Silly, silly me.

Remember a month ago when I was so excited that I actually had a good customer service experience with AT&T that I devoted a whole blog write-up to it? A few hours of my life were dedicated to AT&T that day - between the call itself to figure out my DSL charges, and writing the post and gathering the pictures to go along with it. Oh, how I praised the likes of "Jenny," the woman on the other end of the phone who promised me a low monthly DSL rate of $19.99 and a clearer set of charges on my bill. I remember hanging up from the call that day literally astonished at how smoothly it went and how I ended up with a better deal that I had been hoping for.

Oh, how NAIVE I WAS. Stupid, stupid e!

Because when I viewed the October bill a few minutes ago, guess what? All the old charges are back, it's 2.5 times what it should cost, there are once again about 18 lines of charges and "discounts" on the bill, and Jenny is nowhere to be found. I called the billing number and they are not around on weekends. And of course, I'm cursing myself because I can't find the detailed notes I took during the call so I would know what the package is supposed to be called and whatnot. Now I am literally SEETHING. I am so mad that I cannot even see straight. I do not HAVE TIME to call them back during the work week, and I do not want to have to fight with some not-as-nice-as-Jenny-was person about what SHE promised me. Quite frankly I am ready to go back to the days of no DSL, no cell phones, no blackberries, no Tivo, no DirecTV and hell not even any phones st all if it means I don't have to have a nervous breakdown each time the bills come and they are all a mess.

All that keeps going through my head is, "Jenny, WHY did you LIE to me?!?!?! WHY!?!!!?!?!?!"
I feel betrayed.


Adding to my bitterness is that I've also recently been dealing with the complete and utter lameness that is my home warranty plan. If you are not familiar with what that is... basically when you buy a place you can get a home warranty that covers major appliances, plumbing and heating systems, etc. When you need things fixed or completely replaced, you call the warranty and they contract out to local service providers who you pay a flat fee to for the work. It comes in handy and we have used it a lot over the past three years.

But in the past few weeks, we realized that we should probably replace our 17 year old water heater because the average life of those things is about 12 years, and it's starting to hiss and gurgle every time it heats up, and it's situated above a room with many things that we don't want ruined in it. You would think that PROACTIVE replacement such as that would be a good thing, because it is saving all of the additional expenses that would come along with the water damage should the heater start leaking and/or actually break. But noooooooooooo, I can't just tell them I would like to replace the heater that's at least 5 years past its prime. They first make someone come out and attempt to fix it. Then they write up a claim to get it replaced. Then you can only get it replaced with some crappy no-name brand. Now I'm told that UNLESS IT IS LEAKING, they won't pay to replace it at all. The contractor the warranty plan hired out to said, "Between you and me, they will lose money on you if they pay for the replacement when it's not actually broken." Duh! I know that! But that's what insurance is all about - everyone pays and then only some people actually get more than they paid out of it. So, it's just a total hassle to go through all the process to file this claim and have them make up lame excuses as to why they won't replace a unit that is obviously on its last legs. Let's wait til it's a total crisis, shall we? THANKS FOR NOTHING!

- e