Defiantone.com

I wrote about my last experience with Nextel thinking that it couldn’t get much worse. Boy - was I wrong!

I called Nextel again and asked to speak to the government account services. I was transfered to customer service elevator music waiting line - I spent 23 minutes on hold before I was disconnected.

I called again and asked for the government account services - the agent on the other end of the line inquired why and I told him that I planned to cancel my account. He immediately retorted that “you’ll be charged with a $200 cancellation fee because your account is valid till Jan 08″ and I explained that I was in the military and that I would be canceling my account in accordance with the military clause. He was disappointed that he couldn’t use fear to make me continue using their service. He was summarily rude from that point on and he placed me on hold for 32 minutes while I waited to be transfered. He came back once or twice, probably hoping that I had hung up the phone in disgust. I was not going to give up on this one - no way in hell.

Eventually I was connected to the correct department and I explained the situation and told her that I had reference numbers for my previous conversations. She wasn’t interested and told me that she would have to look up my account history. It was at this point that she began to lie to me. I wanted to scream “LIAR!” at the top of my lungs but knew that it would do me little good. She told me that they had never received a copy of my orders (even though three agents had previously seen that they had) and that I would have to fax them in. I spoke in a low, clear, tone - much like you would use to explain to a child that their course of action is going to get them into trouble - and told her that faxing another copy was not an option. First, I had previously faxed a copy of the orders. Second, no fax machine is available in this country so I had no method of delivery. I knew this would have been a foolish choice as I would have been forced to fax it, call back and confirm it was received, and then call to cancel on yet another day. They were trying to delay the inevitable. Third, I told her that previous agents had confirmed the receipt of the original fax and that there was no possible way I would resend the information. Four, I had far better things to do than to waste my valuable phone time talking to customer service on an issue I had already called about 7 times.

She placed me on hold.

She came back 10 minutes later and asked if I would like to transfer the line to another family member. I declined.

She asked if I would like to suspend the service in lieu of cancellation. I declined.

She placed me on hold for another 5 minutes.

When she returned she sounded as if she had beaten, she told me that she would cancel the line without a termination fee and that I would owe no more to the company.

She asked if there was anything else she could do. Instead of really laying into the lady for blatantly lying to me I decided to take the high road - she wasn’t prepared for what was about to ensue - it would have been ugly. So, I declined.

I have never had great experience with cell phone contracts - each time I’ve tried to discontinue a service it felt like pulling teeth. Even though I pay more up front to start service without a contract, I think it may be the best option in the future.

I will NEVER use Nextel or Sprint again. Their horrendous customer service practices sour their otherwise adequate cell phone service.

The back story: I called Nextel before I deployed in order to cancel my service - things didn’t go as planned even though they assured me that everything was fine. Jessica notified me that Nextel had sent me a bill in February - I was obviously annoyed so I sent them an email - they ignored my email so I was forced to call them. I called them and things didn’t go as I hoped - read on -

I called Nextel while I was at work today in an effort to get rid of the erroneous charge and cancel my line. I talked to a gentleman in customer service who looked up my account and saw the previous phone conversations where I had requested cancellation of the service, discussed faxing a copy of my orders, called to verify that they had received all of the information required, and checked up to make sure that it was everything was going to be processed. He asked for a phone number so he could call back should we be disconnected - I told him that I was in Iraq - he was instantly nicer to me. He told me that he would see what he could do and asked to place me on hold - I obliged his request. A few minutes later, he told me that he had canceled the charge. He was unsure as to why there was a disconnect within his system because the account SHOULD have been canceled on the billing cycle ending in January. The customer service representative was helpful and polite throughout our conversation - all phone calls to customer service should be modeled on our interaction. Unfortunately, my interaction with Nextel was about to careen of a steep cliff - he told me that I would have to talk to cancellations yet again.
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Ok, so I still haven’t done what I set out to do on my day off but I’m getting closer to it with each passing week. I have extremely little free time on a daily basis as I have scheduled only enough time to plow through my routine. There is no extra time for anything else unless I want to cut into my sleep schedule. I do well on 6 hours of sleep but 7 is better. Unfortunately, I don’t move fast enough when I wake up and that extra hour is imperative. Jessica, on the other hand, wants 10 hours of sleep a night. I have no idea how she sleeps that much and still has enough time to do everything. Even when I am bored and have little to do sleep is always a last option for me - she is down for a nap at almost anytime of the day. Often she insists that I join her - (more…)

Its so hard to stay conveniently occupied and entertained and keep money in the bank account. As it stands now I’m on the edge of broke; but, I’m not completely broke so I still have a little bit of breathing room. The new job is going to help out a bunch and I may catch an extra couple of shifts much to the chagrin of Jessica. I need this money and I need to get ahead of things. If I work as little as 20 hours a week I’ll net a few hundred extra a month and it gets me out of hot water immediately. I’m not late on anything right now but if I went another month this way I’d be forced to start doing something drastic like selling plasma or becoming a male prostitute. I really don’t want to become a male prostitute for a few reasons (who else has time to think this out? ) - the clientèle I would draw would be much like the women that Rob Schneider attracted in Deuce Biggalo, the STD’s would be a huge drawback, the military would probably imprison me for trying (thus exacerbating the lack of income), and it would drive Jessica away (again, another bad thing). I could start selling my plasma to make a few bucks here and there but it freakin hurts. I had a friend in HS whose sole source of income was from the plasma he harvested from his body. I’m waiting to go to the desert because I can stop paying for a two giant money killers: rent and food. Both are paid for in the desert and I can take that cash and throw it on a bill. Hopefully, I’ll be down one credit card by the time I get back. If I’m good I’ll be able to get one partially gone before I leave.

