Wednesday, August 27, 2008

almost back in the land of the living

I'm sitting in our new house, boxes still all over, Death Cab for Cutie on the speakers, and I'm not sure what to do. Swee'pea's in daycare and Sugar D's back to work. There is lots of cleaning and unpacking to do, but we took care of the high priority rooms yesterday (kitchen and bath), Swee'pea's room we did Monday.

I really just want to vent, but I have no real-life friends outside of work, and I'm not at work.

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Dear Rogers,

Just a thought, but when a customer moves to a different house, you might want to consider NOT depending on the phone to find out whether the customer is at the new house at the agreed-upon time for the cable hook-up. You might want to try, oh I don't know, KNOCKING? on the door? before deciding that the customer hasn't shown. Because sometimes Bell fucks up too and the phone may not be working. The dead air that comes after you dial the number? That's a pretty good indication that something may be a bit off with the phone rather than the customers not being at the house.

We were here! Waiting! For all three hours of the stupid three-hour window you force customers to hang around waiting for a hook-up.

If you do insist on depending on the fickle phone lines, you may just want to keep a few appointments open every day, just for the people who took two fucking weeks off work for this g-d move (why did we want to do this again?!?) and who may not want to wait a further two weeks just to have to leave work for ANOTHER 3-hour window of sitting at home waiting for the cable guy.

The thing is, you never know what other shit your customers may be dealing with during a move, things like -- hypothetically of course -- dangerous electricals that the home inspector didn't catch, mould, an automobile accident and an insurance company that made a "small mistake" when they didn't include the driver and part-owner of the car on the policy (woops), a mistake they're fixing but which is taking a long time to fix since the driver was out of the country for a week right before the move. Oh - and maybe a broken phone line, which got fixed but apparently the maintenance package they hosed the customer for doesn't come into effect for 15 days so they have to wait to get the broken JACK fixed. You never know if your unwillingness to knock on a door might be the straw on the poor camel's back and might cause ordinarily reasonable people to yell at your poor customer service reps at 7:30 in the morning. Of course, the 20-minute hold time didn't help either.

Next time, please just knock?

Sincerely,
Sin

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For Swee'pea, the move has been effortless, as Mad predicted. We had to stop at the old house for a few things after we picked up Swee'pea, and he yelled, "No! New house!" He stayed in the car and had no interested in seeing the old house. Bedtimes aren't quite so smooth and he's cried a few times in the night, but mostly he's slept in his own bed. He loves it here. It helps that when my parents babysat on the weekend, they spent most of it here, my dad fixing stuff and my mom cleaning a bit in between Swee'pea chases, so he's totally familiar. I love my parents.

Over the summer, I met two different women at the park who have boys almost exactly the same age as Swee'pea and who live in our new neighbourhood. They gave me their addresses and I'm wondering if a drop-in would be ok? I got the sense that they were kind of desperate to make friends nearby with young kids, since mostly the neighbourhood is full of old fogeys. But we didn't exchange numbers... what do you think? Should I wait until I have Swee'pea with me? Or should I go alone? I'd like some real-life friends...

5 comments:

mamatulip said...

I *hate* Rogers. Absolutely hate them. We have our cell phones through Rogers and they have given us nothing but trouble from Day One. Dave got scammed in to signing on for another three years last year, and I was so mad I could have spit nails. Fortunately, I'm not obligated to say with them after the 11th of next month so I am OUTTA HERE, BABY!

And - I think if the two women gave you their addresses, a drop-in would be okay. I'd put Swee'pea in the stroller and head for a walk in their area.

Bon said...

poor Sin...that sounds like a right shitshow on the public utilities and services front, not to mention ye olde insurance company.

but i'm glad Swee'pea's cool with it all, b/c once everything is hooked up, and it will be, he'll still be happy.

Hannah said...

Janet's advice is good advice. I know I wouldn't give someone my address unless I actually wanted them to visit, but I love the idea of a muffiny ice-breaker.

And Rogers are bastards. They aren't much of a presence on the east coast, but I've heard Stories. And they are all unpleasant.

Anonymous said...

Go, no need to wait. We are ALL desperate to make friends so go!

Don't regret missed opportunities.

(Your old and experienced) Anon

Bea said...

Bub did the same thing - we had promised to go back to the old house so the little girl next door could take a family photo for her album, and Bub wanted nothing to do with it. He's all about the new house now. He and Pie were at the beach for the last two days with hubby's parents, and by yesterday afternoon he was saying, "I'm ready to go back to our new house now."