Worth The Wait

I know it's been a while since I blogged so I hope this post will in fact be "worth the wait" for you guys. The contrast in my last 2 Easters has been an incredible one. Easter 2008 was spent with my mom, just 6 days before she passed. I was informed that Easter 08 was earlier than it had been in like 90 years and was able to find another blessing in what at the time was a lot of pain and hurt. This Easter was a special one as well. Shasta and I were doing some rearranging and she laid 2 baby outfits beside each other, one boy and one girl, and asked me "Which do you think we'll need first?" I asked something to the effect of "What are you trying to say?" and she said "well we're gonna have to pick soon." So came the announcement that Shasta is expecting and we'll have a little one before 2009 is over. There were many joyous phone calls and more than a few happy tears from friends and relatives. My friend Julie wanted to scream but couldn't because she had a nasty cold and her voice was shot. So here I sit again, blessed way more than I deserve, about to start a family with the most incredible person I know and the words that come to mind are "Thank you LORD, I could not ask for more."

So much for customer loyalty

I have been a customer of my current ISP pretty much since they came to town. I was the first person on my street to convert my dial up account to DSL, I took advantage of their unlimited long distance, dove in with both feet when they offered bundled DSL, phone and satellite service. You could say I'm happy with the service and offerings they provide. I even stuck with them when their stupid computers didn't bill us for long distance for over a year and all of a sudden it all appeared on one bill. However the treatment I've rec'd in the past few weeks have left questioning whether they are worthy of my loyalty. It's not that the service has suffered or degraded at all. It's the way they seem to not care about those customers that have stuck with them and remained loyal. Back at the end of February I called to see if there was any way I could save on my bill. I had heard rumors that they were offering free laptops for customers who locked in for a certain amount of time and figured I'd see if it was true. The very nice rep I talked with said it was and she'd get me all set up. Well after several minutes she said that she could give me the laptop and save me $35/month on my bill if I took advantage of another promotion they were offering. I said heck yeah. Well after a minute or so, she said she couldn't do the laptop because I wasn't eligible, but I could still do the promo that saved me $35/month. I asked why I wasn't eligible and she just said her supervisor said I wasn't. I told her to go ahead and sign me up and then asked if I could talk to her supervisor to clarify why I wasn't eligible. She put me on my hold and after about 5 minutes I hung up and didn't think anymore of it until the other day when Nathan knocked on my door. Nathan was all excited because he could offer my some savings on my bill and, wait for it, a free laptop! I chuckled and explained that I had tried for the free laptop but I wasn't eligible. Well Nathan was not one to give up easily, he called his supervisor and after about 5 mins, they to determined that I wasn't eligible, and advised me to speak to someone at my local office. Well I went to my local office and explained my situation to them and they were extremely sympathetic and even worked my bill so I got an extra $20/month but I still don't have the laptop. I asked them if they realized that this left me with no incentive to continue as a Frontier customer once my current contract expired. They actually nodded and said they wouldn't blame me for exploring other options! By the way, Frontier is still offering the free laptop, rightchere! I am apparently not eligible because I take advantage of their new service offerings as soon as they come out instead of waiting until they start tying them to promotions like the one I am not eligible for. It seems Frontier would rather score a new customer for the short term than worry about keeping the those of us who have stuck with them happy. Fine by me, we'll see what Comcast offers when contract renewal time rolls around.