Ring Ring

Seriously?
Okay, peeps. I am busy. Very busy. Picture the busiest person you know and I am even busier than that. Seriously. Well, I slipped. I have managed to work away most of my spring break, picking up extra shifts at work to make up for the deficit in OT while school is in session. After all is said and done, I am human, and so while I can gracefully manage my full-time hours, I do not pile on extra while classes are going on unless someone makes me, and that someone has the power to say I am no longer employed. So anyhow... In addition to the extra work, I am trying to get ready for the next quarter of classes. Buy books. Ensure tuition is paid. Make sure my schedule will mesh with John's and Evan's. I forgot to pay my phone bill. Oops. In a crunch, I give John a wad of cash and tell him to go somewhere and hurry up and pay the total amount due before the powers that be at the phone company decide I am no longer deserving of phone and internet services. I did this once before, so I knew exactly where to go so that the payment would post immediately. I gave my dear husband specific directions on where to take the payment.
So here I am at work last night. It is about time for me to leave. I picked up extra to help out coworkers during our period of short-staffedness. All I wanted was a quesadilla on my way home. I anted to see if John wanted anything. What happened? "The number you are trying to reach is either out of service or is being worked on at the current time." Whaaa?????? My first though was "BUT I PAID YOU PEOPLE A LOT OF MONEY!" Then the confusion turned to panic. I called the repair center from work to let them know that something has to be wrong with my line. She let's me know in a snippy tone that there is a block on my line for nonpayment. She sounds very judgemental, as in I am the type of scum who does not pay my bills. I get mad and tell her I paid my bill and I want my phone turned back on right now. When she tells me I have to wait until the morning, I tell her she needs to quit her job, as she obviously sucks at it. Poor girl. I was so rude to her. So I wake up early this morning, though it is my one day off, in order to send up a flare to the phone company to clear up the mistake. Hmmmmf!
The first lady I speak with treats me almost exactly the same. I explain that we paid. I have the receipt right in front of me, and offer the transaction number. She tells me that apparently there are authorized payment centers and unauthorized payment centers. John took the money to an unauthorized payment center, so we will have to go without a phone for 5 days while we wait for it to post. Then (gasp) she tells me the internet will be disconnected tomorrow if I do not pay. OMG, now they are out for blood. I freak out and tell her that we paid the damned bill. And I didn't pay just what was past due. I paid the entire thing, old and new charges. With my internet now in jeopardy, I demand to speak to a supervisor. She gets very rude, and transfers me anyway.
So the supervisor comes on the line, and I tell her what happened. She repeats what the rude girl told me, that they cannot turn the service back on unless the payment is posted or I go and pay the past due amount at an authorized payment center. I desperately ask if there are any other options. She is giving me directions on how to fax the receipt to her when I blurt out that I am going to make John do it, as he is the one who didn't go to the payment center to which I told him to go. She laughs, and I also blurt out that I am full-time pre-med student, a full-time RT, a full-time wife and mom, and that some things fall through the cracks. That my husband is new to the Mr. Mom role and doesn't always do the best job. This is when she softens up and tells me she isn't going to make me go through the ordeal of faxing her a receipt. She'll turn it back on, but to watch my account to be sure that the payment posts. If I would have been speaking to her in person, I would have hugged her right then and there.
So.....Lisa from Cincinnati Bell: Thanks!