A Day Of Problem Solving
When I got up today there was no DSL service. I tired to get it working again but a message came up saying there was a problem with my password. I called tech support and after waiting on the phone for about twenty minutes for some one to help me I just hung up and left to go to Ruston to get some more problems solved.
I couple of days ago I received the monthly bill from AT&T, which is for DSL, a landline, long distance, and cell phone. The total was a few cents short of two hundred and eight dollars. I almost choked when I saw that. Every thing was fine until I saw the amount for my cell phone, which was almost one hundred and thirty dollars. Then I almost went into orbit for I have the senior plan that is thirty dollars a month plus tax. I opened the bill online and printed it out so that I could give it a close look and hopefully learn why my cell phone was so high on this bill. They very neatly listed charges for each month and Brian and I decided that they were charging for last month, this month, and next month. Last month when I paid the first bill since getting DSL, there was no charge on the bill for my cell phone. But the total still did not seem right to me even though I could add it up and get the same total as AT&T. It just seemed that they had charged me twice for last month.
I decided that I would go to the AT&T store in Ruston and see if they could explain the bill rather than waiting on the phone for quite a while to speak to a real person. I also wanted to find out why I had not received my rebate from AT&T since it was mailed on May 21st and thirteen days later I still did not have it. A very helpful young woman looked at my bill and then she told me that when they prorate a month you pay the regular price PLUS the prorated price for the month. I looked at her with my mouth hanging open and said that is not fair. She apologized that the guy setting everything up when we got DSL did not explain that to me. I was not happy to pay that much but at least I now knew why the bill was nearly one hundred and thirty dollars instead of nearly thirty-five dollars. I laughed and told her that if my bill next month was over thirty-five that I would be back to see her.
The young woman asked me if she could help me with anything else so I told her that I had not received my rebate yet. It was one minute before the AT&T main office on the east coast closed but somehow she was connected to a person and after being transferred a couple of times she was told that the rebate had been returned to AT&T. Then it dawned on me that they probably sent it to my home address instead of the post office box. When I signed up for DSL they had to have the physical address instead of my mailing address. That is exactly what happened so she gave them the post office box number and I should have my rebate next week.
When I got home from Ruston in the middle of the afternoon I went to Ashley’s to see how my little friend Brody was doing. Early this morning the poor little guy had tubes put in his ears, adenoids removed, a sinus flush, and a bronchial tube flush. He was sitting in his high chair eating frozen fruit juice. He was not smiling as he usually does and about half way through eating he started crying. That was actually the first time I had ever seen him cry. He decided that he did not want any more juice so Ashley took him to the living room and put him on the sofa. Soon he was laughing and playing with Bryce. And what is sad is that Ashley has tonsillitis and one could tell by looking at her that she felt awful. While Mignon and I were sitting there talking, Ashley fell asleep. We had a time keeping Bryce from waking her to tell her something.
When I got home from Ashley’s I decided to bite the bullet and call tech support again to get DSL working. After I had answered questions for the computer “person” I waited almost thirty minutes before a real life person came on the line. While I was waiting for a tech person, the computer voice kept telling me that unplugging the modem, waiting ten seconds, and then plugging it up again would many times solve the problem. The voice also said that while the modem was rebooting, one should restart the computer. I did both three times and still no connection. Finally a living, breathing, man came online but I had a hard time understanding the guy for he sounded as if he had his mouth right next to the phone. Several times I had to have him repeat what he said but finally after about thirty minutes I had DSL service. I apologized to the guy for having him repeat so many things and told him I thought I had a hearing problem. He very nicely said it could be the phone connection. I thanked him for his help and he thanked me for my patience. He was the one with the patience.