Update on Net10

UPDATE: I still have not heard back from them.

net10 screws me again.

OK, this is only the first time they've screwed me over, but it sounded better.

I signed up for net10 back in December. Got on the "easy minutes" plan (oh sweet irony on the name) Every month since then we've had a kind, gentle and easy going relationship. The money would be taken from me quietly and my minutes were given to me quickly.

Until this month. Check my account I saw that my minute mistress had taken the money, but had failed to uphold her end of our months long deal. (no happy ending for you!)

I go and check at her home (www.net10.com) and I see that she had left me a small love note. "You have pending updates click here to get your updates" She even underlined click here, does she know how to tease or what!

I gently click on her here. She tells me to make sure that I'm on, (oh, I am on), then to press continue to receive my... updates.

I click.

I follow her steps, entering in *#0, then press OK.

She then gives me a 27 digit code to enter. Fingers quivering, I enter them.

And invalid code 8. What?

Please try re-entering your code again. In red.

Oh, you're teasing me aren't you. OK, so I enter it again.

Invalid code 8.

And again.

Now she tells me to call her. Call her? Up until now it's all been word play. A safe screen in-between us. But to call her?

So I called, got the menu, followed it down the path feeling like Alice.

I get a real person and explain to her I went to the website, was told there was "an issue" given a code number to enter. After four tries, each returning a "invalid code" I was given this number and called. Was told that I would have to call back on a line line to get the minutes that I've ALREADY PAID FOR. I don't have a land line, I got rid of it to get your phone. CSR was no help, I told her to never mind and just cancel my account and that I request a refund on the minutes that I've paid for but did NOT receive. Was told that I would have to call in on a land line to get my own money back. The feeling of being Alice hit me again.

After having the same conversation with some one else told them to just keep my money and cancel my account.

The whole point of getting the Net10 was to get rid of my land line. Now I have to have a land line to get the minutes I've already paid for. Wait a minute, I see a robin coming a round again.

This is SO going on http://consumerist.com/ and www.reddit.com.

Somebody's playing with my money, and it's not me!

So Friday I had a doctor’s appointment about my back, (but that’s another story), I was on my way home from it when “BING” my iPad letting me know that I had new voicemail. (I love my iPad). I pull over and took a look. They say that there’re from the Credit Union and that they had some questions about some transactions that got put on my card that morning. Please call us and use this reference number 745 453 or you can use your card number. Hmmm, that was a convenient bit of static. I only had done the doc’s office. I happened to only be about two blocks from a branch so I rode over and talked with a CS rep. played them the message. They go, “Nope, not our office. You have to identify yourself like three times” So. I go ahead and cancel my card, order a new one which will take a week to get here. Oh well, better safe than sorry.

I go to lunch with my friend Fred and during it I get a call from the CS rep I spoke with. Turns out that the call really was from their fraud department and that the recording had been cut off. She asked me to go ahead and give them a call, get it straightened out and then to call her back so that she could un-cancel my card. 20 minutes and two phone calls later it was all taken care of. At first I was a little put off, but then when I started thinking about it, I’m glad that they’re keeping an eye on my account. It makes me feel a little safer.

My poor truck!

What a week this has been for my poor old truck. On Tuesday, I'm at work and I look down at my truck to see a ticket on it. I park with a handicapped placrie on the street. You get to park for four hours. Of course I work eight. Usually I can get a handicapped parking place if I get to work about an hour early. I don't mind that so much, I get maybe one tricket a month, So it's worth it.

Then a little while later, Carrie comes up and asks me if I consider my truck a beater. Hmmm, odd question. She goes on about how she has a car that she doesn't mind if it gets a ding as it's so old, blah blah blan. I'm wondering where this is going when she tells me that someone hit my truck while trying to park next to a fire hydrant. I go look at it and truth to tell, couldn't see where it had been hit. It's a 1995 truck after all and had a few dings already. So no biggie.

My friend Karen had given me two bags of clothes to give to our co-worker Wendy, but the bags were very heavy so I had left them in the truck and told Wendy that I would give her a ride to her car which is about two blocks away. This is a parking garage for the county employees. Of course end of day, everyone is trying to leave. I park next to Wendy's car, move the bags over and let her pull out first. As she's pulling out she doesn't back up quite enough and then SHE hits me, leaving a dent.

I think from now I'll take a cab!

My poor truck!

Yes, I still live!

