Why You’re Here!. 

We all know what state the economy is in.  Everyday in the news there is another company closing its’ doors and tens of thousands of people losing their jobs and subsequently their life savings and ultimately their homes.  Each day, if we’re one of the lucky ones to still be working and keeping our heads above water, we face new challenges as we tread.  If you’re paying attention, I mean really paying attention, you find that seemingly inconsequential events are occurring at every turn.  We do however, tend to overlook these events, depending on our current state of mind, until the frequency increases.  With these increases our stamina for tolerance begins to wane.  More and more peoples moods are changing and there is an underlying tension.  Big companies unethical practices are making small changes that effect us in a huge way.  It’s time to make them accountable for their actions. Although we complain no one is listening.

I started this blog so that we can point fingers, name names and share our stories.  The more we are aware of the “small changes” the more chance WE have of making a change.  Then instead of wondering, “Will Anyone Pay Attention To Us? WAPATU,  we can say somebody finally listened!!!

I came across an article while doing some research. I found this paragraph of interest. Click the title for the full article.

“About the U.S. Postal Service”
A Very “Business-like” Semi-governmental Agency
By Robert Longley, About.com Guide

“Under federal law, only the Postal Service can handle or charge postage for handling letters. Despite this virtual monopoly worth some $45 billion a year, the law does not require that the Postal Service make a profit — only break even. Still, the US Postal Service has averaged a profit of over $1 billion per year in each of the last five years. Yet, Postal Service officials argue that they must continue to raise postage at regular intervals in order make up for the increased use of email.”

AMAZING!

Here’s the background info to my latest aggravating episode: My grandmother an absolutely wonderful woman passed away at 93 years old in 1999. She was an incredible person, full of life and so much fun to be around. And, she would regularly “mimic with her tongue”, (for lack of a better description), the song “Turkey in the Straw.” It’s a song etched forever in the minds of anyone who knew her.

A couple years ago, my sister’s husband surprised her with an the Animated Animation Cell Steamboat Willie. It’s this adorable animated rendition which also plays the song. A few years later my other sister found one and purchased one on the internet. Each time we are together, we gather in front of this wonderful reminder of grandma, play the song and reminisce; complete with tears and emotion. It’s a touching reminder of a person that will remain forever in our hearts.

My dilemma: I want one. There were 275 pieces made. It’s a collector’s item and they are nowhere to be found. I regularly search the internet via Google and Ebay and any other means available. In the last few years I have come across two for sale. The first was $400 which I did not have at the time. The second was on Ebay this past week with a starting bid of $149.99.

Normally, when I actually search for something on Ebay, I only search the “Buy It Now” category. I never liked bidding on items. When I want to buy something, I would prefer not to play games. A direct purchase suits me fine. Unfortunately, in the case of “Steamboat Willie,” I had no other option than to bid. My plan was to continue to watch the item and sign on and bid at the last minute, not wanting to drive the price up. I decided that the highest amount I would pay would be $200 knowing that I would be negotiating with myself at the last minute to go higher. It would have been nice if I had gotten the opportunity to do that.

With two minutes left on the auction, I place my first bid at $155. From here on in Ebay’s practice is a joke. For anyone that is unfamiliar with the way their auctions actually work, I’ll tell you. When deciding that you’d like to bid on an item, you can enter the maximum amount that you are willing to pay. You place your first bid. During the auction, each time someone bids higher than your bid, Ebay automatically enters additional bids on your behalf. They continue to do this throughout the auction.

My participation in the auction went as follows: As I stated I placed by first bid at $155. I was immediately (automatically) outbid. I was notified and it was stated that I should place my next bid at $157.50 or higher. I entered $157.50 and was immediately (automatically) outbid. I next bid $165.00 and the bidding jumped to $239.00. HUH? As I was ready to bid just above that, the auction ended with an automatic winning bid of $249.39.

Now, maybe I do not understand the concept of an auction. Wouldn’t you think that if you’re bidding on an item and the highest bid is already set at $249.39, that all participants should be apprised of that information? I had no chance what-so-ever of knowing the highest bid and no chance to win the auction. Unless, of course I wanted to play the game and enter an exorbitant amount to secure the item.

As far as I’m concerned, it’s just another scam for another company to cash in. Obviously, the higher the selling price the more Ebay makes. I had wanted that item, as I stated for sentimental reasons and was upset from that perspective because I lost. However, I found myself more upset by the fact that I got played. I can assure you that I for one will never bid on another item on Ebay.

