Had it been us, we would have used a whiteboard and wrote "UPS" instead of "Verizon."

The caption reads:

this is my friend robin's house. the story itself is left as an exercise to the reader.

(Photo:quinnums)

Here's her letter:

Dear Best Buy,

I bought a stove on-line on January 3, 2008 (order number[redacted]). I paid for delivery ($60.00) and set a delivery date of January 28, 2008 in the hope that I would be able to use my new stove for the Sunday Brunch/Super Bowl party that I was planning to throw on February 3, 2008. When I ordered there was no mention that there would be a separate installation charge ($100), nor did the website describe the procedure for how to get the stove installed—it only asked me about delivery. For someone like me who has never purchased a stove before it was unclear that delivery and installation were two different things. When I purchased my new refrigerator from Sears last year, for example, they delivered it, installed it, and took away the old one, free of charge! It did not occur to me that this would not be the case with my new stove.

On Sunday, January 27, 2008 a local Best Buy clerk called to confirm the delivery time for the next day and informed me then (in response to my asking) that the stove would not be installed when it was delivered and that I had not requested installation. When I asked about how I could get the stove installed when it was delivered, the store clerk was completely unhelpful and blamed me for buying it on-line. I called the Best Buy helpline repeatedly that Sunday afternoon to determine what I needed to do to get the stove delivered, installed, and the old stove removed. Often put on hold I was entertained by the friendly Best Buy spokesman who informed me that buying appliances online with Best Buy was so easy and installation was a breeze! I'm sure that you can imagine that these reassurances did not help my frustration. In fact, no one was able to help me on that day, despite my many calls and what seemed to be their best efforts.

Repeated phone calls to the Best Buy helpline the next day yielded a promised installation date of Monday, February 04, 2008—a week after it was supposed to be delivered and too late for my planned party. I figured that this was the best that I could do under the circumstances. I waited all day for delivery on Monday, January 28, but no one came. I did, however, receive an email from Best Buy informing me that my stove had been delivered on that day. I wrote back to say, "hey, no it had not" and I received an email in response that said that they would look into it and that they had assigned my case to a specialist—ohh a specialist! I have not heard from said specialist, so I fear that your specialists are not so special.

I made many more calls to the Best Buy helpline, local store, and the distribution center. I was told that they would now deliver on Friday, February 1. I waited all day, but they did not come. I called and was told that the local store would contact the delivery guys and call me back as soon as they learned something. I received no phone call. Many, many more phone calls between me, Best Buy helpline, local Best Buy store, Distribution Center, Delivery guys, and Installation guys ensued. I had now wasted two whole days waiting for my stove to be delivered without getting a stove.

Finally, my stove was delivered yesterday (on Super Bowl Sunday while I had a house full of guests). Today the stove was installed (only a half hour late!) and seems to be working fine. I suppose that I should be grateful that I have my new stove, but I have to admit that I'm still quite frustrated. On a positive note, I liked that the many times when I called your helpline there was an actual human being to direct my call—well done, Best Buy! Additionally, the many Best Buy helpline folks I spoke to were friendly, but unfortunately there was little that they could do to actually get my stove to my house or get it installed. The local people I spoke to were rude and frustrating, for the most part.

Here are my questions for you now: Why doesn't your website tell consumers that delivery and installation are not the same? Why not give them the information about how to arrange to get their new stoves installed? Why did I have to make phone calls to five different levels of the company to get my stove to my house and installed? Why has no one offered to refund my delivery charge?

Obviously, I am not pleased. Recounting my tale of woe to everyone I know has frequently yielded the same question: "Why didn't you order your stove from Sears?" Gee, I think, that sounds so sensible. Why didn't I buy my new stove from Sears? I am going to need to purchase a new dishwasher in the next year, I'm sure that Sears is the sensible choice for all of my future appliance purchases.

