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We borrowed Tom's Mifi and Renee's Ipad to just check things out and see if there's a new way for us to go, connecting wise. The Mifi seems as fast as our two modems and we can save a lot if we change. The IPad is just plain fun! It's 2 finger typing but ok for short posts...an amazing piece of technology. BTW..4G is not available to us here. That will be a great change!!
Several months ago we stopped using our satellite connection for internet and TV. We switched to modems provided by a company I'll cal Vee (they want to rule the air). Overall we've been happy with the modem service although we are in a "fringe" area where the speed is inconsistent. But Vee has very good customer service and has always been helpful.
Over the weekend, while looking at Vee's website, Jim found that the pricing for modems has dropped by $10 per month. Well, let's call them and get our billing reduced...that would be $20 per month, nothing to sneeze at. Yesterday Jim got on the phone to request what we thought was a simple billing correction. Not!
Our modems are now "old". The cheaper pricing is for new modems that can handle 4G. No, they can't lower the billing price. Our modems only have one plan, $60 per month and that's it. "But let's see what else we could offer you."
Half an hour later the upshot was, NO. No price adjustment. No other solution. We are not happy customers. "Let's have you talk to our technical people. Maybe they can come up with a solution." Thirty minutes later we are still unhappy customers. All we want is a price reduction that agrees with what the website says.
Later in the afternoon we got a recorded call asking us to explain our problem and telling us that a manager may call. This morning, sure enough, a "manager" calls. Jim goes through the whole scenario again. After 45 minutes of telling us why they could not reduce our monthly fee and offering technical and upgrade options....we still do not have a lower price and we are still unhappy customers.
I wonder if Vee realizes that with all the people we talked to, all the emails, data entry, phone transfers and recorded messages that we went through....they easily dropped $500 in trying to serve us. Let's see. $500 divided by 10 would be 50 months worth of $10 reduction OR 25 months of $20 off our bill (2 modems at $10 each)! 25 months!! That's 2 years worth of reduced price. AND we'd be really happy customers. AND that would probably take us to a point in time where upgrading might work.There's got to be logic somewhere in Vees thinking but I can't find it!
The New Year almost slipped by me as we were focused on Jim having yet another surgery. This one was to repair a hernia and it was successfully completed the first week of the month. After a few days of painful movement Jim is feeling like he's getting back to normal!! Yippee!
We are currently enjoying a week of beautiful, warm SoCal weather with temps in the high 70s ...perfecto. Laura and Steve escaped the cold of Montana for a few days and headed to Quartzite. They're not Rvers so they found a nice motel that would take the 2 granddogs. Yesterday they arrived in Corona and we celebrated son Jim's birthday.
As usual I made Jim a card (now using American Greeting's online to create and print for $20/year). Jim says, "Is this going to make me cry?" We all laughed and he scrunched up his face like he was crying. Evan, (5 year old Great Grand) says, "Cry like you've never cried before!" Where does this kid get his lines? :)
Mary organized a taco/fajita bar for dinner which was really delicious. I'd never seen the meat prepared for the fajitas and it looked pretty easy. Laura whomped up a cabbage and kale salad with an oriental flavor dressing. We ate the whole bowl full!! Ice Cream Cookie Sandwich birthday cake topped off the evening.
Grandson Jim Skyped with all of us so we got to experience excellent video connection time. It was almost like he was with us although he's now living in San Luis Obispo. Unfortunately, Tom missed the party due to the flu (we missed you, Tom)
Two more birthdays coming up that will be celebrated on Super Bowl Sunday. We are a divided family...half Bears, half Packers. I guess one of those teams will get to the Bowl. Oh....and HAPPY NEW YEAR :)