Teens today....

I went to mass with my parents, my sister and brother-in-law on Sunday.

A teenage boy came in with his family. As he passed by our pew we caught a glimpse of the back of his shirt. It read:

"My ladies always come first"

We all looked at each other with mouths wide open.

After mass there was a pancake breakfast. We all discussed the shirt we saw.

My sister thought, "Maybe he doesn't know what it means"
I mentioned, "Maybe the front of his shirt had something totally different"

Well - he and his family did arrive.

So what did the front of his shirt say?

"Chivalry's not dead!"

Dang!

Seeing Red....

This is I-80 Illinois on a normal road trip back home.
This is how everything looked this Sunday.

Cell phone companies irritate me.

We currently "Get things done" with our cell phone company. We have - for the last 3 years.

Well the "Gitter done" company was bought by the "I suppose you can" company - and our customer service went down the toilet.

We had a great plan when we first signed up. Free voicemail, caller ID...the works. Several months after signing up - they politely informed us that we would no longer receive that benefit. (I find this out on Sunday....the husband didn't seem to mind paying the extra bit o cash I suppose)

We never really "outgrew" our plan - but we did try a new service - "Teledirect". It was free try for 30 days. Mr. Chep signed up to use it while out of town on business and promptly cancelled within the 30 day window.

They charged us. Mr. Chep decided it wasn't a big deal - and paid the partial fee.

The following month we received another charge. I called and had our bill adjusted.

The month after that - we were charged again. I called and had that charge removed. I politely informed the CSR if I saw the charge again - I was going to cancel my service. Please make sure it doesn't happen again.

Guess what? It happened again. I called to make sure I was out of my contract (I have been a customer since 2003)...I found out that my contract had been extended without my knowledge when I purchased new phones on a business discount (not a promotional price). This on top of the billing issue that hadn't been resolved - made me call and ask about the cost to cancel my service (after an hour dispute about my contract end date - where the CSR had hung up on my twice and blind transferred me to another department)

Then I got Kristie. She was very apologetic. She wanted to fix my problem. She got to the root cause of my discontent (price of service, poor customer service, etc)

It was at this time (after I threatened to cancel 3 times) that Kristie offered me the same plan I currently have at $40 less then I currently pay.

WHY did it take 6 customer service representatives, 3 threats to cancel, and 2 hours on the phone to get a resolution?

This is what irritates me about phone companies in general. Your rates never change until you call. Then they charge you to change those rates.

Why can't companies just give you the best rate all the time? Why do good customers have to fight and threaten to cancel to get a better deal?

Thanks for letting me rant.

I feel much better.

The Old Salt at Da Cell

Chicago White Sox 2006
Originally uploaded by Chepner.

We have returned!

This Friday was the day when we took my Grandfather (85 years young) to his first "big league" ball game. This photo may not prove it - but he was thrilled.

The game started at 7:30pm and ended 11:00pm. By the time we got home...it was 1:30am. Grandpa never fell asleep. I think he was still reeling from the experience.

There were 2 homeruns hit during the game (a HUGE thrill for Grandpa) 2 broken bats....but the score was not in our favor.

White Sox: 4
Twins: 5

It wasn't the score we wanted - but seeing my grandfather's face when Konerko hit the first homerun of the game.....priceless.

It was worth every penny.