A Taster


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First thing this morning I cancelled the BT Broadband package. This was not quite as straightforward as I’d hoped. I had to listen to various explanations and incentives including, yet again being told I could have faster broadband. The best explanation concerned why, for some years now, when the payment is taken out of my bank account, the telephone account has to stay in Jackie’s name. This is because credit checks are made when the contract begins. Never mind that the person’s income might later change. I politely indicated that I didn’t care what the reason was and suggested that they might wish to make a credit check on me. Once again I related the story of the superfast broadband farce. We must wait a month for the cancellation to be effective.

We needed to retain the phone line and our e-mail addresses. As expected, we will be charged for the phone line; as not expected we will be charged Β£5 per month to retain our e-mail addresses. These are only free when you have a package deal.

Later, Jackie drove us to Upper Dicker for a surprise visit to Matthew, Tess, and Poppy to celebrate our son’s birthday. Becky and Ian joined us later.

Sunset 1

It is now almost midnight, so I will leave you with a taster of the event, in the form of a sunset from the window of the flat above the village shop. I will report on the rest tomorrow.

45 comments

  1. I’m sorry for your troubles, Derrick. It sounds as though your internet providers operate in the same unethical ways as ours do in the States…they don’t care about the customer, only their bank accounts. Beautiful photo to calm the nerves!

          1. Yes, I can see the convenience of keeping your current email address. I tried to change mine a few years ago but ended up not doing so as people got so confused!

            Gmail used to be awful but has now upped its game. Hotmail I found ghastly but that may also have improved. And Yahoo! disappeared of its own accord (a little inconveniently).

  2. Snort!! Corporations!! Bah! Humbug!! I changed my internet provider a few months back and, apart from all the other little charges they came up with, they charged me $200 for the privilege of leaving them. At the same time they were luring unwary new customers in with the promise of a big sparkly new telly – heavens knows what they will have to pay when they decide to leave TrustPower! That’s a pretty sky to soothe the bah humbugs away πŸ™‚

      1. mmmmm, but I do receive a lot of scam messages from friends who have gmail and hotmail accounts. Particularly those who access their emails through their smart phones and have not installed virus protection on their phones.

  3. ugh, dealing with a communications service provider can be frustrating. I know, I use to work for one, LOL. Charging for your email address is ludicris considering you can open a google account at no charge and store unlimited photo’s there plus have as many emails as you need. I use Gmail because it’s great on my phone too. That’s the prettiest sunset ! What amazing December skies you enjoy. It’s just been grey here today. After a long period of mild weather, we’re going into a chilly Christmas :/ Battening down the hatches πŸ˜€

  4. It seems I am reading a truncated post with most of its top gone to the sleazy Internet services providers, which are nothing less than embodiments of Morlocks feeding off our hard earned money.

  5. Oh, those telecom companies are maddening. I let my husband deal with them – not only does he understand this (to me) mysterious tech language – he is also a great negotiator. However, after last week’s repeal of our Net Neutrality over here… well, I’m appalled. Before long, we will all be subjected to federally sanctioned extortionist practices. Frankly, I think it’s time to move back to Europe. I don’t want to wait until 2018 to get out from underneath the currently ruling flock of vultures. Aaarghhh!

  6. What a hassle, Derrick!
    I’m glad you got to enjoy a family birthday celebration. I’m catching up on posts, so I will read about that next. πŸ™‚
    The sunset photo is beautiful.

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