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$287 Phone bill!

June 16th, 2007 at 04:28 am

Ok, I know for some of you that doesn't seem like an outrageous amount for a phone bill. But for someone who's bill runs roughly $80 - 90 a month, it was a huge shocker.

For the past month or so I've been having problems with my home phone line. The only reason I have it is for my internet and Tivo. I only have the bare minimum - measured service (25 outbound calls a month). (Included in my monthly bill is my cell phone and internet.)

Over the past month I've had quite a few instances where my phone would ring. I of course wouldn't pick it up, since previously the only people who called my number were telemarketers or people looking for someone who previously had my number. Well, in the past month, every time the phone would ring, my internet would cut off. Most of the calls did not leave a message -but some of them did. Most of them were in Spanish.

About a week ago or so this culminated in my getting 4 calls throughout the night. 3 of them were ones where there was noone on the line. The next to last one, I could hear someone on the line. That was about 3:30 a.m. and I kind of lost it with the person - they were talking back to me - only in Spanish and I had no idea what they were saying.

After this incident I unplugged my phone before going to bed. A couple nights later my phone was plugged in and I was working on the computer when my phone rang once again. I decided to answer it just for the heck of it. I asked if this was the person who'd been constantly calling me for the past couple weeks and if it was I insisted that they STOP calling! At this point the man on the phone said he was getting his wife who spoke some English. She and I were able to figure out that yes, there was a problem - that they hadn't been calling me.

So, at any rate, I figured it was some kind of crossed wires. I went to report a problem on my phone companies website but they had this huge list of things that they wanted me to check for first - yeah right - the list was essentially in another language for me (phone tech speak). So I decided that I didn't want to deal with it right then, and would just keep my phone unplugged.

Then comes the bill today.

119 outbound calls (above the 25 allowed.)
- $9.97

2 long distance phone calls via Ameritech to CUBA = $181.77

I called the repair tech phone line and they are sending someone out on Sunday (sometime between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.). Then they transfered me to the billing dispute department -- the person I worked with was very helpful although she kept questioning whether or not there was any possibility of my having had someone in my home who would've called Cuba. Next I had to call Ameritech - very bad connection + a very hard to understand service person - finally got her to understand my problem, and she started a ticket for me. I'm supposed to call back on Monday to find out the status.

Depending on what the tech finds on Sunday, the service call will either be free or will cost me $30 (since I don't have wire insurance). The tech person will obviously find a problem - so the disputed amounts will dissapear after 3-4 months. BUT I can expect to go through this hassle again next month when I get my next bill due to charges stemming since the end of the last bill till now.

UGH!

6 Responses to “$287 Phone bill!”

  1. shiela Says:
    1181967206

    That's a bit scary. I hope you get it resolve soon.

  2. frugaltexan75 Says:
    1181968210

    Thanks! I hope so too!

  3. monkeymama Says:
    1182095099

    Yikes!!!!! My bill never tops $30 so that sounds pretty awful to me!

  4. frugaltexan75 Says:
    1182109348

    Well the phone tech guy just left. He said it looked like somehow the wires got burned together??? and that's how they got crossed. I'm not quite sure what he was talking about - but all I know is that my number is all mine again and I don't have to worry about weird middle of the night calls or hopefully any more unwanted long distance charges. Now what remains to be seen is how much of a fight it will be to get those charges off my bill - and what charges (if any) there will be on next month's bill.

  5. Thrifty Ray Says:
    1182703564

    Yikes. Sounds like a telephone nightmare. Good for you for getting to the bottom of it and getting it fixed!! I hope next month's bill isnt an even bigger surprise and that it resolves quickly and easily.

  6. frugaltexan75 Says:
    1182710003

    Thanks, I'm waiting for my next phone bill with bated breath. Smile

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