Last night, sitting in the dark, the phone rang. Fortunately, in addition to the cordless phone I have a “regular” phone too, so I answered it. It was Southwestern Bell collections. Somehow, in a flash of brilliance, I never paid my phone bill. I had no light, no way to make a payment, and so I told them I would call today. He told me to be sure to call in today, because the disconnect order was for today.
I called in today to ask if they could extend the bill due date to the 15th. You can’t tell me that in the magic world of today’s computers you can’t extend a date like that. The first woman I talked to was snitty as could be, and said no way. But that I could make a payment today & they would not cut off my phone. I forgot to ask if I could make a partial payment… So after I hung up I counted out all the cashola I have on hand ($40 less than what they want) and called back to see if that would be enough, if I paid that if they would then extend me to the 15th. (Since the 15th falls on Monday & direct deposits are normally early, I may even have the funds on the 13th.) That service rep told me it has already been cut off! Grrr… and that they have to have the full amount to turn it back on. Well, FINE. I don’t need a phone anyways. I have a cable modem at home, a cell phone, and people can just call me there! It ticks me off that they are going to charge me an extra $20 for cutting it off, when it appears the first woman “flipped the switch” when I told her I didn’t think I would be paying it today. Here I probably could have come up with that extra $40 pretty easily, and it would have been no big deal. Instead they will charge me more moola… Damn.
Maybe I should have listened to MCI the last time they called to switch my service. Except they don’t have Call Notes, and I don’t have an answering machine. I really like Call Notes, it is the ONE thing that has kept me with SWBell. Hmmm, I might just use that money to go buy an answering machine and switch anyways!
9 replies on “I hate Southwestern Bell…”
You know Christine, I wonder from day to day why I even have a phone. We both have cells, no one calls the home phone, and I mean no one, I’m beginning to wonder why I even had it turned back on.
If you don’t pay your bill don’t they just give you a double payment the next month? Don’t you get a “notice” before they shut it off? Damn! What hard core people!
Must be run by the same “brillant” people at USWest/Qwest. We went in and made a payment on the day we had agreed upon, for both lines. We come home, call and let them know that we made the payment. Then, I tried to get on [via 2nd phone line], to the message “No dialtone”. We check. Sure enough, no dial tone. I call and the guy gets all snotty on me and says “Well you didn’t pay on time.”. I was late, but I paid on the AGREED [extended] DATE. So I held up *my* end of the bargain!! He went on to lecture me about paying on time and how we’d have a reconnection fee. I told him “Fine. You can keep your dam* phone line. I don’t want it.” And we have been a 1 line house since then. ;o)
I OREDED SOME CELL PHONE’S FROM SOUTHWESTERN BELL. THINKING IT WOULD BE AS EASY AS PIE BY THE WAY THE CSREP HAD SPOKEN. BUT NO……THAT’S WHERE THE NIGHTMARE STARTED. I RECIVED A 400. OO BILL TWO MONTHS AFTER I RETURNED THE CELL PHONES. THEY WERE RETURNED IN THE TIME MANNER THEY GAVE ME. BUT STILL CHARGED ME. THEN AT THAT TIME I WAS INFORMED THAT I HAD ALSO AGREED ON LONG DISTANCE. I FLIPPED BECAUSE BEFORE ALL THIS MY BILL WAS ONLY 39.00. FROM NOV 03 TOLL MARCH 04 THE PROBLEM OF THE BILL JUST GREW AND GREW. COME TO FIND OUT THE CELL PEOPLE ARE IN NOWAY CONNECTED WITH SWB. THEY HAVE NO CLUE OF WHAT SWB IS DOING WHEN IT COMES TO THEIR MERCHANDISE. IT WAS CRAZY. I DISCONNECTED ALL SERVICES EXCEPT MY BASIC PHONE LINE. IN MY OPINON THAT IS THE BEST WAY TO GO. BECAUSE AFTER READING ALL THE CHARGES ON THAT 400.00 BILL. I HAVE COME TO THE CONCLUSION THAT PHONE SERVICE WITH SWB SUCKS AND IT IS EXPENSIVE.
