Defiantone.com

The back story: I called Nextel before I deployed in order to cancel my service - things didn’t go as planned even though they assured me that everything was fine. Jessica notified me that Nextel had sent me a bill in February - I was obviously annoyed so I sent them an email - they ignored my email so I was forced to call them. I called them and things didn’t go as I hoped - read on -

I called Nextel while I was at work today in an effort to get rid of the erroneous charge and cancel my line. I talked to a gentleman in customer service who looked up my account and saw the previous phone conversations where I had requested cancellation of the service, discussed faxing a copy of my orders, called to verify that they had received all of the information required, and checked up to make sure that it was everything was going to be processed. He asked for a phone number so he could call back should we be disconnected - I told him that I was in Iraq - he was instantly nicer to me. He told me that he would see what he could do and asked to place me on hold - I obliged his request. A few minutes later, he told me that he had canceled the charge. He was unsure as to why there was a disconnect within his system because the account SHOULD have been canceled on the billing cycle ending in January. The customer service representative was helpful and polite throughout our conversation - all phone calls to customer service should be modeled on our interaction. Unfortunately, my interaction with Nextel was about to careen of a steep cliff - he told me that I would have to talk to cancellations yet again.

He transfered me to cancellations where a woman asked for my vitals yet (again) - she told me that my account was a government line because of the military discount that was on my plan. She transferred me to another department before I could even utter a word. I was greeted by a recorded message stating that the department was closed and that I would have to call back during business hours - whenever those might be. My face was immediately flushed with blood and I began to sweat profusely. I called back and played numeric jujitsu with the keypad until I reached another person in the cancellations department - I explained what had happened and asked her to not transfer me again because there was no one at the other end. I had just said “please wai(t)…” but it was too late. She ignored my plea but promised me that someone would answer before she disconnected me - she lied. I received the wonderful recorded message and was met with a dial tone seconds later. At this point, I was having problems trying to see straight - my veins were starting to pop out of my arms and sweat took off like torrents from my body. I was full on annoyed at this point - in fact - if I was talking to a customer service representative in person they might have begun to fear for their safety.

I called back again - this time with another brand of numeric kung foo and reached the cancellations department. I gave them my vitals - again - and was told that they would have to transfer me. I begged Monique (the wonderful Nextel representative) to not transfer me as I would only be greeted by a message to call another day or time. She said she couldn’t do anything - I didn’t believe her - I asked to talk to a supervisor. He told me that they would annotate everything and that the account could be quickly disconnected on a future phone call if I provide them with a handy-dandy reference number. I was transferred back to Monique who recorded the details and who sent me on my merry way - to call on yet another day.

Ten minutes after the phone call I started heart beat began to slow - the adrenalin was starting to wane in my body - I could almost see straight at this time.

Nextel customer service is horrendous - its no wonder they lost $35 billion in their last financial report. When the customer asks for something - make sure you do what you promised the first time. Don’t make them call back - they’ll never come back to you again. I loathe customer service and its no wonder theirs is ranked among the worst.

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 2nd, 2008 at 5:59 am and is filed under Life as I know it, desert, rants. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.