Platform 327

There haven’t been any postings for a while. Fuck you.

I’ll post a little bit more about my weekend later.

But for now, I just had to share this photo essay. It’s scary and weird, yet somehow… I don’t know. I’m going to have to take it in.

I know all my loyal fans are dying to know how my phone call with Rogers went. (I’ll just pause as the tumbleweed makes its way across here.)

I called and said I wanted to cancel. Well, first I went through their incredibly irritating and dysfunctional automated system, then I told a real human being everything I had already told the dysfunctional automated system and then said I wanted to cancel. She was “sorry to hear that,” and sent me off to another person to whom I told everything I had told the first person and the dysfunctional automated system. 8 minutes of cell phone time well spent. She was also “sorry to hear” that I wanted to cancel. She asked why, and I told her I just couldn’t afford to keep it up.

Cue Monty Hall. Let’s Make A Deal!

At first, she came up with a rate plan (the details of which I wasn’t really listening to) that would allow me to keep all my services for a whopping $6 discount. 6 bucks off an $80 bill? Yeah, not much in the way of savings. I didn’t mention it at the time, but I was thinking that if they could get my bill down to around $20, I might stay on. It also got me to thinking that I’ve been overcharged $6 a month for the past 3 years, but I digress.

More haggling ensued, and then we finally got to the price of what their basic internet package would cost: around $20 a month. Well, what do you know?

When I signed on with Rogers originally, I was really just looking for internet service and was told that if I wanted the internet without television, there would be a service charge added to the bill. I mentioned this today and the voice on the phone said, “Oh, no. I’m sorry you were told that, but we don’t charge extra for having the internet without television.” Okay, so either they’ve changed their billing rates or the people in customer acqusition tell people different things than the people in customer retention do.

Either way, $20 a month sounded fine to me. Now I get the internet for $10 cheper than what the wireless service (which I’m not too impressed with yet, but I’m sure they’ll work out the bugs by the time they start charging folks, right?) will charge and I get to keep all that spiffy premium Yahoo content and stuff that I actually kind of like. And hey, Rogers gets to keep a customer. Everybody wins.

There’s just one little potential snag. They wanted to charge me a $45 cancellation fee because my TV/internet bundle had a 2-year commitment on it. Well, I’ve had that service for well over 3 years. Turns out they changed my account number when I moved and reset that 2-year timeline. The customer service person said the fee wouldn’t show up on my bill, but we shall see.

… I’m actually going to make it through this week! A rebate cheque I thought was never going to show up actually showed up, so now I can get groceries before Friday.

I’ve got to get the finances under control again. Cancelling Rogers is going to help. Yeah, I’ll miss Season 3 of Battlestar Galactica, but I can wait and rent the DVDs in a few months. That and the last season of Stargate were about the only non-rerun things I wanted to watch that were beyond the broadcast spectrum. I’ll soon be back on free TV. Couple that with free internet until March, and that’s $480 out of Ted Rogers’ pocket and straight into… CIBC’s coffers. Well, it’ll help.

There’s a magazine I like and that I wanted to subscribe to. On their web site, they listed the price of a Canadian subscription as well as the usual little note that says Canadian subscriptions must be paid for in US funds.

Where it got a little confusing was with their online payment options. They had an “Order Online” link which said “US Orders Only” in brackets beside it. This led to a shopping-cart page. Another link said “OR pay by PayPal,” which I use to buy stuff from the US all the time.

Just to be safe, I emailed them to ask if accepted absolutely no online orders from outside the US, or if registered and verified international PayPal users had the option of ordering online that way. I figured PayPal was okay, but I didn’t want to end up with a whole lot of hassle due to some anal subscription manager’s dedication to procedure.

I emailed them two and a half weeks ago. This is the response I received today:

The Canadian government targets US magazines at the border and it is
impossible for us to guarantee that you will get any magazines if you
subscribe so we do not accept Canadian subscriptions.
I’m sorry

“The Canadian government targets US magazines at the border”? Excuse me? Does this mean that Chapters, Indigo and The Great Canadian News Company stores American Consulate offices or something? I don’t freakin’ think so. If anything, US magazines have had a pretty easy time coming over the border in recent years. Are there even Canadian editions of Sports Illustrated, National Geographic, Playboy or any of the other huge mags anymore? The “Canadian edition,” for the most part, disappeared quietly some time ago. And seriously, how many of us, at one time or another, have subscribed to a US mag with absolutely no problems whatsoever? I was an OMNI subscriber for a good chunk of my teen years, had Writer’s Digest and Starlog coming to my house while I was in college and a few others here and there. I never missed an issue or spent a night in jail. I’ve found that usually American mags have better customer service and are a lot more on the ball when it comes to things like address changes.

What do you know. I felt like ranting today, and some twit gave me something to rant about. Go, me. I did send them an email suggesting that they remove their Canadian subscription rate package from their site, thanking them for keeping me from running afoul of my government, and telling them I’ll be sure to keep the big pile of other US magazines in my home hidden from view. I wonder if I’ll get a reply.

No, I’m not linking to them. They’re too dumb to deserve a link.

This is my first Livejournal entry using that new wireless dealie I was talking about before.

It’s a geek thing.

Toronto Hydro finally has their downtown wireless network dealie up and running. Time to say bye-bye to the $80 monthly Rogers bill, methinks. Sure, I’ll miss season 3 of Battlestar Galactica, but for the $50 I’ll save each month ($80 for the 6 months that the wireless service is free) I’ll wait for the DVDs.

Life without caffeine is kicking my ass.

That is all.

Well, I’ve been waitin’ ever since eight
Guess my baby’s got another date
Stood up, broken-hearted, again

I’ll bet she’s out havin’ a ball
Not even thinkin’ of me at all
Stood up, broken-hearted, again

Well, I know just what I oughta do
I oughta find somebody new
But, baby, I couldn’t forget about you
Stood up, broken-hearted, again

Why must I always be the one
Left behind never havin’ any fun?
Stood up, broken-hearted, again

But I guess I’ll go on bein’ a fool
Sittin’ around just waitin’ for you
Stood up, broken-hearted, again

Well, I know just what I oughta do
I oughta find somebody new
But, baby, I couldn’t forget about you
Stood up, broken-hearted, again

Stood up, broken-hearted, again
Stood up, broken-hearted, again

Comments disabled. Leave me alone.

This is both shocking and, well, not all that shocking.