Tag comcast expensive

I got a call yesterday from Ali.  She said that Nicki couldn’t get herself up. Her rear legs, which have been bothering her for a long time, just didn’t want to work.  She took Nicki to the emergency vet where they basically said it is just the progression of her arthritis.  It must have been especially painful yesterday for her.  I was hoping the vet would recommend upping Nicki’s Deramexx dosage (dog Advil) but instead they prescribed tramadol which is a pain killer.  Their logic was they didn’t want to risk the possible GI side effects of increasing the Deramexx dosage.  My logic is when your choice is the dog being able to walk or having diarhea, walking wins.

Ali’s living arrangements since we split have not been ideal for a dog with bad legs as they both have had stairs which Nicki has struggled up and down for the last few years.  The big 18″square tile in her main living area also makes it hard for Nicki to get up from the laying position because of the lack of traction.   Ali is taking steps to try to address both of these things.

She was able to get a bunch of left over carpet remnants from a local carpet store which she is using to create carpet runways on the tile which should be easier for Nicki to get up on.  She is also going to have her boyfriend carry Nicki between floors as needed to cut down on the wear and tear on her legs.  Hell I was even researching dog stair lifts yesterday.  I saw a couple DIY versions that were quite impressive.

Of course it makes my heart very heavy to see Nicki struggling like this.  I find it hard to believe this is the same dog that used to leap the sofa in a single bound as I chased her around the house.  All we can do at this point is try to make her quality of life as good as it can be.

I got some other sad pet news yesterday.  Cindy saw the woman that we gave Jaina, the huge cornish chicken, to.  She said that Jaina died from sort of disease that killed 10 or 11 of her other chickens.  I immediately felt guilt as I knew the living situation Jaina was moved into was definitely not close to the level of care or comfort we were providing.

During this week I have had to make two calls to get my costs for two entertainment services reduced, Sirius and Comcast.  I had received the ridiculous $273 bill from Sirius awhile ago and had been sitting on it, waiting until it was closer to it’s expiration date.  I got the cancellation department and gave them the normal song and dance, if I can’t pay what I did last year I am cancelling.  If for some reason they would call my bluff I would probably follow through on the cancellation since the Stern show schedule is so light nowadays it is barely worth paying the 50% discount I have been.  Well they once again agreed to my terms, the $273 bill morphed into $144 after a few minutes.

The call to Comcast did not go as well.  For years I have played the shell game with Comcast, calling up and getting put on whatever current promo packages they have which normally run for a term of anywhere of 6 months to a year.  When that term expires I call back up and repeat the process.

Well I haven’t been watching my bill that closely since I autopay it with my CC now.  My buddy at work was complaining about how high his bill was so I logged on to look at mine and saw all of my promos had run out and I was now paying roughly 150 a month for internet and tv service, time to call.

There have been tons of stories in the news about the big drop in subscriber numbers Comcast has been seeing, many of them going to streaming options instead.  My naive assumption was this would mean Comcast would be very agreeable to work with existing customers to keep their business.  On my first attempt on Wednesday I used their online agent portal, telling them I have received offers from one of their competitors, Century Link, and wanted to see what could be done to reduce the size of my bill.

Well I spent almost a half hour on the chat session during which there was a 14 minute period of no communication at all from the rep.  When they came back they said their computer locked up and had to be restarted.  They offered me no deals at all, all they offered was I reduce my features if I wanted to reduce my bill.  I explained I was not interested in losing features, I wanted to be put on a promotional deal to keep me from investigating what Century Link would do for me.  The virtual rep said I should call into one of their two “customer loyalty numbers” where they are authorized to offer long time customers special promotions.  Ok, fine.

So yesterday I call one of these numbers.  The phone menu did not sound any different than the normal Comcast phone menu and I wound up with someone on the Indian help desk.  I told him I was given this number by the online staff and explained I was looking for a reduction in my costs to prevent me from going to a competitor.  At first the heavily accented phone rep was stand offish, again going down the “if you want to pay less, you get less” road.  I got irritated as I realized this was not any sort of special retention department, just another annoying, outsourced phone bank that American companies have grown so found of.

