Tuesday I called Charter Communications to see if I can continue the high speed internet but cancel the basic television lineup. I was informed that I could, but it would cost 10.00 more a month. Since I’m already paying twice as much for Internet access as Charter advertises at the company site and on TV, I wasn’t interested in being further penalized and said that I’ll just cancel both, then.
Only to be informed that to get the ‘good deal’ I have with my current internet service, I supposedly signed a contract in November to carry both television channels and internet for a year; if I don’t, I’ll be penalized 150.00. I don’t remember being told about $150.00 penalty for canceling my account. I asked where it said I had agreed to these terms. The Charter person said that when I signed the work order, I signed the agreement.
Tonight, the roommate and I thought we’d take in the free music concert at the Botanical Gardens. When we got there, I was surprised to find several parking attendants–big, burly, unsmiling, sun-glassed, parking attendants. Not the friendly, khaki clothed Park volunteers. No, these guys all looked like the type of people you would expect to come out of the woods from the movie, “Deliverance”–except wearing blue shirts, tan shorts, and wraparounds. They all had mullet hair cuts. It was surreal.
Following the signals, we found ourselves down one row where we were faced with two attendants, one of whom signaled me to pull into a slot between two cars. I signaled back that I couldn’t park between the cars–one was a very large Cadillac that stuck out in the back, and straddeled the parking line and I knew I couldn’t swing my car around enough to pull in. I pointed to the spot on the other side of the furthest car. The guy just looked at me, shook his head, and pointed at that one spot.
Now, the parking lot was about 70% empty. Still I started to reverse my car to see if I could angle it into the spot. About that time, a family had gotten out of their car and started walking behind me. So there I was, stuck between a couple of cute little kids, and two big, burly, unsmiling, black-mullet-haired, sun-glassed parking attendants.
I put my car back in drive, and started moving forward, yelling at the attendant to get out of my way, I was leaving.
And that’s exactly what I’m telling Charter Communications.
