A Random Act of Blogging

I’m absolutely livid with Comcast at the moment so if I ramble then that’s why. Why am I “livid” you may ask? It is because of 7 bucks. Yup.. 7 dollars.

I’m a TiVo user, and have been for a while. About 8 months ago, I decided to bite the bullet and get a Comcast HD DVR, because my TiVo’s were only Series 2 (non-HD) and I wasn’t willing to pay 200-500 bucks to upgrade my TiVo. That’s when I signed up for Comcast’s “Triple Play” or whatever it was called.

I signed up to pay 113.99 a month + 5 bucks for the HD-DVR + whatever taxes and federal fees. I won’t get into how crappy the actual DVR is, I think everyone knows the equipment is sub-par. But never-the-less, I did it and had HD on my nice big tv, which I enjoyed.

Then for Christmas my wife bought me a new TV for our bedroom. For a while I limped along with my other series 2 TiVo on that until Comcast’s “Forced” digital transition which made that TiVo completely obsolete because Comcast’s “free” box wouldn’t play nice with my dual-tuner tivo (smart of comcast I suppose to try to force out Tivo from peoples houses).

So I broke down and ordered a second HD DVR from Comcast. The person told me that that DVR was going to cost me 13.95 a month, which was close to what I was paying Tivo so it wasn’t that big of a deal (other than the fact that the Comcast DVR’s suck, but again, I won’t get into that).

When I got my first bill, I saw the new DVR charge for 13.95, which was expected. Then I noticed another charge that snuck its way in. There was an ADDITIONAL charge for 6.99. WTF!!! So this second DVR didn’t cost me 13.95.. it cost me 20.94!!!!!

I called and complained, I felt sorry for the customer service guy I was talking to because I was pissed. Yes, it is ONLY 7 dollars, but it was the fact that I was already choosing to pay for an EXTRA dvr and then to get this tacked on without being told and for no real good reason. I was told its to have the digital service to my house. WAIT! WHAT! What the hell is the first $114 for.

The next day I went to the local Comcast office and they told me the same thing. I didn’t want to cause a public scene so I left without saying a word. I then went directly to my office and order a brand new TiVo for $200. Yes Comcast, I gave TiVo more money because they deserved it and not you.

So I returned my 2nd DVR expecting to see that 13.95 + 6.99 charge drop off and I ordered a CableCard for 1.79. I asked the person on the phone, “How much will this cable card cost?” and I was told “$1.79 TOTAL.” I was happy with that. Finally I was getting a TiVo back (not 2 like I had, but close enough)

So I get my bill last week and guess what I see. Comcast took away my “Free DVR” (I paid $5 since it was HD) and raised the price of DVR I did have to $15.75 and kept that damn $6.99 charge on my bill! AHHHHHHHHH!

Ok ok.. so the DVR price changed and it was a computer glitch that screwed up the “Free DVR” thing and that is getting taken care of. But the flippin $6.99 is STILL THERE. I asked WHY! and the customer service person said, “Well it’s because of the CableCard.” I about lost it. WTF was I told that the CableCard would cost me $1.79 TOTAL when in fact it costs $8.78.

Again, what does my friggin $114 a month cover?

I’m paying for Digital Service, if for every device I want to recieve digital service requires me to pay $6.99 in addition, then I’m not really getting Digital Service for my original $114 a month am I? All I’m paying for is getting “serviced” if you know what I mean.

I am this close to just calling it all off. Switch internet to DSL, Switch my phone back to the PHONE COMPANY and moving to Satellite. I’m tired of BIG companies thinking they can nickel and dime their customers to death and not be called out on it.

Personal Comcast

It’s Monday already? Seems like the weekends should be longer. I’ve been fairly busy the past week which accounts for my lack of posting, yeah, that’s why. And, as has been my excuse in the past, I still don’t know what this blog should be about.

I’ve never been that good of a writer, so I guess I’ve just hoped I could learn if I write more often. But, for me, the lack of a subject makes writing very painful and feel more like work than anything else.

I could always talk computers or games or whatnot, but those subjects seem way overdone. Oh well, I’m sure it will come to me. For now, you all will just have to suffer. Heh, you all, who am I kidding. I took a 2 year break. No one is reading this anymore.

Peace out.

General, Personal blogging

Literally!

I started working out at the Courthouse a week ago and have had a pain in my neck ever since. I’m guessing I strained something since my body wasn’t used to any sort of exercise (desk job for the win!).

Anyway, gonna pop a couple more Alleve and hope for the best.

Personal exercise

Apparently I’m upsetting people by not posting. What is better.. to post junk.. or not post at all. I’m sure the jury is still out on that one. But at least I now have something on here newer than January.

