AOL...Really?
If the Internet is smart enough to know I am shopping, why is it so dumb? I get ads for something I’ve already purchased for weeks? Months ago, I bought the RV Trip Wizard™. The ads just keep coming. If you are traveling, this site is fantastic. Highly recommended. Now, after purchasing the Wineguard™ RoadTrip T4 antenna and the Wineguard™ Connect 2.0 cellular booster, yep, I am inundated with Advertising. Every news page, I go too, the same ads appear.
​
The irony of it all makes me smile.
​
On a serious note, after two years, we cut the AOL cord.
Don’t laugh. Back in the day, it was the best email service available, nothing like the buzz of dialup and actually getting a modem connected. The memories flood back as I say,” beeee booooo,” squealing and whining noises in a cadence only an older techie can appreciate. When I was phone support, working in Vermont for a Housing Software company known as HUDMANAGER™. We used to be able to identify the baud rate by hearing it over the phone at the customer’s end. Now with Webex and a hundred other sites like it, it’s an easy thing to troubleshoot remotely. We, the pioneers of such things back in the nineties, we didn’t even have email to assist: just a ringing phone and a backlog of calls to get too. Ever use EDLIN to change system-level settings? Ever walked someone on the phone through using DOS commands? You have not lived until you walk someone through resolving their issue over the phone, almost like giving directions to someone who can’t identify where they are.
​
Back to AOL™, the worst Customer Support call ever:
Me: I want to cancel my AOL service.
Them: Of course, you do that by going online into your account.
Me: I can’t get into my account, have not been in it for over a year.
Them: you’ll need to contact Tech support.
Me: Why I want to cancel my service?
Them: To reset your account password, you’ll need Support.
Me: I don’t need to get into my account, I want to cancel my service.
Them: You’ll need to do that online.
Me: I’m sorry you are not comprehending me, LINDA, listen LINDA. I AM DONE WITH AOL, cancel my service.
Them: If you cant speak professionally…Can you speak Spanish?
Me: Oh My God, CANCEL my service before I reach through the phone and rip your friggin head off.
Them: If you stay with AOL, we will lower your fee by five dollars a month. How would that be?
Me: in a monotone voice: Can you cancel my f’n service or not?
Them: Yes, I can do that.
I did finally get them to cancel my service. I think the FTC handles improper language on the phone, my arrest is imminent.
Details are full of surprises. Slowly we are changing our address over to the mail forwarding service provided by Escapees™ in Texas. Before the end of the year, we will domicile at that address. That means we will be residing in Texas, for all things legal, just rarely there.
Why, you ask?
For starters, no state income tax.
Also, there is no personal property tax on vehicles.
Wait, there is more!
I called Geico to make the address change and, of course, inform them of our going full-time RV’ing. I was prepared to choke on the cost.
After they moved the policy to Texas and informed me of the new no-fault collision thing, I sat down to hear a total. She said you’ll be pleased to know... my smile came back... stop it, yes I have one. She told me, “your new policy is almost $400.00 less per year.”
Things were looking up!
Life is good.
Me: By the way, can you make sure my mortgage company canceled my homeowners? The voice system told me I had a homeowner’s policy still. I was passed to the right department, and it was canceled for me. June is escrow month, Travelers Homeowners Insurance via Geico was paid already for the full year. This netted a whopping $984.00 refund. Well, it’s gas money for the BEAST anyway!
Things are looking up!
Life is good.
Now, as not funny as it is, we have had to go to our old shopping area, for prescription refills, etc. Coming home brings me past our old street. Without thinking, I’ve turned in twice now. Many years of driving that same path have me wanting to go home.
​
The bug in the picture is Fred, he visited me the last day in the house.
​
​
References links:
​
​
Shopping with any of the vendors listed? Please mention my name, it won't mean anything I always wanted to say that though.
​
​
Talk at ya next time!
​