stressed2nd attempt: She took it through the line and spoke to an actual person about mailing it to me. Paid for postage again, paid for insurance on it, etc. 3 weeks later I still hadn't recieved it, they lost record of her purchasing postage or insurance, and said there was nothing they could do. That we'd just have to wait and see if it ever showed up.
Update: I went to the post office up here that delivers my mail. Asked what some of the problems could be (did it get lost, was there not enough postage, etc). Good Service: Woman talked to our postman and the two surrounding postmen to see if they'd seen it. They said no, but they'd keep their eyes out. Then she called the other post office in town (apparently we have two) and asked if they had seen it. They said nope but they'd keep their eyes out. She told me that Colorado Springs could just be taking their time bringing it up to Arvada and to just keep checking in with both offices.
So I did as told, kept checking in. Nobody had seen it. Nobody knew where it was, and nobody knew what to do. So finally Friend gets it back at the apartment with the words "INVALID ADDRESS" on it. Uhm wtf? She got pissed and refused to take it back to the post office again, so I sent her prepaid postage envelopes (a couple, just in case) and talked to the post offices up here. Apparently they misread her handwriting and thought the 7 on the zipcode was a four, so it ended up at the wrong post office. Fine not a biggie. However, I was told by several people that with a minor error like that, they're supposed to forward it to the correct post office (since that was the ONLY "mistake" on the envelope, everything else was 100% accurate) and then it gets mailed to the address.
Did they forward it though? No. Some genius spent 3 weeks looking for the address in the wrong zipcode and when a month's time approached said genius sent it back to Colorado Springs, completely and utterly annoyed that we would "DARE SEND [him] A FAKE LETTER"
So it's been almost two months since the first time she sent the package to me and I still don't have it. I can't afford the gas to get down there right now, so I had to borrow money from my parents to send her the prepaid envelopes.
So I've never had good experience with Qwest. My mother and I were on the same account (phone & internet & cable 'bundled') until a year ago. She was paying, but I usually made all the phone calls if there was an outage or we wanted to change something, etc. I called at least once a week about the internet and at least once a month about the tv being out. Finally the internet crapped out completley and I couldn't get anywhere with the tech guy because he continued to tell me that the error was on my end. I asked him to send someone to see if it was really on our end (I knew it wasn't but I'm willing to try ANYTHING to get my internet back when my classes are online and my student ID is busted so I can't use the school library). He said there was NO WAY he was going to WASTE someone's time coming out to our house if we were too braindead to fix it ourselves. (I'm paraphrasing but I do remember the term 'braindead' specifically). Now I'm not an agressive person so I finally gave in when he said there was no more he could do to help me. But my mother is easily offended and very agressive (she's one of those customers you loathe being in customer service for usually, but this time I think we had cause to be angry).
She called them the next day and they refused to speak to her because they didn't believe she was who she said she was. I got on the phone with them, gave them my info and said repeatidly "THIS IS MY MOTHER. HER NAME IS ON THE ACCOUNT AND I AM GIVING YOU PERMISSION TO SHARE INFORMATION WITH HER ABOUT THIS ACCOUNT. SHE PAYS THE BILL SO I IMAGINE SHE'S SOMEONE YOU WANT TO TALK TO ANYWAY." Finally the dude agreed to speak to her about the account, and told her what the other guy had told me the day before. He was nicer about it but still refused to help us out. My mom began to ask him if she could speak to a supervisor and he CUT HER OFF and started UPSELLING products and services. That sent my mother over the edge and she ordered him to cancel the account right then. She told him to shut off the internet, the phone, and the cable. He said there was a cancellation charge and she said "FINE. JUST SHUT THE DAMN SERVICE OFF". So when he said our service was cancelled, we both hung up because he tried to upsell again.
