Monthly Archives: August 2014

A HAPPY FOLLOW UP TO THE SAGA T-MOBILE/SPRINT EARLY TERMINATION FEES!!! (PART II)

Posted on by
1

As I  already shared with you, I spent over two hours yesterday, going through various states of mind, from outrage, to anger, to the need for justice trying to recuperate what was promised to me. After speaking with approximately 4 representatives and 3 manager, plus a 4th which I gave up on, since the hold was over 5 minutes, and decided to quit!!!

Meanwhile, Sprint, as soon as I switched to T-Mobil,  gave my account to a COLLECTION agency!

So now, in addition, MY CREDIT was destroyed and the collections called several times a day!

If I wanted to switch back to Sprint, Sprint “Financial Escalation,” Rachel, who clearly recited a SCRIPT, because what are brain for, but to be carefully preserved by not using them… Rachel cheerfully informed me that I would STILL have to pay the early termination fees, even if I came back.  REMEMBER, UNBENDING RULES!!! SURPRISED CLIENTS LEAVE ?

I said, trying to match her cheerful attitude, that the ONLY REASON I would go back to Sprint would be if Spring waved the termination fees. Really hard to understand my reasoning! As now I owe 436.70 to Sprint and $140.00  to T-Mobile and I live on fixed income and fighting cancer! Really what the doctor ordered: stress!

Well Sprint did NOT need clients I guess, because Rachel   insisted this was IT, and  I said bye to Sprint forever!!!

Back home, I called ONE last time T-Mobile and praise God, I spoke with a T-Mobile Representative who understood MY SITUATION  and why I was upset  in 5 minutes and SOLVED IT!!! SAME T-MOBIL –SHE SOLVED WHAT 7 PEOPLE COULDN’T. As a result, I want to give Holly the  well deserved credit and thanks because thanks to her extraordinary service I am staying with T-Mobil and am about to upgrade my phone.

Lesson I learned: Read the small print, and remember not all people are equal. Some understand situations which do not fit in the cookie cutters and their scripted messages. These are the People you MUST find and they deserve my five minutes to say thank you when thanks are  due! 

I 

 

IS T – MOBILE REALLY GOING TO PAY YOUR EARLY TERMINATION FEES TO YOUR CELL PHONE CARRIER TO GAIN NEW CLIENTS??

Posted on by
1

I have just spend a total of 2 hours and 14 minutes on hold and speaking with various T-Mobil representatives,  trying to UNDERSTAND why I received a letter from T-MOBIL informing me I DO NOT QUALIFY to have the early termination fees  due Sprint by T-Mobile PAID. TRUSTING T-Mobile  advertisments, I left Sprint and believed T-mobile and their promises : WE WILL PAY your early termination fees if you switch to T-Mobile!

Oh wait!!! NO ONE told me it MUST be done within 2 months. No ONE told me to search T-Mobile web site, the ONLY place where this “requirement  is spelled out: Completion within 60 days!!!

Not only that no one at T-Mobile informs the NEW clients they MUST finish the transaction within 2 months, but the bureaucracy at T-Mobile REQUIRES the termination fees to be clearly written by the former carrier, in my case, Sprint. Between Sprint mailing the statement with the termination fees clearly stated, and T Mobil processing the fees, last night I received an email from T-Mobil informing me, they will NOT PAY MY EARLY TERMINATION FEES. 

I called customer service, which directed me to a ETF Reimbursement Department which ONLY had a computerized system. I called customer service again, they knew the “secret of putting me in touch with a human!”  Not that it mattered. 

I patiently explained the story to a total of 4 representatives and 4 manager… hmm make it 3, as after 5 minutes on hold I hang up still waiting for another “God-manager” from T-Mobile to probably tell me NO again!!!

What was I thinking??? Am I stupid or something? Yes, I did believe them, yes I deserve the titled of stupid and also the promise of never  TRUSTING T- Mobile!

Please forward this to all your friends and ALL your networks!!! How did I think T-Mobile makes a profit!!!

Meanwhile, I did NOT pay Sprint, which graciously gave my account to collections. So, now, in addition, I spoiled my credit and receive between 3-7 calls a day from the Collection agency.

Just what I need, to stress out myself even more, as I continue to fight a serious health problem.

I NEVER asked my readers to SHARE a post, although I know many of you do share. This time, I feel what I consider, and I speak about MY experience with T-Mobile, is a case of non-disclosure and boarders a ” bait and switch” situation, 

I hope this will prevent others from trying to save money and instead ruining their credit!

I HOPE those with similar experiences will comment and let us know their experiences with T-Mobile.

We, on this blog, discovered and fought many schemes. Our purpose is to show the big corporation, WE have a VOICE and matter!!!

The ONLY Way Out is In and Through!

Posted on by
1

These wise words were written on a hard rock. I bought it at an auction for $10, a minimum price, because no one bid on it.

When life gets “almost” unbearable, I walk in the garden and read  this sentence, to remind myself that life ONLY gives us ONE direction… and OUT, at last!