Honestly I just haven’t been motivated. But I guess rambling on here is better than dead air right?

!—- Begin Rambling —–
Ok, so it is Spring Break time. Looks like so far the “honey-do” list has the following:

1. Clean garage
2. Paint family room
3. Refinish hot tub (not likely to get accomplished)
4. Clean moss off of roof

Really its not too bad yet. The problem is we’re going to be gone for 4 days of the 7 Spring Break, so we’ll see how successful I am at getting it all done.

Boy its hot in the office today. I’m not looking forward to a Spring/Summer of this. It would be nice if the air conditioning worked.

!—- End Rambling —-

Have a nice day.

Personal

Wow has it really been that long since I posted last. Sorry about that. I’ve been so busy keeping up with a forum that I run. We had an explosion of traffic when the game it is based on added us to their fans page. So, needless to say, I’ve been a little pre-occupied with that. Well, I will make my best attempt to not continue to ignore this site, which I’m thinking needs a little re-design.

I’ve had this design for a while now and I think its time for something different. I don’t really have anything in mind though, I guess its time to start doing a little sketching to see what I can come up with.

Personal, blogging blogging

Well you may or may not care about where I’ve been spending my time lately, but I thought I would let everyone know anyway. Pat and I have started up another website. This one is definitely a ‘niche’ sort of thing since it pertains to the game that we spend much of our free time on. So I’ve been working on getting that all prettied up for prime time which is reason for some of my neglect here. Sorry ’bout that. Seems like I post alot about not posting. Maybe I should post about that. Hmmm.

Anyway.. I’ll see if I can’t rustle up some pertinent content here soon. But then, what is pertinent? Well that is the beauty of being the author, I get to decide.

Personal, Websites of Interest (or NO Interest)

Wow.. a week has gone by and I haven’t posted a thing. Sorry about that. Or maybe you were relieved. Well a few things have happened in the past week which kept my attention, yet I didn’t post them here… hmmm.

I swapped out my Sponsored Links with a new company called AdBrite. They work a little differently than what I was using. With AdBrite, others can actually buy ad space on this site and I can approve/disapprove the ads that get placed. So there is a little more control. We’ll see how it works out. If you have a blog, give AdBrite a shot. Or, by all means, advertise on my site if you’ve got something to sell.

Also, I mentioned that I received a Wordpress.com invite last week. Well, I went to set it up today and the invite doesn’t work anymore. Not sure why. I’m wondering if they had a 7 day expiration on them. I guess that’s what I get for dragging my feet. I’ve resubmitted my email address, hopefully I can get lucky twice.

Well that seems to be sufficient enough for now, maybe I’ll pipe in a little bit later with less, err I mean, more interesting stuff.

Later.

Personal

Finally got a pic of my new truck thanks to my wife. Here it is:

Purdy, ain’t she?

Personal

First, thanks to all of you who gave me some much needed feedback and opinions to my request for advice. I bought an ‘02 Chevy Silverado 1500HD Crew Cab on Sunday, September 19th. Its Green. Its a Truck. I like it. ‘Nuff said.

Anyway, I haven’t taken any pics of it yet. I’ll see if I can’t get on that soon so everyone can see what they helped me pick out. So, that’s it for now. Just wanted to throw that out there. Let me know your thoughts if you have any. Otherwise, see ya.

Personal

Ok.. maybe not desperate, but I need help making a decision. The funny part is, I don’t know yet know that either decision is achievable. As some of you may know, I just bought a new van back in June, for my wife. She had been driving our Expedition and I was driving our old 1994 Plymouth Voyager (please refrain from jokes). Well, now I have the Expedition and am wanting to trade it in on something else. That something else is where I am having a problem.

The practical side of me says that I should be looking at buying a truck (for some reason a Ford truck is what I am hooked on). But the “not-quite-mid-life-crisis” side of me can’t help but REALLY WANT a new(er) Mustang.

Now I already own a ‘65 Mustang, but I’ve got a craving for a more modern pony. Something of the GT caliber. But this is where the more practical side kicks back in and says, “You’ve already got your Mustang, it just needs some love, go and get a truck.”

My wife wants me to get a truck for a few reasons:

1. A truck can fit all of our family
2. It would be very nice to be able to haul stuff without borrowing.
3. Trucks are better suited to take camping (don’t want to take the new van)
4. Did I mention they can fit our family
5. …. I’m sure there’s more

I’ve heard, understand, and completely agree with a lot of these reasons, but I still can’t seem to shake this want that I have. So now I ask you, my valuable readers, for any and all advice you may have regarding this situation. If you were posed this same question: Truck or Mustang? What would you do?

General, Mustang, Personal