Customer Service… Deal or No Deal?

I have a confession to make that I know will shock you, but nonetheless I shall make it. I watch Deal or No Deal. That wasn’t the confession… I don’t watch it every time it’s on, but I do like the show. I was watching on December 13^th with Robin and I couldn’t tell you what happened on the show that night, except for the fact that they ran about 13 ads asking me to text in my vote for the lucky case. They said that if I picked the correct winning number that I would be entered into a drawing with all of the other Chachi's who also picked the correct winning number and one of us would win the grand prize that night of $20,000. If you watch the show then you know that at the end of the night they always tell you the name of the lucky case winner and what city they are from. Since it was December 13^th and my Christmas purchases were looming – I though how nice it would be for them to call someone from Rockwall, TX and why not make it me! So I texted in the number 3 for obvious reasons, knowing good and well that standard text messaging rates would apply. That’s my confession.

So I was looking at my AT&T (formerly known as Cingular) phone bill today to see how much this impulse text would really cost me and I cringed when I saw the $.99 fee. Then I totally lost it when I saw the line below the $.99 fee because it read $19.99 - a charge from a company called Fun Mobile. It turns out that when you text in your vote for Deal or No Deal, you actually sign up for a monthly subscription with Fun Mobile at the tune of 20 bucks per month. I say no deal because that doesn't sound fun or mobile to me. Further researched showed that they had already charged me for two months worth of a subscription! My little standard text messaging rates apply rendezvous was now costing me more than $40! And I knew it was about to get worse. UGH! I was going to have to call in to AT&T and get this taken care of. When was the last time you called a big corporation like AT&T looking for customer service and actually got some? The irony is a little too thick that companies even have the term customer service anymore because it is almost impossible to reach someone on the phone. But this was $40 I was talking about here. So I had to make the call!

Four minutes later, not only had I talked to an actual person who was kind and helpful, but they had explained to me that I had signed up for a subscription by making that Deal or No Deal phone call and that she would take care of it immediately for me! In fact, about three seconds after she said that I got a text confirming my cancellation and she got me my money back! Way to go AT&T Customer Service… now that’s a Deal!