Yeah, it's been a while...however something good has come out of it....Starting Monday I'll no longer be a Comcast Cable customer.
Long story but here goes.
About a month ago, somebody stole my bank card number and tried to process about 15 internet transactions in about a minute. My bank (National City...highly recommended) caught the activity and put a stop on my card. I didn't realize this though because when they tried to call me to verify the activity, their voice mail did not identify them as being from National City, they were identified as from another company and they needed to "verify activity on my credit card"...I just have my bank card, I don't have a credit card so I thought it was a scammer and ignored it. That weekend when I tried to use the card at the gas station, the transaction was declined. When I called the bank, they said there was a fraud stop on the card and that they had tried to call me to verify. The person on the phone listed a bunch of websites that I'd never heard of. They were nice enough to keep the debit (PIN required) portion of my card open so I could get gas and food, but at 5pm the card would be completely closed off and a new card issued. Until the new card arrived and was activated, and the fraud transactions had a chance to run through my account, I couldn't use it. This took about a week.
Since I couldn't use my account during this time (I could have gone to a branch, filled out a withdrawel request, showed ID to get cash, but that's a lot of trouble to go through for a few bucks), I called the companies who had bills due that week and told them of the situation. One was Comcast. What did they do? They shut off my account for non-payment! It was off for a week until I could access my account again (after my next direct deposit) and call in a payment. Plus, they raised my rates...again. I started 2 years ago with the $99 per month triple play. My last bill was for $175.
Before I get into changing companies, there's another company I need to warn about...Rent a Center. I needed a video camera to tape some church functions. Living paycheck to paycheck, there's not a spare $300 lying round to buy a new one outright, so I went to RAC to rent to own one. The rental was $30 per week. I paid faithfully every week, sometimes a little more than needed. When I called them about not being able to pay that one week, they weren't happy about it. They called every day that week wanting to know when I was going to come pay, then that Friday while I was at work they came to my house looking for the payment, then showed up at 8:30am on Saturday looking for the payment. I paid every week for 10 months, miss one and they treat me like a thief. I packed up the video camera and took it back to the store and told them their collection practices were illegal (in Illinois, you cannot go to somebody's house looking for the payment) and they would be very lucky if I decided not to report them for it.
Back to changing cable companies: My parents have always used AT&T for their phone line. I change mine when I find a better deal. Dad had some odd charges on his bill, so he called AT&T about it. Of course when you call any company, they'll try to sell you on their other services. They tried to sell Dad on U-Verse. He had no need for U-Verse since I paid for the TV and he doesn't have a computer. The woman on the phone was persistant, so Dad told her "My daughter takes care of all that"...since I was home (day off), Dad put me on the phone. I could get U-Verse for $109 a month for 6 months, and it'll only go up about $30 after that. That's the final rate and won't go up unless utility rates go up. I'll have phone service, internet, and TV comparable with Comcast, plus DVR is included (that was an extra charge of about $30 with Comcast) on as many TVs as I wanted to put it on (Comcast charged me extra for more than one TV). They're coming on Monday to change everything over.
SO....my product recommendations for this post:
Comcast: Not recommended
Rent a Center: Not recommended
National City Bank: Highly Recommended
AT&T U-Verse: I'll let you know after I've had it for a while :)
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
I want to screw up like this and keep my job.
Wow, they sure employ some real idiots in our corporate office.
A few months ago, the company decided to do a "Big Relief Price Cut" by lowering prices on certain items in the stores. Good idea, however very poorly implemented.
Some brilliant person decided the "Big Relief Price Cut" tags should be noticeable so customers can tell what items are included. SO...they made the tags look exactly like our clearance tags! Problem with that...they look exactly like our clearance tags. Anybody ordering merchandise for the departments will take a quick glance and not order while thinking the item is on clearance. Hence, out of stock on a lot of the items.
Next brilliant idea....shelf bullets. They sent these red circles that say "Big Relief Price Cut" that we were to clip to the shelves at every item that was included. Hmmm OK, however the bullets are too big, customers walk into them, they get bent over and you can't see the shelf prices!
