I sincerely believe that I have the most horrible phone bill story in the world. It took more than two years and innumerable phone calls to convince SBC that I should be allowed to pay my phone bill. They adamantly refused to bill me, to the point of shouting at me over the phone that they would NOT send me a bill. At the same time, and often in the same conversation, they threatened all sorts of dire financial consequences unless I paid my bill immediately. The problem was that the phone line to my house was out of order. They absolutely refused to send a technician out to look at the line, and insisted that the problem was with my phone. They also refused to send me a bill because I had signed up for on line billing and my bill was available at their web site. When I told them that I couldn’t access their web site because I didn’t have online service, due to the defective phone line, they threatened to take me to court for failing to pay my bill. When I asked them to send me a bill so that I could pay it, they refused etc. This dragged on for a couple of years, during which time I could not get phone service in my own name. Then there was the time I signed up for SBC high speed internet service on my wife’s line. They told me that they would send me a do it your self kit to hook my computer up to the internet. The kit was supposed to include an external modem and software for a Mac running OSX. Instead they sent me an internal modem and software for a linux server. When I called them to try and straighten out the problem, they told me that I would have to pay for the wrong modem and software because I had opened the unmarked brown box, plus I would have to pay for the proper modem and software (supposedly free with the service) because I had already been sent my free modem and software, for which I was being billed. When I told them to cancel the DSL hookup, they disconnected the phone line for two weeks and claimed that they had to disconnect me to change back from the DSL line. They then billed me for the two weeks of non service, plus billing me for three months of DSL service at the full rate, not the discounted introductory rate, because I had voided my contract with them at the introductory rate, and when signing up for the introductory rate, I had agreed to a minimum of three months service. The fuck yous totalled well over two hundred. I now have a landline so that I can connect to my ISP, but I refuse to put a phone on the line. Congrats on the new house.
I sincerely believe that I have the most horrible phone bill story in the world. It took more than two years and innumerable phone calls to convince SBC that I should be allowed to pay my phone bill. They adamantly refused to bill me, to the point of shouting at me over the phone that they would NOT send me a bill. At the same time, and often in the same conversation, they threatened all sorts of dire financial consequences unless I paid my bill immediately. The problem was that the phone line to my house was out of order. They absolutely refused to send a technician out to look at the line, and insisted that the problem was with my phone. They also refused to send me a bill because I had signed up for on line billing and my bill was available at their web site. When I told them that I couldn’t access their web site because I didn’t have online service, due to the defective phone line, they threatened to take me to court for failing to pay my bill. When I asked them to send me a bill so that I could pay it, they refused etc. This dragged on for a couple of years, during which time I could not get phone service in my own name. Then there was the time I signed up for SBC high speed internet service on my wife’s line. They told me that they would send me a do it your self kit to hook my computer up to the internet. The kit was supposed to include an external modem and software for a Mac running OSX. Instead they sent me an internal modem and software for a linux server. When I called them to try and straighten out the problem, they told me that I would have to pay for the wrong modem and software because I had opened the unmarked brown box, plus I would have to pay for the proper modem and software (supposedly free with the service) because I had already been sent my free modem and software, for which I was being billed. When I told them to cancel the DSL hookup, they disconnected the phone line for two weeks and claimed that they had to disconnect me to change back from the DSL line. They then billed me for the two weeks of non service, plus billing me for three months of DSL service at the full rate, not the discounted introductory rate, because I had voided my contract with them at the introductory rate, and when signing up for the introductory rate, I had agreed to a minimum of three months service. The fuck yous totalled well over two hundred. I now have a landline so that I can connect to my ISP, but I refuse to put a phone on the line. Congrats on the new house.