Today when I woke up, my phone didn't work anymore. Admittedly I had gotten a text message about this that I saw when I had woken up for 30 seconds at around 5 AM, looked at my phone to see what time it was, got excited that I had a text message, got sad that it was from Vivo (my mobile provider), and went back to sleep.
When I woke up around 8:30 AM, I went to check my phone and noticed I couldn't get onto the Vivo network. No calls, texts didn't work, no internet. The same thing had happened earlier in the week, and it took a phonecall to SAC (Suporte ao Cliente, a.k.a. customer support) and a reset of my chip/sim card from their end to make it register again. So I got up and by 9 AM, I was using my home phone to call SAC.
I won't bore you all with the tiny details, but let's just say that it took my Brazilian friend searching the website, an hour and a half of my time, literally all of my patience, and a few tears to finally get through to a person. When I did, she asked where I was, and when I said Rio de Janeiro, she said, "Oh, sorry, I only provide service for São Paulo. You will need to call a different number." That was when I took all my anger out on my R$16 phone from Casa e Video, which now has constant static on the line. Oops, female hulk broke her phone, all because of the irritating (you have no idea how much) voice of the damn Vivo guy on the automated menus that go nowhere.
So I got through to a person who could help me in Rio, only to be told that my line was blocked on purpose. The girl got frustrated with how slowly and simply I needed her to explain it to me, so with some heavy sighs and some utterings like, "Ok, let me explain this to you again for the THIRD TIME," I got to this conculsion: I had gone over some kind of limit, that she didn't know what it was. I argued that my phone plan doesn't have limits. I signed up for unlimited internet, unlimited texts, and 100 minutes of talking which I am so scared to go over that I barely talk on my phone at all. It was impossible that I would have gone over any limit. I still didn't really understand. There was something about a limit, another bill, something about 5 business days, and when I finally asked the fateful question, "Is there anything that can be done to get my phone turned back on today?" she said a simple no.
Despite her crabbiness, I half-suspected that even if there were something to be done, she couldn't do anything anyway since the registered person on the account is my best buddy from work. We'll call him Comparsa for the purposes of this blog. Comparsa was kind enough to register my cell phone for me upon my arrival in Brazil, since I wouldn't have a CPF or any other documents for a couple of weeks. So my account is in his name. We tried to fix it to be in my name as soon as I got a CPF, but they also needed some kind of utility bill in my name to change it, which I wouldn't have until I had an apartment for at least a month, so long story short, 3 months later, it is still in his name and not mine.
So I got frustrated on the phonecall when she said she couldn't do anything for me. I decided the best thing to do would be to go to the store, cancel the plan, and switch to a pre-paid plan so that this wouldn't happen again. I took everything with me: my rental contract (which has Comparsa's name on it as the primary renter, since they did not want to rent to a foreigner - another story for another day), Comparsa's CPF, a bill in my name, and my passport. I walked from Lapa to the store on Rio Branco near Carioca Station, just to try to calm down before talking to someone. I arrived with a smile, because anger gets you nowhere.
I explained my situation to the lady, and she said I would need to call Vivo, that they could not help me in the store, but that they had a courtesy phone to call SAC in the back. Her face when she saw my face was priceless. She immediately said, "If you need any help talking to them, just wave and I will come over." So I went, heard that damn guy's voice again, and the tears started to fall. I knew at that moment I would get nowhere today, and would spend the weekend without a phone until I could go with Comparsa on Monday to resolve it. That was my moment of acceptance.
I did talk to a girl on the phone, who told me that she could help me, but not until I got my name on the account with Comparsa. She said I could do that at the store. So I hung up with her, went back to the lady at the front of the store, and explained again. She said she also couldn't help without Comparsa there. I gave as much of a smile as I could muster, thanked her without meaning it, and left. The poor faces of the people who saw this pathetic, teary girl walking down Rio Branco.
Stopped at Lojas Americanas for some retail therapy and house things that I have been wanting/needing. Felt a little better, and finally accepted that I would be fine until Monday with no phone. I would just stay home, take it easy, and not talk to anyone.
I got home and wrote to Comparsa on Facebook, and told him we would have to go on Monday during lunch to the Vivo store. Being the ever awesome superhero that he is, he said no, he would call them now and get it straightened out. Using his Southern Brazilian charm, he somehow got my phone turned back on (sometime in the next 4 hours). There is no other bill coming, and I didn't actually go over any limit - but I did use 60% of my minutes in the first week of this month. I call "bullshit" because I looked in my phone logs and I simply did not talk for more than a few minutes here and there.