Sincerely,

Jennifer

(AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

I called AT&T to get basic information, specifically: Can I lease two HD DVRs, one for each TV? The AT&T rep said they had a new HD DVR that would output to two HDTVs, and it could be leased. We added up the service costs and it came to about $30 per month less than Time Warner. I said I'd think about it. After one final, futile attempt to contact Time Warner tech support (I gave up after 30 minutes of holding), I bit the bullet. The next day, I called AT&T again and re-verified the costs and technical information. This rep also assured me the HD DVR would provide HD content and DVR service to two TVs. I ordered.

Today the installer showed up - he worked for Dish Network directly. I ask him how the whole-house HD business works, and he tells me it doesn't. It's HD to one TV, and standard-def to the second TV. I say, well, AT&T told me otherwise on two occasions. He shakes his head and says, "AT&T tells all their customers that. It's not true. I've told them this a million times." So with the installer there, I call AT&T back, and after holding 10 minutes (funny how there's ALWAYS an unusually high call volume), an AT&T rep answers. I put him on speaker and ask him whether the Dish Network HD DVR outputs HD content and DVR service to two HDTVs. He says yes, absolutely. And I respond, "Well, the Dish Network is here on my couch and he says otherwise." They argue for a few minutes, and the AT&T guy puts us on hold and calls Dish Network himself. They get back on the line, the AT&T rep and the Dish Network rep. The Dish Network rep explains that the HD DVR does NOT output HD to both TVs, only one. To get HD DVR on both TVs, I will have to purchase a second HD DVR for $598. They will not lease a second HD DVR under any circumstances, even if I pay the lease charge. I say no thanks, and I say to the AT&T rep on the line, "It would be helpful if AT&T understood the products it sells better," and he says, "Yes, sir, that's true."

The installer leaves after telling me that "about 50%" of AT&T referrals for two HDTVs go down this way - AT&T routinely tells its customers that the HD DVRs it leases send HD content to both TVs. He said it happens all the time, both over the telephone and via door-to-door AT&T salesmen.

I call AT&T back and punch through to the complaints line. Yet another rep picks up, and I ask whether their HD DVR will send HD content to 2 TVs. She assures me they absolutely will. And I say, "Well, that's why I'm calling." I explain the whole story to her, she puts me on hold for 5 minutes and comes back and says, geez, you know, you're right about that. Our internal documents are all wrong. I'll make sure they get updated." I should add that she was very friendly and responsive and seemed sincere in her apology and vow to get the problem fixed.

Now, the thing is, I had 2 Dish Network representatives tell me that AT&T has been telling this lie routinely for months on end, and they have been told over and over it's not true, and they keep saying it. And in my one little sampling of 4 reps, all 4 got it wrong, for a glittering failure rate of 100%. And it wasn't miscommunication, because I always phrased my question crystal-clear, and they always gave an unambiguous (but completely false) answer. Every time. In fact, the complaints rep didn't even believe me when I told her the HD DVR outputs standard def to 1 TV until I told her I had pulled up the accurate DVR PDF from their website and was staring at it while I spoke.

Both Dish Network reps told me the same thing: AT&T reps deliberately lie about Dish Network's HD DVR capability to get commissions, and don't care whether the service visits are cancelled. My guess is that a fair portion of these cases end up with the lied-to customer going with Dish Network anyway, either by buying a second DVR or settling for standard def on one TV. It's a bait and switch, and I believe it's deliberate, and I bet it's illegal. It's possible they're merely incompetent, but I have a hard time believing, after all these months, that they truly do not understand the most basic fact about how their premier DVR operates.

Just to put this in perspective, I believed Time Warner had the worst customer service in the history of the galaxy, and AT&T turned out actually to be even worse. Way to go, AT&T! You must be proud. You're even worse than Time Warner. And everybody said it couldn't be done.

Tom

(Photo:FredoAlvarez)

Mr. Pants writes:

Comcast really went after me to try and keep me as a customer, and I have to admit, they're probably going to do just that. For 1 year.

How is this even possible you ask? How is it, after everything they put you through, that you will even think of giving them another chance?

I'll tell you.

Monday, after I sent my original rant to Comcast, basically saying, "Look if this story helps other customers, great. If not, I won't be surprised considering our experience." I received no less than 4 phone calls from 4 different support managers, directors and even a corporate executive.

