There have to be better ways

My oldest starts Kindergarten next Monday. It's a big milestone.

But what's making me anxious isn't worry about him. He'll do fine. He loves school. He's never looked back, since the first day of preschool 3 years ago.

What's bothering me is the lack of information from the school.

Now, I admit I'm type-A when it comes to things like this. I'm a planner and a doer. I like to know what's going on. 

But here we are less than a week before school starts and I have no information - no bus number or time, no teacher name, etc. 

Talking to friends with kids already in the school, I've heard there's a teacher meet and greet before school starts. But I haven't received any information about it. Apparently that is when we'll find out who his teacher is and where his classroom will be. 

I did look on the school's website and find that it is scheduled for Friday afternoon. But why did I have to look at the website for that information? I'm on the school's list-serv. I've received emails with the school supply lists and notice that we'll be getting a book rental bill.

Apparently money is more important than students. At least, that's what the lack of communication regarding something as basic as the date and time of the meet and greet indicates to me. That date has to have been set weeks or months ago. Yet the first notice I got was looking it up for myself. Which I only did because other parents told me there should be such a thing.

I spoke to the transportation secretary today. Bus info was mailed today, so we should have it by tomorrow. I sure hope so. Per the school's website, Wil needs to know his bus number and where it picks up and drops off. With a 5 year old (probably older kids too), that requires a few days of repetition. Luckily our bus stop should be at the corner, just 1 house away.

I called and spoke to the school secretary today. I had a few questions. She explained. I mentioned that I hadn't received any emails regarding the meet and greet and had to look it up myself.

She claimed the information had been sent and I must have missed it. And that I should have been told about it when I registered my child. Back in April. Because I should remember something from 4 months ago. (Although she admitted that maybe they hadn't set the date that far back.) I pointed out that being new to the system, I didn't know how it worked. Even if I was told something 4 months ago, in the midst of all the form-filling, it may not have registered.

An email about School Welcome and Meet the Teacher was sent about a half hour after my phone call, with letters of introduction from the new principle and assistant principle. I guess they forgot to send it earlier.

I still think there could be better ways to do all this.

Communicating better would be a big help.

We live in the 21st Century. I understand that the current system is better than when they just posted the lists on the school doors the night before and parents crowded around to see what class their kid was in. But that doesn't make this better.

The school claims they are still making class lists. That, since more kids are enrolling every day, they can't finalize the lists until the day before school. I call BS. Plenty of other school systems (example: neighboring RBB) can send a letter a few days, in not a week or two, before school starts with pertinent class information. If the majority of students have already enrolled, they should have pretty balanced classes already, and should just need to add new students as they come in.

As it is, they are punishing those of us who registered early, making us wait for folks who, for whatever reason, couldn't or didn't register earlier. Why can't there be an early cutoff point, say August 1st, when the class rosters are prepared? Are there really SO many more students (more than, say 25% of any given class) registering late that would throw off the balance of a class?

There have to be better ways to do all this.

How may I pay thee

Today we received a letter from City of Bloomington Utilities, where we get our water. They are changing their billing system.

Great. I've been waiting for paperless statements... Oh, that part isn't ready yet. (But it's coming. Sometime.)

Hmmm.... They are adding the option to use a credit or debit card for one-time online payments. Wonderful! I love having choices. Except that online payments to bank accounts won't be accepted, except through Aqua Pay, their automatic payment option. So really, they aren't adding options, just exchanging them. 

Now, for us, these changes aren't a big deal. So I have to use the debit card number rather than our account number. Or I could sign up for Aqua Pay, because we always have money in our account when the bill comes. But I did note on Twitter: 

mmeller ‏ @mmeller

So now we can pay our water bill online via credit/debit card but can't via bank account (ACH)? That's not improving, just changing.

Which started a discussion about the unbanked, the minimally banked, and people for whom this is a big deal. Because this could be for some people. And water is not a luxury. It's not like someone who has a problem with the payment options can go somewhere else for their water.

