Plan to lower phone bill backfires for Atwater woman

A homeowner just outside of town said a decision she made a month ago to reduce her phone bill by two-thirds has turned into a hassle that’s left her without a landline phone.

Tears of frustration welled up in Nadine Walters’ eyes as she described the problems she’s had with her phone for more than a month.

“It’s so aggravating,” she said Tuesday.

The 74-year-old lives alone with her 11-month-old Chihuahua, Chai, in a house on the south side of Highway 99. At the advice of an AT&T agent, she said, she bought a box that converts her more than 50-year-old landline into a wireless phone.

Since buying it, she said, the phone hasn’t worked for more than two days straight; some days, like on Tuesday, there’s no dial tone and calls can neither come in nor go out. When she can manage to get a call, she said, the person on the other end complains of static or an unbearable echo.

Walters said when her daughter calls from Alaska, the call either drops out or reception is choppy. It’s also the number she uses to get calls from friends and family in Tennessee, Oregon, Texas and Merced.

She said she’s spoken to 14 different agents on the phone, most of them from out of state. She said she can’t see out of her left eye because a laser surgery left her blind on that side, so she needs a hand troubleshooting.

She said she’s twice been stood up by technicians who were supposed to stop in and help. Walters said she has too much else to worry about to have the phone frustrating her.

The cancer survivor said she’s been without any cancer for 19 years, but recently doctors have found a recurrence.

“It’s just too much,” she said. “I can’t get it all in my head.”

AT&T spokesman Matthew Cross said the company was looking into the matter.

“We escalated Ms. Walters’ case to the Office of the President,” he said Wednesday in an email.

Walters said she doesn’t care about the phone bill savings any longer, she just wants her landline back. She said she’ll take her daughter’s advice from now on.

“Don’t buy anything,” she said, quoting her daughter, “without checking it out with me first.”

This story was originally published March 30, 2016 at 5:43 PM with the headline "Plan to lower phone bill backfires for Atwater woman."