COMMENTERRY--

A tip-of-the-hat to my son Brian and wife Kathy who simply showed up one recent day and built a new set of masonry steps at my place (pictured above).   Their project replaced an aging, and sometimes challenging, set of stone steps in a often-used rock garden wall.

The walkway leading out of the photo, lower left, goes toward the lower deck and boat dock on the edge of the 1 1/2 acre pond. 

I cannot imagine being an aging parent without the support they have provided all these years.  Can you see my appreciative smile?

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This week's winner of "Life's Biggest Pain in the A**" award is the Dish satellite tv outfit.

Do not ever consider dropping their "service" unless you are prepared for a world-class run-around. 

Here is a summary of my dismal experience:

I put my service on hold for the three months we were in Florida this past winter.  When I got home and discovered my service had not been restarted as they indicated it would be, I began to review my notes on this process.

That's when I discovered they had almost exactly doubled my monthly charge in the two plus years I was with them.  My original bill was $34.13  With no changes in service prompted by me nor any notification that came to my attention, my bill had grown to $64.88 per month.

This was "bundled" in my monthly bill from Century Link--my local telephone company.

I was long aware of Dish's marketing gimmick of making a selection of 200+ channels sound like some sort of bargain when about three or four of them were worth watching--occasionally.

That's when I decided I didn't need TV anymore.

Then, the hockey-like scrum began.  It took me more than 15 telephone, email, and "chat" efforts to finally achieve their assurance of our divorce.

These contacts involved getting mired in continuous loops of automated choices of assistance, none of which involved a termination of service when that was the announced intent of my contact.

Once, I actually reached an English speaking human who promptly rewarded me with a disconnect buzz on the phone line when I mentioned the phrase, "terminate my service".

Usually my request to terminate was rewarded with a barrage of well rehearsed sales pitches.

Finally, I received a box to ship my receiver and remote controls back to them.  That was followed a day or so later by a recored phone message that I would face financial execution if that wasn't done proptly.

Their stuff was returned April 30th.

I hope the divorce is really final!