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lemme tell ya, they (*&%ed me over GOOD a couple years ago. I had just lost my job, it had gone under with no warning. And I'd just moved into a new apartment with no built-in internet connection, so I ordered DSL from them. We got hit by a hurricane, so I got a little distracted, but two weeks later I was finally able to give them a call and ask why I hadn't gotten my modem yet.
Turns out that not only had they sent it to the wrong address, despite the fact that I'd given them the correct one TWICE on the phone, but they'd ALREADY gotten the modem back return to sender. And yet they were billing me for it already. So they sent it again.
Two hurricanes and a month later (this was the year when four major hurricanes hit Florida) I managed to get hold of them again. I'd been billed for a month and a half of services that I hadn't gotten. I still don't know why I never got the modem the second time, but by this time I didn't CARE. They sent it to me and it got there. Finally.
At the time they were charging 150 bucks as a setup/modem fee, but you got a full rebate if you sent in a coupon within 90 days. So around day 45ish, I sent in my coupon. Right after that was when my job went under. So here I was, looking for a new job... when suddenly my phone gets disconnected. I'm a bit confused, so I use the phones on campus or my roommate's phone whenever I can to try and get through the maze of bullshit computer controlled stuff to get to a live person and find out what the hell's going on. Turns out they started counting down the days from when I first ordered, rather than when I finally got the service. So they said they got the rebate coupon on day 93, rather than on day 48. By this time, adding up the extra month and a half of bills plus the 150 bucks, they've tried to overcharge me by 200 bucks. Right when I didn't have a job, so I couldn't just pay it and then keep complaining until I got the money back. Normally I'd do that to avoid service interruptions. Especially when I was looking for a new job. But I can't this time.
So here I am, no money for gas to go out and look for a job, no working phone. My new apartment is outside of walking distance to just about ANYWHERE where I could look for a job. In fact, the whole reason I moved was because I'd finally gotten a car so I could afford to be outside of walking distance to everywhere.
So I try to deal with them whenever I can, which is usually when I'm on campus. Either via email or one of the free phones on campus. They start sending me threatening collection letters, trying to get money from me that I don't actually owe them. By the time I get these letters though, they've officially completely disconnected my phone. Which means I am no longer in their system. So the only phone number they give me to try and talk to a real person no longer works, because the first thing it asks for is my phone number. And when I type it in, the computer voice says, "You are not a Bellsouth customer." and hangs up on me. And no matter how I try to communicate via the ONLY method left to me, email, they just respond with a form letter saying "We aren't authorized to fix this problem. Call this number." and they give me the same goddamn number.
Anyhow, after another few months of this they give me a different phone number. I FINALLY get ahold of a live person for the first time in several months. He takes one look at my account and says, "Damn, yeah you should have gotten that rebate."
Okay, so now that should be fixed... right? Nope. Takes two months for the rebate to 'go through'. And I still have the extra 50 bucks from that month and a half of service that I didn't get, PLUS all the late fees and whatnot from me not paying what I didn't owe.
And to add salt to the wound... exactly one year later I finally get the notice in the mail that says my rebate was denied. The one that was supposed to get to me BEFORE my phone was disconnected for non-payment. Somebody must have hit a wrong number when they were typing the information in, and it got sent out exactly a year later than it was supposed to. I had been taken out of their computer something like 10 or 11 months before that was sent, yet that little computer printout stayed in their database queue, waiting to be sent for an entire year.
Of course, the biggest irony during this whole time was that the thing that started this whole problem, the internet connection... well, they disconnected my phone for non-payment, but they forgot to disconnect the internet for another month and a half. So I'd managed to find a new job via the internet before that finally got cut off. I couldn't even find out if I'd actually GOTTEN the job after I had my interview because I couldn't call them and they couldn't call me, but I showed up on the orientation day after my interview and it turned out I'd gotten it. :) Eventually I got cable internet and a Vonage internet phone. Which, I might add, costs me the same as a regular Bellsouth phone line with no features, yet it has free long distance and every feature imaginable. :) In their pitiful attempt to screw me out of two hundred bucks, they have lost a customer for LIFE. The hundreds, maybe even thousands I would have paid them over the course of several years is now GONE. And I tell this story to everyone I can, in the hopes that I will lose them even more customers. I may not make a noticable dent in their profit, but I'm still doing what I can. :evilgrin:
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