BabyBear
Keep wise ...with Night-Owl
join:2007-01-11
| hahaha
Thats funny, but stuuupid!  Obvious it was an automated change & charge. Do they charge you if you paint your house a new color too?
"Qwest also wouldn't give her the phone and DSL price rate she had at her "other address" for fifteen years, so her total bill was higher."
Could have been worse I guess, could have told her, 'Sorry but the services you had at your old address are no longer available at your new address. Please call back at a later date to see if we have added service to your area.'  |
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PolarBear
The bear formerly known as aaron8301
Premium
join:2005-01-03
 ·CableOne
| said by BabyBear  :Could have told her, 'Sorry but the services you had at your old address are no longer available at your new address. Please call back at a later date to see if we have added service to your area.' Actually, that's what I was expecting. |
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en102
Canadian, eh?
join:2001-01-26
Valencia, CA | Yup - a 'Sorry, your number is not in our service area.' is what I would have expected from an automated service.
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Canada = Hollywood North |
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SilverSurfer
join:2007-08-19
| reply to BabyBear
said by BabyBear :Thats funny, but stuuupid! Obvious it was an automated change & charge. Do they charge you if you paint your house a new color too? This is SOP billing - if Qworst had pulled this stunt anywhere else (not in bumblefuck nowhere, NE) it most likely would have gone unnoticed. But when you're rural bumpkin, you really don't have anything better to do but comb through your bills and scrutinize every item. |
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Mospaw
D O N E
Hawaiian Jellyfish
join:2001-01-08
The Pacific
·Cox HSI
Host:
Road Warriors, Not..
All Things Macintosh
Automotive
| said by SilverSurfer :But when you're rural bumpkin, you really don't have anything better to do but comb through your bills and scrutinize every item. I don't know about that. I'm hardly a rural bumpkin, living in Vegas.
But I work for the little bit of money I make, so I make sure ALL of my bills are correct. I'd sure as hell notice a $33 charge on my bill that didn't belong there, and I would complain to have it removed. |
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PolarBear
The bear formerly known as aaron8301
Premium
join:2005-01-03
·CableOne
| said by Mospaw :But I work for the little bit of money I make, so I make sure ALL of my bills are correct. I'd sure as hell notice a $33 charge on my bill that didn't belong there, and I would complain to have it removed. I second that. Either remove the charge or remove the service from my house. The location is completely irrelevant. Qworst shouldn't be charging a customer for moving when they didn't move! The fact that the "rural bumpkin" noticed the charge only goes to show that she(he?) pays attention and is responsible with her finances. |
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joako
Premium
join:2000-09-07
/dev/null
 ·AT&T U-Verse
| reply to en102
said by en102 :Yup - a 'Sorry, your number is not in our service area.' is what I would have expected from an automated service. Well technically if the city was annexed then it might be a new ratecenter!
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09:F9:11:02:9D:74:E3:5B:D8:41:56:C5:63:56:88:C0 |
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en102
Canadian, eh?
join:2001-01-26
Valencia, CA | That would have been handled and known about for some time in advance, as would all of the above billing issues. Qwest was just sloppy in handling it.
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Canada = Hollywood North |
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Heehaw
@sbcglobal.net
| reply to SilverSurfer
I scrutinize my bill all the time. This enables me to correct any overcharges/errors in my bill. I even scrutinize my receipt when I go grocery shopping. Many times stores overcharge you. Another thing you need to look at is sales tax. Sometimes, you get charged tax on non-taxable items. So, while you may see this act as someone who "don't have anything better to do but comb through your bills and scrutinize every item", I see it as an act of someone who is smart. |
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Sandman5
Premium
join:2002-07-10
Brookline, MO
clubs:
| reply to SilverSurfer
said by SilverSurfer :said by BabyBear :Thats funny, but stuuupid! Obvious it was an automated change & charge. Do they charge you if you paint your house a new color too? This is SOP billing - if Qworst had pulled this stunt anywhere else (not in bumblefuck nowhere, NE) it most likely would have gone unnoticed. But when you're rural bumpkin, you really don't have anything better to do but comb through your bills and scrutinize every item. I'm sorry but I have to disagree here. If a bill is roughly the same amount every month, as utilities or phone and internet usually are, then you're going to notice a $33+ increase. Then you start combing through the bill to find out why it went up.
Oh, and I just moved here from San Diego so there's no need to mention that I live in bumblef**k nowhere, MO.
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Rule #62: Don't take yourself so damn seriously! |
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rahvin112
join:2002-05-24
Sandy, UT
| reply to en102
Unless the city specifically contacted the utility, notified them well in advance, setup coordination meetings and all that Jazz they likely weren't warned in advance. If they city is smaller than 100K people and the piece annexed is smaller than 30k the city likely didn't have the experienced staff to make such a pre-notification happen. Relatively small cities have a very small group of city employees that spend more time pushing paper around (building permits etc..) than doing anything else.
Annexing is almost always done to acquire a piece of commercial zoning that is bringing in good sales taxes that the larger city wants to acquire to increase their tax base (as most states divvy the sales tax back to the city where the purchase was made). These decisions are often talked about a long time but are actually executed very quickly. Failing to discuss it with utilities and affected companies is much more common than you probably realize. In fact in cities the size I listed I would wager notifying utilities and having coordination meetings would be the exception, not the rule as most city employees would take the view that the utilities would figure it out on their own.
Now why the city renamed streets should be the real question. If I was the lady I would be mad at Qwest, but I would be almost as mad at the city for renaming streets and messing up the maps billings, driver licenses, credit addresses, mortgages, and just generally making the mail go to the wrong place. Especially if the annexed city is larger than 30k as the renaming and numbering would be so extensive that it would make all GPS maps essentially worthless as well as hosing the post office for a month or two. And as a previous poster said sarcastically, the state utility commission might allow a different rate center on the acquiring city. |
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en102
Canadian, eh?
join:2001-01-26
Valencia, CA
·RoadRunner Cable
 ·DSL EXTREME
| Omaha has a population of +400,000... I don't think it would be an issue.
Similarly, Santa Clarita has done many annexations in the past few years (pop 170,000), and I've never heard of this being an issue here. Cities as small as Santa Clarita have their own GIS, departments, etc.
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Canada = Hollywood North |
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