Sunday, September 5, 2010
Done
I've gone back to the other blog. We'll see how much I say, when I say it, and how that goes. www.rachelchava.blogspot.com - see you there!
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Apparently today was not a day for productivity
As summer comes to an end, we're trying to wrap up any loose ends from the move. I've been trying to make sure that our address has been changed, our outstanding bills have been paid and that in general life runs smoothly. Yet in the past 24 hours I have been thwarted in almost everything that we tried to do:
1. Last night, I thought that it would be a good idea to ensure that our address was up to date for Good Housekeeping magazine. Yes, I subscribe to and enjoy this magazine despite my less than good housekeeping skills/desires. According to the website, I had updated my address and my subscription was set to expire in October. This led me to look for renewal information. Alas, when I clicked on "renew", I was informed that "there are no current renewal offers for you at this time". Apparently they don't want my business.
But wait. It gets funnier. I went back to my profile and then saw in small print that my address was listed as "undeliverable" and therefore my account has been suspended until I rectify this situation.
I decided that it would be simpler to start a new subscription and pretend that the old one never existed. I happily signed up for 3 years and went to pay the exhorbitant extra shipping fee to Canada. Done! Or so I thought. This morning I found the following missive in my email account:
"Our records show that you recently provided new information while ordering a subscription that does not match your saved profile. If you would like to update your profile with this new information, please click here."
I will confess that I have yet to deal with it. It seems unimportant compared to other things we're dealing with.
2. We received a bill in the mail yesterday from Johnson County Wastewater Services for $8.99, $5 of which was supposedly a late fee. The bill was stamped "delinquent" and indicated that it needed to be paid immediately. We had given all of the utilities our forwarding address for final bills, yet none of them could process an out-of-country address so we were assured that the bills would be forwarded from the old address and we could go ahead and pay them online.
I asked Ben to call to get the $5 fee removed since we certainly hadn't received any other bills. He was able to do so easily, and he told the nice lady on the phone that we would pay the bill online through our bank account immediately. I logged in to our US account right after he hung up, only to find that our bank does not permit bill payments of under $5.
Ben called back and was able to make a payment over the phone instead.
3. Ben called our US VISA card provider to ensure that they had processed our change of address to Canada. He also wanted to confirm that we could keep the account since it seemed to imply somewhere in the paperwork that this particular card was only available to US residents. The card in question is a Priority Club VISA and is connected to our Holiday Inn Priority Points card. When Ben called the VISA number, they transferred him to the Points Club people to process the address change.
Unsurprisingly, the Points Club already had our correct address since we use our hotel points on a rather frequent basis. They transferred him back to the VISA people who were finally able to confirm that they had indeed processed a change of address with our recent payment and we could keep the card.
4. Our US cell phone contract expires on August 31st. We also have an older prepaid US cell phone that we will be keeping indefinitely. I looked online to see how many minutes we had left on it and realized that it still had an old US address attached to our profile. I attempted to change it online and was informed that "for addresses outside of the US, please call *insert 1-800 number here*".
Ben called, only to be told by the customer service rep that he wasn't sure if a change could be processed since his system was set up with a US-based address system. Um, ok. Then why have a 1-800 number to deal with addresses outside of the US in the first place!??! The man took down our new address and said that he would see what he could do about changing it. I'm not holding my breath on that one.
5. I realized belatedly that our Canadian cell phone bill was rather late in arriving. So late, in fact, that it is now slightly overdue. Apparently one of us signed up for e-billing. E-billing, or paperless billing, might be more environmentally friendly, but it's not so friendly to our bank account since neither one of us seems to remember to pay bills without a paper statement! (or at least an email reminder)
I still haven't paid the bill. Why not? Because when I attempted to log in to our account online, it told me that the site was currently down. I have faith that things will be fixed soon though. After all, this isn't Rogers.
6. Ben called to cancel our US VISA card that was issued by our Canadian bank. He politely asked if they would refund the annual fee that was literally just charged the other day. The VISA rep was wonderful. She refunded the fee and let us know that the card was cancelled and we could either pay the remaining balance now, or wait for our final statement. I went online and paid it, because clearly I will forget to do so otherwise!
1. Last night, I thought that it would be a good idea to ensure that our address was up to date for Good Housekeeping magazine. Yes, I subscribe to and enjoy this magazine despite my less than good housekeeping skills/desires. According to the website, I had updated my address and my subscription was set to expire in October. This led me to look for renewal information. Alas, when I clicked on "renew", I was informed that "there are no current renewal offers for you at this time". Apparently they don't want my business.
But wait. It gets funnier. I went back to my profile and then saw in small print that my address was listed as "undeliverable" and therefore my account has been suspended until I rectify this situation.
