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I have a PayPal debit card, a State of Florida child support debit card, and an Amscot card.
They are all used for various things, like Paypal is for work payments, the child support card is for obvious reasons, and the Amscot card is for my SSDI to be direct deposited.
I had to get both my SSDI and my child support checks direct deposited to cards, because someone once stole a child support check from my mailbox, and even though it was a piddly little $21.05, I couldn't risk someone stealing those every week as it's court ordered, (not that he pays every week as court ordered) and I certainly didn't want to risk my SSDI checks being stolen.

I can deposit any kind of check or money order, in any amount, deposited to my Amscot card, but I can't always get there, so I usually have to wait until I can get a ride there to deposit things like that.
If I get cash, it's the same thing, I can deposit it, but I can't always get there to do so.
I don't like carrying cash with me, I don't like using cash, it's really dirty and I already wash my hands (OCD) a lot so yeah, I don't like to carry or use cash unless I absolutely have to.
I also don't like banks.
I take great issue with the government being able to access all of our private financial information if they feel like it, if they decide that you or I are a threat, or have possible ties to terrorism.
I don't like that banks require so much of your personal and private information to open an account, and for you to update your information so that they comply with the regulations of the governments "protect the home front" policies.
None of the cards that I currently use, have ever asked me for the same kind of information that banks do, as a matter of fact, I think several of the cards only have my name, date of birth, and phone number(s).
Banks also charge crazy fees for every single transaction that you do no matter how small, and now some even charge you a fee (I've heard this fee can be as much as $10)  for physically going in to the bank and interacting with a human teller, whose job it is to help you deposit or withdraw your money. 
So when I had some cash this week that I didn't want to carry with me, have it sit in my wallet driving me crazy that I can't get up to Amscot to deposit it, so I decided to try a new pre-paid debit card that I can get re-load cards from right at 7 eleven.

I bought a Green Dot pre-paid Visa debit card at 7 eleven for $4.95*, and a money pack re-load card, also for $4.95*
I gave the cashier the amount of cash that I wanted to load onto my pre-paid Visa debit card, and he added that amount through the cash register's POS systems card reader.
I came home, logged onto the Green Dot website, entered in the Visa debit card number, the expiration date, created a password, and logged in to load the card.
Loading the debit card from the money pack was really easy, and now I have all of my cash, all of my income sources, on debit cards, 2 of them are pre-paid, and 2 are not.
I only have to touch cash when absolutely necessary, when I get it, and when I hand it to the cashier, so now I don't have to be grossed out by the thought of handling very dirty paper money for too long.

Once I've used the Green Dot card for awhile, I will give it a proper product review, but so far, it gets 4 out of 5 stars for it's ease of use, fast money transfers from the money pack to the debit card, (the time it takes you to type in the numbers from the debit card and money pack) and the fee refunds.
The only downside is that they are not available everywhere yet.
While they can be purchased at over 50,000 retailers nationwide like CVS, 7 eleven, Kmart and Walgreen's, it will/would be really nice if they were also available at grocery stores as I go to Publix far more often than I go to 7 eleven, and I hate that place because while convenient, they charge excessive prices on almost every single item that they sell. 

* The $4.95 that you pay to buy the card and the money pack re-load cards, are credited back to your account (refund!) in about 1 business week, and the only fees for using the Green Dot pre-paid card is a monthly service charge of $5.95, and fees if you use an ATM, and those fees are just .50cents per transaction.
I don't plan on using any of those, so just $5.95 per month to help me control my OCD is ok with me.

**EDIT
My first fee (bought on 3/2/2010) refund was posted to my account today, 3/6/2010.

 

I just got a call from the insurance company about what happened to me back in October with the DA& Pharmacy.

Because I don't have a full Medicare supplement, just a part D drug plan, I only pay a small co-pay for my prescriptions.
This pharmacy that I went to told me that I had to pay an extra $20.00 on top of my $2.40 insurance co-pay or I couldn't have my medication.
Read the blog post I linked to see what went down, but I am so very happy to report that Humana, my insurance company, is going after this pharmacy.
They are not only going to revoke their contract, but they will also be pursuing other legal options, they will be calling other customers of Humana who have used this pharmacy to see if anything similar happened to them, and then doing whatever they can to get this pharmacy dealt with legally.
I have scanned and emailed them the receipts and everything else that I had including the whole story so that they can refresh the pharmacists memory if she claims that she doesn't remember or that it never happened, they can show her that she did do it.
Totally freaking awesome.

I called Bounce today after having a horribly itchy night again thanks to the Bounce Dryer Bar, being allergic to it but finding out I wasn't the only one.
I called and spoke to one of their health people, they are the ones who take complaints like this and pass it on to the investigators and makers to look into, and then they figure out how to resolve it so it doesn't happen in future versions of the product.
They are going to send me a check for my money back, $5.99, a coupon for free Bounce dryer sheets, and a coupon for a free bottle of Tide because I had to re-wash all of the laundry that I had done with the dryer bar.
I had removed the bar from the dryer a few days ago, and today I  washed 5 loads of laundry today to try and get rid of the stuff from our clothes.
I re-washed all of our towels, shirts, breeches, underwwear,shorts, t-shirts, dish towels, sheets, blankets, everything that I had done with the bar in the dryer.
I wasn't able to get a good picture of the rash, and hopefully I've gotten rid of it completely now between doing all of the laundry and taking several showers.
The rash, hives, and welts really sucked, so I really want it to be gone for good.

When I was about 8 or 9 years old, my entire family used to go to all of my big brother Mike's football games both at home and away, on the weekends, as sort of like cheap family entertainment.
There were a lot of us kids, Mike, Jo, me, Frankie, Benji, and all of the other many foster kids that came and went over the years.
We'd all pile into Dad's station wagon with the way-back seat, which was where Jo and I used to sit, that was ours, we claimed it on every single road trip because it didn't face forward, it faced back, directly into the face of whatever car and driver were directly behind us.
We loved that seat because we could make faces at those drivers, stick our tongue's out, pretend to pick our noses and fling 'em, stuff like that, we were kids, it was our entertainment on those many and very long road trips to go to games, camping trips, and the holiday visits to see family in Pennsylvania.
Anyway, we would all have to go to the football games, Mom would pack a couple coolers with food and kool-aid, most of us kids wouldn't watch the game, we'd play on the playgrounds that most of the football fields had because the games were usually held at high schools.
There was this one game where there was no playground so we had to make our own fun.
There were these metal poles on like these circular cement things, they used them to hold up ropes to mark off the parking lot and spaces.

So Jo and I were playing on those things and we were sorta swinging back and forth, the cement parts were kind of round so they wobbled, it was sorta fun, and there was nothing else to play on, so yeah, we swung around on those things.
Jo had the fun idea to get it rocking back and forth and then jump off, see who could jump the farthest after getting dizzy.
We were both on the same one, we had it rocking and spinning around, and then she yelled jump and let go, I let go a second later, but I didn't get far enough away from it, my jump sucked basically.
The bad part of it though was that the cement block and metal pole had swung in my direction when I jumped, then it swung straight back the other way, I stood up and it came swinging back and the pole hit me right in the mouth.

The metal pole hit me in the mouth with incredible force, it split my lips open and smashed my right front tooth.
Mom and Dad were pissed of course, it meant a trip to the very expensive for our family dentist, and having to get my broken tooth fixed, save the nerves, and cap the chipped front tooth.
It wasn't the type of chipped tooth you could just ignore, a huge piece had broken off, so a cap to make me have a tooth that looked like the other front tooth, was pretty expensive.
That first cap lasted a very long time, until I was like 15 or 16 at least, and then it just fell off, back then caps weren't meant to last a lifetime, so Mom and dad had to buy me another one.
That one lasted until after I was married and had the kids, it fell off, I mean broke off, when I bit into an apple around age 25.
I was now on my own, totally, I was divorced and raising the boys on my own and I didn't have any dental insurance, so I didn't replace the cap.

In all of these years since, I have never been able to replace the cap on my broken front tooth.
It's been 14 years that I have gone around with a broken front tooth.
I don't ever smile in pictures, I rarely ever open mouth smile when out in public either, I am a closed mouth smiler because I am so self conscious of the broken front tooth, it looks terrible, and it's incredibly obvious.
 People try to tell me that they can't even notice it, but they say that to be nice, I know this because I took a picture of myself with an open mouth smile, and that huge chip is just *BAM!* smiling with my mouth open, showing my teeth in a big toothy smile, there is a big hole showing because of that chipped tooth.

This coming Saturday, local area dentists are doing what they call "Sarasota Smile" for about 4 hours starting at 8am.
A lot of local area dentists will see people on a first come first serve basis, doors open at 8am, close at noon, they will fix just one tooth per person, so if someone needs a tooth pulled, they will pull it.
If someone needs a drill and fill, they will drill and fill.
If someone needs a cap, they will cap it.
The problem is that it's first come first serve, and the dentist said that last year, people started lining up at 3am, by the time the doors opened at 8am, there were over 400 people standing in line starting at the door and snaking down the sidewalk and through the parking lot.
He said they are expecting even more people this year with the economy the way it is.

The dentist doing it is my sister's dentist, she called him to ask about the Sarasota Smile on Saturday, to ask what time I would need to get there to be in the first 10 people in line, he said that I would need to be there really early, like probably no later than 2am, and he asked her why she was asking, he was going to see her on Wednesday the 16th at 1pm, who was she asking for.
Jo told him that it was me, her sister, and he asked what the situation was, so she explained that I am disabled and can't afford to have my front tooth capped, that it's been broken for the last 14 years, that I have kids and just could never afford to get it fixed after having kids.
Jo told him  if it was fixed that I would probably feel better about myself, finally feel comfortable smiling normally like everybody else, be able to laugh out loud without covering my mouth with my hand so no one sees the giant chipped front tooth.
She told him that I was more than willing to go down there Saturday morning at whatever time, I would just bring a folding lawn chair with me so I didn't have to stand up or sit on the hard concrete for all of those hours, but that I would definitely wait as many hours as it took to be among the first in line so I could get my front tooth fixed up.
 
