Friday, November 23, 2007

Calling 611..."Can Anybody Hear Me?"


Why is it that the phone company can set up an appointment to check your line sometime between the hours of 8am and 6pm? How can they "run out of 4 hour window appointments"?

Fortunately, we have two phone lines in our house. Fortunately the computer is hooked up to the phone line that is still working. Fortunately we have cell phones in case of an emergency, (see, I'm still in the Thanksgiving mode:~) Unfortunately, (this is where reality sets in) we actually have things to do today. One of which is to go to a friends house for "Day after Thanksgiving breakfast" and the second thing is to go and buy DH a new car.

Of course the phone company needs someone over the age of 18 to be home at the time that they decide to stroll into our lives and repair the phone line. Leaving my 86 year old mother to deal with the repairman is not an option.

I hate waiting.


10 comments:

Mary said...

Lynn,

Canadian Thanksgiving was in October, so I am not in a Thanksgiving mood where the phone company is concerned. They want an eight hour window, give very little service and are rude on the phone. The phone company is one of my biggest beefs after lousy drivers. LOL

The phone company recently sent my 82 year old mother a rebate of $44 - money they had overbilled her for. She cashed the check and a month later they are telling her that they will cut her service off because she owes them $44. She called them time after time trying to get all of this straight. She then sent them the $44 to prevent the service from being disconnected. Now they are sending her another check for $44. If there's anymore problems I am going to call them. They did the same thing with my bill last year, only it was for over one hundred dollars. Sorry about the rant, but the words "phone company" set me off. LOL

Blessings,
Mary

Mave said...

Ughh...
Last time I dealt with the phone company, I left the house for 20 minutes to drop something off at the post office. Wouldn't you know that was when they decided to show up. I had to resort to fake tears to get the repairman to turn around and come back.

Good luck with the car purchase.
Mave

Joan said...

Hello...can you hear me?!?!?! Why is it that our utility companies always think we have all the time in the world to sit home and wait for them to show up whenever they find it convenient?!?!? Grrr...

Marshamlow said...

If it makes you feel any better, I have forsaken the phone company, we have no land line. Ha, ha, take that suckers. Now if I could only get rid of cable my life would be complete.

Renee Nefe said...

Our phone company's service is really very good. I've been really pleased...the come when they say they're coming and one time I went to make a call and there was no service...DH looked in the backyard and they were already out there fixing out line.

ms chica said...

I had the same problem with the cable company, but they were willing to call my cell half an hour before the repair guy arrived so I could meet him.

Kelly said...

If appointments are good enough for doctors (who may have emergencies) - they should be good enough for repairmen. Do they forget we PAY them for their services? GRRR!

Lynn said...

Mary - Your mother's experience with the phone company, is very similar to many people who were allegedly overpaid by the school district that I work for. These employees wrote checks to pay back the 'overpayment' and then the district deposited their checks and then paid them the same amount again. Maybe they all went to the same place to learn how to make people angry and nuts!

Mave - It's either when you choose to go on a quick errand, or are in the bathroom...arrrrg!

Joan - Beats me. I guess they figure that since the service is really important to people, that they are willing to devote a whole day to insuring that service will be restored.

Marsha - No land lines is sounding better and better, however, both my TV cable, and my internet connections need phone lines for service...at least I think they do.

Renee - That's fabulous. Actually it all worked out well on this end, I'll post about it tomorrow.

Ms. Chica - I've given my cell # before, but they usually call me when they are 10 minutes from my house. Besides, we wanted to buy a car today, so a phone call wouldn't have worked. Fortunately, it all worked out o.k.

Kelly Malloy - Yeah, what's up with that. I think that they figure that people consider phone and cable 'necessities' and will therefore be willing to sacrifice a whole day waiting. GRRRR is right!

slow panic said...

I'm hanging on to the hope that all the utilities bad karma is going to come back and bite them in the butt some day.

Lynn said...

Jodi - That would be great, as long as the bad karma doesn't affect the rest of us:~)