I have come to hate opening the mail. It is not just that bills come in the mail; it is that bills come in the mail that are obscenely higher than they should be.
In the month after my open heart surgery, I opened the AT&T land line bill (normally $30) to find they had charged me $51 for the privilege of having a party line every time it rains. They seem to think it is a perk. It happens every time it rains and the company, who owned our phone lines prior to AT&T buying it, was working on fixing it. They never charged me $51 to come out and say, “Duh, I don’t hear it, because I came out four days after the rain and the lines are dry.” Even though they heard it when they tested the line.
That same month, Cingular cell phone company had a bunch of charges on our bill for features that I had specifically told them to make sure were shut off, so I would not open the bill and have a heart attack. They wrote these off our bill; bless their little heart.
And, finally, that same month, I opened up our DirecTV bill to find an additional $500 tacked on for certain movies. Not a thing that someone who has just had open heart surgery wants to see, trust me. The next month, as I fought the first bill, they charged me an additional $300, for more movies.
Okay, I have a husband and three grandsons in the house. I understand that they like to look at girls and I’m sure that girls sans clothing would be even more attractive. But, none of them are stupid enough to purchase six movies at one time (for which we were charged), nor to watch the movies for a month, in a room that everyone walks through and can see, nor to spend $800 on movies of any kind.
During the time of the purchases, we had company for Thanksgiving and we were gone for Christmas, and some of the movies were bought while the boys were in school. And, yet, DirecTV told me they must have watched these movies, because that is what boys and men do, and we must have had someone come into our house and watch during the time we were gone.
Well, what I do, in these situations, is turn to the internet and find out how many other people have the same problem. LOTS!! In fact, I found class action law suits against DirecTv for the same charges. I found a person who did not even subscribe to DirecTV and was still billed for watching movies “men like to watch.”
I also found out that you cannot find the address of the CEO of DirecTV. I am sure there is a way, but I have no idea what it is. I fought this for six months. I had automatic debit to pay that bill, as I used to do when a bill is the same amount every month and I cancelled that, and will never trust them again with my card.
During the fight, I had at least three operators tell me that the movies were watched in a pattern that people do when they steal your signal and information. And, how do they do that? They do that by the phone line that DirecTV tells you to have it plugged in. Did you know that you do not have to have it plugged into a phone line? None of our receivers are now. That was the only receiver plugged into the phone line and all movies were supposedly watched on that unit, despite the fact that one other unit is in a bedroom, where you can shut the door and have privacy.
The end of the story is that I fought long and hard enough that, while they refused to refund the money (Thank goodness our mortgage payment did not bounce.) they did give us a credit on the money and so we were paid up for about ten months of DirecTv bills. I think they made us promise to keep the service for another year too.
And, after this was settled, they sent us a very nice (sic) letter, informing us that, while they were crediting us for this bill, they, in no way were admitting that the service was stolen from our unit, we must have watched $800 in movies in, what amounted to, a one month period.
The lesson is. No direct billing for DirecTV. Do NOT hook your phone line into their receivers. And, put a password on your account.
I think the lesson here is to whittle down your technology as much as possible. First, I have no cable TV. I can live without that. The next thing to go is going to be my land line telephone I think. We barely use it. Usually just telephone solicitors call it and that’s certainly not worth $50 a month. Yes, it’s good to have in emergencies, but that’s a lot of insurance for a phone. Internet can go soon too now that everything is going wireless and I can suck a signal from anywhere. All these telecommunications companies have us over a barrel with their hidden fees and charges and they know we’re all too poor to challenge them. Bah!
I keep threatening to cancel the cable, but with husband being disabled, it’s about the only entertainment he has. He listens to music a lot and works at learning the guitar but other than that it is sudoku and solitare and his eyes bother him so he can’t do that for too long.
When he became disabled, pretty much overnight, he was riding bikes, playing tennis, cross country and downhill skiing and he loved playing volleyball. Now, he sits.
IF we can get high speed out here in rural Indiana, my land line is definitely going. But, considering our electricity goes out regularly, I’m not holding my breath. At least my land line is only $30 a month. The problem with the land line is deregulation. You now have no “right,” even though you pay your bill each month, to reliable service. I think that lack of care for customer service has been at the root of some of the economy problems.
It’s always interesting to me that people move to the country because it’s cheaper to buy property, but by the time you add up all the inconveniences and the constant driving and the extras you have to pay for for not being central, I can’t see much of a savings. But then there’s the quiet and the peace and the healthier air. Well, you have a lot of challenges, my friend. At least you have the blog to vent with!
Hi XUP,
It is definitely NOT cheaper in Brown County, Indiana. Property prices, when we moved here were astronomical. That is why we ended up in this crappy house.
We moved here because it is an art community and I had reached probably my zenuth of art patrons in Wyoming. When I lost my job as an Adjunct, at Casper College, (the bookkeepers said enrollment was down and the tenured professor -whose classes were not getting enrollment got to take over my full enrollment classes), we just decided that it ws time to push the art more. My younger daughter, the mother of the three boys I am now raising, moved to Kentucky to join a radical Christian cult and we desperately missed our, at that time, nine grandchildren.
A dear friend of ours said, Hey move to Brown County, sell your art and you will be closer to me, and to husband’s elderly mom and his siblings, and my eldest daughter Like idiots, we sold a house we only owed about $18,000 on, and which was twice as big and very well built. The electric heat was super cheap too.
Now, we live in a very small, very poorly made and not insulated house. The roof is starting to leak, the wind blows through, the electricity goes out a minimum of once a month, the phone line is a party line every time it rains.
We do have four gorgeous acres and towns are only twelve miles in any direction, but the roads are windy and idiots, even the one with the Hummer, drive down the center of the narrow road and meet you on a hill. Keeps your adrenalin going.
I will say that my income went up the first year and doubled each of the next two years. Until I got sick and not having insurance, I was exhausted so that I eventually could not work until two years later I had open heart surgery.
As far as quiet, peace and healthier air. The neighbors burn everything (plastic, wood, whatever) so that husband goes to bed at 7pm and the airconditioner makes it colder in summer than winter. peace is a billion loose dogs barking all night. But, sometimes, it is wonderful with all the stars in the sky and a quiet, moonlit night.
I do love it here. I have made good friends and I can get into art when I want. We really don’t see the relatives or our friend all that much because living is more expensive here so there is no money left over. But, life, like the economy will turn around, some day and I do get to see my oldest daughter a lot more so that has been great.