The dentist told Jo to pick me up and bring me with her on Wednesday to her appointment at 1pm.
She asked why, she told him that I couldn't afford to get it capped, that she can't afford to get it capped for me either, it's too expensive, and as it is, Jo is struggling to pay for the work that he's been doing to her for the last few weeks and this Wednesday is the final appointment, but she'll be paying off her dental bill for the next  8 months to a year once the bill is finally tallied for the root canal, 3 drill and fills, and 5 filling replacements to get rid of the old mercury fillings that she has for new and safer fillings.  (When we were kids, fillings were silver and made of mercury).
He told Jo not to worry about it, that neither she or I would have to pay for the cap, that his office will cover it.
She asked him to repeat it, she wasn't sure she heard him right, and so he said it again.
"Bring your sister Kat with you on Wednesday at 1pm. His office will do the cap on my front tooth at no charge to her or me, it will be a Christmas present from him to me."
He made my sister promise to bring me on Wednesday, she said she would, they hung up, and she called me straight away to tell me what was going on.
Here I was going to wake up and go sit down there at 2-3am and wait in line to be in the first in line to be seen and get 1 tooth worked on for free, and the dentist said that I don't have to do that, that I can go on Wednesday at 1pm with my sister, and he and his office will do it for free.
Can you believe that?? How freaking awesome is that dentist?!
I can't believe it, he and his office are going to fix my front tooth for me, wow, it's really amazing.
My front tooth has had this big huge chip for the last 14 years, I haven't smiled in a picture for 14 years, if I'm out with friends and having a good time, i will cover my mouth with my hands while I laugh so no one sees the big chipped up mes.
For the first time in 14 years, I'm going to have a full smile with fully shaped teeth.
After I got off of the phone with my sister, Mark asked me what was going on so I told him, and as I was telling him I started to cry.
14 years, 14 years I have hated the way my teeth look because of a stupid mistake that I made when I was 8 or 9 years old and bored at my older brother's football game.

The dentist said that he couldn't believe that I've gone for 14 years with a broken front tooth, job interviews, work, shopping, everything that people do every single day with a big chipped tooth, hating the way my smile looks so I just haven't truly and freely smiled in 14 years.
He said by the time I leave his office on Wednesday afternoon, I will be smiling big and free for the first time in 14 years, and it will be a beautiful.

I am so freaking excited!!

I betcha that  bcbsnc would be just as furious about what happened today at the pharmacy as Humana is.
I've been posting about my pain medication saga on this blog and my other blog, for the last couple of days now, and had found a pharmacy with the very last of the generic medication in stock, all of the way down in North Port today.

So my friends drove me down to the pharmacy in North Port this afternoon in a massive thunderstorm and heavy rain that lasted the entire drive down there, and half of the way back home, in order for me to get the last remaining stock of the generic Oxycontin HCL 40mg ER, which is Oxycodone HCL 40mg ER.
The pharmacy that I found it at didn't have my full prescription of 90 pills, but they did have 80 of them, close enough.
So I went for it because my doc had said because of that whole mess, that he was not going to write me a new script until he figured out what would work best for me because I am allergic to the equivalent med which is morphine sulfate, (MS Contin) and I am severely allergic to morphine, and also because Fentanyl patches don't work, and the Fentanyl injections are too dangerous and I refused them.

I went into the pharmacy and handed over my script and the pharmacist filled it, ran my insurance for it, and my co-pay was going to be $2.40, and that's when the pharmacist told me that she was losing money because of the insurance.
"What?" I asked.
"Because I am accepting your insurance for this medication," the female Indian pharmacist said, "I am losing money on it."
"What does that mean?" I asked.
"Let me explain. I pay $40 for the medication, Humana is only going to pay me $20 for it, you are only going to pay me $2.40 for it, so I am losing $20.00 by accepting your insurance and giving you this medication" she said.
"Ok, what does that mean for me?" I asked.
"It means that unless you pay me $20.00 for the medication, I cannot let you have this prescription" she said.
"Uh, ok, um, I haven't gotten paid yet, let me go see if I can borrow it from one of my friends" I said, and I went out to the truck to ask Deb and Nic if I could borrow $20 until I got paid Friday night.
Nic let me borrow it but told me I was being yanked.
I said that I knew that and would deal with it later, but right now this was the last pharmacy in the whole damn state with my med, I needed to get it and would report the theft and insurance fraud when I got home.
I went back in and instead of paying the legal amount of $2.40, I paid the theft price of $22.40, got my med, and we drove back home to Sarasota.

What the pharmacist did is called price gouging for one, theft for another, and insurance fraud for a solid third.
It is against the law to accept and charge an insurance company for the medication, actually charge the patient the real co-pay amount, and ask the patient to pay another price on top of that.
I know by going to the Humana website and logging in to my account, that I can see how much the medicine costs, my co-pay amount, and how much Humana pays the pharmacy when they submit the claim to Humana.
The medication costs $670.62, my co-pay is $2.40, and then Humana pays the pharmacy $668.22.
 
That is actually what it says on the My Humana page for today's (Friday October 16th, 2009) prescription fill at the pharmacy I went to today.
At my usual pharmacy that I had been getting it at for a full year before this whole Purdue lawsuit mess, the price of the med was $789.95, because they were getting the generic version from a different pharmaceutical company than the one I got today.
My regular pharmacy was getting them from Watson Pharmaceutical, and they were round and orange-ish-yellow.
Today's pills were manufactured by Dava Pharmaceutical, the pills are round and purple.  
The different pharmaceutical companies all make their pills look different, and they charge different prices for them.

But that's really neither here nor there, what this pharmacy did was illegal.
And she knew it too.
It is an independently owned pharmacy, the husband and wife own it together, she's the pharmacist, he's the cashier, 1 cash register, 1 tiny little store.
She so totally knew that what she was doing was illegal, and she took steps to prevent being caught.
On the patient medication print-outs, there is always a strip at the top that says the name, address, and phone number of the pharmacy, it says the medication name, how much it costs, and how much the co-pay is.
This little strip is perforated to be torn off for the patients use.
The pharmacist tore it off so that I wouldn't have access to the truth.
She made 1 mistake though, she let me keep my cash register receipt that clearly says that I paid $22.40 for 1 prescription, and the receipt has the name, address, phone number, and the name of the pharmacist right at the top.

When I got home, I immediately called my insurance company to report what had happened.
The Humana rep was aghast at what I was telling her, she placed me on hold while she got a supervisor and asked what she was supposed to do for this kind of thing, and then she told me that they had all of the pharmacy's information in the system already because the pharmacist had submitted the claim, I really did pay the legal co-pay amount of $2.40, and she told me that they were sending me a form to fill out, that I would need to photocopy all of the paper work that I did have, like the receipt and the patient print out showing that she tore the patient use information strip off, and that I would need to explain exactly what happened, what the pharmacist told me, and then she told me that I needed to report it to my state's price gouging hot-line, and the police in North Port, which I did.
I left a voice mail for the hot-line in Tallahassee because that's what you're supposed to do, and I spoke to a detective at the North Port police department who told me that I would need to go back to NP and file a report and bring the evidence and my witnesses with me.
Both Deb and Nic said that they would be happy to go to NP with me and fill out the report, especially Nic because she's the one who loaned me the $20.00 to pay for it, and was just as shocked as I was that the pharmacist did that.
All 3 of us were in shock that she ripped me off for $20.00 when she had submitted the claim to Humana for the full price of $668.22, claiming that she was going to lose $20.00 by accepting my insurance.

Can you freaking believe the week I have had just trying to get my freaking medication?!?
Totally unreal right?
I mean, who the hell else would have this kind of luck?
This is the kind of stuff that happens to me all. of. the. time, and this pharmacist knew that she was the last pharmacy to have the medication, she knew that I had to have it, so she totally took advantage of those facts and she stole $20.00 from me, lied to me, submitted the claim to the insurance, so that's fraud, and she totally, illegally, price-gouged me!!
Seriously people, this kind of crap only happens to me.

Because I don't want any other person in the south west Florida area to be ripped off, I am telling everyone right here on my blog, to never, ever, go to D & A Pharmacy in North Port Florida, located at 3015 Bobcat Village Center Rd. in the Bobcat Village Shopping Plaza.
This is a picture of their store front happily provided by the pharmacy to be listed on Google.

Never go there folks.
Ever.

I swear, the pharmaceutical industry and the insurance industry must be cahoots with each other.
They do everything that they can to get the most amount of money from people for the least amount of work or money being spent on their end of the transaction.

One of my medications is not being made any longer, well, let me rephrase that.
The generic of it is no longer being made, and my insurance company will not pay for the real name brand one unless my doctor calls them and gets prior authorization, tells them that it is medically necessary to have it because the generic is no longer being manufactured.
The real name brand one costs a lot of money, a wicked lot of money.
The generic version of it would cost me $789.95  for a quantity of 90 pills, if I didn't have insurance.
The real name brand one would cost me $1,325.00 out of pocket if I didn't have insurance, for the exact same amount, 90 pills.
My doctor does not want to switch me to another pain medicine unless he absolutely has to because this one works very well for me, he doesn't want to have to make me take something else that may not work as well, and then go through possibly months of trying on new medications until we find one that works.
Getting this particular one took about 5 months of trying a new one every single month until finding this one worked the best.

