An Accounting Mistake for the Ages:

While trying to do a transfer of responsibility (transferring a single cell phone from one account to another) from an account which included three cell phones, I was alerted over the phone that the “Account Balance” must be below $50 to accomplish this transfer. This was acceptable, so I called the primary account owner to have it paid down to $50.

I was alerted a few days later by the account owner that this was completed. This is where things got messy. After phoning back customer support again, they stated that the account balance was $160; I explained that this was actually paid down to $50 the previous day to complete this transfer.

I was then told that a new bill was issued a few days prior, and this is why the account balance was $160. I went and checked all the information, and sure enough there was a bill due roughly three weeks in the future, and they were adding this amount to my account balance!

I called up again and explained that this value is incorrect, their balance shows up as $160 dollars because I currently owed $50 (which is the acceptable amount) and that the $110 wasn’t actually due for three weeks and should NOT be added to my account balance. Unfortunately the representative on the phone decided to only say “Your account balance is over $50 I cannot do this transfer” over and over, despite me explaining that their account balance is technically incorrect, it is against accounting principles to charge customers in advance for the service, and that this was technically bribery for me to pay my bill early to get the service I am actually paying for.

After repeating the same line over and over I decided to just make my point, hanging up, and phoning back again. Eventually I got through to someone with a brain who understood the problem and was willing to make the account transfer. Unfortunately I was in and out of two stores, and called customer support numerous times to get this resolved (finally after a week and a half). This resulted in the following problem.

Summary: Refused to provide service that you’ve paid for, trying to make you pay a bill 3 weeks in advance in order to receive any service. Adding inappropriate and not yet acceptable charges to your bill.