May 31, 2008
Without delving into my little cushion of rollover minutes, I’ve been running really close to empty on minutes this month. I’ve been pretty careful about taking or making calls during peak hours the past two weeks, so figured I’d just be getting in under the wire or using a few of those rollover minutes. That’s no big deal, I banked them just in case there were months where extra chattiness cropped up. It turns out that my fond memory of one of AT&T’s policies, counting holidays as a weekend, is alive and well. Monday’s minutes were free!
May 6, 2008
Did you know ….
1. That Treasury Direct’s help line is open until midnight EST?
2. That if you use AutoPay with T-Mobile, they wait 17 or more days to charge your credit card? They actually wait until two days before my NEXT bill is due before the charge hits my credit card. This contrasts sharply with AT&T who charges for the month in advance. I hate that. I probably hate it more because I was deprived of my sweet T-mobile. O T-mobile!
On the more personal side ….
BroDucky Debacles, Part One Million: he’s sent another message via PaDucky asking to talk to me about another variation of “if I make a car payment, can I use the car?” It’s almost funny now. Faster than the speed of completing the sentence, I said no, no, and no, don’t even talk to me about it, no. Seriously, some day he might actually learn what that word means.
My courtesy credit, including tax, has already been applied to my cell phone account. Considering my anticipation of an angry and unsatisfactory call with AT&T, it was really a better outcome than I’d hoped.
March 12, 2008
There are so many reasons to pf-hate on the iPhone, from the outrageous price tag on the phone itself, to the mandatory data component of the rate plan, to the horrible customer service that only operates during mostly regular business hours. (Whaaaat? I pay you HOW much a month for you to give me an automated message about calling back on Monday?? Please! T-mobile had 24 hour customer service and I mean, they had customer service!) And they charge me in advance for each billing cycle! I mean, T-mobile didn’t send me a bill for the month of February until February was over. Don’t bill me for service you haven’t given yet!
Hands down, the worst of it is the basic plan, with only 200 text messages and 450 minutes for $60/month. (I’m using the internet as much as possible to get my $20/month out of it, dangit, so much so that I’m charging once or twice a day! Hah! Force unlimited internet service on me, will you? Though, really, checking your email as often as I do can’t be healthy.)
After exploring a few options, there didn’t seem like there was anything I could do but pay the extortionists. My company has a corporate relationship with AT&T, but when I searched the AT&T site before, any information available was fairly vague, and implied that iPhones weren’t eligible. Maybe I was just misreading. I certainly didn’t encounter the link that I found today: the Discount Registration link that teases you with the possibility of a discount, but never tells you how much the discount is, or what rate plans qualify. The site just takes some personal information to process a validation, and then says:
Please note that to the extent you are eligible for a service discount*, it may take up to two billing cycles (up to two months) for your service discount to appear on your bill. During the first month your service discount is applied, you might receive a pro-rated bill for the days of that month before the discount was applied, and a new bill for the days at the discounted rate.
* Service discounts are available only with qualified rate plans. Service discount is provided solely as a result of the business agreement with your organization and is subject to change or termination without notice to you. Other restrictions may apply.
They sure are cagey about whether or not I qualify, and what exactly I’m qualifying for! Anyway, my fingers are crossed that it’s a decent discount, and I could just kick myself for not finding this the first time around because my first bill was easily the most expensive ever at a shade over $100.
Cross your fingers for me that I see something on the very next billing cycle! Er, is it too much to hope that they’ll apply it to the billing cycle that’s already calculated? Yeah, no. They’re too cheap for that. They won’t even apply it to a full cycle if they can help it, what with that pro-rated ish going on up there. Hmph.