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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Many years ago I was involved to some extent in a pig roast. I am not sure what parts of the story are lore or fact but here are the details I can recall. Back in the autumn on ‘00 I was a young college student that knew little about the world around me and about life in general. I was still green behind the ears but was full of energy… not a whole lot of ambition but I had alot of energy. Iowa State Delta Chi had a great tradition of pig roasts during homecoming and I happened to be involved in the whole ordeal. We discussed what we were going to do a few weeks before and we decided that we would buy a whole live pig in order to save a few dollars. A few of us grew up on farms and we assumed that someone would know how to properly (and humanely) kill and dress a live pig. Unfortunately, the person that knew how to do that wasn’t around when the pig arrived. We did some extremely inhumane things to that poor animal before we eventually beat it to death. We couldn’t figure out the proper way to kill it so at one point we were beating it to death with a claw hammer. I, unfortunately, wasn’t around when this transpired. Mike’s brother came over and helped one of the guys from the house dress and clean the pig. Not knowing what to do with the unusable bits, they threw them in a 50 gallon trash can. We did have an insatiable hate for the baseball players so we eventually found a use for the really smelly bits. They cut the pig into chunks, threw it inside the rotisserie, wrapped it all in chicken wire so the good bits didn’t fall out and let it go overnight. The next day we all ate pig until we were physically ill. We had a leftover pig head so we threw it on top of the guts and left the whole thing on the pitchers mound to… give the place a nice odor. Sure, we left it in the trash can and didn’t empty it out as some had suggested. It could have been considered a hate crime if we had a Muslim baseball player involved. After a few days of laughing about it, someone had an attack of consciousness and we took the remains to a place far far away… I think it was a ditch in the country.

So, with that memory in the background I’ve been tasked with cooking hog for an upcoming squadron bbq. As you can tell from the story, I don’t remember that much about the whole process. I think I’m going to do much the same thing… aside from killing and dressing a pig to save a few shekels. I’m just going to get a whole bunch of pig… because we’re looking at feeding roughly 400 people…. so I’ve got to figure out exactly how much uncooked pig we’ve got to acquire.

Needless to say, if you have any advice or bbq related anecdotes feel free to leave me a comment.

So, in an effort to come out of my shell a little I asked if people were going out for the evening. I already knew that they were but I wanted an invite. So, along with them I went to go get my booze on. Like normal, I had to eat something first so I wandered over to Taco Hell. My thinking was that whatever I ate I had to be cool with leaving on the ground later if worst came to worst. Luckily, things turned out well for me and I didn’t have to worry about that. The bar had a special and it was fifty cent drinks for the entire night. Seeing as I wanted to be able to function in the morning I stuck to Bud Light. Sure, it tastes like crap and the alcohol content is low but it allows you to become “more social” and hang out with everyone else. If I did my normal and started drinking straight booze I would have not survived the evening. I tend to not drink on school nights because I sleep poorly; I know how I react to booze even if its a small quantity. This morning I woke up an hour late… normally this would make me late for work but seeing that I was only on the other side of base I still had a half hour to spare before I had to walk out the door. I don’t think I’ll ever drink heavily on a school night here because I’m bound to not show up for class. I also don’t want to be inebriated in the AM because driving drunk to school and showing up drunk would be a bad career move. I’ve got a test in a few hours so I need to study some more (yes, I studied last night before I went off to kill some brain cells… besides, booze only targets the weak ones right?)

Due to time constraints and poor planning, I’m forced to eat out and I cannot take the time to plan out a meal. When I go to the grocery store, I buy things that are easily made into edible food but I rarely buy simple ingredients with the goal of combining them to create a tasty treat. In other words, I rarely cook from scratch. You might say that you cook from scratch but how likely are you to buy that packet of pre-mixed spices or that jar of random sauce? When I cook from scratch, I really cook from scratch. I attempt to try new things every once in a while in an effort to expand my repertoire and satisfy my stomach. I have been known to throw out bastard children that could be considered unsuitable by mangy dogs. Yes, I have an abortion once in a while. Last night I was particularly pleased with myself because I made shells alla caprese without even looking at a recipe. I had a vague clue as to what was included and I decided to make it from scratch… and it was GOOD. I got the proportions a little out of whack and I need to change exactly when I start cooking some of the ingredients but it’s a sure fire hit.

If I have a general clue as to what is in a dish I can create it on my own with a little experimentation. I really love to cook and I wish I had someone around to be a guinea pig for my creations but that’s why family shows up every once in a while. I just need to check if my ability (and willingness) to eat about everything is ruining my sense of taste.

