Screwing with their billing department
Anny Middon
fine. They sent out their bills and we paid them promptly and everyone was
happy.
Then AT&T sold to Comcast. Comcast apparently has a problem with their
bills -- the window in their envelopes doesn't line up right with our
address. Their bills frequently come late with our address handwritten
below the window, and six weeks ago we didn't get one at all. I did however
get a call from their billing department, checking our address since the
bill had been returned to them.
Since we didn't get the bill and they knew we didn't get it, we didn't pay
it. I paid both months' bills through our online billpay on Monday. The
bill we received which shows last month in arrears indicates payment is due
on June 20.
Today they cut off our phone service. After a half-hour on hold, when I
finally got through I was told it was policy to cut off service when one
month's payment is in arrears. (We did get notice they were going to do
this, but figured we had until the due date on the bill.)
At any rate, while we decide which company other than Comcast gets our phone
service, we'd like to screw with their billing department, but we want to do
it in a way that they can't complain about. Since we have free online
billpay, it won't cost us anything but time to make payments to them.
What can we do that will give them the most bother? Should we pay an odd
number of cents more than the bill each time? (I'd think this may not
hamper them at all.) How about prepaying a dollar each week? How about
prepaying 25 cents a day?
Will any of this cause them any hassles? Do we need to call every few days
to make sure they received payment to truly screw with them? This may be
more trouble than it's worth, but I am well and truly pissed off.
Anny
James Gifford
> What can we do that will give them the most bother? Should we pay an odd
> number of cents more than the bill each time? (I'd think this may not
> hamper them at all.) How about prepaying a dollar each week? How about
> prepaying 25 cents a day?
>
> Will any of this cause them any hassles? Do we need to call every few days
> to make sure they received payment to truly screw with them? This may be
> more trouble than it's worth, but I am well and truly pissed off.
Ah, I see you date from the Abbie Hoffman era. :)
In the era of automated bill processing etc., this has almost zero
effect. All you're costing them is a few more electrons shuffling around
in their billing system.
--
|| James Gifford * jgif...@surewest.net ||
|| Robert Heinlein lives. See www.nitrosyncretic.com ||
|| So... your philosophy fits in a sig, does it? ||
Lalbert1
<AnnyM...@hotNOSPAMmail.com> writes:
There is nothing you can do that will bother them. But they may cause *you*
difficulty because your non-payment resulting in phone service being cut off
may show up in your credit report. If your address didn't line up with their
envelope window, then don't you think it may be a problem with a lot of other
customers? Did you discuss this with them, and if so what did they say?
Les
tooloud
<snip>
> Will any of this cause them any hassles? Do we need to call every
> few days to make sure they received payment to truly screw with them?
> This may be more trouble than it's worth, but I am well and truly
> pissed off.
You're done.
> Anny
--
tooloud
Remove nothing to reply...
Bob Ward
<AnnyM...@hotNOSPAMmail.com> wrote:
>
>Since we didn't get the bill and they knew we didn't get it, we didn't pay
>it. I paid both months' bills through our online billpay on Monday. The
>bill we received which shows last month in arrears indicates payment is due
>on June 20.
Is it a surprise each month when you receive a bill from them for
services rendered? Sounds like you are more interested in playing
with the system than paying what you owe.
Kevin O'Neill
Don't use billpay, pay with a paper check. Sign it with a big thick
sharpie, and swirl your sig down into the scan bar, so it won't scan
and has to be hand sorted. This is a trick from my days of floating
checks in college; it will cost them as much as a week, and some
hassle, to deal with it. No idea if over/under paying would be any
trouble for them.
Up the revolution! Monkeywrench, man! Let's sneak in and flush all
the toilets in the Pentagon, all at once! Woo Hoo!
Kevin
Lots42 The Library Avenger
><AnnyM...@hotNOSPAMmail.com> writes:
>>At any rate, while we decide which company other than Comcast gets our phone
>>service, we'd like to screw with their billing department, but we want to do
>>it in a way that they can't complain about.
Do reasearch. See how many others got screwed over by the billing department.
