Before I post this latest rant about my ongoing issues with SunRocket, I want to say that this EXACT message has been sent to me, at least 8 different times, already.  Supposedly my issue went to Tier II Billing (whatever THAT means), and this was their response. Oddly, it was word-for-word the same written response I’ve gotten before. 

So here you go!  I don’t even get upset anymore. It’s just too ridiculous.  Note that my favorite part of the email is the part thanking me for my business and how I’m appreciated as a customer, even though I cancelled my service months ago.

——-Original Message——-
From: SunRocket Member Services [mailto:memberservices@sunrocket.com]
Sent: Sunday, November 12, 2006 4:12 PM
To: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Subject: SunRocket Issue Update, ref #[Ticket#1000303486]

Dear SunRocket Customer,

This email is to let you know that we have addressed the issue associated with 1000303486.  The following summary describes how your issue was addressed:

TERMS OF SERVICE http://www.sunrocket.com/terms/

Commencement of Billing. You understand that you are responsible for self-installation of the Equipment and any configuration of the Service once you receive the Equipment. If the Equipment is shipped to you by SunRocket, you will be billed when the Equipment is shipped. You are encouraged to complete installation of the Service as soon as possible in order to take full advantage of your Service period. You will be responsible for full payment for the charges on your SunRocket bill even if you do not install the Equipment promptly or use the Service. If you purchase Equipment from an authorized SunRocket retail dealer, your Service is considered active once you complete the on-line Service activation process at the SunRocket website.

If this action does not result in resolution of your issue, please contact us so that we may continue to assist in resolving your issue.

If you have any questions, please contact our Member Services Center at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address), or 1-800-786-0132. Representatives are available 7 days a week from 7am to Midnight, ET. Please mention ticket 1000303486 when referring to this issue. 

You can also find answers to many questions online.  Go to http://www.SunRocket.com and click on the Member Login link at the top of the page to find troubleshooting tips, your account information, call logs, and more!

We appreciate your business and thank you for being a SunRocket member.

Sincerely,

SunRocket Member Services
——————————————————————

My response:

Hi,

No, I’m sorry, this doesn’t address the issue that I keep trying to explain. It would be much easier if someone would pick up the phone and discuss it, but in the event that it won’t happen:

1.  My number was supposed to be ported over within 30 days.  That should have been mid-June.  It wasn’t, so I continued to call to get a status and was always told that it was “in process”.

2.  As I have explained REPEATEDLY, I could not activate the Gizmo because I HAD AT&T CALLVANTAGE and was waiting for the number to port. If I had used SunRocket, I would have had to disconnect my current VoIP and therefore would LOSE my phone number - the whole reason I was waiting for it to be ported.  You cannot use to VoIPs at the same time, so I was forced to continue using AT&T.  I had no problem then, or even into the second month, paying for both services assuming that eventually my number would port.

3.  On July 19th we moved to our new home.  I updated our address with SunRocket and after we had been here 1 week, I updated AT&T Callvantage as well for E-911 purposes.  So the argument that it was our move that caused the delay in porting the number is completely invalid.  I placed the initial order in MAY.  We didn’t change our address until nearly the end of July. 

4.  After calling again for another month to find out the status (they had discovered the address problem and resubmitted the port order), there was still no movement on porting the number, and none of the customer service reps could tell me when it would happen.  I was also told that due to the length of delay I would be able to get a credit for the months I wasn’t able to use SunRocket since it was SunRocket’s and AT&T’s issue. 

5.  When, by September, I still did not have the number ported, I gave up, returned the Gizmo, and asked for a refund.  Another month later I finally got a partial refund.  I am still waiting on the rest.

6.  I can read your terms of service. I read them when I signed up, I read them again tonight, I’ve had them read to me over the phone by your customer service agents.  I GET WHAT IT SAYS.  It doesn’t address my situation. Someone on your end screwed up the original number porting situation - and it wasn’t me.  There was plenty of time between the original order being placed and us moving for the number to port - considering it was 8 weeks.  I held out hope that it would eventually take place and was continually reassured by customer service that it would, otherwise I WOULD HAVE CANCELLED MY SERVICE THEN TO CUT MY LOSSES!!! 

