Tuesday, June 07, 2005

Suncom - Episode 1

I am one of the lucky AT&T Wireless customers in the Raleigh, NC area that was sold to SunCom in exchange for access to cell towers in Virginia.

About a month or so ago, I recieved an automated call telling me I had to get my phone updated for service to continue, with a 800 number to call.

SunCom apparently misjudged the resources that this conversion effort would take, which was reflected in the 30 minute hold times on the 800 customers service lines.

Waiting on hold is bad enough, but at least there is generally "music on hold". The quality of this music varies wildly, but at least it is music, and usually instrumental. On the SunCom customer service line, however, you get the same 3 advertisements over and over, interrupted every minute or so with the obligitory "thank you for holding" message. All three advertisments are voiced by Harry Connick Jr., the current spokesperson for SunCom. Since the on hold "entertainment" is basically chatter, it is pretty much impossible to stay on hold and get any work done, as your attention is constantly redirected to the chatter.

To top it all off, this chatter is all advertisments.

Since I am already a SunCom customer, why do I have to listen to advertisments on the customer service line?

After 45 minutes on hold over 2 different days, I decided to go the retail store to resolve this. Surely the experience would be better. If only I knew......

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