Quick Thoughts On The Race For The White House

i cannot figure out, for the life of me, why so many people seem to dislike Hillary Clinton.  i admire her skills a great deal, and would very much like to see her in the White House specifically *because* she *is* a politician.  We need someone with her skills to dig us out of this mess George Bush and the republicans have gotten us into.  While i admire Barak Obama tremendously... my gosh, the speech he gave at the Democratic National Convention literally made my spine tingle up and down... i just don't think he can get the job done.  As much as i hate to say it, there is something to be said for someone who is "inside" the "system."  If change is what we want, then we need someone in there who actually knows how to create that change.  i just don't know how Obama thinks he is going to affect change in a system that itself is pretty rigged to be constant and unchanging--especially when he has as little experience as he does.  i have been around long enough to remember the promises made by every president in my life time regarding change... once they get inside that beltway they find that change is far more difficult to affect than they had promised.  

Barak is a fantastic speaker, and appears to be promising not only the moon, but the sun as well.  i fear that by democrats nominating him we may very well be handing the election to the republicans when he implodes under his own rhetoric and inexperience.  As much as i would like to see him in the White House at some point, this is definitely not the time for it.  i can't believe democrats would be that stupid!  Certainly, if he could keep the momentum going that he seems to have created now--which is just fucking amazing--but i just don't think he will be able to do that.  Edwards is a fucking weasel.  The guy is utterly unbearable to watch, much less listen to. i hate his affected southern working class manner of speaking and his $100.00 hair cut as he talks about the "working man" and "getting back" at those ambiguous corporations.  He is a pretty boy without much substance. Just a whole lot of hot air.  Richardson has come great ideas, i like him a great deal, but when he speaks i feel like yawning.  i like him, but he hasn't a snowballs chance in hell.

To be honest, as much as i would hate to see the democrats give the White House to the republicans for another four years (and that is exactly what the situation is--it is theirs to give) i would not be incredibly disheartened by a republican winning the '08 election.  Anyone of those guys is light years beyond and far better than what we have now, and probably far less corrupt as well.  Even Huckabee (regardless of his religious and social conservatism) has shown that he is competent at governance. i would hate to see Giuliani win.  i think that guy is scary and corrupt as hell, however--but still better than what we currently have.  i think McCain is a turncoat and have hated him ever since he became Bush's pussy-boy.  But i merely dislike him on a personal level, i think he would make a good president.  Romney--that guy... lol.  What a fucking weasel.  He would say anything to get elected--out of all of the candidates on the republican side, i think he is the absolute worst.  He IS in all respects exactly what the republicans painted Kerry as being.  While Kerry was not those things, Romney clearly is. Thompson puts me to sleep, but appears like he has some common sense at least.  Duncan Hunter is scary as hell... 

One thing is for certain... the country can't wait to get rid of the corrupt retards holding power right now.  And regardless of who wins the presidency, they are going to have to contend with a democratic congress, period.  And i am satisfied with that... tremendously satisfied.  That, in itself, may be what would, when all is said and done, make an Obama presidency quite successful in the end.

i like much of what Ron Paul says, but he appears a bit contentious to me, just as Kucinich does.  However, i would like to see them on a ticket together... i would think twice about voting for them.

i am, however, still rooting for the most experienced of the bunch, and that is Hillary.  She has spent her life honing her political philosophy and skills.  She would make as good, or better, a president as her husband did.

Verizon, Literally The Most Incompetent Corporation In America!

i was probably one of the first customers Verizon had for DSL service in my hometown of Huntington, WV.  i know i was an early beta tester for the service.  In brief, i had the service for well over six years… maybe since 1998.  However, as of December 31^st, 2007, i am no longer a Verizon customer.  During the entire time i was a Verizon DSL customer, my bill was always paid on time.  i know this because i had it automatically deducted from my credit card.  At first it was around $42.00 a month, then i believe the price for DSL dropped to $39.95 a month during the last two years i had the service.

i am now a Comcast Cable customer.  How did this happen?

i shared a house with a close friend of mine who owned the home.  When we decided to get DSL, i decided that i would pay for, however, since the phone bill was in her name, the DSL was attached to her phone number, but that portion of the bill was always automatically deducted from my credit card.  Additionally, i was the contact person for the DSL account and any time there was an issue, it was me who called Verizon to resolve it. In April 2004 i moved from the home where i had initially had DSL service to live with my partner several blocks over from where i had originally lived.

i phoned Verizon at that time and asked if they could transfer my e-mail address and the DSL account to the new residence.  My partner had DSL service at his home already, so all i really wanted to do was maintain my long held e-mail address.  When i spoke with Verizon at that time, they said that they could not transfer my e-mail address to a new account as the e-mail address would have to not be in use for six months before it could be used on a different account.  Attempts to get my partners DSL account shut down and the DSL account from my previous residence moved to the his home to replace it met with a great deal of confusion and bureaucracy from Verizon billing and tech support.  Because of this, and due to the fact that it was, i thought, crucial to maintain my long held e-mail address, we made the decision to simply pay both accounts.  In other words, my partner would not use his account excepting for the access itself.  We would connect to the service through the use of my passwords and account information. 

So, for the last three and a half years, my partner and i paid for two DSL accounts, one of which was never even used, essentially, and phone service from Verizon.  Including the phone, we paid over $120-140.00 a month for these services.  Again, these bills were never late as they were automatically deducted from our credit cards.

