Rant resolution, race

So I contacted Apple yesterday about my hacked Itunes account.  The rep on the phone seemed quite surprised my account was compromised.  I told him I saw online that Itunes account hacking happens quite often and that I was surprised he was surprised.

After about 15 minutes on the phone we got it resolved.  Apple is going to credit back the purchases I didn’t make.  I also changed my account password immediately.  I will be watching my account much closer from here on out.  If you have a credit card or Paypal account connected to your Itunes account you may want to reconsider that strategy.  Luckily I did not.

The HVAC rebate thing took more effort.  After digging around on Google I found a number in Tallahassee for the state energy department, the ones who are responsible for these f’d up rebate programs.  I left a message for someone to call me.  I was surprised when someone actually called me back in the early afternoon.

I quickly recapped my problem and reiterated how dumb it was that MORE efficient models were not on the golden list.  The explanation I got was rather wacky.

The woman said that the state was looking for a list from the federal government of all of the HVAC equipment that would qualify for this incentive.  Well the only list they were provided is what was posted online.  The state KNEW it was not a comprehensive list and that people would get rejected during the rebate process because of it.  Somewhere in fine print on the rebate web site it directs people to check the list and if your equipment is not on there you are supposed to take further action.

That further action is to obtain a certificate from your manufacturer that your equipment DOES meet the energy saving guidelines of the program.  Luckily for me, I was able to get this certificate right from Trane’s web site. I pointed out to the woman that this little catch is not highlighted nearly enough on the web site.

She gave me a phone number to call for the rebate processor.  She said they could direct me as far as what to include along with my certificate to ensure my rebate gets processed.  I thanked her for the info.

A little later after I printed out my certificate from Trane I called the number I was given and almost laughed out loud when I get the message “The number you dialed is not in service….”

I immediately called back the woman from the state and told her “the number you gave me is dead…..”  “That’s impossible!” she said. “Put me on hold and try it yourself” I replied, confident she would come back in a few seconds very apologetically.  Instead she comes back laughing (she was very good natured) saying she got through just fine! WTF?

Ok I told her now I was going to put her on hold and try again.  Again, I get the number is disconnected.  I then try the number on my cell phone and it connects right through.  Damn, evidently something in our office PBX must be blocking that number, wow.  I apologized to the woman for the call.

I finally got a hold of the rebate processor.  They instructed me to fax in the certificate and some other stuff.  They said once it was received it takes 8 business days to “get into the system”.  “Wow, you guys work fast” I joked.

So hopefully, all of this effort will enable me to snag that $1500 American Express gift card just before it was ready to disappear down the bottom of the toilet bowl.  Both Ali and I had written it off more than once.

Randall and Jeremy will be arriving this evening.  Jeremy is the official race photographer and Randall is both helping with race set up and running in the event.  We have over 540 people signed up for the event at this point.  We expect to have a record crowd for the race.

The weekend is going to be filled with various physical activities/competitions between the three of us.  The camcorder is going to be working hard.  Look for streams popping up now and then over the weekend on my justin.tv channel.