Trusting my insight and foresight has been a struggle for me. Often, I let others push me off my mark due to facts and figures that oppose my observations.

A current adventure with our internet service and adjourning phone line is my issue today.

I’ve been paying the same amount since we set up the service. I then noticed September’s bill increase by about twenty dollars.

I called my service to ask why in August after I got the bill. It was explained to me that the company decided to up an overall five dollar increase to all their customers who use their phone service. This of course increased many other things. The dynamo increase of those pesky taxes too.

So I nicely had the phone taken off our plan. I talked to a nice representative and technician who did the work and told me that September’s bill would decrease, and I would pay less.

I told the representative,

“I only receive robot calls from the same companies and scams. I then must play the nasty game of telling them I am from Mars.”

She laughed at that and understood.

I know the bill is due today and had not received a notice or new bill. I went online to see our bill, and nothing had changed. So, in my little “good grief,” I called the server back once more.

I was told in an argumentative debate that they base their bills on “prorating” the past month.

“The practice of prorating can apply in many areas, from billing for services to paying out dividends or allocating business partnership income. Pro rata is calculated by dividing the instance of an item by the maximum quantity of that item. This ratio can then be applied to any related item to find the same proportion.”

I told this person that is not what I was told. They told me when I cancelled the service that I would not have to pay the full amount and then I would receive a new bill for September.

They did the run around or indirectly blamed me for not listening to them. Yet I felt like they were not listening to me and trying to get me to agree with them even though my guts knew they were bold face liars. 

I think I talked to a supervisor who was the same. So, after some debate she told me she would do me a favor and give me a onetime discount waiver.

“I sure had to work hard for those twenty dollars.”

I paid the whole bill anyway out of that shadowy doubt of guilt.

I called back again to see if in fact I got that waiver and if in fact the phone line was cancelled.

The new representative told me that it was all good and told me how my bill next month included the waiver. This means I got my money back.

I told the conversation I had with another representative who told me that I would have to pay the full amount this month due to the word “prorating.”

She then told me an amazing thing. That they do not do that and that they go by each month. So, I was in fact told a lie. We laughed over it, and I filed a complaint that did go forward to the other representative. I felt good about that.

This new representative had style. She told me to look on my bill on page four and so I did and read this,

“… in accordance with the…. Conditions of Service, …. Services are billed on a monthly basis.”

Yes, no mention of prorating.

I had a wonderful moment.

The moral of this real-life experience is this, if you don’t say something and just let someone else tell you something else for you to believe, believe in yourself first. Don’t be bullied, influenced, or rejected without following through to the wonderful conclusion in believing in yourself.

Ya it was all over twenty bucks, might have well been one million dollars or the good feeling of holding integrity up for the losers to see, since they don’t have any.

1972 a very good year…