you know who else can suck it?

Our phone provider. Ever since we moved house, we have had nothing but trouble.

Judging by our recent experience, moving and taking your old number with you (in the same community I might add) is rocket science. But first things first.

The hubby, God bless him, contacted our phone provider well in advance to let them know that we will be moving and that we would like to take our current phone number with us. Shouldn’t be a problem, right? So we were told.

One week later we receive a confirmation letter that yes, we can take our old number with us and yes we can keep the fast DSL.

STOP right there. We can keep the fast DSL? Really? Because the hubby called the helpline three times before and spoke to three different call center agents to hear the same statement over and over again – you CANNOT get the fast DSL but you can get DSL lite.

Yes it’s come to this. In order to get a valid answer you gotta call at least three times because you’re guaranteed a different answer almost every time. With that you can kinda guess that if two out of three agents said the same thing…it might actually be true….

Good lord. DSL lite – for two geeks like the hubby and me this is living hell – but we didn’t care because our contract with said phone provider would only last another three months anyway and we would then be free to choose a new provider, One that could give us a faster broadband connection here in the boonies.

Also, in the same confirmation letter the provider was “happy” to confirm that our address and phone number would be made public for the world to see. Something the hubby had repeatedly said we did NOT wish. In vain.

So we called the provider. They said they’d send out a new confirmation with the corrected data and take our name, address and number out of the phonebook, on-and offline. Noting happened. NOTHING.

We moved and several calls later our phonebook entry was deleted – after being visible online for at least two weeks.

Then a technician came, pretended to work, stuck the plug into the socket and a mere € 50,- later we had a phone line again. Yes we could’ve plugged the phone in ourselves but somehow the provider needs to justify a poor technician’s job. He’s only trying to earn  money to feed his family.

After repeated calls from the phone company to our landline during day time, when the hubs and I are both at work, we tried to call them back and spent 40-50 minutes on hold three days in a row only to be told “We’re sorry but our call centers close at 6pm. Please try again tomorrow”. WTF? First you stalk us, then you don’t leave a message and when we try to call back you don’t take our calls? Great customer service too…

Then today came around and almost sent hubby over the edge when he was advised that due to the move we had a new contract with our favorite phone company and that we could no longer get out of the contract in May but instead had a new 24 months contract on our hands. Aren’t we ever so privileged?

WE WERE NEVER, EVER, AT NO POINT in time advised of that. The hubby nearly went ballistic and wrote en email in which he clarified a few things. He let me cross-read the email in work. Funny. He also explicitly wrote that he wished a response in writing. DO NOT CONTACT US BY PHONE!!!!!!!

Too bad that he saw the lights on our answering machine flashing when we got home before I could get to it. Don’t want to be in the poor call center agent’s shoes right now. I know it’s not fair to the agent – I have been one, so I know what I am talking about but something’s gotta give!!!

IDIOTS.