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Welcome again, my little T-Boners. This has been a long week for yours
truly. I moved into a new apartment last weekend and it was a fairly easy
move, thanks to my friends who helped. I only say fairly easy because there
is an evil corporation out there that is destined to be the bane of my
existence.
Southwestern Bell Company, known to most as SBC, is a vile, horrid
company, in my opinion. This is the first time I’ve ever dealt with them as I
have always been in the BellSouth market or just operated with my cell
phone. For cable, I used other companies such as Comcast or Time Warner
Cable. The cable companies are horrendous in their own right, but I’ll get to
that later.
I know how long it takes to get a cable or phone technician out to a site, yet I
always try to take care of things early. So I called SBC to set up my phone
and DSL line and also my satellite box for cable three weeks prior to my
move. I figured that would be plenty of time. The company must have some
kind of lame mission statement that dictates that all customer
representatives must state at least 5 times that they are trying to make me a
“completely satisfied customer.” By the time I was off the phone with all 12
representatives on the first day, I was ready to gag the next time someone
said those 3 words to me.
I had to set up my phone/DSL service separate from my satellite service
(btw, my apartment is old so they don’t offer normal cable). Even though
SBC owns Dish Network, I had to talk to a separate representative. So I set
up my phone/DSL and got a confirmation number. Great. She forwards me
over to the Dish Network side and it’s a fax machine. Way to transfer me to
the right number, numbskull.
I finally tracked down the Dish Network number and experienced the thrill of
being on hold for about 45 minutes. When I finally did get it set up, they
claimed that my credit wasn’t good enough for $40 worth of cable
programming per month. I assured them that my credit has a perfect rating
but Mr. GED said otherwise. I asked just what was wrong and he could only
say that they had run a basic check that says yes or no to the credit line. I
had to call some company to verify my credit and see what was wrong. So I
did as instructed and found out that my credit was indeed perfect and that
they may have made a mistake in putting me in as Josh rather than Joshua.
I called Dish Network back to talk to Mr. GED #2. I gave him the information
from the credit company and he proceeded to inform me that my credit was
still unacceptable and asked why I called the company that I called. I
informed him that a rep from his department directed me to them. I was told
that I was wrong and was then told to call Experian, a more renowned credit
check company. So I call and it’s a message only that refers me to their
website. I do so and they want $35 for a credit report. Luckily my friend
Shumpy knew of a deal for a free credit report in the state of TX. I got the
report almost instantly and found out once again that my credit is perfect. I
called Dish Network AGAIN and talked to Mr. GED #3. I was quickly informed
yet again that my credit did not pass, despite proving that in fact I am
qualified through my certified credit report. I talked with the guy long enough
and we figured out that maybe, just maybe, their system was not as up to
date with my address as it should be. Sure enough, they had me listed with
my parents’ address. This is a place I haven’t put down as my address in
over 4 years. So I blew 3 hours and shot my blood pressure through the
heavens just because their system wasn’t up to date.
The storm was over, right? Wrong. Mr. GED #3 goes on to tell me that the
earliest they can install my satellite equipment is August 3rd. He’s telling me
that they have no openings for a month. How many people in the Irving area
can be subscribing to new cable services in that time frame that called as
early as I did? I eat it and say ok, figuring at least I’m done dealing with SBC
and their customer representatives.
I got the DSL modem as I was told, about 3 days later. I had 2 weeks before
the move, so I was under the assumption that everything was going as
planned. Boy was I wrong. An SBC technician called me the Monday after
the move to tell me he can’t find my address. I asked him what street he was
on and if he was near MacArthur Blvd. Turns out, they listed me in Dallas,
not Irving. So I’m way out of his jurisdiction and I’m instructed to verify my
address with my favorite group, the customer reps.
I called and after waiting 30 more minutes on hold, I finally talk to a rep. I’m
told that they have no documentation of my order or my name even being in
the system. They played ping pong with me and I talked to about 5
representatives from different departments before I finally had to go. I was
given yet another number to call, which I did, on my way to a softball game.
More holding and finally I talk to rep #20 for the day. He acted totally
confused the whole time I’m talking to him, and for good reason. He had no
idea why I was talking about Dallas and Irving because he’s set to support
the California area. Hmmm. I could tell I wasn’t dealing with rocket scientists
here. He transfered me back to Dallas and their office was closed. More
good news. Looks like I get to do this all again tomorrow.
You can imagine how pissed I was getting. I called the next day and talked
with an “intelligent rep”. She informed me that I should never have received
the modem because I didn’t place an order. Unless SBC/Yahoo modems are
falling out of the sky, I do believe that I did place an order to get it. So I
cancelled the order that I apparently didn’t make and started from scratch.
Finally, it was all clear and I was set to get the lines set up 2 weeks after my
original installment date was scheduled. That’s the best they could do. She
then had the gall to say “I hope we’ve made you a completely satisfied
customer”. I’d have gone off, but at this point, I just wanted off the phone
and to get my stuff installed.
As I mentioned, I have dealt with Comcast and Time Warner Cable in the
past. Time Warner sucks because if you ever have a problem, you can
never actually talk to a person. I still today have no idea how to reach a
customer representative, and I was a subscriber for 4 years. I had to drive
out to their office to make a complaint before anything ever got
accomplished. Luckily, they pissed off their employees enough that they
were on a mission to lose the company some money and hook people up
with all kinds of free services. That ruled. Comcast sucks because they like
to randomly charge people with movies/porn they never ordered. I think
they just charge people and see if they just do an automatic pay without
checking the bill. Like I wouldn’t notice that my bill was 15 dollars more than
last month! They are really slow servicing problems, too. I vowed never to
use either company again, but after the SBC debacle, I’d welcome them with
open arms.
Now I know I’m not the only one with this type of problem. Kelly, a coworker
of mine kept getting billed by her electricity company, TXU, for electricity
used before she even moved in. She got that cleared up by no easy means
and now she’s got another problem. They claim that her electricity usage
has multiplied 2.5 times in the last month and are charging her a ludicrous
amount for her bill. Looks like she’s got some phone time with the reps in
her future. My brother, Jeremy, is having more problems with Comcast
Cable. He moved into a new house over a month ago and STILL doesn’t
have cable. They’ve no-showed numerous times (including days he was
working from home) and refuse to call him back. Who knows when that will
end?
So right now, I along with others feel that some big companies are crapping
on the little guys. How do I feel about SBC? In the words of Milton from
Office Space, “I’m going to burn the building down.” Am I a completely
satisfied customer? No. In fact, I’m still looking for the CEO’s email/phone
number/mailing address so I can write a letter about how SBC has made me
a completely dissatisfied, pissed off customer. In fact, add SBC to the list of
things that piss me off.
Until next time, throw up a “T” for a hopefully in a better mood…
T-BONE!