An hour and a half after I sent my email I got a call from an executive who assured me they were extremely sorry, and he would make sure my wife and I were well cared for.

Over the course of the day Monday, I talked to all 4 of these Comcast representatives, and had a technician at my house at around 6pm working on my issue. He happened to have a signal checker that NONE of the other Comcast techs have had. He also informed me that there was indeed a signal issue that went from my house back to the pole across the street.

From that point, up until around 10pm that evening I had 2 techs in my house, who proceeded to rewire the basement coax, re-ran the line to the pole across the street, and triple checked the signal from the pole to my TV.

Then FOUR Comcast trucks showed up and started running cable from the pole to the node, over a block away.

At around 10:30, the original support tech called me to say that they had figured out that there was some "equipment running hot" at the node, and they had to replace and retune it.

Whatever that means.

This morning, the regional CS director called me again and asked if everything was fixed. I told her that to my knowledge it was, and she asked what they could do to keep me as a customer. I told her something very nice, and very substantial.

They reapplied all of the payments I had made to my original account, over to my new account again, which totaled around $300. They upgraded my TV package to include twice as many channels and dropped the price to $39/mo. and then dropped my internet service from $45/mo. to $35/mo. for 12 months.

Also, on top of all of this, a free month of everything.

So. I guess I'm going to take it, since it'll be cheaper than everything else out there.

At least for 12 months.

Twelve months from now, we'll see what happens. Provided the current service works for the next 12 months anyway.

I send this on to you, since you posted my first story, I figured it was only fair that I tell you of Comcasts rectal rectify.

Thanks for reading.

Mr. "Fancy" Pants

(Photo:cmorran123)

Comcast:

• keeps billing him for his old service after he's moved.
  
• can't fix his crappy reception.
  
• is stingy with service credits.
  
• misses scheduled appointments.
  
• is overpriced.

  Mr. Pants writes:

  So I had Comcast.

  Had.

  It went like this. Back in February26-March1ish, my wife and I moved into our new home. I called Comcast and asked them to move my service. They told me, "No problem!" and we agreed on a date and time-block. I had taken all of my equipment from the apartment with me (Digital Cable box and Cable Modem). The cable technician showed up at 5:15pm, even though they told me that he'd be there between noon and five. Okay, no big deal, so you can't get here within a 5 or 6 hour timeblock. Just give me my interwebs.

  Fast forward 3 months. I had been paying my bill online using the same email address and password I originally created when I first opened my Comcast account 2 years prior. Suddenly my service is terminated. No TV, no www. Okay. What the heck right? I call Comcast, and they tell me, "Well you're overdue by ~$300.00" That's odd, I think to myself. But you know, maybe I just missed some of the bills and forgot to log in and pay them. So I tell them I'd login and pay the bill, since they charge you a service fee to give a credit card to a person over the phone. The person on the phone kindly transfers me to the tech support department, and they turn my internets back on for 48 hours pending payment. I log in, and note that I'm current, but it will allow me to pay next months bill which is only around $110.

  Great. Weird but fine whatever. 48 hours later, my cable goes back out again. Seriously WTF. So I call Comcast again. "Guys what the hell is going on. I KNOW I'm current." They do some checking. And here's where it gets interesting.

  "Sir, which account are you inquiring about? I have two listed under your name. Location A (Apartment) and Location H (House)...."

  Okay what the heck. I ask her, "Lady. I had you move my service, and I had a Comcast truck out in front of my house. Why is my apartment still active?"

  "So you no longer live there?"

  "No, my wife and I moved. Hence the service transfer."

  "Okay sir, let me close your account here... It looks like it's all set. Now the matter of the H account. It appears you haven't paid the bill for this account since it was created in March."

  "Are you KIDDING ME?? I asked you guys to MOVE my service, and you opened a new account in my name? Isn't that identity theft? And do you not send someone to disconnect the old account when someone moves? And why am I still able to make payments online to that account? And why did you have to open a new account? Couldn't you just change my address?"

  "Sir I can't access that old account to check anything, it's closed."