Make your own claims to appropiate goverment authorities. Try and see if the
local media would like to hear about your claims. Write letters to the CEO and
see what kind of formulaic crap you get back in return. Create a website called
'Comcast Sucks' and post the inevitable Lawyer-Hissy-Fit letter you get.
Rick B.
news:20030617203512...@mb-m14.aol.com:
> If your address didn't line up with their envelope window, then
> don't you think it may be a problem with a lot of other
> customers? Did you discuss this with them, and if so what did
> they say?
She tried, but Comcast bought their customer service reps headsets
that don't line up with their ears, and they couldn't hear a word she
said.
Austkin
When/if you do this, send them registered mail,(or whichever kind of mail
requires a sig). That way you'll KNOW they got it.
tooloud
<snip>
> Don't use billpay, pay with a paper check. Sign it with a big thick
> sharpie, and swirl your sig down into the scan bar, so it won't scan
> and has to be hand sorted. This is a trick from my days of floating
> checks in college; it will cost them as much as a week, and some
> hassle, to deal with it. No idea if over/under paying would be any
> trouble for them.
Don't checks use magnetic ink for the numbers at the bottom? Wouldn't the
MICR machine be able to read right through any signature that goes through
the numbers?
Just a thought.
> Up the revolution! Monkeywrench, man! Let's sneak in and flush all
> the toilets in the Pentagon, all at once! Woo Hoo!
>
> Kevin
--
David J. Martin
>
>
> www.vonage.com
>
Do some newsreaders turn that into a usable (i.e., clickable) url? Mine
doesn't, but I use Netscape to read news so I've accepted its
limitations. Having to cut and paste a url that doesn't include
"http://" is one of them. I was just wondering if these partial urls
are directly usable by other readers.
David
Anny Middon
news:ibgvevkffe6ht2oa2...@4ax.com...
Since we pay bills online, we take some bills every couple of weeks and pay
them. We never noticed that a Comcast telephone bill wasn't in the stack in
May. This may be partially due to the fact that Comcast provides our cable
TV too, and bills separately for that. I didn't remember the phone call
till we got the bill that included nonpayment for the previous month.
Do you notice if you don't receive a bill one month?
Anny
Bob Ward
<AnnyM...@hotNOSPAMmail.com> wrote:
>"Bob Ward" <bob....@verizon.net> wrote in message
>news:ibgvevkffe6ht2oa2...@4ax.com...
>> On Tue, 17 Jun 2003 21:27:59 GMT, "Anny Middon"
>> <AnnyM...@hotNOSPAMmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> >
>> >Since we didn't get the bill and they knew we didn't get it, we didn't
>pay
>> >it. I paid both months' bills through our online billpay on Monday. The
>> >bill we received which shows last month in arrears indicates payment is
>due
>> >on June 20.
>>
>>
>> Is it a surprise each month when you receive a bill from them for
>> services rendered? Sounds like you are more interested in playing
>> with the system than paying what you owe.
>
>Since we pay bills online, we take some bills every couple of weeks and pay
>them. We never noticed that a Comcast telephone bill wasn't in the stack in
>May. This may be partially due to the fact that Comcast provides our cable
>TV too, and bills separately for that. I didn't remember the phone call
>till we got the bill that included nonpayment for the previous month.
>
>Do you notice if you don't receive a bill one month?
>
>Anny
>
The way it was worded, and from the rest of the remarks, I got the
impression that you were trying to punish the cable company for their
failure to deliver the bill. "Since we didn't get the bill and they
knew we didn't get it, we didn't pay it." I don't see how the fact of
their knowing that you didn't get the bill was a factor, otherwise.
Anny Middon
news:bcocdl$lb533$1...@ID-121148.news.dfncis.de...
> Anny Middon wrote:
>
> <snip>
>
> > Will any of this cause them any hassles? Do we need to call every
> > few days to make sure they received payment to truly screw with them?
> > This may be more trouble than it's worth, but I am well and truly
> > pissed off.
>
> www.vonage.com
>
> You're done.
>
Good idea. However, this will cost us considerably more than what we have
now.
After consideration, I'm thinking that Comcast is trying to get some of the
telephone customers they inherited from AT&T to leave. Since screw-ups
happen to everyone occasionally, why else would they take a customer with an
excellent credit rating and good credit history with that company, send a
bill that gives the customer until June 20 to pay the current month and the
month in arrears, and then cut off service on Jun 17?