So basically, I went to my doc appointment today and got all of my prescriptions, 4 of them, but was only able to get 3 of them filled until Humana either decides to cover the name brand one, or forces my doctor to write a new script and start the drug try-ons until we find one that works as well as this one does.
I have been on and tried so many different pain relievers, I could write reviews of them as easily as I have written diet pill reviews on my blogs.
I really do not want to have to try a new drug, or several new drugs.
It sucks trying out new ones, they all react differently with my body, and the one pain med that I absolutely do not want to ever have to take again, not even for a week or so, is Ultram/Tramadol. (the generic is Tramadol)
That one makes me feel like total crap.
It makes me feel agitated and angry, like if anything is even normally mildly upsetting, that little thing makes me explode violently and I start screaming and yelling at anyone within earshot.
It also makes me feel dirty and gross, like slimy and disgusting, and no amount of showers makes that feeling go away, it makes me feel strung out, like jacked-up, cracked-out.
It's how I imagine smoking crack would make me feel.
It also upsets my stomach.
Most narcotic pain relievers cause you to be constipated, I deal with that by taking a stool softener every 3 days or so.
On Tramadol, (the generic) it's the exact opposite, it causes diarrhea, so the whole time I am taking it, I need to stay close to home, close to the bathroom, and I can not eat much at all because it just comes right back out, explosively.
So the doc's office is calling Humana and faxing them, a medically necessary-please approve the name brand medication form, and the doc's office will call me tomorrow to either let me know that I can go to the pharmacy and pick it up, or go back to the doc's office and get a script for a brand new pain reliever.
I am hoping that they will approve it, I really hate trying out new ones, it sucks a wicked lot. 
 
Tramadol is what Mark's doctor has him on, and poor Mark, he is suffering the exact same side effects that I get while taking them, and they really aren't helping his pain much either unless he takes 3 of them at once, but then taking that many causes him to be really agitated and have the stomach upset 3 times worse.
He went and had his MRI last week, and we're supposed to go in tomorrow for the results and a refill of his meds, but I don't have any transportation, and I am not going to spend $40 for a cab ride, so I had to call and cancel his appointment.
I am going to call and talk to a few friends, and ask them if they could give us a ride, they can pick the day that works the best for them, and I'll just tell his doc to either fit us in on that day, or they'll have to wait until I can find another ride from someone else.
Getting his test results are a huge priority for me, I need to know exactly what Mark has and how bad it is.
These results will determine whether or not Mark can go ahead and apply at the police academy and take the law classes in college. (you need to apply at the police academy and then go take the classes)
If his back is really bad, if he has a lot of spine deformities and nerve damage, it will negatively impact his life-long career choice.
If his bad is super bad, if he can't be a cop like he's always wanted to, I will have 10 times more guilt over this than I already do.
I feel absolutely horrible that my genetics, that my DNA, may have destroyed his ability to be a police officer.
The day that I heard that he has spondylosis, I came home and cried my eyes out. 
I so didn't want him to have anything medically wrong with his back, I was so hoping that his doctor would just tell him to lose weight, that because he's overweight, that's why he has lower back pain, that's what I wanted to hear, not that my DNA has been handed down to him.
I have to find us a ride,  someone that will take us there and either wait possibly for an hour or 2, or drop us off and come back to pick us up when the appointment is over.
I need to find out what's wrong and how we're going to treat it, if it can be treated by bracing or physical therapy, or if it's bad enough to need surgery.
Once I get the results from his doctor, I am going to try and fight with medicaid to get a second opinion, and that second opinion will be from my surgeon, Doc M.
Doc M. is the most qualified spine specialist in this state, Mark's doctor even said that if he thinks Mark's spine needs surgery, that he would send him to Virginia to be treated by a specialist there, he already knows that he's not qualified to do the surgery himself.
I am almost scared to get the results, I don't want it to be any worse than what it is right now, just the spondy and arthritis, I am so afraid that he's got other spine deformities, maybe scoliosis, or severe nerve damage like I have.
I do not want him to have to go through any of the years of pain and hell that I've been through, I won't be able to handle that, I don't want my son to suffer like I have. 

When Mindy took me to the grocery store on Tuesday afternoon, we had Sebastian with us and we were talking about the economy, jobs, and how hard it is for people to find work right now.
Both the teens have been trying to find jobs for awhile now, and even Mindy's husband has been laid off for now.
We started talking about what Mindy currently does for work, and what I used to do for work.
At the time, it was a really great top home business for me.
Back when we lived in Maine, I had my own house cleaning business, and used to clean the houses of the very wealthy who lived right on the beaches.
Their homes were so large, it would take me an entire day to clean just one house.
One of the houses I cleaned had 8 bedrooms, and each bedroom had it's own full bathroom.
Even the pool house had it's own full bathrooms.
They lived directly on the beach and had a huge olympic sized swimming pool with a pool house that had 5 changing rooms, 2 full bathrooms, and 2 full showers and tubs.

I used to be really great at cleaning houses, I was paid great for it at the time which was the early 90's, $10 per hour, and I had a house to clean 5 days a week.
I started with just the one house, and then she told her neighbors who each hired me after that.
I used to love doing it, I loved cleaning those houses, that feeling of doing a great job and being told at the end of the day what a great job I had done.
Now, I can barely clean my own house.
At Christmas they all gave me bonuses, at the end of the day when it came time to pay me, they paid in cash and in full, and they sometimes would throw in some extra cash as a tip or something like a bottle of wine or a gift certificate to a really expensive store.
I really miss doing it, I realy wish I could work again, I really miss it.

Verizon was here all afternoon installing the Fios, and so a lot of my things had to be moved around to install the new router and stuff.
I tried to break in and move my stuff before the guy did, but he just swooped in and did it, not giving me the chance to do any of it.
This caused my OCD to go crazy, I can't handle people touching my stuff, moving things out of place, and my whole living room was basically turned upside down while the guy worked.
In the process of him moving things around, some stuff got knocked down but it wasn't noticed until after he left and I was putting my desk back in order.
I found one of my micro sd cards on the floor, along with one of my favorite pens.
This was really difficult for me, I can't explain it, if you don't have any thing like this, it's hard to understand.
The boys knew I was having a rough time with someone, a stranger, touching all of the things on my desk, I was pacing around the other rooms of the house, I couldn't watch, and if I did, I started to panic and stuff.
I know this sounds all crazy, and it is all crazy, but I really don't do well with people touching my things, strangers or family, they are my things, and I do not like other people touching them.

Ok, so, the Elavil isn't totally working yet.
I don't know why I expected it to work quickly, I think I was hoping it would work quickly, but it definitely isn't.
When the shower head got broken this afternoon, I had a major blow out.
I just fell apart, I cried, I yelled, I just lost it and started bawling my eyes out.
I am so totally overwhelmed with everything that is going on, and I do not have a grip on it all yet.
I don't have a grip on any of it yet.

Having a problem with my tooth isn't helping matters either.
I called Humana, and they said that my insurance does cover part of dental stuff, like it will cover extractions, but not root canals, no cosmetic stuff, just basic teeth stuff.
So I called around to some local dentist offices and holy crap, I had to control myself from gasping extremely loud over how much it's going to cost to get that tooth extracted, even with the insurance, I am still going to end up paying some hefty out of pocket expenses.
And just because I was curious, I asked how much it would be to get my front chipped tooth fixed, capped or whatever it is they do, and damn, that is even more expensive.
If I lived in New Jersey, I could get $100 bucks off at least.
I was surfing around and saw an ad on MSNBC, for an orange nj cosmetic dentist who is offering anywhere from $100 off, up to $300 off, his dental services and depending on what it is you need done.
None of the dentists or cosmetic dentists here, are offering any kind of discounts on any of their services.
You would think that they would be considering how bad the economy is, and people still need their teeth taken care of, but paying full price is really tough, it's always tough paying for dentists, but even harder now with the economy in the dumper.
If dentists offered even just $100 bucks off on even the most basic service, people would feel better about going and paying to get their teeth taken care of.
Oh well, I'll just keep filling my tooth with Dentemp until I can find a dentist who will take care of it cheaply, or I'll just go down to the clinic and get it yanked out and then worry about getting my chipped tooth taken care of at a much later time.
It's been chipped for quite a few years now, so a few more years won't really be a big deal.
The pain in that one tooth is a big deal though, so I have to get it taken out very soon before it becomes abscessed.
If it gets infected, it causes all kinds of new problems that will be even more costly.

I posted a few days ago about having a yard sale sometime in the near future and also selling off all of my jewelry.
I don't have a lot, exactly 23 pieces went into the envelope, but it's all I have and I hope it brings me at least some decent amount of money, $400-$600 would be great even though I know there's at least 1 piece in there worth at least $1,000.
It'd be great if I had like some Ferrari parts for sale to make some money super fast, but I don't, so this is my only option.
I don't trust any of those places that are advertising to buy your scrap gold jewelry right now, I have heard way too many bad things about them, and if you do a Google search on each of their names, you find not only their site, but sites where people talk about being completely ripped off.
They don't even come close to half the value of your jewelry, barely a third, and in some cases, downright stealing from people for mere pennies.

There's a local place in Tampa, I thought that I would actually have to go to them to trade in my stuff for cash, but they have a "gold kit" too, so I requested one.
It came in today's mail and I have gone through every single piece of jewelry and packed it all up to stick in tomorrow's outgoing mail.
The Gold & Diamond Source in Tampa, is where I am sending my jewelry.
From the FAQ's about their buying services, "We accept ONLY precious metal jewelry and genuine precious gems & diamonds, including broken gold. Please do not send costume jewelry as we cannot return these items."

Nothing I am sending them is costume jewelry, it's all gold, a minimum of 10k, .925 sterling silver, and jewelry with real gemstones in them, and some of them even have diamonds.
A few of the pieces are broken, so I know I won't get a lot of money for them, but my finances are in really rough shape right now so this is something that I have to do.
They say they they will mail a check within 24 hours of receiving my envelope, and so because they are right in Tampa, I know that I will have a check in my hands probably no later than Saturday, probably by Thursday.

