Stupid phone company

[cb25]

This infuriates me. My home phone hasn't worked since Thursday night. We called yesterday to see if they'd send someone. Their response - oh we already sent someone yesterday, but no one was home. Really? No shit sherlock, we have school and jobs to attend to, we can't wait at home for you, especially when I DON'T KNOW YOU'RE COMING!!

OK, so they say they're going to send someone on Saturday. They say "someone will be there between 8am and 9pm." Are you kidding me with this shit? Why not just say, we can't narrow down a time frame.

Anyway, so i waste my entire Saturday, from 8am through 4pm waiting. Nothing. So my roommate checks his cell phone. There's a message from the phone company saying that they showed up, knocked on the back door and since no one answered, they left.

Now, if you're familiar with Boston-area (or similar) apartments, it works like this. It's one building, something like 8 apartments inside. There's a little vestibule in front where you come inside and you can ring the apartments to let you in. There is also a back door which leads to the basement where the utility boxes are.

This dumbass decides that knocking on the back door is enough, and that i should have been waiting back there -- since they were kind enough to give me such a specific time frame and all -- and leaves. So, still no phone. Oh yea, it's also raining, so waiting in a little patio chair by the back door (in the alley) was not really the most exciting of all options.

We call the phone company to complain...and they blame us. Apparently this is our fault, and we're lucky that they are not charging us for missing a service call. Plus, they may now "have to" charge us for the next preson they send out, since they've alredy wasted two trips out to us. Oh my god. Apparently we should have let them know not to go to a back door in a group apartment building, and that they should have rang our doorbell instead!!!



I needed that rant...i'm still pretty steamed about this. :blowup:

[cb25]

update: they *are* charging us for every trip out they've made. apparently this is our fault. my roommate is on the phone arguing right now. grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

[Slamd097]

Nice..are they realy that dumb?? humm..a place for hollywood actors to work!! :D

[cb25]

Originally posted by Slamd097@Sep 18 2004, 03:05 PM
Nice..are they realy that dumb?? humm..a place for hollywood actors to work!! :D

apparently they are.

now we're talking to the billing department to make sure we're not going to get billed...and they have no record of a technician ever being sent to our house.

wait...now they're saying that they were here...and that they left a note on the front door when we didn't answer the door. I just ran downstairs...there is *NO* note on the door.

what is going on!?

[IronmanJoe]

Wrong address? :what:

[bornbad71]

I take in your using verizon?

What you need to do is tell the phone company that you want to be reinburst for all the days your phone has been out of service. It is their responcability to provide you with service and you have not received the service in which you are paying for.

Then tell them they can't charge you for a service call since no one called and confirmed you would be home...there are laws that protect the customer.

Then ask to speak with a supervisor and tell them you are not happy with the way this has been handled...if the supervisor doesn't take any action, then ask to speak to the person above them. If they refuse then nicely tell them that you will be calling PSC(public service) and complaining about how this was handled.

If that still doesn't work then make the call to public service..once they get ahold of this it will get fixed.

[cb25]

Originally posted by bornbad71@Sep 18 2004, 03:12 PM
I take in your using verizon?

What you need to do is tell the phone company that you want to be reinburst for all the days your phone has been out of service. It is their responcability to provide you with service and you have not received the service in which you are paying for.

Then tell them they can't charge you for a service call since no one called and confirmed you would be home...there are laws that protect the customer.

Then ask to speak with a supervisor and tell them you are not happy with the way this has been handled...if the supervisor doesn't take any action, then ask to speak to the person above them. If they refuse then nicely tell them that you will be calling PSC(public service) and complaining about how this was handled.

If that still doesn't work then make the call to public service..once they get ahold of this it will get fixed.

thanks for the advice bb...it's rcn, not verizon.

we're in the middle of arguing right now. the rep is saying that there are no supervisors available to speak to.

i have to give it to my roommate though...he's staying pretty calm and cool about this -- always calling her mam, saying please, not raising his voice....well, he's starting to lose it, but we've been on the phone for 45 minutes.

she's telling him that we're obviously lying about being home all day...

if this isn't taken care of...we *will* be adressing this with public service.

i really don't get angry often...but this is really raising my bp

[bornbad71]

It's the weekend so there may not be any supervisors around. Keep in mind your probably dealing with some uneducated person that make minimum wage.

Go ahead and use the PSC line...it normally gets their attention and shows them you mean business.

Telcoms don't want public service after them....and the customer is always right.

[cb25]

Originally posted by bornbad71@Sep 18 2004, 03:24 PM
It's the weekend so there may not be any supervisors around. Keep in mind your probably dealing with some uneducated person that make minimum wage.

Go ahead and use the PSC line...it normally gets their attention and shows them you mean business.

Telcoms don't want public service after them....and the customer is always right.

seriously bb, thanks for the tip...i wasn't even aware of psc.

i'll let you know what happens.

[bornbad71]

Also get all his/her info(name, employee #, etc)....then come Monday make a formal complaint about how he/she treated y'all and didn't help the situation by not being helpful.


Phone companies only have skeleton crews on the weekends....it doesn't make things easy when your not getting help from the rep either.