The Matt Faus Blog

Today I ordered SBC DSL internet, again. When I moved into my apartment the beginning of this year Travis and I decided to go with SBC DSL instead of Comcast because it was a little cheaper and we had some connectivity issues with Comcast last year. Well, everything was going fine until we got the bill for October. On this bill we had our phone service (required for DSL), our internet service, and Dish network charges. Dish network!? Some brilliant programmer in the depths of the blue whale that is SBC decided to slack in his error checking and write the internal transaction software so that anyone with that was assigned a phone number that had had Dish network service associated to it before it was closed would also receive the services. I was getting charged for Dish network and I don’t even watch TV! I called as soon as I saw this on the bill and they told me that they would take care of it but that it would take a few billing cycles for everything to clear out. They also told me to only pay the amount shown for phone and DSL services and to disregard the Dish network charges. Two months later on Friday night after coming home from dinner my internet had been disconnected. I called DSL support that night and they told me to call Customer Support in the morning because my account had been suspended due to nonpayment. SBC suspended my account because I did exactly what they told me to. Anyway, I called in the morning and I was told that my internet would be turned on in 1 to 4 hours, but of course it wasn’t. Finally, I had time to call again this morning and found out that my DSL account had been closed. Not suspended, but closed. James (the sales rep) told me that he could order again for me for a higher rate than what I was at and it would take a week to get everything up and running. I complained, threatened to cancel my account and go to Comcast, and he caved. I will now have internet in my apartment again in about a week at a lower rate than what I was originally paying. A freakin’ week without the Internet! Ugh.