Our internet access came back as mysteriously as it left. We’re still scheduled for a visit from a tech tomorrow. I’m going to wait and see if it lasts before I decide to cancel it.
Time Warner’s not the only large service provider screwing up lately. We switched to SBC from MCI at the end of March for our local and long distance service. I noticed a charge from MCI last month that seemed a bit late, so I called and asked about it. I was assured by the rep that this was a partial bill and would be the last one. Of course, it wasn’t and I got billed the same amount again this week. It turns out that they’re still billing me for long distance, even though I switched. When I called and pointed this out this morning, I was told that SBC needed to notify them and then the service would be disconnected. I moved on to SBC who said that they did, in fact, notify MCI, otherwise they couldn’t have started long distance for me and that it was “illegal” for me to be charged by two long distance carriers at the same time. Their advice was to go back to MCI and tell them that it had been done and to send them a copy of the confirmation letter that I received if necessary. Already pissed off about getting the runaround, I called MCI back ready to tear them a new one. Before I could get started, the rep that answered my second call politely cancelled the long distance and credited back the two months that they owed me.
You have to love big companies. I call two different reps in the space of an hour and get wildly different service and responses. Of course, I’ll probably get billed again next month, but the joke’s on them. The credit card that they’ve got on file has changed for security reasons and they won’t be able to bill a damn thing anyway. It’s unclear to me how or if this will affect crediting the charge prior to the card change. On top of it all, I’ve wasted an hour at work dealing with this and then telling you about it.
Even better, I’m now considering VoIP from AT&T which would mean another carrier switch and the possibility of no phone service at all at the house if I randomly lose internet access again. Isn’t technology cool?