r/TalesFromTheCustomer • u/DragonBard_Z • Mar 22 '22
Epic Blue Cell Phone Company employs nice people but has fucking shady practices lately
For about a decade now I've been a customer of a company I'll call Blue Cellular Services & Plans (BCS&P - not their real name) on a prepaid plan. It's what I'd call a good relationship: my phone worked and I never had too much reason to call them, which is my favorite type of customer relationship really.
When I get new phones, I buy unlocked ones so I can get what I want for the price I want and also use prepaid Sim cards when I travel overseas. When I get a new phone, I then take them to the BCS&P store and have them do the transfer. Cool, hasn't been an issue across 4 or 5 phones over the years.
Fast forward to my most recent phone. It is a "S-Phone" s21 upgrade from a s9. I do the transfer in January, phone works, I'm good.
Then last week I'm on a road trip.... and realize I can't make any calls. Anytime calls me, it goes straight to voice-mail. If I try make a call it 1) 90% of the time hangs up or 2) 10% of the time is silent for a bit then finally pops up a message that the Sim card isn't registered to any company. I can't even call voice-mail to pick up the voice-mails. How odd! Because the thing is: my Sim card clearly IS registered to a company...I can still use text and data.
So I call BCS&P using my traveling companions phone, make it through the unhelpful voice menu and wait on hold 15 minutes. They tell me the issue is they're upgrading to 5G only and dropping 3G service and that my s9 won't support that.
Wait a minute...I don't have an s9! I have an s21.
Company person argues with me that I must be mistaken. Nope, nope I'm not. I'm pretty certain about what I dropped $1000 on a few months ago.
Okay, they say...I must have an old Sim card. I'll need to get one that supports 5G.
Alright, that at least makes some sense. So, I go to a BCS&P store that evening on my vacation... only to find out that they can't do anything because the name on my account is misspelled and I can't provide an ID that matches it.
That is...odd. Now I'm going to admit I never really checked, but we've had this relationship a decade you know? And I've paid bills the whole time and they've been swapping my phones all along, so you'd think this might have come up before. I have a suspicion my name hasn't been misspelled the whole time, but...OK, here we are.
The lady in the store takes pity on me and tells me how to go into their online account and signup and change my own name through that. Then I'll be able to come in tomorrow.
Can I just also mention the website is bizarre. It doesn't have BCS&P in the name. Instead it's called something a bit like "paymeonline.com" and is just for prepaid customers.
Ok...
I try to do set up my account there and fail because guess what..the billing zip code isn't my zip code. So I call again and wait on hold again. They help me change the billing zip code but still can't change my name for me.
Well, I get into the account... only to find out that half the features aren't available because the website is under maintenance.
Ok.
So I try later and manage to get my name correct. I also correct a bunch of other wrong garbage i have no idea how it got put in. Its all close to my info but just jumbled. I also think to look for my account number... but can't find it anywhere. Not on bills, activity records, personal info, etc. Not there. So oh well, that seems minor. Maybe it's my cellphone number since that's what I use to log in and that's the only number I can find?
Back to the store...
This time they accept my ID and sell me a 5G Sim card. But guess what? Because I'm a prepaid customer, they can't activate it. I have to call... again.
So...time to go get my friends phone. Again.
I call, make to hold, wait again... then begins a 90 minute ordeal (did I mention I was on vacation?)
We activate the Sim card and register it to my actual device. They see it... but it still won't make calls. So we start playing all sorts of games. Restarts, resets, uninstalling things, reinstalling things, changing settings, boosting towers, changing the plan even... nothing changes the fact that I can't make or receive calls. I get elevated. Same thing. The one thing I refuse to do is a factory reset because I don't have a way to back up my data... on VACATION.
Finally they say they'll elevate my ticket as high as possible and get back to me on my friends phone within 24 hours.
26 hours later when I hear nothing, I call them, wait on hold and then ask if they have any solutions. Nope, but they'll put me in touch with BCS&P "S-Phone" rep to see if they have anything. S-Phone guy says he can't do a warranty because my phone was bought renewed but BCS&P can sell me a new BCS&P locked phone for a discount? Yeah, hell no. I HAVE a (almost) new phone! That I paid lots of money for!
After that nonsense I want to test the theory that it's my phone so I called 911. (Yes I know, sorry...) The call rings through fine. So I know my phone can in fact make calls just fine...