The synopsis:  My internet was down on Thursday night.  Now, this is not an odd thing when it comes to the service from AT &T and since it was late my assumption was that it would be back up Friday morning.  I’m still not sure why I even make assumptions when it comes to their service, but I was wrong.
Upon further investigation I realized that my modem power light was solid red rather than green.  Being down this road before I went through the usual steps, unplugging, resetting and powering back up.  Still red so I called AT &T.   In order to avoid the whole process again, I informed the internet service tech that I had already gone through all the steps to see if I could get my modem up and running.  He told me that he would run a series of tests from his end to see if it was a problem with the modem.
To give you some background information; the modem is just over a year old and just out of warranty.  The tech came back on the line and told me that he ran his tests and that there was a problem with the modem and that it needed to be replaced.  He said that he would arrange to have one sent out at which time I told him that I work online and couldn’t afford to be down.  He gave me the nearest AT&T store to pick one up and informed me that it would cost $60.  I responded that I spend way too much money with AT&T and that if they are going to charge me for the modem I am going elsewhere with my business.  He wouldn’t budge so I asked for a manager.
When the manager came on the line she told me that she understood the situation and that since they didn’t want to lose me as a customer, she would send out a modem free of charge.  When I again explained that I could not be without the internet and that I would prefer to pick it up she explained that the only thing she could do in that case was to issue me a credit after I purchased it at a store.  Since my trust in AT&T is so unwavering,  I chose not to believe that I would be issued a credit and she told me that it would be shipped overnight to me at no cost.
That was Friday morning, now Monday afternoon, still waiting.
Now the question I pose.  As I previously stated, my modem is just out of warranty.  Also, I’ve explained that the AT&T service tech was running tests to see whether or not my modem was bad.  I ask you, if they have the capabilities to run tests on my modem from who knows where, wouldn’t they also have the capability to screw up my modem so that it isn’t working correctly and of course requiring me to buy a new modem at my cost?
It’s difficult not to wonder how all that works.  Anybody have any answers?

I awoke around 8:00 a.m., quietly got out of bed and came downstairs to put up a pot of coffee. I turned on my laptop and proceeded to do whatever it is that we all do trying to keep up with the incessant emails and such. Having gone quickly through the emails I decided to start painting. Nine months ago we bought a portable school building to be used as a game room (another story) and the building has fourteen florescent lights. I am painting the fourteen lenses to look like stained glass. The reason that this is relevant to my story is that I put a light behind it as I am painting. As I was setting myself up with everything within my reach the AC / heating unit shut down with quite a bang. This was odd but I paid it no mind.

Ready to go, I hit the switch on the light which didn’t go on. Figuring it was the light bulb, I put a new bulb in. Again, it didn’t work so I tried one more bulb. Nothing. The next steps I took were to check the outlet, change the extension cord and run around the house like a madwoman trying to turn things on. Mind you all I really needed to do was to look at the microwave and observe the absence of the clock readout. Establishing now that the downstairs was without power, I ran upstairs to check there. Still no power which finally lead to my first of many calls to FPL (Florida Power & Light).

Upon calling FPL and doing the multi-button response system, I was informed that they were aware of the problem and a technician would be out to assess the problem. Just to make things clear, there were no storms, no hurricanes, no winds and the temperature outside hovered in the mid 30′s, a record low. With the temperature in the house dropping rapidly and no means of warming up, we waited. About one hour later I went through the routine and again called FPL to see if there were any updates. I received good news. A technician would be out and would fix the problem and we would have power back on around 2:30 in the afternoon. We bundled up and patiently waited and by 3 o’clock I was back on the phone. The new time was set to be 5:45, but miraculously the house lit up at 4:00. This was perfect, just in time for the temperatures to really drop with the evening coming. We ordered our pizza!

Well, obviously I wouldn’t be writing if it were all that simple. At 6:00 we would have sworn there was a poltergeist the way lights and appliance were going on and off and flickering and then we were in the dark again. The new information was that 137 people were out of electricity because of a problem with a main line and the latest update for repair was to be at 10:45. At this point we were getting envious of some of our neighbors as we listened to the sound of the incessant hum of their generators. Not much else that we could do other than cuddle and wait.

