SPRINT does not deliver features and services I am paying for

This is an email I sent to SPRINT in a final resolution to figure out how to use the picture mail/video mail features that are supposedly included in my Everything Messaging plan, but that I have been charged time in time again overage charges that I then have to call and dispute.

This is probably my 30th attempt to understand and figure out this problem, so I'm just going to be upfront and state if a CS can't help me please just accelerate to exec team. I'm a 10-yr+ customer and I'm tired of fighting this battle.

I am trying to find out why my account receives overage charges for sending picture mail and video mail as these services are supposed to be a part of Everything Messaging. I've been told various stories from various CS to the point where I just blocked data because I was tired of disputing overage charges for services that are supposed to be included in my plan.

I'm no longer content to block data and features that I am paying to have. And I'm not going to call to dispute overage charges to use features I'm entitled to. I need a CS representative that can figure out a REAL solution to this problem so that we can reap the full benefits of the plan I am paying for. If there is no one who can truly assist with this problem (not just put a band-aid on it) then I will have to accelerate the issue on my end which may include BBB complaints, FTC complaints etc. I don't want to go this route.

I'm so tired of fighting with SPRINT. In fact, I'm tired in general with having to fight companies for services and features I'm already paying for. Why does every company out there try to rip off their customer, and why is it so easy for them to do so?

Gift Cards - They Really Are NOT "As Good As Cash"

That's right. You think that when you buy a gift card that does not expire, that its value is as good as cash, but that is not really the case. I'm learning this the hard way, as I have a $40 Blockbuster Video gift card that I got last year around Christmas time and had it stashed away in a drawer and forgot all about it. It resurfaced this weekend and I logged on to double check the value and... I find that it went from being worth $40, to NOTHING! That's right, it's now just a piece of junk plastic.

I wish someone could explain to me how this is fair or just. The back of the card spefically claims that the value does not expire, but apparently that doesn't protect you from bankruptcy. I think if Blockbuster hit rock bottom and flat out "went out of business", I'd be okay with that explanation, but is it just my imagination or is Blockbuster still operating an online/and Blue Box rental company? Why is it then, that my Blockbuster gift card dollars are not good for online or Blue Box rental? It's a conundrum.

Sometimes, I get motivated no matter how small the dollar amount in dispute to seek retribution for this kind of thing, as I just hate that companies like this rip off the consumer time and time again. It's the principal of it, not the quantity of money lost... but then other times I just grit my teeth and take it in the rear like everyone else. I'm frustrated, no doubt, but I'm sure there are bankruptcy laws protecting companies like this from having to stay obligated when they have filed. I should be glad it was only $40. This happened to my mom, where a so-called friend had borrowed a fair amount of business capital to help her get a restaurant up and running, and when things didn't take off, she claimed bankruptcy and was able to wiggle out of owing her anything in re-payment of that loan. You'd think, just out of the simple guidelines that are supposed to govern friendship, that the other party would still try to make at least a minimal effort to repay it back on the side, but alas, that is not how life works.

Ongoing Internet Headaches

Perhaps I should rename this blog Glitchy Rants about her Internet Issues. I thought I found a solution to my internet issues. AT&T has pretty much wiped their hands clean of providing any customer service to my connectivity issues thanks to me owning a "non-supported" modem. I hoped to switch to freestanding DSL with Earthlink, and though their website allowed me to state that I had no phone line, it offered me dial-up service which requires a home phone line to activate so I had to call them back to cancel because it was not what I thought I was signing up for.

My Earthlink cancellation for my records is 4/12/2011 #158381384

How strange the agent with customer service (in India of course) wanted to offer me 2 additional months free of a service I can't use in the first place. I told him there was no point in this since I can't use the service anyway, and he kept insisting on wanting to keep me as a "preferred customer" until such time that they offer the service I was seeking. I had to laugh to myself at the thought of this... seems like a ploy to lock me in past the 30-days in which I'm able to cancel without early contract termination fees although he suggested there would be no fees to cancel. Still, why would I keep a service, free or not, that I can't use. It just made no sense. Seriously, I wonder how some of these corporate companies stay in business with such nonsense customer service.

My search for a functional and decent customer service Internet Service Provider continues...

AT&T Gets the Boot

Well after calling two days ago, I was told that a technician would be sent out the next day. Of course, as with my experience with AT&T a technician did not come out when scheduled but instead called me this morning. He came out to look at the lines and claimed that the lines were fine even though the agent on the phone said he ran some tests that indicated that the lines weren't fine. So I called back to find out what is the next step. After being on the phone with an agent for about an hour, he determined that my router settings looked fine and therefore it must have something to do with my modem and transferred my call to a different department since they don't offer support for my brand of modem.

