October 6, 2010: %#$!@*&^

Pardon my French, but I'm hopping mad. I went over to the Charter Cable office yesterday, to find out how to snowbird my internet account while we are in Arizona. I was informed it could not be snowbirded, as I was under a two year contract, and even if it was unavailable to me, I still had to pay the monthly charge or pay a $75 cancellation fee. That's not what I was told when I had it last year. I was told I could pay $7 a month while I was gone to keep the account active. I opted to just cancel and pay the $30 reconnect fee upon returning. Now I'm told I agreed to a two year contract for special pricing. They were the ones guaranteeing me a price that wouldn't change for two years, nothing at all was said about my having to keep their service for that length of time. The rep said a contract was mailed to me about two weeks after I began using their service. Like I told her, I never even received a statement from them for nearly two months, as they were sending it to the wrong address! It wasn't until I called to find out what was going on that I discovered they were using my house address (site of installation) rather than my PO box (on the order), so everything was being returned to them.

That's the same thing I went through a few years back with Clearwire. They changed their policy on snowbirding accounts, without notice, after I had signed with them, and it took letters to the state attorney general and the BBB to get their cancellation fee waved (I think it was around $135).

Looks like I'll be back to square one trying to find an internet provider next spring.

Now that I have that off my chest.......

Mr. Granny decided to help me in the garden this afternoon. That man is worse than a bull in a china shop! He removed all my pepper plants and, as he shook the dirt off the roots (into the paths, of course), peppers were flying everywhere! I scrambled to pull them off the plants and off the ground, and ended up with a goodly amount. Seventeen pounds of them, to be exact.


I do wish they'd have had time to turn red. I'm not fond enough of green peppers to want 17 more pounds of them in the freezer, so calls will be put out to the kids to "come and get 'em".

Annie and Otto made their yearly trip to the vet today, for booster shots and a wellness checkup. Annie has been scooting on her bottom a lot lately, so an anal glands check was also given. Annie was really full of it, Otto not so bad. Of course, both dogs had to have baths when they got back home.



Poor Annie. She just can't seem to lose any weight. In fact, she's gained over four pounds since her last checkup. She's had her thyroid checked, and it's OK. She's a really lazy dog. She doesn't get much exercise at all, she'd rather sleep in her blankie most of the day. I play fetch with her, but she doesn't fetch, so I have to go get, and I wear out faster than she does. I have really put my foot down on Mr. Granny lately, because I know he slips her food she's not supposed to have. I have her on a very strict diet, and I stand over her so she doesn't gobble her food and then go help Otto with his.

Tonight she had her regular dinner of lean chicken and green beans, then she kept butting my leg, wanting me to feed her some of my dinner. After suffering through much eye rolling and nose butting, I finally gave her two small chunks of cantaloupe, which she gobbled up like a starved woman. The nose butting kept up while I was loading the dishwasher. I had the trash can out from under the sink, and Annie got in the cupboard and wouldn't come out. I had a large lettuce leaf in my hand, so I lured her out with that. I really didn't think she'd actually eat it.....but she did!


At least it's not fattening!

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15 comments:

  1. HAHAHA! %&$(#)@! lol. I love you, AG.

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  2. Crazy. As if they're not already making enough money off of us, eh?

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  3. Kalena Michele, %&$(#)@!, I love you, too!

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    Amy Manning, you've got that right. They got $35.41 a month, plus $30 to hook it up, and $75 to disconnect. That makes my average Charter Internet bill $50.41 per month for the 7 months of use. That's a bit pricey if you ask me.

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  4. Oooh, Cable companies just make up rules don't they! How frustrating! Sorry to hear about that.

    Glad to hear the dogs got a good checkup.

    I hate green peppers. I still have lots on the plant, waiting impatiently for them to change color.

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  5. Granny, why don't you post up their customer service email address and we can all write them and tell them what we think of them. It won't help you out, but it might give someone there a bad day!!!

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  6. Let me know if Annie loses some weight on that special diet-I-uh, have a "dog" with a weight problem too. Hm.Yep.
    Sorry about your Charter woes. Those BIG companies sure know how to stick it to ya.....as if they don't have ENOUGH money...........

