The Perils of the Telephone
Ok, so I'm wondering: is everyone incredibly irritating, or is it just me? Hmm...let me clarify, before everyone reading this gets unnecessarily pissed off. When I say everyone, I really mean, everyone that answers a phone for a living. Specifically, doctors' offices and companies with 1-800 numbers. Are all of them irritating and difficult towards everyone? Are they all just waiting for the next call so they can confuse another innocent person?
Or is it just me? Is it like when I call, they think "Ooh, she's calling. Let's fuck with her head!". Because I swear I have more problems with these people than anyone else ever does. Case in point. Or two cases in point.
Yesterday, I decided to call my doctor to get my yearly exam. As it is my gynecologist, I am not too eager to go in the first place. She is a lovely person and all, but I just hate the exam. Hate, hate, hate it. Anyway, so I start calling the office at about 10:30AM. And yes, I mean start calling. I ended up calling them about 13 times. This is not and exaggeration. Sometimes it would just be busy, and sometimes it would ring. Unfortunately, they are one of those doctor's offices that have several doctors associated with a clinic. Therefore, they have three to four times more patients than most doctors. Plus, they have one of those systems where you have to listen to a two minute message before you are put on hold to wait an indeterminate amount of time to talk to someone.
We were in transit yesterday, driving back home from North Carolina, so I was using my cell phone. Since we were going pretty fast on the highways, the phone would go in and out of strong signal areas. So, I would be on the phone for three minutes, and the signal would fade while I was on hold. Needless to say, I gave up after a while.
So, at dinner, I take out my phone to try again. By this time, the office is closed, and I am forwarded to a message service. The following exchange occurs:
Me: Hi, I'm a patient of Dr. M.
Message Lady: Oh, we don't leave messages for Dr. M.
Me: Huh.
Me: Well, can I leave a message for the office. So they can call me back and I can set up an appointment? I've been calling all day with no answer.
ML: No, you have to call the office during normal office hours.
Me: I did that! I called ALL DAY.
ML: You don't have to yell at me.
Me: I didn't yell.
ML: I can't help you. Call during office hours.
Me (to myself): Argh!
Me (to ML): Ok, will do. *click*
Now, as you can see, having a message service that can't do anything for you, can't leave a message, can't call you, is pretty stupid. And I was pretty pissed off, because the lady was not listening to me, nor was she explaining why this was the case. So, right before dessert, I called them back again. This time I talked with a guy who was very helpful. Our conversation was not irritating to relate blow-by-blow. Basically he told me that once upon a time (not sure when, since I had this same problem last year), someone in the office didn't get a message from the message service, so the office took all the service's privileges away. The message service has no beeper numbers for the doctor, nor do they have alternate numbers to call. The message service is not even allowed to tell the office if anyone calls. The can't leave a message or anything.
Now, I know what you're thinking. Why does the doctor's office even have a message service in the first place? That is not a question I can answer. The office is clearly acting like a three year old child who doesn't want to share its privileges. Or perhaps Dolores Umbridge (OotP review to come soon!). At any rate, they should just have a message that says something to the effect of: "we are closed. Call back between 10 and 4." Or something.
Anyway, I called back today and got through after 10 minutes on hold. I got my appointment, so will have to face the stirrups of doom next Wednesday. Don't worry, I don't find it necessary to talk about doctors' appointments after they are over. You will be spared an account of the appointment, as I will be in the process of blocking it from my mind completely.
But to get back to the subject, the real reason I decided to post about this was the phone call I just finished. I talked with a woman from T-Mobile ("We Are a Great Cellular Company Until You Need to Talk to a Person"). I just got a new account, because there was an offer from Circuit City for $200 off a phone I wanted. I need to send in stuff for rebates, one of those things being a copy of my first bill. However, to my surprise, my first bill also included my previous bill from my other T-Mobile phone. Let me clarify this.
I used to be a Sprint PCS customer. However, the housing I stayed in during the first semester of last year was not an area that Sprint serviced. Oh, the phone worked fine on Main Campus, just not on South Campus. So, I gave the phone to my father and got another plan. I began using T-Mobile when it was still Voice Stream ("Look, It's Jamie Lee Curtis!"), and was pretty satisfied with it, despite the fact that I could not get a plan with unlimited nights, only weekends. So, I had only 200 minutes for the entire month, minus weekends. It worked out OK, though, since most of my calls were during the weekends. I got the cheapest (free) phone they had, because I wanted to eventually get something with better minutes, possibly Sprint again.
