Verizon, customer service at its worst!!!!!

OK, here I go again. I got a bill in the mail from Verizon for 405.57. For deactivation fees for the two lines, late fees, service fees. I was not a happy camper, if you read my earlier post, you know that we had a lot of problems with Verizon, so we canceled the service well within the 30 days "try me" offer. We went in on November 4TH, and canceled on November 21st. I called their "Customer Service" line and talked to a Kip, he read the comments and said that he would try to help. Took him forever but he said he had given me the credits, but they would have to be approved by his supervisors. I said I appreciated him telling me that but with my past history of no one doing what they said they did I was not going to take his word for it that this was finally canceled unless I had something in my hand, could they fax me something that said the service has been canceled and I have been credited back the early deactivation fees. Kip said no. I said well then I need to talk to your supervisor, this took forever, I had to sit there and listen to their "your important to us" over and over. Finally George a supervisor got on the line and said how could he help, I said are you aware of any of this, I am so sick of repeating this story! He said yes that Kip had updated him. He went on to say that Kip had went above and beyond his duty to give me the credits, that I should have waited for the credits to come from the billing department. Which is two billings after you cancel. He said well you jumped the gun by calling before the two billings, I told George that no one ever told us that for one thing, and no, I was not going to get a bill for over 400 hundred dollars and not question it, I paid my bills and was not going to just blow it off, thinking Verizon would eventually correct their mistake. I said Kip should be congratulated for actually doing what he said he was going to do. I could not believe this guy, I jumped the gun because I questioned their over 400 dollar charge. I wanted his full name but he would not give it, how many George's can there be out there anyway????? I told him, you put this commercial out there that says "try us for 30 days and if you don't love us, we will take care of the charges". I wonder how many other people were duped in to that commercial????? Tomorrow its typing a e-mail to TV-8, they may not investigate, but will make me feel better.

Babies Babies Babies

Just got a very special Christmas card and it said "Congratulations your gonna be a Grandma again". Now this was more to the point and I got it right away. Unlike the time I got a beautiful grandmother figurine and thought what a nice gift from Jessica and Greg, never realizing that they got it for me to announce their new baby coming. Anyway, I was totally shocked, on this one I was not let in on the planning of the new one, come to think of it I don't think most of the kids told me that they were trying, but thats ok, I don't tell all my medical stuff either. I know this will be a tough time for the new parents but they have done it so successfully with their daughter I know they will do super with the new one too. When Melissa told Sam, he just looked at her and gave her a "Sam Look", if you have been around him you know what that is. Hope its a easy pregnancy, as easy as they can get. And hope the job situation gets a whole lot better for Johnny. This is really a miracle, and so happy for them.

Pulling my HAIR out

In the selling of Kubota Central Clare, I have ran up against issues that I never thought I would have to confront. I am so sick of our Vendors not canceling our accounts and letting the new company charge on our accounts. I wrote "letters of intent" to close out all account numbers. But did they do it NO, they are waiting for the new owners to send in their financials. Which they are not doing. Whats is wrong with this picture? I feel it is my responsibility to make sure our accounts are clear and credited with the correct amount, yes I could just say SCREW it and never mind. But I have a strong commitment of what is right and wrong. So I will follow through and make sure this business is credited the correct amt. And if you see me with a bald head then you will know that its been a little harder then I thought it would be.

New Baby

It won't be long and Baby Mouser will be arriving. I am so happy that this baby is going in to such a loving home, with two totally devoted parents. She is such a lucky little girl. I watched Shelby tonight, and what a joy that little one is, she is so busy. She would say from time to time today, "you know Jessica has a baby growing in her tummy", we were looking at old photos, one was with Greg and Jessica standing by the Miata, when Greg took Jessica to a fancy dance during college. They both look so young, as if they don't now. They probably never thought of all the future happenings in their new found love. This will be one of the most exciting and tiring events in their whole life. You never realize how tired you are when you wake up every night at 2AM. But it goes so darn fast. Just soak in all of the wonders of being a new parent, take joy and wonder in all things. Those little feet, that small bottom, tiny little fingers, sweet little nose. Watching at night to make sure the little chest rises up and down. Bending down to feel her little breaths. That wonderful sweet newborn cry, and that also wonderful sound of her silent breathing. I envy Greg and Jessica, they are starting on a new adventure, one that I completed years ago. May the journey be wondrous for them all.

