Saturday, July 1, 2017

Small Victories, Accomplishments in the midst of the battles









                          I've been working on getting everything taken care of as far as getting all of the bills changed over into my name, accounts paid off, and what ever else may arise out of nowhere. The first battle was with Time Warner  / Spectrum. The account was in my husband's name so I talked my son into driving with me to the local business. The building was packed with people and my son having just gotten off from work had no desire to sit and wait as long as he said it would take. Being that I now knew where the place was, I told him that I would take care of it later. The following Saturday I was up early and drove on over. I was amazed that I was able to simply walk in and up to the counter. I spoke with a very nice young man who immediately set to work. He warned me that it would take a while so after he got what he needed from me I took a seat and waited. It took about thirty minutes but he got it set up and I signed off on what I needed to and left the building. I went for groceries and then home. My son met me at the door asking if I had been to Time Warner. When I told him yes, why? He informed me that we had nothing, no phone, no television, no internet. So I call. It didn't take long before the technician on the phone had everything working again. A nice little computer glitch.
                          When I had it changed into my name, they told me that I was now a Spectrum customer, but that my bill would be cheaper. It was, but then some of the channels that I liked was missing from the lineup. To get them I had to subscribe to a couple small programming groups, but it would still be a little cheaper than what we had been paying. A quick call to Spectrum and I was all set. I thought. When the bill came it was much higher than I was told and it said there was money owed from somewhere that made no sense. We had been auto pay and there shouldn't have been anything owed past due or otherwise. So it was back to Time Warner Spectrum. This time I had to wait, even though I was the first person there, but not long. I honestly didn't care that someone jumped ahead, it wasn't that big of a deal, the bill in my hand was. After getting up to the counter and speaking with another nice customer service rep. she told me she had no idea what they were doing there but that she would discount it to what I was told it would be. I immediately paid the bill I owed and went home. Once here I set up an auto draft, but it still showed I owed the money she had taken off. On  Monday, I found a nice little post card in the mail demanding payment of the money owed. This time I got on the phone and called the main customer service number. A very nice lady listened to my story without interruption and then put me on hold while she checked. When she came back she told me that apparently the card had been sent out before all the adjustments were in place because the account showed I owed nothing.
                          Small victory.
                           I was in search of a good place to get the headstone for my husband's grave. I tried to call the number of a place that I had been recommended, but was playing phone tag. I hate playing phone tag. I got the folder of markers from the funeral home but the same day I was told of another gentleman who was very good. I called the number given and set up a time to go see him.
                           My son took the day off from work to go with me as I was going somewhere that I had never been and all of the directions I had been given were unique to say the least. I have absolutely no sense of direction while my son can say, I think its in that direction and head out and it be in that direction. We got to the place and I spoke with the gentleman at length. A very nice person he allowed me to take my time and see what all stones he had to offer. After making my decisions and finalizing my choice and what all I wanted on it, he gave me a self addressed stamped envelope to mail him a check as I had managed to walk off without my checkbook. All of this was on a Saturday morning. The following Thursday the headstone was in place. My husband, remember, passed in March. This was a victory- accomplishment that was a long time in coming. The stone is simple, not too large but not too small either. I think if he had been making the choice, he would have been pleased.
                         My current battle is with our wireless provider. I've been to them and had everything changed to my name. I was told that since I did that the auto pay had been discontinued and I would get a paper bill. I did get a paper bill, but it was in my name. The auto pay has also not been stopped as they debited my account. I'm not paying double. So its either a phone call or another visit. I believe it will be a visit first as I really do not enjoy talking on the phone to begin with, and doing something like this is even worse. I want to see the facial expressions of the people I'm dealing with.
                            I'm waiting to see if the car/ house insurance is going to auto draft out of the right account. That should happen within the next couple of days. I know the holiday is going to possibly throw everything off, but maybe not.
                             I have been told numerous times that all of this will take a while to get settled. There are going to be things that appear out of nowhere. There are going to be things that I thought I had handled that still need something done. As in the account that said I owed x amount, so I wrote a check for x amount only to receive a bill saying I owed money still. Another call to be made Monday.
                             And I wonder why I don't sleep well at night.

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