You are an inspiration to me. I always figured HTTPS would cost me; not that I could not afford it, but why bother for two people who use this site? However, I like the thought of encryption being part of the site and Google will love me if I switch. So, now I have it on my "some day I will do this" list. All I need to do is e-mail my support people and ask.
It is indeed suspicious when any business lowers the prices to their customers. It's a lot easier to take increased benefits than it is to believe prices are being lowered. However, it does happen. My Internet connection plan calls for 100Mbps but my odometer shows I exceed 150Mbps on rare occasion. Most of the time it's below 50Mbps and I like to think it's the server I'm communicating with and not Spectrum throttling. Back home in Chicago I had DSL with a whopping 7Mbps transfer rate. That did me well 99% of the time. One day I decided to download a 15GB game and it took more than 12 hours to do it. Since I have MIMO service on my router I was able to still use my computer normally, but that was a hell of a long time to wait for a download. I did the same thing down here when we arrived. It was under 20 minutes to download. Oddly enough, the price for the internet connection here and up there is only $1 different (cheaper up there).
#DeleteFacebook
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Any topic is acceptable, and topic drift is permissible.
Re: #DeleteFacebook
My host provider 1&1 Internet, merged with Ionos about the middle of last year.
Now I don't remember what all the TOS said, but I read the new TOS and it seems I do have certain limits, even though the contract reads Unlimited this, Unlimited that, etc.
I renewed my contract (this is done automatically) when it expired in July.
But now after my phone call the other day, although my account number is the same, I have a new contract number, but no copy of the contract yet.
In any case, I saw in the terms of service where all accounts are limited to 6gb per month, but I'm not exactly sure what that means. The way I read it it means 6gb of downloads from my website per month and I'm limited to 246,000 pages on all my websites including subdomains. So I think I probably don't have anything to worry about, hi hi.
But on the bright side, when my contract renewed back in July, I was given 50 gigs of free storage space that does not need to be linked to my index.html page in some way. In other words a place for storage only. Now this storage area is only user accessible, can't use it for outside links, only I can read from it. However, we can now have a small area not linked to the index.html page as a place to put pictures used by other websites. I had already figured a way around that by simply using my GFX folder with a subfolder for SharedImages. I tried this first by making a folder for OriginalImages which was nothing but storage and it never sent up a red flag. So made a folder for SharedImages. I've never tried it yet to see if it works though, hi hi.
You can laugh, but after I moved down here to Knoxville, I still used 56k dial-up through a local bank that connected me to my St. Louis ISP. I didn't do a lot of web browsing back then, usually only e-mail and text websites like this one. So it worked out OK. We did have Comcast TV that was set up for Debi's mom long before we moved down here.
When Debi's son was staying with us, he added Cable Internet to the plan. But it was still a couple of months before I began connecting through his account, which spoiled me, hi hi. Then after he moved out, it was a major hassle with Comcast to get everything changed over to my name. It was so convoluted it was pitiful. The account itself was in Debi's mom's name and via her telephone number, but all the log-in and password data was under Debi's sons name. And even though we updated everything from the name to the phone number and got new passwords, when something didn't work, they still needed the phone number we no longer had, as well as the original Internet account data, including the old password to get things fixed.
I could not sign up for a new account, because they said this house was already served by an account.
That's when we cancelled everything and Debi went with DirecTV for TV and I tried to get on DSL, which it turned out DSL did not work properly here because the phone lines were so bad.
So, for about 1-1/2 months, the waiting period for Comcast to close out the old account, I was back to using 56k dialup again. Although it cost an arm and a leg, 80 bucks a month for Cable Internet ONLY from Comcast, we got it anyhow.
I looked into Hughes Net, Sky Net and couple other Satellite Internet services, but the cost was most prohibitive for the slow speeds they provided, and the limits they established.
Right now we are getting our Internet for around 60 bucks a month after the con job they pulled on us with false fees.
But that is due to run out soon I'm sure!
