I’ve been thinking of Will Rogers a lot lately, especially of a clip I saw where he shrugged, looked puzzled, and said,
I don’t know what’s going on.
It’s nice to know I’m not alone…the version I say to Andy is,
Life is too complicated. It can’t be done. It just can’t be done.
Which, of course, reminds me of Ashleigh Brilliant’s,
I feel so much better now that I have given up hope.
I mentioned the letter from the Saks Fifth Avenue credit card Thursday night. In the same mail we also received a post card from CenturyLink about our high speed internet and phone service. It was in legalize legalese (thanks, Bruce!) and seemed to be mostly saying we get billed at the beginning of a month, and if we terminate before the end of the month we won’t receive any money back for the services we didn’t use. OK, that didn’t bother us, but they also mentioned possible changes about how they assess charges and fees. Hmm. So we went to the website they mentioned and tried to see if our bill would go up. There were several pages of possible options and their costs, but we couldn’t figure out which lines applied to us.
So I tried their chat service online and after answering a question or two received a message,
An agent will be right with you.
Yeah, sure. It never happened. So the next day I tried phoning, listened to the menus, and pushed the right buttons. Their cheerful automatic voice gave me the option of them calling me back. I could expect a call in between and hour and thirty two minutes and two hours and seventeen minutes. OK. I understand why they were completely swamped, so I did other things.
Sure enough, a friendly agent did call. She reminded me we had a “price for life plan”, so if we kept the present plan our basic rate wouldn’t change. But she could upgrade us from 12Mbs to 15Mbs for another price for life plan for about $10 less a month. They never put things in writing, but in the past the deals quoted were trustworthy, so I said yes.
She said the upgrade in speed will occur next Tuesday between 8 am and 5 pm, and that I didn’t have to pay for a new modem and no one had to come to the apartment…they would make the change remotely. We’ll see. I liked her and took her name just in case.
I would feel a bit more reassured if I didn’t then get a couple of emails like this one:
Subject: Your technician appointment is scheduled.
Thank you for being a CenturyLink customer. Your technician has been scheduled.
Double check the details to the right to confirm your service installation date and time. It’s important that there be an adult over the age of 18 present at the time of your appointment.
We’ll continue to keep you informed on the progress of your order.
- You’ll get a reminder on the night before your appointment.
- Then, you’ll be notified when your technician is on the way.
If you need to cancel or change your appointment, please let us know.
Sigh. I should probably ask them about this Monday in case we go up to the land Tuesday afternoon.
I think ‘they’ word stuff on purpose to make it hard to understand. I wish you luck with this.
It’s the lawyers who write that way…I think it will be just fine. I think the confusion about the technician is it’s a huge system that isn’t working perfectly.
I think there must be something in the “water intake” as I’ve had some rather interesting emails of late from the Prop Manager, whereby I’ve more or less had to guess what the “sentences mean”…
Yes, some emails are more enlightening than others. 🙂
Well, this does seem like yet another mess! I hope the lady on the phone was right, and these notifications are a mistake!
I’m not worried about it. I will probably contact them again Monday for their sake.
This is very similar to things that have happened to me in the past! Pardon any mistakes because I’m talking to my tablet to answer this. The thing is you had the price for life that means they could never change it now that you have changed to this it will cost you less until it runs out which is probably one year to two years and then it will go up and then they can go up anytime they want to. I had this happen to me in other words you’re grandfathered in now you’re no longer grandfathered in. Covid-19 has made the world chaotic and everything that happens is worse than it would have been if there was no covid-19. We have had one crazy thing after another in the past few days I sure am missing you guys
We miss you too! I’m sorry things are so hard right now.
In fact, I’ve been impressed by CenturyLink. A few years ago I switched from a price for life plan to higher speeds and a good price for three years. It was a gamble, but our connection was so slow I figured it was worth it. At the end of the period they gave me a price for life plan at an even better rate…after I asked what was available. And this new offer is for another price for life plan.
A few years ago a neighbor told me to check once in a while because they often offer better deals after a while, but only if you ask. Not my preferred way of doing business, but so far they have been trustworthy.
I get completely lost in all the available plans and packages the utility companies now run. Like you, if someone offers me a better package, as long as it’s a reputable company like BT, I generally just trust them to be giving me a good deal. Usually they’re as good as their word.
I’m not sure why they make it so confusing, but so far they’ve been trustworthy.
Yes, you’re right. It is “legalese” and it’s usually indecipherable and meaningless. Good luck.
Thanks for correcting my spelling! I changed it in the post…I knew it didn’t look quite right but there was a lot going on and I didn’t check it. 🙂
I hate when companies can’t put things in plain english. When they have to give you the legalese I start to wonder if they aren’t trying to pull something over on me.
It’s rather odd that they need to send a technician when she told you no one had to come and the change would be made remotely.
Being suspicious is my initial reaction, too. But Century Link has been reliable and hasn’t grossly raised their rates, so I’m inclined to trust them now. They have been extremely reliable.