We got a special deal from AT&T when they were first starting cable
telephone service in our area. They sent out door-to-door sales reps to
drum up business. We pay under $70/month for three lines (personal,
business and fax). This includes 180 minutes of long distance total from
the three lines (meaning that we can use all 180 minutes on just one line if
we like). We get caller ID, call waiting, and caller ID with call waiting
on one line included.
I can see where we're not their most profitable customer. But if they
didn't realize they had customers with plans like this when they bought
AT&T's service, it's certainly not my fault.
Anny
Margaret Kane
"Anny Middon" <AnnyM...@hotNOSPAMmail.com> wrote in message
This may seem like a radical plan, but you could cancel your account and get
another provider.
Margaret
N Jill Marsh
<david-j...@tamu.edu>wrote:
Agent certainly does, and if I recall correctly, Outlook Express. My
older newsreaders did not.
nj"clickety click"m
"It can do that because compassion is bottomless."
Blinky the Shark
> tooloud wrote:
slrn: no
Pan: no
Knode: yes
Netiquette sez: prepend "http://"
--
Blinky Linux Registered User 297263
Geekly Topic: Domain Names - Structure and History
http://snurl.com/dn_history
Spam: The Boulder Pledge http://snurl.com/bpledge
Blinky the Shark
> Don't checks use magnetic ink for the numbers at the bottom? Wouldn't the
> MICR machine be able to read right through any signature that goes through
> the numbers?
Mag's been replaced (or is being replaced) by optical.
Or you'd need mag ink cartridges for your inkjet, along with those
checkwriting programs.
And magnetic toner carts for your laser.
Blinky the Shark
> Do you notice if you don't receive a bill one month?
Sure. For the month, I have a sheet of paper with a grid of bills
(column) versus versus due date (row) on it (from an Open Office
spreadsheet), When I get a bill, I stick the amount in the appropriate
grid square. It's a payment schedule. If column [telco] doesn't have
an amount in any date row for the month, it's pretty obvious. If I just
stuck the bills in the sock drawer, instead of having a system for
dealing with them, I might not notice, though.
Rick B.
news:3EF08066...@tamu.edu:
> tooloud wrote:
>
>> www.vonage.com
> Do some newsreaders turn that into a usable (i.e., clickable)
> url?
Xnews will do it.
Joseph Michael Bay
How so? He paid both months' bills through online billpay, I gather.
--
Joseph M. Bay Lamont Sanford Junior University
www.stanford.edu/~jmbay/ Program in Cancer Biology
Age 7 (ret), Mrs.
Bob Ward
Michael Bay) wrote:
>Bob Ward <bob....@verizon.net> writes:
>
>>On Tue, 17 Jun 2003 21:27:59 GMT, "Anny Middon"
>><AnnyM...@hotNOSPAMmail.com> wrote:
>
>>>
>>>Since we didn't get the bill and they knew we didn't get it, we didn't pay
>>>it. I paid both months' bills through our online billpay on Monday. The
>>>bill we received which shows last month in arrears indicates payment is due
>>>on June 20.
>
>
>>Is it a surprise each month when you receive a bill from them for
>>services rendered? Sounds like you are more interested in playing
>>with the system than paying what you owe.
>
>
>How so? He paid both months' bills through online billpay, I gather.
Well, she sort of said so in so many words.
StarChaser Tyger
Agent does.
--
Visit the Furry Artist InFURmation Page! Contact information, which artists
do and don't want their work posted. http://web.tampabay.rr.com/starchsr/
Address no longer munged for the inconvenience of spammers.
(Yes, this really is me.)
Greg Goss
>Kevin O'Neill wrote:
>
><snip>
>
>> Don't use billpay, pay with a paper check. Sign it with a big thick
>> sharpie, and swirl your sig down into the scan bar, so it won't scan
>> and has to be hand sorted. This is a trick from my days of floating
>> checks in college; it will cost them as much as a week, and some
>> hassle, to deal with it. No idea if over/under paying would be any
>> trouble for them.
