Can You Hear Me Now?

I've been so busy that I neglected to tell you that I had to make another one of those calls to AT&T a couple of weeks ago. Yep, the April bill was still wrong. Actually, I had to make 2 calls that day. They disconnected me again the first time, and I was finally transferred to a man named "Mumble" during the second call. Well, that wasn't really his name, but I couldn't understand what he called himself. Mumble could tell that I was clearly exasperated with his company, so he told me he fixed the billing problem and didn't even charge me the $5.00 to keep the phone on "vacation mode." Uh, huh. He then went on to schedule the activation date with me. Since our AT&T billing cycle ended on Monday, April 27, I asked him to activate our service at the new house on Tuesday, April 28. Why tempt fate and expect them to bill us correctly for a partial month?

I connected 2 of our telephones to the phone jacks before we went to bed on Monday night, and I picked up the receivers to check them first thing Tuesday morning. Wow! I had a dial tone! 

But. . .

I also had an extremely loud buzzing noise. (Sigh.)

C'mon, really?

Isn't that exactly what I should have expected after all the hassles we've had in dealing with this company?

I put the receiver down and checked it several more times during the day. I was still hoping that the problem would correct itself. I know. . . delusional. Finally, after dinner, I made a call to my mom in Calumet. She had great difficulty hearing me due to that loud buzzing noise and said it sounded like I was calling from the North Pole. I would probably have better reception if I was calling from the North Pole! 

OK, now I'm fed up again, so I decide to call AT&T on the landline phone next - just so they could hear my lousy connection. There was only one problem with that plan. Their virtual operator couldn't understand what I wanted - due to all the "background noise" they told me I had. I tried calling them 3 times and they kept hanging up on me! 

Time for drastic measures. I call them a 4th time using our Verizon cell phone with a crystal clear connection. Now, the virtual operator decides he can't transfer me to the repair line because they don't handle Verizon repairs and gives me the Verizon telephone number! You've got to me kidding me! AT&T can tell that I'm calling them from a Verizon phone, but they can't do one thing right in installing/billing/activating my AT&T service! I somehow managed to get back to the voice prompts before they disconnected me again, and I finally reached a human being. I'm questioned about WHY I'm calling from a Verizon phone if I want repair on my AT&T line. "Because I just tried calling you on my AT&T line and your virtual assistant hung up on me 3 times - because he couldn't understand what I wanted - due to the fact that I have a loud buzzing noise on the line - and I sound like I'm calling from the North Pole!!!" (Or maybe from Maxwell Smart's shoe!)

After checking the line, she said it appears to be a problem outside the home. (Duh.) However, if the problem turns out to be a problem within the home, the service call with cost me $99. I reminded her (again) that this is new construction, and their installation guys installed it, so there shouldn't be a problem inside the home, right?

A repair guy is supposed to be here tomorrow between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Since they failed to show up for their first 3 appointments back when we had it installed, I'm not holding my breath.

Other than that, all is well in the Keweenaw.