Thursday, January 24, 2008

I Could Just Cry…

Well, we got back from Holland safe and sound – for those of you who didn’t know, we’ve been in Amsterdam for the last week while Ian and another student were guest PhD students at the Free University there. We had a great week and I will give you a full update for sure, but I needed to vent for a moment.

Many of you are aware of the long-time saga that we had getting internet set up here, well the woes continue, but in a bit of a different fashion. We received a bill from BT saying that we needed to pay a lot of pounds with no explanation as to why. We’ve contacted them now to find out and they told us that it’s because we cancelled our ‘contract’ with them early. We had no idea that we had a contract with BT.. We called initially to get a phone number for them and then immediately switched to TalkTalk for our package deal, which took us 3 months to get moving. We set up our phone number with them over the phone while we were still in the states and no one told us anything about any kind of long-term contract – and now we have to pay to end it! We’ve called both companies and BT will take no responsibility for it because, according to them, we should’ve read their terms and conditions even though we set it up over the phone and should’ve been told these important things since we were never given anything to read, nothing in the mail, nada. Being in our current state of penny-pinching unexpected bills make life much more complicated, and when you have a company not taking responsibility for their short-comings, it doesn’t really help the situation. I thought about ranting about how no one should use BT and they should be boycotted somehow, and then I realized that I am living in a socialist society and the only way anyone can get a phone number is through BT… Where is my free market capitalism?!?! I don’t understand how every Scottish person has not died from a heart attack and high blood pressure. It is maddening to live here sometimes! Unbelievable. From what we can tell, there is no way around it since they’re saying it’s our fault we didn’t know about this. So, we’re just praying that the Lord will continually remind us that He will provide for our needs.. my brain knows that, but sometimes my heart needs a refresher course.

2 comments:

  1. Oh, Corrie, I feel for you! I have been down the same road with BT and Talk Talk! It is maddening. I started calling British Telecom "British Teletyranny"! You're right...not much you can do. It's not just a phone number, it's a contract. And you now have a contract with Talk Talk, too, so be careful. Let me know if you want a better explanation...I am happy to complain about these companies with you!

    Kristin :-0

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  2. Oh Corrie! I can't believe it, oh wait I can! How frustrating that is that they are so customer service inept. It is as though Angela from the office took over customer service from Kelly. We all know how bad that would be.

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