Things That Make Me Crazy!

There are not many things that make me as angry as dealing with a utility service.  I literally go from 0 to 100 in 2 seconds flat.  Here's the latest madness...

In March, I didn't get our AT&T Internet bill.  It's the only bill I pay by check each month and I continue to do that because we have AT&T for phone service and I don't want to combine the accounts or have both of them online.  I can imagine it getting confusing and I like to keep the two separate.  Well, to avoid a late fee, I called to report that I hadn't gotten my bill.  The lady sent me a duplicate and also said they were offering an upgrade.  I've been paying $49 for the past year and this "upgrade" was going to be $47.  Too good to be true.  I confirmed that there wouldn't be any fees associated with the upgrade...that my bill would be $49 this month and $47 next month.  I agreed and even received paperwork the next day Fed-Exed to us with the new info in it.

Flash forward to today when I got our next bill.  It's $53 and shows that it was prorated...that the true price is $57.  NOT ACCEPTABLE.  The second thing that makes me angrier than dealing with these shady companies is being lied to.  It will not happen.  So, I called.  After being on hold for 15 minutes, I got the pleasure of speaking with someone who didn't speak English as their first language.  She informed me that my bill would be $52 from here on out.  That it went up $3.  I explained the situation.  She didn't care.  I would now pay $52.  I LOST MY EVER LOVING MIND. I told her I bet she purposefully didn't send my bill so that they could offer me this "deal" and then F*#@ me over.  I asked to speak with her supervisor and was on hold for 20 minutes before he picked up.  And then hung up on me.

I lost it!

I called back and this time asked for the cancellation department.  After being on hold for 10 minutes the nicest angel man with a deep calming voice answered.  He was in a quiet office and really cared about what was going on.  He confirmed that my bill wouldn't be $52, it would be $57 and that they must have misinformed me.  He put me on hold for a minute to check out my options and then came back to offer me $28.50 for 6 months.  WHAT?  How can they charge $49 and up it to $52 (or really $57) a month, but give me $28.50?  He even advised me to call in a month before the deal was up to ask what other discounts I could use for the rest of the year.

It's refreshing to know that even though these companies suck monkey balls, that there are truly nice people, who speak English, and can help.  Bottom line, do NOT just accept a bill going up and going up and going up.  Call and do something about it!

I did the same thing with DIRECTV a few months ago.  They were trying to bump the price up on me and wanted to charge me hundreds of dollars to downgrade my plan as another option to the bill going up.  When I said I just couldn't do it and would have to cancel, they transferred me to the cancellation department.  But those people were so nice and were able to reduce my bill by $27 a month for a year.  And were happy to do that to keep me as a customer.

Don't even get me started on medical insurance.  Thinking about it makes my blood pressure rise.  I don't understand how companies can be like this and continue to stay in business.  We need to do something about it!  Let's start a revolution! 

Whatever gets started, I probably should be running right now instead of typing this...at least that will help with my crazy!  Hell hath no fury like a redhead dealing with a utility company.