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April 21, 2006

The Final, Final Bill

Arriving home from work today and finding mail in my mailbox, I brought it inside and began flipping through the magazines and letters. Two envelopes immediately caught my eye. We had ended our service with both Qwest (for home phone service) and T-Mobile (Frinklin's wireless service) in mid-February and had paid the final bills over a month ago.

I opened the T-Mobile bill first, and happily noted that this "bill" was actually a statement showing the zero balance due. Fine by me. Thanks for the notice.

The Qwest bill, however, showed a balance due of $4.32. While $4.32 isn't a big deal, I know I had paid our final bill already. I quickly read through the details and the fine print and found that this bill, this next one after the final bill is the revised final bill. WTF? Once you get a final bill, it's your FINAL bill, that was always my understanding.

I called Qwest to bitch at them but as I am no longer a Qwest customer my customer service representative could care less about me and my $4.32. The exact trascript of our conversation:

Me: "I just received another final bill for phone service I cancelled over a month ago. I paid the final bill in full last month."

CSR: "Yes, that's your revised final bill."

Me: "Yes, I see that. However, I didn't use any of the services during the period you are billing me for. I ended our contract, paid the money due, and now you're telling me that you made an error and owe more?"

CSR: "Yes. It's your revised final bill."

Me: "I understand that. Why did I receive the revised final bill?"

CSR: "Beacuse you still owe money on the account."

Me: "For what?"

CSR: "For our phone service."

Me: "I have already paid the final bill for all services rendered. I didn't use your service during this time."

CSR: "You paid the final bill, but this is revised, it's a new final bill."

Me: "Can I talk to your supervisor?"

After waiting on hold for over 10 minutes for a supervisor (apparently the supervisors are busy around the Qwest Customer Service Departmet, probably because they have complete idiots manning the phones!) I just hung up. It's not worth raising my blood pressure further over $4.23.

Maybe I'll start sending out revised final bills to my customers, "I ordered you some books and billed you for them, however, after consideration we have revised your final bill and would like to you pay more." I'm sure they will understand why when I use the Qwest's customer service strategy to explain it.

Qwest may be cheaper than our current phone company, but I am willing to pay more for great service.

"Sell value not price." - Jeffrey Gitomer (attended his recent sales seminar and highly recommend him)

Posted by Ensie at April 21, 2006 03:43 PM

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Posted by: vfdmp at February 24, 2010 04:21 PM

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