If I didn’t use auto-pay for the majority of our bills, I’d be in a constant state of scramble, and probably missing payments, garnering late fees and angry phone calls. As it is, the things that still get paid ‘manually’ require a little reminder in my calendar, so my palm pilot will dee-doo dee-doo at me until I pay attention.
So, imagine my surprise when, I go into my Time Warner Cable account to get the account number, so I get our holiday movie credited back (via a coupon), and I see our last payment was, oh, like, $75 more than we normally pay. A rate hike of 60%. ooooooooh my god, talk about a short fuse. See, I spent over a week, wrangling and hassling with Time Warner Cable last year, because we were being plagued with programs being deleted on the DVR, annnnd they raised our rates. I was fractions of inches away from going to DirecTV. So, they gave me a nice rate. Great. I think a rate hike, when you’re pretty much the only game in town, in an economic downturn, is pretty shitty, but I understand cost of living needs, etc., so I would have even been willing to accept a 5% increase. NOT 60%. NOT when I can put together my bundle of services as if I were a new customer and have a rate plan LOWER than what I pay now. No, no, and NO.
And of course, they no longer have CSR agents available later in the evening, so I have to re-stoke the coals in the morning until I’ve hit white-hot again. But I’m going to utilize my resources, and see if I can skip the first tier of CSRs and get myself some elevated service. And if that doesn’t work out? Well, I guess we’ll be discovering the exciting world of satellite!
I hate having to go to bed on an empty, unresolved anger. Splutter. Stay tuned for the next chapter! It’ll be broadcast in digital!