Today was a strange one but a positive one.

I’ll start with Verizon. (From the pissed consumer series). I received a call from a Miss Lima (just add her name to the hundred others on the list) who I think responded to my second complaint from the Public Service Commission. She was calling to explain that her colleague’s phone (remember I was trying to contact Ann Marie in corporate and couldn’t?) was broken. Um, I knew that, I was the one who told them. I was the one who thought it was kind of ironic that a corporate executive at Verizon didn’t have a working phone. I don’t think Miss Lima saw my humor. She told me I could now leave a message for Ann Marie. But, mind you, Ann Marie was on vacation until July 1.

Now I ask you, do I care about Ann Marie? She never called me back last week. Someone else got my case and it was still in limbo. I said to Miss Lima something like: do you expect me to wait that long; can’t you deal with this??

It seems:

• my second phone line has been moved back to copper but doesn’t get incoming calls. Now the tech dept, has to get involved. I told her I didn’t have use of the phone for two weeks at least and wanted a credit. The line costs $15.80/mo and she said she’d give me credit for the whole month. She ended up crediting me $30.
• I complained again about the unlisted number charge of $3/mo and we didn’t see eye to eye. So many people told me/promised me different things: that I’d never get a bill, that I should have gotten a bill that I will get a bill after a year, that I won’t. She credited me $36, enough to cover a year. But I previously had been promised I would not get a bill for a year at all. Maybe this was hush money for now. I’d pay me off to keep me from calling the Public Service Commission again.
• my system is “back on Fi-OS”
• digital voice mail would be removed at my request (five times I asked) as it it screwing up my line

Now let’s see how long all this takes and what else gets screwed up.

looking up

In the meantime some of my family flew down to Florida to see what they could do to settle some business that needed to be done for the move. In the apartment were: my mother, the aide, three family members, a mover and member of an organization that moves seniors. That’s seven people doing all kinds of measuring and yacking in a tiny apartment. So why not add to it? I got a phone call from Ann at the Broward County Health Department following up on the rat bite complaint. She arrived with the head of maintenance (the guy who was supposedly working on this months ago and whom I caught in several lies). That makes nine people and a bunch of rat droppings. Let’s just call it bupkis on the floor again. There you go, the report is in and the place is going to be monitored. (It is usually inspected annually, she said but that is clearly not enough and she was grateful for the call!)

In the meantime the mover provided an estimate and a possible floor plan for the new apartment in New York. Photos and plans flew back and forth electronically and my mother and her wonderful aide were worn out and treated to a nice dinner. Actually, everyone was worn out. Finally a decent meal! My mother was in the real world. She was talkative, active, mobile and happy.

She was worried about the New York and the warmth of the climate. This is what climate is all about.

This series is linked: see “continued here.” Also, below the line there will be links for the previous post and the next.

The series starts here

continued here