KCP&L and Century-Link

I was already impressed at the individual attention I was given after complaining to Kansas City Power and Light about constant power outages here that only affected three homes.  Then yesterday, two service guys came in trucks and spent at least an hour checking out our lines.  In this day and age, follow-up service from such a huge company?  
Then storms began brewing yesterday evening; lights dimmed repeatedly and finally flickered and died.  
How could this be, after all the attention they'd given?  
Cliff's next-door sister called, and I invited her to come on over and spend time in the dark with me and my daughter's two girls.  I called in a report of the power outage and gave Rena some Russian salsa and chips.  
At some point it hit me that perhaps this outage was different, that it might be affecting a bigger area.  
A check of the neighborhood showed me that indeed, this time it wasn't only three houses.  Dusk-to-dawn lights that show up from my front door were not sending out their beacons of light.  
We got our electricity back after perhaps an hour; when I went to Facebook I saw that my whole little town had experienced this outage, and I felt much better; misery loves company, you know.  And this gives me hope that perhaps our little teeny problem has been dealt with after all.  


And now on to my phone company, Century-Link (Joey, are you reading?).  Cliff and I could save a little money if we did away with our land line.  We'd like to get rid of it and yet keep our DSL service; I called Century-Link and found it's possible to do this.  For some reason, though, after a year's time, it would actually cost us MORE without the phone that it does now with it.  I don't know why "after a year", but that's how I understand it.  The line is already in place.  More and more people are getting rid of their home phones.  Seems to me we ought to be able to save that $35 monthly bill.  OK, make it $30, since we'd probably lose the $5 we're allowed for bundling phone, Internet, and Dish.   Still, with Cliff thinking seriously of retiring next year, that buck a day could make a difference. 

Just call me Speedy!

I've been quite free with my complaints about Embarq at times. That's the advantage of having a blog: When I complain, there's somebody out there to hear me. I seem to feel better after I've ranted and raved about things that frustrate me.

Here's a strange thing: Every time I rant about Embarq online, one of their customer-service people finds that complaint and leaves a comment offering to help. I assume they use search engines to find such items.

My Internet connection had been slow ever since we relocated last summer. I couldn't seem to get any satisfaction out of Embarq for quite a while, but finally I managed to at least get my price lowered so that I wasn't paying for more speed than I was actually getting.

But it was so S L O W on some of my favorite sites, like Pioneer Woman and Patrick's Place, it reminded me of the old dial-up days. I got tired of sitting here waiting for a blank page to load, and again complained, right here. Embarq Joey emailed me, reminding me that he had offered me to help back in November. I thought then that I could put up with slow DSL for a lower bill: wrong! Joey and I exchanged emails, and he gave me a phone number where I could reach him if nobody showed up to fix the problem.

An Embarq service person came out last week and did something to the telephone lines between here and town; I then upgraded to the highest speed available to me (nothing to brag about, but twice what I had been receiving before). Much better!

Embarq Joey, thanks for your help; I can really tell a difference now. If I can find time to complain about my telephone company, then surely I can give them a good word when things come together and work out for me.

I found my problem with the phone

Turns out that on November 2, back when I found out I'd have to pay Embarq a hundred bucks to come out and give me a decent DSL Internet speed, so they reduced the monthly cost of my DSL instead... they bundled my telephone service with an added feature. It was nothing I wanted or would ever use, but I had no choice.

The added feature? Voicemail. So, ever since November 2, all messages have been going there instead of to our answering machine.

I called and got all that figured out. I retrieved the messages I had in voice mail over that time period. Voice mail will be turned off after tomorrow.

I still don't like Embarq any better than I did, maybe even less. That's why I have the local cable company coming out to see if they can get cable Internet back here to our new location. And hey, Embarq guy that always comments when I do an entry like this? Don't waste your time, unless you're going to tell me Embarq will come and get my DSL up to speed without charging me for the trip.

Saving money

Yesterday I got a phone call from Embarq, my telephone company. A man said he could save me some money on the bundle I have with them (DSL, phone, and DishTV).

First of all he wanted me to put my long distance service back with them instead of using the service I found at lowermybills.com. We talked a little and found a plan I could live with.

Then we got into a discussion about my DSL. I told him that, although I'm paying for the fastest service, since we moved out back of the barn, everything loads much slower. He checked by pinging or something, and sure enough: I'm only getting half what I pay for.

