Corporatism in action - my 1.5 hours with Time Warner yesterday

I'm moving soon and yesterday I called Time Warner to set up service in my new place. After talking with me for a while, the service rep said he was connecting with my "local service provider to set up the service date details." What ensued was a 1.5 hour ordeal.

I was not asking for anything complicated or fancy. I'm going to need a landline and internet access in my new place, and I haven't been particularly happy with Verizon, my current provider, so I figured Time Warner couldn't be any worse and maybe would be slightly better - or at least cheaper. Also, Verizon internet isn't available in the place I'm moving.

The first hint of trouble came when the supposed "local service rep" said that, since I am a new Time Warner customer, they would have to do a credit check on me and therefore needed my social security number. Now, I'm not unreasonable - in fact, I'm usually too accommodating. I give my phone number and zip code when the checkout clerks ask for it. I'll show my receipt at Circuit City. But I think it is an unnecessary security risk to give my social security number to Time Warner just so they can look up my credit history. They already have my address, cell phone number, internet address, etc. Why do they need my social security number? So I declined.

Ok, said the service rep. In that case we'll need your credit card to bill your first month. "You're going to charge just my first month, right?" I asked. "You're not going to charge me automatically every month, are you? Because I don't want that. I want a paper bill in the mail."

"Oh absolutely, ma'am," says the rep. "We understand perfectly. We'll just charge your first month and then it will revert to regular billing."

Meanwhile, I'm on hold most of the time. The minutes are ticking by. I just want this guy to sign me up for internet and phone. What's taking so long?

Eventually, after an hour and a half, we're coming to the end of the transaction. There's bad news. "I'm sorry, ma'am. The computer won't let me override the automatic billing."

"What do you mean?" I ask. "Are you saying that my credit card is going to be automatically billed every month? I said that I didn't want that."

"Well, ma'am, it's because you won't give us your social security number. If you give it to me now, I can back the credit card info out and do the credit check."

No way am I going to give him my social security number - he's already got my credit card number, my name, address, phone, etc. And by now we've hit the 75 minute mark. This is ridiculous. He's being very apologetic - says I'm being very nice about the delays. He mentions that they are on a big "learning curve" right now. He says he'll give me the number of my local Time Warner and I go in person and talk with them about the credit card issue.

"I thought you were my local office," I say. "The guy I talked with earlier said he was connecting me with my local service provider."

"Oh, they all say that!" the man says very cheerfully.

"Where are you, then?" I ask. (I'm in North Carolina.) "Ottawa, Ontario!"

Sigh. So I've spent more than an hour talking to someone I was told was my local service provider for Time Warner, he's got my credit card number, Time Warner's got me on an automatic withdrawal for whatever they feel like charging me every month (and given the errors that appear in my Verizon bill, I dread to think what's going to be charged to my credit card account each month - it won't bear much resemblance to what I expect, that's for sure.)

This is service? I'm a boomer. I remember when Ma Bell came by and installed a great big black phone made of indestructable plastic and metal and turned on your service. Sure, it was a monopoly, but it worked.

Now all the corporations have a wink-wink nudge-nudge monopoly and lousy service and products on top of that. Sigh.

They are our cable and internet provider. It was YEARS before our cable finally worked well. TW was coming out at least once every 2 or 3 months to fix it. Then finally we got a competitor providing cable in our area and TW went out of their way to replace every single wire inside and outside of our house (which I had been asking them to do for a couple years). They also cut our monthly bill in half.

About that time, I decided to get TW's internet service. It was 6 months before it worked properly. Every time it rained, the internet went out. Finally I insisted on talking to a supervisor and she took pity on me and sent out her "#1 technician" to fix it. He told us that the guy who had installed the internet wires had screwed up. And the supervisor gave us a 6 month credit for internet and 6 months free.

All went well for a couple years and then the internet went out again. Three technicians later, all the wiring was again replaced and the internet worked again for a couple years.

Then about 6 weeks ago, same problem. By this time we had replaced the modem at least 3 times and then went out and bought our own modem which is much faster. Usually, resetting it solved our internet problems.

Until a week ago. Now it is on for 20 minutes and off for 30 minutes. It's worse at night and we think it has something to do with the cold weather. It also rained earlier today and we had no internet the entire time it was raining.

So Monday we called and TW said they would be by on Thursday. No one came. So we called back Friday morning and they said they couldn't send anyone until next week. So I asked for credit on my bill and the guy said oh you need to talk to a supervisor. I asked for a supervisor and was told no one was available but they would call me back. No one called back.

So Monday I am going to call the competitor and see if we can get internet from them. I don't want their cable because it doesn't have as many channels and no DVR. But if they won't sell us internet service we are out of luck.

So yes, I hate Time Warner. With a passion.

and i mean that in a BAD way...!!!

I also hope you might have said to him, "effing bush administration, effing corporatism, effing police state. i am not giving you my damn social security number. cancel the whole damn procedure."

i do it, every time to anyone who wants to know my social security number and i refuse to give it to them. then i call back, if they want my social security number, i repeat my statement but usually when i call back and they ask for my ss# and i say no ... they'll say, okay, give me your address. or phone # or .. a couple of days ago the pharmacist called to say he needed my social security number to bill my insurance... i totally refused to give him my social security number, then i went personally to the pharmacy and gave him my insurance card and still when he could not get into my insurance billing i had to tell him to either add or delete a step or two that he was doing wrong.
and this happened in a pharmacy that proudly says, "let us explain your insurance to you."

so now, i will say it again: EFFING BUSH ADMINISTRATION. EFFING CORPORATISM, EFFING POLICE STATE. EFFING SICKOS who are out to control my life!

Maybe I can get Verizon in my new area after all. They're evil, yes, but mostly reliable.