I really hate to sell my stuff, but like I said, things are really super bad right now, I am having panic attacks for like the first time in years, panic attacks so bad that my heart is practically exploding out of my chest.
I know that's not true, but that's how it feels.
It feels like I'm having a heart attack, and I know that it's the stress over money issues that is causing it.
For quite a few years now, I've been on a good track, paying all of my bills on time every single month, really doing ok, and then the surgery in September happened, depression happened, I wasn't doing as much work as I should have been doing, used to do, the AC had to be replaced in October 2008, and then again this past February, so almost $1,000 on the AC, my health, prescriptions not covered by my insurance, yeah, things just kept coming and coming, and before I knew it, I was buried under money issues again and now it's at the point where I can barely freaking breathe from the panic attacks.
I mean, I'm sitting here right now, and my heart is beating so damn fast it's unreal.

If the Gold & Diamond Source gives me at least $500 for my stuff, I'll be in a way better position than I am right now.
It's not what I need of course, and it's certainly not what everything in that envelope is worth, again, 1 item alone has a value of $1,000, never been worn, mint condition, but I have to take whatever I can get right now.

Since yesterday morning when I started to feel a lot better, I have been going back and forth with this guy in email about doing some product and website reviews for him, mostly discussing the length of the posts, the pricing, and how long the posts would be on the blog.
I have been doing this kind of thing for a very long time, I know how this works, I do it day in and day out, and just when I finally thought we were at the closing, he freaked out about Google page rank.

To make a wicked long and irritating story short, the guy needs to take some
sales training classes in regards to online advertising in 2009.
It's not what it used to be, page rank is pointless these days and not only does every blogger know this, but so does almost every single advertiser out there.
It's a number made up by the Google gods, 100% pointless.
What is important is stats, the traffic details, hits, page views and search indexing, those are far more important than that silly number from 0-10.

The guy pretty much wasted hours and hours of my time over the course of  24 hours now,  that I could have spent doing all of the other stuff that I really needed to be doing, because he doesn't understand that page rank has become completely obsolete.

So I went to my doctor's appointment this afternoon, it went very well, the new pain doc and his staff are totally awesome and understanding about everything.
They gave me my prescriptions and I headed to Walgreen's.
The pharmacist pitched a fit because the doc had written on the bottom "Please fill today, medically necessary due to patient not being able to drive."
He said when a doc writes medically necessary, that means brand name, and my insurance, Humana, will not cover brand name.
So I had to go all the way back to my doc's, get them to write on it "Generic OK", and then go back to Walgreen's.

I asked the pharmacist if they had all of them (3 scripts) in generic, he said yes.
So I sat and waited.
For 45 minutes.
My name gets called, 1 of the pain meds is NOT the generic, it costs $610.00.
I told the pharmacist waiting on me that I asked for generic, the pharmacist said he had them, so why was I being given the brand name.
He started yelling at me that the generic is out, that the pharmaceutical companies have not made them in 6 months, I said that's bullshit because I picked it up here last month, and he says to me;
"Ma'am, I'm the pharmacist, I KNOW what I'm talking about, you do not, you are not a pharmacist. They are not making the generic of these any longer, we have not had them for the last 3 months, there is no way that you picked them up here. Now, are you going to pay for these or not?"

I told him 3 times through his shouting at me, to get a manager.
The manager comes over, I told her to look up my account and tell me when I last got that med filled.
She looks it up, says last month, you picked it up here.
I looked at him and asked him if he heard the manager, he said no, so I asked her to tell him what she just told me.
He says all sarcastically, "So."
I nearly flew over the counter and punched him.
I asked for my prescription back so that I could take it elsewhere because I refused to deal with a liar for 1 minute longer.
The manager was trying to apologize, I told her I didn't want to hear it.
The guy had been yelling at me, lied to me, I wanted my script so I could go somewhere else.

I went down the street to another pharmacy, asked them if they had the generic in stock, they said yes, they filled it, and then I asked them if the company had stopped making it.
Both the clerk and the pharmacist looked at each other and laughed, told me no, who told me they had, I told them Walgreen's did, and they both said "Ma'am, he lied to you. They have not stopped making the generic, as a matter of fact, they have increased production because the 30mg ones are not being made anymore."

I knew that, that's why my doc switched me to the higher ones.
But that little jerk lied to me, yelled at me, I'm freaking pissed.
I think I'm going to take my business elsewhere from now on, Walgreen's can suck it.

The new med, the 40MG Oxycontin, is much stronger than the 30's, much stronger.
I had a very rough night with it, I was physically sick from it, puked like 4 times, couldn't eat, was wicked dizzy.
I spent almost the whole night just laying on the couch.
I think the problem with it is because I hadn't gotten any sleep in days, I was exhausted, I hadn't eaten much at all, so it hit me super, super hard.
I am adjusting much better to it today that's for sure.
I slept all night, didn't wake up till almost noon, ate a big breakfast, and so I am handling it much better today than I did last night.

I told you on Thursday about how things went with my pain doc appointment, and that he gave me a new med, and that Walgreen's said my insurance didn't cover it, so I was only able to pick up one of the meds.
Walgreen's had a new girl working behind the counter with the pharmacist, the new girl is the one who told me that my insurance, Humana, didn't cover it.
The cost out of pocket was going to be $295.00, that's basically the price of a night's stay of some luxury hotel rooms.
Way too much.
A friend of mine called me on Friday around noon to see how I was doing, I explained how things had gone, and he said, "Kat, you cannot be without that med, you'll go through the hydros faster, you'll be in pain, I'll come pick you up after work and we'll go pick it up, you can pay me back later."
So I called all of the pharmacies that I have gone to to get price quotes, some of them sell the meds for a little less, we found that Publix pharmacy had them for $283.95, about $11.00 cheaper than Walgreen's, so we went there.
He had given me the money, I sat and waited, the lady called my name, and said that will be $240.
I was like oh wow, cool, that's less than the price quoted on the phone.
So I counted out $240.00, and handed it to her, she said "No, $2.40, 2 dollars and 40cents."
I was confused and asked, and she asked me if I was Kat Cooper at my address and phone number, did I have Humana, I said yes, she told me that my insurance covered it.
I asked her to double check it because I had been told that my insurance didn't cover it.
She checked again, it did, I paid the $2.40, and we left.
I gave my friend all of his money back, and we came home.

I called Walgreen's and complained.
I told the lady who answered the phone what had happened Thursday around noon, told her to look it up, she did, I asked why I was told my insurance didn't cover it when it did.
I had to borrow money, go all the way across town to a different pharmacy where I was prepared to pay a whole lot of money for it and it ended up being that my insurance did cover it, that it wasn't right to make me go all the way across town to do that, I'm disabled, I choose that Walgreen's because it's close enough to my home to walk home if I need to.
I asked her what went wrong, did the girl enter my name wrong, did she enter the medication wrong, enter my insurance number wrong, what happened, because it was covered.
She said she didn't know, but while we were on the phone, she entered all my info and the drug, and yup, it was covered, she apologized several times, said she didn't want to lose my business, she would make sure to pass the information on to the pharmacy manager so that the new girl can be trained better or whatever they have to do because that wasn't right at all.
$295.00 is a big mistake, my insurance costs me $20.00 per month, my co-pays for meds range between $2.40-$5.80 depending on the medication, and this one was only $2.40.
That was a big mistake, it almost cost me owing somebody a lot of money, it made me have to go all the way across town, all because somebody made a big mistake.

In today's mail, I got a packet from the new pain doc I'll be seeing on the 23rd.
Yup, he's very, very strict with his patients.
I read through it briefly, he does random drug testing of his patients for any substances that are illegal, any of the prescribed medicines are showing up in the urine in higher quantities, and it does say something about drug safes or other secure locations for the medicines.
There are 6 forms in the packet that must be signed, all of them are contracts with him and his patients.
That's fine with me.
I don't take anything I'm not supposed to, but I do take some vitamins and supplements, and I will write those down for him so he knows what I take when he does the urine tests.
Heck, I may even just bag everything up that I take, and take it in so he can see everything I take.
I don't want to upset this guy, because if you screw up with him, you are kicked out of his office, he reports you to every other pain doc in town, as well as put your name on the pharmacy watch lists as a drug abuser.
So yeah, I'll take everything I do take in, let him see it all, and follow his rules to the letter.
What all do I take?
Ok, here's everything I take every single day:
Hydrocodone 10/325 x 6 per day
Oxycontin 40MG x 4 per day
Toprol XL 25MG x 1/2 per day (heart/blood pressure med)
Cal/Mag/Zinc x 4 per day (for bone growth)
BioQuench antioxidant x 1 per day (cuz my immune system sucks)
Publix brand multivitamin w/iron x 1 per day (cuz my immune system sucks)
Publix brand Tylenol for headaches as needed (cuz pan meds don't work on headaches, surprisingly)
Publix brand stool softener as needed (opiate pan relievers block you up)
Walgreen's Wal-som sleep-aid x 1 (as needed to try and sleep)

I love this duplex, I have now lived in it for 11 years.
I love the central location, the neighborhood, it's nice and quiet, people are nice for the most part, but the actual duplex apartment that we live in has no flair, no style, it's just kind of boring looking.

One of these days, my sister and I are going to get around to painting the inside like we've been talking about for such a long time.
We have such beautiful colors to paint with, and then once the painting is done, or maybe we should do this before we do the painting (?), I'd love to put up some really nice molding.

I found some really nice corbels that I think would look nice in here, I need to settle on just 1 design, but I like this one, and this one, but I am leaning towards this one.

 














I found all of these at Inviting Home, where they offer beautiful products for the home at great prices.
They work hard to insure that you are knowledgeable about your purchase, find exactly what you are looking for, and the guidance and expertise needed to make a good purchase.







They even have a blog that is broken down into categories to make it even easier to find what you are looking for, to get decorating ideas, and they even have some great "green" ideas for decorating your home if you're trying to make your home and life more eco-friendly.


