April 19, 2003 - 4:02 p.m.
Must. Control. Fist. Of. Death.
I think I'm getting more than my fair share of high blood pressure courtesy of Cox Communications. Last year I made the mistake of taking them up on their offer to sell me the cable modem I had been renting from them. I should have used the money to just buy one off Amazon or something, but no... I thought this was easier. So when we moved I closed my account, packed up the computer and modem that I was under the impression that I now owned and took it to our new place.
And promptly got a bill from Cox of Hampton Roads for $183.45.
I called and inquired exactly what I was being billed for. Get this - they wanted payment for not one but two cable modems on my account that I had failed to return.
What the f...?
The moron customer service rep didn't have two serial numbers, only the one for the modem I have. The installation date for the phantom second modem matched the date of my purchase receipt. And he and I both had copies of all my bills from last fall with the installment payments for the modem listed on them.
Yet he still insisted I had run off with two modems.
Mike took over before I could completely lose my temper and handled the situation in his usual diplomatic style, trying to make them understand that they must have "added" a modem to our account rather than switching the only one we had from "rented" to "owned." After something close to an hour of discussion and intermittent hiatuses on hold, the Cox rep told us they had obviously made a mistake and we could tear up the bill.
And today we received a notice from a collection agency about the $183.45 we owe Cox of Hampton Roads. Apparently, this Cox rep just wanted to get us off the phone, lied to us, and then passed the matter along to someone else to worry about.
I have a great desire to verbally throttle someone, but, naturally, it's Saturday and both this agency's and Cox's offices are closed.
Grr....
