AT&T

You will know we are elderly by our phones

/ Shane / 5 Comments

Sara and I have suspected that we could save a lot of money on our cell phones for a long time. Basically, we just had Verizon since time began, and we never really looked around or anything. We are also pretty minimal cell phone users as these things go (super old phones, don’t use a ton of minutes, no texting, no web, no nothing), so we sort of figured we might be getting ripped off. At the very least, we knew we could get a small discount through our jobs, so at the very least we could be saving 10% – 15% or so, but we thought maybe we could do better with a pre-paid phone or a smaller carrier, like Cricket. But we were lazy, so we never got around to doing anything about it.

However, the other day, Sara was going through her consumer reports and found that they had rated actual cell phone companies, and the top of the list was a company we had never heard of before, Consumer Cellular. We decided to check them out, and they turned out to be phenomenal. So we officially made the switch, and we are no longer Verizon customers.

Consumer Cellular is saving us about THIRTY DOLLARS PER MONTH. That’s $360 a year we will save, by basically just paying for what we actually use on the phone. In fact, that price includes a texting plan, which we never had before, so we actually have more functionality. And another thing about Consumer Cellular: you can change your plan retroactively for the month. So, if at the end of the month you find that you used more minutes than your plan allows, you don’t pay ridiculous per-minute charges on the extra minutes, you just adjust your plan to the next one up. More amazingly, if you find you didn’t use all your minutes, you can adjust your plan down to a lower plan and pay the lower rate. When have you ever heard such a thing from a cell phone company??

There is one funny thing about the company…it’s for old people! (This is why Sara and I fit right in.) You never really realize how advertising pictures are exclusively young people, until you get a brochure full of pictures of old people. This should have been the first sign. Then there’s the fact that they offer a “large button” phone, and the fact that their FAQ page specifically talks about how to use the phone on a cruise ship. There’s a checkbox for the AARP discount when you order. Even as you’re reading through the text on the webpage, you feel like it is meant for old people.

Shane: “Wow, this really is for old people. Everything is just spelled out so clearly, so there can be no confusion.”
Sara: “Yeah, but why is that for old people? Shouldn’t everything be like that?”

The fact is, it should be, but it’s not. Most cell phone plans are byzantine at best, with times when calls are free and times when they aren’t. Roaming. Overage charges. Contracts. Service fees. Early termination fees. Can you imagine a company that’s actually laying everything on the table, just trying to make an honest buck instead of trying to trick you somehow?

There are a few downsides, but they don’t really matter to us personally. So one would have to decide if this place is right for them or not. First off, they have a very limited phone selection. The free phones that Sara and I got are probably a step backwards from the very old phones that we used to have (except that this one is smaller, lighter, and the battery lasts longer than my old phone, so I guess it’s not all bad). So if you’re into the latest smart phone, they’re probably not for you. (They do have a few other choices, including smart phones, but nothing like what you’d get with a Verizon. I also understand you can use any AT&T phone on their network, and I’ve heard of at least one person using an iPhone.) They don’t have an unlimited data plan, which doesn’t matter to us, because we don’t have smart phones. There is no free nights and weekends or mobile to mobile minutes. However, the plans are cheap enough and we don’t use so many minutes, that we can still pay a lot less even paying for these extra minutes (I guess there’s a reason even the big companies offer them for free). Consumer Cellular is on the AT&T network, which might be a plus or a minus, depending on how you look at it (and how much you like the AT&T network).

So, Consumer Cellular. Check it out. We kept our old phone number, and the transition was hassle free. If you’re going to sign up, let me know: I can get us each a $10 credit as a referral fee!

Quote Monday – Back with a vengence

/ Shane / 1 Comment

“Grandma Kathy, you’re always making up silly words!” – I don’t even remember what this was in reference to, but certainly my mom wasn’t making up any words.

Anonymous 80-something, upon receiving the gift card we got her for Christmas: “Earlier, I got one for $100.”

My first clue I need to lose some weight: “And who’s in your belly, Daddy?”

Also, she has been going around claiming to everyone who will listen that she has a “baby dalmatian growing inside of me” that will be born “when it comes out”. This one is a “big girl” but the next one will be a “baby brother”.

I mentioned in the pronunciation guide that Evie says “w” for “l” sounds in words, which I think is a pretty normal thing for a kid. But Evie is not self-conscious about this at all, and thinks it is really funny that she can’t say it right. We tease her all the time, saying things like “No, not “wotion”, “Lotion”! This usually gets her laughing so hard she said, “My body is moving when I laugh!” We probably shouldn’t tease her about it, because I don’t want her to become self-conscious about something she can’t help, but I was just really surprised that she didn’t get upset or frustrated at all, she just thought it was funny.

“Walking in a winter wonderland…I want Alice in Wonderland!”

::Evie and daddy playing pretend::
Me: “Hello cat, what brings you to my house?”
Evie: “A car.”

Evie was quizzing Uncle Nathan with no pause for answers: “What is your favorite color? And your favorite animal? And your favorite stripe on your shirt? And how old are you?”