Wow, I hadn't realized that it's been so long since I've updated the Blog (3-25-08). Ok let's see… We'll pick up from the apartment and the rat. I still have the rat BTW. I got a lot of good info from people reading the Blog. I put together a 57 page report with photos of my rat, the rat(s) in the apartment next to mine, a rat trying to get into my apartment and a rat flocking around in the yard outside my apartment. Signed notarized statements from the people next door and the other buildings. Also was 3 pages of who else (county offices, websites, etc) that the report would go to.

They did not evict me, but did turn it over to a collection agency. They first offer was for me to pay off the balance of my lease, a little over $8000.00, but they would settle for $2000.00. I sent them the report and explained why I was not paying. They wrote back to me telling me that they were just the agency, but they would not settle for $800.00. I didn't write them back. Let's see... what else, I've become very (very) active in my church (behind the scenes). I've taken over the website, created a Yahoo! Page, webshots, flicker. Worked on re-designing the bulletin and a complete redo of the website which hasn't really been touched in over 5 years. Gary has been doing a great job on the updates for the weekly stuff. But it really needs to be done. Then I asked to start singing with the Sunday night "Worship Singers" and that's been a lot of fun.

And as many of you know, I sing with the Southwest Florida Gay and Lesbian Choir, (I'm the token straight). So rehearsals for the Choir 2 nights' weeks, rehearsal for the Worship singers twice a week, church twice a week, work and of course. Toby. So I am sorry Jan. You're a wonderful gal and when season is over I hope to spend more time with you. So I moved into a wonderful guest house that was built in 1925. Hard wood floors, the original brass and cut glass doorknobs. Its two really large rooms on each end with the kitchen and bathroom in the middle. Big yard in front and back. The guest house is completely separate from the main house. When I rent the guesthouse the main house was empty. As I was moving in the main house was rented. It was rented to a women and her sister. The women seemed nice enough but a little flakey. At first. At first it was just her and her sister. Then her two kids moved in. Then the boyfriend. And then another boyfriend. I think that she was a dancer or something like that as she was home all day and gone most of the evening and night. With all of the tattoos and piercings that she had I don't think she worked at a bank. But she was driving a 2008 SUV, lots of nice furniture, a couple of game systems.

The other thing that made me mad was she had this dog, maybe 8 months old that she left outside all the time, Rain, shine. Didn't matter. Often without food or water. I started taking care of the dog. The only thing the dog had to lie under was a kid's trampoline and often times he would get his chain caught up in the legs so he couldn't even get under it. I watched chewing on a tree out of boredom.

The front lawn hadn't been touched in months. So I would get up at 7 in the morning out doing yard work. They'd come out on the porch and watch me. Never offered to help. The thing that really made me mad was that there's only one electric meter for both building and I was to pay a part of the bill. Now those of you who are long time readers of this blog know that I'm a minimalist. I wouldn't even be running the fridge right now if it wasn't for keeping that dang rat frozen. They would have the A/C running 24/7. Wither they were home or not. And when they were home they'd have the windows and doors open with the A/C running. I told that owner that I wasn't paying 25% of that bill. I give him a print out from the past year of what I was paying and it worked out to about $40 a month.

So I come home one day and find that the Mom moved out and left in the middle of the day. Than the sister moved out but left the boyfriend behind. So now this guy who's not even on the lease is living there, running the A/C throwing beer cans and cigarette butts into the yard. Finally the landlord came over, threw all of his stuff out into the yard and changed the locks.

Now someone else has moved into the house. He seems nice enough. Toby likes him. He's a good cook and has offered to let me share his T1 line. (oh boy oh boy). I'll keep you all updated, sooner. I promise.

--
Give the hardest job to the laziest man and he'll find the easiest way to do it. www.aklesh.blogspot.com

Help! I have a rat in my apartment!

I need help. Does anyone have any ideas about this? Who do I contact? Can I be held accountable?  

 

Well, I have a rat. A dead rat that Toby killed in my apartment. Thursday night Toby was barking at something in the bathroom. When I went in to see what was the matter I heard something moving about in the wall over the toilet.  I had planned on contacting the management after work the next day, but the office was closed when I got home. It is often closed by 5PM, even thorugh the sign states that they are open until 5:30PM.

 

The next night I was outside on the steps of my front door using my cell phone when I heard Toby making a fess inside the apartment When I opened the door Toby came up to me with a dead rat in his mouth. I immediately called the office and left a message asking what was going to be done about this and when. I wrapped the rat up in a plastic bag and froze it. There's no telling what diseases it might have transferred to my dog and I wanted to keep it for testing, if need be.

