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My New Career … In

My New Career … In Garbage

With my roommate moving out, I had to take her name off the bills and the lease. The bills went fairly smoothly, with the exception of the phone service and the cable company. Taking her name off the lease is another story.

When we moved in over a year and a half ago, she moved in about two weeks before I did, due to scheduling. She had been living with her ex-boyfriend for a few months at the time, and he’d pretty much rented out her room without telling her, leaving her out on the street. So, when we found the apartment, she moved in immediately, without anything, and into an empty, powerless apartment. The power didnt actually get turned on until the week I arrived.

Because she moved in first, she signed up for all the utilities, including power, phones and cable. They all went into her name too, which was fine for me at the time. Of course, here we are a year and a half later, and getting my name on anything is becoming a HUGE problem.

The electric company was the easiest. Basically, they switched it over without asking hardly any questions, which is actually scary for some reason. The phone company is still giving me problem, and I can’t even get ahold of the cable company. With the phone company, she had to call them and give me permission to modify the account. Great. With that done, I was able to get her phone line into my name, no problem. Then came my own phone line.

THEM: “Well, sir, thats a DSL line. We are going to have to cancel your DSL, and then you’ll have to sign up for it again, so it can be in your name.”

ME: “Huh”

THEM: “Well, the company that deals with the DSL would need you to close down the account and resign up for it”

ME: “I got that part, but why can’t they just type my name over her name in the computer”

THEM: “Oh no. That’s not protocol. There are procedures for this type of thing”

ME: “Alright, so if I close down the account, how long does it take to turn it back on?”

THEM: “Well, you’d be put in the queue, and so it could take a couple weeks to a month to turn it on”

ME: “But, I already have DSL. How is that even possible? All they have to do is flip a switch or something”

THEM: “Oh no. Its much more complex than that. They’d have to create a new account and assign it to you”

ME: “Uh huh, so you are basically telling me that I’m fucked either way. I can either turn off my account and have NO internet access for about a month, or I can just leave it alone and get the bill in her name.”

THEM: “Yeah”

ME: “Fine, dont touch anything”

So, that’s where we stand. Her phone line is in my name and mine is in her name. Fucking phone company. I still dont understand why they can’t just change the god damn name in the computer. I mean, I have an email address book in my computer and if someone changes their email address, I sure as hell dont have to delete my address book and start over. Whatever.

So, then fresh from getting off the phone with that prick, I call the cable company, which is run by AT&T, another phone company out to get me. So, I go through the ten million messages on the “automated” answering service, and push all the buttons I’m supposed to and then get put on hold. Fine. So, after fifteen minutes of waiting on hold, to the same lame repeating song I might add, the stupid piece of crap hangs up on my face. Argh. So, I called back and went through all the same buttons, and again, after fifteen minutes, the stupid piece of crap hangs up on my face. So, I emailed my roommate and asked her to try. And, the stupid piece of crap hung up on her face too. At this point, we still can’t get ahold of the cable company. You’d think a big company like AT&T would be able to afford a answering system that actually worked.

Today, I got ahold of the property manager, after three weeks of playing telephone tag to discuss getting her name off the lease. Easy right? Nope. He insists I have to go meet with him and sign a new lease. Great. I know, there’s protocol.

So, in discussing it with him, I made it clear that I wouldnt sign a new year-long lease. He agreed and made it monthly. He also mentioned that we were the “favored” tenants in the building, because we kept our apartment up the nicest, so he wanted to do what he could to keep me. And then mentioned that he’d take money off my rent for dragging the recycle bins to the curb once a week. I said I was fine with it, at least I’ll save some money on rent every month.

Anyhow, I meet with him Monday to go over the lease and figured that I’d mention some other things I’d like fixed with the apartment while I’m at it. I figure that there are probably perks to being a “favorite”. We’ll see about that.

So, tonight is recycle night, so I’ll be dragging a couple of the big bins to the curb and then in, in the morning. Anything to save a buck, you know.

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