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Screwed on auto-refill - dispute charges?

UncleMike

Android Expert
Nov 15, 2009
2,321
483
Central NJ
With my service end date approaching after refilling using a 90-day card almost 90 days ago, I attempted to buy a 90 day refill through walmart.com, but their marvelous fraud prevention system flagged the order for some reason, and the order was followed by an email telling me there was an error processing the order and the order had been cancelled. Because I'm a glutton for punishment, I tried to order 9 more times, each time getting the same result. I'm currently waiting for a call back from Walmart on this issue.

Having previously been on auto-refill with a $2.50/month discount, I made sure I had a valid credit card setup in their system, and decided to let auto-refill go through and bridge the gap until I could resolve the issue with Walmart. To my surprise, I was charged full price for a 90-day refill, instead of (a discounted) $42.50. My first call to ironically-named "customer service" got me a rep who insisted that the discount was only for customers on the $45 unlimited plan, and she failed to understand that this is the plan I'm on, regardless of whether I refill for 30 days or 90 days. An email to "customer service" detailing the overcharge and requesting a refund resulted in them telling me they cannot process the transaction by email, and that I need to call. My second call got me a rep who insisted that the discount was discontinued in February, despite the fact that my account details page tells me I'm eligible for this promotion.

The disputed amount is only $8 spread over 90 days, but I'm ticked off by their complete lack of logic and have a desire to pursue it anyway, even though it will clearly be more trouble than it's worth. My next step is to dispute the charge with the credit card company, which I've already contacted (but not disputed the charge yet).

Without this refill, today would be my last day of service. Objectively I know that it's not worth pursuing, but I think I need to hear it from someone else. Should I just chalk it up as a learning experience?
 
I've decided I'm going to leave it alone, or leave Straight Talk completely. I've had another issue recently where my conditional call forwarding got reset and I was unable to clear it. After several emails back and forth today with customer service, they've actually managed to make things worse - now it's set at the default values and I am unable to change it at all.

I understand that pre-paid service doesn't offer all the "perks" of post-paid, and maybe there really are some things they are unable to do, like clearing my call forwarding settings so that calls NEVER forward anywhere (even though they've done this for me before), but I really think that 90% of the time when a customer can't get what they want from customer services, it's because of clueless reps who have no training and don't know what they're talking about.
 
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I've decided I'm going to leave it alone, or leave Straight Talk completely. I've had another issue recently where my conditional call forwarding got reset and I was unable to clear it. After several emails back and forth today with customer service, they've actually managed to make things worse - now it's set at the default values and I am unable to change it at all.

I understand that pre-paid service doesn't offer all the "perks" of post-paid, and maybe there really are some things they are unable to do, like clearing my call forwarding settings so that calls NEVER forward anywhere (even though they've done this for me before), but I really think that 90% of the time when a customer can't get what they want from customer services, it's because of clueless reps who have no training and don't know what they're talking about.
I agree.
But need to add one caveat reps are reading from a script, they mostly can not deviate from it.
 
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I agree.
But need to add one caveat reps are reading from a script, they mostly can not deviate from it.

I made a call to customer service this morning and got a completely different experience. I explained that I had an open email ticket and was directed to call and ask for a manager. I go transferred to a manager immediately, and she was able to resolve my problem within minutes. She even agreed to stay on the line while I verified that the problem was fixed. Unfortunately, while I was testing, we got disconnected. Much to my surprise, she called me back on the number I had called from. Getting to a manager, who I think is not bound by a script, made all the difference.

I understand that companies want to provide a consistent customer services experience, and that having reps adhere to a script is one way achieve that, but for all but the simplest issues a script leads to a consistently BAD customer service experience. I'd rather have a mix of bad and good unscripted experiences instead.

My son is taking some AP in high school, followed by AP tests. Get a high enough score on the AP test, and you can get college credit for the corresponding course. There should be similar tests for customers - we ought to be able to take an AP test, and with a high enough score, bypass level 1 scripted support. Not only would this improve our experience, but it would decrease the need for lower level support. On the down side, some of us might find out that we're not as smart as we think we are. :)
 
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I made a call to customer service this morning and got a completely different experience. I explained that I had an open email ticket and was directed to call and ask for a manager. I go transferred to a manager immediately, and she was able to resolve my problem within minutes. She even agreed to stay on the line while I verified that the problem was fixed. Unfortunately, while I was testing, we got disconnected. Much to my surprise, she called me back on the number I had called from. Getting to a manager, who I think is not bound by a script, made all the difference.

I understand that companies want to provide a consistent customer services experience, and that having reps adhere to a script is one way achieve that, but for all but the simplest issues a script leads to a consistently BAD customer service experience. I'd rather have a mix of bad and good unscripted experiences instead.

My son is taking some AP in high school, followed by AP tests. Get a high enough score on the AP test, and you can get college credit for the corresponding course. There should be similar tests for customers - we ought to be able to take an AP test, and with a high enough score, bypass level 1 scripted support. Not only would this improve our experience, but it would decrease the need for lower level support. On the down side, some of us might find out that we're not as smart as we think we are. :)
Yes, very true.

I am very glad you got this resolved.
 
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My son is taking some AP in high school, followed by AP tests. Get a high enough score on the AP test, and you can get college credit for the corresponding course. There should be similar tests for customers - we ought to be able to take an AP test, and with a high enough score, bypass level 1 scripted support. Not only would this improve our experience, but it would decrease the need for lower level support. On the down side, some of us might find out that we're not as smart as we think we are. :)

LOL, that is a great idea, but from a business point of view a bad idea. If 50% of customers are bypassing tier 1, 2 or even 3 you need more techs at the higher level since the lower levels are not acting as blockers, and in some cases screening simple issues that even smart people can over look, or simply don't feel they have time to research on their own at that time. I assume that higher tiers also earn more, so if you have more of them even with an equal number of layoffs at lower levels it cost more.
 
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