The gift that keeps on giving

Otherwise known as “the smartphone saga continued.” Last Friday I finally received the prepaid return label from “The New AT&T” to return the defective smartphone for credit. Ironically, that morning I had mailed the phone back after getting account credit for mailing it myself. I looked at the postmark. It said August 15th – which was a full week AFTER my first call to customer service about the return. So they waited for a full week to mail the thing. Why? My guess is that they could have more time with my money – see I was charged for BOTH phones until I returned the defective one for credit. Now, there could be other explanations why the label wasn’t mailed immediately. Incompetence comes to mind. What do you think? Did they think I would just forget about this if enough time elapsed? Just keep the defective phone?

I mailed the phone UPS two-day so I could track it. Now the thing MUST have been received by now (I’ll have to track) and yet my bill still reflects the replacement phone charge. How do I know this? There’s a feature on my new phone in which I can get the up-to-the minute balance on my account. The irony just kills me. {Sigh} I guess I’ll have follow-up with ANOTHER phone call to customer service to 1) confirm that they’ve received the blasted thing and 2) inquire about exactly when I’ll be credited for the returned phone…hopefully before my bill is due!

Gentle readers, there could actually be more to this story yet! Stay tuned.

Update 8/25/07: I called The New AT&T today, after confirming with UPS that the returns center had in fact received the defective phone, in order to find out when my account would be credited. I suspected I wouldn't like the answer and I was right: the credit will show up on my NEXT bill. This means that I'll have to pay $483 on this bill and have to wait ANOTHER MONTH-PLUS for the actual credit. The customer service person had the nerve to say "we appreciate your business." Of course you do, dear, you're making out like a bandit on me!