Fun in Looneytunesville...

Today... I tried to pull Peter's chestnuts out of the fire again.

No, not financially.

Battling the local Telecom.

Peter has been very ill for weeks now, and should have been in hospital. And I would have slapped him right in there... except... if I had called and he weren't in critical condition, and said he didn't want to go.... well, game over. I didn't have the 'authori-TAY' to do that.

And I was mostly in bed, with an intestinal infection, asthma, depression, what have you, I could barely do much.

And on the days I couldn't muster the energy to go there, I thought, 'Ok, he's gonna haveta call for help, and finally do it himself....' Except he didn't.

And several days ago, his phone connection got capped because he hadn't been able to go to the bank and pay his outstanding bills.

So two days ago, I dragged myself over there, got the money out of his account, paid the bill, and normally, if this happens, you fax in the receipt to the Telecom, and in a matter of hours, service is restored.... Normally....

So early this morning, I called the service line to get the fax number, because these aarrrsholes don't have it on their bills or stationary. Just the service line number.

So I gave them his client number, explained that the outstanding amount had been paid, and I wanted to fax it through. And the corporate fun began....

'Oh.... they cancelled his connection because the outstanding rate was too high. We sent him a notice...'

'Errm, we are talking about a very ill man here, who can't get out of his house alone, and needs a connection. Can you reverse that somehow?'

(There was a lot more, polite, but I was so steamed, and still kept my composure. For one thing, the person I was calling wasn't responsible, so why berate her? And as they say, you can catch more flies with honey than vinegar, you know? )

So we went back and forth, and I assured her it had been paid the day before, as I had done it myself, in cash. (Not mine, his.)

And she gave me the fax number, saying do it fast, or it would be deleted forever. And call back at noon-time.

Damn!

So I zoomed over to my former work-place, and my favourite former colleague was on duty, and I asked her to fax it asap. Which, of course, she did.

That was shortly after 8 a.m.

BTW... we have a cold snap... it had to be -10 degrees outside. For us, that is extreme.

So I came home to get warm.... made some hot tea... and waited, watching yesterday's news on the intertubes.

Which depressed me even more. How did so many crazies get into government positions, hey?

So... being a 'good' boy, noon rolled around and I called again.

EXCEPT. The shifts had changed, and the 'lady' I spoke with was 'polite', but actually nasty. Here it is always in the inflection, and implied, but believe me... not good.

Upon which... I remained calm. And polite. And we had a forty-fucking minute conversation. Where I explained how imperative it was that he at least had a telephone connection, as in several days ago he fell out of bed, couldn't get back into it, and had to call the fire department, who helped him back in....

(Why he called the fire dept. is beyond my understanding... he was afraid of calling an ambulance, I guess.... he is so messed up these days.... but they did it... seemingly.)

And THIS woman was hard as nails. 'No, the connection has been fully capped, and if he wants it back, he has to ask for it in writing and sign it, and it has to be faxed to us. And it should be done soon, because we can't do anything before Monday, and it may take a day or two, and as you might know, Christmas is just after that.'

DOUBLE WHAMMY!!! HEY...

WAY TO GO....

I just said, Yeah, I know... Ok, will do..' But was seething.

(Subtext? 'I don't know what confession you are....')

As I might know'....

Well Jeebus H. Christ and the dinosaur he rode into Jerusalem on! Probably a TRex for all I know...

Now, I have to admit... if you learn a language in later life, you end up having a slight accent. You can try and try, but if you didn't learn to roll your 'r's' as a baby, it's gonna be there. Mine is honed down fairly, and most people can't place where it comes from, but this 'person' clearly thought I was an Islamist, or something.... It was crass.

So... it was back on the busses way across town, to get a statement signed from Peter that he wanted to have his service back. Which I have to fax off tomorrow morning, because I was exhausted.

Doesn't matter, no one does anything on the weekends anyway.

And will do... because the horridays are coming.

The 'best' part of this is.... his telecom connection is connected with his tee-vee, radio, and internet connection, so everything is dead, and there is silence there. Total silence.

I don't know how many times I have told him to just have all that stuff automatically booked off his account, and it wouldn't have happened. But no.... and then I have to run around trying to 'fix' it. And listen to some arsehole imply I don't know what Christmas is.

Ahhh, Advent... when the spirit of helping your fellow man is so great, and everyone feels so cuddly.

If you are the CEO of some bank, probably...

Too bad Dickens died, and most of his books are out of print.

And oh yes, I keep seeing ads on MSNBC programmes.... for T-Mobile. I didn't know they worked that market, and believe they are from here. I'd stay away from them.