Red vs. Blue: The Phone Company

Payment processors: I got another call from my T-mobile representatives today, asking for a payment on my phone bill. I gave her the card number and she charged $80; I could have a G-one phone for that price every month... instead she said she'd apply the payment to my FlexAccount.

What she said next intrigued me: make sure you call tonight or tomorrow to make the payment.

Didn't I just make the payment? I guess she would have responded like this:

"No, you just put some money in the account. The payment is a variable amount, based on some combinator on the services you've asked for, the services you've received, and the numbers we gave you when you signed up for the account. The number that's deducted from your coffers every month should be a flat fee, and it shouldn't be too high. If you've got $140 in your flex account and you're using less than 300 minutes every month, it's not going to be $70.

"$73.83 is just a number I threw out to get us started."

Whoa. That's heavy shit. Sidekick Unlimited plan at $19.99 plus Individual Basic with FlexPay for $29.99 is just shy of $50. I asked for the Individual Basic plan with 300 whenever minutes, and I think I should have it. I don't use more than 300 minutes on my phone during prime-time. I've got other phones that don't charge me $0.15+ every minute past my allowance. Some of these phones don't even maintain an allowance!

The last few months I've been paying for 600 whenever minutes, in spite of my demands. Do you know we don't even get rollover? So here's what she did for me: she took some money off my credit allowance with Capital One, and she put it into my FlexAccount. Actually, she put a note into a message queue, and that payment will be finally processed when they get to it.

Meanwhile, I'm going to talk to someone else with the right to refresh my account, and they're going to listen when I say, "There ought to be enough in my FlexAccount to cover the amount due for my monthly payment. Now, can we see how much that is supposed to be?"

She's not from FlexPay team. She represents me, with T-mobile. The distinction is quite fine.

"The Magic Beer Hat," or "Beer Dues: WTF"

Here is the story of how that case of beer we bought after the Modest Mouse show turned into a magic beer hat... in case I become an alcoholic and suddenly can't explain where all my time and money is going, and because I didn't sign this into the lease, but it seems like it should get written down somewhere anyways

We bought that 30rack after the Modest Mouse show, Jason said "Well, I'm gonna drink some of those, I'll go buy an 18 pack, same brand" now he's drank most of those, and he says "hmm I'd better replace them" ok so we're up to 66 beers from the initial investment of $20... sounds pretty nice of Jason, eh?

Come to find out this particular day he's not happy about someone owes him some money. Apparently Regina has been consistently paying rent late every month, and Jason has been covering it out of his own pocket because he's such a nice guy.

This month, he can't do it. He wants to increase everybody's rent by $20 so that extra $208 doesn't come out of his own pocket for the 11 or 22 days it takes Regina to getting around to paying it.

Is $208 enough money to keep 8 people drinking for 30 days? I don't know, but I'm afraid I just bought a $208 slice of Jason's credit while we all decide if we want to share our alcoholism or keep separate checks.

Have you ever got some money and you spend it twice, just because you have the credit available that particular day? That's how I live, that's why I have over $10k credit card debt, that's why I don't grant someone a pass to use my credit on their own discretion.

Personally I'd rather see that money go towards things that everyone can use, like a working dryer for the house (which will cost as much again in electric as it did to buy outright, don't forget to spend it twice!) or some repairs for the second bathroom (shouldn't the landlord pay that, or the person who made the hole in the sink? nah, neither of those are fair...)

*SNARL* I'm fuming mad!

Word of the Day

wài 外 outside, external, foreign, in addition
guó 國,国 country; state; nation

wàiguó - 外國 foreigner

A foreign national is willing to say anything for the benefit of his own nation. He is not from your nation and he does not by default understand your concerns. While he is visiting your nation, he will probably integrate some of your cultural mores.

Arabic: mustashariq - Somebody coming to visit the east: when we say as a greeting Ahlan wa Sahlan it means we expect that our visiting "ta-kun" will become a part of the local culture. It says basically "come as a guest and stay as a friend."

We don't really have any inexpensive or convenient way to deport him so we really don't know how long he will be staying. There's a German story about a family with a thatched roof belongs right here, and the punchline sounds like this:

"If you keep taking my thatches for souvenirs, I will sooner have no roof at all!"

Now I think I should write a novel.