I am posting this for my own edification, lest I forget and need my notes for phone rage.

Part 1 Follow-up: Verizon: Last week, just as I was about to sit down and try to relax the mail arrived; in the pile was the first Verizon bill since the ongoing service fiasco. The last post was here. Now I will add this: my bill was over $850.00. So much for sitting down and relaxing — I subsequently had to spend about two hours on the phone, again in an attempt to straighten this all out. Just when I thought it all was over, having found out that I seem to have a new account number because of all the changes and my last check was written to cover it but somehow confused in the process, just when I thought I could breathe a sigh of relief, the last of the three or so people I spoke to would not take ownership of the account confusion. Nope. She left a message for Ann Marie, the woman at corporate who supposedly was fixing everything, dumped it on her and told her to call me.

Did she call you? She didn’t call me.

Subsequently, when I set-up my mother’s new cable service I had no choice but to use Time Warner as it is in the building. I thought I had to use Verizon for her phone and it would have cost me over $60/mo for a plan bigger than local. When I spoke to the fellow from Time Warner I asked if he could do better.  I got my mother a basic cable package which runs about $60 and didn’t want to add another $60 for the few calls she makes. I opted to take a digital voice package through Time Warner, using their cable for about $25 with many features that Verizon didn’t offer. So there. The only problem is that IF there is a power outage, and we don’t get them often if at all in this area, she won’t have a phone. I’ll take the chance.

Part 2 Follow-up Stinky Cat Food: The last post is here.  The morning after the big stink and cat food can explosion (which was followed by a shlep back to the store, the owner embarrassingly running to the doggie grooming area and scrubbing and spraying and spritzing my stinko cans of cat food), I still detected that weird odor. At that point it was a mixture of botulism and puppy perfume. I decided to go back, waving my customer is always right attitude and confront the owner. Let’s put it this way: when he saw me at the door and I deferred to other customers ahead of me and waited patiently, he didn’t look like he was going to serve me tea. A discussion ensued with an old lady giving my, pardon the expression, cans, the sniff test. “I don’t smell anything,” she said, siding with management. I rolled my eyes at one of the employees who only speaks Spanish. I waived a can that developed a huge dent overnight. “Fine, no problem, I’ll exchange that but I am going to lose too much money if I throw those cans away,” said the guy who tried to bend over backwards yesterday but today wanted to put a muzzle on me.

I put my cyber-sword away and vowed that despite the fairly good prices I wouldn’t return. And I would call the supplier.

I just happened to have been given the rep’s card the day before, I called Merrick in Texas, I relayed EVERY detail from stink to finish and agreed to email a copy of the entire receipt. I told the young lady that my receipt reflected thirteen cans of her food, that I try a lot of different grain-free cat foods and they seem to like the “Before Grain” brand. That about fifty or so cans of food were sprayed with the fetid yucky can and were given at least two baths. The young lady was so taken by what I went through she is sending me coupons for TWO CASES! The store owner should have had the same kind of reaction. If I don’t return he loses…maybe I should come back and wave the coupons in HIS face. “Go ahead and call, no one is going to do anything for you!” he said with his all-knowing semi-stutter.

What I find disconcerting is that this is the THIRD issue I have had with cat food in a matter of months! Purina DM, which I can only get from the vet is shipped by Fed-Ex and I think the drivers have soccer matches with the cases during lunch. I called the company and informed them of entire cases DENTED and even popped open and ended up with a coupon or two for replacements.

Then I had to deal with a recall for salmonella from Evo dry food and then my replacements were recalled!! There is something horrible going on here. Yes, the companies end up contrite and make good but at what cost to time and effort on the consumer’s part? (Just giving cats cooked chicken for example is not enough. There are certain nutrients added to the food that make it complete so buying and cooking a farm load of chicken per week isn’t going to cut it.)

So, in the words of Roseanne Roseannadanna, “it’s always something.”

May your phone always ring, may your bill be correct, and may your cat food never stink.