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I'm moving soon and yesterday I called Time Warner to set up service in my new place. After talking with me for a while, the service rep said he was connecting with my "local service provider to set up the service date details." What ensued was a 1.5 hour ordeal.
I was not asking for anything complicated or fancy. I'm going to need a landline and internet access in my new place, and I haven't been particularly happy with Verizon, my current provider, so I figured Time Warner couldn't be any worse and maybe would be slightly better - or at least cheaper. Also, Verizon internet isn't available in the place I'm moving.
The first hint of trouble came when the supposed "local service rep" said that, since I am a new Time Warner customer, they would have to do a credit check on me and therefore needed my social security number. Now, I'm not unreasonable - in fact, I'm usually too accommodating. I give my phone number and zip code when the checkout clerks ask for it. I'll show my receipt at Circuit City. But I think it is an unnecessary security risk to give my social security number to Time Warner just so they can look up my credit history. They already have my address, cell phone number, internet address, etc. Why do they need my social security number? So I declined.
Ok, said the service rep. In that case we'll need your credit card to bill your first month. "You're going to charge just my first month, right?" I asked. "You're not going to charge me automatically every month, are you? Because I don't want that. I want a paper bill in the mail."
"Oh absolutely, ma'am," says the rep. "We understand perfectly. We'll just charge your first month and then it will revert to regular billing."
Meanwhile, I'm on hold most of the time. The minutes are ticking by. I just want this guy to sign me up for internet and phone. What's taking so long?
Eventually, after an hour and a half, we're coming to the end of the transaction. There's bad news. "I'm sorry, ma'am. The computer won't let me override the automatic billing."
"What do you mean?" I ask. "Are you saying that my credit card is going to be automatically billed every month? I said that I didn't want that."
"Well, ma'am, it's because you won't give us your social security number. If you give it to me now, I can back the credit card info out and do the credit check."
No way am I going to give him my social security number - he's already got my credit card number, my name, address, phone, etc. And by now we've hit the 75 minute mark. This is ridiculous. He's being very apologetic - says I'm being very nice about the delays. He mentions that they are on a big "learning curve" right now. He says he'll give me the number of my local Time Warner and I go in person and talk with them about the credit card issue.
"I thought you were my local office," I say. "The guy I talked with earlier said he was connecting me with my local service provider."
"Oh, they all say that!" the man says very cheerfully.
"Where are you, then?" I ask. (I'm in North Carolina.) "Ottawa, Ontario!"
Sigh. So I've spent more than an hour talking to someone I was told was my local service provider for Time Warner, he's got my credit card number, Time Warner's got me on an automatic withdrawal for whatever they feel like charging me every month (and given the errors that appear in my Verizon bill, I dread to think what's going to be charged to my credit card account each month - it won't bear much resemblance to what I expect, that's for sure.)
This is service? I'm a boomer. I remember when Ma Bell came by and installed a great big black phone made of indestructable plastic and metal and turned on your service. Sure, it was a monopoly, but it worked.
Now all the corporations have a wink-wink nudge-nudge monopoly and lousy service and products on top of that. Sigh.
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