It’s been quite a day… and it’s only 12:30 PM as I type this.
I’ve spent the better part of three hours on the phone today dealing with customer service representatives. I hate the phone. I always have and I always will, so me being on the phone that long is tantamount to being tossed into the Great Pit of Carkoon in the Dune Sea on Tatooine.
My local cable company has decided to raise their rates by $25 a month… but their explanation letter states that “This monthly price includes the $.45 Regional Sports Network (RSN) fee and a $6.05 Broadcast TV fee, which are subject to change. It does not reflect any changes in service, recent purchases, taxes, or government fees which may apply and are subject to change.” Ya know what $6.05 and $.45 DON’T add up to? $25. So what accounts for the additional $18.50 in rate increases, given the numerously EXPLICITLY stated NOT being included in the fees? No one knows. Twenty (20!) minutes on the phone with the cable company trying to get an explanation and then I cancelled my services; they made no attempt to retain me as a customer.
I then contacted AT&T to god help me setup new services. All seemed well and good, it was cheaper than I was paying and la de da, right? So I pay for the crazy shipping and handling fee of the equipment to be sent to my home and then as we get down to a required “professional installation appointment” that carries with it a mandatory $99 install fee, I balked at the newly discovered fees the CSR didn’t know about until he got to that screen (smells awfully fishy if all the CSR does is new accounts… and thus would’ve seen this screen during EVERY TRANSACTION HE/SHE WORKED ON). On top of that, why would I pay to have something shipped to me if an installer has to come and install it — couldn’t the installer just BRING the items he or she needs to install and thereby save me the $30 shipping and handling charge (including tax)? I said I felt like they pulled a bait and switch and I was not going to go forward; the CSR said the shipping order was already placed and I’d be subject to a $480 early termination fee. WHAT. THE. FUDGE?!
NINE (9!!) representatives later, involving wrong transfers to departments that couldn’t help and then gave me telephone numbers for equally incapable of helping departments, I *finally* got somebody who said they could cancel but it would take 6-8 weeks for the shipping and handling fee to be reversed on my credit card. I don’t care about that right now — let it sit there. But I have SIX pages of notes on this freakin’ thing and ya know what I DON’T have as of March 1st? Phone, internet, or TV.
THREE hours of this crap. I had a lousy run this morning… and now I’m lacing up my shoes to go for another 10 miles in the hopes that maybe, just maybe, the endorphins can counteract the apoplectic condition I seem to be existing in at the moment.
And don’t get me started on the airport shuttle service that I booked that just informed me they can’t get me to the airport in time to catch my flight but, oh, the voucher is non-refundable.
Welcome to the new world order, where fraud, lies, and incompetence reign supreme.
But before I head out the door, here’s an animated GIF of Napoleon bowling that sums up things nicely:
