What was I thinking?

 Cox raised my internet service from $55/month to $89/month!  I was furious and decided it was time for a change when they wouldn't budge on the price.  So I found we have two other "high speed" internet services here in town.  Verizon and Quantum.  Quantum has been advertising on TV, so I called them, but learned their parent company is CenturyLink.  And oh boy, have I had troubles with CenturyLink!  but it's been probably 9 or 10 years since my last encounter with them (which was a doozy!) and the rep assured me things are better.  Well, I just got done writing a letter to them that gives all the details, so I won't go into that.  Here's the letter:

To “The Powers That Be” at CenturyLink:

I mistakenly thought I would give your company yet another chance, but true to form, your gross incompetence came shining through!  Over the last 15 years, through a couple name changes, I have tried to use your company for different services in my business, from phone service to internet service and you always manage to screw things up royally!  You keep changing your name… I find names like Lumen, Brightspeed, this Quantum all associated with your name – there are probably others.  It seems you keep trying to rebrand yourselves as “better” and yet you just keep being the same screwed up company.  In other words, shame on me for stupidly thinking it might be better!

I won’t go into some of the past screw ups, one of which would so embarrass anyone with a brain in their head that I’M embarrassed FOR YOU, but I will relay this most recent one.

I talked to someone about changing to Quantum for internet service on Wednesday.  I told the representative how wary I was about trying to do business with a company associated with CenturyLink.  She told me that the problems of the past were behind them and things had come a long way since my last encounter with CenturyLink.  Of course, I’d heard that tune before and once again, I should have listened to my gut and moved along.  But the price was appealing and I was lulled into accepting that this might be true.  So I scheduled an install for Friday and then she sent me over to someone to “confirm” my order.  Which really meant a hard-hitting sales guy who tried really hard to sell me on their satellite dish service.  He almost had me convinced, then my little voice said “let’s make sure they don’t screw up the internet service and if that goes well for a couple months, maybe we’ll take them up on the dish.” Ok, so now I’m patting myself on the back for not being a total patsy!!

 So Friday comes and the appointment is between 11 am and 2 pm.  I get a text around 7:45… “Today’s the day!”  At about 1:30, I get a text that they are running late – will let me know when they’re on their way.  At about 3:30, I get text that says “Sorry, can’t make it today, we’ll be there between 8:00 and 5:00 tomorrow.”  What?  After sitting around for 6 hours, they expect me to sit around another 9 hours on a Saturday??  Uh, I don’t think so!… I called to tell them I wanted a 3 hour window again so I could salvage at least SOME of my day.  You know what the rep told me?  “We can’t be there tomorrow – Monday is the soonest.”  Do you mean that if I had not called, I would have sat here 9 hours waiting for no one to show up?  At this point, it is SO obvious that I am dealing with the same exact BS I’ve dealt with over and over with CenturyLink and I am infuriated.  The rep offered me a $25 gift card “for my inconvenience.”  Oh yeah, right, 6 hours one day, 9 another and then I would have to take off another day because you really couldn’t have been there on Saturday…$25… I guess that shows how valuable you think MY time is!  WOW. I told them to put my order on hold until further notice so I could cool down and think clearer.

 I get up Saturday morning (and BTW, I could have predicted this…) and at 8:15, who do you think is on my doorstep?  Yep, one of your technicians!  Would I have let him in to install if I’d been ready?  Hell no… by now, it’s clear that I’m in for a mountain of trouble if I try to do business with the same old company with a new face.  May I suggest that the only way you are EVER going to fix your problems is to burn the company down and start fresh?  I gave it a shot because I talked to some people on NextDoor who have Quantum and are (so far) happy.  “Give it time” I say.  After the technician went away, I called and formally cancelled my order and asked for my $50 back.  I guess we’ll see if they can handle that or if I’ll have to deal with my bank to get my money back…

I hope this letter makes it to the top, into the hands of some exec who might give a damn.  But it probably won’t.  I’m usually a very eloquent writer and I’m not particularly proud of how I have communicated my frustration, but I really wanted it to come across how angry I am and eloquence doesn’t exactly exude anger. 

And with that, I sign off…

I signed it with the order number and all of my contact information in case someone gives a rats ass and wants more info, though I think I pretty well detailed it all here.  What a fucking joke that company is!  I called Verizon and as it turns out, their lower-speed internet service is $60 (they advertise $35, but that's only if you already have an account with them).  So I called Cox back and told them I had scheduled to have Quantum install and wanted to give them one last chance to keep me as a customer.  They lowered my price back down to the $55 and locked it in for 2 years.  So I guess I'll be dealing with this again in 2026...  What happened to customer service?  

