Advertising Pays - or - When dealing with Brazilian bureacracy, it pays to call the right company

Internet access in Brazil requires two service contracts, the first with the local phone company who provides the line and the second with an Internet Service Provider which provides access to the web. A complicated procedure that means that I pay for my internet line through my monthly phone bill and then my web access through an account that is charged directly to my credit card every month. Surprisingly enough, the web providers are pretty advanced and can charge credit cards [even international ones!] without a signature or even seeing you in person [i.e.: we set it up over the phone -- an unusual characteristic here]. In November, my credit card expired and I received my new one in the mail. Of course, even though I knew that I needed to inform all my auto-credit accounts of the new expiry date, things were busy and I let it lag.

A few days into the new year, the friend staying in my house sent me an email letting me know that she was no longer able to access the internet from my computer. My negligence having finally caught up with me, I settled down to call the service provider to provide my card's new details. First, I sent off an email to the company with my internet account number and the new expiry date of my card. Their reply was that I would need to call them and change the details through the call centre. So I called the call centre, only to find that they had no record of my account. The fellow on the other end of the line searched by my name, by my CPF, and by my phone number. No luck. We got disconnected once and when I called back it was the same guy! Perhaps a call centre with only one person working??

In any case, half way through our second conversation, when I was beginning to think that my negligence had led to all traces of my existence being erased, I realised that I had been calling the wrong company. Yes. It was true. All this time I had been sending emails and calling the company that advertises the most, but wasn't actually my internet service provider. Rather embarrassed and not able to admit that I had been calling the wrong company, I told the poor guy who was trying to figure out why he couldn't find me in the system, that I would have to check a few details and call back when I found the missing information. After hanging up, I called my actual service provider and had every thing fixed within a matter of minutes -- making this transaction one of the faster and most problem-free ones that I have ever had! Of course, it makes me wonder why, if the internet providers can take credit card numbers over the phone, no one else seems to be able to ... but that would be a story for another day.

The moral of the story is that if you are going to get riled up over procedures, at least make sure that the rilee is the appropriate target! Although I am embarrassed, I maintained my patience [must have been all that seasonal eggnog & rum...] so nobody got mistreated for the wrong reasons. Phew!

Brazilian Bureaucracy: 1
Karen: 0