It sucks being broke but its nobody’s fault but my own. I’m stupid for doing it and I hope to hell I’ll figure out how dumb I’ve been and never repeat my mistake.

Boredom is synonymous with a lack of creativity and lack of cash flow. There are very few things I can do that take absolutely no money. Think about it - if you want to go somewhere you’ve got to drive and use gas - even if you spend nothing while there you’re out the gas. Unfortunately if you’re gone for long enough you’ll need to bring some food. Sure, you’ve got some stuff in your house that you can bring with you but thats the stuff you bought for lunches during the week. The other option is to eat on the road and spend cash that you didn’t want to spend in the first place.

So, if you’ve got some extremely low cost ideas on how to spend your off duty time let me know - you can only watch TV and goof around on the internet so much - both of which cost money - before you’ve run the gamut and need to find something else to do.

Gee - this was quite a long rambling post - it saved me from boredom for a few minutes but its a solo activity and left out somebody thats sitting on the couch begging for my attention

So, I’ve been freaking out lately because I tend to overanalyze and stress out about almost everything. It has gotten to the point when I begin a conversation with someone I feel that I’m being yelled at even if we are just conversing normally. The anxiety is driving me mad. So, I went to a doc and talked about my situation. I told her what I had done in the past with other problems I’ve had and she asked about my lifestyle. It turns out I was doing everything right. She had no suggestions to give me. At that point, she threw out the one liner “if only your IQ was twenty points lower, you probably wouldn’t have this problem.” When things are awry, I tend to look at the situation from every angle and ask myself if one of my bad traits is causing it or if I’m letting behavior win or emotions win. In essense, she said that I’m smart enough to drive myself insane.

So, she gave me some homework (a book to read) and I’m going to try and destress myself. I tend to get stressed about getting rid of stress so this should be a fun exercise. All of my anxiety appears to be stress related so hopefully this constant anxious feeling can go away soon. I sure hope it goes away soon or I might drive myself insane as she predicted.

I’ve been back home for the past couple of days hanging out with my family. The girlfriend has been with me and for the most part we’ve been having fun. I had to deal with reality for the first time when I took my dad to his chemo and radiation treatments. I’ve been out of the loop for a while and it makes a convenient way to avoid what is going on. I’ve dealt with it now but its still not a cool thing. I’m glad that he’s only got until Monday and he is done with all of the bad stuff. Hopefully they’ll get it all on the first shot and he won’t have to go back for a second round.

We haven’t really done anything of note but it is Knoxville and there is only so much to do. I haven’t taken any photos because I left my camera behind and its sitting on my desk at home. I’ll be back to my normal routine on Monday so until then I’ll enjoy my time here and I’m going to eat as much food as I can… I love vacation

I decided to climb a very big hill today… Well, most wouldn’t even dare call it a hill but they probably would call it a mountain. I drove up to Mount Rainier today and took a few photos. While I was there I also recorded a few videos.

There are many things in life that you cannot count. You may wish that you could but deep in your soul you know that you can never expect it to happen. Some things, however, are always there for you in a time of need. No matter what is going on in your life it will be there for you. You can be in any part of the world and it can be going to hell around you and these constants will be true. So, today I’m writing about one constant in particular. I’m not writing about it because it’s of particular merit but because it’s the only thing I have to write about: the weather.

I haven’t relegated myself to a porch with two other old codgers debating about the changing of the weather. I don’t do this mostly because I don’t possess a trick knee that swells or have any other weather related abnormalities. The weather here isn’t bad; it’s just… different than it has been since I’ve lived here. I know that I’ll be in for a harsh shock in a few weeks when I return to the place where I was born. Humidity will be at ridiculous levels and I will not know how to handle it. I will probably want to spend the majority of my time indoors in air conditioning like sane people do. Insane people work road construction during the middle of the day and ignore the high temperatures and the adverse conditions. Incredibly insane people do this job in Qatar or Kuwait. They work throughout the day covered in protective clothing that prevents their skin from bursting into flames. They look absolutely miserable but it is their existence. They do the job because it is theirs - they must do it to survive.

I’m not facing terrible weather - it’s in the low 90’s and the humidity is low. I have access to water and shade when I need it. I don’t have overlords whipping my back when I take an extra second to move a box. They don’t scream and yell at me for my incompetence and then give me lashings. I haven’t been forced to work in cotton fields and call someone else “massa”. Its just a little warmer outside today than it has been and I don’t have anything else to write about.

Some people never get ill and when something happens it hits you like a freight train. It takes time to let it all sit in but you know that they’re going to be fine… different but fine. Its hard to deal with but you’ve gotta be there for them because they’re dealing with the really bad stuff; you’re just dealing with the thoughts and emotions that come along with it.

I don’t want to write anything else about this… so I won’t

Last night peer pressure got the best of me. I was coerced into going out last night, on a school night, to go to the karaoke bar and engage in alcohol fueled shenanigans. While I didn’t want to spend any money while I was out I did want to spend time with other people in my class because its turns out they’re not all that bad. It takes me a while to mesh with other people and it appears that just as I’m about to leave I start to integrate with the group. Oh well, no matter, I’ll probably never see any of them in the future.
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