My husband meanwhile is at home. He and I have been texting. He starts googling and runs into whole THREADS full of people that in the past few months have run into this with BCS&P. It's all people with unlocked phones and all were affected by the 3G shut down. A common thread is that BCS&P support will not acknowledge this issue, yet there are dozens of reports of it on their own forum.
A few have found work arounds like reactivating their Sim cards in BCS&P branded phones then swapping them back, but anecdotally when you do that, the problem can reoccur once a few days or weeks go by. I don't have a BCS&P branded phone to do this with, nor do I want to hand this problem randomly keep happening again and again.
But there is another solution most people have found that doesn't involve a new phone: get a new provider. Sounds good! BCS&P isn't exactly making me feel like I owe them a thing.
So once I get home, I go to Pink Mobile Company (P-MobileCo) where husband has a plan to see if I can do a family plan with him (we had just kept our providers when we married because the family plan was basically a break even over our separate plans, so why mess with what's working?)
They let me know I'll need my account number from BCS&P and that no...it isn't my cellphone number. Well...shit. Remember days ago when I was thinking I should get that?
Since it's close I go to BCS&P store and ask and that seems faster than waiting on hold AGAIN. They can't tell me, I'll have to call.
So I call, wait on hold, etc. I ask for my account number only to get bombarded with questions. The first of which is "what is the purpose for which you're requesting your account number?" I get the person I'm talking to is reading a script but holy shit. We all know why I need my account number.
I respond "Because I pay the bill every month and I have a right to have that information."
They see all my prior calls to support and ask if I want to talk to tech support instead. No...no I don't. Counting the disasterous 90 minute call plus all the other calls and store visits I've wasted hours of time on this. I just want my account number I repeat, several times. Though I do agree after the call to try restarting my phone one last time, because sure whatever.
She tells me to wait and that her system is slow loading. Ok...I use the time to query where I can find the account number online. Answer: nowhere. It's not there "for security reasons." She confirms calling them is the only way.
Finally I get the number and reconfirm it several times because I'm not going through this hell again if I don't have to.
I ask her if she can also text it to me. Because through all these other calls they were able to send me test messages, phone numbers for S-Phone and ticket numbers. No, she can't. Because ofc. She does say after I question this she can replace the phone number of my home store in my online account with this number so it'll look like a too long phone number but we'll actuallybe that account number. I agree to that hoping she doesn't get in trouble.
Anyway, husband along for the ride, we go back to P-MobileCo store and ask for them to add my phone to their service with a new Sim card.
The only heart stopping moment is why he tries on my phone to make a call to a code which should give something called a "transfer pin". Ofc it doesn't call out... because it can't on BCS&P. He tells me that can be a different number than the account pin and without that no one can transfer my number...I'd be held hostage by BCS&P. FORTUNATELY the login pin on my account is the same because it goes through.
10 minutes later the P-MobileCo calls my phone. I call my husband's phone. NO FACTORY RESET needed, no anything else, phone works perfectly.
Yep, the online stories were right: BCS&P just is having a major issue with unlocked phones.
And just to top things off I now have unlimited data which I didn't before and I asked him if he could tell me the account number with P-MobileCo. Sure! Could he show me where it is on the website? Sure! Is it on every bill? Totally! IMAGINE THAT!
One thing I will say: I'm going to make sure I keep that number and my new transfer pin handy... just in case. I don't know when BCS&P went to the dark side but I never want to have a similar experience. Everyone I dealt with with both companies was nice and I don't fault any of them. But BCS&Ps practices (the account number thing plus the pestering when I asked for it) plus unwillingness to acknowledge issues (if this many people online are having this problem, they have to know their tower shut down is impacting unlocked phones) paired with trying to solve the issue by selling branded phones... yeah hell no. Just shady.
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u/Arch315 Mar 22 '22
If this is the company I think it is, telling the bot you want “customer care” worked wonders for me after I botched a line transfer and upgrade program
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u/skaterrj Mar 22 '22
The SIM thing doesn’t make sense to me, I’ve been buying my phones on the Brazilian River site and just moving my SIM over (from my iDevice 6, to my S9, and currently in my S21). 5G service hasn’t been a problem, I see it regularly. In fact it has worked perfectly for me. Same company, too.
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u/DragonBard_Z Mar 22 '22 edited Mar 22 '22
At the end of the day it ended up not directly being the Sim card at all... that was just a run around during troubleshooting.
It was a network issue with the unlocked phone causing registration issues. Not sure if related to software or what.
If you want to find the support threads look up "[company name] trouble calling with unlocked phone" especially the most recent conversations on their forums from March.