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  7. Oh don't you just love the internet folks. They can really drive you crazy. We used to have Comcast for years. Then we started losing our connection constantly. It turns out we were at the end of the line before they boost the signal and they had so many people join in our neighborhood that the signal was too degraded. They of course said they weren't going to do anything about it. So we did. We left and got someone new. I really didn't need my stressed out hubby to get stressed out by trying to play online games and losing his connection and dying in the game. It is supposed to be relaxing, not stressful.

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  8. Annie is such a sweetheart... that sad little face eating her hard won lettuce leaf is almost too cute for words! She's obvioiusly an easy keeper and who can blame for wanting to eat your good cooking?!

    I hope your winter internet situation is better this year as I think we are all feeling sad about your move south again and the less frequent posts. :(

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  9. What about a wireless card or mifi? Then you could take it with you where ever you go...and only have one account. I use the Verizon MiFi card and it works great. Don't blame you for being super mad!

    Impressive peppers!

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  10. Meemsnyc, I called the kids last night, they'll be taking mega amounts of peppers off my hands today. My daughter loves them, eats them like apples.

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    TIG, that's kind of what I did with Clearwire. I plastered my complaints all over the internet. With Clearwire, there were enough others with the same complaints that I had a lot of ammunition to send to the state atty. general and the BBB. I just walked into the Clearwire office with all the complaints typed out and addressed, showed them what I had and they dropped the disconnect fee.

    I doubt it would help to give out the customer service address for Charter. Even if all my followers wrote to them, I don't think they'd know who "Granny" was ;-)

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    Sue, I know it works for "uh, dogs". Unfortunately, it won't work on Annie unless I can keep Mr. Granny from feeling sorry for her! Otto isn't exactly skinny, either. He'd put on a couple of pounds since his last checkup, too. Oh, let's just admit it.....the whole famn damily is getting paunchy!

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    Daphne, I'm about at my wit's end with them. There are not a lot of options here, and I refuse to go back to dial-up.

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    Kitsap, you've got Annie down pat. She's the one who gets in the dishwasher to lick the plates. I've never seen Otto do that. Otto doesn't get into the cupboards, ever! Annie has learned how to open them with her nose, and I often find her snooping around. Fortunately I don't keep edibles in my lower cupboards. She hasn't quite figured out the trash can, it's too tall for her, but she loves to get into that cupboard. Must be the lingering odor of garbage, LOL!

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    Apple Pie Gal, I have looked at getting a Laptop Connect card for my laptop, but the amount of data access I use makes the monthly cost prohibitive. At least I think it does...we have ATT, and their wireless website doesn't do a very good job of explaining the actual costs. I've been so spoiled with unlimited access, without having to worry that I might exceed a set amount of usage!

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  11. I'm sorry to hear about your internet woes, I can relate. I had to get an earful when I cancelled the tv. Seems like people are canceling tv and getting rid of their home phone "land lines" left and right and they are really having to resort to ugly tactics to keep the money rolling in. What this business needs is more competition, most areas are locked up tight and seem to be able to do/charge whatever they want.

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  12. Erin, so true. We have very few choices for high speed internet here, but I can go to the library and get it for nothing (a PITA). Actually, the cable company just called me back and said they would snowbird the account.

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  13. Poor dog, so desperate she ate lettuce. Does she like green peppers? Mine dogs LOVE them.

    I saw it seems the Charter woes have been lightened, sorry it has been so frustrating for you.

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  14. Kelly, I never thought to try her on regular raw peppers, but she loves "peppercicles"....strips of frozen peppers. I'll give her a chunk of pepper tonight, instead of her carrot, and we'll see how she likes it. She loves just about any veggie in its frozen state, especially peas.

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  15. Kelly, I tried feeding the dogs a green pepper, and they LOVED it! They each ate half of a medium sized one just before their dinner. Hopefully that will help fill them up without empty calories (Annie is pushing her empty dinner dish all around the kitchen floor right now, trying to catch my attention).

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