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Goodbye, old number
"This number has been disconnected. Calls now are being taken at ..."
Finally, people who try the home number we've had for 20 years won't hear it ring and ring and ring on the other end. Now they'll know our new number.
So, why did we change?
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Now, that didn't faze me. If anyone is trying to track me down, they can do so by cellphone, office number, email and Facebook.
Mrs. Funk, on the other hand, has a home business. As such, she relies quite a bit on the home number.
So she was none too happy about the circumstances.
Here's what happened. I thought I'd save a few bucks by combining our cable, Internet and landline into one tidy package.
Switching the TV portion was no problem. The phone was a different story.
The day after our new provider - let's call it Horizon - installed the new equipment, I called to see what to do about the telephone. I was advised to get in touch with the old provider - let's call it Ampersand - to say I'd like to have the phone disconnected.
I did so. I was asked if I'd like to keep my old number. Sure, I said.
Oops.
What followed was a series of calls, to both providers, in a futile attempt to have the old number continue to work. Horizon blamed Ampersand. Ampersand blamed Horizon.
The breaking point came when I received a bill from Ampersand with no acknowledgment whatsoever that I'd requested to discontinue my service.
I made another call. Apparently, my interest in keeping the old number had negated the termination request, which no one bothered to tell me. So Ampersand kept on charging me, even though the phone number rang into oblivion.
The customer-service representative du jour seemed to be kind of baffled when I told her I had no interest in paying Ampersand more money for a nonfunctioning service. She put me on hold, saying she needed to "talk to my manager."
The "manager" then talked to me, and I reiterated that, whatever it took, I wanted to have the service discontinued. He said he had to call me back.
About half an hour later, he actually did so, telling me that the only way to close my account was by ditching the old number.
OK. So be it.
Then he told me we'd finally have a message informing callers about the switch.
That shrill beep at the beginning might be annoying, but the rest of the message is the proverbial music to my ears.
Online editor Harry Funk can be reached at hfunk@observer-reporter.com. And check out Harry Funk: Wednesdays in the O-R on Facebook.
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