The Organized Index

The Organized Index: "Sites, boards, blogs, groups (like Yahoo) that are listed here are places setup by OH Members. They maybe personal sites/blogs simply for staying in touch, or they may be members trying to provide alternatives for the community. "

Nextel Call and Coverage Drop List

Wireless Notes -- Nextel Call and Coverage Drop List: "This list is intended to provide a consolidated reference to a series of posts, messages, and other observations as to repeated dropped calls and service problems in/on areas/roads which should have good coverage, using Nextel's iDEN phone service in the US."

Well, Nextel/Sprint Customer care hung up on me again. Apparently they don't like to be bothered with pesky network and account problems.

When I called to file a complaint about Joe, a lovely lady named Shauna took the complaint and then made me an offer to replace my current phones with hybrids, at minimal up front cost to me (approximately $6), which I said I would need to think over. She said she wrote everything down in my file and even gave me a confirmation number.

After having rounded up all my phone owners and checking to make sure this idea was acceptable, I called back in a few days later to accept her offer and try to get these lines working again.

Oops.. transfer to Shauna's voicemail. Alright, she was a nice lady, I'll give her the benefit of the doubt.

Two days later... Still no call back. Well, maybe the message got lost. Right. So now, a bit peeved, I call Nextel Sprint back and ask for Shauna. Wheeee.. straight to voicemail. Um, ok. Call back. Ask for Shauna's supervisor and was told it was a Jonathan. Next day we called back to see why they didn't return our call and was told to wait at least 48 hours for him to return the call and zip - voicemail.

Two days later... Still no call back. (Do we see a pattern here?)

So here I am, trying to get a hold of Joe or Shauna or Jonathan. No, scratch that. I don't want to talk to them. They don't return calls or take my problem seriously. I want someone who knows what the hell they're doing and can take care of this problem.

Oh - and that confirmation number? It apparently went *poof* because no one knows what I'm talking about. In fact, the whole conversation with Shauna appears to have been deleted (I'm sure by mistake, right?) from my file. All that's left is the placed and canceled order, which was done to see how much out of pocket this mess was going to cost me.

I have, to date, made approximately 40 calls to customer service trying to get this issue taken care of. Ridiculous.

Mess

Yes, mess. Messy room, messy desks, messy children. It absolutely amazes me how much mess they can make in just a few short hours at their desks. Surveying the room right now, I see paper on the floor, markers without lids, orphaned crayons, a drying glue stick, and half of the desks moved out of place. It looks, in short, like someone took the room, shook it around, and dumped it back on the ground.

Unfortunately, the homeschool room is also my home office, so after they leave, I still have to work in here. I'll either have to clean it up myself or try to ignore it until 5 when I can let the little buggers back in to clean it up themselves.

Nextel's Solution: Buy more phones!

So, I finally, after refusing to be put on hold or to call a voice mail again, I get a hold of Joe.

Joe tells me their "grand solution" is to migrate my phones to Sprint - at cost to me, of course. They will credit my account for the cost of the phones (somewhere in the neighborhood of $300-400 per phone) but they will not issue a monetary credit nor will they refund the money if the service doesn't work.

I can, however, switch back to Nextel network if they don't work.

Thanks for all the great help!

Oh, and the supervisor, Keith, was equally as helpful. According to him, all I can do is escalate a ticket - which will, admittedly, do absolutely nothing.

UPDATE: When I called to escalate my tickets (yes, all of them!) I found out all of them had been closed with favorable resolutions. Apparently, because they were unable to reach me on my mobile number, we were no longer interested in pursuing the ticket. So they closed them. Even the ones we put in yesterday and the day before. Well, now that makes a lot of sense considering my phone doesn't have reception most of the time. I bet I ignored your call on purpose. So I opened a new ticket. But you guessed it! It will be 3-5 business days before they can get to it, and longer still before I can escalate.

Kids & The Phone

WHY WHY WHY do kids wait until you get on the phone to yell, scream, rant, fight, or want your attention? I sit here, for 3-4 hours every day, at my desk facing theirs, and for most of that time I'm completely available for anything they might need.

Unless I'm on the phone.

THEN they are supposed to work quietly and not bother me.

Today, while on the phone with customer service because of network problems (although thankfully not the nefarious Donella), the boys had at it. Yep, the whole screaming, fighting, one leg hits one nut all-out-brawl.

*Sigh*

I apologize to the poor rep, took care of the busted balls, doled out a little discipline, and reinforced the BE QUIET WHILE I'M ON THE PHONE rule.

UPDATE: It must be one of those days. The very next call (an insurance auditor!) got the requisite round of fighting over a pencil.

Nextel Customer Service Boobs

I just got dropped from another call to Nextel customer service, and let me tell you some of those people are complete morons.

Today I spoke with a rude and incompetent lady named Donnella. Following previous advice, I had asked for Account Services - you know, those people who are supposed to be authorized to make changes to your account?

Well, apparently, my account has been transferred to a Joe. Who is Joe? I ask. You talked to him last time, he has taken over your account.

"I don't have any record of a Joe," I tell her. "I didn't talk to a Joe. I have a Mike on record..."

"Yes you did. You talked to Joe."

Okay, first of all, WTF? I'm going to lie about talking with a Joe instead of a Mike? And what difference does it make?

"I'm going to transfer you to his voice mail."

Whoa - hold on. "I want to talk to a person, not a machine. You never call back when I leave messages."

"Here is his direct number." She then rattles of a string of numbers that I can barely understand half of. She doesn't speak English, after all, and I should be more tolerant of her disability. After a few false starts, my demanding that she repeat it so I can understand her, and her having to look up the number again for some strange reason, she repeated it slowly (with a nasty little lilt) so my 3-year old brain could understand her. Of course, if Nextel hired Customer Service Reps who speak English in the first place, this wouldn't be a problem.

Of course, it's a long distance number. And since my Nextel doesn't work and I have to call from the office land line, I'll have to pay for every minute.

"Don't transfer me to a voice mail."

"I'll send him an email." She clicks some stuff, sending him an email I presume.

Hello?? Is your understanding of English that bad?? I want to talk to someone about my account, not get dropped into the voice mail black hole! That person was supposed to be YOU! Now I'm glad it isn't her. She's an idiot. A rude idiot at that.

Click. Phone disconnected. Not even a voice mail. I wonder if they'll bother to call? Now I have to wait an hour (just so they can't say I didn't wait!) for them to not call me back.

If you have the dubious pleasure of talking with Donnella - give her my regards.

UPDATE: I called the direct number to "Joe" fifteen minutes later and surprise surprise! Voice mail.

UPDATE: An hour later - no return call! I will call them back in twenty minutes or so.

Computer Woes

My computer is dying. A slow, sad, pitiful death. Or so it tells me.

Actually, what it tells me today is that it has a runtime error. In my efforts the other day to find the corrupted mouse driver and eliminate it, I apparently eliminated something else I shouldn't have.

Now Quickbooks - my accounting software for those who don't know what it is - doesn't work.

So I spent some time logging in under the administrator's name (right click run as...) and backing up the program (just in case!).

Don't get me wrong. I love my Dell. It's served me well and the next computer I get will be another one. That doesn't change the fact that my headaches with this won't be over soon, and I'll probably need a brain transplant before it's finished.