Whatever

When we got home today and checked the mail there was a familiar red envelope in the box. Upon closer inspection it was a clever advert for the service. Inside were four cards, offering 1 month free trial to Netflix that you would hopefully pass out to your friends and when they signed up you would get a bonus movie shipped to you from your queue.

Sounds cool, but I won’t be passing any out and here is why, when you sign up you need a valid form of payment (most likely a credit card, but I’m sure direct debit from a checking account is an option) and this I understand, but the part I don’t like is that they will automatically start charging that card or whatever if you do not cancel before your month is up. I’m not stupid, I know why they are doing it that way, they are betting you won’t remember to cancel in time and they can charge your account. They are also betting you won’t even see it on your monthly bill and can probably get a couple months of money before you figure out what happened. That just smacks of sleazy.

How about playing fair and using the opt in policy, send a couple three emails after the three week time frame and ask if they would like to continue? We had just recently considered giving someone a gift of Netflix for Christmas, but decided against it for the same reason.

We picked up the cable converter box last night, but I didn’t hook it up until just before leaving for work this morning. I didn’t have time to put the batteries into the remote, but when the TV was tuned to channel 3, I did get a cable channel.

Tonight when we got home from work there was a message from the cable company saying they had a man at my house at 3:15 PM to upgrade my service and I should call back and reschedule. Huh? I didn’t need any upgrade, when I asked for the converter box I told them I wanted it so I could have the digital basic line-up. As the woman handed me the box I also asked did she need to program it or anything (the last couple years this was the procedure) and she said no. So I was mystified as to why they needed to send someone out, until I checked the channel line up, I didn’t have any of the upper channels (which is what I wanted.) Guess I better call them.

I dialed the local number and was greeted by a message stating that the number was no longer in service and I should dial the 1-888 toll free number. I did and it was answered after one ring and I was dumped into voice mail hell. Press 1 if you blah, blah, blah, Press 2 for yadda yadda, Press 3 for whatever, etc. I try 1 and get a secondary menu with no options that I need, press 9 to back up one menu. Try 2, but that leads no where as well. Third time is a charm because I just punch in zero for a customer service representative. Wait, wait, wait while listening for advertisements for their internet service, their phone service and a friendly reminder that on February 19th of 2009 I better have all my TVs hooked to their cable or I’ll be out of luck. The office is less than a mile from my house so just about the time I decide to just unhook the box and take it back, I get a human. Dan takes my info and asks some basic questions: Is the box hooked up? Am I home and in front of it? Do I have any picture? Yes, yes and yes. He says, “Let me send a signal to your box.” “Try a channel above 100. Anything?” No I tell him. “Let’s try again,” he says. “still nothing. He suggests “re-booting” the box. I unplug it, wait 10 seconds and plug it back in. A sequence of lights flicker and I’m in business. Dan comments that he didn’t know why they didn’t do that in the office. I tell him I didn’t think that the woman I was dealing with yesterday in the office was the sharpest crayon in the box.

How come I can set a couple different lists of favorites, but I cannot subtract channels I don’t want to see, or hear, in the case of the music channels?

Our plant is No Smoking inside, has been for years, but apparently some people on the off shifts think it is OK to take a few puffs every now and then in the restrooms. First a simple smoldering cigarette with the international red slash through it stickers were placed on all the bathroom doors. Didn’t totally eliminate the problem. Then they placed some official looking signs that had the word NOTICE on top with the phrases No Smoking, No Eating, & No Drinking in every restroom. I guess that wasn’t totally successful either as now we have some 8-1/2 x 11 laminated sheets of paper tacked to all the bathroom doors that say, “Smoking in unauthorized areas of the plant is prohibited and will result in discipline action.”

I’m no English major, but shouldn’t that be disciplinary action?

I have been trying to have a glass of red wine with dinner for a while now, the antioxidants or whatever are good for heart health (I also read Playboy for the articles.) After a bit of experience I have decided that I like Pinot Noir [PEE-noh NWAHR] the best of all the reds. I am working my way through the varieties at my local grocery store in search of my favorite inexpensive (under $15 a bottle) pinot. The latest one I found has three monkeys on the label in the classic see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil pose and it is called Pinot Evil.

Cute, I thought at first, but the more I analyzed it, shouldn’t the label have just one monkey standing upright with his back to us and stream of er, well, you get the picture…