I dealt with bills yesterday and it has just been insane this month. I don’t normally have these kind of problems and never so many at once. I am trying to figure out what the lesson I need to learn from it. Whether it is I have done stuff wrong and
these are the consequences (bad karma), or this is to show me that I can face this much shit, or if it is an exercise so that I can face some real shit down the
line, or if it is distraction to keep me from doing what I “think” I should be doing.

The list so far:

Insurance:
Last month $78, this month $240 (normally this would be broken out over 4 months but I am at the last payment so it all gets lumped in together. I paid the $37 extended plan and $4 service charge. I had to call the new owners to be sure they have their insurance and then canceled mine. USAA took off the Mazda as of Feb 28 and I should get credit for that.)

Comcast:
Started charging me and extra $10 for equipment that a tech took after Ken moved out. (Turns out they did an audit and figured I had equipment so they started charging me. They are doing a search for the equipment now.)

Student Loan:
My payment jumped by $100 last month due to a graduated payment program, I just didn’t think it hit until April. I have a consolidation in the works. The consolidation went through the day before my last bill was due so I paid the $400. I got the paperwork saying my new monthly bill is $114 over 15 years. This week, I get another bill for $400 again. (Turns out the consolidation affected the old debt after they processed the new monthly statement. I owe $114 April 3rd. I got them to move it to the 14th like the old loan and sent them $300 like the old loan)

Credit cards are mostly fine except the $15 late fee which is what I would expect.

The big pain is Sprint
This is my home number. I have no cell. I converted over from SBC for local service and Sprint for long distance to Sprint for everything on Feb 10.
1) Got a bill for the $300 that was suppose to be credited as a 50% discount on that ridiculously large international call. (turns out the credit didn’t show up until after the bill, according to the person I talked to, I don’t have to pay it, assuming she really does have a clue and this isn’t another case of I am told one thing by someone and it is really different than I have been told)
2) The new $46 monthly phone bill is actually $67. A little on the high side due to partial month charges but still $10 over what I was told. I am charged for two things that I was told would be included. (Answer to that is that I can talk to the manager to have the person that gave me the wrong information educated properly. Yeah, right. I want to jump through hoops so that someone that was nice to me can get in trouble and nothing changes on my part. Next time AT&T sends me a $75 check to switch, I probably will. I hate this game)
3) No phone/dial tone. Yesterday a nice tech person at Sprint set up a tech to visit the outside box between my call and 7pm. I should have had phone service when I got home. I was able to call the nominal building manager to have the gate left open. Guess what, No phone when I got home. This is why I was yelling at Sprint this morning. The tech said there was no problem when he was at the box at 6:55pm so they want to send a tech out again. When I said what do we do when I still have no phone service after it fails again, they said they would charge me $65 for an inside wire check. I said no. I had Inside wire with SBC, I insisted on Inside Wire with Sprint, I am paying extra for Inside wire for this very reason even though I have NEVER had to use this option before. Well, I haven’t been with them 30 day yet so I have to pay the $65. Guess when I needed to apologies to my co-workers for needing to listen to me yell? I demanded I speak to a manager. Sorry, our manager doesn’t take calls, but I can take your number and have them call you back. (that has yet to work) No, I want this escalated. My supervisor can only tell you what I am telling you. I don’t care, I want this escalated, do it. Hold please, …, My supervisor told me to tell you that you refused a tech checking the outside and I am to transfer you so you can set up to pay the $65… No that is unacceptable, I want this escalated, let me talk to you supervisor. Can you see where this is going and how long it is taking to get there? I speak with a supervisor, she tells me she will see what she can do about the $65 charge if the tech check today doesn’t work. She hinted she might check into what she can do about my billing issues too. I was welcome to be passed directly onto her if I still have problems after the tech check. I would get a call when the technician was finished. I felt like I had been heard and a little better taken care of. Some allowances were going to be made. Being passed back to the initial customer service rep, I get the same cookie cutter, can’t do anything but what I am allowed, she sets up a tech check for sometime between now 10am and 7pm tonight. It is essentially what needs to be done so I go with it. I have been on the phone for over an hour already. Guess what, the supervisor is not going to be at work when I have a problem. I am going to have to go through this all again with someone new. We will see what happens when I get home if there is a dial tone. ARRRGGGGG!)

So, Sprint sucky, USAA good, Comcast somewhat sucky but ok for a cable company, Nelnet not bad.

I am proud of dealing with all of this in one morning and not going through the roof. Ooooo I forgot, I use to go through the roof when I had to deal with just one of these things. I am very Very proud of myself. Wow. That might be the lesson.