7.  Again, I reiterate:  I want a full refund.  If you are going to send me the terms of service again, please don’t waste your time.  Have someone call me, I’m happy to go through the help tickets with you and send you copies of our closing statement or whatever else you need.  However, I have to say that I am shocked that a company the size of SunRocket, who also talks about the customer service focus, is willing to screw a customer out of $80 without having the decency to pick up a phone and call.

Finally, I will continue to pursue this to the end.  If it means you are flat out refusing to refund my full amount, I will pursue it through the FCC, and if no resolution there, I will pursue it in court.  I’m married to a lawyer and it doesn’t cost me a dime to fight it.  If I felt you had any leg to stand on I would have gone away long ago, but I am enraged with both the way I’ve been treated by your company and your ridiculous customer service department with no authority to do anything, not to mention the incompetent way my original number transfer order was handled. 

Please, help me resolve this now by refunding my money in full.

Cristina Del Bueno
——————————————————

Doubtful, but I have to keep trying. 

One of the things I love the most about blogging is the ability to publicly humiliate horrible companies, or at least steer people away from them.  Case in point - after reading Suburban Bliss’s account of TrafficMaster Stainproof grout, I’ll definitely give that product a wide berth.  And because her blog is widely-read, Stainmaster even found out about her posting.  To my knowledge they haven’t taken away her pain, but they sure were pissed off that she had exposed their product for what it was, including posting pictures of various household items stuck into the grout days and weeks after applying it (FYI: grout is supposed to be HARD, not porous enough to allow a pen to be stuck into it!). 

So I’m going to give you a piece of personal advice.  Do NOT, under any circumstances, go with SunRocket VoIP (voice over IP).  I was romanced by their easy billing - $199 for a year of service. That’s cheap. No long distance charges. No taxes.  Hallelujah internet phone companies.  Currently we have AT&T Callvantage and an unlisted phone number.  When I signed up with SunRocket, it was May.  Our beloved phone number was supposed to port in the next 30 days.

Month 1:  Call to find out status of phone number porting.  It’s “in the works”.
Month 2:  Call to find out status of phone number porting.  “Not sure, let me check into it.”
Month 3:  Call to find out status of phone number porting.  Tell customer service rep that I am irritated because I am still paying my monthly AT&T charges plus SunRocket is doing a happy happy dance on the pile of money I sent them for a year’s worth of service.  “Not sure, let me check into it.”
Month 4:  Call to find out status of phone number porting.  Customer service:  “There’s a problem matching your address to the phone company’s database.  Let me resubmit it.”  Well, duh, because by then, we’d ALREADY MOVED TO OUR NEW HOME!!!
Month 5:  Call to find out status of phone number porting.  It’s “in process”.  Tell SunRocket to shove their Gizmo up their VoIP and give me my money back.

At the end of September, I sent their crappy VoIP system back to them - I’d never opened the box.  From a technical perspective, you can’t hook up two VoIPS at the same time. If I had unhooked our AT&T system, our phone number wouldn’t work.  SunRocket’s comment:  “We gave you a VoIP and it was your choice not to hook it up. We gave you a temporary number to use.”  Additionally, they said, “You had 30 days to cancel for a full refund.  After the 30 days, you don’t get a full refund.”  How is it possible that I had to wait for my number to port, yet I’m subject to a 30 day cancellation window???

My response:  “Right. Got that.  However, the whole point of going with you was to be able to port our current, UNLISTED number over.  Why would I give up the phone number to use your temporary phone number?  And I still can’t cancel with AT&T until the number is ported, because if you do that, they release your number!!!!”

I’ve had 8 - count them, EIGHT, help tickets opened.  I finally got a refund of $116.08, which is what the mysterious billing department in the sky felt was “fair” to refund.  I’ve explained to countless customer service reps that I NEVER USED THE SYSTEM AND I WANT MY 12 MONTHS WORTH OF MONEY BACK.  Last night, I finally got a supervisor on the phone after receiving yet another email from billing rejecting my help ticket requesting the rest of the money ($82.92).  The supervisor had the balls to say, “Since your account is cancelled, I can’t verify that you never used the service, so I can’t authorize a refund.” 

