eventually.
And so it did.
It wasn’t anything as dramatic as I expected. My phone just quit taking a charge. It took a while to figure it out. I’d plug it into the car charger and it would charge a little at first, then finally not at all. Turned out that the place on the phone where the charger is inserted was loose.
So I took it to one of the cell company’s stores and asked them about it. Was it the phone or the charger? They checked it out, said it was the phone and said my insurance would cover it. I just had to call the insurance number and it should probably just take a day or two.
If you find yourself in the same boat, don’t believe that.
I called and, after a long time pushing buttons and entering my cell number and hearing recorded messages that had nothing to do with my situation, reached a person who told me “no problem.” She took my phone information and said that a replacement would ship out in one to two days and get to me very quickly. It would cost me a $50 deductible but that seemed reasonable. It would not be the exact same phone because there had been two upgrades to that model since I got it. She said when I got it, just put my old phone in the box and send it to them. Oh, and she also said someone “might” have to sign for the phone when it arrived at my house.
So I waited.
And waited.
And waited some more.
Starting on the third day, I made sure that someone would be around to accept the FedEx delivery of my new phone and that was not always convenient.
Six days later my phone finally arrived and I hated it.
It was a slick-looking model but it had a fatal flaw. It had a little thing they called a joystick in the center that provided the up and down and sideways and select operations, but it certainly did not elicit any joyful feelings.
I just couldn’t work the darned thing and it made me feel pretty inadequate.
I took the phone to work and several of my co-workers couldn’t work it either so that made me feel better. It wasn’t me, it was that stupid joystick that was inadequate.
I called the cell phone insurance company back and, after pushing all those buttons, entering my numbers and hearing those same unnecessary recordings, explained the situation to a service rep and was happy to hear that they would be glad to replace it with another phone. The only problem was that the service rep could not specify what phone model to send so I could well end up with another just like the one with the stupid, inoperable joystick.
Now that’s just silly and I told her so. She said she couldn’t do anything about it so I asked her politely to find me somebody who could.
She put me through to a dispute resolution person or somebody like that and that woman knew just what to do and had the authority to do it. She named off several models of phones that I could chose from and suggested I go back to the phone store and look at whichever ones the store had of those models. Then I could call back and specify which one I wanted as my replacement. Sure wish they had offered that option in the first place.
I did just that. Found one I liked and then called the insurance company again.
Of course it took 15 minutes or so to get through to a service rep then another 10 minutes to explain things to her and then listen to more recordings and push more buttons to get through to the resolution person but I finally did, ordered my phone and was told it would ship out in one to two days.
This time the phone arrived within 36 hours. Nobody was there to sign for it that day but it turned out that it did not have to be signed for anyway.
So if you find yourself in a similar position, learn from my experience. Go straight to that customer resolution person (who by the way is apparently the only person who can actually get a phone shipped out in a speedy fashion), get a list of phones and find one that suits you.
I hate to admit it but being without my cell phone for all that time was not pleasant.
Jane Howard Lee is a reporter for The Baytown Sun.