Okay, I'll say it up front here-- I'm not a huge fan of UPS to begin with. I've had them destroy a $2000 computer that was packed as tightly and as properly as physically possible. I've also seen them destroy servers with even higher levels of protection a year or two later.
Even with that in mind, this month has been a new level of frustration.
Long story short, I discovered that I could cut my phone bill down considerably by switching from one MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator) to a different one under the same major carrier, as there's a bit of a medical discount applied under the circumstances I'm under.
This should have been really easy. When I've done this in the past, it's gone pretty cleanly.. but I'm pretty sure UPS wasn't involved in the transitions of the past, and that's a major part of where things went so wrong.
I placed the order on the 5th, with my pre-existing service ending the 6th. I'd lose coverage for a couple of days at most, if everything went per the norm. Would have been better if I'd done the order previous to when I did, but I only got the information that made it possible on the morning of the 5th in the first place. So, it is what it is, right?
Well, the order got delayed for a few days due to some kind of problem at the carrier. They finally shipped the SIM card, and it was expected to show up on the 12th. Not great, but within reason. UPS then proceeded to completely lose the SIM card. I find myself without a phone and needing to contact UPS and the new cell provider to figure out what's going on.
That turns into a "Well, now that you've made a claim on this, we need to investigate and that could be up to eight days." and then that turned into "Well, while UPS is investigating, we're going to hold off on shipping anything else to you. Once the investigation is done, we can see about getting you a new SIM card."
THAT, in turn, turned into finally receiving a SIM card yesterday, on the 24th.. and the additional notice from UPS that they think they found the original SIM card and they're going to deliver that to me tomorrow.
Of course, I wasn't able to get my service activated the normal automatic way so I'm stuck until tomorrow morning since the new carrier's customer service is only open from 7AM to 7PM Central time and I spent well over an hour playing phone tag between my previous MNVO carrier and the actual carrier who is handling my data. Why them? Great question-- for whatever reason, 611 gets me to the actual data carrier and not the MNVO's support, so I have to sit on hold with them until I get a live person and then get a transfer to the MNVO's support. That was upwards of 30 minutes for the first step, 15 minutes of explaining before the carrier's support agent understood the problem, another 30 minutes of back and forth between carrier and old MNVO's support agents, and finally the realization that while we got 85% of the task done, I can't even get the last bit started until the new MNVO's office opens in the morning.
As you might expect, this has pushed back literally all medical appointments because not only can I not communicate with the various medical staff at the moment, I also need a phone for medical transport because my medications make me half-blind and driving is completely out of the question.
Well, it's almost over with, and if this didn't take 10 years off my lifespan from stress (it probably did) then it'll have been worth it to cut back my phone bill sharply.
I'll need to remember to ask the carrier what to do with the original SIM card if UPS actually does deliver it to me, too.
Edit to add: Don't even ask me about getting the SIM tray open. Never a paperclip or SIM tool around when you need one.. that was a full hour right there, to my embarrassment.
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