I happento work for SBC, and i think that customers like yourself are big, melodramatic BABIES. IF you guys paid your freaking bills on time like normal people, then you wouldn’t have so many problems. As for the cell phones, you should perhaps read all of the fine print before signing. Grow the hell up!
Thanks, clueless anonymous person. If you had read my post, it had nothing to do with cell phones. *rolls eyes*
My husband and I divorced sometime in March of 2004. He established phone service at his new place of residence. My current telephone account has been established with SBC since May of 2003. This account stays current and I even pay my bill online to avoid it being delayed by mail. I utilize several of their services and cannot complain about the actual phone service itself. The account I have is in my name and always has been. My ex-husband’s name is listed in the phone book and always has been, evidently it was listed as a user too, I am not sure. The only thing I know for sure is that this account is mine and lists only my social security number. His account was in his name only with his social securitiy number. Now the COMPLAINT.
Sometime in August he moved back home. We reconciled, but are still not remarried. During his time away, he ran up a 354.13 phone bill. He never paid this bill. He received a letter from a collection agency at this address in September, 2004 addressed to him only in reference to that account with SBC. I took the initiative at the end of October to call them finally and make arrangements to pay out the account. The collection agency representative was very nice and realized that it was not my debt but that I could pay it (of course..lol). I was concerned as to whether or not the balance included any equipment fees (modem) or not. The rep at the collection agency could not answer that because she didn’t have a listing of charges just the amount to collect. I made a 100.00 payment to her over the phone that day and arranged to pay another 100.00 at the end of Nov., Dec., and the remaining 54.00 in Jan. Keep in mind that this had nothing to do with my name or social security number. She did advise I could call SBC and inquire about the equip. charges. WHAT A MISTAKE!!!!! By the time I had finished talking to a representitive there at SBC in their Final Accounts Department (terrible rude and totally unsympathetic woman) she had not only taken the account back from the collection agency, made my arrangements with them void, told me that I had no other choice but to pay it out as 100.00 in Nov and the remaining 154.00 by the end of Dec (no other choice at all) she had also linked MY account to HIS deliquent account and placed my account in jeopardy over that past balance which had absolutely nothing to do with me! She said she was allowed to do this because I had his name on my account as a user or something like it. I didn’t even know that, and probably would not have removed it anyway because I am sure that they would have obliged me for a small 50.00 or 60.00 fee just to have only me on the account period. Then today in the mail I received a letter from SBC dated the day I talked to the women in Final Accounts saying that my current service at this phone number would be terminated if I did not satisfy the balance on MY old account phone number by Nov 10th!!!! IT IS NOT MY ACCOUNT!! Where do they come off doing this? I was never on that account nor did I ever ever live at that residence. Why would they address it to me and what gives them the right to link a balance to my current good account that has been in existence for a year and a half now from an account that was established in March and disconnected in April that doesn’t have my name or social on it anywhere?!?! I called and asked about the disconnect notice (which you know was just a chide by the snide representitive I spoke with that day) and the lady today said that I was not in jeopardy of having my phone cut off as long as I satisfied those made arrangements. I will tell you that this not how the letter read at all. It was a “Pay up by Nov 10th or you are SOL” letter. Anyway, I am just still clueless as to how they can do this to me. Any information would be great!
Uhm, yeah. No way to help you, Stephanie. Sorry. I would assume that somewhere in there you mentioned you were once married, so they linked the accounts. Good luck getting them unattached. Next time, let the ex handle his own bills…
Thanks for responding and reading the above “book” Christine. It just helps to know that someone else out there loathes the conglomerate that is SBC. I just had to get all that off my chest. I still just can’t see how they can legally do this. I have sent two letters via their customer service website without any response since the 29th of October. They probably won’t reply. Funny thing though, I did receive a call from SBC customer service about 7 last night. I answered after two rings and then there was the “click” and noone there. Odd. I really had quite a heated argument with the rep on the 29th. I still think she sent the disconnect letter out of spite and not out of reminding me, ha-ha. I find it so annoying that those types of personalities are the ones who are placed in such positions. I would like to see the job requirements for her position. I can think of a few choice words that are a must in the personality traits description. Anyway, thanks for responding.