If you are able to pay your bills, if you have a checking account with debit card, and credit cards, you may be asking why this is a big deal. 

First, my experience: I used to work in a credit union. I processed electronic payments, which included credit and debit cards, ATM transactions, Automated Clearing House (ACH*) transactions, and, yes, check clearings. Because checks clear electronically these days. 

It was a fairly small credit union, with about 20 employees. The CFO was my immediate supervisor; I processed payments for the collections side (a 1-person department); the accountant was my backup if I was sick or on vacation. Yep, back office was a whole 3-person department. Which meant I handled my fair share of account closings, as the person responsible for clearing or bouncing checks. 

The lending and member services departments were responsible for credit checks, opening accounts, determining if someone could have a credit or debit card. But I was responsible for letting them know if accounts were regularly overdrawn.

Now, this is probably getting tedious, but I want to show a little bit of what happens behind the scenes at your credit union or bank. Because not everyone has plastic. Not everyone has a checking account.

When I tweeted about the changes, it was more just a gripe that they were advertising this as an improvement, which it may end up being, but were not actually increasing the options. And then I got responses. So let me answer some of those responses in more than 140 characters. 

1) Aqua Pay: It's wonderful that Aqua Pay is an option. But consider someone who might not have a credit or debit card. Someone who might barely make ends meet. Having a payment debited from your account automatically isn't always an option - because maybe the money won't be there until the day after, and the return payment fee sure takes a chunk out of that already overdrawn account.

2) Doesn't everyone have a bank account? Actually no. There are actually quite a few people who don't. One reason can be the fees that banks increasingly charge for low balances. If you don't have much money, it's awfully hard to maintain a minimum balance. There are many people who have a poor history. Have you ever seen a notice at a store that checking accounts are verified? Just like the credit bureaus collect information on credit histories, there are companies that collect information on bounced checks (yep, problem accounts get reported). Try opening a checking account if you've had one closed for too many bounced checks. If a bank or credit union does open an account, they probably will require a secured account (which means you need to have extra money to leave in savings to back up your account).

3) Everyone has a credit or debit card! Once again, not everyone does. Many, many people get denied due to poor credit history. Have you paid attention to the news lately? Consider all the people out of work, deeply in debt, declaring bankruptcy. Even if you have a bank account, you may not have a debit card because that increases the risk of being overdrawn. (This doesn't even take into consideration the questionable idea of paying your bills with a credit card, thus increasing your debt.)

4) But you can still mail your check. Ok, yes, you can. You can spend 45 cents on a stamp and mail it in. You can also find time, during business hours, when you are probably working, to take it to the office. Are you working hard, trying to make ends meet? I suppose the price of a stamp isn't too high. It just wasn't something you had to budget for back when you could do an ACH payment from your bank account.

Here's the kicker: the people making these decisions don't have to worry about how to make a payment, so it often doesn't occur to them that there are people for whom this could cause problems. Just like me, the people making the decisions can just shrug and figure they will pay another way. They don't have to think about how they will do it. They don't have to worry about late payments. Sadly, it's all too easy to see the letter through the lens of middle class privilege.

*ACH, or Automated Clearing House, is how payments are made electronically directly to your bank account. Any time you enter your bank account information for a bill to be paid, it most likely is being sent via ACH. Sometimes you may even see a check you have written converted to ACH during processing. 

The final straw

Anyone who has followed this blog for a while is probably familiar with our stormy relationship with tv services. We've tried more than once to ditch Comcast and get AT&T's U-verse, to no avail. Yep, we're too far to get a signal because of old lines in our neighborhood. So we've grudgingly stuck with the cable company.

Well, that has finally ended. We're done. I called and canceled service this morning. We ordered DirecTv last night, to be installed tomorrow. Yes, I canceled before the new service is up and running, but we haven't had cable since Tuesday and weren't going to have it back until Monday. At least we're saving a day or two of paying for service we can't use.

So here's the story. The cable suddenly went out Tuesday. I didn't call right away, because sometimes it's just a flaky connection. I wanted Chris to take a look first. He couldn't make it work, so we were pretty sure it was once again a bad box. We've had several before.

