Ravenwood - 03/14/04 03:15 PM
Tired of paying $50 a month for basic telephone service, I decided to take the plunge and switch to AT&T local service. The plan was a bit cheaper, but I could tell that with the high taxes and fees that Virginia and the Fed added in, I would probably end up paying just as much. Still, I figured that I would at least try their service and see if it was any better (or cheaper). Well, I haven't got my bill yet, but so far I'm getting what I've paid for.
I initiated the switch back on March 4th. After hitting submit on their website, they informed me that they would switch my service over in a few days. Perhaps most importantly, they told me "You will not experience any disruption in your current service during your switch to AT&T". Well, I've been without phone service ever since.
I first noticed the apparent lack of dial tone several days ago. I arrived home from work already engaged in a long distance conversation with a friend from Atlanta. We had been talking for a while, and my cell phone was already starting to beep "low battery" at me. I hung up my mobile phone with every intention of calling the person back, but the telephone gods had conspired against me. With it's battery dead and the phone overheating, my cell phone was nothing more than an expensive paperweight. My home phone was unusually uncooperative, as I was getting no tones from the keypad, and could hear no ringy dingies on the other end of the receiver.
I still had internet service, so I contacted AT&T about the lack of dial tone on March 11th, at which time they very quickly responded "Your message has been received and an answer will be sent to you within 48 hours". I didn't want so much of an answer, as I did dial tone. But so far it has been 3 days (72 hours) since I contacted them, and I still don't have any telephone service.
Will I have telephone service tomorrow? The next day? Who knows. But I haven't paid them any money yet, so I guess I'm getting no more than what I've paid for. If the silence continues, I may just go without. Who needs them any way?
UPDATE: (3/15) Beware the Ides of March. AT&T finally got back to me. In delightful irony, a service rep emailed me a phone number to call for assistance.
Good thing your ISP isn't a dialup service!
Posted by: Kevin Baker at March 14, 2004 6:05 PMThere's lotsa people sayine to Hell with phone service in their homes and going all cellular. This might be a good time to try it.
Posted by: Ralph Gizzip at March 14, 2004 7:08 PMI'm one of those folks Mr. Gizzip is talking about RW.
I completely dropped my land line telephone phone service over a year ago when Comcast finally offered their cable interenet in my part of town. Before that, I had only kept the land line phone for my dial-up ISP.
Both the wife and I have cellphones. Free long distance, free roaming charges and talk to each other for free.
We each have 600 minutes, 6am to 6pm, and unlimited 6pm to 6am minutes for $66 a month.
Look around, deals like this one aren't hard to find. I got mine through my work.
Posted by: analogkid at March 15, 2004 12:14 AMYou switched _to_ ATT? Geez, I had ATT long distance since forever, and blocked too so nobody could slam me, and I just changed away. They wanted to charge $5 a month whether you called anybody or not (including the $1.50 charge for charging you, also added). So I unblocked AT&T and went with the local phone company's emergency long distance plan, no monthly fee but God help you if you call anybody long distance. That fits me perfectly. Email works fine.
Posted by: Ron Hardin at March 15, 2004 5:00 AMI've thought about getting rid of the phone line altogether. I was just never able to take the plunge. Now that I've been thrown into the water so to speak by AT&T, I might just do that.
I'm yet another person who only has a cellular phone. When I moved into my own apartment, it was the only phone I had - all my friends had the number, and since I was working so much, why shell out for a land-line? Only downside what the apartment wouldn't connect the downstairs door to my cell phone, so I had to leave my apartment to manually open the door for guests where other residents could buzz in people. My cell phone also served as an ISP when I needed to get online from home (I have T-Mobile VoiceStream).
I have a new apartment now, and a roommate who spent an hour trying to get through to sales departments of various land-line dealers. Failing that, he resigned himself to a cellular-only life, just like me. Luckily, we have a cable modem.
Unfortunately, this limits our TV options - Tivo requires a phoneline. We have ReplayTV, which can connect via our cable modem. I'd never had a TV before, so this was an unforseen consequence of going cellular.
Anyway, just some more things to think about in the decision to go cellular.
Janine
Posted by: Janine at March 15, 2004 10:00 AMBeware that the Ides falls on the 13th except in March May July and October, in case anybody warns you again.
Posted by: Ron Hardin at March 15, 2004 11:33 AM(c) Ravenwood and Associates, 1990 - 2014
