If you read my blog post on Sunday, you read about my customer service bout with my new cell phone and cable provider.

Here’s a quick overview if you missed it. I had negotiated what I considered to be a great deal getting a $200 rebate, a $75 rebate, and a $150 rebate in addition to my discount for being a school teacher. Additionally, they added in a $36 activation fee that wasn’t on the estimated bill.

The first bill arrived and the only thing that was reflected in the bill was the $36. I knew that the $200 and was told that the $75 would be reflected after 30 days which I will anxiously await but the $150 was the problem.

I asked him where it was on the bill and he told me that it had been deducted from the price of the service. I told him that it was an itemized bill so I found it hard to believe that that was the case. He assured me that it was. Knowing that he was wrong, I asked him how much the normal service was.   He said to me, “a lot more than that.” I went to the other end of the store and showed him the price list that showed the service was exactly what was listed on my bill.

After that, he changed his story and said that because I had the $75 service, he remembered telling me that I couldn’t have both. I told him that I found it odd that he was now changing his story and with the assistant manager standing there, I turned to the asst. manager and said, since your associate isn’t sure which story he wants to use, what are we going to do about this? The asst. manager said, “we can cancel your service.” These were the first 5 words that he had said. Later in the conversation, the manager said that he would call me the following day by noon.

UPDATE

The next day at 12:20 the manger called me and said that they were still working it out but he would be in touch. He said that he had promised to call and wanted to do so. I didn’t receive a call another call on Monday. On Tuesday, I called him and he stated that he had just spoken to his manager and that they were going to give me a one time credit of $144. He then said that he was off but would apply it the following day.

I found it odd that he had just spoken to his manager yet was also off that day. The credit should have been for $150 but they offered $144. That’s fine with me. The last hurdle is to see the money. If more battling needs to happen, I’ll post again.

For now, I’m happy with AT&T but let’s not forget one thing. Customer service and my teaching job are very similar. There’s a relatively good chance that something isn’t true any time they open their mouth.