...can I say it's over now?

I feel like Jamie Lee Curtis in Halloween when she thinks the danger is over...when Michael Myers sits up in the background. My hope is that Time Warner will stay down this time.

My husband went to the Time Warner office to hash out all of the problems we had been having. He found out that we were considered a "business" by some of the operators because having both of our names on the bill used up too much space for the personal account line [I never changed my last name when I got married, so I had to add him to show that he does have the right to discuss the bills with them]. They acknowledge that they screwed everything up, but that there would be a problem in getting the check back because the technician would've taken it directly to the bank (which is why I do not regret writing "Extortion" in the memo). He ended up having to call in to a higher-level person when he got home, because our bill cycle apparently cycled today, so now the part of the bill that wasn't past due is past due...but we'll be fine as long as we pay it by the beginning of next month (giving us the chance to stabilize our finances).

In the phone call that he made when he got home, we found out that the supervisor that he spoke to Tuesday [he had called the independent contractor's customer service when we got our disconnect door-hanger] is going to be in a hell of a lot of trouble, because he blatantly lied to us when he said that our contact with him would stop all collection proceedings. The woman on the phone was also the most sympathetic to our situation (and, I think we actually did get an apology out of it; my husband insisted upon it) and was even concerned about the financial hardship the check could cause us [I had finally acquiesced on the whole getting-the-check-back issue this morning because I don't want to pay the stop-check fee and I'm sick of the stress]. He filed a formal complaint about this whole issue, which the woman said will ensure that higher level people will have to look at what transpired (so for all of the people who treated us like sh*tty deadbeats...look out!).

The result of all of this was a baby scare (the child stopped its regular movement for a few hours and I panicked, but the movement resumed eventually and I was able to relax), my husband had to be the diplomat and apologized to the technician because, as he put it, the guy was just doing his job [and while I agree with that assessment, I was serious when I said I was going to stab him if he came in my house], and we are no longer getting the highest level of high-speed internet [saving us $10/month] and we are no longer going to get that waste-of-money channel guide that we never read anyway [$4.95/month]. When the woman told my husband that we would be getting a $6.95 late charge [it's gone up over the years], he told her that after Macy's shenanigans, this charge is nothing.

*For those who have not had the joy of a Macy's card, there is an automatic $28 late fee if you are even one day late on your card payment. Fortunately, I have not been late, but I've had to run out to the store to make the payment because they will charge you a $10 processing fee if you do it over the phone, and the payment will still be two days late if you do it on the day it's due. All this over a $5 payment [it's almost completely paid off; the only one of my three store cards in that arena (like Macy's has stuff I want to buy; the last thing I got was a watch)].

Things should finally settle down now (I hope). But hear this now, if anything happens to my baby as a result of this sh*t, I am burning that new building of theirs to the ground.

P.S. As much as people know Halloween (I'm about as old as that movie), the film I had seen a ton of times is Prom Night. It's Halloween, but with a revenge angle that is actually deserved. The remake has nothing to do with the original, and I like it even if it is a bit cheesy.