Your Account Cannot Be Validated

Updated at the bottom 1/10/07

This is a continuation of the last post; I'm still having problems with my phone.

So, I tried to make a phone call earlier today, and I got the dreadfully familiar recording, "Your account cannot be validated, call *2." I call up the number *2.

me: "Hello, I'm having a continuation of a problem. I tried to use my phone this morning, and it has the same problem that it has had since Saturday. For some reason it will be fixed and will work for one day, but then the next day it goes back to the original problem. [Imagine me explaining the problem in more detail to Shaniqua here. (Re)read the Jan. 3rd post if necessary.]

Shaniqua: "Mmm, OK, are you currently on that phone which has the problem?"

me: "Yep."

Shaniqua: "Yeah, OK, we need to first reprogram your phone, and we can't do that if you're on the phone."

me: "Yeah, well I can guarantee you that the reprogramming won't fix my problem. This is a weird network thing. Please just transfer me to tech support."

Shaniqua: "Yeah, I can't do that, sir. We have to step through the first steps before I can be authorized to transfer you."

me: "Well you can believe me that I'm way beyond steps 1 to maybe 23 already. I've had this phone in the hands of your companies technicians locally, and the reprogramming didn't work. Please just transfer me."

S.: "no, you need to call on another phone"

me: "please, I don't have another phone."

S.: "Sir, that's the only option I can offer you."

me: "I need to talk to a supervisor or something, because this is getting ridiculous."

S.: "Ok, sir, but they won't transfer you to tech support either."

me: "you're probably right, but I've got the time--and who knows? maybe I'll get lucky."

(she puts me on hold for a few minutes)

Supervisor of Shaniqua: "How can I help you, sir?"

me: "Well I have this problem that I can explain to you, or you can just transfer me to tech support."

S.S.: "Go ahead, sir, and explain it to me because we are trained to reprogram phones."

me: "Yeah, well I have already been reprogrammed and that didn't fix my problem."

S.S.: "Well, sir, I don't have any documentation that your phone has been through these steps already."

me: "Yeah, great, I'm very, painfully aware that your system is lacking, but I do know that only tech support can help me."

S.S.: "Sir, we can't move to them until we do these steps first, and you need to call from another phone."

me: "I don't have another phone. Maybe your company could deliver a phone to me, and I'll call you on that. But please just transfer me, I know I don't need to do anything physically to my phone. This phone is already a replacement. That should inform you that the problem is definitely a network-system issue."

S.S.: "No, sir, I can give you the phone number that you can call us back on from another phone line..."

me: "I'll go to the local store and use one of their phone perhaps? Or you could just transfer me to tech support now, and save me some time, which I will be asking for compensation for anyway. So why not save me time, and your company money."

S.S.: "You can go use a phone at the local office. No, I will not transfer you. We do not consider this to be a technical issue."

[We went back and forth for a while, till I realized she was the supervisor because of her extreme stubbornness.]

me: *me having the thought "unbeeeeeliieevable" and then saying, "I'll call you back then on with my non-technical issue in a bit."

[I drove to the Sprint store.]

me: "Hello, I need a phone to call customer care, because they said I had to, and they said you would give me one."

employee dude: "Uh, you could use this one..." [and he motions to one of the display phones that has a retractable phone tether on it]

me: "Please give me one that won't be trying to escape from my hand for the long phone call that I will no doubt be making to you customer care center."

employee lady: "Here use this one." [she hands me a flip phone from her counter]

[I dial the 800 number and wait through the computerized system stuff]

me: "Hi, I have a problem that I've called in about several times, and it's a reoccurring problem with the network. Could you please transfer me to tech support?"

foreign-accent operator: "Sure."

me: "Are you serious? I mean, great. I'm just flabbergasted because I just drove to several miles to use a .... never mind, thanks. I need to register an official complaint against Shaniqua and her supervisor, whoever she is, from 45 minutes ago. Can you do that for me?"

FAO: "Uh, I already got the transfer to tech support ready to go, maybe we should do that later?"

me: "Is it that hard to click out of that screen and file an official complaint?"

FAO: "Yes it is sir, because our system is very slow."

me: "Yeah, I'm familiar with your troubled system. Go ahead and transfer me, please."

[I'm on hold for a while]

tech support lady: "hello."

[She runs me through some basic stuff diagnostic-programming stuff, and I tell her that my phone is not the problem, and she agrees. She then puts me on hold for like 5 minutes.]

T.S.L.: "Hello, sir? Your number is valid in one system, but it isn't getting recognized in the other system. I'm going to put in a trouble ticket for the tech support team to look into it more seriously. It'll take 4-6 hours usually, but it could take 15 hours maximum."

me: "That's quite a while, but that's the best you have got, huh? OK, let's do that. Thanks, bye."


So now I'm waiting to see what new problem pops-up, and the potential additions I can add to this edge-of-your-seat-action narrative. (I should mention that the EVDO data connection on my phone has cut-off now, which is new. My phone says NO SERVICE on the main screen. So I appear to have taken a step back; perhaps I must to take two steps forward.)


**Update:
I called again, after 15 hours, and I was told that it won't be done for 36 business hours. That means I'll have to wait until after the weekend. I'll update this when I leave Sprint or get my service working.

**Update 1/8/07
The MSID number was changed by Sprint people, and, after calling them to find out what it was, I programmed it into my phone. Now it works.
Also, this month I was given 1-month of EVDO data service for free. That was a nice thing, and they told me I needed to call in and cancel it, or I'd get billed for another month ($15 per month). I called in today, and I've had the service for about 4 weeks. They told me that I was trying to cancel the service early, and if I did I would be charged. Right, that makes sense: if I were a massage therapist, and a customer didn't come in after receiving a one-month-free coupon, then I'd send him a bill for the 27 days he did receive my services. Actually, that makes no sense. It's just a ploy by Sprint--they hope I'll forget to cancel on that one specific day, and then they can charge me more. What a pain!

**Update 1/10/07
So I sent some emails to Sprint corporate (7), and I got more compensation. Yay! I actually got two month's worth of compensation, so I won't have to pay for a while. And I got 100 mins free. In my emails to them I referred them to my blog, and I like to think this leveraged a little extra out of them.