Now I don't remember what all the TOS said, but I read the new TOS and it seems I do have certain limits, even though the contract reads Unlimited this, Unlimited that, etc.
I renewed my contract (this is done automatically) when it expired in July.
But now after my phone call the other day, although my account number is the same, I have a new contract number, but no copy of the contract yet.
In any case, I saw in the terms of service where all accounts are limited to 6gb per month, but I'm not exactly sure what that means. The way I read it it means 6gb of downloads from my website per month and I'm limited to 246,000 pages on all my websites including subdomains. So I think I probably don't have anything to worry about, hi hi.
But on the bright side, when my contract renewed back in July, I was given 50 gigs of free storage space that does not need to be linked to my index.html page in some way. In other words a place for storage only. Now this storage area is only user accessible, can't use it for outside links, only I can read from it. However, we can now have a small area not linked to the index.html page as a place to put pictures used by other websites. I had already figured a way around that by simply using my GFX folder with a subfolder for SharedImages. I tried this first by making a folder for OriginalImages which was nothing but storage and it never sent up a red flag. So made a folder for SharedImages. I've never tried it yet to see if it works though, hi hi.
You can laugh, but after I moved down here to Knoxville, I still used 56k dial-up through a local bank that connected me to my St. Louis ISP. I didn't do a lot of web browsing back then, usually only e-mail and text websites like this one. So it worked out OK. We did have Comcast TV that was set up for Debi's mom long before we moved down here.
When Debi's son was staying with us, he added Cable Internet to the plan. But it was still a couple of months before I began connecting through his account, which spoiled me, hi hi. Then after he moved out, it was a major hassle with Comcast to get everything changed over to my name. It was so convoluted it was pitiful. The account itself was in Debi's mom's name and via her telephone number, but all the log-in and password data was under Debi's sons name. And even though we updated everything from the name to the phone number and got new passwords, when something didn't work, they still needed the phone number we no longer had, as well as the original Internet account data, including the old password to get things fixed.
I could not sign up for a new account, because they said this house was already served by an account.
That's when we cancelled everything and Debi went with DirecTV for TV and I tried to get on DSL, which it turned out DSL did not work properly here because the phone lines were so bad.
So, for about 1-1/2 months, the waiting period for Comcast to close out the old account, I was back to using 56k dialup again. Although it cost an arm and a leg, 80 bucks a month for Cable Internet ONLY from Comcast, we got it anyhow.
I looked into Hughes Net, Sky Net and couple other Satellite Internet services, but the cost was most prohibitive for the slow speeds they provided, and the limits they established.
Right now we are getting our Internet for around 60 bucks a month after the con job they pulled on us with false fees.
But that is due to run out soon I'm sure!
Re: #DeleteFacebook
While I personally have not had an issue with "unlimited" accounts, I often read about people who do. Apparently the term "unlimited" is only a name and does not describe the service. You need to look into the TOS to see how they define unlimited and most people can't do that before they sign the contract. My Spectrum Internet is unlimited as is my T-Mobile mobile phone service. The web host for this site offers me unlimited disk storage and unlimited data on what they call a business plan. I am certain that all of those "unlimited" services do have a cap but I've never run into any of them so far. The only problem I ever had was with the e-mail inbox filling up to the 3k message limit when I lived up north. That was the free mail that came with the free web hosting that came with the expensive DSL from Earthlink. The funny thing about the e-mail is that I never used it. Spam would fill up the inbox after a couple months with only a half dozen or so legitimate e-mail. I thought that was amazing because they claimed to be filtering the mail for spam and would give me a number for how many spam mails they diverted. I don't know if Spectrum offers me web hosting but they do give me free e-mail. I've seen it listed in my account but never used it nor checked to see if there is activity. I've been living perfectly happy with webmail accounts except for this website. I use Thunderbird for the various accounts here and my Hotmail.
