A few days ago, the St. Louis metro area experienced the first measureable snowfall of the year…a whopping 1 to 2 inches! Of course, the next morning there were numerous fender benders as well as a couple of fatal accidents. Many people just don’t pay any attention to the road conditions and drive like the roads are clear and dry. While I certainly understand the spike in accidents, I do not understand why people have to drive like idiots. Actually, these drive this way regardless of the road conditions. Anyway, I was watching one of the local TV broadcasts covering this weather event, and I heard the reporter state that one of the reasons for all the accidents was that people were driving with bad tires and due to the economy, they couldn’t afford to buy new tires. I’m sorry, but that is one of the dumbest things I’ve heard. If there was anyone out there actually driving on bad tires, and I’m sure there were, they would have made the same decision about buying new tires regardless of the state of the economy. If you have bad tires, don’t drive at all, let alone in the snow, but don’t blame the economy for your stupid decision!

I sent a link to my previous post to AT&T Customer Care. I was assured that the issue would be escalated to the appropriate individuals and that I would be advised as to the results. I certainly believe in giving credit where credit is due and I must say that the Customer Care folks came through with flying colors. Since the issue was escalated, I have received three phone calls to validate the information that I had provided. Two of those calls were within the last hour. The first was from a representative of the Office of the President to let me know that I could expect a call either later today or, because of the holiday, next Monday. Within 30 minutes of that call, I received another call from a representative of the Executive Offices. The individual explained exactly what happened. It seems that there was, in fact, a glitch in the system used to collect amounts due through AutoPay. The system failed to collect amounts due for all customers whose payment was scheduled during the period 15 through 17 November. Apparently, the process was run again on 22 November to collect the previously missed accounts. Of course I had made a one-time payment, so the system did not collect any amounts from my account. I was assured that there would be no late fees of any kind, and that this would have no impact on my credit history. I was also informed that an internal e-mail had been distributed within AT&T to inform appropriate individuals of this issue so that customer inquires could be answered.

I sincerely appreciate the way in which this matter was handled. All of the AT&T contacts were very professional and made me feel that my issue was just as important to all of them as it was to me. A special “thanks” go to AT&T Customer Care for all of the help they provided.

I recently started AT&T U-Verse service….internet, phone, and TV. At the time I signed up, I enrolled in AutoPay for my account. My enrollment for AutoPay was approved to be effective with my second monthly bill. When it came time, AutoPay worked as it should and the bill was paid.

My third month of service was billed and was supposed to be collected via AutoPay on 11/15/2011. I checked my account on-line, and for some reason, it showed that the amount owed was past due. At that point, I’m wondering how an account that is supposed to be paid through AutoPay can be past due? I checked my bank information which was correct and there were sufficient funds to cover the amount charged. I contacted the folks in Billing Support, and I was told that some adjustment was being made and that it would be taken care of.

As of 11/18/2011, the amount charged was still showing as past due. I called Billing Support again, and this time I was told a different story that really makes me angry. I was told that there had been an update to their billing system, and that for some reason, they missed collecting the amount owed through AutoPay for this month. Further, I was told that next month, I would owe for two months plus a late fee! I did my best to maintain a sense of composure. Why would I be charged a late fee for something that was entirely the fault of AT&T? This is worse than the airline baggage fees. Why didn’t AT&T communicate that they had updated their system and that there was some sort of issue? Thanks to the representative I spoke with, she took the information for a one-time payment to take care of the current bill and waived the late fee that I would have been charged. I was told that this would not impact future payments through AutoPay and that things should be back to normal next month. I’ll believe it when I see it.

For those of you out there that might have similar AT&T services and pay using the AutoPay option, you might want to check the status of your account.

My wife sent the following quote to me from one of her Facebook friends. While it’s very funny , it’s also very sad since it is the absolute truth:

They sent my Census form back! AGAIN!!! In response to the question: “Do you have any dependents” I replied…..12 million illegal immigrants; 3 million crack heads; 42 million unemployable lazy no goods; the entire cast of the Jerry Springer Show; 2 million people in over 243 prisons; half of Mexico; and hundreds more in the U.S. House and Senate. Apparently, this wasn’t an acceptable answer.

This recently happened to me when a read an article that states that you should always eat before working out. As I continued to read, I felt really good about myself when I finished. This has never been a problem for me…I always eat before working out. Just think how great it will be when I actually start working out…!

Quote of the day:
What we become depends on what we read after all of the professors have finished with us. The greatest university of all is a collection of books. – Thomas Carlyle

As I near completion of my 68th year on earth, I was beginning to get that feeling that I’d done everything and there wasn’t anything I didn’t know….yeah, right .

Then along comes my wife with a term that I have never heard of. My first thought was, “here she goes again…trying to impress me with her vast knowledge from the rural Northeast”. I can’t remember how it come up….we were in the car talking about something that had to do with driveways and parking….then she dropped the bomb….park in the “dooryard”. What the heck is a dooryard? She said it was the yard around a house. At this point, I was laughing so hard as I knew that there was no such term as “dooryard”….I mean really…give me a break .

Of course when we got home, I had to look up the term. I typed it into the search box on my computer, knowing that it would return, “no results found”. Was I ever wrong…according to Merriam-Webster, the definition of dooryard is, “a yard next to the door of a house”. After recovery from my state of shock, I had to go to her and apologize. I think she forgave me, but to make sure I understood, I’m now in the dog house in the “dooryard” .  

Just goes to show you that you can teach old dogs new tricks!