SBC Customer Service review: I have never felt so mistreated, misinformed and given the run around

Unfortunately I am not writing this email as some type of kudos for work well done but as a complaint to the horrible service that I have received from this company and also to inform you that at this moment I will never do business with and SBC product or service nor will I advise any family or friend to do business with this company.

I will also be making a complaint to the Utilities Commission and anyone else that will hear me even if it falls on deaf ears as I know it will.

I made arrangements to pay my phone bill for the phone number on March 10th. I didn't pay the bill until that Monday on March 13th, my phone service at that time was not interrupted and I even received a confirmation email that thanked me for my payment. On Wednesday, March 15th when I returned home from work I could not place any outbound calls nor could I receive any inbound calls I then called your customer service line and spoke with a representative that informed me that my services were interrupted on March 13th, which was after I had made payment. I was also informed that I would have to pay a $100.00 deposit in order to receive services from your company again.

My complaint is that I made payment prior to my services being interrupted and how is that appropriate to wait 2 days to go back and disconnect my service? If your system had glitches and the order did not go through in a timely manner that should be a problem that your company should have to address not me as a consumer to pay an additional $100.00 after paying a bill and receiving a verifying email thanking me for payment. I paid the $100.00 deposit as I did not wish to be without phone service and still at this time over 12 hours of being without service my phone is still not on.

I am a customer service supervisor and I have never been through such a run around and heard so many excuses that bottom line your systems failed, the disconnect was not completed properly, which is obvious and the consumer still must pay the price. I then spoke to another Manager Brenda Torres this morning and the only thing she could say was that we can only guarantee service being restored after 24 hours, never stating that she would be happy to either call repairs with me on the line (which is what the customer service person told me the problem was), or to attempt to put in another order to restore my service. So with no faith in this company I am sure that I will go home after work and still find that my services are disconnected. If it took over 2 days to interrupt my services after receiving payment, I have no idea how long it will actually take to restore the services that I feel I have now paid for a 2nd time. The funny part is that after paying the $100.00 deposit when I called the automated system it states that I now have a credit of $41.00. Your system is an absolute joke at this point to me and obviously your checks and balances are not working properly.

I know out of the millions of customers that SBC has, not having me as a customer may not hurt your bottom line, but I can tell you this. It only takes 1 person to start a ripple and as much as possible I plan on being a ripple for SBC. I have never felt so mistreated, misinformed and given the run around as I have in the last 12 hours and again as I call my home phone I am still receiving the same recording.

A former SBC customer !

Lanette