Stijn!!

[RKDinOKC]

Guy starts to leave the restroom without washing his hands. A guy washing his hands comments that the Army taught him to wash his hands after relieving himself. The other guy says, "In the Marines they taught me not to piss on myself."

Had two brothers that were Marines, and one was Air Force. Both of the brother that was Air Force's sons joined the Air Force after HS. One was crew chief on F-111 other crew chief on C-130. Grandson of one of the Marines is currently top of class at West Point. Wants to fly helicopters.

[RKDinOKC]

Graduated HS in 77. Aced the ASVAB had high grades and high ACT scores. Got called by recruiters for 2 years. Told them all they had to do was to agree to pay for my college and I would sign up. All they could offer back then was ROTC for $100 a month. And at that time ROTC was a pretty sad way to enter the military. Would have been happy to go to one of the military colleges like West Point or Air Force Academy had it been offered.

[Flieger]

Is it bad that I feel good about being rude to the cable company?

They roped me in (via telemarketing) to a deal that would supposedly be $5 less per month than what I was paying, if I upgraded to DVR and home phone. I said no but they said my bill would go up $20 at the end of the year of subscription so I relented, thinking the DVR would be cool. The guy said it came with HBO or showtime or starz or something and I said I didn't watch any of those but he said I got one for free so I said HBO. They installed the stuff July 3 and everything was good until a couple days ago until I got my bill and it was $40 more than I used to pay!

I called them up and sounded about as irate as I could (which isn't much) and most importantly I won the hold music standoff (must have been a half hour). They said I can get the same stuff I have but without HBO and it would be $130. I said you gotta be kidding me! HBO is $40 and I was told it is free?

Then I told them I wanted this months bill reduced too. I was told it would be. Today it was still at $164.50 balance so I called them again just now and got a little more pushy, waited them out, and have assurance there will be a $40 credit to my acount in 24-48 hours.

It is nice to get results from getting angry. It's like I'm 2 years old again. Feels good to relieve that pent up anger.

[slodave]

I used to get calls from the L.A. Times. Wanted to give me great subscription rates. I always told them I already get the Times... They look it up and "No, we don't see you getting the paper in our records". I assure them that I do and it's free, so if you can offer the same deal free or pay me to read the Times, I may be interested. That usually pissed them off and they would start yelling at me about credit and other BS.

I do get the Times delivered and it is free.

[slodave]

Cable company did it to me as well. I called them to cancel my service, as my TV died (Aug/Sept/06). I gave it a month and called to cancel. They tried so hard to keep me, despite the fact that I told them repeatedly that I did NOT have a tv.

[Flieger]

Originally Posted by slodave

I used to get calls from the L.A. Times. Wanted to give me great subscription rates. I always told them I already get the Times... They look it up and "No, we don't see you getting the paper in our records". I assure them that I do and it's free, so if you can offer the same deal free or pay me to read the Times, I may be interested. That usually pissed them off and they would start yelling at me about credit and other BS.

I do get the Times delivered and it is free.

I was kind of thinking while I was on hold- what would Rick say in this situation?

(I knew if I tried what Jeff would say then neither the person on the other end of the line nor I would know what I just said )

[Flieger]

Originally Posted by slodave

Cable company did it to me as well. I called them to cancel my service, as my TV died (Aug/Sept/06). I gave it a month and called to cancel. They tried so hard to keep me, despite the fact that I told them repeatedly that I did NOT have a tv.

I knew if I didn't get what I wanted I could just pull the cancelling subscription card. I've heard it works quite well.

[Flieger]

How do you get the LA Times delivered for free? Perk of your apartment?

[slodave]

Mr. Mason, we're prepared to offer you free HBO..

I don't have a tv...

Mr. Mason, we're prepared to offer you free HBO and Showtime..

I DON'T HAVE A TV!!!

[Flieger]

Originally Posted by slodave

Mr. Mason, we're prepared to offer you free HBO..

I don't have a tv...

Mr. Mason, we're prepared to offer you free HBO and Showtime..

I DON'T HAVE A TV!!!

LOL. I took the home phone line (meaning they replaced my modem) as part of the deal but I don't have a phone.

[slodave]

Originally Posted by Flieger

How do you get the LA Times delivered for free? Perk of your apartment?

I have my ways... Perk of my parents.

[slodave]

It took another year to get off the "personal" mailing list from Time Warner. I still get the generic mass mailings now and again, but not much I can do about that.