Hmmm OK, that's not working out....SO they decided to change the color on the tags from red to yellow since we use Yellow for sale tags (logic would dictate they try this first instead of the "clearance" colored tags). The tags came in on Sunday and I spent 4 hours separating and sorting the tags into which aisle they were to be hung in. Uh oh, somebody goofed and the tags had the wrong prices on them! I get to work this morning and am told "Throw the tags away, they're no good"...so I spent 4 hours sorting garbage.
Since the right hand never knows what the left hand is doing, somebody else decided that it would be nice to make the sale a permanent price change so they sent new regular price shelf tags for about 2,000 items. I spent 6 hours today putting up these tags, get to the last page of tags and the manager comes over "We just got an email, we don't have to put these up". Great.
The latest now is that we're supposed to get a reprint of the yellow tags on Thursday....another 4 hours sorting, and the idiots in corporate want them hung by closing Thursday. My manager laughed and said "yeah right".
I'd love to see the corporate yahoos work at store level for one month so they can see how much their screw ups affect the stores.
A few months ago, the company decided to do a "Big Relief Price Cut" by lowering prices on certain items in the stores. Good idea, however very poorly implemented.
Some brilliant person decided the "Big Relief Price Cut" tags should be noticeable so customers can tell what items are included. SO...they made the tags look exactly like our clearance tags! Problem with that...they look exactly like our clearance tags. Anybody ordering merchandise for the departments will take a quick glance and not order while thinking the item is on clearance. Hence, out of stock on a lot of the items.
Next brilliant idea....shelf bullets. They sent these red circles that say "Big Relief Price Cut" that we were to clip to the shelves at every item that was included. Hmmm OK, however the bullets are too big, customers walk into them, they get bent over and you can't see the shelf prices!
Hmmm OK, that's not working out....SO they decided to change the color on the tags from red to yellow since we use Yellow for sale tags (logic would dictate they try this first instead of the "clearance" colored tags). The tags came in on Sunday and I spent 4 hours separating and sorting the tags into which aisle they were to be hung in. Uh oh, somebody goofed and the tags had the wrong prices on them! I get to work this morning and am told "Throw the tags away, they're no good"...so I spent 4 hours sorting garbage.
Since the right hand never knows what the left hand is doing, somebody else decided that it would be nice to make the sale a permanent price change so they sent new regular price shelf tags for about 2,000 items. I spent 6 hours today putting up these tags, get to the last page of tags and the manager comes over "We just got an email, we don't have to put these up". Great.
The latest now is that we're supposed to get a reprint of the yellow tags on Thursday....another 4 hours sorting, and the idiots in corporate want them hung by closing Thursday. My manager laughed and said "yeah right".
I'd love to see the corporate yahoos work at store level for one month so they can see how much their screw ups affect the stores.
Monday, August 17, 2009
You're NOT the only person on this planet.
While driving to *blech* WalMart this morning (my sewing scissors disappeared from my sewing box...must have run away with my straight pins, cuz they're gone too) I was nearly ran off the road by some idiot who really wanted to be first to the red light. That's all he accomplished...first to the red light. Guess who waited longer? DUH!
Please remember folks, you are not the only one on this planet, have some consideration for other people around you. (This goes double for the woman at Dollar Tree who kept hitting me with her shopping basket).
Please remember folks, you are not the only one on this planet, have some consideration for other people around you. (This goes double for the woman at Dollar Tree who kept hitting me with her shopping basket).
Saturday, August 8, 2009
DUH moment at WalMart
No, it wasn't mine. I can't stand the WalMart in my area. The employees treat you like you're an interruption to your day, and if you complain to the management, they treat you even worse. I once had a manager say "This is WalMart, not Von Maur". I only go there to buy fabric because the fabric stores by me have all closed.
I went to get fabric to make a couple "Hawaiian" shirts. While in the store I was run over by at least 3 people with shopping carts, and at least 10 kids running around lacking parental supervision.
Get checked out by one of the "you interrupted my day" cashiers, who had trouble counting out the 20 cents she owed in change, head to the parking lot where I almost ran over a woman carrying a toddler (looked around one year old) who just walked right behind my car as I was backing out. To top it off, she put the kid down and let her run around the parking lot...WHILE THERE WERE CARS MOVING!!!! Um HELLO!!!! Anybody with half a brain knows you don't let your one year old run around the WalMart parking lot!
