my accounts take two

Having told you about my accounts let me tell you the saga continued last night.........
5.25pm I was rung by the same gentleman from revenue who told me I owed money. I told him what I had done the day before and what I found out. I then had to confirm my details and this is where it all came unstuck........(Vanessa it gets worse. Frogdancer there were no dancers to entertain me.)

He had the address I lived at over 4 years ago! I told him that I haven't lived there in that time and that I have been paying my bills in those four years that have come to the correct address (mobile and home). [now I understand how this got out of hand!]

He said that he had just changed the address, adding to the confusion that would come later. This man was sympathetic when I said that I had not received a bill but he told me he had just reprinted the bill which should arive in the next few days. I said that on principal, having found all the documentation for the set up of my internet which had my current address, I was going to refuse to pay (under $140) as it was NOT a fault of mine that the bill had been sent to the wrong address.

I was then transferred 1,2,3 times. Each person totally sympathetic and noticing that I had two account numbers. I realised that I had combined my mobile and home phone about five years ago and they were using the old account number.......No one really could help although they understood my position.

I finally - after being 'transferred' - had to make numerical selections to speak to a consultant. This did not bode well!

I probably should explain right now that I had been awake since 4am (not sure why, although I did try to go back to sleep) and it was now 6pm and I had been on the phone 35 minutes. I was not happy and I was emotional due to tiredness....

A young man answered with "this is (missed the name) how can I help?"

I told him I had a tale to tell and I hoped he would be able to help me. I then went through the story and explained how I had two accounts.....IMMEDIATELY he said "I'll combine those bills now for you" "No, that has been done" was my quick reply. I explained further about owing money...

"I am looking at your account madam and you don't owe any money."

I asked him which account number he was looking at.

This is when he started to realise the frustration I had as I went on to explain how I lived in the other address 4 years ago ("but it shows your current address" - "yes the first man I spoke to changed that"-) and that in that time I combined my mobile and home accounts.

I further explained how I set up my internet account in January and requested it be on the single bill. When I noticed that it didn't occur I made further requests in January, February, and March. Finally the long requested combining of bills occurred in April and I was looking at my first combined bill dated May 24th.

I tried to explain that I was rung.

I tried to explain that there was an issue with the company not setting my accounts correctly. I also tried to explain that my bills were being sent, on the wrong account number, to the wrong address. I told him that I believed I was not at fault and would not be paying the account as I had done everything in my power to have the problem rectified.

He replied that he didn't have the authority to assist me and that I had requested the wrong department when I called.

I CALLED!

I then burst into tears of frustration (50 minutes into their call) and then said "YOU RANG ME, I didn't make this call. I rang yesterday."

He put me on hold. Again, like yesterday, I stated that I was hoping by putting me on hold he was not going to send me out into the loop again.........

He told me he appreciated my frustration and that he was trying to help me.....I also think he wanted to take a breather from my emotional outburst.

He came back and said that the team leader was unavailable (the team leader had gone home at 5.25pm - oh the irony) but he was writing a note on my file and escalating its (my file) importance so that it would be dealt with on Tuesday (Monday is a public holiday). He read what he wrote to me - which included the points that I was not going to pay as I felt I was not at fault.

We then hung up 1 hour and 7 minutes after they rang me!

I will see what happens on Tuesday. I believe I still have the bills pre-combining with account numbers, I will dig those up to use on Tuesday.

If I have no satisfaction then I will go to the Telecommunications Ombudsman. I am cross.