Random Musings #6

The Directv receiver/DVR that's attached to the ridiculously large (by my standards) television in our living room broke about a week ago. Did you know that if you have service through Directv, even though you pay them a subscription fee of $75 a month, you're on your own if any of the equipment breaks, unless you've opted to pay them a $7/month maintenance fee? So now, in order to have television in our living room again, I have to pay $100 for a new receiver AND agree to a new 24-month contract for services. Correct me if I'm wrong, but if I had a receiver through Cox and it broke, wouldn't they give me a new one for free? Isn't that part of the whole service contract? We give you equipment to use our service, and if it breaks, we'll replace it? Yes, I looked into just telling Directv to go screw themselves and going with Cox, but the price that they want to come out and install cable at our house is even more than it'll cost to replace the damn receiver.

I hate cable companies and electric companies--can someone explain to me again why monopoly laws don't apply to them? Note to self--tag this post with "Directv Sucks" and "Entergy Sucks." Might as well not let Allstate have all of the fun, as someone from that fine company ends up at this blog at least once a month after doing an internet search for "Allstate Sucks." Which it does. Big time.

Dude, Where's My Car?

Geico called me today and wanted to know if I had any idea of where my car is. I thought that was pretty funny, as if they thought I might have driven over to Bay St. Louis, picked up the car and driven it home. I reported it totaled due to storm surge a week after the hurricane and gave them the exact location. And now they’re calling me more than two months later wanting to know where it is? I’m sure it’s long since been towed off by someone and could quite possibly be coming to a used car dealership near you. I guess I should be thankful for small blessings, like the fact that my car isn't insured through Allstate....

Allstate Really Sucks

I snapped tonight on the phone with Allstate. I was talking to a representative, explaining our situation for approximately the 300th time. Our house flooded during Hurricane Katrina, we are unable to live in it. We reported the claim on August 30th. We’ve been assigned to three different adjusters, each of whom eventually tells us that he’s not responsible for our case. Our home has yet to be inspected. The 90-day moratorium will end in another 30 days. And on, and on, and on.

And she, of course, told me that she couldn’t help me and would have to take down my information and have someone call me back. Then she asked me for my home phone number. And I completely lost it, I'm afraid. I may have ended up screaming, “We no longer have a home--that's what I've been trying to tell you for the past hour.” She was nonplussed, but it made me feel better. Maybe now they’ll assign us a fourth adjuster.

Allstate Sucks

I am exhausted. And I hate insurance adjustors. Our days are spent calling Allstate, trying to get an answer on when, exactly, our house will be inspected. The stress of not knowing whether our house will officially be declared totaled is getting to me. I keep worrying about what we’re going to do when the 90-day moratorium on mortgage payments ends and we have to start making payments again on a house that we can’t live in. So far, we've been referred to three different adjusters.