I told the guy I was annoyed that he was just telling me the same thing the online rep did and that I would just look into cancellation of Comcast instead.  Well once the word cancellation comes out of a customers mouth they apparently are allowed to at least offer some sort of discount.  I wound up getting the $10 Showtime fee waived for the next 6 months and an additional $5 discount, hardly earth shattering but better than nothing.  The difference with this negotiation versus Sirius was I actually like the services I get from Comcast.  My internet is generally fast and reliable and I am a big fan of their X1 platform.  If push came to shove I don’t think I would cancel it.

This weekend I am helping to time a large CC meet Saturday morning followed by a nice birthday dinner for Cindy Saturday night.  Although the temperatures during the day are still high, the humidity dial has been slightly less and the constant precipitation has diminished to the point where standing water is no longer a feature on our property which is great.  I look forward to some winter weather where I can work outdoors without paying such a severe perspiration tax.

Last night on the way home I stopped to grab the dogs.  They will be with me for a few days while Ali is out of town.  Even though we got home as daylight was starting to fade both of them hung outside for a good half hour.  Lately I have been propping open the lanai screen door so they can come in and out as they please.

Taking the dogs to daycare is a weird thing.  Nicki acts like she no longer likes going there.  When I park the vehicle she will just stay planted, acting like the last thing she feels like doing is going in there with all of the noise and activity.  Lately I have had to take Sadie in first and then come back out and physically lift Nicki out.  Supposedly once Nicki is at the dog daycare she acts fine during the day.  Of course I wouldn’t expect them to tell me she hates it either.

I really would like to be able to just let the dogs stay at the house by themselves like they did for years.  The only reason daycare started was because of Nicki’s issue with holding it for a full day anymore.  At the house they can relax indoors or out.  After 10 years I have become pretty in tune with Nicki’s body language.  It clearly tells me “Dad I’d really rather just stay home”

So yesterday I get this form letter from Comcast stating that they are making “adjustments” to customers that only have internet service, such as I have for the last couple years or so.  The rate starts at $40 a month for gimped service and scales up to $115 (before taxes) for their top tier level.

I currently have the Blast package which according to the letter would pull more than $75 a month  out of my pocket JUST FOR INTERNET SERVICE.  Now, I just negotiated the promo package for tv and Blast internet for $49.99 for 6 months last week, so this SHOULD not apply to me.  However I would not be surprised at all if Comcast somehow f’s up and starts billing me at the higher rate which will initiate a very swift and vocal response from me.

I forgot to mention that I do indeed have Comcast tv service piped into the bedroom now.  As I suggested from the get go, removing the filter from my line fixed the problem.  Of course the convertor box they gave me doesn’t even have a HDMI output, meaning the picture quality is non-hd.  I really don’t know when I will have occasion to use the service except trying to catch a MNF game on ESPN, and maybe using the On Demand rarely.  Otherwise I just don’t need it.

So I read yesterday the Senate voted down the bi-partisan gun bill.  Obviously the very deep pockets of the NRA lobbyists once again were successful in overruling what to me, is basic common sense.

I have never owned or even fired an actual gun, my $35 air rifle is the closest thing I have to a firearm in the house.  However my disinterest in guns doesn’t mean I think individuals should not be able to own a weapon, after all it is a constitutional right.  However as is the case with my position on many things, I like to apply logic to situations.

I do think there is something wrong with owning assault weapons.  I can not see a legitimate reason for an individual to carry a weapon intended to kill people by the dozens, in seconds.

As far as limiting the size of an ammo clip, 30 rounds isn’t enough?  Is it because you like to have longer bursts of Rambo moments or just because your arm starts to hurt after slapping in clip after clip?

However the biggest thing that annoys me is the NRA being so resistant to the universal registration of gun ownership.  You can not convince me there is a downside to this.  Own 100 guns if you want to, to me, asking you to simply register their ownership is a very small price to pay in my book.

You will hear gun nuts say that registering their weapons is a conduit for the government to come and take their guns down the road.  Please, if things would someday get to the point where the government would try to take away registered guns from individuals we would have much larger problems to deal with.

Others will cry “big brother” or it is an invasion of privacy.  Again, I would ask these people to step into the reality of 2013 and the Patriot Act.  You have no real privacy, if you think you do you are living in the Matrix.  Asking gun owners to register their weapons is a blip on the screen in terms of what the government already knows about you.

So anyway, I find it very disappointing but not surprising that once again doing the right thing, taking a small step towards curbing gun violence, was scuttled thanks to the cancerous tumor in our legislative system, aka. lobbyists.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ROrpKx3aIjA

The fertilizer plant explosion is just incredible.