Back in late 2011, I purchased an iPhone 4S through my employer vendor. I had moved into an inside corporate office position and no longer qualified for a company paid data phone. I could have a corporate paid cell phone number but the phone and the data service I had to personally pay for myself.
No one including me wanted a voice only cell phone and in fact they were quite rare. I wasn’t required to have a cell phone since I was tethered to a real office desk and a desk phone. So a free cell phone line was considered an employee benefit by corporate thinking. All corporate cell phone minutes were pooled so it was no big strain to the bean counters.
I paid for the phone itself with a couple of payroll deductions and then every month a payroll deduction for the required unlimited data plan. It was like $10 or $15 a month, a bit cheaper than street price.
I retired in March of 2015. I kept the iPhone 4S because I had purchased it. It is my phone. In a couple of days (almost immediately) I had the company number removed and purchased my own new number and data plan at an ATT store.
I have been making the new number service payments for 16 months or so with the plan. It’s on the same billing statement with the phone my wife uses.
About 2 weeks ago the ATT access was blocked. I was locked off the ATT network. All the WiFi features still worked but no voice call could be received or placed. Two people told me my phone number was blocked when they called but I was ignorant of what that meant. When I tried to make an outgoing call, I got a recorded message that network access was blocked.
I use the phone very little as an actual voice phone. Mostly checking in with my wife. So I was unaware of the blockage for probably a week. We use texting and that routes through my WiFi.
I followed the “front door” route to ATT customer service with a path of endless phone trees and recorded messages. All this on the land line house phone because the cell was blocked. In an hour or so of various holds, I got to talk to a real person. She was the one who told me the phone was reported stolen and ATT network access blocked
Of course I said, “Whaaaatttt!?” I had the phone right there in my hand. She was one of those typical non-empowered monitor people who had no ability to fix problems. I see those ads on cable these days when the monitor reports, “I am not a bank guard, I am a bank monitor. Yes, we are being robbed.” Then can do nothing about the problem.
She was able to assign me a PIN number for my phone account which I have never needed previously. However, it proved to be a valuable magic number in the negotiations that would soon follow. Since the phone was (reported) stolen she could do nothing for the problem I would have to deal with another department that specialized in stolen phones. That required a transfer.
The transfer took another 40 minutes but the first lady did check back every ten minutes or so. As I waited. But then…
My handset battery died and I lost the phone connection! “Ohhh Noooooooo!,” I cried. I am back to square one.
So I go through the “front door” again. This time it was a guy that picked up the phone. I explained what had just happened. Luckily I had the magic PIN number. He said I know what department you need and stayed on the line until I was connected.
The new person was very suspicious of me and I had to suffer through a third degree interrogation. Verbal, no hot lights or being physically strapped to a chair but it felt that way. All kinds of internal phone ID numbers, my new PIN, where I got the phone, etc. Actually reasonable to prove that I was not the thief. She said she was not calling me a thief but it was definitely a case of being guilty until I could prove otherwise. Ended up she was not the “fixer” either.
She told me the phone was reported stolen but she couldn’t tell me who reported that fact. Obviously she knew and I found out later it was someone named Kimberly. She wouldn’t tell me that, but said I had to go back (5 years now) and find the person who actually bought the phone. I assumed it was me but that must be wrong.
I said, “No way that can happen, it was five years ago.” She said that didn’t matter. I said it would be easier to throw the phone away and spend $400 for a new one. No comment from my service agent.
I discovered I could buy a refurbished 4S for about $100 but I didn’t want to spend anything. I hadn’t done anything wrong. I want my old, perfectly adequate phone put back into service.
This episode didn’t end pretty as about now I was getting a bit upset. I said, “Thanks for nothing” and disconnected.
I cooled off for about a day. Then I called one of my close associates still working at my old corporation. I needed an inside person who didn’t have to go in through the front door. He is one of the bulldogs that always gets the job done and done well. If anyone could help he would. That’s his well known reputation and stone walls crumble before him.
My bulldog did have to follow policy but he knew the road and how to travel it. It took a few days to get a “service ticket” as nothing happens until that magic service order is generated. He found out the corporation now has a “Communications Support Division” which seems to be located in India. My company is very large and global.
A day later my insider bulldog calls me and says to expect call from a company communications agent. A few minutes later I get the call. The accent was definitely from India but the call could have been from anywhere. This man was definitely on the top of his game. I went through the whole story again and he completely grasped the problem for me. That was refreshing.
He had to bring in a purchase department agent I think with ATT but HE STAYED ON THE LINE. We all went through the same story again. She said I would have to work with a customer service agent (ATT again). I asked if I was going to lose her as I had dealt with a CS agent twice before. No, she would stay with me.
Now we have a four-way worldwide conference call going about a $100 value cell phone.
The customer service agent follows the same path they all do. She is the powerless person. Very nice and understanding but powerless. After another 20-minute conversation with two other people listening, she admits she can do nothing but submit a request for review to a back office administration committee that will need at least 24 hours to make a decision for or against unlocking my service.
The first lady (The ATT lady with the multi-million-dollar account with my former company) said she had heard enough of this silliness (her words) and said she had the power to turn my phone back on.
In front of us all she said, “Dan, (we are first name best friends by now) reboot your phone and make a call. I just reset your account.” I did as instructed. “Yes, I am back in service!”
Everyone was in agreement that there was no way my phone should have been blocked. It was some process between my old company number from a year and a half ago, possibly reassigned, and a person (Non ATT) somehow (?) got it locked by an online access. No one was guilty and no smoking gun. It couldn’t happen again. They never heard of it before… blablabla… Ha!
All I wanted was MY phone put back in service and not have to spend $400 for a new one. The fact I was labeled a possible thief in these negotiations was not the issue. No thief would go through such effort to get an obsolete cell phone back in service. A fact I am sure my “enabler” recognized.
I passed profuse thanks to my three on-call associates and the last lady said it wasn’t her but the other lady that got the job done. It didn’t matter to me, I got my phone back in service and everyone deserved my praise and thanks. I like when problems are resolved.
I called my “bulldog”, reported the final result and thanked him for the inside connection. Also a few other folks who knew about this ongoing week long struggle over an old cell phone.
After getting upset with the first contact the week before, I realized I still had the problem solving skills I have been using all my life dealing with difficult people with no authority. It’s all about staying cool and finding the person with the decision making power. Everyone else is a minion…