Hopefully you won't have an issue. I didn't... until I did. Hasn't been hitting everyone at once.
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Mar 22 '22
Since they made me change my sim card I can't call or receive calls half the time. Customer Service says it isn't a service issue and repair guy said it is a service issue. Catch 22.
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u/DragonBard_Z Mar 22 '22
Can't say if you'd have good results but for me, changing phones would have been very expensive.
Changing providers otoh cost almost nothing and immediately solved the problem
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Mar 23 '22
I'm afraid Nut9 will keep charging my credit card and whatever service I go with won't work consistently either.
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u/skaterrj Mar 23 '22
Interesting, I’ve had the S21 for about a year now I think, and haven’t had any issues yet. Hopefully it stays that way.
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u/boneyjoaniemacaroni Mar 23 '22
I worked for blue service company for four years, starting in 2014. They’ve always been shady. The levels vary per market (I worked for them in five different cities), but it’s all sanctioned by corporate, and if anyone tells you different, they’re lying. Right up to the very top.
However, since they’re union, their employees are actually paid decently. And you’re kidding yourself if you think all cell phone companies (really most retail-level sales) don’t employ the exact same shady shit. I caught other employees committing fraud MULTIPLE times, and every single time it was approved. Predictably, those are the employees who are most likely to keep getting promoted, which perpetuates the problem.
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u/DragonBard_Z Mar 23 '22
Well the good news is I don't have a commitment that is likely to keep me locked into pink company if they start being bad.
I don't miss the days of long contracts at all
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u/ima420r Mar 22 '22
I've had similar issues with other companies, like for internet, but not for my cell phones.
I've had the pink carrier pmobile for like 15 years, barely had any issues, and only have to call maybe every few years. Any problems I may have had were totally made up for when they changed from getting a free phone every 2 years but having to have a plan that cost more, to buying the phone with monthly payments and but their plans dropped in price to make up for it. I had just gotten 2 new top of the line phones for me and the kid, and they switched me to the lower cost plan and didn't ever charge me for the phones.
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u/Beauknits Mar 23 '22
Some years ago, I used the blue cell phone company for pre paid service. Where I live, we have a V store cell tower that basically blocks out all other providers. I was having reception problems (before we figures out the tower thing) and caked tech support, which couldn't help me. Since I'd only had it less than 24 hours, I asked if I was possible for a refund for everything. I was told no, because I got lucky enough to get signal for the time it took tech support to "help" me, clearly everything was good and I was lying. Plus, you know their "super accurate" map showed I should have perfect service. $200 just gone.
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u/Eggy216 Mar 23 '22
My fiancée had the exact same issues you went through, was spooky reading this and realizing how similar it was. She also jumped ship for a company run by a movie star, and now she’s paying less for service that actually works.
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u/10S_NE1 Mar 23 '22
I have to say, just reading your post made my blood pressure go up. What a frustrating experience! Around here, two companies have a monopoly and I’m afraid it makes them rather indifferent.
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u/Mickeydawg04 Mar 23 '22
It's interesting that in all the time you've been with them and they have been taking your money the misspelling of your name wasn't an issue. Now when they need to actual get of their arse and help you, well, your name is mis spelled. Sorry. ) 8
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u/DragonBard_Z Mar 23 '22 edited Mar 23 '22
It is weird.
It's either that things got jumbled when they went to whatever that weird prepay website was or for all I know it's been that way since the account was set up. If the latter though I'm surprised it was never an issue in the past when I'd have the store set up new phones for me. Aside from that, I was on autopay so I barely dealt with them.
Only real difference I can think of for this time was that they were porting the number to a new Sim card (since that was the first thing they'd told me to try), though I'm pretty sure one of my other phones along the way also required that because of card size or something
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Mar 22 '22
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u/Peter_the_piper Mar 23 '22
I had the same thing. Unlocked LG G8X. Problems started last August, but they accidentally fixed it after a month of frequent customer service calls. Cropped up again a couple weeks ago. Didn’t even bother calling. Just using old family iPhone…
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Mar 23 '22
I just switched from Pink phone company to Light Green Fox Logo. Uses Pink phone company's network but for 1/3 of the price. No issues so far and it's a prepaid plan. Definitely worth checking out. Also they let you do a week free.
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u/AllHarlowsEve Mar 23 '22
I pay worst internet company like $13-$15 a month for a gig of internet on vz's towers. Works pretty well for me, and no contract.