Inviting Home offers all kinds of information, and product inspiration to help you make your home more comfortable, more "green", more inviting, more of whatever you want your home to be.
I love looking at sites like this to get ideas, I swear, if I had a lot of money, like won the lotto or something and could buy my own home, I would be using their site to get decorating ideas and get step by step instructions to make my space the most functional and the most beautiful it can be.
They just have so much to offer at their site, there's so much information, ideas, products, it's really a great place to go to to start getting ideas for your new home.

I finally got through to my doc.
Their number is correct, but Comcast cable *accidentally* disconnected them over the weekend, and it took until 1pm today for Comcast to fix the error.
He can't see me right away, but I will be seeing him on the 10th.

My surgeon called in 1 new med yesterday, and it's starting to help, not great, but it's starting to, so that's a good thing.
They also mailed me 1 that is stronger.
Certain pain meds cannot be called in because they are strong narcotics, so the scripts have to be mailed, they mailed it out on Monday, so it should be in tomorrow's mail.

We are in a cold spell and another 1 is on the way. There's another freeze warning for tonight, which sucks, but I'll just throw another blanket on top of my comforter and use the space heater if it gets too cold. 

I received a Visa gift card for Christmas from a friend, and I went to use it the other day.
I went through the regular checkout as I had other purchases and was going to use the card in full to pay for part of my purchase.
Now either the cashier doesn't understand how Visa gift cards work, or she wasn't trained very well on the  POS systems that the grocery store uses.
I think she wasn't trained correctly.

I worked in retail and grocery for many years as well as many other types of work, so I know those systems really well myself.
The cashier tried like 5 times to get it to take and she couldn't get it to go.
I explained it to her, enter the amount, $25, hit credit, hit enter, done, she said no, it doesn't work that way.
She finally gave up and had to call a manager over who did it exactly as I told her to, and it was done in like 3 seconds.
I looked at the cashier, her face turned red, and the manager explained it to her exactly as i had said.
The cashier apologized, but the line behind me was now long and the people were visibly upset, but hey, not my fault, the store should have trained her how to use the gift cards instead of having to call for help when she couldn't figure it out.

As I had said, if this all turned out to be my banks fault, I would apologize to ABC Distributing in email and here on my blog, so I am.

Melissa from ABC Distributing has been working on this like she said to me in email, by phone, and even leaving a comment on my blog, and she finally got to the bottom of the excessive shipping/hold money in the amount of $146.04.

ABC's billing specialist spoke with someone from my credit card company, Demetria, and she said that they released the hold on 1/5/09.
Well no, they actually hadn't, I would have noticed it, I would have seen it, I scoured my online CC statements repeatedly because that is a lot of money to be held for so long.

After Melissa emailed me that information this morning, I logged into my CC records online, and what do ya know?
My account balance is magically $146.04 more than what I had in there last night, and really early this morning around 5:45am when I got up with the teens to go to school.
I've been obsessively checking my account balance since this whole thing started as I said in this post.
I have been super duper careful with my money since this all started, I've been checking the balance daily, on some days, I checked it nearly every hour, I went over it with a fine tooth comb, the find feature in my browser, I used a regular calculator and the calculator that comes with the accessories on my pc.
I had my son look it over, they did not release the hold on 1/5/09, they released it this morning sometime before Melissa emailed me around 9:45am.

I prefer to shop online because I don't handle large crowds too well, I absolutely hate going to places like the Westgate mall because of the large crowds of rude and pushy people, and I probably could have found these same comforters at the mall or another brick and mortar store, but I don't like having to go shopping at stores, I don't have the transportation to go shopping all of the time either, so shopping online is how I have to do things.
But when shopping online you do take a risk, and I'm usually very careful which retailers I shop with, I've only shopped at the most well known and trusted online retailers for years and years now, and this experience, while not ABC Distributings fault, it really turned me off.
I was very, very upset, I felt like I had been ripped off big time, and as I posted and other bloggers posted to their blogs trying to help me and spread the word, people who read those blogs started to leave comments about ABC Distributing , making me feel like an even bigger idiot for not doing my online shopping homework. (Thanks Charlotte)

But Melissa really did do what she said she was going to do, and that was to get to the bottom of this.
She emailed me, she called me for my credit cards phone number so they could call them, and they told her they had released the hold on the 5th, which they did not.
So my anger was entirely misplaced.
I should have been angry at my bank, and I am, they have already been called and I've yelled at them this morning after getting Melissa's email about it, and seeing the hold money appear in my account this morning, so I do owe ABC Distributing an apology for making such a huge stink over this.
What happened was not their fault, even though at the time due to the way the statements looked, it appeared that way.

So I am truly sorry to ABC Distrbuting for making such a huge fuss, and I apologized to Melissa in an email reply to her this morning explaining that it's such a large amount of money to lose or to be held for so long, especially in this economy, and she completely understood.

I also want to thank everyone for all of their help and support during this whole thing.
I was totally losing my mind at the thought of being ripped off, I had no idea what to do or how to do it, and so many wonderful people came here and let comments, Twittered it, blogged it, and helped me get some attention to this, which I believe, is why they investigated this so thoroughly and found the answer.
So to all of you who helped me, thank you, and to ABC Distributing, I am sorry for making such a huge fuss over something that was not your fault, and thank you for lighting the fire that made my bank really release the hold on the funds.

Melissa from ABC Distributing left a comment on my first entry about this, and said the following;

  Dear Kat,
It appears that you are reading our statements incorrectly. Rest assured that we did not in fact charge you $141.88 total for S/H. The total amount we charged you for S/H was less than $18. The amount of $141.88 was the total amount for the product and S/H together. If your billing statement shows differently, please email me at helpline@ltdcommodities.com and I will further investigate this issue. Thank you, Melissa Martinez abc distributing

I'm not reading my CC statement incorrectly at all.
There are 3 charges in the debit column from ABC Distributing,

01/08/2009 01/08/2009 Purchase - LTD COMMODITIES/ABC DI 2800 LAKESIDE BANNOCKBURN US USA 5444009008603385576597 ($95.80)
01/06/2009 01/06/2009 Purchase - LTD COMMODITIES/ABC DI 2800 LAKESIDE BANNOCKBURN US USA 5444009006601061862937 ($46.08)
12/28/2008 01/05/2009 Purchase - LTD COMMODITIES/ABC DI BA 630935368885 ($146.04)

They are saying that the first amount, $146.04, is a hold amount, and that the other 2 amounts, $46.08 and $95.80, are the actual charges that I was charged.
That once they actually shipped the items, that this is what I was actually charged per item;

Invoice number 15219656-4 item JQI, JACQUARD COMFORTER SET, product cost $34.95 shipping $7.72 handling $0.40 tax $3.01 total $46.08
 
Invoice number 15220549-8 item K2G, KING COMFORTER SET, product cost $46.95 shipping $4.64 handling $0.40 tax $3.64 total $55.63
 
Invoice number 15228159-8 item VUO, DOWN FREE COMFORTER, product cost $32.95 shipping $4.19 handling $0.40 tax $2.63 total $40.17

Now I admit, that would make total sense, I know how holds work, but I have gone over my online CC statement with a fine tooth comb using the "find" feature in my browser to search for "ABC".
I went through the all transaction tab, all pending, all debits, all loads, and all fees, multiple times now.
In both the all transactions and the all debits sections, there are the 3 debits listed from ABC;

01/08/2009 01/08/2009 Purchase - LTD COMMODITIES/ABC DI 2800 LAKESIDE BANNOCKBURN US USA 5444009008603385576597 ($95.80)
01/06/2009 01/06/2009 Purchase - LTD COMMODITIES/ABC DI 2800 LAKESIDE BANNOCKBURN US USA 5444009006601061862937 ($46.08)
12/28/2008 01/05/2009 Purchase - LTD COMMODITIES/ABC DI BA 630935368885 ($146.04)

Those are all debits, anything listed in parenthesis is a debit, and in both all transactions and the all debits, they are in parenthesis.
I've also been keeping a very close eye on my spending, my balances every single day.
I've specifically made sure to not use this card for any other shopping.
I did withdraw my rent money for this month from an ATM, and made sure that I kept track of the ATM fees as well as my card fees for using the cash withdrawal option to get money instead of charging the rent.
If I withdraw cash, I get assessed a .95cents fee per transaction, and because the ATMs in my area only allow me to withdraw a max of $200 in $20 increments per transaction, I had to make 4 withdrawals to get my rent money out.
3 for $200 each, and 1 for $80 because my rent is $675 per month, so, my totals for withdrawing and fees is $689.80.
I spent nothing after doing that, and no money was placed back, but money kept going out.
The original charge of $146.04, then $46.08, and then $95.80.

I'm not crazy, I know how holds work, there is no hold amount on my statement anywhere, just the 3 debit amounts.
So, I emailed Melissa exactly what my CC statement says which is the above debit amounts, and hopefully she's investigating.
It is possible that my CC statement has not yet posted the hold amount, anything is possible, and if that is the case, I will apologize, but these items were purchased on the 28th, and have now all been shipped, and there is no change in my account balance at all, I am still seeing a total amount for this purchase at $287.92, which is exactly how much I posted in this entry.

The kids had a half day at school today, and I had Mark look at the debits column, told him to find anything that says ABC, and even he sees 3 debits from ABC in those amounts, I'm not crazy, I know what I'm looking at.
I have to keep a close eye on my finances because I have to.
I'm a single parent, disabled, I only get so much money every month, I have to keep excellent banking records or everything get screwed up.
I hope that they can get to the bottom of it, if it's my banks fault and they didn't post the hold removal, I will apologize to ABC in both email and here on my blog, I'm not a vindictive person, I wouldn't just let them go on having a bad rap because of me, so I will post a full retraction and apology if this is my banks fault, so I really do hope that they get to the bottom of this and tell me what happened.

