The Odyssey pt. 2-- leaving Bellsouth for Comcast

We pick up the story after I discovered that Bellsouth changed a key service on my DSL account without my request, mixed up my home phone number with my business number, and refused to set things straight after insisting that I'd been a customer with them for 10 years fewer than I actually have...

So, I can't trust Bellsouth anymore with my business DSL or home phone numbers. I started researching alternatives.

Several friends of my use Comcast for Internet access, and Vonage for telephone service. After a lot of research, I decided this was a perfect fit for my needs. So, two weeks ago I signed an order with Comcast, started a Vonage account, and informed Bellsouth that I would be canceling service in two weeks. Now the fun begins... the call to Bellsouth...

"Welcome to Bellsouth Small Business Services ... please enter your phone number ..."

Bellsouth: "Hello, I'm Irene. May I please have your phone number?"
Me: "I just typed it in, Irene, but here it is again..."
Bellsouth: "So I can look up your account, can you please give me the last four digits of your account number."
Me: "Sorry, Irene, I am unable to access my account number because my Internet service is currently down, and when I try to access it from my AT&T iPhone I'm met with a message that says it was unable to establish a secure connection and cannot access my account information. Is there another way that I can identify myself?"
Bellsouth: "Can you tell me the amount of your last payment, please?"
Me: "Well, I can't access my account... hold on... " I asked my wife to look up the payment on our American Express bill after calling her at work... "OK. it was $165."
Bellsouth: "And how many cents."
Me: "Hold on... " I try to call my wife back, but can't get her... "I don't have that information right now. But, if $165 is correct, isn't that enough- I mean it would be almost impossible to guess that number out of the blue, wouldn't it?"
Bellsouth: "I'm sorry, if you don't have the amount of your last bill, or the last four digits of your account, I can't help you."
Me: "Seriously? How about my address, social security, birthday, Mom's name... there isn't another way to do this? I held for 15 minutes to just get to you. Please help me out."
Bellsouth:" Sorry, without that information, I can't talk with you."
Me: "May I speak with a supervisor please?"
Bellsouth: "There are no available supervisors. That will take about 40 minutes. If you give me your number I can have one call you back."
Me: "Well, OK. Here's my cell number."

An hour later... no call back. In the mean time, I called American Express to get the exact amount of my bill: $165.79.

"Welcome to Bellsouth Small Business Services ... please enter your phone number ..."

Bellsouth: "Hello, I'm Macy. May I please have your phone number?" ... 20 minutes go by ...
Me: "Here it is again..."
Bellsouth: "So I can look up your account, can you please give me the last four digits of your account number."
Me: "Sorry, Macy, I am unable to access my account number because my Internet service is currently down, and when I try to access it from my AT&T iPhone I'm met with a message that says it was unable to establish a secure connection and cannot access my account information. Is there another way that I can identify myself?"
Bellsouth: "Can you tell me the last four digits of your Social Security number please?"
Me: "How about my last payment of $165.79... is that enough?"
Bellsouth: "No, sorry..."
Me: "Seriously?? I just got off a call an hour ago where that's all you needed, and all you could take, and I wasn't able to get help because I only knew the $165 part!!!! My last four are XXXX."
Bellsouth: "Thanks. How can I help you?"
Me:" I need to cancel my service with you. Can that be scheduled for a future date?"
Bellsouth: "Yes it can. I see that you're under a three year contract. The penalty for cancellation will be $480. When do you want to schedule this for."
Me: "Wait a minute. I'm not under a three year contract. I had a one year contract that expired last November. Please look more closely at my account."
Bellsouth: "Nope- you are at the middle of a three year contract. You requested the contract..."
Me: "May I speak with a supervisor please. This isn't correct."
Bellsouth: "I am a supervisor..."

So here's the back story on this. In 2005 I got a three year contract to try to keep my expenses down (they provided a discount.). One stipulation was that the contract would auto-renew if I didn't cancel it prior to Dec 2008. In September of 2008 I noticed that my contract discount wasn't on my bill, and went back to find that it hadn't been on my bill for months. I called to get that fixed, and while I was on the call, I told them to cancel the contract when it expired, and I moved to a one year contract that gave me a similar rate (without long distance which I never use anyhow).

My refund for the discount appeared on my next bill, but in December the new rate wasn't reflected; my bill was significantly higher. I called them on Dec 3, 2008 to get to the bottom of this. It turns out that they had ended the three year contract as expected, but hadn't activated the one year contract. I had that done while I was on the phone. My next bill reflected it.

Fast forward to this year... here I am being told that I'm on a three year contract, and will have to pay a hefty penalty to leave Bellsouth. Six phone calls, six amazing new revelations, and three hours later, I found an agent at Bellsouth who finally admitted that he had a copy of the 2008-2009 one year contract on my record, and didn't understand why everyone was telling me there would be a penalty to leave. This person was Tim. I have his email. Tim scheduled my Bellsouth cancellation for June 14th.

I contacted Comcast the next day, and that I'd be called back to make an appointment for my installation, that it should be about a week. I have two friends who just moved to the same Comcast service, and they were installed and running in 4 days, so I was excited to make the move. The monthly bill for a 12MB service with them would be $65, with a static IP address. $100 cheaper than Bellsouth, without the need for the phone number which I didn't need anyhow except as a requirement to have a Bellsouth high-speed business line. I also called Vonage and set in motion a move of my home phone number to them.

Next I find out that my home phone number can't be transferred to Vonage...

... continued in Part 3 ....