Killing Me Not Softly

I didn't get much sleep last night. I opened my inbox to find my monthly invoice from my phone company at the farm. It was twice the amount for the previous month, which was twice the amount of the month before, which had been about the same for some years.

I switched over to the NBN about a month ago when we came back from Tassie. I did this at home too with a different company. This entailed a huge amount of time on the phone to both providers as I grappled with instructions and entered codes and hooked up wires here there and everywhere. Then the next day the thing was not working and I'd go through it all again. It seemed I spent all my spare time on the phone day and night, and eventually it all seemed to be working and stay working.

Then the first invoice came on the farm account, as I said double what I normally pay. Of course I queried it, on the phone again, queuing and holding and eventually speaking to a lady in the Philippines, where also all the technical support people had been located. I said it seemed I was paying for two systems. She said they could not do a revised invoice but if I paid it and it was found a credit was due it would come off next month's invoice.

In all the hitches to get the thing working it was discovered the modem they had sent me was faulty and would not cooperate so they sent me another. I hadn't paid for the first modem, it came no charge as I had taken a bundle package with a two year contract. After we were successful with second modem the lady asked me to send back the faulty modem so as I wouldn't be charged for the second. I did this and photographed the postal receipt and tracking number and emailed it to the company.

So when the new invoice came last night with the second doubling of price I examined closely and saw that I had been charged $189 for the second modem and still as best I can know was being charged twice, once for the old system and then the new, plus other charges I have no knowledge of what they are.

So today I'm on the phone again talking to a person in the Philippines who tells me I have to pay for the replacement modem as there was nothing wrong with the first one. Go figure. She acknowledged it seemed I was being billed twice for the phone service but said they couldn't do another invoice, best I pay and a credit can be made if it is due on next month's account. I said I'm not happy with that as I was told that last time and it didn't happen. All this took considerable time, as she put me on hold and talked to others and eventually I had to hang up as I had meeting to attend at 10am and a lot of picking to do.

So what now? I pay by direct debit from my business account on 6 May. So I rang my bank and asked them to stop authorization on that debit. The guy did this then told me it did not guarantee they wouldn't take the money as big companies have tokens they share, and if my bank cancelled the token for that debit which he did, the company could borrow a token from another company and still make the debit from my account. I was incredulous at this but he said sorry that's how it works.

I'm at a loss to know what to do. If I pay there's no surety that I'll get any credit on the next account or that it still won't be double what it used to be. And if I look for another company, say the one I have at home whose billing has been smooth,  they'll slug me for hefty fee for exiting before my two year contract is up, or hardly started. And I'll have to go through all that technical stuff again.

I had to get this off my chest in the hope I can go to bed and not stew with anger again, tossing and turning. Fair dinkum, this episode and the media reports of the Royal Commission into the big four banks and all their schistering leaves me convinced that this country is stuffed and there is little trust left. I have found it a challenge to not use offensive language in my phone calls and in this post.