We have used Cox Communications as our internet/phone/cable provider for about 10 years now. We have always been pretty happy with them, but I felt that we were paying a steep monthly amount (about $190) for our services.

We dealt with it, because it’s not fun to change 3 utilities in your house at the same time.

Recently, though, our neighbors switched to Qwest.

They were now paying almost half of what we were. Half.

That’s a lot of money to save.

There are many, many issues that arose with our switch. Too many to list here without losing all of you guys.

Let’s make this easy.

We’ll call it Customer Service 101.

Qwest

Qwest had 3 weeks notice about our installation. During that 3 weeks, Qwest changed my appointment twice. The first time, they called and told me that I “didn’t return the third party verification call in time for” them to honor my original appointment time.

I called back 43 minutes after the verification service left me a message.

I thought that was quick.

Last Friday, the installer came.

Late.

He disappeared around the side of the house and about 20 minutes later, I went out and told him that he could find us out back if he needed anything. I found him running a cable from my box to my neighbor’s house.

Across the sidewalk.

Across our yards.

Me: “What are you doing?”

Installer: “Well, my fish tape doesn’t reach far enough to run this cable across the street. So for a bit, no longer than a week, I’ll have this cable run from here to your neighbor’s house.”

Me: “Um… no you won’t. You’re talking above ground? Over the sidewalk? We have little kids. That’s a broken arm waiting to happen. No. Way.”

Installer: “Well, ma’am. That’s all I can do. You see my truck is in the shop…”

At this point, Steve came home and saved the day.

He had a long fish tape.

But, funny thing, he didn’t have to use it.

He used the installer’s tape and pulled the line across the street.

Steve installed the cable.

Installer: “Thank you, but now, it’s past 6 p.m. and our switch is closed. You can call this number in the morning and they can turn your phone on.”

I’m thinking… “if you had been here on time…”

At this point, I was mad.

I was without internet and phone all day. I had blogs to write work to do. (Seriously… at the end of the school year? I had so much work to do!)

I called Qwest from my cell phone.

I was on the phone for 2 and 1/2 hours.

With three people.

I got a few different stories.

1. “Your phone isn’t actually set to be turned on until Monday.” (Then why did the installer come today?)

2. “Your phone number hasn’t been released by Cox yet. It takes 10 days.” (I set up installation 3 weeks ago)

3. “I can’t help you. Customer service is closed until Monday.” (How can it be closed on the weekend? Do people not sign up for phone service on the weekends?)

Long, long story short?

No help from Qwest.

No apology.

Nothing.

Cox

So, 9:00 at night, I called Cox.

And I tweeted.

A friendly employee answered the phone, apologized for my inconvenience (did you hear that? the inconvenience that Qwest caused), and turned my internet on.

At 9 p.m. on a Friday night.

He apologized again and said that my phone would take a bit longer.

Up to 24 hours.

I thanked him. And told him that if he were in my house, I would hug him.

He laughed and said, “Um.. thank you, ma’am.”

Then he asked why I was going to switch to Qwest.

We reviewed my services, cut down my internet speed (we aren’t able to benefit from the internet speed we were paying for), and decided that it’s cheaper to use DirecTV instead of digital cable.

I am now saving about $40/month.

The next morning, I woke up and turned my cell phone on.

And had the most wonderful exchange with Cox.

Seriously? They saw my tweet from the night before, replied, gave additional contact information, AND then replied again?

My phone was turned on by 11 am, but since the Qwest technician cut the lines, we couldn’t get a dial tone.

We didn’t realize this until about 5 pm.

I called Cox again.

They apologized again.

And someone was at our house by 9 am on SUNDAY.

A real, live person from Cox was fixing my phone and double checking my internet as I was watering my plants Sunday morning.

What I learned this week?

I learned that stellar customer service is invaluable. It’s definitely worth paying extra for.

Cox has my business now, and will have my business for as long as they are around.

Thank you, Cox Communications!

This post is being linked up with Julie’s carnival, What I Learned This Week

Well, Sunday is the day I wash and dry the laundry.

It usually takes me another day or two to fold it and put it away.

But today, my one and only helped me out.

So right now, the laundry is washed, dried, folded, and put away.

Yippee!!

Except for one thing.

I just looked in my closet.

Take a look:

Do you see what I see?

I see 12 pairs of black yoga pants (in various lengths, of course).

Oops.

Obviously, this post isn’t about my fashion sense.

I wear what’s comfortable.

And yoga pants are comfortable.

Last fall, I gave Steve a hard time after I counted his shorts.

He has 28 pair.

Me: ”You could wear a different pair of shorts every day for almost a month and never double up!”

Steve: “No, I couldn’t. Some are dressy, some are for yard work, some are for golfing…”

I bet if I tried hard I could come up with a reason to keep all 12 of my black yoga pants.

Me: “Some are older and faded, some are nice, some are strictly for running or going to the gym.”

And I can hear it now…

Steve: “But still, you have 12 pair of black yoga pants!”

Oh.

I just noticed something.

Crap.

13.

Go ahead. Ask.

“How have you been uploading pictures for the last 5 months?”

With my fancy-schmancy new laptop that has a special opening for my camera card, that’s how.

Said fancy-schmancy laptop is currently still in the fancy-schmancy laptop shop.

Waiting for a fancy-schmancy new hard drive.

Because the old one died.

It died before the laptop doc could get my files off of it.

Files like 967 pictures.

146 blog posts.

and a lot of files for work.

Yes, I know that I already said that in this post.

I’m just dwelling on reiterating it. Because I can.

But I’m looking on the bright side.

Really. I am.

They’re just things.

Jack told me today, “Mom, you can take lots more pictures. We just have to go back to those places and you can take the same ones.”

Back to Cancun…  I guess that would work. Hmmm…

Currently, I am using my hoopty laptop (thanks for the term Hillary) and it is sloooooooow. And louuuuuuuud.

So, bare with me. I’m here.

Waiting patiently for my computer to come home so I can share some pictures with you.

Because boy, do I have some stories to tell…

Ok, I probably shouldn’t go as far as to call it an obsession, but I am very curious about it.

Sign twirling.

Like this guy. And this guy.

I know I have a few readers from places other than Tucson, so I am dying to know… do you have sign twirlers there?

I am distractible. It’s a little embarrassing to admit, but it’s true.

While stopped at a red light, I can get stuck waiting for them to drop their sign staring at one of these guys until the guy in back of me is nice enough to beep and remind me to stop gawking.

Sorry if that was you behind me.

Seriously, it’s an art. I noticed SO many of them during the summer that I was sure they had to get paid mucho-bucks in order to stand out there in 110 degree heat twirling away.

Turns out they don’t. From what I can gather (you know, in my extensive research on the subject) they make between $10-15 an hour.

Want to know more?

They usually work in shifts of 5-8 hours.

Many get tendonitis of the wrist after a few months on the job.

They are sometimes called “human directionals.”

They love their “anti-jobs.”

There is a hierarchy of sign twirlers in each city.

If you own a company and want to hire a twirler, you can request one that you have seen “in action.”

Wow. Seriously?