Testing

Testing. My patience that is. There are just some days when being so rural is not pleasant. Trying to get services from the so-called township that accompanies my mailing address or dealing with the phone company and satellite services can get beyond irritating.

First thing that happened was my HD Sat receiver for the t.v. died. So I call Dish Network, tell them it's dead and I need a new one. I said I thought it was pretty crappy to pay for this thing when it barely lasted 7 months. So they told me they'd UPS me a new one and I'd have to UPS the dead one back to them. I said "What!!!??? You're kidding." Then they said it would cost me $15 to UPS it back. Well, that was it. I said "NO, I won't pay that and here's why: it barely lasted 7 months and it's 60 miles one way to a UPS office that will accept this size package and the office is will call (meaning not just simply open regular hours)!" So then they said they would pay for the shipping and I had 10 days to return it and then they'd test it to make sure I didn't do anything to cause it to be defective. I laughed and said whatever. I got the thing in a couple days but the UPS man refused to drive down my driveway. He thought he'd get his truck stuck. I asked him why UPS, since they operate up here in the snow bound U.P., doesn't have vehicles to deal with that. I mean, sheesh, my driveway is completely plowed and no one else has gotten stuck at all. Again, whatever. I sent the bad receiver back with my husband to Chicago to be sent back because there is a UPS store close to our home there.

My next contact with Dish was to arrange for moving the HD t.v. satellite and the Wild Blue Satellite up to the new main house. Well, the 1st woman I had to talk with refused to allow me to make this arrangement telling me that my husband was prime on the account. I asked her" Do you not see my name there?" She said he'd have to be on the phone at the time...3-way call... to get this done. I told her we dealt with this account crapola last year with Dish and I am authorized to make these decisions and let me talk to her supervisor. Well, after waiting 25 minutes on hold I hung up. Oh and they also told me I needed to change my address. I said it's going to be moved ON THE SAME PROPERTY, SO THE ADDRESS IS THE SAME!!! They said well then we can't move it because, blah, blah, blah. WTF! I called back, explained the issue to another woman. She got it all arranged (address issue is that same address will be used but will say house 1 on it. I mean come on WTF) and couldn't understand why the other woman said what she did. Again, whatever. So they'll come out to disconnect my Internet and then I have to call them and make arrangements for the move. Now is that a screwed up way to do service or what? TESTING!

So earlier that day I had spent 45 minutes on the phone changing our long distance package for the 2 phone lines here. Paying 12 cents a minute doesn't cut it! We're stuck with ATT here so I opted for the all distance package and then merged our cell phone service billing...since we use ATT for cell and it took $20 a month off the bill I said fine do it. O.K. so the woman says the new long distance service will kick in on March 10th but I needed to call a separate number to disconnect the old service on March 10. So I did that. Later that day I pick up the phone to call my husband and inform him of all these things and WHAM no long distance service. AT ALL! So I call ATT and ask WTF happened? ATT says whoops yes, the order says disconnect on March 10 but someone screwed up so we feel bad...here's a $15 rebate for the 2 days you'll have no LD service. If they had re-connected the old LD service it would have canceled the new service I had spent time arranging that morning! Now how screwed up is that!!?? So until Wednesday I can't call out and no one can even call in long distance. TESTING!!

You know, there are days when I hate technology, the people hired that seem to have no clue and the absolute bullshit excuses some companies make for their screw ups. I swear it's just a massive test on my sanity.

So, that's been the fun of the last few days. It's getting warmer here and the snowmobile cones have been taken off the lake meaning stay the hell off it because we can't guarantee the safety of the ice. But the deer still walk on it and so can we because a snowmobile is a lot heavier than us! It was actually 50 degrees here yesterday. It's supposed to be in the 40's all week. I have to leash the dogs now because I don't want them running on the lake and possibly hit a soft spot.

Well, time to trek up to the main house and start on more cleaning...as if THAT doesn't test me! Here's a calming picture...at least for me!