Cyril, this might be a long story.
We have had the telephone service with unlimited long distance at no cost, call forwarding, call waiting, caller ID, etc., etc. (the whole shootin' match) for $39.95 a month and our 1.5M DSL Internet service for $30.00 a month; total of $69.95 plus all those taxes and other little fees that have made it actually $94.30 a month total.
The 9th of this month, my Internet service was not working, so I called and the tech support guy spent an hour or so having me change this, change that, delete this, delete that and he finally concluded that their old modem had died in spite of the lights blinking on it. So he said he'd have to send me a new modem. No cost for the modem, but $14.95 S&H for 3 to 5 day service, $23.95 for next day service. I told him I didn't think that was right, since it was their equipment, but that I'd agree to pay the $23.95. So the new modem came, and it worked.
Then when I got the bill, it showed $22.95 S&H but a total of an even $31.00 extra with all the little fees and taxes. So I called the billing department and told the lady I just wanted to register a complaint about $31.00 being more than the $23.95 I'd agreed to
and that I didn't really think I should have had to pay anything. She told me there not only wasn't anything she could do about those charges, but also "didn't he tell you there would also be a recurring monthly rental fee for the new modem?" I said, "No, he didn't, but Charter Communications has been after my business so maybe I should be talking to them instead of you."
At that point, she asked me to hold a minute while she reviewed my "entire account". When she came back she said she was transferring me to another lady she thought could help me. The second lady was very friendly, but first said she couldn't do anything about those charges (which I'd already paid the day before), but that she could give me a $10 a month discount for 12 months. I said, "Now you're sounding just like those crooks at DirecTV." (Yeah, I know I shouldn't have said that).
At that point she said she had to check something, then told me they had a "new package deal" and I could get everything we currently have with a 5 year price guarantee, but no contract to sign, for $59.95 plus the taxes and fees, and she said she'd been told to tell customers that the taxes and fees were usually about $15. And she said she could also increase my 1.5M DSL to 10M. When I said that would be nice, but I didn't need the speed enough to pay more for it, she said, "Oh, no, no additional charge." And she said she could issue a credit for that $22.95 S&H charge, too.
So she said the next bill is going to look like a mess because it will have that credit, then show our old rates for March 18 to March 31 and the new rates for March 31 to April 18.
So if she was telling the truth about the billing, as she was about the DSL speed, I should save somewhere between $10 and $19 off the $94.30 a month I've been paying.:laughing:
