Reach out and throttle someone

Up ‘til about a year ago, we had problems with our home phone service: we got godawful line noise whenever it rained. BellSouth continually promised us that the problem was fixed/would be fixed shortly, but we knew better. I distinctly remember yelling at customer service reps in a vain attempt to be heard over the noise.

That all changed when we got cable modem service at the house and switched the house and business lines over to Vonage. But after a few months, we noticed problems with the business fax line: namely, it didn’t work. It would drop calls or just refuse to answer them in the first place. The alleged customer support at Vonage was a joke, too. (Folks, if I’ve called you 4 times for the same problem, we don’t need to start over again by checking my fax settings. You need to find a better way of tracking customer complaints.) So one night after a bad customer service attempt that ended with me describing the problem to three different people on two continents, we decided to switch the business lines back. We left the home lines alone for the time being, because we hardly ever use the house phone, and Vonage is a lot cheaper, after all.

So I leave Grainger and start back through the rain in search of lunch, when my cell phone rings. It’s hubby. Seems Vonage cancelled one of the business lines but not all of them, and now they think they ought to be paid for 6 more months of ignoring us.

Aw, hell to the naw!

Now hubby’s strongly suggesting that I find another carrier for the house, too. So do I go back to a land line and just know I’m gonna lose my phone when it rains? Or do I sign up with a VOIP provider who’s rated lower than Vonage for customer service?

So much for shrinking my to-do list.