Nutsack, err Vilsack has announced that he will no longer vie for the Presidency as he doesn’t have enough money to win. For once, I’m actually glad that winning the Presidency is all about the Benjamins. In a perfect society, it wouldn’t cost the voters or the candidates a dime to run for office. Each person would be allowed free travel on all forms of public transport, free advertising on television and radio, and free web server space. In essence, if they wanted to hand things out to other people, pay for their staff, or eat they would have to figure it out on their own. But, if they wanted to talk to the people about their campaign they would be given the same opportunity as everyone else. In today’s age printed media is on the outs and digital media is where it’s at. I’m sure that we could convince the RNC, DNC, and an independent organization to host their web servers. Yes, I don’t have all of the details necessary to make it all work but it’s a start.

So, in summary

Nutsack done = good
High campaign costs = bad
Socioeconomic disparity between poor candidates and rich candidates = bad

Over the past four years I’ve had an abundance of free time and I’ve had few activities to fill it. As a result of my situation; I spent many hours blogging and perusing the internet in an effort to connect with others and fill some of my spare time. Lately, as many of you are aware (all 7 of you), I have spent little time with either of these activities. In no way am I going to stop doing it but its a much lower priority now. I’ve found that I can now contact anyone easily (as I don’t have to deal with the extreme time zone difference) I’m less likely to post something I can tell someone about. I’m unsure of where this blog and this website is going to go… it might go away… it might change.

The last drivers license I received was about 5 years ago in Iowa. I looked like a happy 20 year old that had no clue as to what was going on. Well, I really didn’t look twenty.. I looked more like I was 16. The picture taken today was more of a mugshot… hell, it might as well have been a mugshot. I look SO much older now than I once did. The sad part is I still look like a 20 year old instead of looking my age. Oh well

The DMV experience was rather interesting. For the last few years I’ve been in the land of the white and pasty. They speak only one language and they do so poorly. At the DMV today were people that comprised many members of our melting pot. As a Caucasian, I made up the overwhelming minority of the people waiting at the DMV.

They asked me what my eye color was and throughout my life I’ve only had one answer: brown. Two DMV workers (both men) requested that I take off my glasses and they argued over whether my eyes were hazel or green. The color brown was not brought up throughout the course of the conversation. I am aware that my eyes change color depending on my mood and other circumstances but I was unaware there were any other eye colors (for drivers license purposes) than brown, blue, and green.

I got an internet connection hooked up in my place today so I can now finally escape the media and news black hole that I’ve been in the past few weeks. Somebody had to tell me that Hillary declared she was running for office and I didn’t even have a clue that she was *officially* I would have been on that like a chubby kid on a cupcake.

My car has a few minor quirks that I’m going to get fixed later today. One of them caused me to key my own car… yes, I accidentally keyed my own car while trying to close the trunk lid. The closers are worn and you have to throw a ton of weight on the lid… when you have your hands full and your keys in your hand it doesn’t work out well.

I’m prepared to be poor as I took a major pay cut to move to the states but I’ve got a plan and thats a second job. Its going to suck and kill most of my weekends but I want to get out of debt. It doesn’t help that it cost me a relative fortune to move over here and replace a bunch of crap that I got rid of or left behind. One way or another, I’ll make it work. If nothing else, I can always start donating plasma and make a couple hundred bucks extra on that deal. I hate needles but I guess thats why they pay people to do it.

Some of my stuff is getting here today so I won’t be wearing the same clothes day after day… I am a bit of a clothes horse so its only a part of what I actually own.

Mission always takes precedence and as a military member we do whats best for the mission rather than what is best for the individual. This time I’m working the same job that I have for the past few years… against my wishes. My biggest dislike, besides the actual job, is that we are hidden away from the rest of the people in the bomb dump so we don’t get a whole lot of interaction with other people. Oh well…

I took a look at the FY07 retraining list and its not as good as last year but I’m going to apply for it regardless. The job I wanted to get into last year isn’t available this year so I’ll have to look at some alternative options. I’ll probably have to redo my flight physical but it shouldn’t take that long… I hope.

When I got to this country I would always go out at least once or twice a month on a quest of debauchery and alcohol fueled stupidity. I was always mad at myself or depressed by the situation that I was in. I would try to meet random women to get myself out of my funk but it never solved my problem. My problem was that I didn’t have any confidence and I was wearing the negative problems with my life on the outside. I expected the worst outcome in every situation.

