One of the great sources of anxiety, not to mention a massive timesuck, is the online Spectrum mobile clusterf### I’ve been dealing with over the last two months.
Indeed, it’s been so exhausting that I can’t give an exact blow-by-blow, as I did three years earlier when a variation of the same damn thing happened.
This time, I got a phone delivered that I didn’t order. I immediately got a call from someone purporting to be from the company telling me that I received it in error and that I should ship it back to them via UPS to an address in Kissimmee, FL, which I did.
That was a fraudulent address. And Spectrum Mobile, I’ve since learned, always ships and receives returns via FedEx. After my initial call to Spectrum Mobile, after I got an email for two MORE phones, I was told to reject the package, which I did.
I talked to Spectrum’s customer service for at least five hours on four calls involving eight representatives since late February. Retelling the same stories was exhausting. The sixth person, in particular, read the script without thought. I’ll admit that I got irate on the phone. It’s something I rarely do, and I hate when that happens.
Only the last representative had a scintilla of what was happening. They recommended I not use the Spectrum app, and they disconnected it. I changed the account code.
The two phones I refused are still on my bill because Spectrum Mobile has not restocked them. For several days, all their systems said there was “trouble with the delivery.” An $843 account in my name is due to be paid before the end of the month.
Conversely
Meanwhile, I changed my Discover card number. The person I talked to there, Heather in Delaware, was great. She was going to pass me io to another department, but then she looked to see that another department had passed me on to her.
(When I was a business librarian for over 26 years, being passed from A to B to C, back to A was particularly frustrating.)
Discover card blocked bills from Spectrum Mobile, yet paid other recurring bills, even when I had not contacted those entities that my number had changed. So if the Mobile bill is still in the system, Discover will refuse it.
As I said, a massive and enervating timesuck.