I went to get fabric to make a couple "Hawaiian" shirts. While in the store I was run over by at least 3 people with shopping carts, and at least 10 kids running around lacking parental supervision.
Get checked out by one of the "you interrupted my day" cashiers, who had trouble counting out the 20 cents she owed in change, head to the parking lot where I almost ran over a woman carrying a toddler (looked around one year old) who just walked right behind my car as I was backing out. To top it off, she put the kid down and let her run around the parking lot...WHILE THERE WERE CARS MOVING!!!! Um HELLO!!!! Anybody with half a brain knows you don't let your one year old run around the WalMart parking lot!
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
"Mine" means I own it and you can't have it.
A couple issues that happened this past week:
It seems my private driveway has turned into a public parking lot. Not really, but the neighbors seem to think so. I live in a townhouse so the driveways connect, it looks like a 4 car drive, but it's really two 2-car drives. I can't count how many times I've come home from work only to have to knock on the neighbor's door to have them move a visitor's car from my driveway. Last night the visitor asked "why don't you just park in the street" well, because it's MY driveway, I live here, I pay rent, I park here.
Second, I live with a bunch of pigs. My brother eats anything that isn't nailed down. I'm constantly chasing him out of food that I buy for myself. Just because I didn't eat it the minute I brought it in the door, doesn't mean I'm never going to. I just don't feel I have to eat everything faster than a bargain hunter at a 75% off sale.
It seems my private driveway has turned into a public parking lot. Not really, but the neighbors seem to think so. I live in a townhouse so the driveways connect, it looks like a 4 car drive, but it's really two 2-car drives. I can't count how many times I've come home from work only to have to knock on the neighbor's door to have them move a visitor's car from my driveway. Last night the visitor asked "why don't you just park in the street" well, because it's MY driveway, I live here, I pay rent, I park here.
Second, I live with a bunch of pigs. My brother eats anything that isn't nailed down. I'm constantly chasing him out of food that I buy for myself. Just because I didn't eat it the minute I brought it in the door, doesn't mean I'm never going to. I just don't feel I have to eat everything faster than a bargain hunter at a 75% off sale.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Getting nowhere as an American
This has been an issue with me for quite a long time.
Some background: My mother's ancestors founded Massachusetts. Two of them are signers of the Declaration of Independence. My father's ancestors were on the beach to greet them when they got here. Basically, my family has been in the US since the beginning. What does that get me? Absolutely nothing.
I bring home $280 per week from my job. That's 40 hours a week, after deductions. This is the money I live on. Last year I filled out the application at my son's school to get free fees and free lunches. I was denied. Their reason--my income was too high. That $280 is half of what is printed on the guidelines that are published with the application. I tried to appeal, and was told I could not appeal but I could reapply if the situation changes. I reapplied but the second application was ignored.
This year I applied again. The information remained the same except I changed one thing. Instead of marking "Caucasian", I took advantage of my father's ancestors and marked "Native American". We were approved.
Isn't it sad that you have to be either a minority or an illegal alien to get anywhere in the US? Being an American in America means nothing anymore. That's very sad.
Some background: My mother's ancestors founded Massachusetts. Two of them are signers of the Declaration of Independence. My father's ancestors were on the beach to greet them when they got here. Basically, my family has been in the US since the beginning. What does that get me? Absolutely nothing.
I bring home $280 per week from my job. That's 40 hours a week, after deductions. This is the money I live on. Last year I filled out the application at my son's school to get free fees and free lunches. I was denied. Their reason--my income was too high. That $280 is half of what is printed on the guidelines that are published with the application. I tried to appeal, and was told I could not appeal but I could reapply if the situation changes. I reapplied but the second application was ignored.
This year I applied again. The information remained the same except I changed one thing. Instead of marking "Caucasian", I took advantage of my father's ancestors and marked "Native American". We were approved.
Isn't it sad that you have to be either a minority or an illegal alien to get anywhere in the US? Being an American in America means nothing anymore. That's very sad.
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