am I being unreasonable?

[mmegaera]

To expect that when something goes wrong with my cell phone minutes (I'm on a cheap $15 automatically charged to my credit card every month gives me 200 minutes and 30 days burner cell phone, because $50 a month is too much to pay for a cell phone I use maybe an hour a month) and I have to call Net10 to actually get the minutes I paid for because every six months or so there's a glitch and they have to be downloaded manually, I should be able to use my cell phone to call and get this straightened out?

This time when it happened, apparently the rules have changed because they now say I have to call from another line to get my minutes (and my days -- I can't get one without the other or I would, because I've got almost 2500 minutes on my phone right now, but if I don't get the monthly minutes I don't get the days). This pretty much enrages me. Yes. I have a land line. But what if this was my only phone, like cell phones are for a lot of people? Would I have to go try to find a pay phone or something, or borrow someone else's phone? At this stage of the game it's the principle of the thing.

Is this utterly ridiculous or what?

I really don't want to get rid of this phone because I don't think I can transfer a burner phone number and all my clients know this number. Also I don't want to lose all those minutes I paid for. Also, see above about not being able to find a phone contract for less than $50 a month.

Although if anyone knows how I can solve those issues and get away from Net10 to a company with real customer service that doesn't overcharge, I'd be grateful (and you can quit laughing now).

ETA: I guess I shouldn't have taken it for granted that my "you can quit laughing now" would signal that this was mostly a rhetorical question. If there's one thing I don't want to do right now, it's go through the hassle of switching cell phone companies, or lose all those minutes I paid for, or buy a new phone. I just want things to work the way they're supposed to.

But thanks for the suggestions.

My first reaction to the issue was to complain to my state consumer advocate [g]. Not that their response time will be timely enough to do any good even if they can do anything which they probably won't. But it made me feel better.

Comments

[dfledermaus]

Any agency that's likely to have any authority will probably move too slow to give you any satisfaction. That said, I've occasionally had good results sending a scathing letter/email to all sorts of sources and cc'ing both the company and local newspaper on it (especially if you can find the email of a VP or PR person, who might be worried about getting a bad reputation).

I'd start with the BBB and FCC; I usually also include my state's Attorney General. I suspect they just throw it away (although sometimes I get a response referring me to the consumer protection dept.) but having them on there looks a little more alarming.

[mmegaera]

I have had very good luck in the past with my state's consumer advocate. Their backlog is such that they won't be able to act in a timely enough fashion for this, but something may eventually happen, which would satisfy me.

I suspect a letter such as you suggest is probably in order now. Either that or I need to quit tilting at windmills [sigh].