So here is my saga.

On Monday morning the bank that issued my credit card realizes I have been hacked and they contact me.  They cancel the card for my business and send me a new card Federal Express.  Once I have the new card I call Direct TV and AT&T where I have auto pay because of my travel schedule.  They put in the new card number.  Done. I go on XBox Live and Amazon and the app store and do the same.

This morning I call Century Link. I sit on hold for ten or fifteen minutes.  A person finally picks up.  I explain the situation, give them the new number. The girl informs me it will take 2 billing cycles for that change to be effective. That’s 60 days. My response is “You’re kidding, right?” Nope. So I say, “I guess you won’t be getting paid then.” She gets huffy and tells me I should pay in advance. I ask how their incompetence is my problem? I finally agree to pay in advance so they don’t stop my internet of phone. She says she is transferring me to the auto pay department so I can do this, and while I wait she’d like to talk to me about their other services, wireless, bundling my Direct TV _and_ their virus protection for my PC for which I would pay for monthly and they will send a technician to clean my computer, etc. I say I have a Mac. She says, “Oh it’s all in one.” I respond. “Given the competence of Century Link I wouldn’t let you within 10 feet of my computer.” She is huffy again, and stops trying to sell me stuff.

I am on hold for about 15 minutes. Eventually a young man comes on the line and gives me a barrage of Spanish. I politely tell him that I don’t speak Spanish. He says this is where they handle Spanish speakers, but he can help me anyway. I think he’s the auto pay people. I go through it all again. He takes all the information. He tells me it will 30 days before the change is effective. I’m beginning to get a bad feeling so I ask, “aren’t you auto pay so I can pay in advance?” No, he just another division. He says he’ll route me to auto pay, and he’ll make sure I don’t have to pay extra because I’ll be using a person rather then the website. I growl that I better not get charged.

I’m on hold for ten minutes or so, and I find my self back at the opening robot prompt which begins a conversation with Century Link. I keep hitting zero and demanding, agent! representative! agent! representative! I finally get a person. I tell them. “Don’t talk to me. Give me a manager.” They do.

Turns out the young man is from Stanley NM some fifty miles south of me. We have a bonding moment. I tell him the story and that I’m not happy. He says he will fix it. He puts in the new card number (which takes another 15 minutes) and says, “Normally when I update a card it goes through in 3 days.  Let’s hope it works.”  I say, “And if it doesn’t?  Am I going to get a late charge or be disconnected?”  He assures me he has copious notes in the file to make sure that doesn’t happen.

Do I believe him?  Yes.  Do I have any confidence that Century Link will notice the notes much less read the notes?  No.