Welcome to the new AT&T, an exercise in anger management

My mother's phone was out of order again this week. That's about the fifth time in ever so many months, but this time getting the repair service was just a little different.

When I tried to access the SBC repair service online I was redirected to the new AT&T website. I have to admit I became hostile immediately. I didn't like it when Southwestern Bell and AT&T split years ago and I like it a lot less now that they have connected again.

After I clicked around and finally found the repair service I had to have a number off of my mother's phone bill (I suppose they think we carry our phone bills with us at all times) to log in so I gave it up and decided to call instead. That was my first mistake.

The automated system which reminded me again that I had the new AT&T went through a jillion options. I must have missed a number because I got payment information instead of the repair service and when it said enter five to return to the main menu I was obedient and did just that . . . only to find that there wasn't an option to report repairs.

I hung up. I am now fifteen minutes into my lunch hour and not a happy camper. Brilliantly, I get out the old SBC phone book under my desk and look up the repair service number. Whoo hoo . . . I got SBC's automated repair service. I entered all the requested information and waited while a recording said they were checking the phone number to see if it was working . . . duh . . . isn't that why I called?

After ten more minutes I finally got a nice lady who was actually more frustrated than I was. She explained their computers were not working now and they were unable to check to see if they could fix the problem right then. Her promise was (now note here she didn't say probably, or maybe or if we get to it, because this will come up later) it would be fixed by 7:00 p.m. that evening. Great! I have three minutes to eat my lunch.

I arrived home at 6:45 p.m. I ran down to my mom's house to check her phone. No dial tone. Okay, I am a patient person (hmmmm) so I wait until 7:30 and when the repair man still hasn't come I call the repair service again. Checking on the status of the repair I get a recording that says the phone will be repaired by 7:00 p.m. Well, I'm confused or living in the wrong time zone, but decide to give it another 30 minutes.

At 8:00 I call again and this time I try options until I get put on hold to speak with a representative. Twenty minutes later, and an ear full of the gawd awful-lest music I have ever been subjected to, I hear a human voice on the other end. It is now 8:20 in case you are not keeping up. The representative tells me she will check on the status of the repair, please hold on. My arm is asleep and my hand is stuck to the receiver which is stuck to my ear . . . as if I could hang up if I wanted to.

Between 8:20 and 8:40 the representative comes back to me several times to make sure I am okay, she is trying to locate the tech assigned to the job. Finally, I am informed that the tech is tied up (gosh, I hope to a tree) and won't be able to make the repair tonight but will get it tomorrow. I confront the rep "why did they say it would be fixed by 7:00 p.m. if they couldn't get to it?" Her reply "Oh we NEVER say a repair will be done by an exact time because we never know what might come up."

Okay, okay . . . I found I could pry the phone off my ear if I really wanted to and I slammed the receiver down. Probably broke her ear drum. No, I didn't feel guilty.

The next day the tech came and repaired my mother's phone before noon. He told her a squirrel had damaged the wire. This is the same story we got last time. Mind you now, there are four houses on our street and two poles and we are all hooked up to the same poles but the squirrel picked out my mother's wire twice, not any other wires, to chew on. Give me a break. Something needs to be fixed, all the wires are old, but there's probably no chance of the new AT&T spending any of their budget to fix them.

I am still angry. I hope the squirrel (if there is a squirrel) knows how angry I am and will stay away from my mother's wire for awhile, because if I have to call the new AT&T again . . . they may have to carry me away.