In early December i got a phone call from my old roommate who told me that she was selling the house where we had lived and that she was having the phone transferred to a new home.  i felt that i should do something about the DSL account, finally, so as to ensure uninterrupted access to the account.  i phoned Verizon billing, the obvious choice, to address changing the DSL account from the initial address to my current one, and to shut down the DSL account in my partners name.

That is when the nightmare began.

Verizon has an automated troubleshooting answering service.  You speak what you want to the automated voice, and it is supposed to get you to the service that you need.  It starts out by repeating back to you the phone number you are calling from, to ask you if that is the number you are calling about.  If you call the Verizon from a cell phone, it gets even that number wrong nine times out of ten.

i was transferred to billing, then to tech support, then to wireless service… in between i was connected without warning to this automated voice where i would have to start all over again.  In brief, i couldn’t seem to get a single person at Verizon to understand how to complete my request, or to get me to someone who could complete my request.

i was on the phone with Verizon for well over three hours in attempts to resolve the issue.  This is no exaggeration.  My cell phone counts the minutes i am on a call.

i had to repeat my request to every customer service representative to whom i was transferred, only to be transferred again… and typically, i was not transferred to an actual person, but rather to the automated voice… to start all over again, with only the department i was supposed to speak to given to me by the previous rep.

After the first three hours of this mess, i was finally told that i needed to speak to my local Verizon Company who handled transferal of services and disconnections.  So, i was again transferred.  Finally i thought i was going to get what i needed and all would be well.  The customer service representative who i spoke with from my local company appeared to totally understand my request.  However, she said before she could disconnect the service to my residence, she would need to speak with my partner in whose name the other DSL account that we wanted totally disconnected was in.  She attempted to contact him at work, but to no avail.  With her still on hold, i actually got into my vehicle and drove to his place of work, where he then waited for Verizon to call him.  Before i knew it, i was transferred to some Verizon office in Georgia.

Finally, completely exasperated at this point, i phoned back.  Speaking to a Ms. Exum, i related that either the situation be fixed, or we would drop all services with Verizon.  Ms Exum seemed to understand what to do and promised to have the problem fixed.  She said that a Ms. Nicols would phone me on 12/12/07 to confirm that the account had been transferred correctly.  i was given the confirmation number of 175176139.  Ms. Nicols was to phone me between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. on the 12^th. 

The phone call never came.

Now i was furious.

i phoned later that day and detailed my problems to the tech support person.  This call took over 45 minutes, as i was transferred from rep to rep, automated voice to automated voice.  Each time, i had to repeat my request in full again and again.  Finally i told them to “fuck it!” i ordered Comcast Digital Cable on 12/12/07.  Total cost for cable television and Internet access:  $66.00 for the first year, thereafter, $100.00.  In addition, i would receive a free cable modem and router. An overall savings if you ask me. They related that the cable service would be installed on December 21^st, 2007.

Later that evening, i called and made the request that they close the DSL account effective 12/31/2007.  For the termination, i received the confirmation number of 175366444.  Directly after the call, i changed the e-mail address to all the sites that i had accounts with over the years under my Verizon e-mail account.  i sent e-mails to all my friends telling them of my new e-mail address.  i attempted to change my credit card on the Verizon site so that the account would not be billed to it any longer, but the site would not allow me to do so unless is substituted some other payment option.  So, i called my credit card company and reported my credit card lost.  That’ll fix’em.  So, the only thing left to change now, is my business cards…

Luckily, i had spent the tedious hours changing the e-mail address immediately that night.  On December 13^th, i awoke to find that i did not have any access to the Internet.  i had been very clear with Verizon that Internet access was crucial to my livelihood, as i receive and send information related to my job over the internet on a daily basis.  i phoned Verizon again.  Again i was on the phone with them for over 45 minutes.  By the end of the call i was promised that my internet access would be reconnected by 12/18/07… as once it was turned off, it would take three days for them to reconnect it.  Irritated, but being as there was little i could do, i acquiesced.  i knew, bottom line, that cable access would be installed by 12/31/07.

i waited patiently.  But, come the 18^th, guess what?  No connectivity.  Calling Verizon back, and again, after being transferred from one rep to automated voice to another rep… eating up another hour of cell phone service, i finally told them that i couldn’t believe how utterly incompetent the company was and that not only would they be losing two internet accounts, but we would also disconnect our phone service with them as of December ’07 as well.

The cable guy came at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, December 21^st, 2007 and installed everything.  Speed is comparable to DSL.  When i call Comcast, i speak directly to a customer service representative who addresses my problem competently. 

My partner and i will not be paying any further Verizon bills.  They have utterly, and completely lost our service forever.

i write this out of complete and utter astonishment that a company blithely allowed one of their best customers, (for what is a “best customer” if not one who paid regularly for a service for over seven years?),  to go to their direct competition.  i am astonished that a company as technologically savvy as Verizon does not have a system in place whereby more expert customer service can be delivered.  i am astonished that the left hand of the company does not know what the right hand is doing.  Had this company invested in a simple computer system that allowed representatives to detail phone conversations with customers, then i would not have had to repeatedly retell my story to each rep i spoke with.  Furthermore, the reps would have known what i was calling about, and would have resolved my issue less painfully.  The company is fragmented into so many disparate cells that there is no way they can deliver the services they offer competently.

All i wanted was to simply close one account and replace it with another so that i could keep an e-mail account that they were too SNAFU oriented to be able to provide seamlessly in the first place.  

Over the course of three and a half years, Verizon made $6, 300.00 from my household, at minimum.  $1, 800.00 a year.  Because of their incompetence, Comcast will now make just a little under that from us.

i sincerely worry for the business of this country when it is clear that our corporations operate so inefficiently.