Shamrocketship

I was so sure this must have been in NJ . . .

Story about a UPS driver who had a hissy fit, punched his truck, and is entitled to workers comp for the resulting injury. 

And it didn't happen in NJ.  I guess we don't have the entire market on stupidity and waste.

Soliciting Snappy Comebacks

I recently posted something about doctors who ignore you when you report experiencing a side effect that's different than they're used to hearing about.  And they never write it down, or report it, so how do things ever get documented after the initial studies are done?  Unless people start dying, of course.  They start to notice that after a few incidents, I guess.

So what should one say to a doctor who does this?  Presume it's a doctor you wish to maintain some type of relationship with. 

Get yer snark on and give me your best snappy comeback.  Winner gets a trinket from my next weekend excursion. 

Yet another reason to leave this town

My town isn't my town any longer.  I used to have a real love for this place but there's nothing here to love anymore:  it's changed, and it's sterile.  High end stores like Restoration Hardware and Tiffany's and $30-an-entree restaurants replaced my mom & pop video store, the health food store, the restaurant with the old-fashioned lunch counter and swivel stools.  I never go downtown anymore and the only place in the entire town I still shop is the grocery store.

The latest "improvement"? The Soup Man (of Seinfeld fame) has come to Broad Street.  Which I initially thought was kind of neat because it's a little quirky, and what's not to like about soup? 

I'll tell you what's not to like:  Prices like $5.95 and $6.95 for most of the soups.  The Lobster or Crab Bisque will set you back $8.95.

That's for a cup.

A bowl of the Bisque is $10.95, and a quart? 

$24.95.

Is that insane or is it just me?

 

 

I HATE COMCAST. In other words, BAM . . BAM . . . BAM

. . . would be the sound of my head slamming onto the desktop repeatedly. 

Did you ever try to straighten out a mess with Comcast?  It's impossible.  Save yourself the umpteen hours on the phone with their lazy imbecile employees.  They will stall and stall again and tell you there's no problem according to their records, and when you ask to speak to a supervisor, you are either put on hold for hours (literally) or transferred back to the main menu.  I gather that the reason for this is the request for "a supervisor" cannot be filled because no one has ever performed well enough at Comcast to get promoted to that level. So the question just completely baffles them.  Super-what?  We ain't got no super watchoomacallits heah.

Don't bother visiting the business office, either.  The trick they pull there is to be all nice and cooperative with you and immediately know how to resolve the problem.  BUT they "can't do it right now because the business office is closed."  They promise to do it first thing next day and call you to confirm.  They take your phone number and write it on the copies of paperwork you have brought to them as evidence that there is, indeed a problem, and they wait until you are just barely over the threshold of the door on the way out before they toss your receipts and paperwork and phone number in the nearest trash can and head outside themselves for a smoke break.

Oh . . . did I neglect to say what the problem was?  Hahaha.  It's a good one as far as Comcast messes go.  Guaranteed to eat up hours and hours and hours of my time and prolly take at least two or three days off my total lifespan if it doesn't give me a heart attack or a stroke and kill me directly right now while I'm on hold.*

Here 'tis - the story, not the heart attack:  I was home Tuesday night last week when one of their white trucks pulled up and a guy gets out and knocks on the front door.  Tells me he's got an order to disconnect because I'm two months behind on payments. 

Very curious, as I pay by automatic deduction from my checking account and they have indeed deducted my payments those same two months and this is the arrangement me and Comcast have had for many years.

Even more curious that it would be only for the upstairs address, which basically has a line split off the main downstairs one, and provides just basic service for the tv up there.  No box, no remote, nothing.  And it's been that way for a whole lot longer than two months, and my bill statement identifies only the bottom address.

Curiousest yet . . . the name the disconnecter guy tells me the account is under?  Not me.  Or the previous tenant who left upstairs about 7 years ago. I insisted there was obviously something amiss and he insisted equally insistently that he was going to disconnect unless he got the payment but I shouldn't worry because if I'm telling the truth, I "can call the office tomorrow to straighten it out."  Right.  Obviously, he has satellite internet and is not a Comcast customer. 

So I did insist on identification from the guy. But you know it was still very reluctantly that I wrote out that $120.13 check, right?  Me and Comcast f*ck-ups go way back. This was starting to smell like a bad one. (And in case you're wondering why I didn't just let him disconnect, I'll explain that later.)   

Sho'nuff, there I was an hour later on the phone with one of their stellar representatives who was insisting there's "no problem" on their end.  My account is perfectly fine and dandy, although he can't find any record of the upstairs address.   And forgive me for wondering, then, how someone else had an order to disconnect at that very address?  Can I speak to a supervisor? 

Bad question, Lynne. Bad question.  Go back to the main menu. Do not pass go, do not get supervisor.