  "Please get a manager on the phone right now." So I sit on hold for around 15 minutes, all the while pacing around my house. I was Mr. Furious. Except I look like Wash from Firefly. So Mr. Furious with Wash's face. No no I have it. Wash in Knocked-Up when he says, "Tight!" to the main character chick. His face is all mad looking.

  Finally the "Floor Manager" gets on the phone. I politely say, "Look, I know you're just doing your job, and the screwup is in the system some where but here's what happened...." And I proceed to explain what's just transpired over the course of the last 3 months, up to and including the last 45 minutes on the phone with Comcast.

  She says, "Sir I'm very sorry about all of this, I'm accessing your old account now, and I'll credit your new account with all of the payments you've made since you opened the new account."

  "Hold up there professor. I didn't open that account. You guys did. We need to be clear on this."

  "Yes that's right sir, sorry for the confusion. So I've credited your account with all of the payments you've made, which should take care of any problems you were having, and your balance is now ~$78.92."

  I said, "Wow that's interesting. My old account was current, but my new account is somehow over seventy dollars in the red?"

  "Yes sir."

  "No seriously, listen to what I'm saying. My OLD account was current?"

  "Yes sir."

  "My new account, that I didn't create and have no login information for, is somehow over seventy dollars in the red?"

  "Yes sir."

  "And you're the manager on duty?"

  "Yes sir."

  "Is there a manager's manager on duty?" This was Friday of the Memorial day weekend. So she informed me that no there wouldn't be a manager on site until Tuesday. I told her that I was extremely upset and that I would like a courtesy call on Tuesday. I told her the phone number on my account was my cell phone and that they could call me any time.

  Over a week passed and I did not hear from Comcast. I finally called back and talked to a gentleman that informed me that the $70+ was for the transfer of service or something. Possibly the new account activation. In any case, I was livid.

  I told him to rot in hell and that there was no way that I would pay that after I was already paying them over $1200/yr for their service, and that if they couldn't handle a change of address, they didn't deserve my money. Of course, this is after I had to re-explain my situation to the poor guy, which probably took a good 10 minutes.

  He apologized and had the charges dropped from my account.

  I was pretty pissed, but we had our services, and everything seemed on the up and up. I felt like Comcast should have given me some token of their appreciation for me not stabbing someone through the phone for all of the bullshit, but whatever. So they're a shitty company. I had my service.

  Fast-forward a month. Our digital cable starts getting pretty flaky. The screen is getting blurry (pixelated?) and the sound keeps cutting out. I call Comcast. They tell me there is a known outage in the area and that they'd have it fixed. I ask them if they're going to credit my account since the service outage is effecting my consumption of said service. They claim that it won't be a problem. A week goes by, I call back. Same conversation. A week goes by, I call back. Same conversation.

  Finally the 4th or 5th week that I call and complain that our digital cable is screwy they tell me that there are no reported issues in the area. They schedule a tech for service. He comes out and replaces our digital cable box. Comcast offers to credit me for the time I called to the time the technician was on-site. The latest call mind you. A whopping $17 credit.

  Wow. I call again and complain. They tell me that I could call as soon as I have a service issue. I told them that I did, and that the CS personnel need to do a better job tracking who's calling.

  A week goes by and my digital cable is screwy again. I call. A tech comes out the next day. He shows up at 3:15 after I asked for them to come between 5 and 7pm. He calls me on my cell phone. Great. Luckily I was running errands in the area so I could stop home. He turns on the cable box, and low and behold everything is working perfectly. He says, "There must have been a service outage in the area." He tightens my coax connections and notes that it was a possible area outage on his call sheet.

  Great.

  Next. Fricking. Day. My digital cable is pretty much out. Blurry, pixelated. Just ask Zach is so messed up I can't understand a word he's saying, but luckily I've seen the ad enough to know that it's about Rain-Fade on the dish.

  Last nerve is reaching critical mass.

  I call Comcast again. Explain to them that I'm extremely upset. They say that they can schedule a tech to come out. Fine, but put me in touch with your billing department, I want to ask about my service and what I can do to save some money.

