Because I'm clever like that

So I've been in a bit of a pissing match with my former Internet/phone service provider. It started with an issue at my office: I took over the existing service in the space we lease when I took over the office from the company who was here before me.

(it was my mother's company.... so there's a relationship there - but that's beside the point).

She was on a 3 year contract with them.... which was up in September of last year. I had my company's name put on the bills at some point last year and stayed with them long after her contract term had expired. But this spring, I decided to switch providers to save money.

Long story short is that the old company (MTS) wasn't happy about my leaving and taking the business to their main competitor, Shaw.

They sent me a bill for over $4,700.00.... it seems they'd taken it upon themselves to lock my company into a new 3 year contract without any consent or signatures from me. Yay.

The customer service rep I managed to get on the phone when I called MTS about their "error" was atrocious. We butted heads from the word go. I've worked in customer service before... still very much do - and one thing I know about dealing with frustrated clients is that you DON'T ANTAGONIZE THEM FURTHER. Her attitude and comments pissed me right off. Right there on the spot they lost my personal business as well.

At some point during the call I managed to get transferred to a gentleman another department.... where I insisted on filing a complaint about the person I'd been subjected to. HE handled my call beautifully - and was even pleasant while taking my service complaint.... mentioning that he could see who'd I'd been speaking with in SALES and would make sure the complaint was addressed.

She was in SALES. I about fell off my chair. I think my exact words to the guy were: "Sales?? You've got to be kidding me! SALES? I hope she's not trying to support a family with it because she SUCKS at it!"

Any hoo.... off topic. (I'm not talking to them about THAT situation any more - my lawyer's handling the correspondence)

I called the same day from home to cancel my phone/Internet and television services. When the rep on the phone tried to offer me a deal to stay, I just told them they were wasting their time... based on the dealings with my company and the rep I'd suffered with earlier, there was no keeping me as a customer.

Now I had electronics at both locations that belonged to MTS... I was warned that I would be charged for them if they weren't returned. Mad as I was, I told them to come pick them up any time.... but that was just my temper talking.... and my back up at her snooty attitude. (Even if I was pissy about having to do anything further in the situation, I knew it was my responsibility to take the stuff back.)

But, major procrastinator that I am, I neglected to return the stuff in a timely fashion.

So more money was added to my business bill.... and I got one at home for over $700.00. Shit.

Week before last, I finally got around to collecting everything that belonged to them and made plans to return it (and get those excess charges removed).

It took me a dog's age but I finally managed to disconnect the little box at the office (modem maybe?)..... stupid thing was plugged in behind (and before) a built-in counter top/cupboard unit and was way more of a challenge then I was expecting). Then I made the drive home to pick up the TV box and remotes.... which, of course, I hadn't been clever enough to actually bring with me in the morning!

I hate dealing with electronics... but I finally managed to sort out the maze of wires behind the TV and disengage the box - along with all it's cords. I even found all four remotes with little to no difficulty.

I drove down to their closest retail location with my bag full of stuff and waited in line from my turn with a rep. The paperwork is painstakingly long... and they had to do two sets: 1 for the company and 1 for me personally.

We returned the business thingy, then the remotes.... but when he got to the cable box he had trouble with the serial number. I guess there wasn't one? After scratching his head for a bit, he finally called another guy over who looked at the box and said "that's not one of ours - that's a SHAW box"

Talk about feeling like an idiot (and nothing worse than BEING an idiot when you're in the middle of a pissing match). I'd finally gotten around to taking all this crap back (so I could finally tell them to shove it all!) and I brought the wrong box??

Did I mention that I HATE dealing with electronics??

What I'd done was carefully un-install what the Shaw guy had carefully attached to our TV and brought it down to the MTS store.... instead of their $700 unit (which who the hell knew where IT was then). Grrrrrrrr.

Not a shining moment.

So I took the box home and tried to hook it back up to the TV exactly like I remembered taking it off.... but knew I did something wrong when the kids complained "MOM! The TV's not working!!" a couple of minutes after arriving home.

Perfect.

We eventually got it sorted out.... and I finally found and returned the MTS box yesterday. But jeez what a process.... just another example of how clever I can be I guess.