Wednesday, September 15, 2004

Day two in the battle with the phone and cable companies

I wrote all about day one in the battle yesterday, but Blogger ate the post, and I didn't retype it. Suffice it to say, I wasted nearly four hours of my time yesterday getting absolutely nothing accomplished. Ugh.

In June, we transferred our Verizon cell phone out here, finally. Tai had finished up his contract in Arizona, so we got a new Virginia cell number with Verizon. Unfortunately, we also got a new account number - which they didn't tell us. We never open the wireless bills, because they're always the same amount, and we use bill pay at the bank. So we didn't realize we were paying on the wrong account until yesterday. What a hassle. Arizona can't just transfer the money to Virginia. Nooo, that would be too easy. They're going to send us a check, and then we'll have to turn around and mail it to Verizon here in Virginia. What a pain.

The cable company? Oh this is a fun story. Instead of transferring our service like they were supposed to at the end of August, decided instead to leave the old account open, and open a brand new account at the new address when we moved. Terrific. And then they charged us a billion dollars (Ok, only $110) for installation, when all they had to do was flip a couple of switches. In order to get this all straightened out, they had to close out the old account, close out our current account, and start a BRAND new account. The old account won't physically be shut off until the 29th, so we'll still be getting a bill - which she told me to ignore - for the old address. I paid a partial payment (which, with the installation charges, came up to $20 more than our regular bill) on the current account. And next month, we'll be getting a bill for the real account, which will be a 2 month bill - because it is a new account. Aaaaaaaagh!

At least it's all finally settled. I hope.