My T-Mobile Blackberry had a problem: I got a message that told me that it needed my email pass code changed after hours of me receiving no emails. So without any warning and no choice to fix it before stopping my service, they shut it off. They sent me a message with fix options (some of which I couldn’t use because my email function wasn’t working WAS IT!) but since I had no service there was nothing I could do about it until I got to a computer.

When I got to my PC, I was unable to find what they told me to find (Is it me? or does anyone else have that problem? Why can’t I ever find what they tell me to look for? My brain just doesn’t heed those sorts of commands), so I had to call them.

Gruesome. Am I the only person who doesn’t fit into the normal options offered by voice robots? First of all, why do they make me chose from functions that are irrelevant to me, and not give me options that I can use? All of the options are self-serving: how can they get more business. Do I want to sign up for new service? Do I want to buy new capability? No you dodo’s. I want you to fix my email that you turned off without telling me!

Within minutes of hearing these inane options, I began yelling into the phone: REPRESENTATIVE REPRESENTATIVE REPRESENTATIVE, hoping that the stupid robot would get me to some help. But it continued droning on with their options. By the time someone answered the phone, I was already a lunatic. Ok. I calmed down. It wasn’t the woman’s fault that all of that happened. But the rest was.

“Can you tell me why T-Mobile turned off my email capability in order to change my password, and didn’t give me any choice to fix it first – like a warning? And I couldn’t turn it back on with the link you gave me. I’d like you to walk me through my options so we can get this fixed now, please.”

She began telling me to get on line, and I told her I was already on line, and I told her what page I was on, what was on there, that I couldn’t find where she told me to click. Then she hung up on me.

I’ve been known to be abrupt, and be sarcastic when annoyed (ME?), but this time I was relatively nice. Guess she didn’t think so! But I really understood it wasn’t her fault, and I was trying to give her all of the problems I was having and not resolving. Maybe she was overwhelmed by my confusion? Maybe there wasn’t an answer? Maybe she was a new person? I thought that maybe there was a phone problem. So I called back. and back. and back. and back. And each time I heard: “Our office hours are X to Y. If you are getting this message please call back within normal business hours.” It was. I did. I had. And I had no recourse. And my Blackberry still wasn’t working.

I ended up having my tech guy call up and fix it for me. But I had to bother him on a Saturday.

Don’t these companies have a responsibility to help me fix the problem they created? Aren’t I their customer? Don’t they want to make me happy? Couldn’t they have given me a warning that they were going to do that so I could have fixed it before it became a problem? Couldn’t the woman have told me what she needed from me before hanging up on me? Or not blocked me (or whatever happened)? Am I the only person that this stuff happens to? Sometimes it feels this way – certainly more often with phone companies and tech companies than other companies.

Just asking.

As always, I am here to help companies and individuals improve their customer service.