Easy Come, Easy Go

Yes, I’m still dealing with the repairs to our back porches.

Lucky for the association I’m unemployed and can spare the time to make sure these repairs are done properly.

Now the Porch People did come out about a week and a half ago and made 95% of the needed repairs.

It’s just that last 5% that needs to be completed.

Naturally the only person who was bilingual (English & Polish) had to leave the site; my attempts to communicate with the rest of the crew was futile.

They only did what the bilingual master carpenter directed them to do. Any further repairs weren’t going to happen that day.

I was on the phone to the Porch People before the work crew left our property.

The rest of the repairs needed to be scheduled so we could be done with this business.

Of course a game of phone tag ensued.

It seems that my phone calls to the master carpenter were about as useful as dialing for Oprah tickets.

As luck would have it, the office manager is out for a few weeks.

My persistent phone calls to the office paid off as someone else finally picked up the office manager’s messages.

He said that he would have to check schedules but the work should be able to get done shortly.

I’m kind of afraid what “shortly” means.

It’s because of the Porch People’s crappy follow up they will be banished from my links at the left side of the page.

Anyone can love you when you give them $90,000 of your money, but who’s gonna slap your ass and call you Sally when you call them on the mat about the quality of their goods?

Moreover, who’s gonna give the love when the aforementioned goods need follow up care?

This blog aside, I know tons of people. When I like what you do I can (and will) talk you up.

There are so many people and businesses that get professional referrals off of me it’s absolutely ridiculous.

Apparently the Porch People won’t be one of them.

Oh Happy Day

Comcast is on it's way out the door!

The Dish/ATT cable guy is here and I'm (hopefully) mere minutes away from 250 chanels for my viewing pleasure.

Oh joy, oh rapture!

Plotzing

Why did my cable go out an hour and ten minutes prior to the Soprano's series finale?

Naturally I didn't get my reception back until around 9:00 PM the next day. That's the type of love south side dwelling Comcast subscribers receive.

Now Comcast's system could of been having problems in all parts of the city or the region, but somehow I seriously doubt that.

In retrospect, it was good that I couldn't get any information via the TV as I hadn't seen the epissode and was trying to avoid any and all commentary about the show.

Of course I had a sneaking feeling that when my cable starting going on the fritz late Saturday night that problems lie ahead. Just once I'd like my inner voice to be wrong about these types of things.

To add insult to injury the brain trust at Comcast waited a full 24 hours before a "system problem" was officially identified. Hell by that time the most anticipated television finale in recent memory actually was a memory.

Thank God for encore presentations & on-demand.

'Cause I'm telling you I could of dropped a brick Sunday night. I was just plotzing all over the place. While I wasn't happy, I managed to put the whole incident in perspective---no one was bleeding, I still had my health and the earth was still spinning on it's axis.

I also knew that it could of been worse if I had my cable, internet and phone with Comcast. On Monday my friend Rita told me that one of her neighbors was cut off from the outside world entirely. She couldn't get on the internet or make a phone call until late Monday night.

How much would that suck?

So I built a bridge and got over myself. Oh yeah and also folded the clean laundry that was piling up on my bed.

Nonetheless that night I started investigating my cable options.

Comcast is on it's way out in my household. I'm not paying for continuing crappy service and even crappier customer service policies.