Thank you, unknown author, for inspiring me to write this poem:

I stand alone,

Strong and determined

In the face of Adversity!

I smile at times

and

Hope happiness lasts forever,

Yet I know it doesn’t!

I came on Earth with nothing

But my Soul wrapped in a body,

I leave with a heavy Wrap 

Which pushes me down,

And an enriched  Soul,

Which lifts me up, into Eternity!

No one knows for sure…

… what is it, where is it,

If it exists at all…

Those who go through and out,

Never return!

That much, we know…

Never Say Never, Never !

Posted on by
1

 Christmas holidays of 1989 found me in bed, sick with a high fever and a nasty cough.  Everything in my body  hurt, but in all truth, the pain of my spirit, the emotional pain was far greater! It always IS, regardless the general denial present in our culture. Mine, at the time, felt like a … blob of confusion and questionings of my own past judgments and life changing decisions and of course, future consequences.

As sick as I felt, I was probably not as ill as I remember, because I I had the strength to turn on the television and watched the news. Television… I guess, a sickness of our culture, the voices coming out of a lifeless object conveniently giving me the illusion of having company, of not being alone…

At first, I thought  I imagined what I heard on CNN, in 1989. I wondered if  perhaps, what I perceived as reality and the news I heard, were only  a result my deep desire which surfaced in the form of CNN news. Perhaps it was caused by the high fever.  

I  swallowed another pill of Motrin. The fever went down, but the news stayed on!!!  Details, and more details, Ceausescu, the President of communist Romania spoke to the crowds in the square,Far in the background, I could see on and off the apartment building where I lived. My childhood street. I was already teary, listening to the lies I knew so well, because there is nothing more accurate than first hand experience.

As I was trying to get a glimpse of my parent’s apartment, as if it was possible to touch the TV screen and move the image to my convenience, I heard a wave of angry voices coming from the crowds. Generally, people were bused in for Ceausescu’s endless speeches, and ordered to cheer him. Hmm… something went wrong,  the always obedient  grew stronger and stronger, until Ceausescu’s voice seemed weak and insignificant  compared to the  unexpected outcry of determination of the people in the square! The message, which I perceived as coming from the hundreds assembled  in the square  was  that of the roar of an unstoppable storm.  The message was simple and universally translatable: We had enough! Enough lies, terror, lack of freedom and poverty!

The coverage continued, the plot tickened.  Ceausescu tried to overcome the roar of the crowds with his voice, but power is in numbers, and suddenly, for the first time I saw a human emotion expressed in his eyes: FEAR!

President Nicolae Ceausescu, and his wife, Elena  escaped in a helicopter, to only be captured later and faced the long due judgment of the people they cowed for almost 40 years, with no remorse. The CNN cameras were so close to their faces, I could see the horror and disbelieve in their eyes.

At last, the verdict was given and they were executed by a firing squad on Christmas Day 1989.

They fell to the ground under the rain of bullets shot at them by the executioners.  Everything seemed surreal… Their death marked the fall of communism in Romania, as similar  events took place everywhere in  other communist countries. Communism became history.

Years before 1989,  as thousands of others, I chose freedom at any risk. I didn’t want to exist, but to truly live. I wanted to speak up, or tell a political joke, without the fear that the following day. a security officer would knock at my door and arrest me for disobeying the “rules” of the regime. I wanted to write and travel I couldn’t take their rules or obey them any longer!  What were the rules? Truth be told, there was one rule and various branches of it. The root was the same: OBEY blindly!!!

I couldn’t do it any more, and left my native country. I knew the risks, and only imagined the rewards, still there was no question in my mind, at the time, there could have been nothing worse than killing the human spirit and what made us, humans, unique among all others: Our capability to think, to create and be free to do so without the fear of negative consequences!

On that day, of Christmas of 1989, still shivering with fever, watching the dead bodies of the very people whose rulings determined me to leave my native land, I made a promise to myself:

 NEVER SAY NEVER! I never thought it possible for communism to end and Ceausescus to be executed and pay for their crimes. Yet it happened! 

As years went by, and  communism became “a concept,”  something that younger generations cannot imagine as having been “that bad,” I looked back at life as a whole. At both lives the Higher Power allowed me to experience, both in Romania and America.  Did I ever imagine the fall of communism could become a reality? No, never, in my most unrealistic dreams or hopes. Yet, I was wrong! The apparently rock-strong system of terror came to an end. 

The only certain concept was, and will always be, CHANGE!

Twenty years later, holding in my hands the published  book I wished to write with such burning desire that I didn’t allow any obstacles to stand in my way, I promised myself:

Never say never, and always HOPE and act as if anything is possible!

This became the guiding principle of my life, and for it I am grateful to the Higher Power which supported me in the hardest, strangest of circumstances, and continues to do so, in spite of my doubts and questionings.

Do I believe in God? The most accurate and honest response is: WE have a relationship. Ups and downs, doubts and gratefulness. At least there is a relationship and as anyother is not perfect, but it’s strong and it exists!