BAD BLOOD BLOGS

Why I Love To Hate Dating...

2009-11-20T08:08:00.000-08:00

Ladies, listen up! I've been dating for so long now that if I were a professor at any university in the world, I would have been granted tenure by now. But having said that, I'm still left feeling bewildered, used and sometimes angry after experiencing yet another shitty date.For example, the women that I have been dating lately, "love" to talk about wanting to be respected and treated a certain way and then they proceed to dress and behave like drunk horny college girls after the second or third date. Leaving me to wonder who they really are and what skeletons they are bringing into our budding relationship. Which also makes me wonder why men are so harshly judged for not being married after reaching a certain age? Can any of you answer that question please? I know that the common assumption you "love" to make about men of a certain age that are still unmarried is that "there must be something wrong with him!". Because, "god forbid" that there could actually be something wrong with you "women". I know that, in general, men have not built the best of reputations in the public eye when it comes to fidelity and relationships but women are no better and should take some of the blame for the dysfunction that causes nasty break-ups, cheating and the like.

In todays world of "baby mama drama", "frienemies" and "ex-husbands/boyfriends that are still in picture" trust has become a very big issue. I find more and more that my options for dates are limited to women who have some ex-boyfriend/ ex-husband who is there baby's daddy and is still in the picture causing drama which I will undoubtedly here about at some point during our evening(s) together or they are divorced and trying to pretend that they are over it while all evidence is to the contrary. So, you would think that women would feel relieved to meet a man who is gainfully employed, single, educated, monogamous and never been married regardless of his age! But, sadly you would be wrong! So ladies, I'm sure that you will find fault with this post but it still must be said, that you are as much to blame for your frustration as men are! Ciao!

Comcast Complaints - Scam & Fraud

2009-09-27T07:27:00.000-07:00

In October I switched to Comcast business high speed internet, and also changed my telephone from QWest to Comcast, bundled with cable television service. I had paid three months ahead so as not to have to bother with details during my busy retail season. Nevertheless, I got two letters (to my residential address rather than my billing address - I still haven't received any physical bills re the new service!)claiming I owed Comcast money.

On both occasions I telephoned Comcast to clear up the misunderstanding, and was told not to worry about it as I had a credit balance. They said they had issued me a new account number with the change in service, but had forgotten to switch over the money that I had on credit, which they would now do. I also verified on the Internet that there was a credit on my account. This morning I woke up with no Internet. It took three hours of my time and three hours of my technical adviser's time on the phone with several departments of Comcast to try to get the matter resolved. Basically, they have allocated my telephone and cable television services to their residential section, and the high speed internet to their business section, but have been continuing to bill me for residential internet on the old account number. None of their departments cooperates with the other departments. They refuse to consolidate my services on to one bill, which was one of the reasons for dealing with one provider for all three services. Even though Comcast had notified QWest of the change in phone numbers, Comcast still had my old QWest phone number listed in its records; its website refused to change it. If I phone Comcast to check what is owing, I now have to give the new telephone number for the old residential account and the old (defunct) residential telephone number for the new business account. I have to log into Comcast under two different user names to check my bills, and have to erase old cookies every time to make this work. Comcast claimed it would credit me for the two months of residential internet it should not have charged me for; according to their math a pre-existing $62 credit from my payment ahead plus a $60 or so credit for two months of residential internet that I had cancelled equals $2. Go figure. And I'm supposed to "trust" them??? The "customer service" people claim I didn't tell them to disconnect the residential internet service, even though they charged me for connecting the new service. I do not have the energy to tackle getting my online bill payment service to handle two different customer numbers from the same provider. That'll likely take another four hours. Overall, the two bills together will be higher than I was told the "bundle" of three services would be. I haven't even had the heart to tackle Comcast on the question of the phones not working when it rains, which is pretty often here in Eugene. I wonder if the confusion in billing in deliberate. They give a 30-day guarantee, but you can't even find out what you owe within the thirty days. Perhaps there's a special part of Hatlo's Inferno reserved for Comcast executives.

Another Dissatisfied Comcast Customer...

2009-09-27T06:16:00.000-07:00

It went like this. Back in February26-March1ish, my wife and I moved into our new home. I called Comcast and asked them to move my service. They told me, "No problem!" and we agreed on a date and time-block. I had taken all of my equipment from the apartment with me (Digital Cable box and Cable Modem). The cable technician showed up at 5:15pm, even though they told me that he'd be there between noon and five. Okay, no big deal, so you can't get here within a 5 or 6 hour timeblock. Just give me my interwebs.

Fast forward 3 months. I had been paying my bill online using the same email address and password I originally created when I first opened my Comcast account 2 years prior. Suddenly my service is terminated. No TV, no www. Okay. What the heck right? I call Comcast, and they tell me, "Well you're overdue by ~$300.00" That's odd, I think to myself. But you know, maybe I just missed some of the bills and forgot to log in and pay them. So I tell them I'd login and pay the bill, since they charge you a service fee to give a credit card to a person over the phone. The person on the phone kindly transfers me to the tech support department, and they turn my internets back on for 48 hours pending payment. I log in, and note that I'm current, but it will allow me to pay next months bill which is only around $110.

Great. Weird but fine whatever. 48 hours later, my cable goes back out again. Seriously WTF. So I call Comcast again. "Guys what the hell is going on. I KNOW I'm current." They do some checking. And here's where it gets interesting.

"Sir, which account are you inquiring about? I have two listed under your name. Location A (Apartment) and Location H (House)...."

Okay what the heck. I ask her, "Lady. I had you move my service, and I had a Comcast truck out in front of my house. Why is my apartment still active?"

"So you no longer live there?"

