I gave everyone a false alarm last week. Last week I got into a battle with the corporate behemoth, Comcast. I have been with them for years but for years I have not liked what they charge me for TV. The charge for internet and VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) phone is reasonable, but not the TV.
One day recently they sent me a notice claiming I was behind in my payment to them and that service was going to be discontinued. I was certain I was not late and I have not liked the way this corporation has done business almost from day one. So I called them up and found out that I indeed was behind. So I setup a payment with them and tried to forget about it.
But the more I thought about it, the hotter I got. There are other ISPs out there and this cable company charges way too much for TV. So I called them up and basically told them to stop charging me and to disconnect the service. I'm through with it. I made that crystal clear with them. The only snag was that the person on the other end of the phone, representing the massive corporation Comcast, could not understand what I was saying. Understandable because I could not understand that person either. The accent was so heavy and the phone equipment so poor that I could not even tell you if it was a male or female.
What does this have to do with Second Life? Well, I cannot logon to SL without internet. Knowing my disconnection date was looming the next day, I got online and told everyone how much I was going to miss them but I would be gone for a while. Maybe a couple of weeks before I found another service provider? I could not be sure. One thing I was sure about though was my past reliability. With only two exceptions, I have showed up for every scheduled event in SL to DJ for the clubs. I only play at two clubs but there are two couples that operate each of them so I composed a notecard (SL text file) that I could pass to each of them so that I would not have to keep repeating myself.
All the club owners/operators involved were very polite and understanding. I was surprised because scheduling events can be a real pain when you are short DJs. I know this from past, first hand experience. But there really was not much more I could do. I was finally fed up with Comcast so I told them "goodbye" and there was really no turning back. I was really going to miss everyone and all that was going on in my SL and even miss the DJing. But it would only be for a couple of weeks so it was not the end of the world, or was it?
I have the land tier paid up two weeks in advance on every Thursday. So on Sunday, when I realized I would not be around for at least a couple of weeks, there was over a week-and-a-half of tier/lease left on the land. Knowing full well that cat and Neva's payments would not cover the whole tier, and it would not be fair of me to expect them to cover for my payment, I figured the half-sim's tier would run out before I got back online. So it then became a matter of picking up all the stuff I had rezzed on the land that I did not want returned automatically to my inventory. There was a lot of stuff! But the copy-enabled items were okay to leave out. When an item or group of items are returned to your inventory by a land owner or manager, they usually end up in your Lost and Found folder. They will not be in order and many times you will not recognize what it is called by its name. So allowing items to be returned to that folder is undesirable. So I went around most of Sunday, up and down and all around the parcel, picking up the stuff that might be returned to that folder, and placing them where they belong in sub-folders in my inventory. Between all that and saying goodbyes to friends online, I stayed very busy that entire Sunday.
By far, the most difficult part was telling cat and Neva. They both knew I was returning but not when because I had no idea at that time. So the next day, I turned on my computer and was not surprised to find that I still had internet. So I spent as much time online with cat as I could, both of us knowing full well that we could be disconnected at any minute. Well, the minutes turned into hours and the hours into the entire day. After dinner that night, I got on the phone. After 15 minutes of navigating Comcast's frustrating menu, I was talking to a human. Yes, heavy accent but at least I could understand this guy and even hear that he was male. After explaining to him that I needed my service disconnected because I was through with paying their over-priced TV fees, he put me on hold for about 5 minutes and returned to tell me that the fees for the month have been waived to give me more time to think about ending their service. Really? He then told me that was their policy under these conditions.
Yes, I'll take free any day over expensive. The last representative I spoke with apparently tried to tell me that too but I could not understand them. So now I'm back online and have a month to find another ISP. I'm so glad I don't have to do without my SL for the next couple/few weeks! Oh, but now what? "False alarm everyone!!" Just like Lucile Ball, I have some 'splainin' to do.
I figured I had been replaced at both clubs by another DJ but as it turned out, one schedule had not been written yet and the other left open spots where my events were normally scheduled. So I was able to slide right back in and that felt great! Unfortunately, cat and Neva had started taking most of their stuff back into inventory. The plan was to move to a smaller, less expensive parcel after the tier expired where we are at. And when I returned, I was to move back in with them on the smaller parcel and save money too. But we are paid up over a week-and-a-half in advance at our current location so now we are on a nearly empty parcel for all that time. I started placing my things back out again so that we have games to play and dances to enjoy along with some select furniture filled with fun animations.
What did I learn from this whole ordeal? Well, the main thing is that with careful planning, I will make certain that I am not without an internet service. I learned that Comcast charges so much that they can afford to give you one month for free. I learned that if I am ever going to leave SL even for a long period of time, it's not always best to contact everyone about it because nothing is engraved in stone. Neva, cat and my friends are all a major part of my SL experience and I need to ensure that I stay a part of theirs too.