When I got back from London, I called T-Mobile and changed my plan to one with 600 anytime minutes and unlimited night and weekends, for only $5 more. I started looking for a new phone. A few days later, I saw an advertisement for a really cool phone in Circuit City, with a $200 rebate, so it would end up being affordable. The only catch was, you had to start a new contract. And my old contract ended a month or so after the rebate offer ended.
I called T-Mobile and told them the situation. The guy said I could have two phone lines under the same name, or I could transfer ownership of my other phone to someone else. Mom had been "using my phone" (read not actually using it, just letting it sit in her office, gathering dust) while I was away, so we decided to transfer it to her. We went into the store and did it, filling out all the annoying paperwork. They said it would be done in 1-2 days. I bought the new phone. Everything was cool, until I got my bill yesterday and both phones were listed.
I called T-Mobile to find out what was up, and they told me the paperwork had not gone through. I asked why not, and they didn't know, so I have to make a trip to the store again to ask. You can't transfer ownership over the phone, so we couldn't fix it over the phone. At this point, the lady I was talking to informed me that mom would have to start a new contract and pay a new activation fee when it was transferred to her. The people in the store said nothing like this at all, and the other guy I talked to in June didn't either. So, I am going to figure this out in the store and then decide. I told the woman that I couldn't keep both of them under my name and get one bill, since Mom and I don't live in the same place. This is not true right now, but will be in less than a month when I go back to school. The woman then wondered if she could send a copy of the bill to both me and Mom, or if Mom or I could send the payment to each other or something. Now this is an absolutely dumb idea, since we both need separate bills with our own separate charges for our own individual records. So, I have no idea what to do, other than to drive to the T-Mobile headquarters and start busting heads. Er, maybe not. I just feel as though none of them are actually listening to what I say, especially since I told the woman about five times which number was the old one, and she kept asking me if the new one was the old one. Grr.
Anyway, I am wondering if everyone else has as much trouble as I do with these customer service phone people. I hardly ever have an easy time of it, and I wonder if they even train these people properly. I was bitched at by a lady at one of the credit card companies I have a card with, simply for asking why I was being charged even though I wasn't using the card (the card was not even in the same country that I was in). So, I ask you, is this a common problem?
Or is it just me?
Or is it just me? Is it like when I call, they think "Ooh, she's calling. Let's fuck with her head!". Because I swear I have more problems with these people than anyone else ever does. Case in point. Or two cases in point.
Yesterday, I decided to call my doctor to get my yearly exam. As it is my gynecologist, I am not too eager to go in the first place. She is a lovely person and all, but I just hate the exam. Hate, hate, hate it. Anyway, so I start calling the office at about 10:30AM. And yes, I mean start calling. I ended up calling them about 13 times. This is not and exaggeration. Sometimes it would just be busy, and sometimes it would ring. Unfortunately, they are one of those doctor's offices that have several doctors associated with a clinic. Therefore, they have three to four times more patients than most doctors. Plus, they have one of those systems where you have to listen to a two minute message before you are put on hold to wait an indeterminate amount of time to talk to someone.
We were in transit yesterday, driving back home from North Carolina, so I was using my cell phone. Since we were going pretty fast on the highways, the phone would go in and out of strong signal areas. So, I would be on the phone for three minutes, and the signal would fade while I was on hold. Needless to say, I gave up after a while.
So, at dinner, I take out my phone to try again. By this time, the office is closed, and I am forwarded to a message service. The following exchange occurs:
Me: Hi, I'm a patient of Dr. M.
Message Lady: Oh, we don't leave messages for Dr. M.
Me: Huh.
Me: Well, can I leave a message for the office. So they can call me back and I can set up an appointment? I've been calling all day with no answer.
ML: No, you have to call the office during normal office hours.
Me: I did that! I called ALL DAY.
ML: You don't have to yell at me.
Me: I didn't yell.
ML: I can't help you. Call during office hours.
Me (to myself): Argh!
