Friday, February 10th. Around 8-9pm, I lost my my internet connection. After troubleshooting for a few minutes, I find that it’s not just the DSL, but it is actually my phone line that is dead. I place a call to BS tech support. Of course at that time, it’s not a live voice which tells me that a service call has been placed and to expect service to be restored by late Saturday afternoon. About an hour after placing the call, my phone/DSL comes back on of its own accord.

The next morning, I rise and shine about 7am. Since my phone was out when I called BS, I had called on my cell phone and had given that number to contact me. I had not turned it off. It never rang and if it had rang while I was in the shower, etc., the number would have been on the caller ID. My now-working land line never rang and, again, if it had while I was away from it, the caller ID would have shown so. There was never a knock on my door. I left home around 2pm to run some errands and there was no note on the door when I returned an hour later. Nothing on the caller ID, nothing on the answering machine. No follow-up phone call in the days that follow.

So life has been good until today when I see my phone bill and there is a $95 maintenance charge included. I call BS. The rep has me on hold off and on for about 30 minutes (partly due to her own computer crashing) and after speaking with local employee she then claims that a tech had been here at 9am, had called my land line and could hear the phone ringing through the front door. Hmmm, why no message on the answering machine? Why no knock on the door? How could I have spent most of the morning watching TV in my lounge chair by the front window and never saw anyone outside? BS charges for work done to “customer owned equipment”, provided that the customers doesn’t have a maintenance plan. How does placing a call to a phone number (their term was “line test”) equate to working on my equipment?

Finally, after being on the phone for an hour, BS tells me that the best they can do for me is to cut the service charge in half. My response is that I’ll gladly pay them 50% now, but they’ll have to be happy with 100% of nothing in the near future. Click. So, is that an over-reaction? Maybe. Could I afford an extra $95 on my bill, much less $47.50? Without a doubt. But sometimes you just have to stand up and say, “I am NOT going to stand for this!” If I give in and pay them for services NOT rendered this time, what about next time? Am I to always cower before the big bully on the block? I’ve had telephone service with BS since 1991 (currently on the Complete Choice package.) Soon to be gone. I’ve had BS internet service since 2000 (currently DSL Extreme.) Soon to be gone. I’ve have Cingular since 2001. Gone after the contract is up this Fall. And all because they think I have GOAT tattooed across my forehead.

And just to think… had they done the right thing, I was going to give them my long distance service too.