Cost Of Living Mal-Adjustment

And... welcome to $4.20/gallon.

-jre

AT&T FAIL

I've wanted a home phone (landline) for years now. I didn't want my son growing up not knowing how to answer a corded phone, being tied to a specific area, and if he wanted a private conversation, to have to go to another room and either ask me to hang the phone up or do it himself. Without this, All he'd know is cellular phones and cordless phones. Nothing about long-distance. Nothing about how there's no limit on minutes used, accidentally talking over someone (Oops, go ahead... no you go.. ok... ), and not having to worry about someone 'breaking up' or losing signal. No, I want him to know what it's like to have an honest-to-goodness twisted pair of wires connected to his handset.

Previous to this, I cancelled my internet service through Charter last year, because I was sick of outages every 4-18 days. In my one year with AT&T DSL, I realized HUGE cost savings, and had one crippling outage, during which there was no power in my neighborhood due to a thunderstorm knocking out power to the whole block, so I can't really count that as an "Internet outage." Charter obviously sucked at reliably delivering the internet, and I was so happy to be rid of them, that I ended up canceling cable television with them also. (There are no other cable providers here, they're about as bad as not screwing up television as the internet, and for 19 channels, I was paying more than $45 monthly. I only watch television a few hours a week. Honestly, what I miss most is Family Guy, House, and the Weather Channel. Severing my ties to Charter completely was almost an orgasmic experience! But, I digress... Back to the story)

So, AT&T had a good package deal on a landline / DSL combination. My internet was $15/mo on what was called a "Dry Loop" number - basically a "dummy" telephone number since I had no telephone service, just DSL. AT&T assured me they'd just transfer my DSL service, activate my new landline number (which, incidentally, is the same number I had back in 1994! woo!) and also bump up the DSL speed since the cost structure had recently changed. More for less. I'm sold again. No more garage-sale Charter pricing.

My phone line was activated on 9/17.

My first call was from a telemarketer who asked for me by name.

Interesting.

In four days, I've had 17 telemarketing calls, all asking for "Joe Earleeweeeeennnee?". Great. Lesson learned: Pay extra for that unlisted number up front.

This is where the fun starts. My DSL service was dark. No sync. AT&T was my second call, asking to make sure everything was working correctly. I told them except for having no internet, the phone service was working. They explained that in activating my new number, they had to remove the DSL service from the dry loop number and re-add it to my new landline number, and it'd be installed Wednesday 9/22.

Okay, so I guess I'd wait until then to add my number to the national no-call list.

But.. an idea! My parents' landline has call waiting, and their caller ID informs them of who is attempting to call. I dialed the operator to ask how much that feature was to add. It ended up being a small amount monthly, but I was less comfortable having that than canceling call waiting altogether (I don't want personal conversations interrupted by telemarketers, whether I can see them calling or not. Also, I considered, it'd disrupt any modem calls currently in-progress). I asked the operator to please deactivate my call-waiting.

This is where I found the loophole.

After nearly a half an hour on the phone, She was asking for "three digits on my billing statement that confirm I am the account holder." I told her I hadn't got my first bill under the new account yet. It is literally 3 days old. After much debate, we came to the conclusion that we can't do anything with my account until I receive a bill in the mail. I can't get online to change anything there or find these elusive three digits unless I use dialup, which will be how I post this blog entry.

Loophole.

She was concerned about the volume of telemarketing calls I've received in my 3 days with this number. I agreed. She said she would transfer me to the advanced service center, as her supervisor couldn't override the need to provide this magical 3-digit code. She did all that she could. I was transferred.

"Thank you for calling AT&T. This office is currently closed. Please visit the website at www.att.com, or call back during our normal business hours..." Fail.

I still have call-waiting. Two telemarketers have called since I began typing this. My phone is not 4 days old yet. I'm at least 27 days from an invoice / statement I'll need to deactivate call waiting so that my calls are not interfered with, and that's if the USPS operates at the speed of light. I can't get online to change things there, because my internet hasn't been reconnected yet, though I think if I get dialup working tonight, it MAY be possible. Who knows. In all likelihood, I'll have to enter my account number from my invoice or something. :)

I have to admit, despite this system failure due to the loophole recursion, I'm really happy to have a home phone again. Everything's clear. There's no signal or "bad spot / good spot" in the house to worry about. I can talk all I want to whom I usually call and not worry about peak times or minutes. (also, hint hint, using google voice, long distance is free too. Maybe I'll write about how simple that was to initiate at some point)

But seriously. I thought the fact that I, Calling from the number, had to provide information I haven't yet been given to authenticate myself as eligible to make changes to the account, and that the system doesn't allow for an override or other recourse. On the other hand, the telemarketers make me feel a lot less lonely for adult conversation. They usually regret calling me after they discover they've been listening to me debate theology with them forcefully for more than 12 minutes or so. That's no way to sell car insurance / magazines / extended warranties / appliances / etc...

:)

-jre