I'm not really a luddite, but I am hanging on to my old phone--you know, the one with the wire that plugs into the wall and works when the power is out. Yes, I also have a cell phone, but I'm not quite ready to go the just cell phone route. At least mine is no longer a black rotary dial! (Press one for English... oh, there is no "one" to press.)
Anyway, I have AT&T service for the landline, and also their Uverse for my Internet. I suppose I'm just too lazy to switch to another company for something I've had for so long, especially when I am attached to my email address. However, their pricing always irks me because they have various "retention deals" they will offer you, but only if you ask. You have to keep track of when your "deal" is going to run out so you can call them and check to see if there is another "deal" available. I get a bill for the landline and a separate bill for the Internet, even though technically it's the same company. It's been a steady amount so I hadn't checked the bill recently, but last week I thought I'd take a close look at it.
Check below the tangled phone cord to see what happened when I did.
I looked at the bill for the landline and decided it was pretty expensive for a phone I don't really use all that much. The biggest use is fielding junk calls and robocalls even though I'm on the do not call list, and that's another sad story. My bill had a list of at least ten features I didn't use. I decided it was stupid for me to pay for all the features I didn't use, so I called the phone company to see if there was a way I could get a cheaper rate for a plan without the bells and whistles.
The man who took my call was polite as can be--the AT&T employees are always that way. (In fact, it sometimes drives me nuts. It takes five minutes for them to hang up after you are finished, while they are telling you how they hope you have a good day and is there anything else they can do for you.) I explained what I wanted and of course he said he wanted to see how he could save me money. He checked into the service I currently have, and he said, "Oh, I can save you some money if we combine your two bills, the Internet Uverse and the phone service." I said, "What? You can save money if you have one bill instead of two?" He said, "Yes." I said, well okay, but I really don't need all the fancy features and is there a way I can get something without it?" He said those features came along automatically, but I could save ten dollars a month if I took a limited plan with 200 minutes a month. I said that would be fine.
Then he told me they could have a technician come out to my house the next day. This is where my gullibility and stupidity came to the fore. "Oh," I said, "Why do you need a technician to come to the house if you are just going to put the two bills into one?" "Oh, we just need to make sure everything is working right," said he. I said, "I don't understand how that would have anything to do with it." (That was my mistake--I should have pushed on this issue because little did I know he had cancelled my landline service and given me the Uverse VoiP instead, without ever having mentioned it.) He responded that the visit would only take fifteen minutes.
So I made an appointment for the next day. In the morning I got a call from the technician who said he would be over in twenty minutes to install my VoiP. I said, "What?" He said he had a work order to change my landline to a VoiP, where the phone is connected to the router. I told him I didn't want that because I wanted the phone to work when the electricity was down, and the router would go off then. He said they bring a battery that will keep it going for six to eight hours, plenty of time to have the electricity restored (except for in January when it took longer, but that's another story).
I was really upset that the salesman hadn't explained this to me properly, but really, I should have figured it out myself. So I felt like a real dummy and the technician sounded nice and the appointment was already set, so I told him to come. That was mistake number two. If you know what you want and don't want, don't let someone's being nice change your mind.
After he arrived, I explained what the mixup was. He apologized for the salesman not explaining it properly. Then he asked me how many phones I had, and I said I had three. He told me each one would have to be connected to the router, which would entail him rewiring them all. This would include an upstairs phone, and frankly, that was the last straw, so I canceled the order (which I should have done right away).
Then I called the phone company again because I wanted to make sure the order was canceled, but I wanted to see if I still had the 200 minute plan. Well sure enough, that plan only goes with the VoiP. I spent quite a long time explaining that I didn't use all the features on the landline phone and I just wanted a cheap plan. Finally the new representative heard me. (It seems hard to get them to understand what you want when you don't want what they would want!) He said there was a basic plan that didn't include long distance or any features that was $20 a month. I took it. I don't know why the first guy couldn't have explained that. He never mentioned another option.
Writing this diary has helped calm me down, but I think I'm still going to write a complaint letter.