traveling tales from the exotic dinda

My movers had to reschedule for today b/c of all the rain yesterday. Good thing I'm flexible but must suck for others who were on deadlines. At one point yesterday there were four to six very manly men all coming and going, and fixing/delivering or installing tons of stuff. We got cable/phone/internet and some living room furniture delivered and then the plumber came by fo unstop the new sink and then "the boys" were there most of day doing light stuff downstairs in the garage and outside. Jamaica Beach is literally a one stoplight town and so "the boys" are two local guys who know everyone and do almost everything. In addition to being part-time handy men/elecircal guys they also volunteer fireman and one runs the water department and a dozen other things depending on the time of day. Kind of neat.

Okay, now I need to go grocery shopping but I'm not sure what time the movers will be making their way over. I also still need outdoor furniture and tons of other stuff but am trying to wait until I get the kitchen unpacked to try to figure out what else I might need. Like I'm pretty sure I don't even have a pot to pis-, er boil water in but who knows until I unpack. I did a pretty good job of boosting the local economy this past weekend so I'm trying to be patient and wait until I see what I have. Luckily my friends have offered to help with a decorating intervention otherwise everything in the place would have been brown/tan/beige or khaki as that is what colors the landlord painted and had carpet installed. okay, off to do stuff now. . .

Got alot of moving details started today. Geezus, is customer service dead or what? First attempt at cable/internet transfer ended when I figured out I was getting charged three times as much for the xfer than if I were a new customer! *&$#&%*$ whazzup with that? hung up in the midst of a the second person trying to transfer me back to the first person cuz one department handles xfers while another handles new accounts and they obviously can't do each other's tasks.

First mover never called me back. Finally found a local service but they wanna be here at 8am - ugh. I told them to feel free to move me back to later in the day if needed. Then attempted the dreaded power company xfer call. After getting all the info "written down" Suwanda (yeah, she spelled it for me) informs me that the payment I sent over a week ago has yet to post to my account. Paypal took the money outta my account on the 13th but only today actually sent it to the power folks - wtf? They obviously can't do the xfer cuz I have a balance. I'm like but it shows cleared and in your hands. 'We don't have no record, can you fax us over a copy of the receipt?' argh? fax, bloody son of beach at low tide, mutha. No, I can't fax, can I email you a copy. of course not, that would be too easy, fax is all they can do.

Oh, and then I call, yes, CALL paypal. I akin this something to "calling them internet people" and somehow actually get a nice human with an accent on the phone. He dunno why there is a problem it shows the money sent to the power folks. I ask him to resend the receipt since paypal never actually sent one it seems. . .hold music. . . hold commercial for paypal's many wonderful services, ugh. Oh, btw, the trick to getting through their voice recognition phone software is to say "operator" and they will find you a human with an accent to speak to you. He says "so sorry for the wait" but no they can't reissue the email receipt cuz, well, they just can't, he very sorry though. He does offer the explanation that apparently when they have really high volume, paypal does always send a receipt - I file this for future reference. He tells me to tell the power company to call paypal b/c maybe their email is wrong. He suggest just printing the transaction page so to be able to fax something b/c obviously it's the power companies fault. I amazed I have power at all cuz they usually cut it off before even sending a disconnect notice but ok, I'll take that small victory for today.

After all that fun I decide to call the cable folks back and just cancel my cable and setup a disconnect date. I'll deal with that bridge later. The nice lady named Jeanine comes to the rescue b/c I guess in tier three customer service, if you actually call to disconnect service, they realize they can no longer get your money, so they try to make all happy. I explain the reason for my disconnect is due to poor customer service and the various xfer fees of the previous calls. Jeanine (code for internet/cable angel) magically waives all the fees associated with the transfer and gives me the pricing as if I were a new customer. sigh - le magic. I tell her she made my day and i will continue as their customer b/c of her wonderfullness and only b/c of that.

Tomorrow I fax stuff to the power company and see what happens. . .

dinda 1, utility monopolies 1

oh, and to all you wonderful customer service folks who have to deal with the public - I salute you! I love it when you act human. ;-)