  So then I talk to billing. I ask what would it take to step down one internet package? I'm paying $45/mo. for 6mb. I don't really NEED 6mb, and I've played games and downloaded stuff on my parents 3mb DSL that they only pay just over $20/mo. for.

  She tells me that they have a $24.99 package, but it's only 768k up/down.

  Holy shit. That's highway robbery. I politely tell her that internet bandwidth, while awesome, is kindof like McDonalds. It's yummy and will fill you up, but over a certain amount you won't notice it anymore and you feel shitty regardless of how much more you eat.

  Then she says she could save me money by putting me in a Digital Cable package with more stuff for only $80/mo for 6 months. Well holy crap what is it after 6 months? "The regular cost of 119.95 sir." Oh. So then I'd be at around $170/mo instead of my $120?

  "Well... Yeah I guess you would.." She replies.

  So I ask her if I can just cancel my TV and keep my internet. She tells me that if I do that my internet service will go up by $15/mo. because I don't have any television services.

  OMG are you serious? $60/mo. for this?

  "Bag it. Cancel it all. I am so sick and tired of you guys."

  "We're sorry to see you go sir."

  NOT. SORRY. ENOUGH. Obviously.

  So I have no internet. The DSL equipment should be here this week. I will be back online as soon as I have a dial-tone. And on the bright side, DirectTV has the Big-Ten network. Finally I can watch UofM games again should my wife and I decide to get TV service of some sort. In any case, we don't pay money to have people treat us like this. Too many people do, and I don't think they realize there's a shiny new world of alternatives out there.

  They will though.

  (Photo:Tyler Durden's Imaginary Friend)

Earl writes:

Verizon has been badgering our business for at least 3 months in an attempt to get us to upgrade our DSL and phone service to FIOS. They finally offered a good enough package for us to consider it, and we were scheduled to have FIOS installed on October 4th.

No technician came on the 4th, and phone calls resulted in it being rescheduled to October 11th. Again, a no show.

Then, today, our phone service was cut. Cell phone calls to the company with hold times of 45 minutes and 30 minutes only served to demonstrate their lack of customer service. First, they indicated that their records show the installation at 90% complete. Then they said that FIOS was to be installed on October 4th, so we should have phone service.

Then, they indicated that we were supposed to be installed on October 11th, and no one was at the business to let them install. (We had personnel at the building from 7:30 am until 9:30 pm.)

Another representative says their records indicate that since FIOS was installed, that we have phone service and that the copper wired service was terminated because the FIOS installation was complete.

They offered finally to have an installer complete the job by 7:00 pm tonight ... if possible. What do you want to bet that it won't happen?

And it didn't happen. We had no phone service over the weekend. I was able to get it reconnected today after another hour and a half over the phone. We had to cancel the FIOS order and then have the "copper side" reconnected by "programming".

Earl

(Photo:wsh1266)

Dear Consumerist, I have a problem with Verizon's customer service (shocking, I know). I'll give a brief run-down of what went on: —I ordered FiOS internet and TV through Verizon at the beginning of July. —I paid for installation with a credit card that has a very low limit that I keep for situations such as this. They were instructed to not bill that card for the monthly bill, and just send me paper bills. —No bills ever appeared. —Of course, charges for FiOS began appearing on my credit card bill. They eventually pushed it over the aforementioned low credit limit. —I called Verizon, but since I never actually got a bill, I don't know my account number. And since I don't have a phone with Verizon, they aren't able to "look up" my information. —I finally got a supervisor on the phone that would give me an "account number", but not the "account number" that the website requires. You see, a normal account number is 24 digits. Only 10 of them somewhere in the middle is the "account number" for the website. The rest are indicators or flags. The number the supervisor gave me was only 15 digits, not 24, and none of the inner 10 digits would be accepted as a valid account number by the website. —I called back and got a website service technician who told me "use the last 6, thanks for calling Verizon" and hung up. The web form won't even let you click the button until there's 10 digits in the box. Anyway, throughout all this, I was attempting to get them to refund the unauthorized charges. Attempting to get an account number was only so I could speak to a person who had access to user accounts. I finally got a woman that said that there was nothing Verizon would do if the charge went through. The conversation: Me: "These charges were unauthorized, placed on my card without my permission, and they caused me to draw overdraft fees." Her: "well you obviously gave us your card information." Me: "Yes, that's true, for installation only. You were not authorized to charge monthly bills to this account" Her: "Well there is nothing we will do once the charges are finished except to possibly switch you to cold invoiced billing." (No explanation of "cold invoiced billing" was offered, and none was provided when I specifically asked. I assume it means "paper") Me: "Well if you refuse to do anything about these unauthorized charges, I'm forced to call Visa and dispute the charges, as they were unauthorized." Her: "Ok." Me: "At this time I would also like to remind you that this call has been recorded." Her: "Thank you for calling Verizon" And that's it. Now my questions to you are 1) Does her "Ok" constitute permission to reverse the charge? 2) What would Verizon do to me if I did reverse the charge? I don't want to reverse the charge only to get a bill for $400 in late fees, charge reversal fees, and "because we want to" fees.

