*3 For Ease
I stayed home sick today. I felt like crap. And in my crappiness I got an automated call from Sprint telling me if I didn’t pay my bill all my services would be shut of today. Well crap. I thought I paid all my bills on pay day. But then again my mind has been stressed and a mess all week.
I called *3 to connect to Sprint and pay my bill. It seemed easier than logging in and doing it online like I usually do. I spent five minutes putting in all the info they needed. And then all of a sudden, I was transferred to human. I’m sick. I feel like crap. I don’t want to deal with a person. At least she didn’t have an Indian accent, so I thought it might be okay.
She asked for all the info I had just given her. Then she asked for my PIN. I don’t know my PIN. It is in my computer as a cookie and I have no clue. So she asked me what my first grade school was. I told her and she informed me that was incorrect. Wow. This woman somehow knew I went to a different school I don’t remember before kindergarten?
I just want to pay my bill.
I had to give her the amount of my last payment. I had to tell her how I paid it. I had to tell her how much was currently due. At this point, and remember I feel like crap, most of my answers were, “I don’t know…something like xxx I JUST WANT TO PAY MY BILL.” The non-Indian customer service rep told me she needed all this information to protect my identity.
I’m sorry, but if someone wants to take the trouble to steal my phone, call *3 and pay my bill, I really am okay with that. The ONLY bit of information SHE gave me was the amount owed. And I really don’t care who knows how much I owe Sprint for my phone bill.
“So do you want to pay with a debit card or check?” Remember my stressed and messy mind from paragraph one? Yea. An ATM ate my debit card earlier this week. I left it in the machine after I withdrew some cash. So I gave her all of my checking account information.
After waiting for what seemed like an eternity, she told me the transaction was complete except for one step.
In order to pay by check, I needed to have a PIN.
Filed under: vendor vent, Ranting
Oh my.. the perfect example why we should thank Al Gore every day in our Mormon prayers for the internet. AISTTITNOJC, AMEN.
Ugh, I had the same exact experience with my State Farm Insurance. My security answers were wrong, and apparently I’m the only one who can reset my logon information, but I can’t do it by email, because they need to confirm my identity. As if they can do that any better by phone than by email! And, like you, I didn’t give a flying fuck if someone wanted to break into my insurance account and pay my bill. Let them go crazy!
Anyway, that’s why I’ve started using my credit union’s bill pay service for every bill. That way I can bypass all the hoops you have to jump through to access your accounts otherwise. I recommend it.
the best online billpay i know of is comcast, it’s twitterlike simple.
the worst is rocky mountain power and questar, they are like some throwback to to a 1998 web design usability project.
have you tried ‘pageonce’? you can build all your accounts there and just logon to it and get to all of them at once.
captcha: trees runners
And this is why I hate people.
I had a horrible experience with AT&T when my blackberry needed to be replaced. It took days and many customer service reps. One of which repeatedly hung up on me. ON PURPOSE. All because I told her to cut the fucking shit and help me already. Sheesh, so sensitive.
PS. My CAPTCHA is: prison following. Is this some sort of sign that I should date within the corrections system?
This sound just like my life lately. I can completely relate. Even though it sucked to experience, your witty retelling really brightened my day.
Thanks,
J