I decided that it would be simpler to start a new subscription and pretend that the old one never existed. I happily signed up for 3 years and went to pay the exhorbitant extra shipping fee to Canada. Done! Or so I thought. This morning I found the following missive in my email account:
"Our records show that you recently provided new information while ordering a subscription that does not match your saved profile. If you would like to update your profile with this new information, please click here."
I will confess that I have yet to deal with it. It seems unimportant compared to other things we're dealing with.
2. We received a bill in the mail yesterday from Johnson County Wastewater Services for $8.99, $5 of which was supposedly a late fee. The bill was stamped "delinquent" and indicated that it needed to be paid immediately. We had given all of the utilities our forwarding address for final bills, yet none of them could process an out-of-country address so we were assured that the bills would be forwarded from the old address and we could go ahead and pay them online.
I asked Ben to call to get the $5 fee removed since we certainly hadn't received any other bills. He was able to do so easily, and he told the nice lady on the phone that we would pay the bill online through our bank account immediately. I logged in to our US account right after he hung up, only to find that our bank does not permit bill payments of under $5.
Ben called back and was able to make a payment over the phone instead.
3. Ben called our US VISA card provider to ensure that they had processed our change of address to Canada. He also wanted to confirm that we could keep the account since it seemed to imply somewhere in the paperwork that this particular card was only available to US residents. The card in question is a Priority Club VISA and is connected to our Holiday Inn Priority Points card. When Ben called the VISA number, they transferred him to the Points Club people to process the address change.
Unsurprisingly, the Points Club already had our correct address since we use our hotel points on a rather frequent basis. They transferred him back to the VISA people who were finally able to confirm that they had indeed processed a change of address with our recent payment and we could keep the card.
4. Our US cell phone contract expires on August 31st. We also have an older prepaid US cell phone that we will be keeping indefinitely. I looked online to see how many minutes we had left on it and realized that it still had an old US address attached to our profile. I attempted to change it online and was informed that "for addresses outside of the US, please call *insert 1-800 number here*".
Ben called, only to be told by the customer service rep that he wasn't sure if a change could be processed since his system was set up with a US-based address system. Um, ok. Then why have a 1-800 number to deal with addresses outside of the US in the first place!??! The man took down our new address and said that he would see what he could do about changing it. I'm not holding my breath on that one.
5. I realized belatedly that our Canadian cell phone bill was rather late in arriving. So late, in fact, that it is now slightly overdue. Apparently one of us signed up for e-billing. E-billing, or paperless billing, might be more environmentally friendly, but it's not so friendly to our bank account since neither one of us seems to remember to pay bills without a paper statement! (or at least an email reminder)
I still haven't paid the bill. Why not? Because when I attempted to log in to our account online, it told me that the site was currently down. I have faith that things will be fixed soon though. After all, this isn't Rogers.
6. Ben called to cancel our US VISA card that was issued by our Canadian bank. He politely asked if they would refund the annual fee that was literally just charged the other day. The VISA rep was wonderful. She refunded the fee and let us know that the card was cancelled and we could either pay the remaining balance now, or wait for our final statement. I went online and paid it, because clearly I will forget to do so otherwise!
Friday, August 6, 2010
Tourist Time
We're off to Niagara Falls for the weekend. Friends of ours are coming up from Kansas, and we're looking forward to a weekend of fun stuff! We realized that the girls have never actually seen Niagara Falls since we usually just do things near my mother's house in St. Catharines when we're down there.
On the agenda for this weekend:
*Butterfly Conservatory (Rachel has been there once but Anna never has)
*Skylon Tower
*Journey Behind the Falls (unless we all decide it'll be too loud for the kids!)
*Clifton Hill - yes, it's tacky, but I make all my tourist friends at least walk up and down it!
*Carousel in Port Dalhousie
*Welland Canal - Lock 3 Museum
*Niagara-on-the-Lake (because I like it, and who can argue with fudge samples?!)
The weather sounds like it will be just about perfect, so I suppose I should log off and get the kids in the car!
On the agenda for this weekend:
*Butterfly Conservatory (Rachel has been there once but Anna never has)
*Skylon Tower
*Journey Behind the Falls (unless we all decide it'll be too loud for the kids!)
*Clifton Hill - yes, it's tacky, but I make all my tourist friends at least walk up and down it!
*Carousel in Port Dalhousie
*Welland Canal - Lock 3 Museum
*Niagara-on-the-Lake (because I like it, and who can argue with fudge samples?!)
The weather sounds like it will be just about perfect, so I suppose I should log off and get the kids in the car!
