My First day of retirement....

But a bottle of wine would’ve helped, maybe rum! August 1 was my first day of retirement.

I had scheduled both Dish and AT&T(Kevin wanted them, I love Vonage) to come over between the hours of 8-12. Dish Techs get there at 9, I crate the dogs(who did very well since they were crated during the whole venture and didn’t bark) and begin working; I have 2 because the one was in training, but they were personable, knowledgeable and I felt fine about it. We had 3 TV’s to attach to the dish and since we have a lot of mature trees in the area, C.J.(the tech) was a bit concerned about us being able to get HD, which I had requested, but he cleared that hurdle pretty quickly and they set to work.

They go to work, everything is going fine. They tell me that they will link the 2 upstairs TV’s on one box and then the TV in the basement will be on its own….I think nothing of it—they have the order, they seem to know what they’re doing and CJ is very careful to keep me informed. A knock on the door….who is it but my prodigal son! I’ve promised him that I would take him to get his driver’s license today, sometime in the afternoon; he’s making sure that I don’t forget by showing up about 11 am…… About an hour after they start, a supervisor comes over to check on them(since there is a trainee, maybe? Maybe all work has to be inspected?). He introduces himself, checks out the work and they begin talking about what has been learned, etc.

So, its now time for me to approve and inspect—its about 12:30 p.m., we start going through the paperwork, signing stuff, and “Dishnetwork for Dummies”. He explains how to use the remote and states, “These buttons control the DVR, if you had ordered it.” OOOPS!I say, “What do you mean, ‘IF’? When I signed up, I specifically asked for HD & DVR – just like I have with cable.” Seems this has been a bit of a problem, its happened in the past, he would have to open a new ticket, but its no big deal(he had the correct box in the truck_….until we get Attila the Hun on the phone!

First, C.J. is speaking to her for about 3-5 minutes, then his boss. Then me:

“Hello, is this Ms. Johnson?”

Yes.

“Do you remember if you ordered this service through Dish or AT&T?”

I’m not sure, but I did order both Dish and phone service.

“Then you ordered thru AT&T. Because of this and since the ticket has been closed, you will have to pay $149 for the upgrade and try and get reimbursed through AT&T. you have 2 options…..”

WAIT A MINUTE---You and your busin……

“MS. JOHNSON—IF YOU ARE SPEAKING, YOU CAN NOT BE LISTENING!!!You need to be quiet and LISTEN!” and now I’m thinking  ok *****….we’ll see who’s listening in a minute!

She explains how I can either authorize them to do the “upgrade” and call AT&T myself or she can call AT&T with all of us on the line and then I can still pay the $149 and get reimbursed….I ask to speak to a supervisor and she just says that it doesn’t matter, I’ll be told the same thing.

I said, “No-I have 3 options. I can also tell you to replace my home the way you found it and cancel. I have cable with HD & DVR and they didn’t give me this hassle. So, either you’re going to approve the install the way I ordered it or these gentlemen have just done all of this work for nothing”.

She: “If you are not able to understand….”

“I understand very well—I am the customer. I ordered Dish with HD & DVR capability. YOU and your business partner screwed up. That’s your problem, not mine. She interrupts, “Ms. Johnson!"—I shut her down---{If you are speaking, you cannot be listening—I listened to you so its your turn! Remember—if it wasn’t for the customer, you wouldn’t have a job! She shut up.}So we either do it the way I contracted to do it, or you take your equipment and leave my house!” By this time the 3 dish guys are just standing there, watching me—dumbstruck—don’t know what to say…I smile and wave…..

She: “YOU want to cancel??!?!!”

Me: “Yes!”

“Well I’ll have to transfer you to the cancellation dept.” “You do that”….

I get to the cancellation dept and all of a sudden(like I knew would happen) there’s no problem…I get it the way I want it…the techs breathe a sigh of relief, apologize for the CSR and then tell me that I wasspeaking to an AT&T rep all along!

BUT new crinkle—I have 2 TV’s that are supposed to be on the DVR—living room and basement—so they have to reconfigure the house. I look at the time and its 1 p.m.—the other tech  from AT&T hasn’t shown up yet---ok, its my turn!

I call up AT&T and get a nice woman…I tell her that its now 1:20 and the tech, which was supposed to be here between 8-12 has not shown up. She apologized, but said he was prolly on his way. I said, NOPE—cancel my order. I have other places I need to be and have to leave by 2 so I still have Vonage. Dishnetwork leaves at 2, I now have FreeSpeech TV, among others.

Now, lets not forget, I have my son waiting impatiently to get his license. We get over to the Secretary of State’s office and I don’t have my insurance card—KABOOMgoes Aaron—he’s sure this is a plot that Kevin and I dreamt up! So, Aaron melted down; tears in his eyes. I asked if he wanted to get some lunch? Yes. Where would you like to eat? “Someplace that serves up licenses!” I just think its so cute when 18 year olds act like 5! We finally decided this wasn’t going to work(specially when I pointed out that if he had done what he had to in school, he would’ve had his license 2 years earlier), we went to Culvers.

I get home and call up Comcast to cancel my TV, but not my internet service. The woman was very nice, asked me why? Cuz you’re too expensive and I can cut about $50 monthly by changing to satellite. She then goes on to tell me that if I stay with them(since I’ve been with them since the late 80’s, early 90’s), she can give me a deal that will cost about HALF of what I’m paying now for a year!!!! Also, I’m paying more than others because I was grandfathered in—(this was suppose to be changed when I called and complained about 2 years ago—my grandfather clause had me paying more than other people!). Told her it was too late. I signed a contract and the woman I spoke to 4-6 weeks ago told me there was nothing she could do—I was stuck paying what I was stuck paying(which I thought was a lie, but….), so, this CSR did give me a deal on the internet service for 6 months and we’re only paying $20 for 6 months.

So, its now about 6:30 p.m. and I try to get on the net….its not hooked up! When the guys disconnected the cable, they disconnected ALL of it. Kevin re-hooks the cables, I start playing with the modem & router…unplugging, re-hooking(I can get my puter up, but the router is acting goofy) for over 90 minutes! Cannot get it to come up so I call Comcast and ask for an appointment. Earliest they can get to us is Saturday. I figure that’s fine, I’ll mess with it again tomorrow but I’m frustrated and tired now. I take everything down AGAIN and hook it back up right and turn it all on. I go to make something to eat. I get it ready and tell Kevin if he’s hungry, I made fettuccine alfredo. He says, “Ok, and thanks for fixing the computers.” Huh? After all of my up/down/around….the cussing and reboot finally worked!!! We have internet access again.

So, that was my first day of being retired. It hasn’t slowed down much and I’m thinking, maybe I need a part time job so I can rest some….