We all went out last night to have a few drinks and we went to two different bars. In a departure from what I used to do, I wasn’t trying to drink to forget my middle name. I was out drinking to have fun with the people I know. It wasn’t about meeting girls or impressing anyone, it was about having a good evening. While at the first bar of the evening we all sat around and talked about well…. whatever. We moved on to the second bar that had a DJ that wasn’t playing the typical dance music and the vibe in the place was pretty good. We moved to a table that was by the DJ and right on the corner of the 10ft square dance floor. I was laughing and having a good time and my friends suggested that I get up and dance. At one time, I was so self conscious of my actions that I wouldn’t do it at all but now I realize I can have fun. I can dance like no one else is watching. So, I’m dancing with random girls out there that don’t seem to mind. I’m not drunk and not invasive; I’m trying to have a good evening.

A minute or two after I start dancing with a particular girl, a drink idiot decides that I am infringing on his manhood and territory and proceeds to hit me in the face a few times. In the past I would have attacked him with relentless fury and done so without remorse or regard for the consequences. I told him to calm down and be cool, I was out there to have a good evening. The people I was with wanted to beat the hell out of him. I wanted to break a few bones in his face but I decided it would be a poor choice. I am the zen master.

The bouncers immediately came over and I explained the situation and they immediately recognized I did nothing wrong and that I was in full control of the situation. They promised to remove the other guy from the bar if he caused any more trouble. The girl that el douche was with was annoyed with his actions. Women are capable of taking care of themselves and know how to say no when they don’t want to dance with a particular individual. As I was doing nothing inappropriate, he didn’t need to “protect” his territory.

Immediately after the incident I had more respect and admiration from almost everyone in the bar because I could keep my cool went it counted. I knew that even if I did beat the living hell out of that drunk fool that it wouldn’t really matter. I would be the one that would pay the consequences because I was out there as the ranking person in the group and I must lead by example. I knew that because I was sober and I’m well aware of how to break noses and eye sockets, the local constabulary would be less that impressed with my actions if I had started anything major. I was also aware that the major in my squadron would make sure that I didn’t PCS because he would probably try to give me an article 15 and make me an A1C again… I definitely wasn’t going down that path.

Later in the evening the girls that were out with us (all of whom were married). Were dancing and having a good evening when another guy did something that was completely inappropriate. Another one of my friends immediately moved to defend their honor. His actions were completely justified and he did nothing wrong. As typical, the other drunk bloke got his feelings hurt and wanted to defend his manhood. I got in the middle, found his sober friend, and patched things up. He knew I was fine when I wished him a Merry Christmas, a Happy Hanukkah, a Merry Kwanzaa, and a Happy New Year. Again, when it got bad I proved myself to be the zen master.

The entire evening I went out with the mission to have fun and I found myself smiling most of the evening just because I was content with myself and where I was. In some ways, my hate with this country has had little to do with the actual country; my dislike for it was generated in part by my poor attitude. I did notice that I was smiling almost as much as I see my dad smile. I guess its not that bad of a thing.

Six months ago I sat in a theater and watched in amazement as I saw a movie based upon a comic book come to life. In the movie, the government controlled the masses and ruled them with an iron fist powered by fear. The masses, over the years, gave the government the authority to take away their rights for the illusion of safety and security. In the end, it was discovered that the fear created was a ruse of the government. Thousands were illegally imprisoned and executed without due process of law.

Yesterday, the President signed legislation that allowed the president or the SECDEF to bypass Habeas Corpus and declare anyone an enemy combatant. This power allows them to lock them up without a trial, without due process, and without anyone knowing about it.

Olbermann had something to say about it with some video goodness. Here is a quick quote from Jonathan Turley.

Turley: “People have no idea how significant this is. Really a time of shame this is for the American system.—The strange thing is that we have become sort of constitutional couch potatoes. The Congress just gave the President despotic powers and you could hear the yawn across the country as people turned to Dancing With the Stars. It’s otherworldly..People clearly don’t realize what a fundamental change it is about who we are as a country. What happened today changed us. And I’m not too sure we’re gonna change back anytime soon.”

The President said

“Over the past few months, the debate over this bill has been heated and the questions raised can seem complex,” he said. “Yet, with the distance of history, the questions will be narrowed and few. Did this generation of Americans take the threat seriously? And did we do what it takes to defeat that threat?”

in defense of the new legislation

Read more details of the situation here

Needless to say, this was a poor decision by our government. This legislation and others like it, read: patriot act, should be repealed and new legislation should be written that allows anyone to have due process regardless of whether they are American or not. We have three seperate branches of government and we should use them to the greatest possible extent. If one branch isn’t moving fast enough or is grossly inneficient we need to modernize it without changing its original intent and purpose.