The exploding caller
We got a BlackBerry. Seemed silly not to use it. We’d have to change our mobile phone plan, though, to be able to use all the BlackBerry’s features. This would mean going to the telco’s office at the mall and queueing up, probably for hours. Not an appetizing idea.
Or we could call the telco’s hotline. Also not an appetizing idea. In our experience transacting through the hotline is a soul-sucking experience. We do not like what it triggers in us. Every single time we have called Customer Service (ha ha ha ha ha Ha Ha HA HA HA) we have tried to murder someone through telekinesis.
However we weighed potential benefits vs aggravation and decided to give the hotline a try. It took us 8 minutes to figure out which number option to press, but once we reached a human operator it was surprisingly easy. Changing our postpaid plan took 5 minutes. According to the operator, “alignment would take 24 hours”. It was amazing!
So amazing that we called the hotline again to have our rewards points applied to our phone bill. Again it was surprisingly easy. Took 5 minutes. Afterwards we just had to text our sister to share our amazement.
The text wouldn’t go through. We tried again. No go. We kept trying. We tried texting other people.
We could not send text messages to anyone.
Could this possibly have to do with our pending request to the telco to change our postpaid plan? We dialed the hotline again.
“We can’t seem to text.”
“Upon checking, the issue is connected to your request to upgrade your plan. Alignment takes 24 hours.”
“You mean we won’t be able to text for 24 hours?”
“Not necessarily, but alignment takes 24 hours.”
“You could’ve mentioned that when we made the request.”
“Alignment takes 24 hours.”
“What if we’re expecting an important call?”
“You will receive calls, you just can’t text.”
“We knew it!!! It was too easy!!! There had to be a catch!!!”
We hung up before we could try to murder anyone telekinetically.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
November 27th, 2011 at 05:26
(Place Telco Name Here) Customer Service has got to be one the worst ever. It’s a good thing you were the one who hung up or you’d be the one hung up on by the rep (which cancels out the telekinetic connection if you were using the phone line as your medium).
It sucks to have to call CS at any given time. Hopefully, that would be the last call that you’ll ever make.
Oh, and Yay for your new BlackBerry!
November 27th, 2011 at 11:43
Buti they didn’t tell you na “We can’t assure you that we would be able to activate your Blackberry Internet Service since you didn’t get your unit from us.” My phone wasn’t also purchased here and pahirapan ipa-change ang existing postpaid plan. Sa sobrang frustrayshun, I just got a prepaid sim and manual kong sinet-up. Works just fine. Kaya I don’t understand yung ispluk ng telco.
Enjoy your crackberry!
The best chismis tool ang BBM! :)
November 27th, 2011 at 16:18
if youre coming from an iphone, there will be headaches as well with your new blackberry handset. iOS is miles away from BB OS. once you go inside the setup options “blackberry service book. advanced systems settings,”… ah, hell, even nokia’s symbian is better.
but what’s you BB pin? :-)
November 27th, 2011 at 17:15
yung boss ko nagdala ng mga secondhand bb sa opisina, e walang gustong gumamit kasi masaya na lahat sa iphone. ayun ginawang paperweight. lol
November 27th, 2011 at 18:52
Another worst thing that can happen while calling customer service of telco is the waiting time. It’s much easier to the moon and back! Or the gazillion options to go to! Argh!!! Press 1 if you want to know more about our services! Tseeeeee! Never mind!
November 28th, 2011 at 12:10
i just had my plan changed a couple of weeks ago and i had the same horrible experience. i had to call their customer service more than 5x because i too, wasnt informed that there’s going to be some problems while they’re doing the alignment. ask them what to do just in case u want your line disconnected and before the 24 hours, your line will be up and about. weird, but its true. thats what i did.
November 29th, 2011 at 11:27
what’s worse is that they won’t even let you reach their managers. :(