I’ve been offline for a couple of days, with the exception of my phone. Sparklight (formerly Cable One) failed to send me a bill. Therefore, I failed to pay it.
This company will slam you into an automatic payment arrangement if you don’t watch them like a hawk. For this reason, I paid them using Billpay. It isn’t as fast as a card, and could take a few days to go all the way through. (And it’s a holiday weekend.)
We get tight toward the end of a pay period, and I don’t need someone helping themselves to a hundred bucks or so on the Thursday before payday.
After two days of this crap, my wife called ATT. We used to have the ability to hotspot using the phones, but they took it away. She added that ability to our cellular plan. (For a fee, yay!)
This is why I’m able to update this blog. I probably missed a few things in blogland, and might not get them caught up.
My big plan was to publish Grinders this weekend, but I might not get that done. I’m not taking the chance by pigtailing off of my cellular service. I’ll get to it when I have actual WiFi once again.
I have a couple of books on my iPad, so I did some much needed reading. With my hotspot, I may try doing some writing. At least anything I produce will be backed up now.
Short and sweet. That’s the kind of weekend I’m having. I can also participate in comments without having to use my phone. Feel free to complaint about internet service providers or your cellular plan. I did.
Sorry to hear, Craig. I may be down a few days or so as well because of those automatic payments. Unfortunately, if you don’t do them, companies don’t want to deal with you in my experience.
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That’s becoming more and more true.
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Yeah, it seems I don’t mail anything out anymore. All automatic payments and it hurts when the checks short at times or it comes before the check and those good ole’ bounced fees happen. Sigh.
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That’s what I’m trying to avoid.
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We have radio wave internet (we live in the country). There’s no data limit like with satellite internet, but it does go down from time to time. We have a receiver on top of our old analog TV antenna tower. Can’t tell you the number of times lightning has struck it.
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That’s frightening. Cable is pretty good service, but the company is a pain to deal with.
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When the service goes out it is a pain for sure.
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This time it’s partially my fault, so I’ll own that.
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Auto pay has helped us a number of times. We tend to forget about certain bills.
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I just don’t want them to take $100 the day before payday when we only have $20.
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I get it.
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Bummer, Craig. We’ve been blessed with good Internet and easy billing methods this past year with our new Shentel service.
So i guess that was an anti-complain comment.:-)
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Ha ha! Fair enough. I would have paid them if they’d have sent the bill. Partially my fault, but partially their’s, too.
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We had a substitute mailman at the end of last year and never got a water bill, so I didn’t pay it–and got a really nasty letter. It was the first payment we’d missed in over thirty years, so it aggravated me, and I wrote to tell them. But like you, if I don’t get a bill, I don’t always realize it. Now, I keep a list and check them off each month. Hope you get your wifi back soon.
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It will happen, but with the holiday I’m betting on Tuesday.
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That sucks. Glad you have the backup of your hot spots with your cellphones, but sorry the issue even happened. Hope it’s resolved soon, and doesn’t happen again.
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I hope you get it all sorted out quickly, Craig. No service is very frustrating.
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At least I’m mildly functional, for now.
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Welcome back. Grab a sack and help with the post-apocalyptic looting. As you can see, things went downhill in your absence. 😁
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Ha ha! I’ll head for the hardware store. They usually have some creative hand weapons.
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House cleaning too.
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Not having access to the internet is often crippling to an author. Don’t worry about trying to catch up on missed blogs. It is what it is (or at least that’s what I’ve decided when I get so far behind). We all do what we can when we can. Here’s hoping your situation is resolved quickly!
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I expect it to be a non-issue by Tuesday.
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Wireless companies, ugh!
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Right!
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As much as I gripe about our internet provider and the unbelievable $$$ they rake in, I have to admit their servicer is darn good. We’ve never had a problem.
We’re still on paper billing. I like to think if a bill wasn’t delivered and I missed a payment, they would alert me to that fact (I have an app for them), but I also know I’m a drop in the bucket in the scheme of things. In my part of the world it’s a constant battle between the two biggies—Comcast and Verizon–and a customer scarified on the altar of one, is quickly gobbled up by the other…until it’s sacrifice time, the loyalty ends.
20+ years with Verizon but they couldn’t offer me anything remotely close to what they were offering new customers. So, we left and went to Comcast. Now Verizon is wooing us with unbelievable offers, including buying out our contract with Comcast. If we leave C and switch to V, it will be the same thing, it will be the same thing in reverse. Seriously, it’s disgusting.
I’m sorry you’re on hold with Grinders, but I do agree it’s best to wait until you have full WIFI. Fingers crossed that’s soon!
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Might happen tomorrow, but with the holiday I have my doubts.
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We have all the sucking out bills. The Mister likes it. I am not a fan, and when I did the books (we had less money) we didn’t not have as many sucking out bills. There is NOTHING like trying to stop the sucking out bills following a job loss when you just wanna, ya know, eat and drive. LOL
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Yup. I’ll pay everyone. I always do. I just can’t handle the idea that everyone has a different billing cycle and I’m expected to keep track of them all. In the good-old-days all the bills were due on the first, and you had 30 days to pay everyone. That I can remember and budget for. When someone has the 13th or 23rd, I can’t remember it all.
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I relate totally. The Mister paid like two or three mortgage payments at once to make it so we could split our mortgage and even out our balances through the month, because so many bills are sucked out between the 10th and 25th. When the mortgage was due on the 12th, we couldn’t fix a budget until everything else went out. So odd. When we first married, rent was due on the first and we had the rest of the month to cover the rest. It WAS a simpler time.
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And then they have the temerity to ask you, ‘how did we do?’ … stupid corporations that think they are humans and are therefore stupid humans.
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Ha! That’s true, too.
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Sorry for all you’ve been through, Craig. I can honestly say nothing ruins my week more than problems with my computer or internet. It’s one of the most frustrating aspects of this technological age we live in. I hope all is well and truly sorted soon, if not there already. Good luck! 🙂
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It will be, eventually. I’m doing minimal work using a cellular hotspot right now. I really want to publish Grinders, but will wait for full Internet service.
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Aw, poor Craig. My weekend was alright (had internet so that’s a definite plus), but I’m SO unmotivated at the moment. Kudos to you for keeping your chin up 🙂
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I may get some things done tomorrow. Fingers crossed.
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We’re with AT&T and in the middle of the suburbs, so you’d think we shouldn’t have any issues. I barely had wifi in my own kitchen this weekend – kept dropping the signal. Good luck, Craig.
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My cell is wonky inside the house. I’ll be happy when the cable modem broadcasts once more.
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What a stinky thing to have happen! I’m sorry you had to deal with that, my friend.
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It happens and I’ll own my half of the problem.
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They have you coming and going. It is a racket. We have Comcast and hotspots. Comcast goes out at least once every month. We don’t do autopay, I refuse to do that. I pay each month. I don’t want them taking my money before I want to give it. Gives you a little leverage when you call to complain. A few times I have managed to get a small credit.
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We live the same way.
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