I called Wednesday and let them walk me through various steps to confirm that, yep, the box is bad. I know the drill: get a new box. Only problem? The service center in Bloomington is gone. The nearest one is in Columbus. They offered to send a tech to switch out the box, at no cost, with the caveat that if they did find it wasn't the box we might be charged. The time-frame? Thursday between 1 and 5. No problem. I was going to be home all afternoon.

Thursday. No one came. Apparently the tech did call, but I missed answering and there was no message. When I called at 4:50, they told me they had called, but since I didn't answer, they didn't come. Um, aren't those courtesy calls anyway? Why didn't they come knock on the door? Or leave a message? Seriously, even a message that I needed to call and reschedule would have been better. The soonest they could schedule another tech to come out? Monday afternoon.

So what would you do? Would you drive an hour to Columbus, then an hour back, to replace the box? Or wait for the tech to come Monday? Since this wasn't our first experience with poor customer service from Comcast, we chose option 3. We jumped ship and signed up for satellite service. They can install it on Saturday. Considering it was 11 p.m. Thursday when we did this, I think Saturday afternoon is darn reasonable.

Want to know the kicker? When I called Comcast this morning to cancel, they tried to make it all my fault. I didn't answer the phone. Their notes showed there was no way to leave a message. Bullshit. My answering machine works just fine, on the 4th ring. I even got 2 messages on it yesterday. Bye-bye Comcast!

I know this is getting long, but I have a few more things I'd like to mention. First, have you ever noticed that people will recommend their satellite or other alternative service but NO ONE likes their cable company? It seems consumers are realizing this but the cable companies aren't.

Second, related to the first, when I posted to Twitter and Facebook last night asking for recommendations and griping about our experience, I got several interesting comments that I would like to share:

Third, just for those interested, the reason we chose DirecTv is that they have the best 3D programming, which we can't take advantage of yet, but we'll eventually get a 3D tv, what with Chris's avocation being 3D, so we wanted to be prepared.

"Good for you! Eff Comcast and their awful customer service!"
"I just saw you went with DirecTV. I love our Dish Network, although we still need to get them off our ATT bill!"
"we are planning on doing this when we move but we move in 20 days so we are waiting till then.""I'm glad to be done with Comcast altogether. We always had great techs with DirecTv and good customer service."
"Comcast is ridiculous. Isn't it more of a courtesy call to say they're on their way? They should still show... We liked Directv."
"We got fed up w/ comcast & cancelled. We just have Netflix right now & the local HD channels that are free."
"one of the reasons I hated Comcast, at least in this area."
"Thinking about doing the same next week!"


Third, just for those interested, the reason we chose DirecTv is that they have the best 3D programming, which we can't take advantage of yet, but we'll eventually get a 3D tv, what with Chris's avocation being 3D, so we wanted to be prepared. 


Also, if anyone wants to switch to DirecTv, let me know and I can give a referral through their "Refer a Friend" program where both of us would save $10 for 10 months on our bills. (You need to sign up through a special website or phone number and give them our account number to take advantage.)

Truth about telephones

I admit: sometimes when the phone rings, I don't answer. We just got caller ID last week, so it doesn't always have to do with who is on the phone; I used to not know and still didn't always answer!

Here's the truth about telephones. They are there as a convenience.

There, I said it. Just because my phone rings and someone wants to talk to me doesn't mean I have to talk to them. Sometimes I'm busy. Sometimes I just don't feel like getting up.

And do you know what I've discovered? A lot of calls can wait. The easy ones are the telemarketers (we must be on every charity's list) because they just hang up and call another time. Most people leave a message. And I call back at my convenience, which is often just a few minutes later.

If it's really important, I get a call on my cell phone and/or an urgent message.... which I answer or return. How often does that happen? Maybe once a year?

Anyway, I've been hearing lately about how some people are upset when their calls aren't immediately answered. They take it as an insult or whatever. I'd say most times it has nothing to do with the caller.