"No, my wife and I moved. Hence the service transfer."

"Okay sir, let me close your account here... It looks like it's all set. Now the matter of the H account. It appears you haven't paid the bill for this account since it was created in March."

"Are you KIDDING ME?? I asked you guys to MOVE my service, and you opened a new account in my name? Isn't that identity theft? And do you not send someone to disconnect the old account when someone moves? And why am I still able to make payments online to that account? And why did you have to open a new account? Couldn't you just change my address?"

"Sir I can't access that old account to check anything, it's closed."

"Please get a manager on the phone right now." So I sit on hold for around 15 minutes, all the while pacing around my house. I was Mr. Furious. Except I look like Wash from Firefly. So Mr. Furious with Wash's face. No no I have it. Wash in Knocked-Up when he says, "Tight!" to the main character chick. His face is all mad looking.

Finally the "Floor Manager" gets on the phone. I politely say, "Look, I know you're just doing your job, and the screwup is in the system some where but here's what happened...." And I proceed to explain what's just transpired over the course of the last 3 months, up to and including the last 45 minutes on the phone with Comcast.

She says, "Sir I'm very sorry about all of this, I'm accessing your old account now, and I'll credit your new account with all of the payments you've made since you opened the new account."

"Hold up there professor. I didn't open that account. You guys did. We need to be clear on this."

"Yes that's right sir, sorry for the confusion. So I've credited your account with all of the payments you've made, which should take care of any problems you were having, and your balance is now ~$78.92."

I said, "Wow that's interesting. My old account was current, but my new account is somehow over seventy dollars in the red?"

"Yes sir."

"No seriously, listen to what I'm saying. My OLD account was current?"

"Yes sir."

"My new account, that I didn't create and have no login information for, is somehow over seventy dollars in the red?"

"Yes sir."

"And you're the manager on duty?"

"Yes sir."

"Is there a manager's manager on duty?" This was Friday of the Memorial day weekend. So she informed me that no there wouldn't be a manager on site until Tuesday. I told her that I was extremely upset and that I would like a courtesy call on Tuesday. I told her the phone number on my account was my cell phone and that they could call me any time.

Over a week passed and I did not hear from Comcast. I finally called back and talked to a gentleman that informed me that the $70+ was for the transfer of service or something. Possibly the new account activation. In any case, I was livid.

I told him to rot in hell and that there was no way that I would pay that after I was already paying them over $1200/yr for their service, and that if they couldn't handle a change of address, they didn't deserve my money. Of course, this is after I had to re-explain my situation to the poor guy, which probably took a good 10 minutes.

He apologized and had the charges dropped from my account.

I was pretty pissed, but we had our services, and everything seemed on the up and up. I felt like Comcast should have given me some token of their appreciation for me not stabbing someone through the phone for all of the bullshit, but whatever. So they're a shitty company. I had my service.

Fast-forward a month. Our digital cable starts getting pretty flaky. The screen is getting blurry (pixelated?) and the sound keeps cutting out. I call Comcast. They tell me there is a known outage in the area and that they'd have it fixed. I ask them if they're going to credit my account since the service outage is effecting my consumption of said service. They claim that it won't be a problem. A week goes by, I call back. Same conversation. A week goes by, I call back. Same conversation.

Finally the 4th or 5th week that I call and complain that our digital cable is screwy they tell me that there are no reported issues in the area. They schedule a tech for service. He comes out and replaces our digital cable box. Comcast offers to credit me for the time I called to the time the technician was on-site. The latest call mind you. A whopping $17 credit.

Wow. I call again and complain. They tell me that I could call as soon as I have a service issue. I told them that I did, and that the CS personnel need to do a better job tracking who's calling.

A week goes by and my digital cable is screwy again. I call. A tech comes out the next day. He shows up at 3:15 after I asked for them to come between 5 and 7pm. He calls me on my cell phone. Great. Luckily I was running errands in the area so I could stop home. He turns on the cable box, and low and behold everything is working perfectly. He says, "There must have been a service outage in the area." He tightens my coax connections and notes that it was a possible area outage on his call sheet.

Great.

Next. Fricking. Day. My digital cable is pretty much out. Blurry, pixelated. Just ask Zach is so messed up I can't understand a word he's saying, but luckily I've seen the ad enough to know that it's about Rain-Fade on the dish.

Last nerve is reaching critical mass.

I call Comcast again. Explain to them that I'm extremely upset. They say that they can schedule a tech to come out. Fine, but put me in touch with your billing department, I want to ask about my service and what I can do to save some money.

So then I talk to billing. I ask what would it take to step down one internet package? I'm paying $45/mo. for 6mb. I don't really NEED 6mb, and I've played games and downloaded stuff on my parents 3mb DSL that they only pay just over $20/mo. for.

She tells me that they have a $24.99 package, but it's only 768k up/down.

Holy shit. That's highway robbery. I politely tell her that internet bandwidth, while awesome, is kindof like McDonalds. It's yummy and will fill you up, but over a certain amount you won't notice it anymore and you feel shitty regardless of how much more you eat.

Then she says she could save me money by putting me in a Digital Cable package with more stuff for only $80/mo for 6 months. Well holy crap what is it after 6 months? "The regular cost of 119.95 sir." Oh. So then I'd be at around $170/mo instead of my $120?

"Well... Yeah I guess you would.." She replies.

So I ask her if I can just cancel my TV and keep my internet. She tells me that if I do that my internet service will go up by $15/mo. because I don't have any television services.

OMG are you serious? $60/mo. for this?

"Bag it. Cancel it all. I am so sick and tired of you guys."

"We're sorry to see you go sir."

NOT. SORRY. ENOUGH. Obviously.