Fastforward a couple months. I get a single letter from a collections agency saying I owe $150 for something. I write back to them (at this time I was out of town on an internship and didn't have usual means or times of communication so snail mail was my best bet). I find out over a long period of time that it's the final Qwest bill that has gone on to collections. My mother & I weren't speaking at this time but I found out she had been TRYING to pay this final bill, but they had taken her off the account and refused to charge her card for the $150. So because they took her off the account my name was the only one on it, so it went on my credit report. I didn't hear anything after that (I provided the collections agency with the back story and my mother's current info stating that she had agreed to pay that amount) so I thought things had been resolved. Due to my sister messing around with my social security number, old cell phone account (anyone remember my T-Mobile suck where they charged my card illegally, wouldn't give my money back and my sister now works for this agency? Well I'm no longer concerned too much about her well being at this job as she f*cked up my credit because of it) I found out this Qwest thing was still there. So I'm currently disputing that as well.
So, now that I'm speaking to my parents again, they've allowed me to stay on their 2nd property and help fix it up in exchange for rent (some of you have probably seen my post in co_workers_suck but that's another story). When I quit my last job because of poor management, and so that I could walk out on them before they fired me [for being the number one sales girl, another co_workers_suck post), I needed a new job. Every where I applied told me to fill out applications online so I decided to search for jobs online. I need internet access to do this, and without a job I can't afford gas to and from parents' or friends' houses to check email and jobbing.com. So the parents were kind enough to pay for internet service on this property for me. When I researched what was available out here, I found US Cable (high speed internet) and Qwest (dial-up). We've had both in the past. US Cable = really good service. Qwest = really horrible service. Add in that US Cable has high speed internet and Qwest only has dial-up available here....WHY ON EARTH DID MY MOTHER PICK QWEST? I don't know. But I didn't put my credit card info in, she did. So I have to go with what she picked. So having only dial-up available here wasn't the only suck.
-We were told we could a) have a CD sent to us (that could take 4-6 weeks) so we could install MSN on my computer, or b) we could call a 1800 number and get it set up manually (it could take up to four hours though). So we had the CD sent AND I called the number. However, they refused to help me without my mother's credit card number or account number (it was an MSN number). We both explained to them repeatidly that
1) We ordered the service through QWEST. We only have a QWEST account number. They said MSN would set up an account for us when we were ready to install the internet
2) There was no credit card in their system because she hadn't paid for the service yet (but of course Qwest inevitably charged her already, when the first month is supposed to be free)
3) We wanted to set it up manually. They told us that our only option was to wait for the CD, that they didn't have a 'manual option.'
So we decided to wait for the CD. It came quicker than expected, but with no fewer problems. I had to install it about 5 times on my computer just to get it to run through the setup properly. Then it took me two days to establish a temporary internet connection in order to set up an MSN account. (Apparently you have to have the internet to get the internet).
And since then, it's everything dial-up can be expected to be. Disconnects, false connects, annoying dialing, etc. Here's what I find so sucky about dialup though:
-It takes longer to connect than when internet first came out and all we had was dialup. Sometimes it takes 10+ minutes to sign on to the internet.
-It disconnects every two minutes sometimes (sometimes more, sometimes less) and 50% of the time it REFUSES to get back on. It just says "error" or "you can't do that, you're signed out" DUH. That's why I hit the "GO ONLINE" button! Pretty much every time it disconnects, I have to restart my computer in order for it to reconnect.
-In the first week I had to uninstall and reinstall msn 8 times, and this week I've already done it 12 times.
-Tech Support is no help because they keep telling me "that's what happens with dialup"
"Yes, I know dial up disconnects sometimes but it shouldn't be this often, and I shouldn't have to reinstall the program to get it to work."
"Maybe someone else in the house picked up the phone, not realizing you were online and it kicked you off"
"No body else lives here. There is only one phone and it's never plugged in while I'm online."
"Perhaps the cords have come out from your computer or the wall and lose the connection"
"I've checked that and there's nothing wrong with them"
"Well it's not our fault"
"I'm not trying to lay blame with anyone. I just want working internet"
"Then I guess you're going to have to reinstall it again."
At least they didn't suggest a burglar coming in and stealing my internet but come on! I know dial-up is a pain in the ass (BELIEVE ME! I know!) but I shouldn't have to uninstall, reinstall, reboot, rinse, lather, repeat every single day!