At least there's no more:
"Mr. Mason, we are prepared to offer you 400 digital channels, plus 10 premium digital channels, all for the...."" I DON'T HAVE A DAMN TV!!!!".

[RKDinOKC]

Friend got the Uverse ATT internet tv phone thing. Everything has been down for a week and he took off work 3 days waiting for their repairman they said was coming that finally came today at 3:00pm calling him at work and asking why he wasn't at home waiting for him. He made the service guy wait till he got home from work at 5:30. He called and complained and they say he will not be billed for this month, we will see, eh?

I have a business internet account that the company I work for pays for since I work from home and they think I need a static IP address. The TV, phone and internet are all on the same account but the business internet is somehow different. They keep calling me wanting me to sign up for their bundle of Cable, TV, and Internet that they can't do since my internet is business. Kind of pisses me of because they used to have a home business deal that was basically free TV and phone for the cost of the business internet.

I called couple of months ago to get rid of some TV services I wasn't using and it ended up costing me $30 more even after dropping the services. About ready to go thru the hassle of setting up my own internet TV system and get rid of the cable TV altogether and move Mom's land line phone to the cheapest basic phone service I can find.

[Jim Richards]

Buongiorno, y'all.

All this talk about the cable company makes my BP rise...must.stay.calm...I had to battle Comcast for a couple of months in a row this past spring. Same kinds of tricks that you guys have mentioned. We now only have internet service. If I could, I would drop even that to deny that POS company any of my money.

[GH85Carrera]

I have been a customer of the same cable company for over 25 years. I am on automatic bank draft so when I get the bill it always says DO NOT PAY THIS BILL. My wife insists on several premium options so she can watch football. We do get the F1 coverage on Fox Sports so that is a bonus. With the high speed internet the bill kept creeping up. I called and asked to talk to customer retention. They reviewed my long history, automatic bill pay and after I explained I was the dream customer they gave me a discount of $20 per month. All I had to do was ask.

[GH85Carrera]

Originally Posted by RKDinOKC

Graduated HS in 77. Aced the ASVAB had high grades and high ACT scores. Got called by recruiters for 2 years. Told them all they had to do was to agree to pay for my college and I would sign up. All they could offer back then was ROTC for $100 a month. And at that time ROTC was a pretty sad way to enter the military. Would have been happy to go to one of the military colleges like West Point or Air Force Academy had it been offered.

I asked my dad once how he ended up in the Air Force as a career officer. He went through ROTC in college and near graduation time he walked into the recruiting area. All the services were there with the fancy dress uniforms and propaganda for their branch.

He started with the Navy since he was a Sea Scout as a kid. He talked to the recruiter and as an officer he would be at sea for 6 months at a time on many occasions in a career. That did not appeal to dad. He talked to the Army and back then they did not have much of any fixed wing aircraft. It was almost all choppers.

The Marines were just owned by the Navy and did not appeal.

The Coast Guard just did not appeal to him at all.

The Air Force guy explained the flight training program, and that at the end of the day he could go home to be with the family. That part did not work our real well since he was gone on TDY a lot and one 18 month remote assignment with only two days with the family.

I remember many occasions after he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel during the week he would not put on his uniform in the morning because the base commander or one of the Generals would call and ask him to meet him on the golf course that morning. Of course when the General asks you to join him it is not really just a request. It was just amazing how the best tee times were always available to the Generals. He said they did discuss the current crisis as they played but it was pretty good duty.

He paid his dues with many trips to Greenland, and virtually every remote island in the Pacific. If someone asked him about Christmas Island he would just cuss about it. He did travel the world and I really need to convert his map of the world of countries he has been to from analog to a digital format.

[RKDinOKC]

A great good morning, group.

[RKDinOKC]

[flipper35]

Originally Posted by Porsche-poor

Tell us how you really feel.....

OK. First, it was the joke I referred to earlier so I posted it.

I will say again that I have nothing but utmost respect for those that are in or have been in the armed forces. I really don't think it can be said too often. I had recruiters from the five services visit while I was in high school. My eyes eliminated me from serving where I felt I would have been able to contribute productively. Also, anyone that has gone through basic is thick enough skinned to take a joke. Well, that and when we vacation to the east we will give Hilton Head a very wide berth.

[flipper35]

Originally Posted by HHI944

made some adjustments for ya!

Thanks!