So Saturday consisted of a trip to the local office.  And I'll be danged.  Sho'nuff again, they figured out the problem right away!  It wasn't 122 Elm Street we meant to disconnect - Whoopsie!  It was 124 Maple Street where the deadbeat lives who didn't pay!  But you, poor customer from 122 Elm Street, you can understand that, right?  I mean, they sort of look the same, Elm and Maple, they're both trees, right?  And use some of the same letters?  And the house number wasn't far off either! Only two digits!  Boy we did pretty good on that one, considering most of us had to fail a test to work here. 

So anyway, I fall for the story that the business office is closed, they'll fix it Monday, call me to confirm, yada yada yada and I must have "Idiot" written all over my forehead, right?  And I leave the office.

And here we are Monday night, no message from Comcast, no credit appearing on my account, and after 55 minutes on hold,* I am talking to a representative who tells me I "shoulda put a stop payment on dat check." 

BAM . . . BAM . . . BAM . . . BAM.  When I get done doing this BAMming, I'm filing a complaint with the NJ BPU.  With them, I may stand a teensy weensy chance of getting the problem corrected in, oh, about 5 months or so, but it's a teensy weensy chance better than dealing with Comcast directly.

BAM BAM BAM . . .

Oh, right - why didn't I consider just letting him disconnect the line and sorting out the mess later?  I could have.  But in retrospect, I'm very glad I didn't.  I would have my $120, but would that be worth the three or four months without tv or internet that it would take me to convince Comcast to restore my service because it had been disconnected?  Do you think they'd believe it was disconnected?  No way!  They would have no record of a disconnect at 122 Elm Street! And of course yhey would continue to debit my account for the monthly payment.  BAM . . . BAM . . . BAM . . . . and then I'd finally finally finally convince Comcast to restore my service and they'd set up an appointment for next month on a Tuesday between 6:00 AM and 6:00 PM and I'd take the day off work joyously anticipating the return of my internet service and by 6:05 PM when no one has come to do that I'm starting to fear the worst, and meanwhile, the deadbeat over at 124 Maple Street is having a pretty good day cuz Comcast just came by and hooked up his cable for free!

PS cuz I'm on a roll . . . why does Typepad spellcheck want to put a capital I on "internet"? That was so 1998. 

Very important update

I got all of the Friday (below) list done, and most everything on the Saturday list except posting the Honda ad. It'll wait. 

I spent over three hours at the mall and for that I deserve to go straight up to heaven when I die.  I hate the mall.  Hate shopping.  Did not inherit that female gene. 

And I have this to say to the girl in the dressing room at JC Penney:  I don't care who raised you or where:  It is NOT acceptable to squeeze your zits in public.  Not EVER. 

Surprise! Conservative Rant Ahead

I knew going into the room that I was in the minority:  The Spring Blog Fest '08 last Saturday night was going to be dominated by folks whose blogs very much reflect a conservative, Republican viewpoint. 

And I'm a left-leaning tree-hugger.*  Coulda been dangerous. 

Still, there was no shortage of topics to agree on and had we been on the subject of illegal immigration,  I could have passed for one of them.  I may be left-leaning, but I believe you've got to play by the rules to live and work here in this country.   So there were a couple of things in the Star Ledger's series this week on Workers Compensation insurance in NJ made me want to sit up and spit nails.  To wit:

"WHAT IT IS:  Workers' compensation is a no-fault insurance program that pays benefits to employees who suffer job-related injuries or illnesses. 

WHO IS COVERED:  Workers' comp covers every employee in New Jersey, including those who are in the country illegally.  Every state but Texas mandates that employers provide some form of compensation insurance for their workers."

Tell me why, why, why, why, why do we provide benefits to people who are here illegally?  Especially in this bankrupt state?  Do states other than NJ require them to be covered ?

Then there's this story: 

"GETTING AROUND THE SYSTEM - The building contractor who hired Gualberto let his workers' compensation policy lapse, an attorney for the insurer testified in court.

It is a common trick of companies looking to cut corners or insurance costs, state officials say.  It is especially prevalent among construction firms, nail salons and taxi services - industries that rely on seasonal, immigrant laborers and often pay them unreported cash wages.  Other businesses obtain policies to appease the state, then quickly cancel them or stop paying their premiums.

Gualberto, 59, arrived from Brazil in October 2003, one of thousands of illegal immigrants who flood the state every year.  (Courts have ruled that undocumented workers have the same rights to treatment and disability benefits as citizens.)

About a year after Gualberto arrived, a contractor agreed to pay him $13 an hour in cash to work as a carpenter and framer, Gualberto said.  On Oct. 18, 2004, Gualberto was atop a ladder at a building site when he slipped and tumbled 8 feet, snagging his left food in the ladder rungs and shattering his lower leg bone.