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Apparently we're teaching them well
This afternoon I took the girls to Costco while Ben was teaching. Since I wanted to stay out the whole time, I told them that for fun we'd walk down every aisle in the store. I stopped briefly to look at some girls' socks. Anna told me that she wanted them, and then asked me a question. I couldn't quite understand what she said, so I asked her to repeat herself. That time, both Rachel and I heard the same question:
"Are they kosher?"
After we stopped laughing, we explained to Anna that while food must be kosher, it's different for clothes. But since I have a bizarre memory for random knowledge, I decided to tell them a bit more about what is and isn't kosher. The term shatnetz applies to clothes that are a mixture of sheep's wool and linen. This is prohibited in the Torah, but no reason is given for the prohibition. We talked about what clothes are made of, and concluded that the socks were most likely kosher (we'd moved on by then or I'd have gotten Rachel to read the label!) but that we still wouldn't eat them.
"Are they kosher?"
After we stopped laughing, we explained to Anna that while food must be kosher, it's different for clothes. But since I have a bizarre memory for random knowledge, I decided to tell them a bit more about what is and isn't kosher. The term shatnetz applies to clothes that are a mixture of sheep's wool and linen. This is prohibited in the Torah, but no reason is given for the prohibition. We talked about what clothes are made of, and concluded that the socks were most likely kosher (we'd moved on by then or I'd have gotten Rachel to read the label!) but that we still wouldn't eat them.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Hacked!
This morning I logged in and found a pile of "mail returned, user unknown" emails in my inbox. Apparently I sent email to a large number of people regarding some cheap shopping site. Unfortunately, the emails were actually in my sent mail so it looks like someone managed to hack into my account.
I've been on a password-changing frenzy. This is no easy feat considering that I've had the same password or a variant thereof for about 15 years. My password always passed the "strength" tests and was unlikely to be guessed by anyone. It clearly set the bar rather high for a successor.
So now we'll find out if it's possible to teach an almost-old not-dog new tricks. As I prepare to leave the 25-34 age demographic this fall, I am apparently being presented with new challenges. If I never blog again, you'll know that I have failed to remember either the new password or the answers to any of the security questions.
I've been on a password-changing frenzy. This is no easy feat considering that I've had the same password or a variant thereof for about 15 years. My password always passed the "strength" tests and was unlikely to be guessed by anyone. It clearly set the bar rather high for a successor.
So now we'll find out if it's possible to teach an almost-old not-dog new tricks. As I prepare to leave the 25-34 age demographic this fall, I am apparently being presented with new challenges. If I never blog again, you'll know that I have failed to remember either the new password or the answers to any of the security questions.
Monday, August 2, 2010
Rogers strikes again
Although the concept of the devil is not the same in Judaism as it is in Christianity, I find it highly amusing that the Rogers advertising is red and black. Given the low level of service provided and the high level of greed, mis-management and general stupidity, I shouldn't have been surprised by the few minor incidents we've had since moving in.
Before I completely condemn Rogers, I will admit that the Rogers technician arrived on the day of our appointment. He was even 5 minutes early! I took a picture of the Rogers van outside our house and a picture of our clock. Since the pictures were taken separately, I suppose I can't really prove that he was early but Ben and I both saw it. And trust me, I don't think we would hallucinate about Rogers customer service in a positive manner.
Tonight I realized that I had yet to pay the Rogers bill. Although we were assured of 6 months' free service when we signed up with them in June, the first bill arrived with a charge of $3.16 for some "World Connect" thing that we most certainly had not requested. Ben called their customer lack-of-service department and asked for the charge to be removed. Imagine my (lack of) surprise when our bill arrived this month and still showed $0.91 owing. Ben called again and was successful in having a charge removed. I say a charge, because we did have some long distance charges. We have now changed our plan to a plan that includes unlimited long distance in North America. Could we use Skype for free on the computer? Yes, we could. We choose not to, because we enjoy using the actual telephone and being able to multi-task while on it.
But I digress. It's my blog. I reserve the right to digress when necessary. Heck, how about I just digress whenever I feel like it?
I logged into our bank account online and went to add "Rogers Cable" as a payee. Imagine my (this time real) surprise when I went to add the account number and my bank informed me that it was invalid. Right there on the bill it said "account number", and I entered the numbers straight from the printed page.
Then I had a rational thought. I don't have many of these, so I've found that it's important to follow through when one does occur. I went to the Rogers website and decided to register our account there so that I could check things online. Great idea, right?
I did very well filling out the sign-up form. I entered my email address, my password (Twice! The Rogers page even told me it was a strong password!), the requisite fake answer to the security question, and the verification words. I tried this 4 or 5 times to no avail. Each time the website kicked me back to the sign-up form again, informing me that I had neglected to fill in a password.
At this point, I was feeling rather angry. I decided that an appropriate outlet for my anger would be to type in "f***yourogers" as a password in a final attempt to get the website to co-operate. It worked. Yes, it really worked.