Verizon

Oh my gosh, I have never had such a run around and poor customer service as I have with this company. We started our new adventure by going to Best Buy (our first mistake) to change our phone service from our now sold company, to one of our own. Well the person that helped us, and I use that word "helped" loosely, screwed up from the beginning. When we wanted him to correct, he said "oh, no problem just call customer service and they will take care of it in a few minutes". NOT, it has been almost 3 weeks and still no resolution. So tomorrow we are taking the phones back and going with Alltel. Man their commercials are so cool. And Greg, Jessica, Melissa, Angie, Johnny will be in our call circle. Does anyone read this thing?

Debate

I watched half of the Democratic debate tonight. Some of the issues that are dearest to my heart were not really discussed in depth. I sure wish I could be one of those reporters asking questions, the first question I would ask is "Sir or Madam, what would you do to make the 1% with 80% of the wealth start paying their fair share of taxes? I saw where the richest pay 17% and the rest of us average Joe's pay 32%, now I don't care how you slice or dice that, how in the world did the rich yucky mucks, which remember we are talking 1%, get us to go for that. The answer is they didn't, they just had their hired lobbyists to make sure the congressman did their bidding instead of the people who elected them, and did it very sneaky. Another question is why do you guys have better health insurance than the rest of us? Or why in the world do the drug company's sell their drugs cheaper in Canada, but not here. I have a zillion questions. I think I am leaning towards Joe Biden, but he probably won't get it. You ever watch a Republican debate? You know what they spend their time on talking about? Family values, Terrorists, too high taxes. Family Values my butt look at those guys, they go through wives like Doanes goes through kidney pills. Terrorists yeah their real concerned about that, that's why our borders are wide open. Too high taxes jeeze Louise, we had a balance budget before this Republican got in to office, now we are spending billions every month in a civil war. We don't even get our oil cheaper. Bummer.

Jobs and No Jobs

I was shamed into posting something on my Blog. Greg my youngest has a gift for words and spelling, in fact that reminds me I have to change the unless to inless, on my China post. Or something like that, I seem to have a memory problem too. Anyway last Friday, I e-mailed Angie and asked if I could borrow her beautiful Shelby on Sunday night. She answered yes, but Johnny didn't have a job anymore. That was it! It was like being hit in the stomach, it took my breath away. I tried calling her, and as usual, she would not answer. So later on I called Johnny, cause he does answer me! And asked what happened and he explained, I was crying and asking him if he was OK, and he said yes. He comforted me, but that's Johnny. You know I fell in love with that kid when I had him in OM, he was game for anything, I think he was in 6Th grade and he was already a wonderful human being. You can imagine my delight when my daughter said she was dating him. I hate the fact that a person as sweet as Johnny is going through this crappy job loss dilemma. Dick, me, Greg, Jessica, we all went through this November of 2006. And I am going through it again with the selling of the Clare store. But its a little easier this time, I have been through it once, I am a little more seasoned for disappointment, not thinking that this could ever happen again, but actually steeling myself for when it is going to happen again. I read Johnny and Greg's blog and you see them praising God for not what they are going through, but him helping them through it. I hope I don't get struck by lightening, but if I do Greg you get this desk, anyway God hasn't really helped me, I don't feel that warm and fuzzy feeling, I just feel PISSED. I have a lot to be thankful for don't get me wrong. And I guess I can understand why I am not his priority, especially when he has wonderful people like Greg and Johnny singing his praises, and all I am doing is complaining. Its like with Greg and Johnny, God is their Bud. But me its like the illegitimate red headed crossed eye child. God has to recognize me, but you can tell he would much rather hang out with his two poster kids. I am not trying to be mean. Funny maybe, but not mean. I had another disappointment today, I didn't get the job that I interviewed for and one of the interviewers, there were I think five, called me to tell me "I was not getting the job", I said "oh," I mean for one thing they never call you and tell you, you didn't get the job! But he went on to tell me he thought I really did a good job interviewing and hoped I would continue to apply, because there were jobs opening up all the time. I thanked him, I am glad he did call, otherwise I would have constantly been waiting by the phone. But I am getting so use to disappointment, that's the scary part. I am getting way to cynical. But you look at Greg and Johnny and you can't stop and wonder where the heck does that faith come from? I guess its this unseeableroute I have taken.