I sent an email to ABC Distributing customer service over the outrageous shipping charges they charged me for the 3 comforters, and they sent the following reply back;

"Dear Customer,
Thank you for writing abc distributing.
A copy of the shipping statement has been mailed to the mailing address provided.
Please review the information and contact us if you have any further questions or comments. We value your business.
If you have any questions in the future, please let us know.
Sincerely,
John Marquette
abc eCommerce Customer Support
abc distributing"


So they are snail mailing me an itemized statement that outlines how they came to decide the crazy high shipping charges that they have charged me for the shipping of the 3 comforters.
Two are full/queen sized, and 1 is king sized, but the 1 they shipped separately is mine, it's a queen, and they charged me $46.08 to ship a comforter and box that weighs 9.40 lbs.
I copied down the tracking number they gave me for UPS and went to the site and pasted it in.
The box weighs less than 10lbs, but somehow they determined that it should cost $46.08.
I can't wait to see that itemized statement on how they figured out that was the right amount to charge for that.


















I've sent boxes weighing 25-35lbs from Florida to Maine and it cost me less than $30, so how they got that amount for a box weighing less than 10lbs is sure going to be interesting.

Christine is mad about this as well, and to prove that I'm being ripped, she went to 2 different shopping sites and put 3 full/queen comforters in her shopping cart and went to checkout to see the shipping charges.
Go read the far better prices those sites gave her.

The even shittier thing about this if I return the comforters, all they will refund me is the purchase price, not the shipping charges.
That's how they make so much money.
Sure, you get a really good deal on what you buy, but they make their profit from the shipping charges.
So when the comforters get here, the 1st package is supposed to be here today according to ABC's shipment tracking they sent me, even though UPS has only received the billing information, but if when it gets here it's a total piece of shit and I want to return it, or all of them, I have to pay to ship them back and I will only be refunded the purchases price, not any of the shipping costs or the return shipping costs.
I'm confused about whether or not they will do reverse shipping charges if I send them back, it's confusing I admit.

To the people who recommended ABC Distributing to me in the first place, I could fucking shoot you right now.
Did you not pay attention to how much they charged you for the shipping of your bedding when you bought it?!

The first posts in this whole thing are here and here.

In the post below, I talked about the crazy high shipping charge that ABC Distributing charged me to ship just one of the comforters I bought for us, and now they are finally shipping the other 2 as one shipment, but the price is the exact same as if they were shipping them separately!





Ok, so the comforters cost me $146.04, the 1st shipping charge was $46.08, the 2nd shipping charge is $95.80, so my total for the 3 comforters is $287.92.
That is crazy!
The shipping charges are almost exactly the same price as what I bought!
$287.92 divided by 2 = $143.96
It's only off by $2.08.
The 2 comforters in one shipment are being shipped at the cost of $47.90 each!

I would return them and get my money back when they get here, but their return policy is that you can return them, but ONLY for the price of the product, NOT the shipping charge.

"What is your return policy? "
"If you are not completely satisfied with all or part of your order, simply return it to us for a replacement, credit or refund on your invoice for the purchase price."
 
Never again.
Never.
I learned my lesson big time and the hard way.
Never buy anything from ABC Distributing ever!

I have to go to the post office today, I need to cash a money order and also pick up some certified letter from the school board, but do you know what today is?
Today is THE busiest mailing day of the year at the post office.
More people ship more packages today than any other day of the year, but I have to go, I don't have a choice.
I've already put off getting this money order cashed for about a week and a half, and the certified letter from the school board, I've had that since Wednesday, and it may have to do with the whole school lunch issue.
Crap.
This is so going to suck, so I'm hoping they and some customers will take pity on me in my neck brace and allow me to cut the line.
Normally I would never hope for or ask such a thing, but I cannot stand in a line for an hour or more, I just can't.

I posted the other day about my SSDI, the taxes they take out of it, the Medicare premiums, the part D premiums, and all that stuff, that's why my caseworker told me about the SafeLink Wireless program.

Well my caseworker found a problem with my case, got her supervisor involved, and so the supervisor called me late this afternoon about how much I actually get for SSDI and how much I pay out of it for those things.
She said I shouldn't be paying for anything but my part D drug coverage, that somebody made a huge mistake.
So she needed me to fax her my latest 'award letter' stating how much I get and how much I pay, as soon as possible.
I explained that I had no access to a fax machine, but asked her if she could take a jpeg by email, and if she could, what's her email address, I could scan it and send it to her within like 10 minutes.
She gave me her state of Florida email addy, I scanned it and emailed it to her, and she emailed that she received it, and also that yup, it's just as they expected, I've been paying taxes and the Medicare premiums every month when I never should have been, so they are going to fix it ASAP, and then SSDI will have to reimburse me over 2 years of wrong payments.
I'll get a check for all those over payments I paid out.

When?
I have no idea, but it will be so freaking nice to get all of that money back when it does happen.

I'm really starting to get annoyed with Walgreen's pharmacy crappy customer service.
I have been a customer for 11 years, I have been taking narcotic pain relievers for 10 of those 11 years, and getting them filled at multiple branches of their stores.
Sometimes I've gone to my closest and most frequented branch, and they won't have my med, so they call another one, and then I have to go pick up my med at that other branch, but I have always had my scripts filled with them unless there is an issue with the computers, the insurance, or they don't have my med in stock.
I'm a faithful customer thanks to my scoliosis and surgeries.

But here's what happened today.
My sister came down to take me to one branch of Walgreen's that always has a particular pain med in stock, my niece Skye was going to stay here with the teens while we went, but it should have only taken us 30 minutes tops, and I would have been able to come back and at least spend 20-30 minutes with Skye, see her smile, laugh, and fall in love with the stop motion classic Christmas movies I have.
The only movie the girls have seen is Frosty the Snowman, but I have all of the old classics, Rudolph, Santa Claus is coming to Town, and The Little Drummer Boy.
I bought them on VHS about 15 years ago, when my boys were just babies, and we have watched them every year at xmas.
It's far better to watch them on VHS when you have small kids instead of broadcast television, there are no stupid commercials in between.

Anyway, we were only supposed to be gone a half hour, tops, but after dropping my script off, being told it would be about 20 minutes, wandering around Walgreen's and buying stuff, the pharmacy tech tells me they can't fill my script for the oxys on a Saturday because they have to confirm the script with my surgeon, not his on call doctor.
I asked if this is a new policy, because I have been filling this script at their store almost every single month, on either a Saturday or a Sunday because my surgeon mails it out on Thursday, and I usually always get it on Saturday and fill it.
He said no, not a new policy, so I asked him to check last month's fill date and look up what day it was because I know it was a Saturday.
He checks, confirms that yup, it was filled on a Saturday but shouldn't have been, and now he has to report that tech for filling it on a weekend without speaking to the prescribing doctor.

So now I'm pissed, I don't have my pain meds and I need to have them because my lower dose pain meds will not be filled until Monday, and there is simply no way that I can go the weekend without the pain meds.
I cannot move without them, I can't eat or I get sick, I get wicked leg and back spasms, basically, my body goes into withdrawals, and let me tell you, it is not a pretty sight or a fun experience to go through pain med withdrawals.
You get very, very ill, very quickly, like as soon as they wear off, your body starts withdrawals and it is quite painful, and getting med sick is probably the most agonizing thing to experience.
I hate the withdrawals, and whenever we finally do decide to take me off all of the pain meds, if my doctors ever do decide to take me off of them, I will have to be given some type of help with weaning off of them, possibly even rehab because of how severe the withdrawals are.

My sister knows this, and so she asks me if there is any other pharmacy I can go to that won't have the same Saturday policy, so we head down to the Publix out on Bee Ridge and Cattlemen, and they had absolutely no problem filling them because I've been a customer there before, and the neck brace and downward facing head kinda give it away that I have a legitimate need to have the medicine.
They filled it, but it's now been another 40 minutes, we've now been gone for a little over an hour, much longer than we wanted to be gone, and my sister needs to take me home, pick up Skye, and go home herself.
She has things to do in her own life that don't involve her having to drive me to multiple pharmacies in the city because Walgreen's decided to be dickheads today.
She came down here from way up in north Bradenton, to specifically take me to get my meds.
It takes her about 30 minutes to get from her house to mine, and she was doing this as a favor to me because she knows I need the meds and don't have transportation all of the time.

When we got back here, Sebastian had already watched Santa Claus is coming to Town with Skye, she loved it just as I knew she would, I didn't get to take any pictures of her, hug her, play with her, nothing.
I very rarely get to see my nieces because of how far away from us they live, so time is very precious when they do come over, and thanks to Walgreen's being dickheads today, I missed out on another good visit with my niece.
 
I know that Walgreen's has filled this particular script on the weekends plenty of times before, not just last month, but for the last 3 months, since my surgery, and actually, well before that too because my pain doc also gives me this same exact med every month.
It pisses me off that they wasted my time.
They confirmed they had it in stock, said they would fill it, made me wait 20 minutes, then tell me they won't fill it even though they have been filling it every single month on a weekend before.
If they do indeed have a policy to not fill a certain class narcotic on the weekends, he should have never told me that they would fill the script.
He said absolutely nothing to me about having to speak to the prescribing doctor.
I'm going to just switch all of my meds over to Publix pharmacies because of this crap, and let them have all of my business from now on which is a whole lot.
I take 3 different narcotic pain meds every month, 1 blood pressure med, 1 heart med, 2 different muscle relaxers, and an antibiotic every month.
I spend a great deal of money on medications, some covered by insurance and some not.
One of my pain meds is not covered, and it costs me $238.00 every month to fill it, and the covered ones still have co-pays, so I spend about $350 per month on just the co-pay medications, the non-covered one is $238.00, and not to mention all of the general shopping I do while I wait for them to be filled which can vary from just a few dollars up to about $100 if they have things I can't get elsewhere, or don't feel like getting elsewhere.
If it isn't dumb shit like this so-called policy, it's downed computers, not being able to contact the insurance companies, refusing to fill because the insurance on file was mistyped by one of their own staff, all kinds of problems, so I'll just switch to a Publix pharmacy that I know doesn't have any of these issues, give them my business and my money, and Walgreen's can go fuck themselves.

