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Crappy phone company cut my service one day for late payment. I have always paid late and they even told me it was OK since I never defaulted and always paid the late penalty. I am ADHD, so I get a bill and set it aside to pay it closer to the due date. When I see it will not go in on time to avoid late payment, I just wait for the next bill and pay both when the second is due. Why not? I have already paid the late payment to buy the time. But now some eager beaver shut my phone off and replaced the dial tone with a very obnoxiously loud artificial busy signal to teach me a lesson. I found it so irritating I was going to leave it that way, and I unplugged all my phones. Then I noticed that it was back in operation when I picked up my wireless. Now I see that on my new bill they are charging me $12.00 for typing a command into their computer to make those obnoxious sounds. A restoration of service charge. But I didn't tell them to restore my service. I am going to tell them that today and to also stick their phone service where the sun don't shine. So they can either drop those charges or put it back the way it was. I'm not going to let those bastards bully me. It isn't about money.

It should be interesting. I am NOT going to pay it. Instead, I thing I will go without phone service, or internet or anything else associated with a telephone. I could just subscribe to another phone company, but I think I will see what life without a phone is like. Over 1/2 of my phone bill is compiled of charges that the gov makes me pay, even for services I do not use, since they think they have me held hostage through my telephone.

They tack on services for schools, {I don't have any kids in school}, They charge me for long distance access. I don't make long distance calls., They charge for my NOT having a long distance carrier. They charge me for not using other features. In other words, they think I can not live without them.

Now if I could only do without utilities that are filled with trumped up charges and fees that I neither use that would also be great.

So if I disappear for a season, it is because I stood my ground. I'm going to look at this as an adventure. At least I will have the satisfaction of letting them know that they ARE dispensable. At least as far as I am concerned. I'm sick of this government taxing everything except the amount of oxygen I breathe every day. So along with that, when do you think the breath tax will be put into place? After all, they have already considered a flatulence tax for livestock in the future.

What a bunch of irresponsible bastards we have ruining our lives in Washington.

Sure I could live without my phone. Or the internet. Or my car. But then I would just be an old coot who's lost touch with the world.

Pay the bill.

First off let me say as a voluntary customer I feel an obligation to make my payments on time.
Sometimes I forget. Sometimes it's not a priority on a short budget month and I have to play catch up.
I gag at the prices I pay for this convenience, but once again. I am a voluntary customer.
Because of the way I work I need rapid communication with my employer.
Because of the way my wife works she also needs communications with her employer, her patients, her subordinate employees, and to give me peace of mind about her safety.
My parents are aged, to help meet their safety needs and again my peace of mind I want rapid communication.

I would love to reduce my dependence in many aspects of life.
But, I live in a highly mobile society that benefits greatly in logistics by rapid communications ability. This includes my bands needs as well.

Would I like to live in the forest where if my family and friends needed me they could just shoot in the air?

You bet ... then I'd have to buy more bullets.

I shut off the land line. More & more ppl are doing that, & Ma Bell is scrambling for bucks. When you pay late, they go through stuff to remind you, & they charge a late fee. Sometimes they shut you down until you pay. No biggie. It's just biz. I isn't their fault you didn't pay on time.

They obviously don't care about the length of time you've had a relationship with them, or what your record is. You may be better off, with your ADHD, to have 'em take a certain amount out of your bank acct automatically every month, to solve this issue.

No sense getting PO'd. Most other co's are playing these games too.

I'm not sure about those options for the poll questions. Yeah, i'd stand up to them, because they can't charge me forever. I have no problem dropping off the grid. but, i would like to get away from it all, at least once in a while. So, both?

cell phone is the new land line.

Whats a land line ?

your home phone.

I can't text on that. What else is a phone for? I can't figure it out.

LOL

I was being facetious.

Not had a land line in years.

No point in it.

Hmmm... I'm kinda on slackers side here.
It would be a good experiment.
You can always tell them you're going with a different (mobile) carrier if they won't play ball.

Energy companies are the worst. Most places they are effectively a monopoly.
If I had the spare cash I'd invest in a bigass array of solar panels.

They were so easy. I told them I could get a wireless with 90 minutes for $15.00 a month. And that would be a lot less than you are charging me.

They dropped the "Hookup charge" and also dropped the late payment charge.

That hookup is such a scam anyway. It's not like they come out and disconnect a wire. They just enter your area and phone # and type block .> enter. Or something like that. I wonder how many people actually think they do more than that and pay for that scam.


So at least I have internet so I can bug you guys occasionally (Snail mail is faster than my modem) and a phone so telemarketers can reach me whenever they need to.

I was almost looking forward to the big test. I called everyone and told them I may not have a phone so it shouldn't cause any concern.

It isn't that I can't pay on time. I just don't feel like it, so I choose to pay the late fee if I know it will be charged to me anyway... so why not wait until the next one is due. I get the bill 20 days ahead of time, so I wait until it is about due. Never do now what you can put off until the last minute. Yeah. Thats what I always must be thinking when I just don't pay when I get the bill. And if I already payed for the privilege of not paying when it was due. So it should be my choice.

It's just friggin hard being me.

Being self-employed (three different businesses) I have to have a cell phone on me at all times, plus I have an autisitc son who can cause mayhem wherever he wants thus they call me to come rescue those unfortunate people who get in his way. So a phone is a necessary evil to me. In fact I'm considering upgrading to a Sprint Evo or Epic as they can do some incredible things. I know it's a big jump in $$$ but the profit I can make from doing business on those phones might be worth it, plus I can go on the Bandmix forum from my phone wherever I am...

I hate the cell phone and I don't text.

My buddy slammed into a telephone pole while texting.
When I went to go see him in the hospital, I told him he deserved it for being stupid.

Cell phones are very handy yes, but I don't like being available 24/7/365 and drunk dialers are a problem. USE THE ANSWERING MACHINE OR FAQ OFF!

I threatened to beat any of my "friends" that drunk dial me.

Last sat night I got a call at 3am because "drunk" got a dui and I had to go pick his lame ass up at the local state police barracks.
It was either that or they started digging up where he's been and what he's been up to (i.e. go to jail, do not pass go, do not collect 200$), so I gave him a lift home.

And that was just on the land line....I shudder to think what would be going on if I had a regular cell and it was on.