For a while now, I have been meaning to call my cable company to see if I can get a better rate for my internet service. Internet has been my only service all year, and I felt I was paying far too much. I have also been having some trouble at home with my cell phone lately (it suddenly decides it doesn't want to receive a signal or maybe the tower decides not to send it), so I thought it would be nice to have home phone as well, but I didn't want to pay an even higher monthly bill. Unfortunately, this company owns the cable lines in my apartment complex, so I have no real options for which company I use. I hoped that a rational call to the company would help, but I was wrong.
I am not an especially confrontational person. I let things go, I don't stress overly, and I accept what comes. I learned in college that this is the basis of stoicism, and I embrace that attitude. Whatever comes, comes; it'll all work out eventually. However, with work being as it has been lately and my income dropping a little more than I would like, every little bit of money saved helps, so I thought I'd try. I'm also not always comfortable making demands over the phone, but I realized this was really the only way to attempt this process.
I called on Monday and spoke to someone who seemed to know what he was doing. After a bit of back and forth (I'm not really a negotiator), I was to have internet and phone service together for a few dollars less than I have been paying for internet alone. I counted that as a win because I actually made the call and instigated some changes. Frankly, I was gloating about it a bit (even though it really only mattered to me).
That celebration did not last long.
I was supposed to receive a call about an installation appointment for the phone service on Monday night. That call didn't come then or yesterday, so I decided to try this morning. First, I attempted the chat customer service, thinking it would be faster. It wasn't. The person's responses took forever, and he found that the work order for the phone service had been cancelled but couldn't tell me why, so he suggested I call the local office, which was exactly what I was told the only other time I've tried their chat customer service. (I've decided this function is worthless for this company, and I told them so in my survey, as though that will do any good.)
So, I called. No one ever could tell me why the order was cancelled, and I was especially annoyed that I hadn't been informed of the cancellation. Anyway, today, I was much more forceful than usual, due to my increasing annoyance and the run-around I should have expected from a cable company. First, I spoke to someone to set up the phone service; she couldn't do anything about the price. Then I called a different number that took me to the same automated answering system that never has the option I need. That sent me to a nice lady with an Indian accent in the billing department; she couldn't do anything either. I needed Retention, which she told me is not accessible from the main menu; you have to speak to someone who will forward you to retention (how is that efficient?!).
At that point, I finally made it to the person I needed. I believe it was the same person who had set everything up for me on Monday that was subsequently cancelled. I chose to act like I didn't realize it was the same person (he'd probably never remember anyway), but my irritation and frustration were almost certainly coming through. Anyway, after more haggling, he gave me a slight discount and the phone service for no additional cost. I'm going to have internet and home phone for a few cents less than I've been paying for just internet. Yippee.
While I ended up with what I wanted (if not necessarily for the lower price that I wanted), I feel defeated. This is a system set up to make people give up and take what they're given. They have us in a choke-hold, knowing that there is very little we can do about any of these situations. The phone system is frustrating. The reps are nice enough, but they make the same placating statements repeatedly and overtly try to butter callers up. If ever I live somewhere I have a choice, I'm fairly certain I will try several other companies before coming back to this one.
I briefly thought about doing what those in the gaming world call "Rage Quitting," where a player gets frustrated or angry and quits the mission or group/guild without putting any further thought into it. I am not that spontaneous, though, and I'm too logical to cancel something that both Squeaky and I need. What would we do without internet?
I'll be fine, and my frustration will ebb pretty quickly, but, lucky you, I decided to write this blog entry immediately after getting off the phone. Sorry.
UPDATE: And continuation of frustration and rage...to avoid the delay of installation and the problems of setting up an appointment, I was told I could pick up what I needed from the local in-person customer service place and install it myself. So, after driving to the other side of town and standing in line for twenty minutes, I was told that what I had been told was incorrect and, because of certain details of my account's origins, I will have to have a tech come and install the stuff. Also, I couldn't set up an appointment at that time because one of the people who accessed my account this morning (probably that same guy from the call on Monday!) still had my account open, so he couldn't access it while I was there to make any changes. Now, I have to attempt to call them later to see if they can get into my information and give me a blasted appointment! This is so much more trouble than it's probably worth, but I'm determined to see it through!
*Sigh*
