Today was a day of chores and no, the pictures aren’t online yet. Doing the big-org on the train tomorrow.
We bought a new refrigerator. Ended up going with the 21.7 cubic foot one because I get irritable and nasty when I have to play tetris to get at my veggie BBQ wings. Splurged on the EnergyStar compliant model (++ $200) but did without the brushed steel finish (– $300). All told, $800 to prevent the explosions of rage that happen when my freezer pizzas settle all down in the bottom of their boxes because they’re not frozen. I tell you, I can cope with serious pain-in-the-butt for long periods of time, but tiny little things like a freezer-pizza that doesn’t work out right and KABOOM.
Extracted a new phone from those bastards at Verizon. Jen’s phone freaked out and the display stopped working. We’ve been paying $3.99 a month for the past 11 months to purchase their “insurance” policy. When we got to the store, the first line was “oh, you broke it, that’s not covered.” I said “wrong.” Then they shifted to “It’s outside warrantee because it’s more than a year old.” This was why I brought the receipt dated September 29, 2003 (nyah nyah). Then it was “oh, well, there’s a $50 deductible.” “No,” I said, there isn’t. The phone crapped out. You will replace it. now.”
The next line was my personal favorite from Verizon: “We don’t have that phone right now, but we’ll get more in stock in a week or two.” Sorry guys, I’ve fallen for that before. My new policy on dealing with Verizon is that you fix it while I’m here talking to you. In fact, Jen had tried to get a replacement a couple of weeks back, and fell for that line at that time. Every single time that a Verizon rep has promised to do something for me, be it DSL, land-line, or wireless…it has not happened unless I stayed on the phone / in their face. No chance. “We’re going to walk out of here with a working cell phone. Whatever has to be done for that to happen, do it now.” He said “do you want to talk to a manager?” I said “sure.” At that point, he caved and gave me a new phone. I never even saw the manager. Poor bluffing fool. I wonder how many people back down at that point. “A manager? Oh goodness no, don’t bring the manager, here’s MORE money for you!”
Then he offered to up my bill by $2 a month for some sort of Verizon warrantee plus action. This program, as I asked questions about it, provides ZERO benefits that are not part of the insurance for which I pay $3.99 a month. None. Nada. Zero. In fact, it covers fewer failures, and ALL of these failures are also covered by the insurance. No thank you.
I hate Verizon so much. June of 2005, We’re out of the contract with them and I’m gone.
This morning, I was on the phone with them about my screwed up bill. When we moved the phone numbers to a Rhode Island area code, they reset our contract (“It’s a new number, so it’s a new contract!” “Have I defaulted on the old one?” “Ummm, no” “So I’m still bound by the old one?” “Ummm, I’ll fix it, sir.”) and set us up as two independent 800 minute plans rather than a single shared 1200 minute (“I can change that for you effective today!” “Since there’s no chance of my paying $250 for service I didn’t order, you better make that retroactive.” “Okay.”) Plus, I still couldn’t call internationally (“You need a 90 day history with the company, and this new contract was just set up this month” “YEEAAAAARRRRRGGGGGGHHHHH!” “Sorry sir, I’ll fix that too.”)
Oh yeah, and I have puddles of water in my basement. No idea where they come from since they’ve flowed to the low spots jn the floor. Grrrrrrr.
I was a little bummed by my low email levels over the last week. Only 719 messages to wade through, and at least 50 of those were content bearing (non-spam). That’s nothing to whine about, right?
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