Rant about A Wasted Day - Wed., Oct. 9

What a day! By the end of it I was almost in tears and definitely stressed out.

The first part of the day went okay. I had a doctor's appointment for bone density test and to review my echocardiogram and Pap test. My appointment was 9 a.m. and I made into the exam room by 9:30 a.m. All news was good: echocardiogram normal, Pap smear normal, and it looks like my kidney stone must have passed painlessly. My first doctor's visit of the day ended at 10:45 a.m.

Went home, had lunch. My mammogram was 1 p.m. and I made it out of there by 1:35 p.m.

From there, I drove 1/2 hour to Costco to have two new tires put on my car - even though I bought four new tires at the same time a couple of years ago, two of them were severely worn from problems with front-end suspension during our two months in the oil fields. Apparently I need a new battery as well, according to my Texas safety inspection. (Haven't had any problems with the battery at all...but service center said their tests indicate it could die at any time.) The battery was bought at Costco in November of 2011 and its a 100-month battery. Looks like Costco is getting a battery back.

Then I picked Bob up at work so we could go to AT&T as our 18-month-old air card died and we wanted purchase a new one. We didn't have an insurance plan. Here's where the day took a turn for the worse. First off, AT&T could not find our account on their computers in the store even though we have been really good customers for years. We searched by Bob's name, my name, both of our social security #'s, and some other number. It was decided I had to go home, get the air card and take it into a store.

So, I went home, got the air card and took it to the AT&T store closest to the RV park. Again, they searched by both our names, both our social security numbers, the SIM#, and an IMEI #. Long story short, they finally found our account. I don't know what finally worked.

BUT, I couldn't do anything at the store because I wasn't named on the account. What?? I'm the one who pays the bill every month on my Visa card!!

Anyway, I had to call Bob as the account holder. He had to call AT&T Customer Service at an 800 number, give all kinds of personal information, they had to email him a security code, which he had to give to AT&T, THEN he could add me onto the account. REALLY?? How messed up is that?

Once that was taken care of, I set about picking out a new smart phone (since I don't have one yet), and choosing an air card. The air card is $0.99 if you do a two-year plan; HOWEVER, our current two-year plan doesn't expire for six months. That means we would have to buy out the rest of our six-month contract which is about $300 ** or ** start a brand new two-year contract and pay that one along with this new one.

Guess who won't be our air card or phone carrier in six months? AT&T. Needless to say, I did not get a new air card or a new phone, or a new phone line through AT&T. (We currently have cell phone service through Verizon.)

Here's our solution...I turned off the air card which will continue to pay minimum payment on for six months. (With our usage on the internet, we had been paying more than double our monthly bill.) What we've done instead is sign up for Tengo Internet through our RV park for $30/month. I think it is unlimited service. When all is said and done, our monthly bill (minimum AT&T air card + Tengo Internet) will end up being less than what we were paying AT&T each month. We'll see how it goes.

About face! Time to eat crow. Bob went to the AT&T near his work where he talked to a manager about our situation. Apparently there was some misunderstanding between me and the lady who helped me. She didn't seem to understand what we wanted. The manager at the store Bob went to had Bob talk to a very experienced salesperson who was able to sell us the air card and service we wanted without having to make a double payment. We now have a new two-year contract starting today and don't have to buy out the old contract.

That was my day. Now I'm ready to veg out in front of the TV with Survivor and CSI.

Travel Bug out.