If someone comes out and checks it out, I pay. I can talk to their techs, but I've already done that. At my age, it isn't fun crawling around under my desk plugging and unplugging wires to see what works and what doesn't.

Finally he offered to lower what I pay for DSL to the price of the service I'm actually getting.

I'll take that.

I think I just cut $30 a month off my bundled bill.

And I recently cut back my Dish to 200, rather than 250 channels. That's another $20.

These days it's wise to cut back where you can.

Believe me, if times get too hard, I can live with an old-fashioned antenna. And our main television is digital, so no box will be required.

And now... a GOOD word about Embarq

Even though my phone service and Internet have been coming through a 500-foot wire strung across my old yard, at least I've had a phone. And more importantly, Internet. It must be obvious to my readers that I spend plenty of time on the Internet. Hey, my kids are grown, I'm retired, and it's cheaper than many hobbies.

Around noon today, my Internet stopped working. I did the usual reboot routine: turn off and unplug the DSL modem, turn off the computer, wait two minutes, etc. etc. In fact, I did this four times. The Internet light refused to come on.

One thing about it, Embarq techs are usually very good at fixing things like this, so I dialed the number for Internet technical help. A recorded voice asked me to punch in my phone number with area code, as always. That's when I got a recording telling me that the status on my work order was delayed; the voice thanked me for my patience, and that was that. I was disconnected.

Hmmm. Obviously if I wanted to speak with a tech, I'd have to go in through the back door. I dialed the same number again, only this time I made up a phone number. After trying to get me to give them a different number a few times, I finally got a real person. A very nice real person.

Of course I had to explain the whole thing about how I'm temporarily working off a line from the old house, it's strung through the yard, blah blah blah; but it's been working fine for me until noon today.

She told me I might be on hold awhile; after waiting about five minutes, I noticed the Internet light on the modem was on, and clicked Firefox. It worked! I had Internet.

The lady was soon back, and I told her it was working. She said techs had changed some settings on the line.

"You've made my day," I told her.

"We at Embarq are trying to improve our service, so I'd like to ask this: Would you recommend Embarq to a friend?" she asked.

"You're asking me at a really bad time," I replied. "But after my experience with you, my opinion of Embarq is somewhat better; so maybe when all this mess is over, I would recommend you guys after all."

Oh, notice on yesterdays post where I complained about Embarq, an Embarq representative left a comment.

Blog power!

Embarq

I've spent much of my afternoon on the phone with Embarq.

On May 14, the telephone man came to hook up a phone at our new location. Now, I had told various Sprint employees that we had to have a line run, that our new home is in a location where there's never been a house or a phone. I could tell it wasn't computing with them, but whatever.

The telephone man was supposed to arrive between ten A.M. and noon that day. He finally showed up around 4 P.M., after I made many calls to Sprint. See, they had already turned off DSL and telephone service at the old house. When I called to see why I had no service, they said, "Oh, that's been switched to the new location."

Yeah, the new location with no telephone lines at all. How's that gonna work?

The telephone man ran 500 feet of wire on the ground from the old house, across our back yard behind the shop to the trailer, and had the phone company switch my service back to the old house.

He explained that they'd have to run lines under the road and up here (duh) and he filled out a work order for May 25. When nobody showed up by May 27, I called, but that call was mysteriously disconnected about the time I started raising my voice. Hmmmm.

So today, over two weeks after the 500 feet of line was placed across our yard (very unhandy when Cliff's mowing the yard) I called again. This time even the customer service person seemed shocked at how long it's been, and said they'd have the contractor who does excavation for buried lines call me. Which he did.

He says it's the rain preventing him. Which seems strange, since you could have tilled in the garden most days this week. Yes, we've had some rain, but not that much. Oh, and he just received my work order one week ago. He does live in Springfield, Missouri, about 165 miles from here; so he covers a wide area. Some nearby towns got seven inches of rain a couple of nights ago, while we only got 4/10 of an inch. The guy says he hasn't been able to work all week and is going to work Father's Day weekend; by the time I hung up, I was feeling sorry for him. At least I do have a telephone and Internet, so far.

I will say, this puny line has been working for me. The telephone man who strung it across the yard told me my DSL probably wouldn't work like this, but so far it hasn't failed me (knock wood).

Anyhow, the contractor said he'd do his best to get the line in next week.

I've fought this issue for so long, it's getting to the point that I don't much care. As long as my Internet works, that is.