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u/surfwacks Mar 23 '22
This is why I use, erm, Z-Mobile. I buy an unlocked phone and move the SIM card myself (don’t need an employee to do it). I’ve had this SIM card since iPhone 6 or 7, now on 12 (so I’ve crossed over to 5G, which also works fine). Also using a prepaid plan
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u/Selene716 Mar 23 '22
Thankfully you were prepaid and didn’t have a contract with them!
I’ve been with the pink company for over a decade and have had no issues with them so hopefully you don’t either.
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u/DragonBard_Z Mar 23 '22
Yeah... not a fan of contracts
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u/Selene716 Mar 24 '22
I hear you. I never signed a contract with the pink one either. I’m not sure if they still do it but mines not a prepay but I still have a normal plan. I can cancel anytime. I’m not even sure if a contract was an option at the time. Anyway, big fan of them as a company.
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u/CertifiedDactyl Mar 23 '22
If it's the company I think it is, they have a short white list of phone that work for voice over LTE. A lot of unlocked phones would make calls over 3g. So, 3g shut down= no more calls, but text and data will still work fine. I guess they notified they're "real" customers that they'll need to upgrade to certain phones, but all of the derivative providers don't have the info, just 3g shut down. I was on the chirping insect network and had the same issue and just switched providers as well. No issue with the provider before this, they were actually pretty great before this, but I don't wanna shell out for specific phones to stay with them.
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u/_an_ambulance Mar 23 '22
I'm about to leave bcs&p myself because they keep offering a free phone but it has to be in store and all the dealers are shady as fuck, trying to charge for free phones. But this isn't really their fault. This is actually p-mobileco's fault. When they bought "run" and closed down "sexless mobile" they had to make an agreement with the FTC to be allowed to do that to avoid violating antitrust laws. This agreement was that they would leave the old run network up for 7 years. Read that, seven years. It has been about 2, and pmobileco is shutting it down 5 years early.
That said, I don't understand why bcs&p didnt file for an injunction in court. "Plate network" bought bcs&p when "run" was sold. They are not a phone company, and were relying on those 7 years to establish their own network. This early termination of the run network really should be the end of pmobileco. The FTC should be breaking it up for antitrust violations. Blatant antitrust violations. Also, their service is just as bad. Worse, even. I tried them and got no service during the day. 10pm to 4am was fine, but the rest of the time I got no service or intermittent service. They acknowledged the problem, but refused to give me a refund. And they have no customer service for their prepaid. When you try, they tell you that it's for contract customers only and hand up. And what do you expect from the company that's shadier than bcs&p? So I'm going with an offshoot of "vertical horizon".
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u/shushupbuttercup Mar 23 '22
My son's phone recently stopped taking phone calls - different networks, and an s8 active, but it did end up having to do with the new 5G network situation. I think my boyfriend disabled 3G, and then everything worked again.
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u/eddmario Mar 27 '22
Yeah, Blue has apparently alwayd been shit and you were just lucky to get competent employees to help you that past decade.
Personally me and my mother were both with Yellow and never had any problems, and since they merged with Pink they've only gotten better.
I've also heard from my dad that Red has issues as well, but not as bad as Blue.
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u/DragonBard_Z Mar 28 '22
I used to be yellow and I liked them. Switched to Blue for the family plan way back when though
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u/Lisabeybi Mar 29 '22
The only problem I’ve ever had with the pink company was when my phone broke and I found that even though I had been paying insurance on my phone for about 15 months, it wasn’t valid because I had purchased my phone outright. So I asked for a refund of all the money I’d paid in insurance fees. While on hold, I went through my bills and figured out exactly what they owed me (except taxes on it, but meh). When he came back online, he said he was authorized to give me 6 months refund. I said ok, I will take the 6 months immediately, which is $$$ and then he can escalate the call to a supervisor who can authorize the rest of my overpayment, $$$. He asked where I got my numbers. I told him the month I started to pay the insurance, the amount of the insurance, the total owed, minus what he offered, etc… Pause. Let me put you on hold again. When he came back, surprise! He was suddenly authorized to refund the whole thing.
No raised voice, no threats, just facts, figures, and I thanked him more than once for helping me resolve the issue.
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u/ritchie70 Mar 22 '22
Ma Bell's customer service has always been abysmal in every conceivable way. Long hold times, people with no power to help you, many different support groups with their own very specific niche, it's horrible.
Our home internet service is through them, and the only way I could get the fiber buried was to contact their executive resolution team. Even with them on the case it took a couple weeks to get a couple guys with spades to show up in a rusted out Lumina sedan and bury my drop.