It was a quiet day.  Watched some TV.  Did some puzzling... crossword, jumble, sudoku, jizsaw.  Listened to music.  I didn't even step out onto the porch.  It was a cold and overcast day, like most have been of late.  It's not conducive to motivation... I need sunshine!  Not to imply I'm depressed.  I don't even understand depression.  I know it can be a state of mind and it can also be a chemical imbalance, which I guess is why so many people are on antidepressants.  I'm not sure if it's the way I was raised or if it's just an inherent part of my personality, but I can always find the silver lining in any situation - yes, even gloomy, overcast days.  The clouds keep the warmth in, so if it was clear, it would be colder.  Hottest, muggiest day of the year?  Well, at least I don't live in Florida where it's like this 10 months out of the year! 😀

I got some watering done.  The "for sale" plants... well, lets just say there are going to be casualties.  Ask me if I care?  I'm feeling kind of DONE with rooting common ones.  And trying to sell them.  We're going to do the Farmer's Market again this year, but since I didn't really have success selling much last year, I may try to figure out something else to sell.  I'm working on decoupage jars that I can use to root small cutting in leca.  I have several jars with smaller Hoyas growing in leca around the house and they do very well and look absolutely quaint!  I figure decoupage will attract a certain element of DIY types, maybe lull some people into loving Hoyas (doesn't seem to take much) and maybe end up with some new customers that way.  As for selling on the internet - I may do some of that. Last summer, I went on the NextDoor app and asked for "packing pillows"... those little inflated pillows that come as packing instead of the old-fashioned peanuts.  I got a bunch, but I have one woman who has continued to drop them off several times and is now even collecting them from her friends for me!  I have them coming out of my ears and I'm not sure how to ask her to stop without sounding ungrateful.  I'll probably wait a little longer, just to see if I might pick up on shipping them this spring and appreciate that I'm still getting them from her before I burn that bridge...

I've been thinking a lot about a friend, someone I "dated" (I'm using that term loosely) when I was very young, like 15.  We were always chaperoned, so it was all very innocent.  Our parents belonged to the same church, so we sat together at church, hung out at church functions (they had a youth group), got together at his house when I was in Omaha at my aunt's house.  That sort of thing.  His name is Greg and he was quite the McSmarty Pants.  Very intelligent, well-read.  He tried to get me to read Asimov, which was way above my head at that age!  But I was into Ray Bradbury and some comparable (but less "heady") literature.  He was sweet and kind and we wrote to each other during the week. When there was a rift in the church and it split into two "factions", his parents went one way and my Mom went the other.  He also graduated from HS about that time, and we were just in different places socially at that point, so we saw each other at my aunt's house one day and just kind of said "goodbye" knowing it wasn't going any further than this.  We say each other once more after that, maybe a year or so later and it was clear that it was nothing that was meant to be...

Fast forward.  I found him several years ago - I'm guessing maybe 2007 or so?  It sounded like he had been quite successful.  Went to college and had mostly settled into "technical writing" for a living.  I guess that means "how to" manuals and stuff like that.  Sounds very boring, but like I said - he was a smart fella and I'm sure he was very good at it!  But when I caught up to him, he and his wife of many years (who had been in web design, if I remember correctly) were living in Flagstaff and were in the process of becoming realtors.  And just about the time they got their licenses, the housing market crashed.  Eventually, they lost their home in Flagstaff, but they had another home in California that they were renting out.  So they sent their renters packing and moved there... then proceeded to lose that house as well.  Long story short, they stored a lot of their stuff with PODS and essentially became transient.  They would stay with friends, which would (I'm sure) eventually take a toll and they would move along to another friend's.  And on this went for some time.  And there were times when they were homeless, living out of their van.  I know all of this because he's a true-blue writer and his way of getting that energy out is to send out what he calls "Newzines" to his family and friends.  He talks about what's going on in his life and it's all very interesting as he has a way of engaging his audience!  

Anyway, this saga started in/around 2008 and I figure he was about 53 then.  And here it is, 2024, 16 years later, which makes him 69 I figure.  After they got on SS (his wife was a few years older than him), they got a small apartment.  But then in late 2020, his wife passed away from cervical cancer.  Apparently, they were taking advantage of the rent moratorium during covid, and when that ended the late spring of 2021, he went back to living in his van and has been doing so ever since.  And I still get his Newzines, though hasn't been a religious about it as he once was.  But I worry about him.  He's pushing 70 now, and living a very difficult lifestyle.  Apparently there is a whole community of people living this way, and in fact, I have another friend who has "taken to the road" with a camper, given up his lease, and is living this "boondocking" life, but not out of necessity but out of desire.  

But I wonder about Greg.  I remember that he has two brothers, Mark and Dave.  I wonder why they don't take him in.  He also has a sister back here, but he has NO desire to return to Nebraska, even if it means cheaper living.  Life is so hard for some people.  And looking at someone like him, someone so smart and who had great success, assumably who had some money put away, and seeing how far they could fall financially, it makes me worry about my future.  I mean, I look at what I have and I feel very blessed.  I seem to have enough, but if I live long enough, is it REALLY enough?  (That was a lot of "enoughs"!)  I remember when we sold the business and I put that money away and I thought, "Ok, if I'm careful, I can probably live about 10 years on this."  I didn't understand much about finance, though I was very good at saving (in spite of Mark!) But here it is, 7-1/2 years later and I've still got "enough".  I put the money with Edward Jones (who I had a small IRA with) and told them I am not a risk taker and they put some in the market and some in "safer" stuff and it has panned out well for me.  As I said, I feel blessed.

And now, off to think about supper!