I can’t get no satisfaction
I’d like to take a moment to discuss customer service. For the past two weeks I was getting daily phone calls at 8am from US Cellular. However, there wasn’t an actual person calling me. It was that annoying recording that says, “We have an important message about your US Cellular account” and then asking me to call them back. Two things on this, A) I don’t have a US Cellular account and 2) if it is SO IMPORTANT, why isn’t there a PERSON calling?
I was leaping to answer the phone the first couple of times thinking it might be someone calling about a job. Then I stopped answering hoping they’d figure out they’re calling the wrong number. They were calling my land line, not my cell phone. Yes, I still have a land line. My cell phone doesn’t work so well in my apartment. If I turn my head or breathe I’ll lose the signal. The land line is also my path to the interwebs via DSL.
On Saturday, when they called me at 8am, I was pissed. I finally wrote down the number to call so I could make them stop. Getting to sleep at 4am, and then waking to the ringing phone 4 hours later, really sucks ass.
I called and of course it’s a recording, “Please enter your US Cellular phone number.” Well, I don’t have one so I pressed zero hoping to just get in the queue for a person. “That is an invalid entry. Please enter your US Cellular phone number.” I punched in my land line number hoping that’d work, they’d been calling me anyway. “One moment while we access your account,” followed by some bubble noises. “Please enter your US Cellular phone number.” I typed in my phone number AGAIN, getting even more frustrated at this lack of human interaction. Again they ask me to wait a moment as they “access” my account. Fortunately that was followed by, “Please hold as we connect you to a service representative.”
I get the girl on the phone and explain how annoyed I am that they call me with a recording every day about an account I don’t have. She asks me if I know anyone with an account. “Um…I live alone, no I don’t know anyone with an account?” She apologizes and promises to have my number removed. I hang up glad that that is done with.
Monday morning 8am my phone rings. It is US Cellular telling me they have important information about my account. I figure, since I called on Saturday it’ll take time for their system to update. I do nothing. Tuesday morning 8am they call again. Now I’m pissed. I go through their stupid automated system again. I get a girl (possibly the same girl) on the phone and I’m like, “Look, I called you people on Saturday, this is harassment. Get my number out of your system.” AGAIN she asks me if I know anyone with a US Cellular account. WTF?! Why would you call me instead of THEM?! That’s the DUMBEST QUESTION EVER! Sure my friend Tony has an account but gave you MY number? WTF?!? IDIOTS! She apologizes again, swears she will contact accounting and have this fixed.
So far they haven’t called me. If I did have a US Cellular account I’d be canceling it ASAP because their practice is harassing. Calling EVERY DAY at 8am?! Even on a weekend? If you’re in the market for a new cell phone company, you might want to keep this in mind. US Cellular is a big fat NO on my list of cell phone companies now.
Shouldn’t places with automated systems build in some kind of “you have the wrong number” type of option when being called? Yeah sure the people dodging your call could easily press that button to make you go away, but you should still have their mailing address to send them letters. Harassing phone calls to the wrong person is setting you up for a lawsuit. Why should I have to drop everything to call you to tell you that you’re calling the wrong place? I’m so tired of companies not having people there to answer the phone.
I got a phone call this morning on my cell phone from a company claiming to be an employment service for a place I applied to. Their recording repeated over and over that a verification specialist would be connected shortly to go over my application before they pass me along to their client. Well, since they called my cell phone, obviously I breathed wrong and I was disconnected. I did a Google search on the phone number and discovered via 800 Notes.com that this company is a scammer. They set up fake job postings online, make you fill out an insane form to set you up for harassment from online Universities via spam and phone calls. And there is no job at all.
I’m sick to death of fake jobs and fake job offers and phone calls that are just harassment. It’s hard enough to find a job, but now I have to determine if the job posting is spam or real? I can’t just answer my phone and have a person on the other line to talk to me? Is it time for me to move to a cave or a cabin in the wilderness and just avoid civilization completely?