Apparently you are in some sort of fringe area which is unfortunate. Chicago didn't have a lot of choices, but there were several alternatives to the Earthlink I chose to use. I believe there are 3-4 ISP services available in O'Fallon. When I looked them up to see who had the best customer satisfaction numbers, Spectrum came in first with 53%. All the rest were way worse.
Apparently you are in some sort of fringe area which is unfortunate. Chicago didn't have a lot of choices, but there were several alternatives to the Earthlink I chose to use. I believe there are 3-4 ISP services available in O'Fallon. When I looked them up to see who had the best customer satisfaction numbers, Spectrum came in first with 53%. All the rest were way worse.
Re: #DeleteFacebook
Here in Knoxville, we have Comcast, Charter, Spectrum, and a couple of others.
However, the city determines which cable company can serve which area.
So this means the ONLY CHOICE where I live is Comcast.
But where Debi's sister lives, her only choice is Charter.
However, AT&T seems to now own all the main trunk lines and fiber optics in this area.
So, no matter which cable company you have, your data is going over AT&Ts cables or optical lines.
For this reason I think they need to break the monopoly of cable providers and let us choose which one we want to use.
Although, that being said, I would probably stay with Comcast because of 20 years of them having all of my e-mail accounts.
It was bad enough when they dropped hosting personal websites and I had to scramble to get a new host.
I do have a couple of mailboxes set up on my new host, which uses my domain name, such as webmaster@ and info@.
I had to have the webmaster@ account because it is a requirement of ICANN I think, so they can contact us that way if need be. Although I've never received any e-mail through my domain name e-mail accounts other than a couple of test messages I sent to make sure forwarding was working right.
I actually though about slowly migrating my e-mail from comcast to my domain name, but was worried about if I had to move to a new hosting service in the future. I've heard that some hosting services charge you extra to use e-mail. Don't know why, my original hosting service in St. Louis never charged me a dime to have e-mail accounts on their servers, even when I didn't have anything else with them. They said it costs them nothing to have e-mail available.
I don't know why anyone would need more than 246,000 subdomains.
But my old contract showed unlimited on nearly everything.
Webspace Unlimited.
Traffic Unlimited.
Mailboxes Unlimited. However Mail Business is ZERO.
I asked about this since I use ClassicHausLimited as my main website and for my e-mail.
They said no, that has to do with using our mail address to send out bulk business mail and has nothing to do with normal correspondence mailings.
However, the city determines which cable company can serve which area.
So this means the ONLY CHOICE where I live is Comcast.
But where Debi's sister lives, her only choice is Charter.
However, AT&T seems to now own all the main trunk lines and fiber optics in this area.
So, no matter which cable company you have, your data is going over AT&Ts cables or optical lines.
For this reason I think they need to break the monopoly of cable providers and let us choose which one we want to use.
Although, that being said, I would probably stay with Comcast because of 20 years of them having all of my e-mail accounts.
It was bad enough when they dropped hosting personal websites and I had to scramble to get a new host.
I do have a couple of mailboxes set up on my new host, which uses my domain name, such as webmaster@ and info@.
I had to have the webmaster@ account because it is a requirement of ICANN I think, so they can contact us that way if need be. Although I've never received any e-mail through my domain name e-mail accounts other than a couple of test messages I sent to make sure forwarding was working right.
I actually though about slowly migrating my e-mail from comcast to my domain name, but was worried about if I had to move to a new hosting service in the future. I've heard that some hosting services charge you extra to use e-mail. Don't know why, my original hosting service in St. Louis never charged me a dime to have e-mail accounts on their servers, even when I didn't have anything else with them. They said it costs them nothing to have e-mail available.
I don't know why anyone would need more than 246,000 subdomains.
But my old contract showed unlimited on nearly everything.
Webspace Unlimited.
Traffic Unlimited.
Mailboxes Unlimited. However Mail Business is ZERO.
I asked about this since I use ClassicHausLimited as my main website and for my e-mail.
They said no, that has to do with using our mail address to send out bulk business mail and has nothing to do with normal correspondence mailings.
