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| punchify bogus charges
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| 7/14/2010 9:41:00 PM |
Yesterday I talked Rogers out of a $500 cell bill. Well my regular bill is about $100 god I pay too much for my iPhone but they charged me an extra $366 for data used while roaming in Las Vegas last month.
Calling to refuse paying a charge Tip #1:
Be kind and play dumb. I explained that I couldn't turn my network off, so the whole time I was on a wifi network, I was actually on AT&Ts network. Lie. I know every freaking setting and what they all actually mean on my phone. I then explained that I needed to talk to someone in billing to further explain how that data charge could be on there. Even when you press 1 for Billing you get level 1 support.
Tip #2:
During the hold while waiting for the call to escalate - Don't panic. Keep a clear picture in your mind of the outcome you need. In this case to wipe a bogus $366 roaming data charge.
When the call escalated I explained that I got a text message when I arrived in Vegas telling me about the exorbitant text messaging charges. I called Rogers from Vegas to get a plan added for a month to lower the cost of my texts. Turns out the guy was supposed to ask how I'd be using my phone. If I was going to be using data, he was supposed to offer me a data plan as well.
Guy didn't say jack about data.
I told the lady in billing that buddy didn't offer any plans for data usage. I found my loophole. So now the game begins. She put me on hold again to talk to a supervisor about reducing the amount billable for data.
I wait in silence - no hold music. I think they do that to make you more nervous. I found it peaceful.
She likely filed her nails and then came back on the line. I know the supervisor thing is just a chance for them to work out a deal in the background.
Tip #3:
Meanwhile - I did the math. It would cost me $240 ($20 for every month left on my contract) for me to cancel my account today. They would lose over a $1000 in potential revenue from me. I had those figures ready in case I needed them.
Tip #4: (don't settle for the first offer)
When she returned, she kindly offered me $185 off the $366 charge. Perfect they are willing to budge. "If you are willing to reduce the price at all, you acknowledge that your employee made a mistake by not offering me a data plan. So if there was an error made, why not wipe the whole charge?" Reasonable counter I thought.
Silence on the line.
Tip #5: (don't start off with "cancel" to escalate a call - they expect that, work them first and get them involved. It's a game to them too.)
I had to bring out my smoking gun.The I-just-did-the-math counter. I continued to explain the cost of lost revenue and sprinkled in the magic word that escalates all calls. "CANCEL". That's right I had to put all my cards on the table. "I'm afraid I will need the entire charge wiped or I'll have to cancel today."
Her response...I'll check with my supervisor.
While on hold this time, I realized I had made a pretty good argument, and I bet they are willing to wipe the charge. It then occurred to me that it would be a huge pain in the ass to cancel my number etc, but then I remembered the new iPhone 4G and thought if I must I must.
She returned to the call to tell me that they would wipe the entire charge all but $60 that the data plan the guy should have sold me would have cost.
Tip #6:
Know when you've struck a good deal, even if it doesn't exactly match your original expected outcome. Good negotiations are always win win. At this point I invested a good portion of my lunch hour, so I threw in the towel. "OK thank you."
Why did I do all of this? Well not just because I think $6 for a single megabyte of data is highway robbery. (What the US roaming data charges worked out to.) No, because I have a 6G data plan on my phone that I've been paying $30 for for the last 2 years. My lifetime data usage is a whopping 233 MB sent and 3.2G received. That's right I've paid $720 for 144 gigs of data and have used less than 4. I think Rogers owes me 140 gigs of data, so there's no way in hell I'm paying $366 for 60 MB. Ffffff u and the little data plan you rode in on.
And that's all I have to say about that.
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| This was automagically filed under democracy fail |
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