When it comes to discounted merchandise, Walmart is my “go
to” place hands down. From food to everyday products, there is where most of my
money goes. My pastor once said that if you want to know where your loyalty
lies, look at your check book registry. Well mines is flooded with Walmart entries.
I shop so often at Walmart, I should have stocks in the company – lol. So naturally
when I was looking for an inexpensive cellphone service plan, Walmart was my
first choice. I was excited to discover that they offered a “bring your own
device” plan through StraightTalk which allowed me to keep my old cell phone. I
don’t know about you but the thought of getting a new phone terrifies me. I mean the thought of having to learn the new
features and how to program things including adding contacts is more than I am
willing to undertake anytime soon. Besides, I’ve had this phone like forever. I
can work it in my sleep. Shoot, there are still features on this phone that I
have yet to discover let alone use. Yes, keeping my same phone was definitely a
plus, not to mention that I was able to keep my same carrier too. Fact is I was
spending less per month with StraighTalk for more options than I did when I was
directly linked to Verizon. 
So what’s my issue? Oh I’m so glad you asked. It started a
few months ago when I enrolled in their auto-refill option on line. They offer
a $2.50 discount a month when you enroll in auto-refill. Okay, so there was one
month that my credit card was maxed out and I didn’t know if I would be able to
pay it down by the time my cellphone payment was due, which was on the 4th
of the month. So I did the only logical thing I knew how to do which was to unroll
from auto-refill to prevent any extra charges etc. Fortunately as the universe would
have it, I was able to cover the debts on my card so I re-enrolled in auto-refill
two days before the bill was due. At
first they honored the $2.50 discount but then on the 6th they took
it back and charged me $46.78 instead of the initial $44.17 I usually paid. I
called customer service to find out why they reneged on the $2.50 discount and
was given the run around. At first they said that it was a system error and
that I should not have gotten the discount because I “was not enrolled in auto-refill
during the promotional period.” Confused as to what the “promotional period”
was I quickly pointed out that my credit card was only removed from the account
for a few days and I had re-entered it before the due date so I don’t see what
the issue was. I figured they could appreciate my diligence to ensure the
payment was not declined but not so. In fact the more I spoke the more I got
the impression that the reps I spoke to cared less about the “why” than they
did about collecting the money. I mean
it was like talking to a brick wall, well not really, but close. 
Then it was that the promotion had expired. Regardless of
their excuses, their responses were curt, harsh and at times, downright abrasive.
Maybe it was their accent or tone, either way they came off rude to me. I would
later learn that I’m not the only one who feels this way as I saw some post on
their Facebook page which confirms my assessment of their behavior towards me. It was like they were reading a script and no
matter what I said I got the same response, no deviation – “that is the price,
sorry”. Asking to speak to a supervisor yielded
no better result. So after speaking to
several different people, including a supervisor, who also appeared to care less
about my situation or why I unenrolled from the program, I decided to ask for
their corporate office phone number. After being on place on hold for what
seemed like an eternity, I was given the companies email address but it turned
out to be the website for TracFone Wireless, Inc. Further prompting for a phone
number or a mailing address was countered with only that the company was
located in Miami Florida. It was obvious that I was not going to get anywhere
so I decided to cut my losses and just let it go. The good news is I was
re-enrolled in auto-refill and although the rep said the promotional period had
expired he also reassured me that I would get the discount next month so I
should see that $44.17 again going forward – go figure.
Ok so fast forward to recent events. I went off the grid for
about three weeks. A few days into my solitude
I discovered that I didn’t have any service (guess I had traveled outside my service
area), but that’s okay as I was using Wi-Fi to play my games on Facebook and
check email and I welcomed the silence. When I finally decided to emerge and
reconnect with friends and family I discovered that while I was off the grid my
credit card was compromised so my bank shut it down to prevent any further fraudulent
charges. Good thing I had the mindset to let them know ahead of time of my
plans to go off the grid. Contact with my bank further revealed that I wouldn’t
get a replacement card until 7 to 10 business days. Remembering that my card
was tied to my cellphone auto-refill I asked the bank rep if they would honor
any auto charges that were in place on the old card to which I was told
no. So I had no choice but to reach out
to a friend for help, which she gladly obliged even before I promised to drop a
check in the mail to cover the expense.
So today I sat down to write that check but needed to know
how much to make it out for. I logged into my StraightTalk on-line account to
get that information. To my dismay I discovered that the charge was for $49.32 –
the most I have ever been charged since being a StraightTalk customer. I mean
this is a $45/month plan after all. I
also noticed that they had the state associated with the credit card on file as
California even though the zip code was clearly Florida which is where my friend
lives. Feeling sure this was a simple
error that can be cleared up in one phone call I called customer service. I
ended up speaking to at least six different people in between hold times. I had
to keep repeating myself over and over again to no avail. I kept being told that the reason I got
charged that much was because I was no longer enrolled in the auto-refill
program, I kept telling them I’ve been outside the auto-refill program before
and never got assessed that much.