Re: #DeleteFacebook
I pay iCANN to keep track of this domain but never heard about the rule that requires a webmaster@ account. Truth is that I can own a domain name and not have a web site. Perhaps the parked domains go under a different set of rules, but brainformation is active and I don't recall reading about any requirements other than paying the fees. The domain is registered with whois.com and they have all the classic information about us along with contact information. I think they did want a contact for abuse reports, but like all the other fields in their records I am that contact, via a proxy.
I don't know that breaking up the ISP's would do anything. The FCC blew away any independence when they eliminated net neutrality. Now ISP's can do as they see fit and screw the consumer.
I don't know that breaking up the ISP's would do anything. The FCC blew away any independence when they eliminated net neutrality. Now ISP's can do as they see fit and screw the consumer.
Re: #DeleteFacebook
I had never set up any mailboxes on my website until the merger, then I got an e-mail to my personal account from them saying they created a mailbox named webmaster@domain for me because I didn't have one set up, and I should go in and set forwarding to whatever mailbox I get my mail from. They are the ones who pay my ICANN fee each year. So maybe it is their requirement? I really thought they said ICANN required it but I could be wrong? I usually am, hi hi.
I'm just glad that lady got my websites fixed so they work right now.
I was told that placing a redirect in .htaccess will cause Google to Flag my account for having a redirect, which is why they didn't want folks doing it that way. But I never understood how it was supposed to be done.
I went through and made a SiteMap for each site, hoping Google would quit showing http instead of https links.
But after this lady handled it for me, now every hit is to https on any search engine, even the old links I had to dig deep to find that still showed http if I click on it they open as https. So I guess all is good now, hi hi.
The best thing is, it didn't cost me a single dime, to activate the secure https protocol.
Haven't ISP's always tried to screw the consumer?
Look at the vastly different prices each one charge.
And does anybody really use ISPs anymore, except for the Big Guns who have locked up areas already, like Comcast Cable?
As far as web hosting goes, I know each little thing extra costs money.
But I have a book promoter who was really getting screwed big time, and still is.
Her Ning account, which she had dropped a couple of times is like 295 bucks a month.
I forget the name of the host she moved her other websites to, but they are like 125 bucks a month each.
At one time she had a shopping cart which I know kicked her price up big time.
But now like many others, she has folks pay through PayPal to her home e-mail address.
I told her to look into my host provider several times, and now that they have WordPress or you can host your own copy of WordPress, I think she would save some big bucks.
Currently, none of her websites use a log-in, anyone can visit.
I'm just glad that lady got my websites fixed so they work right now.
I was told that placing a redirect in .htaccess will cause Google to Flag my account for having a redirect, which is why they didn't want folks doing it that way. But I never understood how it was supposed to be done.
I went through and made a SiteMap for each site, hoping Google would quit showing http instead of https links.
But after this lady handled it for me, now every hit is to https on any search engine, even the old links I had to dig deep to find that still showed http if I click on it they open as https. So I guess all is good now, hi hi.
The best thing is, it didn't cost me a single dime, to activate the secure https protocol.
Haven't ISP's always tried to screw the consumer?
Look at the vastly different prices each one charge.
And does anybody really use ISPs anymore, except for the Big Guns who have locked up areas already, like Comcast Cable?
As far as web hosting goes, I know each little thing extra costs money.
But I have a book promoter who was really getting screwed big time, and still is.
Her Ning account, which she had dropped a couple of times is like 295 bucks a month.
I forget the name of the host she moved her other websites to, but they are like 125 bucks a month each.
At one time she had a shopping cart which I know kicked her price up big time.
But now like many others, she has folks pay through PayPal to her home e-mail address.
I told her to look into my host provider several times, and now that they have WordPress or you can host your own copy of WordPress, I think she would save some big bucks.
Currently, none of her websites use a log-in, anyone can visit.