>
>Don't checks use magnetic ink for the numbers at the bottom? Wouldn't the
>MICR machine be able to read right through any signature that goes through
>the numbers?
It depends on the solvents in the pen ink. I used to sort a few
hundred thousand cheques a night during college. Some signatures
through the MICR were ignored completely, some would kill the sort. I
presume that some pens (mostly ball point) used solvents that would
not smear the MICR when they met, and others (mostly "liquid ink"
fineliners) would dissolve some of the MICR ink when they crossed,
carrying it downstream.
Charles A Lieberman
lot...@aol.comaol.com (Lots42 The Library Avenger ) wrote:
> Make your own claims to appropiate goverment authorities. Try and see if the
> local media would like to hear about your claims.
New York, at least, has a Public Services Commission that handles
complaints from, among others, people being screwed by the phone company
(as a New Yorker screwed by the phone company recently, I find this a
topic of no little interest). If your state has something like that, it
might be a resource. I think, however, there's the possibility of them
seeing it as Mr. Ward does -- that you get billed for phone service
every month, and should have known that you'd have to pay, bill or no
bill.
--
Charles A. Lieberman | When free speech is outlawed,
New York, New York, USA |
http://calieber.tripod.com/ cali...@bigfoot.com
David K. Wall
> Anny Middon wrote:
>
><snip>
>
>> Will any of this cause them any hassles? Do we need to call every
>> few days to make sure they received payment to truly screw with them?
>> This may be more trouble than it's worth, but I am well and truly
>> pissed off.
>
> www.vonage.com
>
> You're done.
"You have been directed to this page because you are viewing our website
with an older browser. It is strongly recommended that you view our
website with Internet Explorer 5.0 (or higher), or Netscape 6.0 (or
higher). These browsers are available free of charge."
Hmm, I thought Opera 7.10 was fairly recent.
If the web site is any indication of their technical knowledge, I
wouldn't hope for much from the phone service.
--
David Wall
Blinky the Shark
> "tooloud" <nospa...@mchsi.com> wrote:
>> Anny Middon wrote:
>><snip>
>>> Will any of this cause them any hassles? Do we need to call every
>>> few days to make sure they received payment to truly screw with them?
>>> This may be more trouble than it's worth, but I am well and truly
>>> pissed off.
>> You're done.
> "You have been directed to this page because you are viewing our website
> with an older browser. It is strongly recommended that you view our
> website with Internet Explorer 5.0 (or higher), or Netscape 6.0 (or
> higher). These browsers are available free of charge."
> Hmm, I thought Opera 7.10 was fairly recent.
Okay here in 6.10. And yes, I looked at a three pages besides the home
page, too.
> If the web site is any indication of their technical knowledge, I
> wouldn't hope for much from the phone service.
--
Blinky Linux RU 297263
GrapeApe
> with an older browser. It is strongly recommended that you view our
> website with Internet Explorer 5.0 (or higher), or Netscape 6.0 (or
> higher). These browsers are available free of charge."
> Hmm, I thought Opera 7.10 was fairly recent.
Okay here in 6.10. And yes, I looked at a three pages besides the home
page, too.
> If the web site is any indication of their technical knowledge, I
> wouldn't hope for much from the phone service. >><BR><BR>
Knowledge may not really have that much to do with it. Can your browser
identify itself to a server as IE 5 or Netscape 6? Sometimes that is enough to
get past this particular roadbump.
mdg...@bellsouthspam.net
service down because they keep mixing us up with another account saying we
sent them bad checks (we never pay by check. Always online). My wife let
them know that I was waiting for a kidney transplant and that they cannot
cut our service without notifying us personally. That seemed to help.
"Anny Middon" <AnnyM...@hotNOSPAMmail.com> wrote in message
news:zJLHa.4361$87.30...@newssrv26.news.prodigy.com...
> We had had AT&T digital phone service for a few years, and everything went
> fine. They sent out their bills and we paid them promptly and everyone
was
> happy.
>
> Then AT&T sold to Comcast. Comcast apparently has a problem with their
> bills -- the window in their envelopes doesn't line up right with our
> address. Their bills frequently come late with our address handwritten
> below the window, and six weeks ago we didn't get one at all. I did
however
> get a call from their billing department, checking our address since the
> bill had been returned to them.
