I got up this morning determined to get through the pile of unpaid bills and unopened letters.
I sorted everything by order of importance, double-checked each charge, wrote out the cheques carefully, filled out the records book, stamped each envelope, then filed each bill in its rightful folder. I calculated my bank balance as I went along. I was doing everything by the book and feeling pretty righteous…until I got to a pair of envelopes with a “Bell “ heading. I had already paid three phone bills (smartly combining them in a single envelope to save on stamps) and remembered thinking this must have something to do with my cell phone.
I opened the first one and realized it was not Bell “telephone” but rather Bell “Sympatico”, the Internet provider. Relieved that I was not being pursued by my phone company, I read on. It said that my credit card had expired and that I needed to get in touch with them so they could update my file and charge me my yearly fee of $365.00. I gingerly called the number and after the usual recorded messages and instructions I finally had a real human being on the line!
I explained my situation and he seemed to understand what I was saying. I asked him what card number they had on file; it was mine, all was cool. I gave him the new expiration date and told him to proceed with the payment. He left me waiting a few times but finally came back with a confirmation number. I was ready to hang up when he informed me he needed to transfer my call to tech support. I was surprised, but he explained that my account had been deleted and they could not update it, they needed to create a new one. I asked this new guy how could my account be deleted if I still had the Internet running. He fumbled a bit but explained that it was sheer luck that I had not yet been disconnected. It was unclear how long my account had been “overdrawn”, but it seemed a bit excessive to cut off the service after sending only 2 warnings. He then proceeded to ask me how much I was paying. He argued with me that I do not have high speed Internet (I know very little about computers but I DO know high speed) but who am I to argue? Heh! If this is the basic package, so be it! It suits me fine. Just leave it at that and don’t change the price! He then informed me that he needed to transfer my call yet again to a technician. I was getting irritated. This third guy was not a nice as the previous two and I was getting fed up repeating the same info all over again…I was getting very irritated and when he started again with the new account business I yelled at him that I had had enough and, bravely risking loosing my Internet connection, hung up on him!
I have NEVER hung up the phone on anyone! I was a shaken.
When I spoke to my daughter a few minutes later, I described the whole story to her. She was silent for a minute…and then she said… Mom, I think we use Videotron not Bell Sympatico…