Going Completely Wireless (SBC SUCKS)
Our land line phone serivce has been down since Tuesday. Apparently, the phone company (who shall remain nameless) spliced a phone cable by our house and our phone service has been non-existent since then. Hubby who worked for the godawful phone company a few years back, did some checking on our phone line and determined the problem was on the phone company’s side. We’ve called them several times and have YET to see a technician. Mind you, according to FCC regulations, the phone company must give the customer $25 for every day that phone service is not available. I think they owe us $75 as of this posting.
The funny thing is that we always use our cell phones. The only reason we have a land line is because of our DSL service and for the doorbell. But, as much as we love our DSL service we’ve decided to move to cable. And, now the doorbell rings to one of our cell phones. So, really there is NO need for the dinosaur service that SBC provides. I spoke to a couple of my friends and they asked me what took so long. Apparently, a lot of people no longer have land lines. All this leaves me wondering – How many people out there still have land lines and if so, why?
Technically you dont need land line and if you bitch at Ameritech you can get DSL w/o a phone line. Personally I would just go with cable.
Only for the DSL.
And why does your doorbell involve a phone line?
Ya, I’ve been completely wireless for about 2 years now and it has been awesome. I am pissed as hell because I just had to get a landline again to get DSL because I refuse to get bent over by Comcast anymore ($110+ for internet and cable? no thanks, I would rather eat scabs), and found out it is cheaper to get DishNetwork, SBCYahoo DSL, and a plain old vanilla landline from SBC. Bah. I am very bitter about it, but looked around for well over a month for a better solution.
However, once you lose the landline and go all cellphone, you will never go back to a tethered phone. It just seems so archaic.
I have one because i use DSL and also i can’t get any reception on my cell phone in the house. i hate cell phone reception in general and i can’t stand putting that little phone to my ear.
I have no home phone-too costly. Besides there is one jack and two of us sharing the flat. My roommate has her own cellphone.
We’ve done close to the same. After years of voicemail at our house saying “oh, you aren’t home, I’m calling your cell” we dropped everything. We have a land line at the house for emergencies but no voicemail, long ditance, or anything, the bill is like $5 a month. it rocks.
my 2 cents: i hate cell phones, the screwjob is almost as bad as with SBC, prices way beyond my budget.
but vonage…all the advantages of a landline phone (plug any old phone in and it works, no problems with signal loss because you are inside a building) plus it is CHEAP. sure it doesn’t work if there is a power loss or a network outage, but i love it.
VOIP is the future of landlines.
I actually decided to switch to a cable phone line because of prior lack of professionalism and bullying tactics from SBC’s collection agency. We were 3 days late on one billing period while my wife was in the hospital giving birth… And they demanded a deposit even when I was ready to pay them in full the whole freakin’ $55. They even turned off our service on top of that, and demanded a restoration fee after I told them I was considering an alternative to paying them that deposit.
Because of all the crap going on with a new baby and all… I bowed down to the bullying since I didn’t have time to shop for a new provider nor go without a land line.
However, I found a new provider once things calmed down. Called SBC to disconnect service, and informed them they should use the deposit to pay what was owed and then issue us a credit.
They disconnected service a week early and tried to get another reconnect fee (Which I laughed at), and proceeded to send monthly bills for a land line with no contract, that isn’t even in service anymore!
After about a dozen more calls I finally had a rep have the gall to say that she wouldn’t apply the deposit and send a closing bill until I paid them their full extortion fee… Which is a big no no according to the CPUC, to which I informed her of, there’s even a page in their FAQ specifically on consumer rights on deposits… She continued with threatening my credit report as a last ditch effort… To which I replied I would simply challenge the ding and would mostly likely win and have it permamently removed. At that point she got irrate and and hung up on me. lol!
I just take it as a lesson learned and that’s never to do business ever with SBC or it’s affiliates… And wherever possible, educate everyone I can on alternatives.
People say to feel bad for the people working there… I really don’t. I realize people have to make a living but call center jobs are a dime a dozen and if your happy enough to continue working at a place that has turned into nothing but a scam and extortion racket, then your just as guilty and no better than the company IMNSHO.
I’ll have a good chuckle once SBC reaches it’s full demise.
My 2-cents on few things.
1) cell phones: they work and they don’t but that depends on how much research you have done. I have a pretty standard sanyo from sprint and it works even in few elevators. But wait, IP phones are on the way. Wait until your wifi call is dropped then, ha. I use it when it works, if it does not I feel like I am on vacation.
2) sbc is one got awfull thing, that is not to say that other companies are better. We have 2 choices downtown: sbc or comcast one is move expensive then other. I have not used my land line in 3 years, and they have not offered to take the $12.95 for it off my bill upon my many requests.
3) there are going to be few more solutions soon: a) chicago is going “hopefully” wireless b) verizon is testing fiber door2door for $40 on the east coast (i hope they come here) c) we all will build one huge ad-hoc wifi-max network and be our own isp’s.
Till then, be patient, go take a walk outdoors.