Just $3.75

A few days ago I received in the mail from Dominion power a little piece of insurance. Well, that's how they put it. First, they make it clearly known that the gas line that run to my house is my responsibility and for a measly $3.75 I won't have to pay for any repairs on my gas line. Okay, that sounds fair enough. However, I don't take anything at face value. So, I did a little thinking to see this past this illusion. I really want to call Dominion and talk to one of the service representatives, but I'm confident they'll either hang up on me or won't be able to answer my question. I mean for $3.75 they should be able to answer 3 questions for me. Number one, how many people are serviced by Dominion. That should be an easy question to answer. Number two, what percent of people actually sign up for this safety offer. Finally, the most difficult question, what percent of gas lines fail on a yearly basis. I think with this information you can figure out the profit that Dominion gets people to pay. This illusion is just like the extended warranties that are offered on anything you buy. Most of those extended warranties are dollars to the bottom line to the company that sells them. There are of course some items that are worth the extended warranty.

This brings up the time when I had a land line, the company service rep called asking me to sign up for a special international service plan. I was cordial and listened to the offer. Just a simple $3.95 monthly fee and then I would be entitled to a discount rate on my foreign calls. It sounds good until you compare it to a $20 phone card with no maintenance fee, a 15% tax per call, 1 minute rounding, and 6.5 cent rate to a cell phone. Well, I did exactly this. I asked the service representative I would sign up for her "offer" if she could do one thing for me. I merely asked her to calculate my break even point in the number of minutes I would have to use a month in her offer compared to my phone card. Unfortunately, she couldn't and then I told her to call me back once she figured it out. I'm afraid I haven't heard back from her.

Yes, I am a nightmare to service representatives. I ask them for opinions while I cooking. I take the phone into the bathroom while I take a number two and read a magazine. I've cleaned my apartment. I've done a bunch of things while they call me. Usually in the end they want to hang up. Oh, my favorite is when they're done with their pitch is to ask them I didn't hear that very well could you explain it again. Believe or not they will.

Oh, if you're wondering. I didn't sign up for a Dominion gas line protection plan.

Let Garbage Come Forth

So I don't have a damn thing to say today. I really don't. Has my existence come to this? Just babbling rambling on the world wide web. Now, that's just a silly word - world wide web. It's sounds archaic. Well, other than using the www for websites (technically we don't even need that because all those www equal some static IP address number - just changed by some DNS server.) most people don't talk about it terms like this. I guess Web 2.0 is the more proper term.

Oh, here's something geeky. So I'm still playing Battlefield 2 and the server that I play on the most is sponsored by a clan. Mom and Dad, don't worry this clan isn't like a gang or anything. Nevertheless, they asked me to join up with their group. I was like, "Huh? Maybe." The fun part about this group is that they're all over the world. So I can hear the proper British swear words in full force. It's funny to hear them talk about their kids, playstation 3, and going fishing.
It's hard to imagine other real people playing games. Well, these games are truly for the geeky. Oh, don't worry there's drama too. I was listening to some of the guys talk about another clan and how about so-and-so left the clan because he wasn't happy and joined another group. Geez, it's still a video game.

Don't worry, this weekend was a blast -getting ready for tax season. Thank goodness for Turbotax. It's the best $40 spent.