Me (to ML): Ok, will do. *click*
Now, as you can see, having a message service that can't do anything for you, can't leave a message, can't call you, is pretty stupid. And I was pretty pissed off, because the lady was not listening to me, nor was she explaining why this was the case. So, right before dessert, I called them back again. This time I talked with a guy who was very helpful. Our conversation was not irritating to relate blow-by-blow. Basically he told me that once upon a time (not sure when, since I had this same problem last year), someone in the office didn't get a message from the message service, so the office took all the service's privileges away. The message service has no beeper numbers for the doctor, nor do they have alternate numbers to call. The message service is not even allowed to tell the office if anyone calls. The can't leave a message or anything.
Now, I know what you're thinking. Why does the doctor's office even have a message service in the first place? That is not a question I can answer. The office is clearly acting like a three year old child who doesn't want to share its privileges. Or perhaps Dolores Umbridge (OotP review to come soon!). At any rate, they should just have a message that says something to the effect of: "we are closed. Call back between 10 and 4." Or something.
Anyway, I called back today and got through after 10 minutes on hold. I got my appointment, so will have to face the stirrups of doom next Wednesday. Don't worry, I don't find it necessary to talk about doctors' appointments after they are over. You will be spared an account of the appointment, as I will be in the process of blocking it from my mind completely.
But to get back to the subject, the real reason I decided to post about this was the phone call I just finished. I talked with a woman from T-Mobile ("We Are a Great Cellular Company Until You Need to Talk to a Person"). I just got a new account, because there was an offer from Circuit City for $200 off a phone I wanted. I need to send in stuff for rebates, one of those things being a copy of my first bill. However, to my surprise, my first bill also included my previous bill from my other T-Mobile phone. Let me clarify this.
I used to be a Sprint PCS customer. However, the housing I stayed in during the first semester of last year was not an area that Sprint serviced. Oh, the phone worked fine on Main Campus, just not on South Campus. So, I gave the phone to my father and got another plan. I began using T-Mobile when it was still Voice Stream ("Look, It's Jamie Lee Curtis!"), and was pretty satisfied with it, despite the fact that I could not get a plan with unlimited nights, only weekends. So, I had only 200 minutes for the entire month, minus weekends. It worked out OK, though, since most of my calls were during the weekends. I got the cheapest (free) phone they had, because I wanted to eventually get something with better minutes, possibly Sprint again.
When I got back from London, I called T-Mobile and changed my plan to one with 600 anytime minutes and unlimited night and weekends, for only $5 more. I started looking for a new phone. A few days later, I saw an advertisement for a really cool phone in Circuit City, with a $200 rebate, so it would end up being affordable. The only catch was, you had to start a new contract. And my old contract ended a month or so after the rebate offer ended.
I called T-Mobile and told them the situation. The guy said I could have two phone lines under the same name, or I could transfer ownership of my other phone to someone else. Mom had been "using my phone" (read not actually using it, just letting it sit in her office, gathering dust) while I was away, so we decided to transfer it to her. We went into the store and did it, filling out all the annoying paperwork. They said it would be done in 1-2 days. I bought the new phone. Everything was cool, until I got my bill yesterday and both phones were listed.
I called T-Mobile to find out what was up, and they told me the paperwork had not gone through. I asked why not, and they didn't know, so I have to make a trip to the store again to ask. You can't transfer ownership over the phone, so we couldn't fix it over the phone. At this point, the lady I was talking to informed me that mom would have to start a new contract and pay a new activation fee when it was transferred to her. The people in the store said nothing like this at all, and the other guy I talked to in June didn't either. So, I am going to figure this out in the store and then decide. I told the woman that I couldn't keep both of them under my name and get one bill, since Mom and I don't live in the same place. This is not true right now, but will be in less than a month when I go back to school. The woman then wondered if she could send a copy of the bill to both me and Mom, or if Mom or I could send the payment to each other or something. Now this is an absolutely dumb idea, since we both need separate bills with our own separate charges for our own individual records. So, I have no idea what to do, other than to drive to the T-Mobile headquarters and start busting heads. Er, maybe not. I just feel as though none of them are actually listening to what I say, especially since I told the woman about five times which number was the old one, and she kept asking me if the new one was the old one. Grr.
Anyway, I am wondering if everyone else has as much trouble as I do with these customer service phone people. I hardly ever have an easy time of it, and I wonder if they even train these people properly. I was bitched at by a lady at one of the credit card companies I have a card with, simply for asking why I was being charged even though I wasn't using the card (the card was not even in the same country that I was in). So, I ask you, is this a common problem?
Or is it just me?