Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Ma Bell Has Been Disconnected/Goodbye (read: GOOD RIDDANCE) to Centurylink

After..decades..a lifetime..of business with what was originally Bell Telephone company and then going through several of it's offshoots, I have finally severed my ties with a company that at one time was above reproach, had the best customer service around and was a pleasure to deal with.

It isn't so anymore and after 6 phone calls, having one person hang up on me and several others put me on hold, I am done with it - Centurylink.  I am not going to go into the details of today's phone calls excepting to say that I was interrupted countless times; talked over the top of numerous times and basically treated like a piece of dog dung.

Is Cox going to be any better?  Well right off the bat, I am paying the same as I was with Centurylink but I have 32 average mbps compared to around 5.3 mbps with Centurylink.  Thanks for playing.  That alone is enough.  I am sure Cox Communications incoming call centers are probably no better than anyone else's, but Centurylink's management  is atrocious.  Beyond the incoming call center, up to the executive offices, it is the most abhorrent company around.  They are, absolutely, worse than Direct TV.  I can't stress enough to you the fact that Direct TV's customer service is absolutely abysmal, but usually, when you talk to upper level management, you are treated much better and you are usually happy with the results.

Centurylink?  The treatment of their customers is the same: bottom-of-the-barrel, whether talking to the first person or talking to whoever, wherever, with whatever title.  I can only give kudos to the field tech supervisor, he was top-notch and he did the best with what he had available to work with. What he had to work with is underground wiring that has needed upgrading for quite a long time now.

Enough.  I did not know that Independence Day falls on a Thursday this year.  Gag.  I can't even tell you how it is to go get a day off in the middle of a work week and then have to go to work the next day after that holiday.  I should have checked.  Take the day off.  But, it's too late and I will just eat that one,.

I stopped at a QT today for my version of an energy drink. I don't do RedBull and the like, I have NEVER had any of them, save one I think once and I did not like the feeling it gave me.  QT has fruit smoothies and has various additives you can put in them, one of which is an energy addition.  I do it occasionally, it also has yogurt in it.  I was going through the entrance door and noticed a man walking up to the trash can.  I stopped and watched him remove the lid off the can, rummage around and pull out a QT beverage cup that still had something in it.  He put the straw that was still in the cup's lid up to his mouth and took a deep draw off of it.

He then went inside the store, refilled the thing and walked out.  I said nothing, just watched while ordering my smoothie.  I would have bought him something to eat, but he walked away, not asking anyone for anything.

I'll tell you something that gets me, completely changing the subject, really - well burns and fumes would be words I would use but since I am referring to campfires, well anyway.

The Tonto Forest has a complete ban on campfires. Well, on all kinds of things:
The following are prohibited: 
1.      1.      Building, maintaining, attending or using a fire, campfire, charcoal, coal, or wood stove, anywhere on the forest, including fires in developed campgrounds.
2.      2.      Smoking, except within an enclosed vehicle or building.
3.      3.      Discharging or using any kind of firework or other pyrotechnic device.
4.      4.      Discharging a firearm, except while engaged in a lawful hunt.
5.      5.      Using an explosive.  An explosive is defined as any chemical compound, mixture, or device, the primary or common purpose of which is to function by explosion.
6.      6.      Operating a chainsaw, or other equipment powered by an internal combustion engine. 
7.      7.      Welding or operating acetylene or other torch with an open flame.

  I remember the days when there were no bans.  People didn't fires unattended and in several cases, end up burning down hundreds of thousands of acres of forest.  We cared and we knew what we were doing.  We put our fires out and that was that.  It didn't matter if the forest was bone dry, as long as we had an effective fire pit and we were monitoring it, there was never a problem.

Those days are long gone. I understand the Forest Service need to to ban all of that, they tried everything else for years and years and it didn't work, some people simply don't care.  The forest and it's magnificent beauty if meaningless to them. It's just another place to go get drunk.  Or get into the cool weather.  Whatever.  It just sucks that even on private property up there, if you have an open fire in a very well-built pit, the forest rangers will come along and make you put them out and yes, issue citations.

Oh well.  Hopefully the "Monsoon Season" will bring some rain up north and the severe restrictions will be lifted, even if only temporarily.  When we get enough rain and the forest is wet, then and only then will they lift the bans.  But summertime in Arizona, it's pretty much automatic: get int June and that's it. Too many morons out there.

Done. Another work week drags on. Very little to do. I did spend half of today running doing returns and pickups, but the only delivery I made was in the pickup and it was worth less than $400.  

Time to head to the bedroom and get ready for early sleep.  I didn't sleep well last night and if there is a repeat, I figure to go to bed early enough so that when/if I wake up in the middle of the night, I will already have a handful of hours of sleep accomplished.

ben



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