Mike decided he’d best be under the covers in order to avoid a further chill so he went to bed. I sat with my son, Scott under a blanket, by candlelight anticipating some indication that we would actually get warm nights sleep. By 11:30 p.m., I called again. FPL would have the problem resolved by the end of the day, “tomorrow“. Monday. I do understand that some things take time. I don’t understand how much money we have to keep feeding FPL in order for them to actually come up with a method of prevention or a viable solution to a power outage when the temperatures get cold. So frustrating, so cold, so uncomfortable through the night.

Monday morning we woke to mid 30′s temperatures again. Mike was going to work and for the first time ever, he looked forward to it as he would have heat in his vehicle. I, being currently out of work needed a plan of which I had none. In addition, having originally fended off catching Mike’s cold, now I was sick. My plan was to go to my sister-in-laws until evening to keep warm. What was it I said about the best laid plans? Mary, who normally doesn’t go into work, needed to go in Monday. I picked up my first of many cups of coffee for the day and headed home.

It seemed useless to keep calling FPL, but I made one token call only to receive the same info…the end of the day! I bundled myself and busied myself at one point realizing that it was warmer in the garage than in the house. I took 3 trips to the gas station to buy hot cups of coffee and took my time doing so as the heat in the car was amazingly comforting. As I straightened up in the garage, I listened to the neighbors complaining and when a FPL truck finally showed up around 2:30 I thought somebody would crucify the guys. At 4:00 the power was on.

It had been a long cold one and my phone hadn’t stopped ringing with concerns and offers. I let Mike know we were good to go and I returned all other phone calls, reassuring everyone that the drama was over. I turned on the heat, fired up my laptop, made myself a cup of tea and put my feet up to relax.
Still sitting in the same position at 7:00 I started noticing on my computer screen the reflection of the fluorescent light behind me; it was flickering. This occurred for a while on and off so I figured “better safe than sorry” and I called FPL this time pushing the buttons to eventually reach a live person. I explained that the lights were flickering, but we still had power and the response was that she would have a technician come back and assess the situation. No sooner did I hang up the phone when half the house went dark. It was at that moment that Mike walked in from work rolling his eyes as he came to the realization that we were still at the mercy of FPL.

Mike being a service technician is knowledgeable in a vast amount of technical situations and took it upon himself to check our electric lines coming into the house. His meter read 115 volts and considering it should have read 220 volts we obviously still had a problem. One “leg” was not working coming into the house and thankfully it was FPL’s responsibility and not ours. I made yet another phone call thinking it best to give the technician a heads up as to what he was dealing with. Upon calling I was finally connected to a person to whom I could explain the situation. I informed her that half of our electric had gone out and that we were only receiving limited voltage. Her rude response caught me totally off guard as she replied, “you should be happy that you have some power working, there are still people that don’t have any.” Not the right thing to say to a paying customer who has been without electricity for two days in record low temperatures. I simply hung up.

About one hour later a nice gentleman came to investigate our problem and Mike told him our current situation. He acknowledged the problem and told us that someone would be back before 12:30 p.m. to do the repair. We called again an hour after he left to make sure that the order was in and were told that the electric lines would be repaired by the end of the next day, Tuesday. Frustrated, tired and cold we retired for the second night in a row in mid 30 degree temperatures.

At 3:30 in the morning, Scott was knocking on our door. FPL was at the house; they hooked up a temporary power supply and would be back by the end of the day to do the repair. As long as we had heat and power we could wait. We were however only using one thing at a time that pulled 220 volts. When I turned on the stove, I turned off the heat and when I turned on the dryer, I turned off the stove and so on.

Well, about 8:15 p.m. Tuesday night, just as American Idol had started, the doorbell rang. So silly me I commented to Mike that I didn’t want them to work on it and shut down the power at that time. Yes, we enjoy American Idol because sadly enough watching people make fools of themselves is just about the only thing on TV that you can laugh about and laughter is good. Anyway, Mike answered the door to find the same nice gentleman that had come the night before. He was inquiring as to whether we had power. I guess my husband loves me because he told the man that we were fine and that we had no complaints because he didn’t want them working on the power. Now I ask you, if you had this huge power supply on the side of your house that the electric was running off of and you really weren’t sure if it was sufficient enough to maintain the essentials in your house, would you consider everything fine?

Now it’s Wednesday evening and I have no changes to report. We still have power and with it heat and no sign at all today of FPL. My assumption: American Idol starts again tonight at 8 o’clock. Wanna bet the doorbell rings at 8:15?
I’ll keep you informed.