So my next piece of advice? Go for prepaid. Because eff today.
When I woke up around 8:30 AM, I went to check my phone and noticed I couldn't get onto the Vivo network. No calls, texts didn't work, no internet. The same thing had happened earlier in the week, and it took a phonecall to SAC (Suporte ao Cliente, a.k.a. customer support) and a reset of my chip/sim card from their end to make it register again. So I got up and by 9 AM, I was using my home phone to call SAC.
I won't bore you all with the tiny details, but let's just say that it took my Brazilian friend searching the website, an hour and a half of my time, literally all of my patience, and a few tears to finally get through to a person. When I did, she asked where I was, and when I said Rio de Janeiro, she said, "Oh, sorry, I only provide service for São Paulo. You will need to call a different number." That was when I took all my anger out on my R$16 phone from Casa e Video, which now has constant static on the line. Oops, female hulk broke her phone, all because of the irritating (you have no idea how much) voice of the damn Vivo guy on the automated menus that go nowhere.
So I got through to a person who could help me in Rio, only to be told that my line was blocked on purpose. The girl got frustrated with how slowly and simply I needed her to explain it to me, so with some heavy sighs and some utterings like, "Ok, let me explain this to you again for the THIRD TIME," I got to this conculsion: I had gone over some kind of limit, that she didn't know what it was. I argued that my phone plan doesn't have limits. I signed up for unlimited internet, unlimited texts, and 100 minutes of talking which I am so scared to go over that I barely talk on my phone at all. It was impossible that I would have gone over any limit. I still didn't really understand. There was something about a limit, another bill, something about 5 business days, and when I finally asked the fateful question, "Is there anything that can be done to get my phone turned back on today?" she said a simple no.
Despite her crabbiness, I half-suspected that even if there were something to be done, she couldn't do anything anyway since the registered person on the account is my best buddy from work. We'll call him Comparsa for the purposes of this blog. Comparsa was kind enough to register my cell phone for me upon my arrival in Brazil, since I wouldn't have a CPF or any other documents for a couple of weeks. So my account is in his name. We tried to fix it to be in my name as soon as I got a CPF, but they also needed some kind of utility bill in my name to change it, which I wouldn't have until I had an apartment for at least a month, so long story short, 3 months later, it is still in his name and not mine.
So I got frustrated on the phonecall when she said she couldn't do anything for me. I decided the best thing to do would be to go to the store, cancel the plan, and switch to a pre-paid plan so that this wouldn't happen again. I took everything with me: my rental contract (which has Comparsa's name on it as the primary renter, since they did not want to rent to a foreigner - another story for another day), Comparsa's CPF, a bill in my name, and my passport. I walked from Lapa to the store on Rio Branco near Carioca Station, just to try to calm down before talking to someone. I arrived with a smile, because anger gets you nowhere.
I explained my situation to the lady, and she said I would need to call Vivo, that they could not help me in the store, but that they had a courtesy phone to call SAC in the back. Her face when she saw my face was priceless. She immediately said, "If you need any help talking to them, just wave and I will come over." So I went, heard that damn guy's voice again, and the tears started to fall. I knew at that moment I would get nowhere today, and would spend the weekend without a phone until I could go with Comparsa on Monday to resolve it. That was my moment of acceptance.
I did talk to a girl on the phone, who told me that she could help me, but not until I got my name on the account with Comparsa. She said I could do that at the store. So I hung up with her, went back to the lady at the front of the store, and explained again. She said she also couldn't help without Comparsa there. I gave as much of a smile as I could muster, thanked her without meaning it, and left. The poor faces of the people who saw this pathetic, teary girl walking down Rio Branco.
Stopped at Lojas Americanas for some retail therapy and house things that I have been wanting/needing. Felt a little better, and finally accepted that I would be fine until Monday with no phone. I would just stay home, take it easy, and not talk to anyone.
I got home and wrote to Comparsa on Facebook, and told him we would have to go on Monday during lunch to the Vivo store. Being the ever awesome superhero that he is, he said no, he would call them now and get it straightened out. Using his Southern Brazilian charm, he somehow got my phone turned back on (sometime in the next 4 hours). There is no other bill coming, and I didn't actually go over any limit - but I did use 60% of my minutes in the first week of this month. I call "bullshit" because I looked in my phone logs and I simply did not talk for more than a few minutes here and there.
So my next piece of advice? Go for prepaid. Because eff today.
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