The Telephone Tango

If there is anything in this world that needs a fix, it’s the automated phone service. The best fix would be to go back to the dial up telephone. The only place you can call and get a real person is when you call your mother or one of the relatives. If it’s a business, you get a phone with it’s own voice. The voice thinks it knows what you want and it starts telling you what to say. "If this is about your bill", say yes. Then it proceeds to go through a 10-step process. None of the questions comes close to what you want, so you are finally put on hold so you can wait for customer service to get on the phone and help you.

I always picture a room full of people sitting around with their feet propped up on their desk talking to each other and when the phones ring they press a button so they don’t have to listen to it ring. How do I know all this? It happened to me the other day.
I was already worked up into a deranged fever pitch by the time I finally was allowed to speak to one of their Service representatives. So it didn’t go very well.

My Internet provider had called and promised that they would lower my bill by at least 10 dollars per month. I would get some additional movie channels and I asked the girl if all the charges were included, such as taxes and fees and she said they were. She lied to me.

When the bill arrived, it was 20 dollars more than I have been paying. When I called about it, I don’t know what continent this representative was on, but I couldn’t make out the lingo she spoke so I asked for a supervisor. I got the HOLD　button.
I finally had to hang up and start over.

I finally was allowed to talk to a live person. I was informed that the price that was quoted to me was before taxes and fees and Washington State charges more than most states. I couldn’t get anywhere with her. She just kept saying she was sorry for the misunderstanding, but there was nothing she could do about it. I hung up again and started over.

This time I got a person that was very understanding and I only had to explain what had happened. He said I have 30 days to cancel the contract. I told him that was what I wanted to do. He had to transfer me to another person to take care of it.

I asked if he was going to put me on hold for another 30 minutes and he promised it would be just a couple minutes. It really was only a couple minutes and they told me it had been switched back just as it was before. I sure hope so, because I don’t have anything in writing.

Outside of that everything is peachy keen. I had a visit with an old friend the other day and we caught up on everything.