Directv dance
So last night I open up the latest bill from Directv. I see that in addition to the local channels I am now being billed an additional $10 a month for HD ACCESS. Well I thought it was lame to be billed 10 a month just to get my local channels in HD so I figured I would call and bitch. I didn’t really expect to get anywhere since I already had a bare bones programming deal that is typically not available. I don’t have a “package”, just the local channels and the Sunday Ticket for the Eagles games. If you called up and tried to get that from them as a new customer they would tell you to pound sand.
So I call up and get a young sounding girl on the phone. I make my pitch that I thought it was dumb that I was being charged 10 a month just for hd on the local channels. You could tell she was working off her script as she dealt with me. I told her that all I really cared about was getting the Sunday Ticket in HD. Then she springs another bomb on me. “If you want the Sunday Ticket in HD you have to buy the “Superfan” package” What???? I ask how much it costs, an additional $99 on TOP on the $250 or so I already pay for the Sunday Ticket!!
Well now I did have a legitimate thing to be pissed off about. I reiterated to the girl that I didn’t think it was right to be charged 120 a year for the HD access PLUS another 100 if I want the Sunday Ticket in HD, that’s bullshit. The girl basically said she was sorry but that was the way it worked. Well I could tell I was at the end with this clerk so I pulled out the obligatory “can I please talk to your supervisor?” deal. I was on hold for a minute or so and then another woman answers the phone and identifies herself as a supervisor.
I gave a brief review of my gripe and initially I got the same response. The woman said that I wasn’t getting just the HD locals with the HD access package. She said there are about 20 “older” HD channels I get. I told her I didn’t care about or need any of those channels. All I really want is the Sunday Ticket in HD. Then she offered me a partial resolution. She said she could take the HD access off my account and add on the Superfan stuff. Doing so would wind up being just about a wash since the HD access was 120 a year and the hd football add on was 99 bucks. It seemed like a fair deal to me. I double checked with her to make sure that the changes she was making would definitely allow me to still watch the Sunday Ticket in HD. She assured me it would. I guess I will find out for sure in a couple months. Man I would have been pissed when I flipped on the first Eagles came and saw measly standard definition drawing across the screen…
I just paid for the repair on the Camry bumper. We took it to a body shop owned by the daughter of one of the guys in the running club. When I pulled up I immediately saw the car sitting there, looking like it was on a dealer’s lot. Not only did they do a flawless job repairing the damage on the bumper, they did a total car makeover, scrubbing it from top to bottom and even dressing the tires. It looked great!
Since Ali is out of town, I didn’t have an easy way to get both the car and the truck back to my place. The owner said she and her husband drive by our street on the way home at night. She offered to drop the car off at my house tonight. I could hardly believe the offer and I initially declined, saying I didn’t want to put her through that sort of trouble. She assured me it was no trouble at all. Ok fine, go for it. How awesome is that?
While I was there I had them take a look at the Tacoma. The paint on the top surfaces of it has been baked from the intense Florida sun. The guy looked it over and immediately said it had been painted before, something I was unaware of. He explained to me the detail they go through when painting a vehicle. He said they could probably get the truck looking sharp again for a couple grand. I have been considering getting it painted for awhile. The truck is a 99 but still has under 90k miles and hasn’t given me hardly a hiccups worth of trouble since I owned it. I don’t see any reason why I couldn’t get 150-200k out of it.
Surprisingly the chain of events after Ali got hit at the intersection have been amazingly hassle free. The insurance claim was handled quickly and the ensuing repair exceeded my expectations as well. That just doesn’t happen very often…