Okay, WHAT?  I think my head started to spin on my neck.  I tried to stay calm and not spit venom through the phone at this poor man named Clemin working for the shittiest phone company on the planet, and got him to give me corporate’s phone number, even though he said it wouldn’t do any good.  Do you know that when I tried to call that number this morning, it turned out to be a FAX NUMBER?

What really makes me seethe with rage is sitting on hold, listening to their prerecorded messages saying that “SunRocket is here to make our customers happy. If you have anything that feels less than satisfactory to you, we want to hear about it.  Just send us an email at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).”  You’ve got to be kidding me.  6 months later, I’m still trying to get Mr. Build It Better to give me my damn money back because however they build their crap doesn’t work for me. 

I was through messing around last night. I filed a complaint with the FCC.  I will now file complaints with every single consumer message board on the planet.  And I got to rant on my blog, which was fabulous. 

I’ll admit that I am a Lowe’s fiend. Since we moved to the new house, I’m in there at least every other day spending money we don’t have on stuff we probably don’t need, but that is the American way.  However, their mirror selection was dismal and they didn’t have stock on the one I liked, so I was forced to go to Home Depot.  While there, gazing at mirrors, I picked up a $4 switchplate for the powder room.

In my exhausted state, I purchased the wrong kind of switchplate, and decided to attempt to return it yesterday. However, I also forgot that I live in the South.  Folks, I know that god is going to strike me dead for saying this, but I really, REALLY need home improvement stores to stay open past 7 PM on Sundays.  The evenings are really the only time that Mike and I work on the house, and since we screw up every project we start, we need the support of Lowe’s to get us through this experience.  And neither Lowe’s, or Home Depot, was open last night. I almost gave in and went to WalMart but I just wasn’t up for seeing a bunch of toothless people wandering around with their ass-cracks hanging out of their acid wash jean shorts. 

So tonight, I picked the girls up a few minutes early and headed to Home Depot.  One thing the Depot has over Lowe’s are the kiddie-friendly shopping carts - can’t really describe them, and too tired to attempt to find a picture of them somewhere on the internet.  But they are cool, and the girls loved them.  Lily, as usual, was talking a mile a minute, and I was doing a great job pretending to be a patient mother in the 100 degree heat while giving thoughtful, educational responses as to why the store smelled, why the cart squeaked, and why I sneezed.  I started to wait in the line to return the switchplate, but the large mound of flesh working the returns desk was moving at literally a snail’s pace, and I know Arden was going to be having a meltdown within the next 5 minutes.

I ran through the store with both girls chattering, found the right switchplate, picked up a pendant lamp (remember the comment about messing up projects?  Yeah. Mike accidentally cut the wires on the pendant we ordered, and mutilated it beyond repair while cussing and staring at it . . . )  Back in line at the returns desk.  The guy working it, still the mound of flesh guy, had the personality of a sloth.  He was a pissed off sloth, however, and whatever the guy in front of me wanted him to do was making him even more grumpy and sloth-like.  He meandered around the store, muttering under his breath.  In the meantime, Lily was asking me to demonstrate sneezing, including a loud request that went something like, “Mommy, blow out a bunch of boogers for me!”  The elderly couple behind me was not amused. 

I flagged down another Home Depot employee who was wandering around looking bored. “Do I have to wait in this line if I just want to do an even exchange on something?”  He stared at me like I had sprouted an additional head.  “Umm, let me check.” 5 more minutes go by - and he tells me to go ahead and get what I want to switch it with and get in line.  I informed him that I had already done that.  I started to get more irritated while simultaneously attempting to keep my tone low as Lily pelted me with more questions, and then a diatribe on why Arden’s name should have been “Arden Poo Poo”. 

Then the premenstrual bitch reared her ugly head (sometime I’ll write about my theory on the bitchy/sad ovary, and how they alternate months - but this month it’s definitely the bitchy one ruling the roost).  I announced loudly, “THIS is why I shop at Lowe’s.  EVERY TIME I come to Home Depot I’m either waited on by morons or stuck in line for an hour trying to pay for something!”  The guy behind me laughed and said, “If the CEO of Home Depot was in here, these people would all be fired and they’d start from scratch.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t know if it’s the whole chain or just this store, but I hate Home Depot and it’s like this every time I come in here.”

