[alltherage]

Am I being unreasonable if I send this to an executive at my cell phone company? Man I am pissed.

I know it's long.

EDIT: I removed names and company name so that if they resolve it I'm not bashing the hell out of them. I'll keep those interested in this posted about how it is resolved.

Good Afternoon,

This letter is in regards to a phone conversation I had with [Manager] from your Manger Dept at your customer service, made around 1:00 Mountain Time on July 19 2010.

My blackberry failed yesterday. The speaker in the ear piece stopped working, so calls were not able to be completed. As I am in a contract with [Phone Company] and have been mostly happy with your service, I decided to call and ask about a hardware upgrade. [CSR 1] was extremely helpful and let me know about almost everything I needed to know: how much an iPhone would cost, that it would renew my term for 3 years, and that my plan would have to change slightly.

I went to [Dept Store] and the sales person was very helpful and got me set up with my new iPhone. He told me that the cost of the phone would be on my next bill $99.99 for 3yr upgrade. I was happy with that and took my phone home.

When I got home I saw that there was an “administration fee” of $35 on my account. I didn’t understand what it was, and why it was charged- no one brought it up to me at the time of purchase.

Today I called, and spoke to [CSR 2] in your customer service department. I wanted to make sure my plan would change according to my new phone so that I didn’t have a nasty surprise when I received my bill, and I wanted to address the $35 admin fee.

[CSR 2] was very nice and changed my plan for me. That was my first concern. Then I asked her about the fee and told her I was not made aware of it and I did not know why it was there. She told me it was part of subsidizing the cost of the phone. Why should I subsidize the cost of my phone? Subsidization means “to provide financial assistance”. Am I assisting myself? I asked [CSR 2] if I could speak to a manager, as she was very helpful but said she could not help me with the fee.

[Manager], the manager I was transferred to, told me exactly what [CSR 2] told me. She said the $35 pays to insure the phone for delivery, and to subsidize the phone cost. Why am I paying for [Phone Company] to insure delivery? And since when do customers subsidize their own purchases? All that means is that I pay to assist myself with paying! I feel that I was misled and as a customer of 4 years, paying around $80-90 a month, that I am being taken advantage of.

[Manager] told me I could return the phone but that she would not remove the fee. She told me it was company policy to bring up the fee at the time of purchase. It sounds to me like the only important policies to [Phone Company] are the policies that help [Phone Company]. You didn’t honour your policy of telling me about the fee, yet you have to back the policy that it can’t be taken off? That’s hypocrisy, and it smacks of a bait and switch tactic. You advertise the phone at $99.99 but I have to pay $134.99? That is downright unethical.

I explained my point to [Manager], and she continued to repeat herself that she would not do anything to remove the fee. At this point I was very frustrated, and told her I didn’t need her to repeat herself, that I heard what she said, but that I wanted her to address my points. She would not. She asked me not to make it personal- I had not made any sort of personal reference or attack! She then told me she could give me 100 free minutes. I don’t need extra minutes! I have a plan that fulfills my needs just fine, and I rarely if ever go over!

After getting to a point of extreme frustration, I told [Manager] to forget the administration fee. I wanted to go back to a different customer service agent to discuss my plan to see if I was using everything I was paying for. I have done this a few times in the past. I just like to make sure if I am paying around $85 that I am using up most of my plan and that I am not over paying.

[Manager] refused to transfer me to someone else. I asked her politely, and told her I didn’t feel like talking to her any more as I was very frustrated with her. She refused and told me that if she is capable of helping me that I have to speak to her and that she would not transfer me to someone else.

Excuse me, but am I wrong to expect at least a minimal regard to pleasant customer service? Never in my life have I had a customer service person bully me and tell me that I have to deal with them and cannot speak to someone else. Especially if you know your customer is getting frustrated, why not allow them to speak to someone else? I had completely conceded the $35 admin fee, and I wanted to talk to someone else about something else.

Honestly, it doesn’t matter to me if it’s a $35 fee or a $100 fee. Why is it there? Why are customers “subsidizing” the cost of their own phones? It looks like a bait and switch tactic. I appreciate that you make every effort to inform your customers, and if I had been informed, I would have been happy to pay as it would have been part of my initially agreed price. But now that I’ve been tricked, and dug into this issue, I am extremely displeased with this fee as it seems to be based on a contradiction. If I am the only person buying something, I don’t subsidize my own purchase... I BUY IT!

I encourage you to listen to our phone conversation as it has no doubt been recorded for quality purposes. I was being very reasonable on the phone, did not raise my voice, did not insult or attack, I simply was looking for answers or a resolution, of which I received neither.

I look forward to speaking with someone regarding this matter and how it can be resolved.
Thank you for your time.