Archive for October, 2008

Time To Change

I’ve been a customer of DirecTV since January 2004. My bill with them is $96, which I pay on time every month. In fact, I’m on the auto-pay plan with them so they get their money when they want it. They’ve provided a service and I’ve compensated them for it. Not only am I a loyal customer, but I am a good customer.

So why is it that companies treat their best customers the worst? I’ve had a couple problems with bad receivers and each time they’ve sent me some refurbished piece of shit to replace it, and/or an older model receiver than the one I needed to replace. And when I bitched about it I got the “too bad, so sad; there’s nothing we can do about it” response.

Now I’m finally ready to upgrade to HD service. To do that I need a new receiver and a new satellite dish. So I call and see what DTV can do for me. Not much, apparently. They’ll give me the dish and installation free, but they want $200 for an HD DVR. And no deals on programming. Full price for everything. My monthly bill will increase about $40/month because their pricing structure and programming packages have changed since I signed up and I’ll need to select a current package.

So I shopped around. Comcast has a nice deal, but after a promo period they’d rape me even worse monthly than DirecTV. Verizon FiOS, on the other hand, which I already have broadband and home phone service through, is offering me the following:

First month of programming free. Savings: $57.99
Three SD (standard definition) receivers for $12.99/mo for 12 months. Savings: $60
HD DVR: 12 Months free. Savings: $239.88

DirecTV wanted me to pay $200 up front and an extra $40/month right off the bat. And I’m a great customer! Verizon, who I am a new (TV service) customer of, wants to give me over $350 in savings during the course of the next year, including $82.98 in the first month. And the kicker is that even after the 12 months are up, my bill will only be $15 more than what I pay now, as opposed to $40 if I upgrade with DirecTV.

On the other hand, if I was a new DirecTV customer, I’d get the HD DVR free (savings $200), three months of HD programming free (savings $30), HBO/Starz/Showtime free for three months (savings $105) and other discounts totalling $23/month for 12 months. Total savings: $611!

So why in the hell does it pay to be a good, solid, loyal customer when you’ll just get treated worse than someone with no track record with the company when you want to change/upgrade your service? It doesn’t make sense.

Oh, well. After next week when Verizon installs my new service it won’t matter anymore.

Published at October 29, 2008 in General. 2 Comments

Good Economic News

The good thing about the current economic crisis — which sucks if you’re close to retirement age, but let’s face it, doesn’t mean much to those of us with 30 years left to work — is watching the arabs and latin american socialists shit their pants over the price of oil plummeting. It is a joy to see what’s happening to those assholes. Most of them only have oil to rely up on when it comes to their GNP, and they’ve set their budgets on prices not dropping much below $80, and they felt that was being conservative (oil is currently trading for about $67/barrel). Now they’re flipping out over not being able to buy Russian weaponry because they have to provide basic shit like food and power to their slums.

In my best Nelson Muntz voice I decree, “Haw Haw!”

The way we do things is really fucked up, but we rely on enriching our enemies because of their oil, which in turn allows them to support actions contradictory to our interests. Basically, we’re funding the very nations who want to see our republic fall. Good thing we have Obama to save us.

Here are a few terrific articles that should make any american feel good:

Oil powerhouse Venezuela struggles to keep lights on

Mideast grapples with oil price slump

Three Oil-Rich Countries Face a Reckoning

To the Iranian oil minister asshole who said the days of cheap oil were over and the fuckwad hippie enviro-freaks here who were so giddy to see gas over $4.00 a gallon and gleefully pronounced that lifestyles would be forced to change because that price was here to stay: Go fuck yourselves.

I paid $2.47/gal for gas yesterday. Even that’s too high, but it’s not high enough to keep me from laughing at those who hate us for not being able to fuck us with our own cash.

“Haw Haw!”

Published at October 24, 2008 in General. 2 Comments

Behold The Endorsement

Colin Powell endorsing Barack Obama for president by saying it’s not about race reminds me of pro athletes who sign gigantic free agent contracts with new teams and then go to the press conference and say their signing wasn’t about money. Sure it wasn’t.

My favorite part of Powell’s endorsement is when he said had to take rhetorical abilities into account when choosing who to vote for. That’s nonsense, of course, but I guess Powell likes the idea of a president who can bullshit you into thinking you’re getting a pat on the back and not a knife in it.

There was an editorial in the Wall Street Journal last week about what the impending democrat president with a democratic super majority in Congress will do. It scares the shit out of me, and if there is no balance to counteract the democrats (or to counteract the republicans if it was them taking over) I believe we’ll be slaves to the government even more than we are now much sooner than later.

Even scarier than that, however, is that there are bright, educated people who can’t wait for it to happen.

But you know what they say: be careful what you wish for because you just might get it.

Published at October 20, 2008 in General. 4 Comments

Overhearing An Exchange

Yesterday I was in a store in a ritzy-ish part of town running an errand (buying a new shirt) when I saw this well-heeled, personal trainer bodied, hot trophy soccer MILF with her little boy. He had to be maybe three. She was a couple steps ahead of him when out of the blue I heard him say, “You’re a stupid mom.” Again, this kid was probably three.

I was a little stunned to hear a kid say that out of the blue and would have strangled the kid if he was mine, but her reaction was even more stunning. She said, “Oh Matthew [or whatever], you know Santa Claus is listening and he just took a present away from you.” Then they just kept walking around, with him being a little shit and her acting like it was completely normal.

WTF. This little bastard is going to have everything handed to him in life, he’s going to appreciate none of it, and when he turns into a 20-something 7 years in college fuck-up who’s still still sucking on his momma’s teet she’s going to brag about what a fine young man he’s grown up to be.

Between the rich kids pushing their parents around and the poor kids who generally don’t have parents around, my kids’ generation is f-u-c-k-e-d. It really scares me to think what this country is going to be like in 50 years. Thank god I’ll be dead by then (or pretty damn close to it).

Good thing we have Obama to save us, I guess.

Published at October 15, 2008 in General. 3 Comments

Stamina To Complete

I don’t really like to write about running on this blog anymore, but I want to share that after completing my first marathon today I ate a big burger with chili and cheese on top of it, an assload of french fries and drank two beers. It was all delicious.

Tomorrow will be the first Sunday in over 6 months that I do not have to wake up early to go run some ungodly distance. I am very much looking forward to sleeping in, although aside from some fatigue, some minimal soreness in my legs and very tense shoulders I feel surprisingly good.

And yes, I am awesome. All non marathon runners bow before me. Bitches.

Published at October 12, 2008 in General. 6 Comments