Yes, there’s a part six. The previous entry in this saga outlined how for five months running Hawaiian Telcom managed to overcharge me for long distance. Lo and behold, when December’s bill came at the beginning of January, it was screwed up. This time we didn’t get billed for long distance service at all! This despite me making multiple calls to Canada in December.

This has happened before to us, and it took Hawaiian Telcom four months to charge us.

Luckily for me this saga is coming to an end. We’re moving again, this time to Volcano. Oceanic says that they’re in the testing phase for digital phone service up there, so until that comes along I’m either looking at getting a cell phone or a Skype phone. Anything to get away from Hawaiian Telcom.

Popularity: 6% [?]

This is a continuation of a series (1, 2, 3).

Part four actually happened back in October 2006, when our house got struck by lightning, knocking out our telephone connection. After going out to the junction box on the side of the house, plugging in a wired phone only to get no connection (thus proving that the problem wasn’t inside the house), Alice called Hawaiian Telcom to get someone out to fix it. The customer service rep told Alice that it was probably a problem with our phone because it was cordless.

Needless to say, after Alice bitched at them for being stupid they sent out a technician to find a blown fuse in the junction box. Who would’ve thought.

Part five has been going on for five months now. Five months ago one of our phone calls to Victoria got billed as if it were a call to Rwanda. I know how easy it is to confuse Rwanda and Canada. They both have the letter ‘a’ in their name. I called and got that fixed fairly quickly.

Next month we got overcharged for long distance. Not outrageously, mind you — we got charged either 7 or 10 cents a minute to Canada when our plan is 5 cents a minute. I called and got that fixed.

Next month we got overcharged for long distance. Not outrageously, mind you — we got charged either 7 or 10 cents a minute to Canada when our plan is 5 cents a minute. I called and got that fixed.

Next month we got overcharged for long distance. Not outrageously, mind you — we got charged either 7 or 10 cents a minute to Canada when our plan is 5 cents a minute. I called and got that fixed, but this time the CSR said that she’d personally look into it and send me a letter. Haven’t heard a thing since, and that was a month ago.

Notice a pattern? Can you guess what happened on the bill I just received? That’s right! The only change is that I haven’t called because their call center is down because Honolulu is getting hammered by a winter storm.

I am beyond disappointed in Hawaiian Telcom’s customer service. They always say that they’re looking into it, yet nothing changes. Counter-example: Oceanic Time Warner Cable. Our DVR was getting a little flaky, so they sent a technician out to look at it. Turns out it was an older model that had problems dealing with some of the programming, so we got a new one. A week later we got a voucher for a free pay-per-view movie from Oceanic “for the inconvenience [we] suffered.” Now that’s customer service!

All I have to look forward to from Hawaiian Telcom is another overcharged bill and another wasted fifteen minutes on hold. And that’s why Hawaiian Telcom continues to suck.

Popularity: 9% [?]