Customer Service Nightmare

I hope you're enjoying a lovely weekend! I'm finally back online after going through some *bs* with my ex-cable company. And this is what happened:

When we had the water damage several months ago and evacuated to my in-law's house, my mother in law had suggested that maybe I should call my cable company and asked to have my cable service suspended while I'd be out of the condo. I wouldn't be using the cable nor internet, so that made more sense, so I did. Florida has lots of Snow Birds, so the cable company I used offered the seasonal suspension. The rep told me to call them whenever I was ready to move back in and they would restore the service with no problem.

So, past Monday morning I called the cable company and let them know that I moved back in and wanted my service back on. The rep said no problem and the technician could come to my place the next day. I was really ecstatic until she said, "One thing though, we need to get $236 to restore the service plus the installation." - WHAT????? I asked again, "Ahem, excuse me... What did you say?"

The rep explained to me that I needed to pay the bill for a month in advance and the service restoration fee. My bill was supposed to be only $136 plus tax., even I had to pay restoration fee, it still didn't add up. "But, still, I want to know why is it so expensive, my bill is only $126?," I asked. "Well, since you suspended your service, the promotion you had when you signed up with us is no longer available for you. Therefore you need to pay $206 a month from now on," - WHAT A Hell?? Seriously, WTF????

I explained to her that I had to move into my in law's house due to water damage, and I called and spoke with several reps, and that they had never mentioned anything about losing my promotion nor having to pay more money to restore the service. The rep said there's nothing she can do. Meanwhile, my heart was beating fast with anger and confusion, so I told her I'd call her back.

My thinking is that, maybe I got a lazy rep who didn't want to go through all the trouble to give me the promotion back. So I called the cable company back. Again, another rep told me the same thing, well, she mentioned she'd talked to the supervisor and she wouldn't be able to help me with my promotion being taken away. I ended the call saying I'd call back and I called back again, and the response was the same thing. I talked to my clients at work and they all told me it's ridiculous that I had to pay that much money to restore the service when I was never informed by the reps from previous that this was going to happen if I suspend or disconnect my service.

I was almost in tears because not having able to watch TV or use internet would suck, but I didn't want to pay over $200 every month when it wasn't my fault. That's when I realized about another option - switch the cable company! I knew I didn't have any contract with the cable company, so if I wanted to stop using the company, I could! I said to the rep, "If this is what you call a customer service, then I don't want your service anymore." and hung up. I'm not ususally a complainer. I'm a happy person who always tries to strike a conversation. But I was not happy at all - I felt like I was totally mistreated. Was it because of my accent? I don't know, but I felt like they didn't try to solve the problems. I had gone through a lot after the water damage and I'm still dealing with issues for not getting any checks from the insurance company. There's no way I was going to deal with another *bs* and I felt good about it.

So here I come Verizon Fio - again. We used to use Fio until past February and I switched to the other company because they offered more affordable service. Anyway, I called Verizon and the rep was so kind and told me he'd try to give me the best possible rate and he did! He asked me what I really wanted in the cable and I told him I definitely wanted HBO which I couldn't have with my ex-cable company because their movie package didn't include that. So he gave me HBO and Cinemax for free for 24 months with no contract and free installation! Yes, free for 24 months and free installation! Woo Hooo! Also, the whole bill is a lot cheaper with all the channel that I get compare to the old ones. They offer me more HD channels and movie channels.

The only downside was that I had to wait five days for the Verizon tech guy to come to my house and hook it up. But it was so worth it. Just hearing the sound of music from the Weather Channel (for local area info) or being able to go online and visit your blog make me feel like I'm finally, truly home. I'm really impressed with my daughters for not complaining one bit that they couldn't watch TV. They have enough toys and art stuff to keep them busy and also we were able to watch DVD. I'm truly grateful for my girls for helping me out while I cleaned the house and get ourselves situated - they are very patient little things indeed!

I'm so sorry for not having able to visit your blog - I'm so excited to be back home and have my own space and blog and visit:)

So, do you have any horrible experiences with customer service???