Let's hear your best advice for Dan! Make us proud.

(Is Verizon giving you Verizon Face? Show us your Verizon Face by submitting your picture to our Flickr Pool and tagging it "Verizon Face")

(Photo of A Verizon Face by:martyz)

Verizon will get a chance at the end of September to argue to Virginia state regulators that the state's dominant phone company should be held to a lower standard for restoring lost phone service.

The staff at the Virginia State Corporation Commission proposed that the company should be fined for routinely failing to restore service within a day. Verizon is expected to meet this standard 80 percent of the time.

On the same day the state said the company should be fined, Verizon filed a request to lower that standard. Verizon says it is an unfair and arbitrary standard that aren't applied to its competitors in the increasingly competitive telecommunications market.

To argue that a 80% service standard is "arbitrary" is just silly. Nothing could be more arbitrary the time it takes Verizon to show up to fix your phone service.

Verizon to plead case for lower service standard [Daily Press]
(Photo:IanPhillipMiller)

After the Needham Times reported a small electrical fire that caused a blackout on August 8, the story was picked by Paul McNamara at Networkworld. Verizon PR-guro John Bonomo left the following comment on Paul's site:

"Unfortunately, (the fire) story differs quite a bit from the version of the Verizon staffers on the scene. Here it is: One of our new techs was installing a triple play at a Needham home (they're selling like hotcakes, btw). When drilling a hole for the Optical Network Terminal, he accidentally hit an electrical wire, knocking out power to the house. Our bad, but no smoke, and no fire. Out of an overabundance of caution (always a good thing) the local fire department was called. The FD cut a hole in side of house where the drilling took place to expose the area and check for a fire. There was none."

Steven Ryan, reporter from the Needham Times, has done some additional fact checking. This is what he reports:

Verizon insists there was no fire, but the fire department stands by their account. "If there's flames, there's fire," said Deputy Chief Al DeIulio

UPDATE: From Paul @ Network World:

(Update: We have another eye-witness account, albeit second hand. An acquaintance tells me that he lives in the vicinity of Pine Grove Street and that his wife reports being there as the incident unfolded ... and seeing smoke.)

(Update 2: We now have an official statement from the fellow's wife: "I was one of 50 people there watching gray smoke billowing from the electric meter panel." ... Seems like game, set, match.)

Verizon vs. the Needham Fire Department [Networkworld]
If there's flames, there's fire [Needham Times]
(Photo:nomad)

PREVIOUSLY: Verizon Sets Fire To Your Home

The letter said Jim could request information about the decision, but when he called to do so the CSR told him not to worry, AT&T sends that letter to everyone.

What? Jim tried to talk to a supervisor but the CSR hung up on him. Does anyone work for AT&T? Can you explain this strange conversation? Because we can't. Jim says the CSR confirmed that his installer was still scheduled for tomorrow and that everything was peachy with his order. We're as confused as Jim is.

Jim writes:

I'm confused. We just bought a car (a Yaris, it's awesome) 10 days ago and the guy commended our credit score and history. We got a fantastic rate on the loan, and our credit history was frankly cleaner than we thought it would be.

