Saturday, July 26, 2008

Oh Happy Day!

This ... is a good day in my household.



Casey Blake is traded!


If I could do a backflip ... I would.


This is the silver lining I needed on this horrible Indians' season.

Friday, July 25, 2008

Very Rarely ...

... does an article I read online make me want to stand up and cheer. This one did though.



(Ryan, I hope you can appreciate the humor behind the way I phrased this. No offense intended, 100% honest.)

Sunday, July 20, 2008

A Joke

Ok, so I'm a sucker for groaner jokes. The kind that make you groan, because they're so stupid, but yet you can't help but at least chuckle at them.

So, here's my favorite, and I'd love to hear your favorite "groaner" joke(s)


Two termites walk into a bar

One looks at the other and says "Hey, where's the bartender?"

The Power of Words

Yes, it's been a while since I've blogged.

So what.

I'm sure my readership of 5 has survived.

Anyways, I have a nice anecdote of how I saved $38.

So, Friday night, our Dish Network service went a little crazy. And by a little crazy, I mean that USA network refused to tune in, even though every other channel did. Which made me more than a little upset, because Friday night was the season debut of Psych.

But, I dealt with that, and watched something we had on DVR.

So, Saturday morning rolls around, and our Dish Network service is even more on the fritz. No channel is tuning in. So, I go online to Dish Network's live chat help desk. And through an hour of working on it, I finally get it back to where it was Friday night: USA not working. At this point, the program/person I was chatting with informed me that the only solution was to have a technician come out at a charge of $29. I told the program/person that I wouldn't pay that, and asked to speak to someone else, so I was instructed to call and talk to someone on the phone.

So, I called. And I got someone who at first wanted to walk me through all the steps I had spent an hour walking through with the online support. Once he realized I wasn't happy with that, he simply had me walk through to get him the readouts of the signals, and he concluded that the only solution was to have a technician come out for a cost of $29. So, I reminded him that if I simply moved my address, they would bring me a new dish for free. He was unimpressed with this information and told me there was no way to remove the fee, as I was already getting a $70 discount on the service.

I then made no mistake in the level of my voice as I asked Rachel "Do we still have the coupons or DirecTV?" This changed his tune a little bit, but he was adamant that there was nothing he could do about the fee. I told him I was frustrated that my four years of loyal service meant nothing, and that I was shocked that Dish Network would lose a customer for a measly $29.

And then he made a big mistake.

He said "Sir, I understand how you feel"

I snapped back with a

"No, you don't understand how I feel. You're not in my situation, and you cannot possibly understand how I feel. I'm in sales, sir, and I understand the trick you're trying to pull, and I can guarantee you, it won't work on me".

in quite the emphatic tone. And that's something I'm careful to never say to anyone. Because it's true: I'm not in their situation, and I don't know how they feel. I may have heard similar things, or been in a similar situation myself, but I don't know how they feel. But that's enough of my sidetrack.

Apparently, this was enough to finally change his tune, as he came back with "well, I can give you a credit on your next bill of $29 to cover this, so on your next bill, you will see a charge of $29 and a credit of $29. Is that acceptable?"

Of course, this is what I'd wanted since I made the phone call, so I said it was. Then, he informs me that he cannot schedule a technician to visit me until Friday. Which meant I'd have to go a week without the full service I'm paying for. So, I asked him if he really thought I should have to pay full price for a partial service for an entire week. He started to say one thing, stopped himself, and with great reluctance said "I'm authorized to give you a credit of $8 on your bill this month because of the inconvenience, is that acceptable?"

Well, it was, and that's how I went from them wanting me to pay them $29 to them giving me back $8.

Not bad, I'd say.