After waiting on hold for another 15 minutes, and then going through 30 minutes of hoop-jumping the agent at the technical support line claims that AT&T cannot resolve my issue without addition subscription fees due to my modem being an unsupported modem yada yada... Basically she tells me I need to start paying $15/mo to have this special service so that I can get support for my modem.

Basically AT&T said F.U.

So I'm saying F.U. back to them. You don't want to offer me proper support because I won't buy your crudely overpriced modem? You want me charge me $15/mo on top of my $19.95/mo plan fee? You seriously don't think I can find another internet solution for over $35/mo through another provider? Think again.

Earthlink offers freestanding DSL packages also, so I just signed up with them. It's only $14.95/mo for a year. Hopefully the speeds will be comparable, but I have 30-days to cancel without a cancellation fee so if not I will find another solution, but I'm done with AT&T and their excuses and constant vying for more of my money. I actually had an agent try to upsell me AT&T products when I was calling in to report crappy service of my existing service. Really? You can't even get the one thing I have with you right, but you want me to drop my cellphone plan to join yours? Haha.. That's laughable!

If It Isn't Comcast, It's AT&T

I think that in general, service providers are all the Devil. I went from having somewhat crappy and terribly over-priced internet service with Comcast, to terribly delivered and now terrible service with AT&T. When I was a Comcast customer I thought no customer service could be as bad as with them. I still somewhat believe that statement, as even though I had the hardest time in the planet getting my AT&T service started and billing correct, the customer service has at least tried to be helpful and stayed relatively friendly, whereas with Comcast you always got an attitude and excuse and at the end of the call absolutely no resolution.

Well it's been several months and my Internet service has been more or less okay. I didn't expect anything fabulous from AT&T as I am using their DSL service and I'm at a promotional rate of $19.95/mo for the first year. Even though this is supposed to be a high-speed service, I doubt that is what I am getting, but I just chucked it up to "You get what you pay for." For the past few weeks I have been having Internet service issues again. The wireless signal keeps fading in and out continuously making it nearly impossible to get any work done at home, and since right now my primary source of income is freelance work, well that is a problem for me.

I called AT&T and after placing me on hold for a while it was determined that the lines are bad outside of my home and they scheduled to have someone come out. On the plus side, unlike Comcast who schedules maintenance like a week out, as though you have nothing important going on in your life, AT&T did schedule to send a maintenance person out the next afternoon. It's not afternoon yet, so it remains to be seen whether that will actually take place or not. I will be happy after it has been resolved. After holding an additional 15 minutes I was able to get a whopping $8 credit on my bill, which I guess when you consider my bill is only $19.95 a month, is not a horrible service credit, but given that it's taking me 3 times longer to get any work done, it doesn't even come close to compensating me for the troubles I'm dealing with. I guess again I have to revert to the comment "You get what you pay for." I wish I were not unemployed right now and had the money to upgrade to a more efficient service, but that will have to wait for now.

Why U-haul Relationships Don't Work

So I have formed a theory on why I think "U-Haul Relationships" don't work. First, for those of you who don't know what a U-Haul Relationship is... it's when two people start dating and move in with each other almost immediately.

The first reason, and this one is pretty obvious, is because most people don't know each other that well after just a month or so of dating. Even if you spend every day together, there is a lot you don't know about a person, especially from a live-in standpoint. Little things can become really big issues when it comes to living with someone. Leaving cups around the house, toothpaste in the sink, hair stubble from shaving... Maybe their little quirks and habits drive you crazy! A lot of these things aren't realized in the first month or so of dating.

Second, and perhaps a slightly less obvious reason, is because when two people agree to move in together after a long time of dating, they usually sort through things such as where they want to live, how they are going to handle finances and bills, etc. More often then not, when it's a joint decision after a longer period of dating, many couples find a new place to live so that they can have a fresh beginning and both can feel like equal members of the new living arrangement. On the contrary, when couples move in together right away, it tends to work out where the person doing the moving in either doesn't already have a place of their own, such as renting an apartment and the lease is almost up, or living with friends/family... or perhaps the person who they are moving in with has a nicer place. I'm guessing in a rushed situation, it's more likely the first scenario. The reason this can be an issue is, the person who is being moved in with probably already has a system in order for the place that they live. They pay the bills and generally all of those bills are in their name, they are used to the upkeep such as cleaning, etc. So the person moving in has to either attempt to contribute toward the mortgage or rent, chip in on bills, and find a niche in chores and things of that nature. This can be problematic when one person has a system that works pretty well and suddenly they have to figure out how to incorporate someone else into that arrangement. Also, it tends to leave a lot of the responsibility on the shoulders of the one being moved in with, since most everything is in their name.

