Of NTT

This post is about NTT, which is a telecommunications company here in Japan. When I signed up for internet, I had make a contract through NTT as well as OCN, which I believe is the service provider. Oddly enough, I get three mailings every month. Bills from both NTT Finance and NTT Communications well as information from OCN. If that sounds confusing to you, don't worry. I don't really understand it either.

The reason for this post is that when I signed up, they were running a special campaign. Sign up for internet when you buy your washer, fridge, and other appliances, and we'll dock money off both our internet service and all the appliances. I already mentioned in a previous post that I had gotten my washer, fridge, rice cooker, and hair dryer all for 30,000 yen (roughly 450 dollars under the current exchange rate). My internet bill also had all kinds of free unnecessary services, free telephone, etc. that totaled to about 2,000 yen a month. For a few months, everything was peachy. I bought good appliances for cheaply and I had cheap internet that easily rivals the US speeds. Then, the campaign ended last month. I couldn't cancel the services before the campaign ended, or I would end up paying a huge fee.

Last month, my internet/phone bill skyrocketed to 5,000 yen. This month it was 6,000 yen. Fed up with paying for services I wasn't using, I tried to cancel the services. This is easier said than done though. After wading through a dozen documents with five or six different usernames and passwords along with almost a dozen different phone numbers to call, I admitted that I had no idea what I doing. I asked Tai to call OCN for me, but he was promptly turned down. They had no idea what he was talking about, and and said to go to NTT.

Tai being considerate and having promised me that he would take care of it, tried to call NTT, but they put him on hold forever and basically he was told that he wouldn't pass the "verification test." So I called myself. The conversation went something like this:

Representative: "Hello, this is NTT Financial Services. My name is X. How can I help you?"
Me: "Yes, hello. This is my account information. I want to cancel some services that I'm no longer using. Can you help me with that?"
Representative: "Of course. First, we'll have to verify your identity."

This was the part I was worried about. Verifying your identity in Japan is kind of like nailing jello to a tree. Unless you have the exact information that they want, you will never ever pass. This is because they give you like hundreds of pieces of paper with different usernames and passwords. You also have to sign everything with your personal seal. If you don't have the seal, they'll just send you away until you find it. This is a major problem for people that have many seals. So, here I am all worried, and what do they ask for? My customer ID number, my phone number, my address, and then, my personal favorite: "Are you the person who owns this account?" I answered yes, and that was it. My account verification was me saying, "Yes, I am Michelle." Only in Japan is that considered an acceptable form of verification.

We continued to the reason for my call, which was canceling the services. Before I cancelled the services, I asked her to explain each one. This took about 5 minutes. Then, I cancelled the ones I didn't want. Easy-peasy. Before I could get too confident though, she asked one final question.

Representative: "It says here that you have a couple of boxes for the internet and phone."
Me: "I have one box for the internet, yes. I do not have a box for the phone. Is there something you need?"
Representative: "No, you definitely have two boxes. We need you to return the phone box for us."

Now, that's odd. I know I only have one box. And I told her so. Over and over and over again. This took roughly 20 minutes. She said, "Maybe you have a box in your genkan (entry way)?" No, no box. "Maybe it's under your bed?" No, no box. I only have one box. "Maybe it's somewhere that you've never seen before?" My apartment is not large. I only have one box. "If you could just go and look at the boxes' numbers for me, I could look them up?" Unfortunately, I couldn't fulfill her request because 1. I only had one box. And 2. I was at work.

She thought about this for quite a while, and then, you would think this wouldn't be a problem since we were talking in Japanese and I said the same exact thing in many different ways, but it took roughly 20 minutes for her to have a "a-ha" moment.

Representative: "You only have one box."
Me: "Yes, that's what I've been saying. I only have one box."
Representative: "Then that means you must have box where both things are in one box!"

Perhaps this service is new. I'm not sure. But it was the correct conclusion. She notified me that I would have to return that box. The fact that she shut the service off for the internet wasn't enough. They needed to send me an all new modem to replace my current one. After realizing at this point that logic was pretty futile, I agreed and asked when I had to be at my apartment for the maintenance person to come by. "Oh, oh, that's not necessary," she assured me. "We can just send you the new box by mail, and you can send your current box back to us by mail."

Now, that's all well and good, and it's actually pretty convenient. However, there was one little issue. The last time I got a modem from NTT, the guy saw my Mac, and his eyes went huge. Surprise. He didn't know how to work a Mac. But that wasn't a problem, he assured me. "You have the CD?" he asked in his gruff voice. I did. "Use the CD." He said.

I know this will really surprise you, but that CD didn't work. Macs can read NTT's CDs. They show up in little Wingdings - boxes, exclamation points, hearts, clovers, etc. No words. The reason for this, is that Macs are supposed to be able to hook up automatically, but mine doesn't. I have no idea why. So, I set myself up with a PPoE server because that's the only way I could get it to connect. Whether or not this is correct, I have no idea.

This time, I didn't want to relive that moment, so I asked the representative if she could send a representative this time to set it up. In front of me. Using my Mac. "I'd love to-" she wheedled, "But you just cancelled the Remote Support Service. If you want to keep it on for another month-."

"If I don't cancel the service, someone from your company will come set it up for me?" I clarified.

"No, we don't do that."

"Then what is the Remote Support Service?" I asked again.

"Well, you can call us..." she continued.

"Can't I just call you without the Remote Support Service?"

"Yes," she agreed.

"Then cancel it." Why I would keep a service that I can get for free, when they do not even come to my apartment, I don't know. So I cancelled it. And I got my box, and it was also a bear to set up. I set it up with PPoE again. It's a mystery. But it works. In short, NTT is probably the most unhelpful company ever.