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Remember my trials and tribulations with Hawaiian Telcom back in March? You’d think they’d be finished by now, two and a half months later.

You’d think, but you’d be wrong.

Rewind two and a half months. March 13 rolled around and we finally received service. A few weeks later, I received my April bill that covered the March usage period, and it turns out that they were charging me for the time that we didn’t actually have a phone line physically running to the house. I phoned them back and explained this at the time. They said they’d phone me back with how much my bill was actually going to be, without the service charges between the 3rd and 13th.

Fast-forward to today, when I received my bill for the April usage period. You’ll note that in that fast-forward sequence there was no phone call from Hawaiian Telcom informing me of how much I was going to be credited for. Today’s bill not only doesn’t have the credit for the 3rd to 13th period, it also doesn’t have the $50 credit that they said they gave me back at the beginning of March.

I called them up. Started dialing at 1:13pm. After being on hold, Samantha answered at 1:31pm. I explained the whole story to her, and she said that she didn’t see any note about a credit on my account. It was probably put on by the repairs department, as they deal with installations and scheduling. She transferred me to repairs. On hold again until 1:39pm, when some kind lady answered the phone and said, “Thank you for calling Hawaiian Telcom, how may I help*static*disconnect*”

At this point I started jumping around my office in anger and frustration.

At 2:11 I called back. At 2:34 Lynn answered and “felt my pain”. This time I didn’t get disconnected, and she resubmitted the $50 refund and gave me another $15 refund to cover the 3rd to 13th outage. A timescale for when we should see these refunds?

Possibly the next billing period, but most definitely by the July bill.

July. Four months after getting screwed around by incompetent installers and schedulers.

And as always, when Lynn finished with me she closed with, “Thank you for choosing Hawaiian Telcom.”

As if I had a choice. If I did have a choice Hawaiian Telcom would have been dropped long long ago. As it is I’m stuck with this backwards monopolistic corporation, whose customer service has never been good. Quite frankly, I’d rather have Verizon back than have to deal with Hawaiian Telcom’s shoddy billing department again.

Hopefully I’ll be getting the refunds, and hopefully there won’t be a Part 3 to this whole idiotic saga.