23 January 2008

Passports and Phones

I suppose its been pretty standard for me to start a trip feeling a little unprepared, but I can't say that I've ever been this close to leaving the country without actually having my passport in hand. Right now I'm supposed to fly out of LAX in less than 48 hours and my passport is probably in a FedEx sorting bin in Anchorage, eagerly awaiting a flight to California and a glorious and tear-filled reunion with its owner, preferably prior to my Friday morning departure. I could go into great depth about how this situation was only in small part my fault; I could rant about the ineptitude of the San Francisco office of the Indian Embassy; I could mention how guilty I feel about once again saddling my Mom with the extremely stressful burden of sorting out some random business-related thing while I am out of the country or on my way there (thanks again and I'm so sorry, Mom). But I think I'll take this moment to rant about what is, arguably, my favorite topic of late to get truly angry over.




Ah yes, Cingular. I so wish that it was something nobler, something on which I could justify spending immense amounts of time and emotional energy. But no, its Cingular. Today I ended our 2.5 year relationship via Customer Service Operator Michael Setzer and his ex-Marine supervisor, Rachel Smith. Like a proper lovers' quarrel, and like many of our quarrels past, we played a three day game of phone tag (although usually I was the only one to call back) and, as usual, I ended up caving in and paying a portion of an entirely unjust fee. Now I hope that I'm not the only one who finds it ridiculous that a $36 'shut off' fee is charged if you want to pause service while abroad. That's $36 in addition to your normal monthly payments. Maybe I'm just crazy, but even Michael Setzer was in agreement about this one. So then I turned into "screeching shrew" mode, saying how terrible my service had been, how past operators had promised the moon and never delivered, how I was terminating service and never EVER going to use Cingular again. And so Michael Setzer promised me the moon and seemingly, made a genuine attempt at it. I tried faxing proof of my Alaska residency (car title, pay stub, W-2, voter registration card) which would have, effectively, forced them to cease service and not charge me the $175 contract-termination fee. Mr. Setzer said he truly believed me when I said that I lived in Alaska, but since I had no way of delivering them a utility, gas or electric bill with my name on it (the only accepted proof of residency documents that the Cingular Relocation Dept accepts), his "Nazi" former-Marine boss said no to his request. This was my evening fun for the past two evenings, and tonight I accepted a proposal from Michael Setzer. I could pay half of the $175 cancellation fee right then or try to drum up the appropriate documents. Since I am leaving shortly and simply don't like being that angry, I totally caved and gave the bastards half the fee to end our affair. C'est l'amour.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Ooh, okay. There goes Cingular of my list of services to never ever try.

I hope your time in India is all you hoped it would be, and sorry to hear about your passport!