As you can see from the above, I have convinced people to give up their dial-up and go with DSL. The female who was mentioned briefly in the last paragraph is the one we will be discussing in this blog post. You can also notice from above, this person has had DSL for more than a year.... until it became "inactive" yesterday (6/26/2012)!
Before I discuss what went on yesterday, let me give you a small background about my customer. My customer, let's call her BK, gave me a call on December of 2010 about a computer issue she had with her NetZero Dial-up not working. The computer wasn't in the greatest shape and I won't get into specifics regarding the other "tech person" she had prior who "sold" her that 8+ year old Dell machine. I took BK to Staples to get a new PC and I hooked it up for her. She had to spend another $50 on a USB dial-up modem because the newer computers don't come with a modem anymore for obvious reasons.
Because of an email hijacking issue with BK's email account on May of 2011, I told her it would be best to get DSL service so the PC stays up to date, she can have an updated anti-virus running, and so she can do more with her PC besides email. I told her it will be an overall quicker and better computing experience. BK didn't want to do this at first because of the extra expense. She was currently paying about $9.95 for NetZero. I told her it will be $14.95 for one year for the DSL service then $24.95 for the DSL service after the one year is up. She then agreed. On the end of May of 2011, the DSL was hooked up by me (who also called AT&T to sign her up for the service) and everything was honky dory. However, AT&T FAILED to send her the $75 visa card for the modem reimbursement. After BK called them on the phone multiple times, she FINALLY got it in the mail! So, there is one small boo boo already on AT&T's part. But, like Onyx said in their song Slam towards the end.... but but but wait, it get's worse!
On a day towards the end of April or the very beginning of May of 2012, I received a frantic call from BK because her AT&T bill showed a charge of $34.95 (or higher, I can't recall the actual price now) for the DSL service. I called BK back and told her that's because the year is up and you have to call AT&T and have them down grade the DSL service to the lite service which is $24.95 a month. BK said it was going to be over $50 a month for the phone and DSL and then wanted to go back to the ".net" as she calls the dial-up service (NetZero.net). During this time, BK also mentioned magicJack and said she wanted to go back to the dial-up service and get magicJack for her phone for $20 a year.
After trying to explain over the phone, in order for magicJack to work, broadband (DSL or Cable) internet is required. I also asked BK, why get magicJack phone service if you already have phone service in the house? Are you going to cancel your phone service? Then you can't use the ".net" dial-up service! After that lengthy discussion on the phone, she decided to keep the DSL and get magicJack and cancel her phone service eventually. She wanted me to set up the magicJack for her. I agreed and told her to keep the DSL service and cancel her phone service and just go to the "DSL direct" which is what AT&T calls their DSL service without voice. She said, "OK."
On May 2nd, I picked up the magicJack at Staples and went to BK's house to set it up. As I was sitting at the desk taking everything out of the packaging, this conversation started:
BK: "OK, I canceled the DSL Service!"
I stopped, looked back at her and said, "what did you do?!"
BK: "I canceled the DSL service!" I was quite shocked and said, "Why did you do that?!"
BK: "You told me to!"
Me: "No.... I said, cancel the phone service, not the DSL service!"
So, of course, she got upset because she didn't have a clue as to what was going on and I had her call back AT&T to reactivate the DSL service. After BK was on the phone for a while, she was getting annoyed at them so I had to take over. I told them what went down and they said they will reactivate it and it will be up again momentarily. So, we both waited... and waited.... and I started playing with the modem to get it set up again and nothing was working. After thirty minutes passed by, I called AT&T back again to see what the deal was. Another person on the phone said it takes about 24hrs for it to activate again. I thought that was odd because the other person on the phone before said it would be back up "momentarily." So, I said thank you to the kind man and hung up the phone. I told BK what was going on and said I'll be back the next day to set up the magicJack again! She said OK. Another fat failure on AT&T's part with their lack of knowledgeable customer service personnel who give false information!
I arrived at BK's house on May 3rd at around 3PM because it was around this time the previous day the service had been activated. I noticed the internet light not on the modem again and went through some steps again to get it working. After messing with it again with no results, I called the DSL tech support again and told them it's been about 24hrs since it was activated and the internet is still not up and running. After some further "research" from the tech support person, he told me it is not activated because the service has not been added. I told him what has been going on and how she accidentally canceled it then we called back and reactivated it and how the person said it will be back up "momentarily" then I was told it takes 24hrs. He said in order to put the DSL back on, I needed to speak to sales and sign up for it again. I was transferred to sales and had to go through the process all over again. I told BK what happened and, of course, she wasn't a happy camper. Then I left because there was nothing more I could do.
The next day, back to BK's house! I might as well have moved in at this point! Tried to get it all working again and.... it still wasn't activated yet! Gave them another call and the female gave me a number to call to "expedite" the service. After speaking with the expediter, she said she it wouldn't be up and running until the next day anyway so that call was pointless. So, I told BK what went down again and.... left!
The next day, I went back and FINALLY, after close to a week of her accidentally cancelling the service, which took no less than 10 minutes for it to be deactivated, it took about a week and close to ten phone calls for it to be up and running again!
I FINALLY was able to hook up the magicJack and get it working. I told BK the new number to use and I told her she can cancel the phone service with AT&T, not the DSL service. She then tells me she wanted to use the same number she had with the magicJack service. After I allowed the screams in my head to subside, I told her, because of the DSL being tied to the phone line, it will be complicated to port the number over to magicJack. She didn't care and still wanted it done. Oh, and she also told me she wanted the magicJack Plus instead of the regular magicJack because she read from the paper about it not requiring a computer to function. I told BK, even though it doesn't require a computer, it needs a router to receive the internet, of which she did not have. After saying that, she didn't know what the heck a router was and anything else I was talking about so.... I had to create a magicJack "dummy" diagram. After all, she is in her eighties so a lot of this stuff is new to her.
After all that, she still wanted the magicJack Plus of which she then bought at Radio Shack. I had to get the router and power strip for her though and didn't mind.
Because this has been a lengthy blog post already, I'm going to break this into two parts. The number porting process as well as the "current" process of the magicJack Plus and DSL fiasco will be continued with part 2! Click here for part 2!
Until next time,
Dragon
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