We are scheduled to have AT&T U-verse installed tomorrow, starting between 12:00 and 2:00. We ordered it last Thursday. Today we got a letter which frightened me, here are the relevant bits:

06/25/07

Addressed to me with my legal first name, not the name I go by and use for this account.

"Dear My-Last-Name" Like 'Dear Smith',

"...Based in part on an assessment of your credit history, we have made the following decision to:

Limit and/or deny the purchase of products and/or services

...You have rights, etc...call Equifax...

If you would like to know specifically the principal reason(s) for our decision, please contact us within 60 days of the date of this letter. We will tell you the reason for our decision in writing within 30 days after receiving your request.

Should you have any additional questions, please contact us at 1-800-288-2020." XOXOXO, AT&T.

I surely did want to know, specifically, the principal reason(s), so I called to make that request. I've been watching tv via rabbit ears for the last three months, and obsessively defending my credit for years, so I'm about to have a stroke, but I stay calm.

The first rep listened to my request, tried to transfer me, and disconnected. The second rep disconnected while verifying my info. The next rep, Dwayne, looked up my account and this is the mostly verbatim version of the conversation:

I got a letter that says yada yada. So, I'm calling to request the specific items in my credit history that caused this decision.

We send that letter to everyone, it just means we checked your credit.

But it says, based on my credit history, AT&T has decided to 'limit and/or deny the purchase of products and/or services.' (I quote the part about requesting specifics). I want to know what is on my history that caused this.

You've already been approved though. You wouldn't have received the letter if you weren't approved.

But it does not say I have been approved, it says I will be limited and/or denied. (I quote the letter again).

We, the CSRs, we don't send that letter.

I understand that.

That letter comes from another department. We send it to everybody, it just means we checked your credit.

So you tell everybody that they will be limited and/or denied? (What does limited mean anyway?) I don't think you understand what the letter says. (I start quoting. Again!)

I don't think you understand what I am saying to you.

Can I talk to a supervisor? I'd like to escalate this. I'm not going to complain about you, but I don't understand this letter, and I'd like the specific information it offers me. You've been very courteous, I just think we're not communicating well, and I'd like to have a second opinion on this because it's very serious and completely baffling.

Ok, no problem, I can transfer you to a manager. But I'm telling you, it's fine.

So I still have an installation scheduled for tomorrow at noon?

Yeah, it's right here. Between 12 and 2. Eastern.

And I get U400 and the DVR and 3 months free and...

...and free equipment and free install and etc., etc. That's what we hooked you up with. You ordered it from Susan on ... last Thursday. Is that who you ordered this from?

I don't know, my wife ordered it.

Ask her.

She's not home. (Where is this going? Is he proving he's an honest chap or something?) So this letter that says I will be limited and/or denied, and advises me to contact Equifax, and contact you for specific information, actually just means all is well?

That letter says we checked your credit. If you hadn't been approved, we wouldn't have scheduled the installation, and you wouldn't have received the letter.

On and on, so I ask for a supervisor again, he keeps up the "all is well, please disperse" for a few more minutes. I finally cut him off and calmly explain again that I think he and I are having a miscommunication, and I'd still like to speak to a supervisor because this doesn't make any sense. He tries to transfer me to a supervisor and I wait on hold for 5 minutes before an automated voice says "Thank you for calling. Goodbye." and I am disconnected.

I've had letters like this in the past, back when I wasn't such a good kid with my credit, and I know they usually mean "Limit and/or (especially, emphatically, while cackling mischievously) deny the purchase of products and/or services (forever!)."

So, naturally, tomorrow I am checking my credit reports, and I guess expecting the "professional installation", and requesting the specific information again, but what is wrong here? Could the car be the problem in my history? Is there a problem? I am curious whether this has happened to others, and why AT&T might be causing unnecessary panic with poorly worded letters, or, more likely, why Dwayne might be causing unnecessary peace and tranquility. After the 5 hour (!) install tomorrow is some goon going to come back and take it all out? While telling me they do it to everybody?

Jim

(Photo: epicharmus)