Then Lily interjects, “Mommy, WHO’s a MORON?”  This, just in time to be waited on by the head moron, who was now really angry at customer #1 who had just stormed out. 

I narrowly escaped the store without Arden imploding and the switchplate and light I bought are both installed, so all is well that ends well.  But I am 100% serious. I will never go into that Home Depot again - even if Lowe’s isn’t open or our entire house is falling apart.  I’m done with it!

In keeping with tradition, I continue to post rants and raves about some of my favorite and most reviled toys that have been given to my children.  And Cristin, before I get rolling, we love you entirely - and we forgive you. 

So Cristin visited us recently and brought this for the girls:

They’re Crayola’s new product, meant to be fun and festive!  Festive markers that are meant to be used on WINDOWS!  And glass!  Fun!  Tonight, Lily and Arden were unsupervised for less than 5 minutes, and came out covered in blue and green marker.  In the hair, eyes, legs . . . and the playroom didn’t fare much better.  The new curtains got some of it, as did my exercise mat and a number of puzzles and dolls.  What the heck are those Crayola people smoking, making markers that encourage kids to draw on windows and walls???  Seriously.  We explained to Lily that she can’t use them unless an adult is in the room - and Arden isn’t to have them at all. The other day I caught her sucking on one end of it after coloring her hair green. 

On the Today show this morning, I happened to catch a segment about the burgeoning rates of c-sections for pregnant women.  It blew my mind.

Way back when I had Lily, I remember our Bradley instructor talking about how many OB/GYNs were quick to wheel a laboring mom into the operating room.  She felt the rates were rising because so many doctors were in a hurry, and weren’t willing to “wait around” while letting nature take its course.  I also knew some mothers who chose c-section because it made it easier for them schedule friends and family.  I knew some people who were induced to accomodate either their own schedule, or their doctor’s (because god forbid, who wants to go into labor at 3 AM???). 

The news this morning featured an OB/GYN who decided to have a c-section with her first baby because, in her words, she “didn’t want to risk problems with urination after childbirth.”  My mouth literally fell open.  Okay, so sometimes after childbirth you might pee when you sneeze or laugh for a while until your pelvic floor muscles tighten up.  The alternative?  Having your baby cut out of your stomach?  Oh my god. 

It’s no big secret that I had a tummy tuck last June.  So I’m not unfamiliar with elective, invasive, and major surgery.  But the only person my surgery affected was ME.  I think it’s just difficult for me to accept that we are now so concerned with timing and everything being perfect that we, as women, are more prone to scheduling the one thing that was never meant to be scheduled:  the birth of a child. If I took one thing away from Bradley class, it was that children will be born when they are ready.  That might be 39 weeks - it might be 42.  Trying to force a baby before they’re even born to conform to a schedule - yours or your doctors - is about the most selfish thing I can think of. 

And what next?  To avoid stretch marks in pregnancy, we’re going to start removing the babies at 20 weeks and incubating them elsewhere?  Come on.  It’s just ridiculous.  Having children changes your life drastically.  It changes your body, too.  Faking yourself out before your baby is even born that you can control everything is laughable.  And talk about reality when you realize you can’t get the sleep you used to! 

Before anyone flames me on this post, I’m speaking only about elective c-sections.  I’m not talking about emergency or medically-necessary.  Before I realized what I was looking for in an OB/GYN, I went the traditional route with Lily.  I had a well-respected OB who consistently warned me (during my 15 minute, cattle-call appointments in her office) that all of us “natural mothers” who were intent on having the least medical interventions were always the ones who ended up with c-sections.  I always thought it strange that she seemed to enjoy telling me that.  Much to my joy, I escaped both a c-section and an epidural.  And when pregnant with Arden, I switched to a hospital that was friendlier to non-medicated childbirth AND had the midwives help me through it all.  The difference between a midwife and an OB was huge.  I still actually miss them all - but not enough to get pregnant again.