I hate AT&T

First, let me say that the only reason we have a landline in the first place is for our internet service. We had problems with cable when we moved out here so we switched over to DSL. I'm not really advocating that DSL is better or has better service in general - at our previous house we'd had cable because they couldn't get the DSL to work right there. OK, there we actually went without phone service for weeks at a time because the phone company couldn't be bothered to come out and fix broken lines. Here, they couldn't get cable to work, but no problems with the phone service. At least now until now. But, I digress.

Recently our area changed zip codes. Which has been a huge hassle because many stores and a little site called Google Maps have our new zip code listed as being in an entirely different town. Not just the next town over, but a town I'd never heard of - Sandy, Texas. I'm sure Sandy is a very nice place to live. I'm not dissing it. But, I happen to live in Round Rock, which is in Williamson County, just north of Austin. Sandy is in Blanco County, somewhere between Johnson City and Llano. Nice. So, I'm wondering if that's what's taking my mail so long now that we've changed - does it all have to go to Sandy first?

Well, the change apparently caused some issues with the phone company. Because now that we are in the 78665 zip code, which they have changed for us, we are now outside the city limits of Sandy and we got a card letting us know that our calls to Sandy, Austin and Round Rock are now long distance. Which doesn't really matter since I use my mobile for most calls anyway. But, I find it more than a little disturbing that they want to charge me long distance fees to call my next door neighbor. Since she is also 81.7 miles outside the city limits of Sandy it seems it should be a local call. Am I right here? Yes, I realize I can just walk next door, but what if I just got out of the shower and need to tell her something urgent? It's the principle of the thing.

After a 30 minute wait I finally reach "Bill," who has a suspicious accent for someone with such a genericly English sounding name. "Bill" proceeds to tell me that I need some kind of pin number for him to talk to me about my account. I don't have a pin number. I just need him to tell me what I need to do to get myself relisted as living in Round Rock instead of Sandy. I can go find the number later and call back when I get my ducks in a row, but I need to know what type of info I need to send them to straighten it out. I'm not asking for account changes right now. I'm not asking for personal information. I'm not asking to sell my firstborn son into slavery. I'm just asking for some general information about how to fix a problem so I can go get the necessary info and send it to them. Surely he can tell me some general info without a pin number. I think the pin number is written in the booklet that the DSL guy gave us when we moved in 5 years ago. It's filed somewhere but I'm not really sure where since it's been 5 years since I've needed my 7-digit telephone number pin code. Seriously. Do people really just *know* these things? Gah.

Unfortunately, "Bill" "cannot give out any special information related to the account holder's account without accessing the account holder's 7-digit-pin number or the long distance telephone number calls in question to the account holder." Niiiice. There aren't any long distance calls in question YET. I'm trying to prevent problems rather than wait for them to happen. Thanks Bill. Thanks AT&T. I may be giving cable internet a try again soon. And if you start seeing calls to Sandy, TX on your phone bill, it's me. Since I now live outside the city limits of Sandy. 81.7 miles outside the city limits.

What a way to start the week. Now I get to go get new tires on my car. I can hardly wait.