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Cell Phone Troubleshooting - How to Get Some Attention!
Do
you have cell phone complaints and are looking for cell phone
troubleshooting help? If you haven't yet read the
introduction, jump over to Cell Phone Problems.
Otherwise, keep reading here:
Similar
to hardware problems, the first step is to contact your prepaid
wireless or postpaid wireless provider, and keep in mind the following:
- Have
your facts and information handy and clear. If it's a billing
issue, you'll want to be very specific about what you paid for and what
you were charged, and be prepared to fax it to them if requested.
The more clear things are laid out, the easier it will be for
everyone.
- Be prepared to explain what happened
at least two or three times
before you start getting frustrated ;-).
- If you don't have physical bills, or
are on prepaid wireless,
print out the account activity online.
- As
noted in the Hardware Issues section, although you're frustrated and
potentially severely pissed off, try not to get nasty; people want to
help people who are nice. Get nasty and you're not likely to
make
progress.
- Escalate to a manager/supervisor to
see if you can make some
headway with your cell phone troubleshooting issue.
- If
you're a postpaid customer who owes money, make sure that it doesn't go
to collections. Unless it's a bill for thousands of dollars
that
you can't afford, even a few hundred dollars will be worth paying while
you dispute the issue. Once they send it to collections, it
will
impact your credit score for 7-10 years! Rest assured the if
that happens, you'll end up paying a lot more for a car loan, home
loan, or even insurance due to higher interest rates, and you'll look
back a wish that you had swallowed your pride an paid the initial bill.
Can't resolve your issue
- You have some more extreme options:
If
you've made a genuine effort to try cell phone
troubleshooting with your
wireless provider, and you haven't had any response at all, or if you
didn't get a satisfactory resolution, you have some options.
You can pursue a third party to get involved:
1.
Contact the Better
Business Bureau (BBB)
- On their
Website you can actually research your wireless company and see if
there have been similar complaints by others. This will not
only give you peace of mind that you're not the only one
experiencing a
problem, but also provide additional support when making your case.
- You
can file a complaint online, and most good companies will respond.
It's somewhat sad that they didn't help you out in the first
place, however, when you show that you're serious by submitting a
complaint with the BBB, it helps. No company wants to have
complaints logged on this site for others to see, and when they do, it
helps when the log shows that they ultimately worked with customers to
resolve their complaint. I submitted on myself in the past.
Although it wasn't for a wireless related issue, the company
called me back very quickly after previously ignoring my calls for over
a month; i.e. it works!
2.
 Contact the Federal
Communications Commission (FCC)
- The
FCC homepage actually has a specific section for wireless phones.
Once you go through their initial problem description
(multiple choice), you'll be provide with options regarding how you can
proceed with filing your complaint. Depending on your issue,
you'll have access to an online form, phone, mail, fax, or email.
Although
I note in the title of this last cell phone troubleshooting section
that these are more extreme
options, the reality is that you shouldn't hesitate to use these tools
if you have made an honest attempt at resolving your cell phone
problems directly with your wireless provider. I suggest
trying one option at a time, and keep in mind that these processes can
take some time, so don't expect overnight results. I believe
that at the end of the day, none of us really mind the odd issue.
We enjoy our cell phones, and understand that there's a lot
of technology involved, and that may providers go bankrupt because it
really is an expensive and super competitive business.
However, we all have our limits to what we can tolerate.
If you feel slighted, or simply put - ripped off, make the
effort to file your cell phone complaint as part of your cell phone
troubleshooting process, and use these tools to help
you resolve your issue!
Return from Cell Phone Troubleshooting to Cell Phone Repair Tips
Return to Prepaid Wireless Guide Homepage
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