AT&T Tears
Sometimes I think I am just fine and pat myself on the back for handling my mother's death so well. And then I end up screaming through the phone at the AT&T guy about my mother's phone bill and I think...huh....maybe not.
I didn't disconnect her phone right away. I made the rounds of phone calls about everything one day but it was on a weekend when the AT&T line wasn't open. So then of course I forgot about it until I got a note saying it had been disconnected for non-payment. "oh good" I thought...now that's done. But I knew my mother would want the past due amount paid so I sent that off and wrote 'please do not reconnect, customer is deceased' on the bill. Now I suppose I knew I should have called about it but I hate phone calls at the best of times and I was so tired of making the calls. Everybody is well trained to express sympathy for your loss and sometimes I just don't want to hear it. I don't want them to tell me they understand what a hard time it is and how hard it is to lose a mother and that they appreciate my making calls at this difficult time. So I just wrote on the bill and sent it off.
Of course I received another bill. So I geared up and called about it. I punched her number in and hit the pound sign...nothing happened. I punched her number in again and hit the pound sign....I got disconnected. I called back, punched her number in and hit the pound sign and got connected to somebody. He asked me for the phone number that I had just punched in three times already. Sigh. Went through my story. He said I should have called to disconnect it after I received the disconnection notice. I said I understood that they have policies and rules and categories of disconnection that THEY understand but as a customer....if I receive a notice saying that the number has been disconnected why would it occur to me that I needed to call and disconnect a disconnected number? After going round in circles he said he understood and passed me off to somebody else. I got the new person and he asked me for the number that I had punched in three times and given to the other person. Sigh. We went back and forth and finally I said, "so if I had just said 'o.k. fine, it's disconnected' and thrown away the bill there would be no problem but because I tried in good faith to pay the past due balance I am getting screwed. He basically agreed without actually saying so. In the meantime there kept being loud whistling noises and yelling so I kept having to ask him to repeat himself. Finally I said, "what is going on?" and he said, "well, we have a very interactive office is the only way to explain it." So from then on, we would both pause and wait for the whistling and yelling to stop before we started back up again. We went back and forth and back and forth and honestly what the hell is wrong with me that I'm going through all this for $50? He finally gives up and passes me on to somebody else. He asks for the phone number. Sigh. Thus far I had been irritated but o.k. but the new guy immediately starts in sympathizing with me on my loss and talking about how it's hard to lose a mother now matter what age you are so when we start getting into I immediately start yelling and then of course came the tears. Sigh. He's closing the account and crediting my account. He said I will get a final bill, it may be for a few dollars or it may be a small credit. I said that was fine. Then I apologized for yelling. He said he understood and that if I got a survey to give him good marks.
Sigh.