Duped

I'm working on getting up photos from our trip to the States, but in the meantime I'll tell you a little story about a girl named Stephanie.

Stephanie was hanging out with her Mom, a friend, and that friend's Mom when the doorbell rang. Stephanie answered the door and lo and behold two Vodafone (phone/internet provider) salesmen were standing at the door. One charming salesman began babbling (in German, of course) with rapid speed about the fabulous deals Vodafone could offer me if I (switching to first person here!) would only switch from my current provider to Vodafone.

He showed me a sheet with the deals, and indeed they were magnificent. Ahh, I thought, I can impress my dear hubby (currently on a business trip) with cost savings galore when he returns! So, I asked the salesman a few questions like "Do I have to sign a contract?", and "Will I get charged a fee from Deutsche Telekom if I switch to Vodafone?", and other important things. He assured me of no fees, no problems, no Na-thing (Schultz, anyone?!)! I told him that I wasn't 100% sure, and needed to speak with my husband. "No problem!" he replied.....

Then (hear the low beat of funeral drums) he tells me that I just need to sign this paper, so that he can have permission to call Nate on Monday, to verify that we want their service.

STUPID! STUPID!

So, I signed the paper, gave him some basic information about us, and closed the door with a big smile on my face. Hey! Look at me! I got us a deal!!!!

When I left for the States, a few days later, I told Nate to be expecting a call from the Vodafone guy, to learn more about this possible account switch.

He never got a call.

Then he left for the States.

When we returned we had a letter from Deutsche Telekom in our mailbox, telling us that our account with them had been canceled, and a letter from Vodafone welcoming us to our new service (which, unfortunately, couldn't be started until Feb. 18th). Yes, folks, no internet until February 18th, and Deutsche Telekom had taken the liberty of turning off our internet on December 18th.

Oops!

This evening we went by an actual Vodafone store and started trying to explain to the customer service guy what had happened. He smiled and told us that while he couldn't speak English, he could understand it perfectly. So we re-told the story in English, and he told us back (in German) about how these swindlers are all over Germany. I guess they get big bucks to get you to sign contracts, and will do anything to get that signature.

He lectured me to never sign anything that I hadn't looked at carefully (yeah, yeah) but agreed to help us. We need to write a letter to the company, so that they will revoke the original contract and then our helpful service agent will sign us up with a new contract with better internet, a good price, and internet that starts the day we sign up.

There are other battles that we could have fought (like, the fees we'll probably have to pay Deutsche Telekom for ending our contract early), but we decided against it. It's not worth the stress, and another lesson was learned.

Don't trust anyone. Even good looking swindlers.

Hmmm, I guess I probably should have already know that?