Cox Communications versus Qwest

Today is not a day that I'd ever want to live over again. Everything I did backfired in my face. It all began with opening my cable bill, something I seldom do, since it gets paid by my credit card. They only send me notice that my credit card company was billed. Suddenly, I notice that last month's bill was $115 and this month's bill is $142 and I haven't added anything to my service. I call. After the usual recording of what language I'd like to hear their menu in, I chose English. The wait was not long and some preppy answered offering his name as Danny. Danny sounded 14, but I'm sure he was at least 20. I told him my problem and offered that I never authorized anyone to add Starz to my account for $14 a month or the upper tier movie channels for $10 and why are they suddenly charging me $13 for 2 receivers. He tells me that I was informed of all of the add-ons, it says so right on the order. (In other words, I'm lying). I explained to Danny that when I push O for speaking with a customer service representative, I was expecting at a minimum, CUSTOMER SERVICE! He told me right back that, that's exactly what I'm getting. I said, yes, but it's BAD service and said goodbye. I hung up and started my quest for another source specifically, Qwest. That did not go well.

My intention was to eliminate COX. Cox communications, when they initially showed up in the Valley of the Sun, were accommodating, pleasant, cheerful and willing to do anything to gain our business. They seemed pretty good for years, too. Recently, every time I have the occasion to contact them, they either laugh at me or don't help me with one thing or another. When my Wifi quit working, someone told me Quest offered it for free. I told that to Cox, inching towards they should meet the competition, and the Dude laughed at me and said, no way. Go to Qwest if you want it for free. At the time, I wasn't quite fed up enough. Evidently, now I am.

My goal is to eliminate my home phone and just use my cell number for all calls. I needed to contact AT&T to increase my minutes. I was asked for my password, which I had no idea that I even had one, so I called a representative once again choosing English.......hellooooo. A pleasant lady answers and advises me that she is is not authorized to give me that information, I'll need to go to an AT&T Store and show them my driver's license to get that level 2 security information and tells me where I can find such a store in the Phoenix area. I walk into the store, meet Scottie the store manager, about 18 years old and tell him what I want and he immediately tells me he can't help me and walks away. With my mouth agape, I re-approach him and give him a detailed explanation of what I want, my cell phone password to access AT&T. He says, "Oh". I thought you wanted me to help you get the password for your computer. %&^U*&($.....

Have you ever met anyone named Scottie that you liked? Me neither. After about 30 minutes, I was leaving there with a new password, stored right in my password reminder, (Martha) and Scotty puts his hand on my arm and asks how I was treated there today. Cautiously, I was waiting for a camera or something from Candid Camera, he asked me if I'd take a survey pertaining to his performance? Boy, they may have asked the wrong guy on the wrong day? I left.

The first thing I did when I got home was to look at my password reminder and see what other passwords I can put in it to store, only to find out that I need a password to access it. Shit! Then I called the Lovely Jules to get some info on Quest. I pissed her off and she hung up on me. So there I was still "left-laning" it through the day.

Qwest was my next goal. I looked up the number on the Internet and dialed carefully, it was an 866 number, but I got some woman's answering machine, so I redialed and got her again. The phone number posted online is incorrect. I wonder how many calls she gets a day? Found a different number for Qwest, chose English, waited a pretty long time and got a lady that was less than pleasant, and was born without a personality. When she finally asked me for my social security number, I told her that I didn't see any reason to give her that information to get Internet service. She asked me for my driver's license number and I agreed to that and waited 10 minutes listening to their wise tips on how to turn on a TV. Finally she came back and told me no deal without a social security number. That's when she used the word "OUT" and pronounced to kind of oddly, making me think she was from another country, Canada at least. I asked what physical location I was speaking with and she replied Ontario, Canada. I can't get service without giving her my American Social Security number and she's not even in this country! I finally agreed to give her my number but I was getting pisster and pisster! Again she was gone forever and came back congratulating me for being a new Qwest customer.

Next I called MJ to get the scoop on Satellite TV. She's the expert there. By Monday, I should be able to call Cox and say "cancel my account". You know, I filled an entire day today, just being a crotchety old man! Cool!