So just relax, leave a message, and I'll call back soon. I promise. Right now I need to sing our special song* to my boys. And we can't be interrupted.

*What's our special song? "Can't Help Falling in Love", popularized by Elvis, from the movie "Blue Hawaii". When Wil was an infant, it was one of the few songs I knew all the words to so that's what I sang. And it always calmed him immediately. To this day, I can sing it to both boys when they are upset and it usually will calm them down by the end. When they want a song before bed, I have to sing it to each of them, with Sam holding my hand for the final verse (listen if you aren't familiar; it's very sweet.)

Just say so

So here is the update:

A representative from HAND called back and apologized for the misunderstanding. Apparently all the slots filled up before I called in to join the program, but instead of just telling me that, the person I talked to tried to see if we qualified for another program. And didn't explain that, leading me to believe we were in the Beat the Meter Blitz.

I have had time to calm down to write that statement without being too rude. Here's my take:

A lot of the problem, actually all the problem, could have been avoided if they had just told me up front that all the slots were taken. They could even offer to see if we qualified for the other program, but I already knew we didn't and even mentioned that to the person I talked to originally. I would have liked to hear the words "we should have told you upfront all the slots were filled." Period.

I can't change things now. We're not going to get a free energy assessment. It was already too late by the time I finally got through around 9 o'clock since they filled all the slots by about 8:30 on the day I called according to what I was told today. Please just admit that. It's that simple.

I'll give a free clue to anyone wondering how NOT to anger customers. Don't lead people to believe you will give them something when you can't.

The problem of being middle class

The big problem of being middle class, as far as I can see, is that you earn too much to qualify for assistance but not enough to really make headway.

I just did a little research on the definition of middle class and it's pretty complicated. Part of the problem is that a high income in one area is barely scraping by in another. But I think J. D. Foster has a pretty good way of defining income class: the top 20% are rich, the bottom 20% are poor and the middle 60% are middle class, which is household incomes of around $25000-$100000. Yep, that pretty much include just about everyone I know.

What started all this? Last week I called the City of Bloomington Housing and Neighborhood Development Department (HAND) because they, in association with other organizations, were offering free home energy assessments as part of a Beat the Meter Blitz. Since I called so early, I assumed I had a place in the program.

Until today when I received a call from South Central Community Action Program to see if we qualified for their free program (we don't) because a question the person who took my information asked was misleading. Fine, we make too much so I needed to call HAND and try to get back on their list. But their list is full.

Now, I left a message with the person coordinating the program because I am NOT HAPPY about this. The reason we are apparently falling through the cracks, unless I get a phone call later today with positive news, is because I was asked what our monthly income was.

I told the woman I wasn't sure, but she had me guesstimate. So I guessed and told her that was approximately our TAKE HOME PAY. There is a big difference between net and gross income and I could have told her our annual gross income was too high. Actually, I did tell her we make too much to qualify for a free assessment and that was why I was so happy about this opportunity.

So now, because of a poorly worded question, it looks like we are getting screwed out of something we should have been able to get based on my applying in time.

Thanks, city worker. Want to pay for the $300+ assessment we're apparently not going to get for free? I thought not. I certainly don't have a spare $300.

I will update if we manage to squeak into the program, but right now it looks doubtful.

TV saga

As anyone following me on Twitter or Facebook knows, we have had issues upgrading our tv service.

It started several weeks ago when Comcast informed us of their 'digital migration' - a fancy way of saying they will no longer have analog service and we had to get a digital tuner.

For several years, we have talked about trying AT&T's U-Verse service. We had tried once before, in January 2009, but were too far for the signal. A lot has changed since then and the signal supposedly goes further now, so we decided to use this as our impetus to switch.

Last Friday the installation tech came out around 10 am to hook us up... and found all sorts of errors on the line. He called for a service tech to come check the lines; they cleaned up a lot of problems, but still not a clean enough signal. So, many hours later (almost 7 pm), and after rewiring from the pole to the house, we were left with the promise that another service ticket had been placed and hopefully we could reschedule an installation soon. Chris got on Twitter and tracked down someone at AT&T who promised to look into it.

