Ringie Dingie - telephone company hell
Nov. 10th, 2004 10:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
susandennisI spent much of this morning playing "I'll need to transfer you, please hold" with Bell South.
I had three missions: 1. Cancel the extra telephone line that we got for Mom's computer and 2. Get Daddy's name off the records and 3. Get the bill sent to the trust people so it can get paid.
The second line was incorrectly designated a business line when it was installed. They were supposed to have switched it but, apparently, only put it into limbo. The business people couldn't get to it and the residential people couldn't get to it so no one could cancel it. But, damn those folks know how to transfer your call!
Strike one.
Daddy died more than 5 years ago now. He never did 'get' the whole computer thing while he was alive. He tolerated Mom's time on the computer but just barely. He had a fax machine and he was darned proud of it.
Last night ordered up here DSL service online (my cheery lady who wanted me to 'buy' last week never called me back and when I called to order I got a real idiot who insisted on whispering... so I gave up on her and went the online route). The ordering was pretty easy and straightforward except it insisted that the name on the account was my father's name.
So now, sometime next week, Daddy will get a brand new shiny DSL modem. I know he'll be tickled.
One of the Bell South people I talked to said that Daddy would have to make the request himself - I assured him that I was pretty darned sure that Daddy was still very dead. Or I could send him a death certificate. I said thanks.
Strike two.
I started again from the top and managed to get the billing address changed without a problem. And the billing guy actually said that the name had been changed to Mom's name. This turned out NOT to be true but it was cute of him to take credit.
I was out of bullets so I fired up my secret atomic weapon. We'll call her Paula.
The woman at 'the home' who was in charge of dissolving their own fucked up phone system and turning all the phones over to Bell South is the one who turned me on to Paula and gave me her direct phone number. Paula works at Bell South (in Kentucky) and knows all and can fix all and is wonderful.
I called Paula and gave her the story on strikes one and two and she looked into her magic box and saw the problem with 1 - "I see why they were having trouble but I can fix it. I'll make sure the line is deleted and that your mom is credited on her bill." And then 2 - "That is strange. Your father's name is listed in the directory but that's not unusual and shouldn't show up anywhere else. Your Mom's name is on the account so there is a problem somewhere in our system and I'll find it. You don't need to worry about a thing."
"And please do keep my telephone number and let me know if the bill isn't right or you have any problems at all."
Paula is my hero.
I had three missions: 1. Cancel the extra telephone line that we got for Mom's computer and 2. Get Daddy's name off the records and 3. Get the bill sent to the trust people so it can get paid.
The second line was incorrectly designated a business line when it was installed. They were supposed to have switched it but, apparently, only put it into limbo. The business people couldn't get to it and the residential people couldn't get to it so no one could cancel it. But, damn those folks know how to transfer your call!
Strike one.
Daddy died more than 5 years ago now. He never did 'get' the whole computer thing while he was alive. He tolerated Mom's time on the computer but just barely. He had a fax machine and he was darned proud of it.
Last night ordered up here DSL service online (my cheery lady who wanted me to 'buy' last week never called me back and when I called to order I got a real idiot who insisted on whispering... so I gave up on her and went the online route). The ordering was pretty easy and straightforward except it insisted that the name on the account was my father's name.
So now, sometime next week, Daddy will get a brand new shiny DSL modem. I know he'll be tickled.
One of the Bell South people I talked to said that Daddy would have to make the request himself - I assured him that I was pretty darned sure that Daddy was still very dead. Or I could send him a death certificate. I said thanks.
Strike two.
I started again from the top and managed to get the billing address changed without a problem. And the billing guy actually said that the name had been changed to Mom's name. This turned out NOT to be true but it was cute of him to take credit.
I was out of bullets so I fired up my secret atomic weapon. We'll call her Paula.
The woman at 'the home' who was in charge of dissolving their own fucked up phone system and turning all the phones over to Bell South is the one who turned me on to Paula and gave me her direct phone number. Paula works at Bell South (in Kentucky) and knows all and can fix all and is wonderful.
I called Paula and gave her the story on strikes one and two and she looked into her magic box and saw the problem with 1 - "I see why they were having trouble but I can fix it. I'll make sure the line is deleted and that your mom is credited on her bill." And then 2 - "That is strange. Your father's name is listed in the directory but that's not unusual and shouldn't show up anywhere else. Your Mom's name is on the account so there is a problem somewhere in our system and I'll find it. You don't need to worry about a thing."
"And please do keep my telephone number and let me know if the bill isn't right or you have any problems at all."
Paula is my hero.
