And it’s my “most recent failure” post …
At&t is not my friend.
We are actually arch enemies… or maybe frenemies since I am still bound to them through a cellular contract. They have been the thorn in my side, the tormentor of my flesh, the instigator of my fury, the object of my wrath for the past several years and it began it’s climax in March of this year…
I rejoiced the day I cancelled our internet service with them… I thought it was over.
Ummmm no.
After our move I discovered three modems that they had neglected to send me return labels in order to ship their equipment back to them. I wanted to just trash them and wash my hands of them. However after several warnings from family and friend about their come out of nowhere and charge you eventually for them, I called the demons from hell once again…
And I got put on hold.
And I got transferred.
And I got hung up on… three times.
The heat rose in my face and the wrath of the red head was inflamed and unleashed upon this poor answerer of the phone.
Finally an address label was to be sent to our home so that I could return their stuff and be done with the att internet services forever.
And it never came…
We went to the beach… had a wonderful time… I was refreshed, refocused, and ready… right?
Right up until the time we checked the mail when we got back and saw the wonderful little postcard from AT&T threatening to charge us for the unreturned modems that they never sent a label for…
URRRRGGGGG!
The eye twitch began, my head spun around six times, and green gunk shot out of my mouth as the fury of my tongue lashed the supervisor that I demanded to speak to… and the fury escalated as these people are required by the AT&T policy to start at the beginning of the story every time… really???
Let’s see how mad you can get me while you got me. Is that not what these “files” and “this call is being recorded” are for? (and I use “mad” on purpose because I am sure I was like rabid b***h as I barked and growled my last year of complaints into the ear of this poor man who is just trying to provide for his family).
Why yes…
I am refreshed, refocused, and ready…
Ready for anything but AT&T.
So this “supervisor” sets me up with UPS to go and give them a code number and they will take it from there. So I get my code and head out Monday afternoon a little before 4pm in the pouring rain to deliver these modems to the UPS store to have them shipped out of my life forever in between my mad rush from duties at homeschool co-op (that I left unfinished due to lack of time) and getting my youngest to violin practice by 5pm (that we ended up never making it to).
I have to call my AT&T directory to locate the UPS store as I am driving because it’s not where I thought it was and of course who can get to live person who can help you anymore??? Finally after 15 minutes of press 1, I get a living breathing live person who sends me to the UPS store at our local Staples… that I passed 5 miles back… and did I mention it was poring down rain and my gas tank was sucking air at this time?
So I turn around.
Get to Staples.
Walk up to the UPS counter.
The young girl asks how she can help me. I begin to explain… and the minute I said AT&T gave me this code, she interrupts me and says she can’t help me. AT&T gives them problems and she won’t even let me finish my story and just waves me out with an shoulder shrugging sorry and hands me a card for a UPS store 30 minutes away that she said might work with AT&T.
Did I mention I was wet, rushed, out of gas, delivering something for Satan himself…???
By this time my kids have heard an earful of me yelling at automated recordings (like they can hear me right? my husband laughs and says “Nicole a recording can not detect sarcasm.” well maybe not but it sure does make me feel better… and here I can be sarcastic and hateful and no one hears me… no one but my husband and kids… ugh) and now they are fixing to get to hear some more… cause guess who calls AT&T back while on my way to put $4.00 a gallon gas in my tank that was spent delivering unwanted AT&T equipment that they were supposed to send me labels to return.
By this time the edges of my red hair is singed as hot lava flesh pours out of my mouth dripping with demonic disdain… it’s happened I have been fully transformed into a hound from hell as I am once again put on hold waiting for the “supervisor”…
The poor man on the other end keeps clicking over to apologize for the wait… I can hear the desperation in his voice as he really does not want to be on the phone with me… I manage to squeak out just enough of Jesus to assure this poor man that I do understand that he is not AT&T but I am beyond irate.
After another 5 minutes of hold and apologies for my wait…. I unleash on this man and inform him that the modems are going in the trash and threaten legal action against AT&T if they dare send me a bill… and I hang up.
I should feel better right?
I am refreshed, refocused, and ready…
Ready for another trip around Mount AT&T because I haven’t learned a thing.
So the next morning… the modems are still in the car, not in the trash.
I begin my study in Ezekiel 17 and dig into how God expects us to honor all covenants, all oaths, even those made with our oppressors. So I pour a page of confession and repentance into my spiral bound notebook and breathe… I am tired of marching around Mount AT&T… the view is not pretty for me and most definitely is not pretty for anyone else around me.
So yesterday afternoon the modems were delivered to the 30 minutes away UPS store… that also had issues with AT&T I might add… but was willing to work with me anyway.
Freedom feels good.
Repentance is right.
Obedience is not an option and delayed obedience is better than disobedience.
“But what do you think?
A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, ‘Son, go work today in the vineyard.’ And he answered, ‘I will not’; but afterward he regretted it and went. The man came to the second and said the same thing; and he answered, ‘I will, sir’; but he did not go.
Which of the two did the will of his father?”
They said, “The first.”
Jesus said to them, “Truly I say to you that the tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him; but the tax collectors and prostitutes did believe him; and you, seeing this, did not even feel remorse afterward so as to believe him.
Matthew 21:28-32
If I had of trashed these ridiculous things… I would have still been bound to them. There would have been more calls, more on holds, more fleshly ick. I would be packing my bag for another trip around Mount AT&T and I am tired of the trip. Tired and ashamed that these poor faceless people on the other end of the phone will only know the name Nicole Vaughn as that crazy, mad, furious, faceless b***h on the other end of the line.
Cease from anger and forsake wrath;
Do not fret; it leads only to evildoing.
For evildoers will be cut off,
But those who wait for the Lord, they will inherit the land.
Psalm 37:8-9
So AT&T phone answerers… where ever you are, who ever you are… from the depths of my soul I apologize to you and I thank you for enduring my wrath and fury on behalf of your employer with such mercy and grace… you were much more righteous than I in my self-justified anger. May God bless you for your patience and self-control… those very things I refused to use myself as I spewed my ugly flesh out all over you… again and again and again.