Tuesday I received a call from AT&T tier two support asking if we had been updated on the situation. We hadn't. Turns out someone had come out Sunday and determined that we are just too far so our order was canceled. I'm not sure if it was Chris's tweets, but I guess I should be happy someone called to let us know. And we got a new telephone line that isn't in between the cable and electric (you have to see our outside wires to understand that). And they fixed some problems on the lines that will hopefully mean our phone doesn't go out every time we have a lot of rain.

Thus, the trek to Comcast's office on Henderson Thursday morning to pick up a digital tuner. (We have thought about switching to satellite, but there are a lot of trees around us. Plus, we have heard about a lot of problems during lousy weather. So, we'll stick with cable for now.) Picking up the tuner was easy. The problems started when Chris hooked it up.

Around 5:30 pm, after getting home, Chris hooked up the tuner. Remembering that the woman at Comcast mentioned having to call to activate it, something which was NOT in the less-than-satisfactory directions, I called the 800 number. The automated message mentioned it might take up to 45 minutes to completely download the program guide.

Flash forward to 7:30, after eating dinner and playing. The boys like to watch a show before bed; it helps wind them down. Still no tv. No channels, no channel guide, the remote did nothing. So I called to report trouble and got another signal sent with the same caution about taking up to 45 minutes.

8:30. The boys are now in bed. The tv is still not working. Chris unplugged and re-plugged the unit. He did some digging in the basement and changed the wiring so it doesn't go through the vcr... and found a very old trap in the house on the cable line, which he removed. While he did that, I called technical support. The first call got dropped. I called back and got forwarded to a 'specialist'. As he was asking about how things were wired (understandable to need to know if it was a simple wiring issue - I passed that to Chris since he understands all of that better than I do), it suddenly started working.

I'm not sure if it was Chris's fiddling with the wiring or if one of the activation or reboot signals finally made it through.

We thought all was well until this morning when we turned it on at 7:38.... to find only the last station watched available. And the program listing at the bottom of the screen didn't go away. And the time on it didn't change.

I'm sure you've guessed - yes, I called tech support again. While the very nice woman I spoke to walked me through trying to get the remote to do anything (it wouldn't even turn it off), it suddenly started working at 8:00. She had no idea why it did that.

Ah, I'm sure you think all was well, just as I did.... until I looked at the dvr function and realized it did not work. The message on the screen that it was unavailable was a pretty good clue.

So on to the second call to tech support this morning, where I talked to another very nice woman, who had, coincidentally, worked at the Bloomington office before. After much trying of this and that, she discovered that our box was mis-coded in their system as not being a dvr. Luckily she was able to correct that, after which she had me unplug the box to reboot it, then she sent a new activation signal.... and it worked.

At this point, all is well. I've taped one show to test the dvr and turned the box off and on with no problems. The full guide doesn't seem to show (it goes about 2 hours out and then falls off) but I hope that will correct itself. I'm tired of calling tech support..... and I really don't even want to contemplate changing services again any time soon!

AT&T redeems itself some

We have had a lot of problems with our phone and/or internet service through AT&T lately. Our phone was dead last week from at least Monday when I noticed it until Friday evening. A week or so before our internet kept going out.

Calling and dealing with technical support has been an exercise in frustration. The biggest problem was that some of the techs sounded like they weren't sure what the error messages I was getting meant (they may have, but their voices didn't reflect that). And they all managed to implicitly or explicitly indicate that problem was on my end, with my equipment - and every time it was a problem on their end!

I did talk to someone in customer service mid-week last week who was very helpful. She was able to explain things well, gave us a credit for our internet outage (the phone outage apparently is supposed to have an automatic credit on our next bill) and most importantly sounded like she knew what she was talking about.

So I googled for an email address for someone to write and complain to. The person whose email I found was not the correct person, but she actually forwarded my message on. I received an email message in return asking for contact information and our location so the right regional executive office could contact me.

