This is my dual-purpose blog.
It amazes me, but women like the sound of my voice. It started in high school. I would spend hours on the phone talking with girlfriends. Sometimes, they would call me early in the morning just to wake me... that's when my voice is the deepest. I know as the day rolls on, it tightens from stress.
People don't need caller ID... when I speak, they immediately know it's me. In addition to the tone of my voice, speaking clearly has always been important to me. Much of that is years of experience talking on the 2-way radio to people half-way around the world. It makes you conscious of the things you say... what good is it to open your mouth and make sounds when people cannot understand you.
So much for that 'good phone' story...
They other purpose for this blog is my telephone company complaint. I've been a terrific customer of Bellsouth for many, many years. Easily 30+ years. Now, they are AT&T. Probably, you have heard this name before...
I used to have 3 phone lines with DSL on one one the lines. I started with another DSL provider. Whenever there was trouble with my DSL, they would blame the phone company. I would go back and forth between both companies and each blamed the other company for the poor service. Covad, who provided the network backbone for this area sent a technician on behalf of my internet provider and ran their test equipment. The results: line noise from Bellsouth causing the trouble. Yet, I couldn't get anyone to resolve the trouble. My DSL provider admitted the problem was bigger than them and allowed me to cancel service without a contract penalty.
I decided to get DSL with AT&T... only to find, I had the SAME TROUBLES that the other company had. I demanded they fix the problem. The technician came, ran a new line from my house to the pole (out back) spliced this new connection and all the trouble disappeared. Amazingly how they had no one to blame and it got resolved.
Maybe 10 years ago, I tried some cost cutting and switched to an alternate phone service Supra-Telcom. The quality was about the same, but they ALWAYS got the billing wrong. That meant 1-2 hours every month on the phone with them getting credits and apologies.
So I stayed with 'Ma Bell' and moved a few services around to save money with a package plan. When my nephew arrived to go to college in Miami, I added a second DSL line so we were nearly assured of having DSL should one go offline. At least 2 or 3 times a year BOTH are offline. My nephew takes his college classes online and it's really important to have reliable service.
The company I work for finished a big project last year and it took the client 4 months to pay us. This was a serious problem... we had no working capital to keep the business running. Personally, I waited 8 weeks to collect some back payroll. When that happened... a few people got paid late. But they got paid.
This is where I realized in this economy how 'creative' companies you think you could trust, found ways to take more of your money.
I'm working from my cellphone nearly 100% now. I rarely use my house phones... instead, all my calls are re-directed to my cell.
Because if this, I don't know if people are calling my house/business line to directly to my cellphone... if I forget to pay the bill, someone always reminds me.
Since it's ALL computerized. I pay my bill online and the service is restored within 4-5 minutes. It's that fast. Simple... huh?
The last bill came through with $45 of 'reconnect charges'. So, I called and asked how they could justify a price so high for a computer to handle this task. No human had to intervene... it should cost them nothing. The woman I spoke to said she would 'look into' reversing the charges... I told her keep the $45, you'll need it more than me, because I'm going to cancel service.
I hung up with her, called ATT&T internet division and cancelled DSL service. I called Earthlink and took their Phone/DSL package. That should be up & running with a week. I ordered Vonage IP phone service for my fax line and expect to save $35 a month on switching phone service from AT&T.
I'm tired of giving 'good phone'... maybe now, it's time to get some.
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| I give 'good phone' but not for long... |
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