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And the beat goes on …

Months and months ago, I wrote about the roommate situation. The one where she moved out and I had to deal with changing all the bills into my name and such. Before I go on, let me pass on to you this small bit of advice – Don’t let a roommate put all the bills in their name. EVER! It’s fine if you plan on moving out, but if they should move out, you’ll have to go through hell and back to get them into your name. Exhibit One – The phone bill.

What seems like eons ago, we called up the phone company and asked them to put the lines in my name. Seems easy. Just change the names on the account and everything is great. Right? Wrong. The first phone line was no problem and they switched it into my name immediately. I thought, “wow that was easy, the second one will be a breeze”. Right? Wrong.

Me: I wanted to put the phone line in my name, rather than my roommates name.

Phoneguy: Okay. Let me get some info from you. Whats the phone number?

Me: [give phone number]

Phoneguy: Hmm … looks like you have DSL on that line.

Me: Uh huh.

Phoneguy: Oh no. You can’t put THAT line in your name, it’s a DSL line.

Me: Erm, it’s also a phone line, and I just changed over another phone line a second ago and it took them five minutes.

Phoneguy: Yeah, but see, this is a DSL line. The DSL account would have to be put in your name too.

Me: And? I signed up for the DSL. It’s already in my name, and if it isnt then put it in my name.

Phoneguy: Well to do that, you’d have to shut down both accounts and then resign up for them in your name. Of course, you’ll get charged a sign up fee for the DSL and then another for the phone service. Probably about $100.

Me: Um … … no. Why would I want to pay to get what I already have. Can’t you just change the name on the accounts?

Phoneguy: Oh no. Those are different departments, there’s no way for that to happen.

Me: Ugh. Fine. Whatever.

And that, my dears, is how the phone company works. Seems like two departments in the same building can’t work together to change a name on an account. So, where does this leave me. Plain out of luck is where it leaves me.

Basically, I have to sign up for DSL all over again and rather than having them hook up that phone again, I’m going to have the DSL hooked up to the other house phone, which should keep me from having to pay two hook up charges. The problem with this is that I have only until Friday to get this done. On Friday they’ll basically cut my service, leaving me without DSL or a phone line for the weekend.

Gee, thanks guys. I have a call into the DSL department already to order the shit and now just have to wait for the customer service rep to call me back to get the process moving. I just know I’ll probably be without service for a week or two.

And how does this relate to my roommate? Well, one of the phone bills got forwarded to her and she got all freaked out and called the phone company to find out why the bill was in her name. So, she started the ball rolling with this thing and now I’m going to have to deal with the end results. Meaning, a new phone number, getting DSL reinstalled and a weekend or more without an internet connection at home. Woohoo, life’s great.

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