Credit Agencies Running Amok ...

Has anyone but me noticed the ridiculosity of tactics by Credit Card agencies, here lately? I CAN tell you that most credit agencies, out of the goodness of their hearts, I'm sure, gave a three to four-month 'reprieve' to most Mississippi Coastal residents on paying bills, post Hurricane Katrina (pHK). Nice gesture? Sure. Results? Horrifying.

My wife and I decided not to take advantage of the pHK reprieve, but rather pay bills best as we could. While we we may have been late on a few, we paid them nonetheless. Now, mind you, we were without electricity for 14 days, our post office was torn to hell and back and the postal delivery service was no better, and we had to resort to intermittent dial-up connections as our broadband service with BellSouth left a lot to be desired. Regardless, our bills got paid, one way or another.

A couple of months afterwards, we started getting calls from Nissan Motor Acceptance Corporation (NMAC) and Sears Home Improvement (Citibank, Inc.). While we were able to resolve our NMAC bill fairly easily thanks to a great rep from their company, he could not, however, stave off their LATE PAYMENT tag to the credit bureaus. Now, CITIBANK, INC. is a horse of a different color, breed, temperament, etc. Talk about the king and queen of assholes when it comes to dealing with people, they take the cake, eat it, belch it, fart it, and defecate it - all in your face - almost all at once.

Now, one must attempt to reach any credit card 'collection agency' by phone. You won't find anything about a web site for them. You either call them and listen to them harangue you, with you trying to get a word in edge-wise in attempts to rectify your bill.

The wonderful folks from CITIBANK, Inc. have been kind enough to call my house 5 - 6 times a day. The couple of times we have bothered to talk to them out of their last 300 hundred calls to my house, they've been nothing but rude, taunting, daunting, and not really helpful at all in resolving the 'ghost' complaint they have regarding our bill.

I have written CITIBANK, Inc. and informed them that I will be filing a criminal complaint against them for harassment if they continue to call my house without some kind of written proof as to why they want to waste such precious time and energy of incompetent operators who have not a clue as to what they are doing other than bothering folks, beyond ridiculous.

So, for those of you living on Coastal MS, God bless you in dealing with any of the agencies above or the numerous others I haven't mentioned. Oh, by the way, did I mention that our wonderful electricity provider, Mississippi Power Company, is charging customers who use to pay nearly $200.00 per month for their power bill, upwards of $500.00 (and in some cases, beyond), just because their houses aren't insulated due to storm damage. What a fine business they are. I've personally listened to horror stories while attempting to pay a bill - aimed at their hidden cave - and recoiled in horror at the amounts due by some. Earnest, honest folks trying to make do to people who are no less rude than some of the folks at CITIBANK, Inc.

Yeah, long live Capitalism.

Welcome Traveler!

Traveler is Connie's and my newest addition. Maybe it isn't fair to Ami (former) or Trav' (for short) that he's the near spittin' image of former dogs we've had. He's a jewel, needless to say. He's an add-on to a wife and husband, lonely, and somewhat disparate after the long haul of repairing a house, post-Katrina.

Traveler, as black as he is and as much better as he responds to Pretty Boy - aka Petit Boy (for the island south of us), he's still named after General Robert E. Lee's grey horse that trotted in to surrender the South to the damned Yankees. ; )

So, welcome, big boy. You are more than welcome into your new home, now. (Even if you have just 'accidentally' dropped a job along the usual pathway in the house ... Oh, the joy.)

Okay, now I can get used to this ...

As president of MECA (Mississippi Educational Computing Association) 2008, I have been on the search, low, high, nigh, and wide for a speaker that can compel us Mississippi tech teachers and other assortment of tech support folks into a mode that will keep us going forever and ever in the great tech advance mode of which we already excel .. really. I think I found it today, with the help of Babs.

David Warlick has been kind enough to consider us among his first stops in the new year to come (2008), having already been here as a promoter of ThinkQuest, way back when. So, let's get on a roll. With Jerry Ball and Hot Sauce making waves with the music, MECA 2008 is ready to rock! And, we having even gotten started good, yet!

I'm ready to move on to the circuit myself, having been honored with a number of accolades, I'm sure most are undeserving, but will take advantage of them as time goes on. See ya' round later.