Mess Communications

I decided recently to cut the cord with my home phone.  I had gotten tired of rushing in from outside when I'd hear it ring, only to be greeted by a 3 second pause while the person on the other end struggled with pronouncing my last name in order to tell me about a great deal on mortgage rates, the vacation I'd just won, or for tickets to a (Check one) fire man's, policeman's or postmans ball.  (OK, maybe not the postman.)

Thinking this would simplify things, I now realize just how naive that was, and how it must  have annoyed AT&T to have to lose my money via the wall phone.  I paid for it dearly.

June 19th - phone line cut, DSL cut

June 21st-23rd - DSL service not re-established on "dry loop" connection;  approximately 3 phone calls and 7 representatives later, I'm told my order is pending.  No kidding.  The provisioning department, I am told, will call me to tell me when my order will be complete.

June 24 - agent calls to say order will be complete by 8pm June 25th.  I believe her.

June 26th - Still no service and the menacing red blinking lights on my router are beginning to give me a strange tic everytime I look at them. Tech support and Order Departments play 'customer volleyball' with me, each claiming the other should help me out.  This is 40 minutes I will never get back.  It is finally determined a technician should visit my home in person to fix.  This won't happen until 1 pm...

June 30th - Technician comes, fixes router and the green lights of joy finally blink again. All is well, until I try to re-register on line.  Error messages tell me there is a problem with my account.  I believe the problems are with AT&T. Another 35 minutes of my life spent on the phone only to find out provisioning still hasn't shown my account as complete, but I am assured they will call once it is - by noon July 1st.

July 1st - to the surprise of no one, it's 3pm and I've not received word from AT&T.  I call and ask for provisioning, who tells me that they never call to tell you your order is complete, but I need to talk to the 'other' provisioning, who tells me they can't find my account, and that I'd need to talk to the provisioning department (confused yet??)  I again explain I've just come from the alternate reality that is the other provisioning and that I'm done being their volleyball. Manager lady comes on phone and suggests I talk to order department, and order department manager connects me with Customer Service (the name of which is such a cruel irony at this point).  Customer service has a few more bits of info to help out, but their "tier two" Tech Support gal in Richardson Texas is the final link, and I weep openly as my computer screen finally reveals my internet home page.

The final chapter of the story is a happy one: I was able to recoup approximately 2 months' of free internet with billing, but it took 3 separate billing people to achieve that end.  No wonder they call that game (where you whisper something into someone's ear, and by the time it's repeated down the line, the story is completely wrong) "Telephone."