customer service

I have been in a fog of customer service fits and starts all morning.

For some reason, I awoke knowing that I need to accomplish something today. I need to speak with the vet, as the pooch, in spite of being in month 2 of allergy shots, is scratching herself almost bloody. I need to speak with the cell phone provider, since there seems to be some major screw up regarding the rebates (as well as the SIM cards) for our recent phone upgrade. I need to speak to the bank in New Joy Sea to find out the best way to close our accounts there.

The vet is in surgery and will call this afternoon.

Cingular has no record of our phone upgrade or our new contract. The first rep I spoke to told me the rebate would be half of what the flyer offered. Customer Care wasn't able to deal with the rebate issues, so I was transferred to the Rebate Department. They can't do anything without approval from Customer Care.

Luckily, when I called Customer Care again, I got an angel: Rita, in Oklahoma City. We were on the phone together for about 45 minutes. She is personally sending me the rebate forms (and yes, this was a VIP upgrade so it's $100 rebate on each phone), and was able to discern that our contract was never put in force, as the "activation" on hobbitt's phone was never completed. (I completed that the day the phones arrived, after ascertaining that the SIM cards they sent us were worthless and mining the SIMs out of our old phones.) I used my cell phone to go through the activation process again for hobbitt's phone, while she waited. And waited. And waited. As best I know, it still hasn't gone through.

As for the bank, the first part of that was easy, closing the regular accounts. I still have an IRA there, and it doesn't mature until next year. I only wanted to make sure they had the new address on the account. (I only get statements once per quarter, and truly cannot remember the last time I received a statement.) But fifteen minutes on hold was enough for today.

So now I can either sit around for the rest of the day waiting for the vet to call back, or Rita from Cingular to call back, or I can get a move on. I choose option #2.

This is more than I normally get accomplished in an entire day. And it's only noon.