Monday, September 16, 2013

Land of milk and honey?

What happened to America?

When I left in 2007, sure America wasn't a shiny penny. She had her problems, things were never perfect, but you could still be proud. You could still hold your head high and declare with absolute confidence, "I am an American!"

Being out of the country really opened my eyes to how the rest of the world views us. Namely that we are loud, abrasive, overly emotional people who do everything big with utter abandon. And that's not always a bad thing, but it has to have it's place. I'm still proud that when you walk around during any of our holidays, there is no doubt in your mind that there is something special. Christmas? Lights, singing, fake snow blanketing southern California. Thanksgiving? Turkeys, pilgrims, Indians, cornucopia. Halloween? Every other house is haunted. Flag Day? Oh yes! Talking loudly and obnoxiously on the bus day? Well, there isn't a specific day for that, it's year round.

My point is, Americans are loud and boisterous, and yes, sometimes obnoxious, but I like to think of it in terms of us being puppies. We're lovable.

Our Country, however is not.

What the hell happened in the 5 years I was gone? Yeah, things weren't perfect when I left, but things have seriously turned into a shit storm now! Since being back I have been completely screwed over by several "big businesses." It's like the lawyers and politicians lost all accountability to the general populace and have turned the Country into their personal trash pile.

Kaplan University lied, charged exorbitant amounts for a joke of an education, and now, when I'm desperately trying to find out the steps I need to take to fight this conglomerate, they are harassing me on a daily basis. They've put the onus on me to come up with proof of what I've claimed. Ok, give me the recordings of the phone conversations where I was fed the lies. No? Can't do that, huh? Then I refuse to speak on the phone, all future contact needs to be in writing. But they don't like that because it gives me the power to produce the proof they're desperate for me not to have. In fact, when I do answer the phone when they call, there is no answer on their end, AND THEN THEY DISCONNECT!

Go back and read that last sentence again. Yeah, you read that right- they call me, then hang up on me.

But now it's happening again. Time Warner Cable is in my bad books. We cancelled and switched to Verizon. Why? Because Verizon put us on their fiber optic line. TV is clearer and internet is faster. But the biggest reason that we switched was that Time Warner kept lying to us. And they're still lying!

We woke up one morning with no tv, no internet, and no phone. Using a cell phone, we called TWC to find out what was going on and were told there was a line fault in the area and technicians were currently working on it. We took the dogs for a walk and returned an hour later with still nothing. Called again to see how long until they expected the line fault to be fixed and were told, "What line fault?" The first person we spoke to had made it up. There was no reported line fault and we were the only ones who had called with no service. They did something on their end to get service up, but tv never came back. We had to drive down to the shop and pick up a new box.

The new box had a lot of problems, too. The reception, never brilliant to begin with, was worse and it started dropping channels and changing channels randomly. We'd be watching a show and suddenly, the channel would change. But it was on the same number, just the wrong broadcast, so it would take several tries to get the correct broadcast back.

When we called to cancel service and were asked why, I tried to be nice and said it was because Verizon was putting us on their fiber optic line. "Do you know we also offer fiber optic?" came the response. Then why are we on copper? When we initially signed up we asked about the fiber optic line since Steve works from home, but were put on the copper line anyway. It's not until I cancel that they decide to try to offer us more.

But the real complaint here is what happened after we cancelled. We went into our old bank to close out the checking account we no longer use since it was getting those $10 service fees, but there was no money in it. That's when we found out that TWC had switched the payments. When we opened an account at the credit union, we switched all our monthly payments to that one. Including Time Warner. And the payment came out of the correct account for 2 months, before mysteriously going back to our old account. The one with no money in it. So, of course it was over drawn because the bank let the payments go through anyway. We paid the amount, and closed the account.

When we took the TWC box into the store, we were told we would receive a refund of $37 plus our original deposit amount of $50. So when I was expecting a check for $87, I was rather surprised to receive a bill for $53. Steve called and talked to a rep who apologized for their mistake and assured him it would be fixed. Then I got another bill for $53. Steve's away on a conference, so I called. Apparently, there was an outstanding charge of $115, don't know what for since the monthly statement is $53 and those have all been paid, or at least they were 2 weeks ago when we cancelled service. It truly sounds like dirty business dealings.

And this is my whole point. What happened? Why are businesses so dirty now? What happened to the regulations that used to be in place to protect consumers? Has America really fallen so far that there are no decent people in powerful positions left?

I'm disheartened and disillusioned. Proud to be an American, ashamed of my Country.

No comments:

Post a Comment