FUN TIMES

Since my sisters and I talk again, we have luncheons often, this was one for Jo-Anns birthday, and since it is close to Halloween decided to have a dress up party. My mom is 90 and she is the witch on the right. Marlee is the old cruddy man beside me. Jo-Ann is an old woman by Melissa, Sam was a vampire, and Rylie didn't dress. And of course last but certainly not least Ethel. The older I get I realize that relationships are much to valuable to just discard, because you don't agree. Jo-Ann is a Breast Cancer survivor and I suppose that helped break the ice between us. Now that we are back together, do we agree on everything? Absolutely not, but its not a end all break all because we don't. I am richer for allowing these ladies back into my life. Who knows how much longer Mom will be with us, but for that matter any of us, so make the most of everyday and tell your loved ones they are loved, you never know if it may be the last time you may be able to.

CHina

Unless you have been living in a cave you have to have heard about all the stuff coming from China that is not good. Now don't get me wrong, I know most everything comes from China, and to tell you the truth it never bothered me before, as long as I could get a whole out fit for 95 cents, I mean of course I didn't give it a moments thought that how in the world could you buy something that cheap, plus packaging plus shipping. But I didn't. Now my daughter Melissa on the other hand could give you a whole message on China, and none of it good but I must admit I think I tune Melissa out after a few minutes. But now it has gotten to the point, where it has effected my grand kids toys, the things they put in their mouths and chew. And I am sorry but that is something you just don't mess with. Who cares about the drugs that come from China that are substandard, look at all those studies where they gave some of the people placebo's and some the real thing, and not all the people taking the placebo died. And the pet food, now I know for a fact that we put down lots and lots of animals at the pound, so really I guess we could thank the Chinese and our great pet food companies that buy this product from them for helping with the overpopulation. I could go on and on, about the illegal antibiotic's in their fish products, their fillers that are very unsafe. But when they started on the kids products I am finally appalled, and willing to finally do something. Not sure exactly what, but I won't buy from China for my grand kids anymore.

Rational Thoughts

I have hardly any idea what I am creating. I am not a genius like Greg, or kind like my son-in-law Johnny, or talented like Melissa, or athletic like Angie, or able to adapt like Richard, or English major like my daughter in law Jessica, or easy going like my other daughter in law Denise, or friend magnet like my son in law Duffy. I asked Greg "what this was for?" He answered "to put down thoughts." So I guess that is a good enough beginning for me to.

Job Hunting

This has been the most fun for me ever, writing the resumes, cover letters, applications, interviews. I am kidding about that previous statement. I hate all that stuff. I had a interview last week that a zillion people have applied for. I may even have been their oldest candidate. I heard from a couple of my references that they had called them. So that is a good sign, they usually do that for their top 2 to 3 people. So I am hoping, am I praying yes, but and I don't want to sound cynical but I am not holding out much help from the big guy. He probably has other more important things to grant, and I am not high on the list. We use to be close but have long ago drifted apart. He has let me down and I know I have done the same. I could bargain, but I have done that so much too. Why is it so difficult to get a job in this State. I can think of a lot of reasons. Wish me luck, or better yet say a prayer for me, because I believe that he answers some people's requests just not all