You would think I would have learned my lesson from before.
I guess you can say I have amnesia. Frustrated I asked for a supervisor who,
like the previous reps, was just as abrasive, but unlike the others, she now was
quick to point out that the taxes assessed to my account was based on the state
my card was registered to. Huh? Are you kidding me? My phone is in Georgia, my
address is listed in Georgia and the state my friend’s card is connected to is a
Florida address. Obviously they were assessing me California taxes. Convinced
that this was just a simple accounting error - that I was being assessed a
higher tax rate based on the erroneous California listing - I pushed forward
with my argument. Only to be countered with in an elevated tone “there is no
error. That is the correct tax amount”. Feeling beat I simply stated the
obvious. “I can see that you are not going to try and help me. All I want is
for you to honor my enrollment in the auto-refill program since it was not my
fault I was de-enrolled.” She responded
that there was nothing she could do for me and that only the refund department
could do that. A little ray of hope lifted in my mind’s eye and quickly asked
to be transferred to that department.
By now I’ve been on the phone for about 45 minutes. After a substantial hold time I was greeted
by someone named Mary. It was obvious
she had not been briefed on the situation so after confirming that she was in
the “refund department” I shared with her my issue. Unfortunately, she was just
as abrupt and harsh as her other counter parts but I was determined to get to
the bottom of why my bill was so high. It
became apparent that she was not going to try to help me even though I shared
that my card was blocked by my bank for fraudulent charges and was in no way my
fault and that I tried to remedy the situation as quickly as possible by having
a friend pay the bill on my behalf before the due date. Not sure why they tried
to process the payment two days before the due date, but by all account I had
made good on the payment. She too gave me the same excuse about the taxes
assessed were associated with the state the credit card’s address was issued to
which made no sense to me especially since, again my billing address and state
of usage is Georgia, which I gladly told her. To which she responded that it
was their policy. That followed by a slew of policy quotes and ended with a
suggestion that I go read the agreement and policy statement on the
website. At this
point I knew for sure I was not going to get anywhere with her so I asked her
where she was located. She avoided my question by saying it was not important
where she was and that it was not relevant, but I persisted in asking. She eventually
admitted that she was in the Philippines but it did not affect her ability to
answer my questions because the policy was the same everywhere.
Before I could redial the number I got an automatic call
from the survey line. I had forgotten that at the beginning of the call I had
opted to do a brief survey at the end of the call. “Great”, I thought. “I can give them some
feedback on this Mary person.” Of course
I held nothing back and when asked if I would recommend StraightTalk to my
friends and/or family member on a scale of 0 to 10 with “0” being very unlikely
and “10” being very likely, I chose “0”.
Upon completing the survey my phone service was disconnected. I called back
straight talk from another phone and was placed on hold for an extended amount
of time. I hung up and called back several times. Each time the rep would put
me on hold. Meanwhile I kept turned my StraightTalk phone off and on several
times to see if service was restored – it was not. The last time I called in to
customer service I was in the middle of speaking with the rep when the call was
disconnected. I immediately called back. While on hold with the new rep, the
other rep from the dropped call called me back. I clicked over and thanked her
for calling me back. She went on to tell me that based on their records my
phone was on line, but it wasn’t. It
took some time, including me turning my phone off and on again and being placed
on hold for extended periods before service was eventually restored.
So I saw the StraighTalk page on Facebook and decided to
make a comment about my most recent encounter. Someone responded to my post and
asked me to send an inbox message or click on a link so they can help me. I did
both. The chat link turned out to be a waste of time as I was limited to only
400 characters (not words) which greatly affected my ability to clearly share
my issue. The inbox message got responded
to by someone who persisted to tell me that my phone was not deactivated today
because she could not see any records where it had been. She said that it
probably failed to load when I added the new plan. Interesting since there was
no new plan. All I did was pay for 30-day service, the equivalent of loading
time to a phone and that was four days ago. Any interruption in service should
have occurred at the time of the payment not four days later. Think about it, I had service all along and
only lost service today after my encounter with “Mary”.
Bottom-line is this, in a time when tons of Americans are
out of work and the economy is struggling to make a comeback, I find it
interesting that Walmart would promote a phone service for a company that is
based in the Philippines no less. Makes
you wonder how many more services they offer, including cell service, that is
based in some other country and not America. What ever happened to home grown
and putting American’s to work? Say what you want about Americans but I still believe
that when it comes down to the wire, we are still the most compassionate people
out there. Sure there are those that are driven by greed and yet others who
will sell their soul for the almighty dollar. However the fact still remains
that in America, the customer is always right and when faced with the choice to
help a customer and retain their business by any means necessary, we still hold
the record for that one. So Walmart, it
you want to allow StraightTalk to continue to provide phone service to Americans,
the least you can do is provide full disclosure - that this is not an American based company
and all the revenues generated is filtered out to another country and does not
benefit or support America. I don’t know about you but I prefer for the money I
spend to stay here in America. I’m just saying. I got issues – what about you?
)i(
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