A Totally Unbelievable Day!!!

Hello, we are speaking tonight from Spectrum Ultra Internet. Up to 500Mbps, $29.99 for 24 months, free wireless for 24 months and a $7 modem. Needless to say with taxes included my Internet and Phone have gone from $107 to $37 per month, locked in for 24 months. I know that I will be negotiating for the best deal before they raise those prices in 2026.

Anyway ... this unbelievable day started around 7:30am local time because I was on the phone to BOi head office in Paris TN which is on Eastern Time. I was asking for a number for the Evansville Office ... they are the company hanging AT&T's new fiber cable. They did me one better ... they had the local manager call me.

I was calling more to see if I misunderstood the BOi guy on Friday about continuous internet service while they hung cable. I did not call to complain about people but what did I find out when the manager asked me for my street address?? I had mentioned to him the type of work they were doing and that they were not finish ... "we don't have you on the schedule for today to finish that job, not sure when they will send a crew back to fix that".

I had already decided last night that I was paying $567.75 for the Free Phone that AT&T gave me last November. I was going to move my internet service and phone service back to Spectrum today as soon as I got off the phone with him. But in the meantime I took a stroll down the street and knocked on every neighbors door, same side of the street, to see if they used AT&T and if so, what had they heard about their service that was not hooked up. Everybody that was home was using Spectrum.

My first call to start the process was to AT&T. It was around 8am local time. She understood what I wanted. By the end of the call after 1 hour and 5 minutes she told me I was set to transfer my phone to Spectrum Mobile. I asked "don't I have to pay that amount AT&T wants for their phone, they told me I had to pay that immediately last week if I changed service and I am ready to pay that right this minute"

She told me that charge would show up on my bill that I would receive by email a week from today. She EMPHASIZED that I did not have to pay today while talking to her ... "your phone is unlocked and you can use the link I sent you to get a AT&T Transfer PIN number."

Not true.

But there was some great news squeezed in today. Right after that call to AT&T, I called Spectrum to tell them "Sign Me Up!!" ... and they did. I was expecting a 2-3 day wait for the installer to show up and install my new internet service because he needed to run a line from the utility pole back to my house.

"I can have an installer there TODAY between noon and 1pm if that is okay with you"

I may have blacked out from surprise, excitement or disbelief but I vaguely remember telling her that would be great. 

But the Spectrum Mobile Team told me my phone was still locked. I call AT&T back and before I know it between talking to automation operator, a person for a short time and going back on hold ... I was asleep after 1 hour and 45 minutes waiting for a voice. 1 hour 45 minutes.

Which was fine, I needed to "waste my time" before my Spectrum Installer shows up and what better way to waste time than with AT&T on hold.

That person assures me my phone is NOW Unlocked and if you dial *7678 I will get my automated generated Transfer PIN. I punched in my 4 digit code and waited .... waited ... waited ... 47 minutes. I get a voice. "what are you calling me for" ??? CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT ????

I told her I was told to dial this number to get an automated transfer pin but it went to hold and then you answered. "Well I can't give you that you have to call that number again" ... I am desperate and I do.

Same thing, give them my 4 digit code and I am on hold ... 

While I am on hold, at the 37 minute mark, the Spectrum small van is pulling into my driveway. I yell "pizza" and all the hounds and dogs run for the garage while I hold the door open with cold concrete, a big bowl of water and a trash or recycling bin they can tip over and get into while they are there. They normally go outside or to the garage in bad weather if pizza is being delivered. And they know what that is, they LOVE pizza crust.

I told the installer I was on hold, he could hear the AT&T music as we walked around discussing the install and where to put the modem. My phone was on speaker so I would be able to answer when AT&T did.

He told me he would have me up and running by the time he left but he had to offer a new deal for me. "Would you like to have your cable buried from the pole to your house connection" ... Sure ... "well that will not happen for 2-3 days after I put the order in. They go down 6" and bury the cable."

"I can't wait 2-3 days more" .... Nope ... the cable will lay on the ground hooked up to new service and since I didn't want a 3rd hole going into my house and when I had Spectrum Internet from the time I moved here to last November, it was strong enough to stream all my tv shows with the router next to my computer on the opposite corner of the house.

This was going to be great ... oh I almost forgot I am still on hold with AT&T trying to get a AT&T Transfer PIN and it's 1 hour 5 minutes as I walk back inside to get him and I a lot of iced filtered water. It was only 93° but the heat index was 110° ..  it ... was ... hot.

I am on the top cable, at the first bundle of cables on the left. 

That Orange Cable increased the speed. After everything was hooked up he showed me on his machine the difference in internet speed. I am getting almost the same speed that AT&T was giving me and I was not expecting that at all.

In 2-3 days that cable will be buried 6" deep from the pole to my connection on the side of my house.

Since that black cable was the only one left that could be the Spectrum cable that goes under the house to the opposite side where I have my computer room on the front corner of the house, bedroom. He told me he would cut that cable out of that Insight Box (maybe decades old) and splice that orange cable to it and then we would know if that black cable was the one that I had used under the house to my last router in November.

He told me when they bury the cable it will be a fast job, quiet and in fact I might not even know they are here. Well I will because I will have to keep the hounds and dogs inside while I open the gate for Spectrum to bury the cable. 

As of 5pm, my last call to AT&T ... my phone was still locked by them. I thought I knew why ... it was the money I had to pay for the Free Phone they gave me last November. So I mentioned that to the last AT&T rep I talked to and he said that is correct. I told him I was in my AT&T account online and see the link to pay which he agreed with and 24 hours later that will unlock my phone and the move to Spectrum Mobile will happen.

If you remember two or three years ago I talked about my move from Verizon to Spectrum Mobile, Spectrum uses the towers of Verizon for their wireless phone signal.

I'm tired. The hounds and dogs are all sleeping in the air conditioned computer room and I am going to go in and watch tv to check out Trump's VP he named. I know nothing about him. The Reds are off tonight thru Wednesday for the All-Star Break.

It has been a heck of a day but I am happy to get one more thing fixed. I am off to make a new pitcher of ice tea.

It has been an unbelievable and frustrating day on the phone here in "the tropics" of Southern Indiana.