Several times over the holidays, while we were driving around doing some shopping, Evie would shout out, “That’s where mommy gets her email on!” Eventually we figured out that she was seeing an AT&T logo and mistaking it for the Internet Explorer icon on the computer. Sure, when you look at them, they’re not all that similar. But I still think it was pretty smart of her!

AT&T update

/ Shane / 3 Comments

In a continuing saga here on the blog, I received yet another notice from AT&T attempting to verify that I ordered Cinemax (which, of course, I didn’t).  I am just about at the end of my rope with them.  I mean, with all of the trouble I’ve had, they supposedly put copious notes on my file saying they should block any movies, channels, etc. that are ordered.  I’ve supposedly locked it out on the box so it can’t be ordered there and, lest we forget, it is literally impossible for the box to malfunction.  Now, all of the people I have talked to since the original person have been extremely helpful and nice.  But I still have to wait on hold for 15 minutes to even talk to someone.  And the last two times I’ve called the person wasn’t sure if you had to lock out the pay-per-view and channels on just the main remote or on both remotes.  Well, if any of you AT&T people out there are reading this, you have to do it on both remotes.  And furthermore, it is actually more important that you do it on the secondary remote if that is the one using an RF transmitter!

It appears that what was happening was this:  one of my neighbors has the same satellite receiver and their remote was controlling my box.  See, there is only one box in the house.  The upstairs remote works through IR like a regular remote, i.e. you have to point it at the box.  But the one downstairs has to travel through walls and floors, so it works using radio waves.  So, if someone else is using an RF remote and they are close enough to you and they have theirs set on the same frequency as yours, they will control your box right along with their box (and vice versa).  I am fairly certain this was what was happening because 1) it makes a lot of sense and could explain why all of these mysterious charges were showing up, some of which happened while we were out of town, and 2) when I started messing with the remote to fix this problem, someone (else) started furiously changing the channel.

Now if you go back to my original post, you will astutely notice that was my first suggestion to the supervisor as a possibility, and it was quickly dismissed.  It must be a pretty common problem if even I had heard about it!  So when the current technician suggested it, I couldn’t help but laugh out loud.  I said, “I suggested that as a possibility, but I was told that was impossible.”  He shrugged.  “It is common enough that they tell us about it in the training course,” he said.

GRRRRR I am so mad at them.  It makes sense to me that this could have been the root of my problems, so hopefully this is no longer an issue.  But HOW DARE the supervisor insist that this couldn’t possibly have happened when it looks like it is EXACTLY what happened.  I have half a mind to call them back and see if they can look in my file and find the name of the original supervisor I spoke to, and then file a complaint against that person.  “Sure, if you don’t mind wasting your time.” said Sara.  And that is why I’m really so mad, because I’m so powerless against them.  My complaint wouldn’t amount to a hill of beans, especially since that supervisor was clearly doing what she was trained to do.  And it is not really worth canceling their otherwise superior product over this one (albeit long running) issue.

So I’m sunk.  But AT&T better never meet me in a dark alley…

Technology is out to get me

/ Shane / 1 Comment

I may have mentioned a little problem I had a while back with AT&T and a certain pay per view charge.  Well someone is up to their old tricks again because we received a notice in the mail that we signed up for Cinemax!  Now, it is possible that Evie has somehow ordered these things, however, there are a couple of glitches in that theory.  1) Cinemax was ordered while she was on vacation in MI and 2) if she is ordering them she has a very particular taste.  So far the things ordered are WWE Smackdown, the movie Spiderman, a *ahem* pornographic movie and Skin-a-max.  Do those sound like the viewing preferences of my sweet baby girl?  Despite their insistence, there is obviously something more going on here, although I can see why they suspect me.  It’s a frame job I tell ya!

Luckily the guy I talked to this time was super nice and quickly put everything in order.  I don’t understand why they couldn’t be like that the last time I talked to them.  Apparently it is easy to remove Cinemax but hard to remove a pay-per-view.  I also came to learn there were notes in my file based on my previous…uh…disagreement with them.  Whatever.  Just cancel anything that I could possibly order and leave me alone!

I have also been having some problems with my DSL modem.  Long story short it just stopped working when we got back from vacation.  Eventually I learned how to get it to work in 5 minute spurts.  After several calls to tech support and online searches, I discovered that it was overheating.  Removing the casing and exposing the bare circuit board wasn’t enough, but throw in a box fan blowing on it and voila!  Internet!  This was obviously not a viable long term solution and I had some vague notions about somehow buying a heat sink and attaching that, but I just broke down and bought a new modem.  The thing is, this is now my 3rd modem in about 2 years and they are like $70 a pop (although my first one was free from AT&T and the second one was a replacement when the 1st was still under warranty).  Still, I don’t have a good feeling that this one is going to last.  And there are surprisingly few choices.  AT&T basically just offers the one.

So we’re up and running full time again (as of today) and hopefully this will last for many years to come!

