Dear Lord...Please Give Me Patience

So, have you ever had one of those "customer service" experiences that just wanted to make you explode? My friends at ATandT had me continually praying for patience recently and in the end the experience just made me aggravated more.

Here we go...So the time has come that my youngest daughter needs a cell phone. No problem, the nice woman at ATandT (our wireless phone carrier) tells us, "No problem!", "Free phone!" and "your bill will only go up $10.00 per month." OK we can live with that...then we indicated we wished we could get Internet service without having home phone service because we are tired of paying for a land line we never use..the nice woman at ATandT then states "No problem! You can cancel your home land line and still get the Internet, but the Internet service will increase by $4.00 per month. Would you like to make that change now?"...."errr no we need to think about it and let people know we will no longer have the home phone number in service". TRUST ME I SHOULD OF SAID YES RIGHT THEN AND THERE...

A few days go by and we decide that we are going to disconnect the home phone service, keep the Internet service, add a cell phone for my daughter and our net savings per month will be $60.00 to $70.00. Time to look up the ATandT Customer Service number and make this switch...

After waiting on hold for a Customer Service Representative for 30 minutes (Dear Lord please give me patience, I know they are busy, but so am I, please keep be calm this will be over soon) I finally get to speak to a nice man (or so I thought).

"Thank you for calling ATandT would you like to sign-up for ATandT U Verse TV?" Again with the U Verse TV..."No thank you, as I have told the people who have knocked on my door three times, sent me an unbelievable amount of emails, snail mail and phone calls...No, I do not want U Verse TV". (The ATandT people knock more then Jehovah Witness!). As I told the nice man, I do not have any plans to switch now, nor in the future. "So how can I help you today?" replied the seemingly nice man. "We have a land line, Internet and cell phones with you and we want to cancel the land line but keep the Internet service and cell phones. Here we go "OK, this process will take 10 to 15 minutes to complete, do you have the time now?"....Dear Lord, help me hang in there 10 to 15 minutes longer..."Sure, I have only been waiting 30 minutes to speak to you so what is another 10 to 15 minutes..."

"Are you sure you do not want to switch to ATandT U Verse?" stated the seemingly nice man..."WHY YES I AM SURE can we please continue on disconnecting the home phone line!" As I watch the clock tick off another 10 minutes as he brings up the computer to process my request. Then he states "OK the Internet service will go up $9.00 per month"..."Excuse me sir, the nice lady we spoke to a few days ago said that the increase would be $4.00...why are you telling me $9.00?" And the smoke and mirrors begin..."Well you will have to lease a new modem which is the additional monthly charge" Clock ticks another 5 minutes..."Why do I need a new modem to keep the same Internet service I currently have?" Dear Lord, I pray for wisdom for this person..."Well you have to get a new modem when you get the U Verse Internet service" Please Lord, help me from the desire the reach through the phone and implement an attitude adjustment on this person..."I do not want U Verse TV or U Verse Internet...I just want what we have always had"

The nice man then tells me "OK I see" and another 10 minutes has past..."OK we have the home land line scheduled to be disconnected, you will be without the Internet for a few days while we ship you the new modem and on your next bill there will be a $149.99 charge for switching to U Verse Internet as we are phasing your area to U Verse"...Dear Lord, I have done well up to this point...may need a little help here to stay calm..."So you are not listening to me and now are telling me to keep Internet service with ATandT you want to charge me $149.99, make me get a new modem and increase my Internet cost by $9.00 per month?" He replies "Yes, if you want to keep the Internet that is what it takes."

"OK sir, here's the deal, put everything on hold, do not cancel our land line and give me a case number I can call back on. Leave everything as if I never called." I replied.

Upon getting home from work I begin checking out alternative Internet providers and find out our local cable company offers Internet regardless if you have their cable service. They offer free installation for the cable from the pole to your home, has a rebate on the modem which makes it free and offers a faster service then we currently have for $23.00 per month for 12 months. And to top it off I can everything in place in 1 day...pretty impressive. I get a name and tell them I will call them back after I call ATandT.

As I dread dialing the ATandT Customer Service number I wonder how much more time this is going to take. I am amazed when after one ring a very nice woman named Jessica answers...Thank you Lord! "How can I help you" she asked. Here we go again..."I want to cancel my home line and now Internet service please" Please Lord let this person help me..."Oh" she stated, I understand cancelling the home line, that's the right choice for many people, but why are you cancelling the Internet with us?." So I go through the whole ordeal of the morning and what took place with the man who I spoke with there and that I have now found an alternative Internet provider. "I am sorry" she states" "I have no idea why you were told you had to switch to U Verse Internet and no you do not, and you do not need to pay anything to keep the same Internet service you have. The Internet will increase by $4.00 and I can have your home line cancelled by the 29th"...Thank you Lord! "Also" she stated "I am going to increase you to the next level of Internet services which will give you greater speed and if you give me the OK I can combine your Internet bill and your cell phone bill together and give you a single invoice discount which wipes out most of the $4.00 increase for the Internet only service"... At this point I am thinking to myself "is this the same company? Is it a game being played that now that I was ready to cancel both the home phone and Internet that they are being nice?". Jessica then tells me she has no idea why the person earlier in the day told me I had to switch to U Verse Internet and pay $149 and she has noted who I spoke with, the problems I had and if I had any further problems that everything was now noted and I could feel free to call back...

So I greatly appreciated Jessica's help, and I am hoping everything goes as planned. I still wonder if the ATandT man was either trying to "pull one over on me" and being dishonest or if possibly he really had no idea what he was talking about...All I know is the Lord was with me as I did a remarkable job of staying calm through this incredible amount of wasted time. And no I do not want ATandT U Verse TV, Internet or anything else! I guess I needed to go through this exercise to work on my patience...but I am sure glad it is over...(please be over!)