Lee.org

A month and a half ago, I called MCI and switched to a new phone plan, cutting our phone bill by about 1/3 and gaining Caller ID and 3-way calling. Only… it didn’t happen. We waited and waited and nothing happened. So I called them up and they said that there was a problem with verifying the service change. What the frig? I had spoken to the “independent third party verification” lady. I did my part but MCI neverbothered to tell me by mail or phone that there was a problem. I had to start all over. Hurumph. So I hurrumphed right over to Verizon on the 15th. After 25 minutes on the phone with them, I had them for local, regional and long distance, caller ID, 3-way, and speed dial. At Verizon’s recommendation, I called MCI back to tell them that I was switching my service away from them. The MCI lady didn’t know what to do with such information so we just left it at that. A day goes by and I see that our phone is now showing Caller ID info and we have voicemail :-). Of course, I don’t know how to access the voicemail… but we’re going to get a letter from Verizon real soon saying how to use this new fangled telephonic appliance, right? Well, this morning I got tired of all our calls falling into the black hole of voicemail so I called Verizon to ask what to do. (before I called, I scoured the Verizon web site for instructions, but they didn’t work). The nice lady at Verizon tells me that we don’t have voicemail. [furrow brow here]. “Huh? I left a message to myself just yesterday.” She looks further and finds out that we don’t have ANY Verizon services. All our services were switched to MCI yesterday. MCI slammed me! The most bothersome part about it being that our Verizon voicemail got shut off because of it, losing all those voicemails. Jerks.

So I switched to the Verizon Freedom plan and put a PIC freeze and local freeze on our provider. Unlimited calling anywhere in the US for $55/month (+$8 taxes). And I’m gonna use it. I’m gonna talk your ears off!

And in a related story, I was talking to my dad about low phone rates. He says that he’s seen the P&L sheets of all these phone companies and they can’t keep lowering phone rates or they’re going to (keep) going out of business. I argued that, as a consumer, that wasn’t my problem; It’s my duty to find the lowest rate with service I like. We’re both right.