This also can cause issues from a possessive standpoint as the person who is moving in likely will be moving into an already furnished dwelling, so most of the "things" in the house or apartment belong to the other person which can leave them feeling like it's not really their home, but that instead, they are just sharing in another person's life. So they are left feeling like they are sitting on their partner's couch, sleeping in their partner's bed, which might not annoy some people, but it's nice to feel like you are a contributing member or that belongs are partially your own.

Financial issues can rear their ugly head too in this situation because the person moving in may not feel that they need to contribute an equal amount. After all, the house/apartment isn't in their name, and the person who was living there before they moved in was doing just fine paying everything on their own. They may feel that their moving in doesn't really cause any additional expense to the original dweller and therefore they might not feel as inclined to contribute an equal amount. Whether there is good communication between the new couple or not, this could lead to issues down the road where one side or the other feels like they are being taken advantage of.

Then there is the whole matter of time. People who have been dating for a long time generally have a handle on how much time they spend with their partner. People who move in together too rapidly, may find themselves more easily smothered in the relationship because suddenly their space has been occupied by their partner and now when they would normally have personal time, it is suddenly shared time with someone else, which may not always be a good thing. It's healthy in either case to have some personal time away from their partner to just reflect, relax, and enjoy.

Conditional Friendship

This is a public blog so I have to be careful on this one, but I'm frustrated right now and have to rant. I have a friend that is an ex. I don't know if any of you are familiar with that, but sometimes it's really difficult to maintain friendship with an ex, particularly when that ex still has feelings for you. It's been something like 2 years since we have been together, and during the course of the past 2 years we have had bouts of time when we would not speak to each other because things were just too hard, or my ex needed a little space. The last such bout lasted several months... to the point where I really thought our friendship had reached it's end.

Well that bout finally passed and we are now friends again, but I find that every time I consider moving on, or trying to date, the friendship gets rocky again. I know it's not fair to be one-sided about this, as my ex still has feelings and it's hard to see someone you care about moving on to someone else, but at what point do you just realize that things are what they are, we can't change them, and the best we can do is pick up the pieces of our lives that are still intact and keep on trucking?

So here's my situation. I have met someone and started dating. I think there is a possibility that it may become more serious down the road and would like to share this with my best friend. Yet my best friend has been feeling a little mopey, both from the Winter months dragging on and on, and with life in general. There has been expression that things are just hard right now, and so I feel I must be delicate about sharing my new-found joy. It's hard to have news that you wish you could share with your friends, but feel you can't because you know your friendship is conditional, and sharing that joy may end the friendship. Then again, if that is true, what kind of friendship is it really?

*sigh*

The Porn Industry

Okay, this rant is personal, because I just caught my 11 yr old son visiting a porn site which comes with it's own slew of rants, but for now I'm just going to address the porn industry itself.

I'm not a prude. I enjoy sex as much as the next person... I acknowledge that many people have different outlooks on their sexual preferences. Some people enjoy "missionary sex" others enjoy "bestiality" or more outlandish sexual encounters. I'm not really one to judge, and in my mind you can be into whatever you want to be into as long as it doesn't impact me.

The porn industry makes a lot of money from attracting the curious, the perverse, and often the innocent wanderer. It used to be that porn was more difficult to access. You could find the sites easily enough with a few simple keywords in a search, but the sites were often guarded with an entry screen which would in the least, have you click to confirm that you were of age. It seemed as though many site required a credit card to enter the site so that it could confirm that you were an adult. As the widespread of the internet continues to grow, rules and regulation seem to fade into the distant past. Porn sites are not only available through searches, but they spill over the web through web advertising, pop-up ads, and other invasive techniques. Not only are the sites not really protecting their content from minors, but the accessibility has become such that even a child can innocently find themselves in a dangerous place.

And then there is the porn itself. Most porn is not intended for the romantic. It's strictly sex, and of course generally skewed to male desires which are often degrading to women. (e.g. cum shots to the face, bondage, and various other practices) I know that pornography is intended to arouse, but where do we as a society draw the line?

It makes me sad to think that this is where things are going in the world, but when you look at just about anything, such as the video game industry, it's not hard to see that the notion that "sex sells" is just something I am going to have to learn to accept. I'm also going to have to accept that it's VERY accessible and if I want to protect my son, I'm going to have to invest in some serious parental controls and watch programs. I shouldn't have to do this, but I do have to and that is just the way of the world anymore. The responsibility falls entirely in your own lap as no one or no business is ever held accountable for their actions in this day and age.

So to the porn industry and my son's tainted and polluted mind thanks to you, I give you a big middle finger.