 

It wasn't until I took the rat into the office on Monday that I heard anything from management, who stated that they were aware of the problem and was looking into having "someone" put traps down under the house. They had "meant" to contact me about it.

 

I have since found out that the people next to me are also having a problem with vermin in their apartment. They have observed mice in different parts of the apartment for over a week now and yesterday I found out they have now found a live rat in their apartment on one occasions and a bloody dead rat on another. They did not keep the rats like I did, but there are photos.

 

Also one of my neighbors in the next building over has heard vermin in the walls of his apartment.  It would stop when he pounded on the wall, but start back up again within ten minutes. This is not a random happening, this is an infestation.

 

Local management has known about this for well over two weeks now and yet nothing has been done about it, but every time any of us talk to them about it it's "we're looking into it" and "we're taking bids". How long do we have to wait? I looked up Florida statutes 83.56 which states;

 

(1)    If the landlord materially fails to comply with s. 83.51(1) or material provisions of the rental agreement within 7 days after delivery of notice by the tenant specifying the noncompliance by reason thereof, the tenant may terminate the rental agreement.

 

The local management has been aware of the vermin issue since 3/12/08 and has done nothing about this issue that any of us are aware of, other then coming into the apartment to look for droppings on 3/21/08. Last night 3/25 I was using the bathroom and heard what sounded like something in the tub, but it was actually under it.

 

So I had decided to leave. I'm trying to follow the statute. I've sent them letters of grievances (there's more than just the rat). I went over there to give her the Letter of Termination of Lease and took along an acknowledgement receipt just like the statute says to do.

 

The acting manager, Milagros Gonzales refused to sign the acknowledgement that she got the letter, so I called my co-worker Karen Cartwright and made her tell Karen that she was refusing to sign it. I had signed, notarized statement from 4 different apartments talking about their rodent issues. Photos of my rat, the rats next door, rat poop, and mice trying to get into my apartment. She refused to take any of the signed forms or photos and then she told me they're not going to let me break my lease over the fact that I had a single rat in my apartment. How many does it take? She kept going on about the lease as if the lease superseded Florida law.

 

 

She then told me I had failed to give her notice that I was moving out. It was on the acknowledgement letter she refused to sign. I told her that I would type something up for her right away.

 

I typed it up, signed it and gave it to her. She brought it back to me because it said I was moving out today. (I had cut and pasted it), I fixed it, went to give it back to her and she had locked up the office so I couldn't give it to her. So I slipped it through the door. I have since faxed it to the office at 239-997-5162; I did receive a fax receipt saying that their machine received it. I requested her to fax me back.

 

So I left work early so that I could hand it to her. I asked her if she had gotten my fax, she told me she had. When I asked her why she didn't fax me back she just stood there looking at me. And that's the whole attitude of indifference. It's always "we're looking into it".

 

 

Weight loss Breakthrough

Well, I've gotten some good news today. I've been using the scale at the blood center where I donate. The last time I weighted there it told me that I was 344. I then found out that we have a scale here at work that I can use. It's one of the old weight scales. It tells me that I weigh 330. So I had my friend Karen go up and weigh herself as test and the scale at work is right. I lost 14 lbs in ten minutes!

--
Give the hardest job to the laziest man and he'll find the easiest way to do it. www.thelaziestman.com

The life of Toby and Allen

Well here's what's going on in my life at the moment. I still have some problems with missing Fiona. I'll look down to where she used to lie at my feet and not find her, but Toby is doing better. I've been dropping him off at my friend Karen's house everyday as kind of a "doggie daycare". He's never had any dogs his own size to play with so he was a little slow to catch on, but it seems that he fits right in now.

I preformed a wedding Saturday for one of the women I work with, here's some photos for you to look at. Man, just look at those ears on my head. It looks like the only thing I have to fear is a high wind!

I've gotten involved with a local church. As my Mom always said, "If there's two ways to do some Allen, you're pick the weird one!" I'll tell you more about what's going on with that in my next post.

Working for the Minutes department will be ending soon, so I guess I'll be
going back to R1ing until the next project rolls around or until the VAB
meetings start up again.

I am half way to paying off all my debts, so that by the end of this year I
can start looking for a piece of land out in the country to live on, just Toby
and I. (And whatever other dogs I'll have by then) Keep checking this spot for more updates!