I have to get this off my chest. I have other funnier posts kinda working their way out of the rafts folder, but this one, this one has to get out now. NOW.
If you don’t know by now, we’re a family of 7. My husband, myself and our 5 daughters. My husband works long hard hours at his job. Sure, he gets a lot of overtime, but, uh, we’re a family of 7, oh, and we’re building a house without taking out any loans. I stay at home with those gorgeous 5 girls – have you even tried to think of how much it would cost to put 5 kids in daycare – even if a couple of them would be part-time?! Oh, and I am still diapering 3 and a half of those 5 (night-time potty training a nearly 5-year-old… ugh).
So, money can get tight. I am not complaining. We have little extravagant expenses that aren’t needed for daily living, but sure as hell make it a little nicer. Cable, internet, XM radio, that pesky BlackBerry addiction I’ve picked up…. With all of that I can’t help but look for deals to make those little perks bigger perks. Act like a total sweetheart and the local cable office will give you some pretty sweet deals. Have a husband who works his ass off for a company that gives out a pretty nice discount with certain cell phone providers and the BlackBerry addiction is fed. Look around online and see that certain companies are offering a really sweet deal for current customers and you gotta call them to get in on it.
That’s what I did tonight with the cable company. I ended up getting off the phone an hour later being accused to stealing cable and paying exactly what we’re paying now for what we have now. I was looking to save money by either getting in on a deal that would get us more channels than what we’re getting now for less than $10 a month. Hell, it was an online only deal, but I was hoping they could do it over the phone because for some reason I couldn’t do it online even though we should have qualified for it. If they couldn’t do that, then I would drop Starz which was costing us $7 a month and we watched no times a month.
Instead I was told that I was paying for, like, channels 2 through 15 but was getting 16 through 113 for free. That I should be paying $40 more a month for those channels and if a dude drove by in a van and saw what I was doing, he’d cut us off. Huh?
First, the customer service rep sounded like she wanted to keep this between us, but that I was still at risk for having it cut off without any notice. When I fought back that I didn’t have anything to do with the set up of their system and when I had called previously to get our cable re-hooked back up (we had turned it off for several months a while back when husband’s hours were severely cut back) that I told the person what channels I wanted, was told that to watch the local HD channels I would have to use the digital cable box (and pay $6 a month for it) and that it would cost so much per month – plus that $6 a month for the box but we could also get Starz for free. Whatever, I went for it. It was in our budget and it sounded agreeable – rather than calling DirecTV and getting that shit hooked up again.
Instead, in our account, it said that we’re only supposed to have those certain low channels and because I, being the responsible non-thief that I am, told her what channels we did get I was accused of stealing cable. Now, the rep was getting pissed off (even though I kept my cool and kept telling her that this was a shitty position to be in on both ends) and told me that those upper channels (and we’re not even talking about digital cable – just regular cable) would be turned off unless I wanted to pay an extra $40 a month.
Sigh. This is long. It was a long and stupid conversation on the phone as well. We kept going around in circles and I kept trying to get her to see things from my point of view. I threw out the kid/triplet card. I don’t have time to go into the local office – I have 5 kids. I need the fucking Disney Channel – I have 5 kids! Five girls! Who love their damn Disney Channel. She asked how I did it. I told her I didn’t know, especially since three of them were triplets.
After all of that she magically found a deal (where no deal was to be found before) where I would be paying what I ma paying now for what I have now. Um, connect the dots and maybe that’s the deal I had in the first place when I called and something got jacked up in your system?
I was too frustrated and near tears to even bring that up.I just bent over and let Mediacom shove it up my ass again. Lovely visual, but that’s seriously how I feel. I thought I would feel better writing this out. In one way I do, but I still feel like shit for being accused of something there’s no way in hell I could have pulled off on my own.
An hour on the phone… so much time I could’ve spent doing laundry – which HAS to be finished tonight. Instead I am staying up late, writing this and living with the knowledge that the cable will not be magically turned off in the middle of Jungle Junction.
Mediacom, I cannot wait to move and get out from underneath your greedy smelly thumb.
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