Have you ever wanted to yell those words to someone or on the phone, or even to a character? Come on, I can’t be the only one! I believe phone companies are the very worst on my bad list. If I’m paying for a service, you’d damn well better deliver. I will wait on hold until some in India picks up the damn call.
Our Internet has been spotty at best, non-existant at worst. I learned from an early age after listening to Bill Cosby, never challenge W-O-R-S-T. That’s an entirely different blog. If they can add a service and charge, if it’s not there, why can’t I deduct a per diem for the days it isn’t there?
Okay, that’ s my Ticked OFF Tuesday. Hope you have a wonderful day.
Sounds like a great idea to me. No service for a third of the month—you just lost 1/3 of your monthly fee,should be a consumer right.
Travis–
It should be–wonder if we all did that???
Just saying….
I agree! We’ve gone through extended periods where we’ve lost water service because our rural water company doesn’t want to replace their auxiliary pump with one that can actually handle the demand, and they were just shocked that Bob suggested prorating our bills. And when they overpressurized their lines THREE TIMES and flooded our garage (and our neighbors’ houses) THREE TIMES, they shrugged and said, “Oh, well . . . You can drill a well if you’re not happy with our service.”
Of course, now all three families up here harrass them mercilessly when the water goes out, and make regular complaints to the state DEQ office. They give the water company more grief than we can, and we like it.
Marilyn–
Yes!! Good for you and the other families.
WOOHOO! I love this blog topic!
Recently, AT&T quit printing the residential listings (white pages) in the phone book (at least for this area), so now you must call Directory Assistance if you want a phone listing and you have to pay a couple of bucks. My phone bill is already high enough, without them trying to generate additional revenue for a slowly failing company, such as it is. I complained about this lack of subscriber support to AT&T’s Customer Service and was told that if I didn’t want to pay their Directory Assistance fees, then I could look it up on the Internet, on my own, and using my personal computer. The representative informed me that it was “just too expensive” to print residential listings. I also asked when AT&T was going to lay high-speed fiber optic cables to our area. Their response? . . . “We’re not. It costs us too much money.”
Soooooooooo, since I have to pay for my high-speed wireless Internet connection, separately, I advised AT&T that, effective immediately, I would be assessing a fee against them of TEN DOLLARS every time I have to call Directory Assistance, consisting of . . . (1) a $5.00 overall flat-fee service charge; (2) a $2.50 Internet service connection fee; and (3) a $2.50 line-use fee. I further advised them that their outstanding balance owed to me was due within the regular 30-day account billing cycle and that late fees are compounded daily at the rate of 29.9% on the unpaid balance. And that on the 31st day of any past-due amount, the matter will be considered to be delinquent, and that additional fees and interest charges will apply.
Since then, I’ve had to call Directory Assistance on a couple of occasions. And each time, I’ve sent them a bill for my time and energy. But to answer the big question . . . yes, they’ve paid what they owe. Although they were delinquent on each occasion, the bottom line is, while facing significantly increasing late charges, etc., they really didn’t have much of a choice.
I call it their cost of doing business.
Bob–
Wow!! Good for you!