>
> Since we didn't get the bill and they knew we didn't get it, we didn't pay
> it. I paid both months' bills through our online billpay on Monday. The
> bill we received which shows last month in arrears indicates payment is
due
> on June 20.
>
> Today they cut off our phone service. After a half-hour on hold, when I
> finally got through I was told it was policy to cut off service when one
> month's payment is in arrears. (We did get notice they were going to do
> this, but figured we had until the due date on the bill.)
>
> At any rate, while we decide which company other than Comcast gets our
phone
> service, we'd like to screw with their billing department, but we want to
do
> it in a way that they can't complain about. Since we have free online
> billpay, it won't cost us anything but time to make payments to them.
>
> What can we do that will give them the most bother? Should we pay an odd
> number of cents more than the bill each time? (I'd think this may not
> hamper them at all.) How about prepaying a dollar each week? How about
> prepaying 25 cents a day?
>
> Will any of this cause them any hassles? Do we need to call every few
days
> to make sure they received payment to truly screw with them? This may be
> more trouble than it's worth, but I am well and truly pissed off.
>
> Anny
>
>
Opus the Penguin
> "David J. Martin" <david-j...@tamu.edu> wrote:
>
> >tooloud wrote:
> >
> >>
> >>
> >> www.vonage.com
> >>
> >
> >Do some newsreaders turn that into a usable (i.e., clickable)
> >url? Mine doesn't, but I use Netscape to read news so I've
> >accepted its limitations. Having to cut and paste a url that
> >doesn't include "http://" is one of them. I was just wondering
> >if these partial urls are directly usable by other readers.
>
> Agent does.
Xnews does. Well, double-clickable. I can also right click on any
string in Xnews and then click "Edit URL." This gives me a chance to
add or subtract any cruft before sending the results to the browser.
--
Opus the Penguin
"Hallmark is part of the military-industrial complex." - John Lawler
Blinky the Shark
> In article <20030620013729...@mb-m22.aol.com>,
> GrapeApe <grap...@aol.comjunk> wrote:
>> << > "You have been directed to this page because you are viewing our website
>> > with an older browser. It is strongly recommended that you view our
>> > website with Internet Explorer 5.0 (or higher), or Netscape 6.0 (or
>> > higher). These browsers are available free of charge."
>> > Hmm, I thought Opera 7.10 was fairly recent.
> Didn't work for me in Opera 6.1/Linux or Opera 7.0/W2K. Worked in NS7/Linux
Odd. Okay here in Opera 6.1/Linux.
No http proxy. JS enabled. Cookies disabled. Popups disabled.
StarChaser Tyger
Worked fine for me in Opera 6.05.
tooloud
> We have been having trouble with our cell phone compnay shutting our
> service down because they keep mixing us up with another account
> saying we sent them bad checks (we never pay by check. Always
> online). My wife let them know that I was waiting for a kidney
> transplant and that they cannot cut our service without notifying us
> personally. That seemed to help.
"Let them know" or "just told them that"?
Not that I care if you're lying to them just to keep them from shutting your
service off. That'd probably piss me off too.
<snip>
Rich Clancey
[...]
+ Then AT&T sold to Comcast. Comcast apparently has a problem with their
+ bills -- the window in their envelopes doesn't line up right with our
+ address. Their bills frequently come late with our address handwritten
+ below the window, and six weeks ago we didn't get one at all. I did however
+ get a call from their billing department, checking our address since the
+ bill had been returned to them.
[...]
If you have copies of misaligned and scribbled in addresses,
I'm sure a local TV station would love to show them. Also,
make as many calls as possible to their flakcatchers.
Customer Service calls are very expensive, and the automatic
billing systems are designed to reduce the expense. If you
have the time, and can sustain the rage, keep them on the
phone for as long as possible. Don't insult the underpaid
drone you speak to, but be extremely long-winded, and
eventually ask to speak to a supervisor. If you get through,
repeat the entire harangue. Do this as frequently as
possible.
--
rich clancey r...@world.std.com
"Shun those who deny we have eyes in order to see, and instead say we
see because we happen to have eyes." -- Leibniz