Over the Verizon

When Trevor and I first signed up to live in the bare bear canyon cabin, our main concern wasn't the bears or the mountain lions.  We were mostly concerned with the internet connection.  For a couple who only brought 1 spoon, 1 fork, 1 plate, 1 bowl, no bed, no chairs, and no table... we sure did bring a lot of electronic devices: 1 desktop computer, 3 laptops, 1 Ipad, 1 nook, 1 kindle, and 2 ol' reliable iphones.    We have no babies.  All our investments go to gadgets.  Internet is our lifeline.  Unfortunately the one drawback to living in the middle of no where is that the cable and internet company services don't go reach outside the city limits here.  Any other house, this might have been a deal breaker.  But we could live internet free for 3 months, right?  ....No way.

Before signing the lease we stopped by Verizon Wireless to see if a portable wifi device would work up in the canyon.  This is interaction # 1 with "Verizon girl."  Because we were only really going to need this wifi device for a couple months we opted to do the pre-paid month-to-month plan.  We get the gadget home.  It works for a few days ....then it breaks.

We go back to Verizon Wireless... interaction #2 with "Verizon girl."  We tell her the device isn't working anymore.  She suggests we already used up our monthly stipend.  No way.  She asks if we got it wet.  No way.  After 45 minutes of waiting on hold on the phone with Verizon Wireless customer service while in the store and a whole 2.5 hours later with no solution....we leave... with our money back.

After doing additional online research we decide to go back to Verizon but opt for the 2 year agreement since Verizon tends to reserve their piece of crap devices for their pre-paid plans and then fails to support them when they don't function properly.

We decide to go back and sign up for the plan and get the newest device.  Interaction #3 with Verizon girl.  After a long chat of debating which one of the newer devices we should get, Verizon girl comes back with the old device (which we have previously returned for mechanical error) and exclaims, "Alright guys I'm gonna make this real easy for you!  This is the only wifi hotpsot we have in stock, so you dont even have to choose!"

What part of  "I don't want that piece of crap again" didn't you understand!?  We spent nearly another hour with this girl who's trying to convince us that this gadget is the same as the newer gadget.   Another sales rep comes up to us when Verizon girl was in the back and said that they have in fact have an increased rate of problems with this old crappy model.  Verizon girls comes back and we tell her no way. We order the new model and have it shipped to us.  Please lord do not let me have to talk to this Verizon girl again~!

That was Monday.  On Thursday is Music on Main street, when the town shuts down the Main street to vehicular traffic and sets up a stage in the middle of the intersection and has a band play for a few hours while everyone is drinking in the streets. It's awesome.  Except this one particular night, I turn around and ...damn.. there's that damn Verizon girl again.  I spot her and quickly turn away.  I really don't want to talk to her.  Verizon girl uccessfully avoided.

The very next day , Trevor and I meet up with some friends at the Filling Station, an old gas station converted into a dive bar and popular music venue.  We get in, settle next to some slot machines in the back (side note: lots of places have slot machines/gambling to help pay for their liquor licenses).  Anyway we are cozying up in this bar and I turn around and damnit there is that friggin Verizon girl again!!!!!  Two days in a row!

I am thinking "I cannot wait to blog about this!"  Ridiculous.

Luckily I held off because this past weekend, I went "floating" with a group of 10 people.  We get off to a late start.  We didn't get into the water around 5pm and the storm clouds were starting to roll in. We decided to try it anyway.  We drop one car off at the end of the river and then we all pile into a friend's minivan and drive up to the strat of the river.  We have 10 people and 10 tubes plus a tube for the cooler of beer.  Last time, we had to individually blow up the floats and it was pretty light headed start to the trip.  This time I made sure to bring my electric pump that plugs into your car's cigarette lighter.  One problem....  we get to the start of the river, go to blow up the tubes, and the cigarette lighter oultet doesn't work!  There aren't very many people left in the parking lot as it is late in the day on a Sunday and there's a storm approaching.  But our one friend goes around to the only other group of people in the parking lot.  He comes back to our group and says he found a girl who said we can use her car lighter to blow up our tubes.  I help him carry some of the tubes over and can you guess who the car belongs to?!

Yes, IT'S THE DAMN VERIZON GIRL AGAIN!  There are some major drawbacks to living in a small town...