"You are being moved to a new billing system"
Almost to smack me for having pointed out various teleco billing problems, I notice my usually punctual AT&T wireless bill I view on-line is 8 days late. I want to see how many rollover minutes the family has left.
I send a text message which usually gets a response back with the account and minute balance. Instead I get the message "Your MSG could not be DELIVERED because InvalidPduContent". I try a bit later - same message.
I call 611 for customer service. The automated voice reads off December, not January billing information. I try to connect to an operator - message says no one live around 9.30 pm on a week day. (It is incredible that with 70 million customers live AT&T customer service is not available about 85 hours a week or half the time)
I call again this morning. Initially the rep says - must be your new billing system. Words that cheer me up. She then says we have 1942 rollover minutes left. I tell her it sounds high (what can I say - Jiminy Cricket is sitting next to me and I could not lie). She then tells me it appears you are down to zero rollover minutes. It has been 14 minutes and 42 seconds on the call so far and I have to move to another call.
I ask her to review and please call me back. We will see if she does. Ah, the joys of telecom billing!
Update: 1/27. No call back. Strangely, my son got a text message from AT&T showing December not January balance. Why his phone number? The original text message was from my number.
Update 1/28. Jan bill still not online.Overdue by 9 days now. PM - Rollover minutes show up on-line as 749. Progress! But no Jan bill yet.
Update 1/30. Jan bill finally up on-line. No call back from the agent, though.
