Does anybody read these?

The T-mobile rant

As you know, I am sometimes prone to go off on rants about companies that do things that piss me off. It's not as much about venting (which is nice) as it is about my secret hope that some jackass in the corporate marketing (or maybe legal?) department is in charge of Googling (when did that become a verb?) the company to see what people on the 'Net are saying about their company. Oh, and it comes up on Google for everyone else. So, it's part venting, part customer-service feedback and part warning other consumers.

So, really, I do it because I love.

Now, on to today's rant.

I always pay my cell phone bill online with my Visa check card. I hate writing checks. But I also hate automatic payments because too many things can go wrong when you give someone access to your bank account whenever they want it.

Because even though they say they'll only take money out on a certain day, that never, ever happens. Automatic payments are the root of evil. If I want someone to have money, I will give it to them when it's time for them to have it.

Remember my overdraft on my bank account yesterday?

I have located the culprit. And I'll bet you've already guessed who it is. You see, a few months ago T-mobile assumed that because I always paid at the same time every month straight from my bank account that I was interested in signing up for easy-pay payments. So they just signed me up for it.

At first it was convenient. But I have that sinking-pit feeling about automatic bill payment. Especially after the whole Bally's thing. So, I decided to cancel it. Right now with the way my money is coming in it makes sense to decide whom to pay when it's most convenient for me, and not for them. I'm sure that's not the best thing for my credit, but I haven't shirked anything too big and I'm working on keeping my credit somewhat decent. I'll never be one of those people with an astronomical score anyhow. I'll always be average. So no biggie.

And besides, you can't shirk your T-mobile bill for too long, because those bitches shut your phone off if you're about a week late anyhow. Not that I try to be delinquent. Sometimes I just forget. And yes, I know I should be more organized with my bills, but I just never seem to get around to it.

So anyhow, I went in this week to cancel my automatic bill payment. It wouldn't go into effect until next month, but that was OK because my bill wasn't due until the 24th, which conveniently happened to be my payday. So, crisis averted.

Well, in everyone's world except mine.

Because that's why there was a hold on my account yesterday. That's why I'm overdrawn today. And yes, I realize that it's only the 23rd, and the bill isn't due until the 24th.

Were you as shocked as I was? Because I was pretty pissed about it. So I decided to call T-mobile to bitch.

And guess what I found out?

Two things, actually. The first is that T-mobile takes automatic payments out three days before your due date. Perhaps if I'd signed up for it instead of having it thrust upon me, I would've seen that in some fine print. But that's shady. If you're going to take my money out on the 21st, then change my due date to the 21st.

Oh, and the second thing. The nice lady who answered the phone today (I wouldn't even try to spell her name, but it was pretty.) took it all in stride, even when I described the situation as "Fan-fucking-tastic." I don't think her friends are very funny, because she laughed like that was the funniest thing she'd ever heard. But back to the second thing. Are you ready?

They never cancelled my auto-pay when I went online to do it the other day.

So, nice-girl-whose-name-I-can't-pronounce cancelled it and took my Visa check card out of the system. So, no more auto-pays for me. It was too confusing. If you tell someone their due date is a certain day, that should be their due date. So from now on, I'm going to be in charge of when they get paid. It really bothers me that they would just assume I wanted automatic bill pay and keep taking my money. I'm sure there was some loophole I didn't notice that allowed them to do it. It bothers me that they take the money before they are supposed to receive it. I refuse to believe that a company as big as T-mobile is hurting for funds so much that they need my money three days early.

I just wish companies had better customer service policies in general. The gal I talked to was very nice. Overall, I have enjoyed T-mobile and I've been a customer since way before they were even T-mobile. But I don't understand why they don't just change the due date if they intend to take the money early. That's a really shitty policy. And because it's their policy, I'm the one who's going to have to pay all the fees to dig my account out of all the overdrafts. And I look like the person who's flighty and bounces checks.

All that pisses me off. If I had a business, I would never let that happen to my customers.

Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming.

posted by Laura at 8:15 AM