AT&T Madness

I should have known something was wrong because I hadn't written out a check to AT&T in two months, not since my husband ordered the iPad for me in late January. I chalked up the bill-less months to the possibility that my husband changed the billing system and had the charges posted to his credit card, like we do with the television service. However, I kept forgetting to ask him about that. I've been too busy with my iPad, and my books.

But then, late this past Friday, my husband started forwarding me all the eMails that AT&T was sending to his computer. He thought they were advertisements, and he forwarded them to me because they were in my name, which is how that account had originally been set up. But how did they get his eMail address? And what happened to the paper bills that came in the mail every month?  Turns out that the notices being sent to my husband's computer were past-due bills for January and February. What?!

I called AT&T up immediately on Friday, but of course the billing offices were closed and all I got was a robotic voice at the other end of the phone telling me to speak up and speak clearly. Give me a blessed break. I do not like talking to machines because every machine one speaks to has taken a job away from a human being. And don't even get me started on that.

After trying on Saturday and Sunday to pay that over-due AT&T bill on-line with a credit card, I finally, finally was able to do that late last night.  It would have been taken care of sooner than that but during the 'live chat' with an AT&T person, my computer decided to do updates and shut itself down. What?!  I decided to try again last night and wonder of wonders, it worked and I used a credit card to pay the over-due charges.

This morning, however, I called AT&T to get things straightened out. Where were the paper bills that came in the mailbox? And why are messages being sent to my husband's eMail and not to mine? And why do I have to talk to a robot for ten minutes before a real person gets on the line? And, most importantly, why are there so many pass-codes and entry numbers and passwords and ID codes?! Why can't they just ask for my mother's maiden name and the last four digits of my Social Security number, like they did back in the blessed day?

The young man I spoke to this morning was very nice, and very patient, but while he was eMailing the pass-codes to my husband's computer, our cat Sweet Pea got up the stairs because I forgot to close the door when I went up there to tell my husband to check his eMail so I could give the AT&T guy the 7-digit number that he just sent. At the same moment, Savannah started barking because our handyman pulled up into our driveway, and the little bell on the oven started dinging because the rolls I had put in there for breakfast were ready. In between all of that madness, I have the AT&T guy on the phone asking me why I didn't take advantage of their latest promotion plan and purchase an iPhone so I wouldn't have "just a flip-phone."  The AT&T guy also told me about a promotion for their latest television connections and tablets for live-TV streaming and iBooks.  I told the nice young man that we don't watch a lot of TV because my husband is always on the computer and I read books. "Oh.... you can get the latest best-seller releases on a Kindle," he told me.  No. I read books. Real books. With pages. And a bookmark.  "Bookmarks?" he said.  Give me a blessed break.

When that 20-something AT&T guy asked me how old the flip-phone was, I resisted the urge to tell him that my ancient flip-phone was probably older than he was. But I couldn't say that because there he was at the AT&T billing offices, promising to fix their settings so I would once again get a paper bill every month in the mailbox, and he said he would put my eMail back on their contact list so my husband wouldn't have 17 un-read eMails saying that our phone bill was past due.

By the end of that phone call, Savannah had quit barking at the handyman, I had found Sweet Pea underneath the bed and brought him back downstairs, the rolls were taken out of the oven before they got over-baked, and AT&T re-set our telephone account so I will get paper bills in the mail so I can send them a check, and my iPad has the correct pass-code and I'm sure the young man at the billing office has already told his co-workers about his first customer of the day who still has an old flip-phone and reads old-fashioned paper books.

This was not a good way to start the day. Give me a blessed break.