The accident left Gualberto hobbled, jobless and broke.  He spent five days in the hospital, racking up $47,000 in medical bills, and four months on crutches."

Let's see.  Do you think Gualberto paid those hospital bills?  Or did the hospital (and therefore the rest of us paying for our medical insurance) ate the cost?  No-brainer.  The law-abiding taxpayers lose again.

"Over that time, he became homeless, tossed from the Hillside house where he had been living.  'I could not work, so they evicted me,' he said. 

Craig livingston, a veteran comp and labor lawyer from Nutley, filed a workers' compensation claim.

Three years after Gualberto's fall, the case is still wending its way through the system, as attorney's spar over who should pay Gualberto's benefits and medical bills.  The civil court system, by comparison, worked more quickly.  Last month a Middlesex County jury awarded Gualberto $525,000 for a lawsuit he brought against the builder."

So he came here illegally, got hurt, wins a half-mil in a lawsuit, and can go back to Brazil to live like a king.  Nice deal. 

"About 20 years ago, the state established a special fund to help pay such claims.  The Uninsured Employers Fund is bankrolled through an annual surcharge applied to workers' compensation policies."

Wait. I think that just said people who pay for policies are subsidizing the people who don't pay for policies?  Gotta love this state.  Sadly, and very ironically, I'll probably have to move out of this country to Mexico or something like it when I retire.  I certainly can't afford to stay in NJ.

*Not a rabid one.  I don't vote parties, I don't like Hillary or Obama, and I don't believe everything Al Gore says.  But I do drive a Prius ; )

   

Glad I don't do this for a living . . .

So I'm trying to sell my 2000 Honda CRV, and it's turning into a nightmare experience.  Last time I sold a used car, it was a Volvo wagon with about 125,000 miles on it. I parked it in front of the house, put a "For Sale" sign in the window, and in two days it was sold. 

Honda?  We're going on six weeks.  Here are some of the methods I've used and their results:

Parking in Front with For Sale Sign:  Even on this busy street, I've received only one call.  Yesterday.  It was in a barely decipherable Hispanic accent and went like this: "Hello?  Dees es /unable to make out name/.  I callin' about de car . . . um . . . how much . . . you need . . . for it?  OK. Call me back, please."

Hmmm.  I'll call you as soon as I put on my ESP hat and figure out what your phone number is, OK?

E-Bay:  Several people swore by this method.  See my results here.  But a nice person reading that entry suggested Craig's List. 

Craig's List:  It was relatively quick and pain-free setting up the ad, and I wasn't even too leery of the warnings that CL bombards you with about possible scams involving exporting the car out of the country, fake agents, etc.  I'm cautious by nature and even more so with matters like this.  Good thing, because it wasn't long before they started calling, wanting to know if they could buy it sight unseen, blah, blah.  As soon as I said they would need to appear in person with cash, they were too busy to talk to me any longer.  I got no legitimate calls or e-mails from this listing, but at last count, at least two dozen scammy-sounding inquiries.

Cars.com:  I got about another dozen calls from this source.  One sounded promising.  A woman called around 1:00 PM last Sunday.  I'm not going to attempt to write in accent-ese, but let's just say she had a heavy accent that could have been Russian, Israeli, or somewhere mid-Eastern:   

Woman:  Hello?  I call about the 2000 CRV? 

Me:  Yes, what would you like to know?

Woman:  Eh, gobbledyspeakIcan'tunderstand . . .

Me:  I'm having a hard time understanding you.

Woman:  OK.  Who is there that speak gobbledyspeak?

Me:  NO ONE.

Woman:  OK.  I have my son call you. He speak good English.

About a half hour later, she calls again:

Woman:  Hello?  My son can't talk to you now.  He wants to know if car have four-wheel drive.

Me:  No.  It has ALL-wheel drive.

Woman:  It has four-wheel drive?

Me:  NO.  ALL-WHEEL DRIVE.  It's different.

Woman:  What is that?

Me:  The transmission delivers traction to all four wheels, all the time.  It's not on-and-off like a four-wheel drive. 

Woman:  I don't know what it is.

Me:  Silence.

Woman:  I have my son call you.  Wait!  How long it take me to get to you?

Me:  I have no idea where you are.

Woman:  Brooklyn.

Me:  About an hour.

About an hour later, the son calls.  I'll fast-forward and tell you his English was no better than his mother's.  And we had a similar Q&A about the four-wheel vs. all-wheel drive, until he asked me for the second time what it was and I got a little explosive:

Me:  Look.  If you're buying a Honda CRV, do some research.  They ALL have all-wheel drive, OK? It's better than four-wheel around here.

Him:  It needs to be good in snow.

Me:  It's great in snow.  I've driven through eighteen inches of snow.  No problem.  You won't get more than that in Brooklyn.