Friday evening I received a call from the Texas Executive Office while the technician was actually here. And I actually just got another call (Tuesday) from the Executive Office (the number was Indy) to make sure our phone was working and we weren't having additional problems.

All in all, while it was very frustrating dealing with repair/tech support, I appreciate that when I complained  it was taken seriously and someone called me.

Oh, and one of the things the customer service rep mentioned is that one reason they are really pushing U-verse in our area is that it is a lot more reliable. She suggested that as a way to reduce some of the problems since it runs on new fiber optic cables. It would cost a little more per month, but we are seriously thinking about it. We had tried a year and a half ago but the signal didn't reach us. They have done a lot of upgrading since then and we should be able to get it.

Businesses and websites

This is something that drives me crazy. In this day and age, why do so many businesses not have a webpage? Even a static page with basic information seems to be an essential part of doing business these days. Yet so many companies don't bother.

Putting your own information out means you have control over it. For example, Applacres doesn't have a webpage, but you can find some basic info on other sites about apple picking locations. That doesn't mean the info (hours, produce, etc) is up to date.

Putting a webpage up can help bring in business. When I am looking for a service or product, I am more likely to do a web search (yes, usually Google) rather than pick up a phone book. Also, by searching online, I can get more wide-ranging results. I can also find information late at night when I have time. If I'm limited to calling and asking for information, it's not necessarily going to happen, because I can't always make a call between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.

Listing basic information, even if details require a phone call, can help weed out options. A real example here is the lack of online information about preschools in Bloomington. Moms either have to look through a phone book and call each one or give up. That page of basic info could tell me, before wasting my time and the school personnel's, whether it is a good fit. If it's too expensive, has bad hours, has a religious program or not, etc. I lucked out, but I know so many moms who are frustrated at not being able to do basic research before picking up the phone.

I'm sure there are lots of other good points. One final thought is to keep the information updated. Tonight I went looking for a local farm that participates in CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) where we could buy a share of local, seasonal produce. One that pops up on search is Musgrave Orchard.... but the data dates to the 2006 growing season. Does this mean they just haven't updated or that they no longer do it? Either way, they really should update their page. (I sent an email but got a garbage auto-reply, so unless I get another response later, I'll assume they don't do it anymore.)

A little politeness, please

Have you used an Automated Postal Center lately? 

When I am done making a purchase, the machine always 'asks' politely whether it may help me further. I may be weird, but in my mind, I always think 'no, thank you'. The options are, of course, 'yes' or 'no'. 

Which makes me wonder if more automated machines used standard polite options, would people start to pick them up? Granted, it's probably not going to change the world, but a little more politeness in the world can't be a bad thing.

That is all. Thank you for taking the time to read my thoughts.

AT&T drops the ball and Comcast gets some more $$

Meg pretty much summed this up earlier, but I should toss in my $0.02 worth as I talked with the tech a bit more than she did.

Basically, we're steamed at AT&T for telling us we are eligible for U-Verse when they never actually came around to test signal strength at our pole.  So, 6 man hours (they were both male) and two truck rolls later, we don't have U-Verse.  Saving money and manpower aside, it would be better customer service if they didn't get our hopes up, only to be dashed after half a day of wondering.

I know that there are several more neighbors in our neighborhood who would like the U-Verse service, but they're even further down the line than we are.  Solutions?  The best solution would be for AT&T to run new, heavier gauge line from the head end to the poles/homes.  We currently have 26 gauge line on the poles with a U-Verse linear limit of about 4000'.  If they went down to 24 or 22 gauge line we could get up to about 6000' and AT&T could rope in more customers.

So, we're back to square one: analog landline phone service, DSL internet service, Comcast limited basic cable.  Calling Comcast to get up to expanded basic results in more channels than we had, but still costs more than the U200 package from U-Verse and offers fewer channels and no DVR.

Really, we'd dump Comcast in a heartbeat if AT&T would only get their act together.