I moved to a rental house in Bellevue from Bothell on 1-Jun. On Tue 16-Jun I called Qwest to order a land line/DSL bundle. They said that there was already an active line (from the previous renter) but promised they would call my landlord, take care of it and that both services would be up and running on Friday the 19th. Friday I get the DSL modem in the mail. I hook it up but it does not work. I hook up a phone to the line and it works, but when I call my cell it comes up as a different number than I was promised. Also the long distance does not work. Saturday night I call Qwest. They say that they can't hook up the line until the customer calls to disconnect the existing line. No one, including the landlord, knows who or where on Earth the guy on the account is (the name doesn't match the person on the previous lease). For the second time I give them my landlord's phone number and for the second time they say they'll call him and get permission to remove the ac!
Tive line.
Monday rolls around. Still no service, so I call in the morning. They tell me that they cannot make outgoing calls so I have to call the landlord to have him call Qwest. I refuse, telling them it is not my problem, they've broken their promise and it's really their problem anyway. Monday evening I call again, finally get to a person who again takes my landlord's number and ABSOLUTELY ASSURES me that he'll have me up and running by end of day tomorrow, and he'll take care of everything. I was so ecstatic I told him if he gave me his address I'd send him twenty bucks and a thank you card.
Nope. Nothing.
Thursday the 24th and I call in the morning. Again they tell me they cannot make outgoing calls to contact my landlord. After over TWO HOURS on the phone with them, they finally call my landlord and add him to the conversation. He cannot do much except confirm that I am the official renter and he doesn't have a clue who the person on the existing account is. I am also told that the person owes them over $800. So, basically, I ask them: So you WON'T turn the phone off of someone who not only doesn't live here and you cannot find but owes you money, and at the same time, you won't turn on my service that you promised and I WANT to give you money.
While on the phone with them, they attempted to call the old renter and left a message. At the end of the conversation it was made clear to both my landlord and I that a) if they hear back from the old renter they will immediately turn off his service and turn mine on, or b) if they don't hear from him in three days, they will put some kind of order on the account (apparently closing it) and ten business days later my service will be activated, so the latest date would be the 15th of July. Also, the DSL line will take three extra days after that. The next day the existing line was shut off.
Now it is the 18th and no service. It's been over a month.
Verizon also offers land lines and DSL to my house address but I'm apparently, despite being a mile (line of sight) from a major Microsoft campus in Bellevue, in a dead zone. I've had their service since 1999 and currently have three cell lines with them, but they refuse to fix the dead zone. Naturally, I cannot in good faith reward them with more business, especially when the only reason I'm getting a land line is because there's no cell service there. So I am completely without communications at this address. Now I am on an extended trip for work and I can't even talk to my girlfriend at home.
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