Thursday, October 30

Grabbing my ankles...

Hurricane Ike continues to have it's way with me....

We got a call Saturday night from the insurance adjuster. They have to e-mail us some paperwork to fill out, ok we tell them, we'll be watching for the paperwork.

So, here we are 5 days later, no paperwork. So I call the adjuster firm, Quality Assurance Adjusting, LLC. They can't help me, I have to call the adjuster directly. So, I call the adjuster directly, she hangs up on me the first time the phone rings, then lets it go to voice mail the second time I call. Great, left a message.

In the meantime, I take a closer look at my papwerwork from the Texas Wind Storm Insurance Association, and I realize that even though my e-mail address is supposed to match my name, the genius that took my information managed to misspell my name. So I call them. They can't help me, they don't keep records of the claims after they are filed. WTF? How the hell do you not keep records of insurance claims at a state agency when you are paying out hundreds of millions of dollars?

So, back to calling Quality Assurance Adjusting, LLC. The woman on the phone said she wouldn't change it on her "Screen" as it is a PDF, and my adjuster Jenny Finch wouldn't see it on her "Screen". No shit.

I've given up on contacting Nationwide Insurance on this issue, they've been less than worthless throughout the entire process of making a claim.

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Tuesday, October 21

Direct TV - You continue to dissapoint me...

Ok, got home today, and the Direct TV receiver wouldn't work. I had to open up the front cover and reset the system, then wait the 15 minutes till it came back up ready to run. Then, just after 7 PM, it comes up with a message asking my approval to "download data". So I said OK. The stupid thing reboots again, and I'm faced with this screen.




What the fuck? Come on, really, did you need to upgrade my software right at the start of prime time? How long till I can watch my friggin' TV again? Direct TV - YOU SUCK.

What a bunch of idiots. Why couldn't this wait till the middle of the night? Two weeks ago you zapped everyone with a bogus software upgrade, now this crap.

(update)

Called Direct TV, got their usual BS message about if you are having these problems, we know, reboot your receiver. We are having unusually high call volumes, please call back at another time. Continued horrible service!

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Wednesday, October 8

Direct TV - The Saga Continues

Woke up yesterday morning, my flaky Direct TV DVR wouldn't work. I had to reset it and remove power for about 15 seconds for it to work. Did the same thing for my wife later in the day.

I called the 800 number and got a message about 5 PM, indicating that they were swamped with calls and aware of this problem.

Today I got the following e-mail from Direct TV:



Yep, that's right, they updated the software in ALL THEIR DVRS AND MADE THEM NON-FUNCTIONAL FOR THE DAY. Stupid. Just plain amazing that a company this large can be so incompetent as to shut down a huge portion of it's customer base with a bad software patch. Irresponsible. Unacceptable. I'm going to give serious consideration now to calling Dish Network about their all HD packages that start at just $24.99. Direct TV doesn't even have a competiting offer like this for me to get what I really want from them either.

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Saturday, October 4

3 Weeks & Counting

Three weeks now since Hurricane Ike. Two weeks since power was restored to my house.

In insurance news, I have a meeting Wednesday afternoon with my adjuster from the Texas Wind Insurance Association. This week I got a letter from Nationwide Insurance, declining my claim, stating all damage to my house was due to Windstorm. Well duh, but what about the things you dummies were supposed to cover, like the food in my refrigerator. Worthless. I've paid over $20K in premiums over the years to Nationwide and I can't get $250 for something simple? Thanks, "Nationwide is on my side", my ass they are.

Back in August I wrote about my issues with Direct TV and the problems with my new DVR. Well, made another call last Sunday when the stupid thing recorded nothing but a black screen for the season premier of The Simpsons. Got a different tech on the line. The missing part that they had insisted I didn't need for the previous three calls turned out to be the culprit in my problems. They sent me a new one for free and things started working right. It is amzaing, two Direct TV installers couldn't install my DVR properly. It took six calls to their support before someone would send me a missing part. Worst, stupidest service department ever.

On Monday at lunch, I ran a stupid, media induced errand for a family friend. He grew up with us, but has since moved away to the Atlanta, Georgia area. He saw news reports that there was massive devistation of cemetaries throughout the region. His sister is burried here, and he was extrememly upset, thought that something might have happened to her grave. So I went out at lunch and checked things out. There was nothing wrong there, not even a sign that the hurricane had passed. Took some phone pictures and sent them to him to alieveate his feelings. Quite annoying that the media can make things look so much worse than they are here. They are bad enough, but like I've said before, the devistation is spotty, here and there, not everything everywhere is destroyed, or even damaged. The closer you get to the Gulf Of Mexico, the worse things get overall, but even there, most of the extreme devistation you see is concentrated to within a few miles of the coast.



I've gotten a bunch of little chores done here around the house today. Going to wrap them up before my wife gets home with the kids. She took them to her mom's overnight, it was a good little break for everyone.

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