AT&T is the Spawn of Satan

/ Shane / 6 Comments

Why is the customer service of a company inversely proportional to the size of the company?

I had a call with AT&T that made me so furious today that my hands were literally shaking with anger.

We got our bill and we had a $40 pay-per-view charge for WWE Summer Smackdown or something like that (our dish network is through AT&T).  Now obviously we didn’t order this so I wanted it taken off the bill, but I just *knew* it was going to be a hassle.  So I called today and waited on the phone for literally 30 minutes before talking to anybody.  When I finally did get through to someone of course I had to be transferred.  Then, of course, my call was dropped.  (Ironic for a phone company?)  Now all of this is just what I expected so far, which is a shame in and of itself.  But I honestly thought if I slogged through all this nonsense, they would just reverse the charges and that would be that.  It didn’t get bad until I called back.

Luckily I had gotten the direct number of the division I needed to talk to so I was able to call back later.  When I finally got through to someone and explained what happened, she got really rude.  She told me that pay-per-view was non-refundable and there was nothing she could do.  I was irked, but I immediately asked for a supervisor.  I have been literally told in the past by other supervisors at other large companies that you will only reach a supervisor if you ask and they are the only ones who can do anything.

The supervisor was 10 times ruder than the regular person.  I told her I wanted the charge removed and she said it couldn’t be done.  She said that it showed the pay-per-view was ordered from our remote so the only possibility was that someone in my house ordered it, so therefore they wouldn’t waive the charges.  I told her that perhaps there was a hardware malfunction.  She said that was impossible.  Impossible!  She said that these units had been tested “thousands of times” and the only possibility was that we ordered it.  I told her maybe the neighbor has the same remote code.  I said maybe I dropped the remote and it fell in such a way that the proper buttons had been pressed.  She just kept saying, nope, impossible.  I or someone in my house had ordered it.  I asked her if she was calling me a liar to my face?  She said no she wasn’t, but it is impossible (Impossible!) for the hardware to malfunction and someone in my house ordered it, which is totally different than calling me a liar.

Now, I don’t know what happened.  Maybe Evie did it by accident.  Maybe Sara snuck out under the cover of darkness to watch some WWE Smackdown after I was in bed.  Maybe someone broke into our house and ordered it.  I don’t know.  But neither does she and the fact that she kept insisting that it was *impossible* that anything happened other than that I ordered it.

So finally she agreed to reverse the charges.  In order to “punish” me she informed me I would lose my ability to receive pay-per-view programming.  This was quite excellent since it was my next order of business!  However, it quickly went downhill from there.  Here is a rough estimate of our conversation:

“I will reverse this charge ONE TIME but after that if you have any more we will not reverse the charges! So if you have any at home you have already ordered you will be charged and we won’t reverse it.”
“No. Cancel any charges now, cancel pay-per-view and cancel any charges in the future. I don’t want any pay-per-view.”
“I will reverse this charge ONE TIME but after that if you have any more we will not reverse the charges! So if you have any at home you have already ordered you will be charged and we won’t reverse it.”
“I don’t agree to that. I don’t know if my equipment is malfunctioning or what, but if there are any more pay-per-view things I don’t want them!”
“I can’t tell if you have any more, but I’m just letting you know that if there are any more charges, we won’t reverse them.”
“I don’t agree to that! Cancel everything!”
“I can’t cancel any you’ve already ordered. We won’t reverse any charges in the future!”
“I don’t agree! If I get charged I’m calling back!”
“But we won’t reverse the charges!”
“I don’t agree! I know this is being taped! I want it on record that I don’t agree to that!”
“This is the only time we will reverse the charges!”
“I don’t AGREE! Make a note on my file that I don’t want any more!”
“Too bad, we won’t reverse it!”
“I DON’T AGREE TO THAT!! I DO NOT AGREE TO THAT!!”

And honestly, no joke, that wasn’t even the end of it.  Yes, I admit, I was hysterical.  I realize that makes me sound like a psychopath, so I’m counting on the readers of this blog to know that I am a reasonable, even-keeled person.  She did eventually reverse the charges, but she made it clear she was only doing it because I was such a pain.  Fine, I as a pain.  That’s part of the worst thing about it, that I had to be a pain to get my charges reversed.  It is the only way to accomplish anything with companies like that.  I pay them how much per month and they make me scream at them to remove a $40 one time charge.  That is ridiculous!  To be treated like that…despicable.  Reading the text really doesn’t do it justice.

And that is really the worst part.  I could cancel my service, but I’ve had just as bad service with everybody else; Comcast, Verizon, ComEd…all of them.  This is just the way these companies work.  And there’s just nothing I can do about it.  I could cancel and go with another just as bad company.  I could call and complain to someone but they wouldn’t care.  I’ve read enough exposes to know that they are told to act like that, to be aggressive to get people to pay the charges.  Everything in their system is designed to force me to give up. And if I canceled my service, what do they care?  One less customer, boo hoo.  And what else can I do?  Write my congress man?  Write a blog post?

Okay, I guess I’ll do that, but it sure doesn’t make me feel any better.