This post is a little tongue in cheek! After my recent adventure of being robbed at gunpoint in South Africa the reality that each country has its own challenges no matter how “good”, has never been more real to me. Trying to replace my iphone has been as much of an adventure as getting robbed the only difference is that AT&T do it with a smile on their face and call it “customer service” Here is a summery of my dealings with the aforementioned AT&T. Firstly I have a family plan which allows me to have 5 lines on the same account, obviously my line, the one that was stolen was the primary line. So I call AT&T to ask them to switch from 4364 to 1536 both lines on the same account, “Thank you for your call Mr. Kreuger that will be a $54 charge” I spent about 15min trying to figure out what the 54 clams was for and never received an answer. Surely in our day switching from one line to another line on the same account should be as easy as a couple of clicks of a mouse. “Siyabonga Mr. Kreuger - $54.” Then I ask if I can cancel the line of the phone that was stolen. “Sure Mr. Kreuger that will be $350 early penalty for closing the line, or alternatively that line is only costing you $9.99 per month you could just leave it suspended and just let your contract run out - $240.” “Siyabonga Mr. Kreuger $240 or $350 the choice is yours.” “No problem,” I say “can I just purchase another iPhone and reactivate the line?” “Sure you can do that Mr. Kreuger but you are not due for an upgrade so we are going to have to charge you a $200 early upgrade penalty.” No amount of explaining that I already had an iPhone and was not trying to upgrade but replace the phone could convince them the $200 was an unnecessary and unfair charge. So at the end of the day I have $54 + $240 + $200 plus the charge of the new phone $299 for a total of $793. “Siyabonga Mr. Kreuger AT&T values you as a customer. Is there anything else I can do for you today?” “No thank you” I replied “you’ve done quite enough already”
Now as I said in the beginning of this post each nation has its challenges. In South Africa I had Mr. Siyabonga holding a gun to my head to rob me. Here in the USA I have Mrs. Siyabonga at AT&T smiling and helpful wearing the mask of customer service … In South Africa I had Mr. Siyabonga brutal and merciless … In the USA I had Mrs. Siyabonga sophisticated and yet still merciless … both had their hands out for piles of my hard earned cash. One had a gun in one hand the other had a contract but somehow I cannot help feeling the result was the same! Siyabonga is the Zulu word for thank you. So Siyabonga to you Mr. and Mrs Siyabonga!