The FedEx guy just knocked on the door a few minutes ago to drop off a product for me to review.
I hollered through the door, "Please just set it there, I'm sick, you might catch it", and you should have seen the guy drop it and haul ass back to his truck.
It was quite funny.
But honestly, I am not feeling well.
I have the coughing, sneezing, sniffling, and some stomach issues.
Not really stomach sick, no puke or poops, but more of this weird feeling.
I feel hollow in my chest and stomach areas, I can't really explain it beyond that, but it's a hollow feeling, empty, and eating doesn't make it go away.

I have some minor stuff to clean up around here, some pots and pans from food we did eat and then just couldn't deal with after we ate, and I need to do the floors too.
All I really want to do though is sleep or at least lay down and be totally lazy.

====================

I called back again about the forms I have that need to be filled out and mailed back, and learned the person I was leaving messages for hasn't even been in the office because she's been on jury duty.
I'm glad I decided to just press "0" and speak to someone else this time.
These are time sensitive documents/forms, they needed to have them in by Friday, but there's no way I can get all my docs to do them by Friday.
I explained that to the person I spoke to, so she put a message in that I need extra time.
Hopefully there will be no repercussions over them being late.

You would think that I had to call all the way to a NC health insurance office to get help with some of my paperwork for my health insurance and my disability stuff, instead of just right here in the very town I live in.
I need help with some of the questions on my disability and health insurance forms that I need to fill out and send back to their office right here in Sarasota, and I've now left 7 messages between last week and today, begging for someone to call me back, and no one has.
There's also a couple of forms they need my doctors to fill out and include with all of these papers, and I didn't get it (the packet) in time to take with to my last appointment with my surgeon, and I won't be seeing him again until December 10th, so I need to know if I'm going to be penalized if they aren't included. I'm going to attempt to call them again, I'll leave another message if I have to, and if I can't get someone to return my call by tomorrow night, I'm afraid I'm actually going to have to go down to the office, take a number, sit and wait for someone, anyone, to answer just a few of the questions I have, on Friday.
I know they are really busy, but come on, after leaving 7 messages over the course of a week and a half, someone, anyone, should have caled me back by now. Ugh!

It's been an incredibly long day for me already.
I barely slept last night, not going to bed until almost 7am this morning, and was back awake by 10am.
I just couldn't sleep at all, far too many things on my mind.

My own health issues for one, I was just thinking about it all far too much, driving myself nuts.
And then my sister called me and told me that our Dad was in the hospital, he had what is called a transient ischemic attack , which is a transient stroke that lasts only a few minutes. It occurs when the blood supply to part of the brain is briefly interrupted.
He had 3 (three) of those this week!
I've been worried about my Dad all night and all day now too.

My Mom emailed me and gave me the hospital phone number and his room number, so I called him and he sounds ok, just very tired.
He told me not to worry, he's fine and he'll be going home tonight, just waiting for them to cross the t's and dot the i's.
He's hoping to be released by tonight, and he's being very stubborn.
He refused to take the blood thinner Heparin , he wants to see his primary care physician and his cardiac physician, he doesn't trust Southern Maine Medical Center at all, and Heparin is the drug that has been in the news (link above) a lot lately for possible recalls, and it's the drug that was given to Dennis Quaid's twin babies in an extremely high dose which almost ended their lives.

I was upset about this because my parents did not call any of us kids, my sister had to beg our Mom to tell her where Dad was, and Mom said that's what Dad wanted, he didn't want any of us to know and worry until they knew for sure what had happened to him.
But he's our Daddy ya know?
We love him and worry about him, and not being told how our parents really are, is just as upsetting as hearing how they really are.
We kids need to know this stuff.
I know I live too far away and can't fly back home right now, but I still want to know this stuff, they are my parents.

And I also spent most of the morning dealing with Verizon again.
My phone line last night was all static, my DSL kept going in and out, and when I called tech and repair, they kept telling me the problem was inside my house, my equipment.
Well a repair tech came out here this morning and guess what?
The problem was not on my end, it was in the line up the street, a major telephone line had gotten fried, he repaired it, but I am so sick and tired of Verizon's crappy customer service, they always blame it on my end before they even investigate the problems.
I'm just sick of it.
I pay my bills in full and on time every month, except last month because I was in surgery, but I always pay in full and sometimes Verizon forces me to pay more than my actual bill.
So why the hell do they treat me like crap all the time?!
It's just crappy customer service no matter what the issue is.

I'm tired and worried, and not feeling so well.
I either caught the stomach thing the boys have or I'm just exhausted.
I'm going to go lay down on the couch and watch Iron Man, get some rest, and I'll be back around later on. 

The brace company, Hanger Prosthetic and Orthotics, called me a little bit ago.
The girl on the phone said they received the order from my surgeon and have been trying to figure out what type of brace will fit and work best for me.
I have a short neck, so they may actually have to make a custom one for me.
The regular adult size is too big for me, and the child/young adult size is too small, so it may come down to making a custom fit neck brace for me.

It's important that I have one that fits correctly because I have to wear it for 3 months, possibly longer, for 24 hours a day.
I am allowed to take it off for one hour per day and just lay perfectly flat in my bed for that hour, and allow my skin to breathe and my neck muscles to relax.
I've been doing that every single day because it feels so good to let air touch my skin, to not be confined and hot.
I go in and grab my Sandisk mp3 player, lay down and take off the brace, and just listen to music for that whole hour.
It's nice and relaxing, comfortable.

I even have to wear the brace while taking a shower.
The braces come with changeable padding, so when the brace gets wet in the shower, I can change out the wet pads and put in the clean and dry ones, and then lay the wet ones flat to dry.

I really wish it was "winter" here because it is so hot, and wearing a brace is like wearing a turtleneck in the middle of summer.
It's hot.
The braces have all of that padding which makes it even hotter, and I just sweat and sweat while wearing it.
It really is like wearing a big turtleneck sweater in the summer.
So I'm hopeful that the new brace is lighter somehow, not so stuffy and hot feeling, but I'm sure it won't be though.
It's job is to hold the neck in position, and the padding is to make sure the skin isn't right up against the hard plastic of the contraption.
It's kind of miserable wearing a neck brace, you don't realize how much you move your head and neck every day until you can't do it anymore.
I'm dealing with it all though, getting used to it I guess you could say.

Anyway, I'm hopeful that tomorrow they will have a brace that actually fits the way it's supposed to, or can custom make one that will fit right.
I want to heal up the right way with my head straight, not looking down, and the braces I have are too big so my neck is straining to hold me in place, and because it doesn't fit right, my head ends up falling down and that is so not the way I want to permanently heal up.

If I do get told after surgery that I can't sit on my computer and blog, surf etc, for long periods of time, I know what I'll be doing.
A wonderful book publishing company has been sending me a ton of books that look really good and interesting to read.
I'll be able to lay in bed or on the couch, and read all of them.
They sent, just this week, 7 new books, all of them really do look great.
I know they send them to me to read and review and then post about, and even though I am a very quick reader, there's no way I can read that many books in a week.
It's only Wednesday, and they sent me 7 new books.
The same employee at this publisher is the one who sends them all to me, I told her what genre I prefer to read, but I'll read pretty much anything except for romance novels, I really don't like romance stories at all.
But I love this girl who works there, she's really awesome at her job, outstanding customer service, because when I emailed her the list of authors I like, the genres I prefer, she either made a note or a mental note, because she's been sending all of the types I really like.
So thank you, I will be starting to read them all pretty soon!

Now for the funny story about my black wardrobe I said I would share.
Yesterday evening after dinner, I forgot that I needed to go to Walgreen's to pick up another script that they had to order, but it was ready now, so Sebastian and I headed out to go get it and a few other things I needed to pick up like some more shampoo for the boys, and a couple new box fans because we had two of them burn out in the same week.
So anyway, we stop at the corner store for some drinks to have on our walk because it's incredibly hot out.
The owner Sam is there and he has a few friends of his hanging out behind the counter with him.
As I'm paying for our drinks, one of the guys starts talking to me.
He asks me why I always wear black, do I have any clothes that aren't black, and if I do, how come I never wear them.
He says he's always seeing me walking all over the place several times a week, and was curious.
I tell him it's just the color I prefer, I do own other colored clothing, but I rarely wear them.
I just don't like other colors, call it a phobia or whatever, but don't call me goth or emo, it's just the color I prefer.
Then he asks me if I'm hot all the time because of the black clothes, they attract heat ya know, he says.
I tell him that while it's generally true that black does make most people hotter because black absorbs more light energy than say white, and light energy does equal heat, not all people are effected by that general rule of science.
Before my blood pressure started being so high all of the time, I could sit outside all summer long dressed in a black shirt and not sweat a drop, but now?
Oh man, like right now, I am sitting in my house, the AC is on on 68, I have a fan aimed right at my face, and I'm sitting here in nothing but a t-shirt and light fabric shorts, and sweating to death.
I didn't tell him all of that, but then I did tell him that black isn't even really a color, it's the absence of color.
The guys just looks at me and says what?
"I said, black is not a color, it's the absence of color. Black is the total absence of light, therefore, it is the absence of color. The colors of light are red, green, and blue (known as RGB), black has no light at all, so it is the absence of color.
He sat there totally dumbfounded.
I asked if he has access to the net, he said yes, so I told him to go look it up when he got home, just go to google and type in "black is the absence of color", and he'll be able to read it for himself.
The additive color theory says that when all of the colors of light are added up, the end color is white.
The subtractive color theory says that on a molecular level, when using actual pigments to color a tangible object with, like crayons or paint, when you add all of the colors of light, red, green, and blue, when combined the end color is black.
But in the natural world, black is not a color, and not all people are effected by black attracting light energy, and in some rare cases, some people actually get colder when wearing black because their skin reacts to light energy differently than the majority of people.