Him:  No, I plan to export it.

Me:  In that case, you'll need to come here to pick it up in person, with cash for the full amount.

Him:  I'll call you back.

That was four days ago.

ARRRGGGHHHHHHH. 

 

 

Effin' eBay

Can I share with you how much I absolutely HATE eBay right now? 

I HATE eBay. Furiously.  Hate.  eBay.

I put one of my vehicles up for auction a few weeks ago.  The reserve price was met, and slightly exceeded.  However the dipsh*t buyer who placed the high bid (that would be "jessyqarinctrucking" just so's you know . . . ) not only didn't respond to my e-mails, he hung up on me when (acting on eBay's advice) I contacted him by phone. 

So although it is very clear to me that Mr. Jessyqarinctrucking isn'tfeckinginterested, eBay insists that I wait 7 days after the end of the auction before I can file an "Unpaid item dispute."  And once the dispute is filed, I have to wait ANOTHER 7 days before I can file for my Final Value Fee Credit (i.e., the price for the listing). 

I was, however, permitted to send a "second chance offer" to the second-highest bidder.  Guess who else didn't respond?????

I did send an e-mail to eBay technical support asking for help.  I got a response from the only Lisette in New Delhi* suggesting I try things that I clearly had already tried if she'd bothered to look up my item number, and regurgitating that I had to wait 7 days, blahdy-blady-blah.   

You know what really bugs me is the fact that no less than three people told me to put the car on eBay as an "easy" way to sell it.

*Really.  I have no problem with offshoring your help desk, eBay, but who do you think you're fooling with a name like Lisette?  Treat me like an intelligent human being and just use your real names, OK?  It's not like I could possibly be any LESS satisfied.   

Anyone want to buy a 2000 Honda CR-V?

Peeved

A few people have asked if I back-slid on the smoking thing simply because I haven't mentioned it since my Victory speech.  Nope - I'm firmly among the former smokers, ex-smokers, happy non-smokers.  Three weeks yesterday but I'm not really counting because it's been a celebration since Day One.

A few observations and then I'll get to the real point of this post:

- My taste buds are coming back but not to the point where I'm eating more.  In fact, I'm eating less because I'm a little overwhelmed at the strong flavor of everything.

- My vision has taken a turn for the worse.  It's hard to say it's just a coincidence since I can pin-point the sudden decline almost to the day I stopped the nicotine.  Can't figure out why that would be so, but I'm waiting it out a few weeks.  I just had a full eye exam a week before I quit.  Ideas?

- My hearing improved significantly.  That sounds weird but it makes sense to me figuring the ear and sinuses are all connected and mine are all smoke-free now. 

SOOOOooo . . . . with my new Supergirl hearing, I was at the grocery store tonight and I heard a very loud woman's voice.  I was about four aisles away from the deli counter and headed towards it, and that voice just got louder and louder as I zeroed in on her.  A woman talking incredibly loud.  On a cellphone.   

Supergirl hearing aside, everyone in the neighboring area was alternately staring at her, then looking up to find some other witness to share in the rolling of eyes "can you believe this idiot" feeling that we all had.  She, on the other hand, was oblivious.  She stood at the counter, NOT being waited on, NOT looking to be waited on at the moment.  Just TALKING REALLY REALLY LOUD ON HER CELLPHONE COMPLETELY UNAWARE OF THE REST OF US.  You think my caps are annoying?   I'll bet you know she was a whole lot worse there in the flesh than I can ever convey to you here.

I kept looking around for cameras thinking this must be a college psych or sociology class experiment, or a new version of Candid Camera, but I didn't see anything unusual. I guess she was just an ordinary, garden-variety total ass. Heaven knows, there's no shortage of those here in NJ.   

And now we return to our regularly-scheduled program . . .

One dead laptop, plus a dying modem on the regular PC = not much posting.  But the modem was replaced last week, and the laptop returned (fixed under warranty!) today.  I should be getting my fair share of time on the 'net now. 

Curiously, I have little to say after not posting for two+ weeks.  Except maybe this:  To the EEJIT who was so EFFIN' determined to get in the empty car-length between me and the car ahead of me, at 8:00 this morning on (rain-slick) 195 heading into Trenton, the EEJIT driving an EFFIN'  dark green Mazda convertible with a tan top with the license plate beginning VAG, the EEJIT who ended up slamming on his EFFIN' brakes to avoid crushing his Mazda into the car ahead of him and ended up fishtailing an inch from my car . . . you get one of these.

That move was so spectacularly STOOPID, so completely without regard for anyone around you, so utterly ineffectual, I immediately concluded that you must be one of our NJ elected officials on your way to "work." 

Hope you had an EFFIN' nice day, EEJIT.