I opened up our account page and started poking around to see what I could find. I found a reference number on one portion of our online information. It started with the same three numbers that our old Rogers account number started with, so I decided to go back to our bank's website and try that number instead. That number was acceptable, so I went ahead and paid the bill.
I then took the paper bill downstairs to show Ben. "Ben, can you please tell me our account number?" I asked him nicely. "Sure," he said, looking at the page. He rattled off the number that was printed right next to "account number" on the bill. "Guess again!" I said in an overly fake and cheerful voice.
Seriously, if Rogers wants our money (and believe me, they do!), they shouldn't make it so darned hard to pay them!
Before I completely condemn Rogers, I will admit that the Rogers technician arrived on the day of our appointment. He was even 5 minutes early! I took a picture of the Rogers van outside our house and a picture of our clock. Since the pictures were taken separately, I suppose I can't really prove that he was early but Ben and I both saw it. And trust me, I don't think we would hallucinate about Rogers customer service in a positive manner.
Tonight I realized that I had yet to pay the Rogers bill. Although we were assured of 6 months' free service when we signed up with them in June, the first bill arrived with a charge of $3.16 for some "World Connect" thing that we most certainly had not requested. Ben called their customer lack-of-service department and asked for the charge to be removed. Imagine my (lack of) surprise when our bill arrived this month and still showed $0.91 owing. Ben called again and was successful in having a charge removed. I say a charge, because we did have some long distance charges. We have now changed our plan to a plan that includes unlimited long distance in North America. Could we use Skype for free on the computer? Yes, we could. We choose not to, because we enjoy using the actual telephone and being able to multi-task while on it.
But I digress. It's my blog. I reserve the right to digress when necessary. Heck, how about I just digress whenever I feel like it?
I logged into our bank account online and went to add "Rogers Cable" as a payee. Imagine my (this time real) surprise when I went to add the account number and my bank informed me that it was invalid. Right there on the bill it said "account number", and I entered the numbers straight from the printed page.
Then I had a rational thought. I don't have many of these, so I've found that it's important to follow through when one does occur. I went to the Rogers website and decided to register our account there so that I could check things online. Great idea, right?
I did very well filling out the sign-up form. I entered my email address, my password (Twice! The Rogers page even told me it was a strong password!), the requisite fake answer to the security question, and the verification words. I tried this 4 or 5 times to no avail. Each time the website kicked me back to the sign-up form again, informing me that I had neglected to fill in a password.
At this point, I was feeling rather angry. I decided that an appropriate outlet for my anger would be to type in "f***yourogers" as a password in a final attempt to get the website to co-operate. It worked. Yes, it really worked.
I opened up our account page and started poking around to see what I could find. I found a reference number on one portion of our online information. It started with the same three numbers that our old Rogers account number started with, so I decided to go back to our bank's website and try that number instead. That number was acceptable, so I went ahead and paid the bill.
I then took the paper bill downstairs to show Ben. "Ben, can you please tell me our account number?" I asked him nicely. "Sure," he said, looking at the page. He rattled off the number that was printed right next to "account number" on the bill. "Guess again!" I said in an overly fake and cheerful voice.
Seriously, if Rogers wants our money (and believe me, they do!), they shouldn't make it so darned hard to pay them!
Grammar and Punctuation
Three simple words: Let's eat Grandma. Without punctuation (let's ignore the apostrophe in let's for now, shall we?), this sentence is disastrous. A simple comma can make all the difference:
"Let's eat, Grandma!"
Why do I bring this up in my very first post? The answer was almost in the URL, but I couldn't bear to have a blog address without correct punctuation. Bonus points will go to my mother if she ever figures out what URL stands for.
In any case, I've been thinking about starting a new blog for some time now. I like to blog about lots of different things, not just the kids. So it's not just about the kids anymore! Mind you, it never was just about the kids on my old blog, regardless of what the title may have suggested.
So here's to comma-happy me, blogging away to my heart's content. And since I just typed heart, why do we say whole-heartedly and half-heartedly but never quarter-heartedly?
"Let's eat, Grandma!"
Why do I bring this up in my very first post? The answer was almost in the URL, but I couldn't bear to have a blog address without correct punctuation. Bonus points will go to my mother if she ever figures out what URL stands for.
In any case, I've been thinking about starting a new blog for some time now. I like to blog about lots of different things, not just the kids. So it's not just about the kids anymore! Mind you, it never was just about the kids on my old blog, regardless of what the title may have suggested.
So here's to comma-happy me, blogging away to my heart's content. And since I just typed heart, why do we say whole-heartedly and half-heartedly but never quarter-heartedly?
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