Sam the owner starts laughing and says I told you she was too smart for you!
I said we had to get going, things to do, we were walking there and I needed to pick up some things and head back home before it gets dark, the light will be leaving and we'll be left with the absence of it, and I winked at the guy who had asked, and then we left.
As the door was closing, I hear the guy say to Sam, "I think her intelligence just increased her hotness factor by another 50 points. She'll never go out with me man!"

As Sebastian and I are waiting at the corner for the walk light to let us cross, he says to me,
"Guys are always checking you out, they like your hair, your eyes, your pretty face and your butt. But that is the very first time I've ever heard a guy say that they think you're hotter now that they know you're smart.Would you date him?"
I said I don't know, I don't even know him. He might be a really nice guy, but I don't even know his name. He may have seen me walking all over the place, but today is the very first time I've ever seen him, so how would I possibly know if I'd go out with him?

Sebastian thought about this the whole time we crossed the 4 lane road, and when we got to the other side he says, "Well not only does he think you're pretty, but he now finds you even more attractive because you're smart. Most guys don't like super smart girls, so when you find one that does and he wants to date you, you should grab onto him because the chances of finding another guy who likes you for being smart are pretty slim mom. If he does work up the courage to ask you out, you should definitely say yes, plus he seems like a nice guy."

I dropped it right there, I didn't feel like explaining for the millionth time that I'm just not interested in dating anyone.
I like being by myself because the majority of people annoy me.

I woke up feeling like I got hit by a truck.
I slept weird too.
Like all twisted up and stuff, so now my lower back and right hip are just killing me, and I can't get in to see my pain doc until Monday, before 11:45am.
Because at noon he's going back out of town.
But at 10am, I have an appointment with the new primary care doc for the pre-surgery physical, which I have no idea how long it's going to take.
So this means I'm going to have to call my surgeon to cover the refill on my pain meds again.
For the 3rd time, because my pain doc keeps going out of town.
My surgeon is going to start thinking something funny is going on.
Yeah, not quite so fucking funny when every time I need to make an appointment, he's going out of town.
And so I'm stressed out and in pain, and I can't see my pain doc because I have to go to that physical, I don't have a choice.
I have no idea how long the physical is going to take because duh, it's my new doctor.
The appointment could end up being 2 hours long, or like most doctor's, you sit and wait for a full hour or 2 before you even see the doctor.
And it's a full physical which means full naked, gyno, swabby, poke, prod, touch and pee in this cup appointment.

Seriously.
I'm way stressed out about all of this stuff right now.
In 18 days, I get my neck sliced open, have a couple vertebrae and discs removed, new rods installed, and I never turn my head left or right again.
18 days.
It may seem like that's a long time, but it's not, and it's creeping up on me faster than I know how to handle.

And I swear, if one more person says they'll pray for me, or let go and let god, trust in god, god will take care of you, I'm going to fucking explode!
This bill collector called me at 8am this morning, wanted to talk about an old hospital bill I owe, and when I said sorry, I can't pay that right now, they asked why, I explained why, I let it all out on the girl, and she says to me, and I quote, "I can stave off the collection phone calls for about a week, and I'll pray for you. Wow, I don't even know how you're feeling, but I imagine. I promise, I'll pray for you."

You'll pray for me?!
These calls are recorded for customer quality results, and man, I hope they recorded that one.
You are never to get personal with the customer, never ever, get personal with the customer when you are calling them to collect a debt. I know the rules, I used to work for Georgia Power and Gas, that was one of the major big time rules, never, ever, get personal with the customer, stick to the facts.
Fucking twit.
I hope they recorded that call and heard me tell her to shove her prayers up her ass.

So I took my awesome comfy sandals to the little Korean lady to fix, and just as I suspected, she refused to fix them.
"No fix, need new shoe! No fix!"
So while I was at Walgreen's getting Susan her birthday first aid kit, (she's going to love this thing!) and we needed a new one for our house too, I found their flip flop aisle and tried on a few pairs.
I found a cheap and comfy pair that will have to do until I can find another pair of those awesome Dr. Scholl's that my freaking cats chewed up.
Then Sebastian and I headed into Publix to get all of the stuff we needed, and then headed back home by cab because we bought more than we could carry.

We waited for the cab for over 40 minutes.
Sam had told me 10-15 minutes on my initial call, so after 25 minutes, I called back.
He said the driver would be there in 2 minutes.
I waited 10 and called back.
By this point Sam was furious that the driver he sent for me kept picking up flags instead of getting the calls, he was yelling into the radio, screaming at the guy in English and Arabic, and when the cab finally showed up, I was sweating bullets.
My blood pressure was up from the heat, I was minutes away from passing out.
When we got to my house, I went to pay him, and he said, "No, this trip is on me, it's my fault you waited for 40 minutes. Sam won't let me take your money, he said that it's on me."

Hahahaha!
Dumbass.
If he had just gone after the call like he was supposed to instead of picking up flags, Sam would have let him take my money.

The teens and I need to head out today and do some shopping at Publix, get some stuff for the house that we need, and I also need to drop my sandals off at the little shoe repair store that's at the same plaza.

I know the lady is going to look at me like I'm crazy, the sandals are pretty beat up aside from the straps having been taken off by the cats.
They chewed through the strings that are sewn on, and the straps fell off.
But these sandals are massively comfortable, I love them, they are perfectly broken in, and considering that next month it will be even harder to put on normal shoes like sneakers, I need really comfortable sandals.
I just want the straps sewn back on nice and tight, and the little Korean lady is going to tell me that I need "new shoe. need new shoe, not fix, new shoe."
But sorry dear, I cannot find these anymore anywhere, I've looked at the store I bought them at, I've looked at other stores, no getting new shoe, fix old shoe, take money from me.
Hahah!

I wish I had woken up earlier to get started on all of this, but oh well, I didn't.
I'm going to take a quick shower as soon as Mark is done, and then we'll get ready to go.

It's a really good thing I have a really good memory, and can recall exact dates to explain the problems.
I never got an email back from Verizon last night or this morning, so I just called them to get an answer.
I called and explained the entire issue with my address not being mapped to the agent who answered the phone, and he was sort of dumbfounded, so he transferred me over to a Fios tech specialist named Christina.
I explained once again about not being mapped, and she asked me how I knew that my address isn't available for Fios.

I told her what happens when I go to the Verizon Fios website and enter my phone number and address, and also what the tech said when he was out here in February to replace my neighbors Fios box after the FPL transformer blew up after being struck by lightening.
He told me the building was mapped as a one family dwelling unit, that my address doesn't exist on their service map, so I can't have Fios, there was nothing he could do.
Christina listened and she was sort of confused, so I told her to look up the address xxxx south Lockwood Ridge road, she did, she said yes they do have Fios.
So I said now my address, xxxx, is in the same building, it's a duplex, and my address doesn't exist on your service map right?
She said yes, and that she needed to email the Fios service area people, the ones who set up the lines and maps, and that it would take about 1 week to get a response from them about whether or not they can set this side of the duplex up with Fios.

I said whether or not they can?
You mean there's a chance they can't?
She said that yes, it's possible that they may not be able to run the Fios cables to this side of the property due to how they laid the cables because they thought it was a one family dwelling.

I'll have to keep you posted on this when Christina has promised to personally call me back and let me know if I can have it or not.

I have to wonder if the Verizon employees who mapped out my street, actually work and have jobs in San Francisco, NOT in Florida, because they mapped this address, this DUPLEX, as a one family unit home, when it is so clearly a two family unit home.
Not that I can actually afford Verizon Fios, but I was in a mood and felt like busting their chops.
See, they sent me my monthly phone bill with a sale flyer for Fios service, the fee is incredibly low, like $42.99 per month, just a few bucks more than I am currently paying for DSL at $37.95 per month.
So for fun, I went to the site, and entered my phone number and address, where once again, I was told Fios isn't available at this address because the address doesn't exist.
So I sent an email support request, they sent a general support email back, asking me to explain in detail, what my question/problem is.
So I explained.
In detail.


Hi!,
I've been wanting Fios for awhile but every time I try to order it, it says it's not available at my address because my address doesn't exist..
I know that is wrong because I live in a duplex, and my duplex neighbors have Fios internet, phone and tv service.
How is it possible that Fios is on one side of a duplex, and not on the other?
It's not.
It simply means someone at Verizon screwed up when entering the addresses in to the database, and counted this duplex as one house.
My Name is Kat Cooper my address is xxxx south Lockwood Ridge road Sarasota, Florida 34231
I currently have Verizon DSL.
My phone number is xxx-xxx-xxxx.
My neighbors address, the people in the other half of the duplex, is xxxx south Lockwood ridge road Sarasota Florida, 34231
They have Fios internet, phone and tv.
Their phone number is xxx-xxx-xxxx.
 
This building is two (2) family units, xxxx and xxxx.
It is not one address, it is two.
 
It would super spectacular if Verizon would fix this error as I have been wanting to order Fios for well over a year, but I can't because you have it listed as a one family house which it is NOT!
Yes, I am frustrated because I've been a Verizon customer at this address for 10 years.
10 years, and Verizon thinks my address doesn't exist for Fios, yet it's installed in the other half of this duplex.
After 10 years of being a customer at this address, it absolutely baffles me that Verizon thinks this address doesn't exist.
Verizon certainly has no problems sending bills to this address, which I got today for my home phone service, which is holy cow! through Verizon!
Do you see how frustrated a 10 year long customer might be learning their address doesn't exist to get a service?
Please go ahead and look up my account, my address, go ahead and look to see if Fios can be installed at this half of the duplex, and then go look and see that my neighbors, in the other half, actually have Fios, and then ask yourself why this customer writing this email, might be so stinking upset to learn that their address doesn't exist for Fios, but I can have home phone service, I can have DSL, I get bills from Verizon all the time, but nope, I can't have Fios because my address doesn't exist!!!!!
Sincerely,
Kat Cooper
A 10 year long Verizon customer at this address.