Re: #DeleteFacebook
It's been a long time since I set up a new domain so that I don't recall all the details. I do know iCANN is the domain name curator and whois also has some role in it which looks as if they are curating too. It might be that one is global and the other is only domestic, or North American. Regardless, iCANN wants a small amount from each domain (millions if not billions of dollars a year) just to keep your details in their database. As far as I know they don't do anything else. I have to pay that fee each time I renew the lease, but it's all on one bill. Likewise the proxy ID is on that bill but is a different company. Our hosting service takes care of it all.
I really don't know what the lady did for you, but I'm guessing all she did was update their DNS tables to reflect your new status, https instead of http. It must have taken her all of 300 seconds to do it assuming she did it with her eyes closed and one hand tied behind her back. Once their DNS was updated it propagated globally which is why you see it everywhere now.
And that is right. Redirects are a BIG no-no if you want to stay off the blacklists. It's a typical tactic for phishing and Google looks out for it's own people.
I really don't know what the lady did for you, but I'm guessing all she did was update their DNS tables to reflect your new status, https instead of http. It must have taken her all of 300 seconds to do it assuming she did it with her eyes closed and one hand tied behind her back. Once their DNS was updated it propagated globally which is why you see it everywhere now.
And that is right. Redirects are a BIG no-no if you want to stay off the blacklists. It's a typical tactic for phishing and Google looks out for it's own people.
Re: #DeleteFacebook
I check my credit card account quite often and see where my host provider charged me $1.00.
I looked back and in July I paid my renewal fee for an entire year.
So by my way of thinking, and after looking into that $1.00 charge on my account.
It appears they charged me $1.00 for the first month, and will be charging me $5.00 a month each month thereafter for my new contract.
However, the way I look at it, I still have six months on my existing contract that is already paid for, so will have to contact them about that now too!
My old contract shows it was valid from July 20, 2015 to July 18, 2019, and it automatically renewed each year, and/or I was only charged on a yearly basis. So I assume, when it expired and they charged me it auto-renewed for another year or possibly even four years like the original.
More stuff I have to look up and find out about! As if I had that kind of time to do so.
Whatever she did to get everything working right is great! Only took 5 months for them to get around to doing it, hi hi.
I looked back and in July I paid my renewal fee for an entire year.
So by my way of thinking, and after looking into that $1.00 charge on my account.
It appears they charged me $1.00 for the first month, and will be charging me $5.00 a month each month thereafter for my new contract.
However, the way I look at it, I still have six months on my existing contract that is already paid for, so will have to contact them about that now too!
My old contract shows it was valid from July 20, 2015 to July 18, 2019, and it automatically renewed each year, and/or I was only charged on a yearly basis. So I assume, when it expired and they charged me it auto-renewed for another year or possibly even four years like the original.
More stuff I have to look up and find out about! As if I had that kind of time to do so.
Whatever she did to get everything working right is great! Only took 5 months for them to get around to doing it, hi hi.
Re: #DeleteFacebook
Before you call about the change in your contract, it might be prudent to reread the old contract terms. It's possible that they have a clause in there that allows them to cancel at any time for any reason. Usually that's to deal with bad actors, but it might also be a device that allows them to change the rules on the fly. If nothing else, I think you have a case to claim they owe you credit for the six unused months on your old contract.
Re: #DeleteFacebook
Unfortunately, I cannot find the OLD TOS for the old contract.
But I did look up my account and sure enough, on July I was billed for an entire year.
I won't be able to call them now until Monday. But I'm getting my notes together to be ready!
I also have to wait for my next bank statement, which should be here in a day or two, to see if they added a credit.
I had switched from direct withdrawal to using a credit card in September, so have also checked those statements.
But I did look up my account and sure enough, on July I was billed for an entire year.
I won't be able to call them now until Monday. But I'm getting my notes together to be ready!
I also have to wait for my next bank statement, which should be here in a day or two, to see if they added a credit.
I had switched from direct withdrawal to using a credit card in September, so have also checked those statements.
Re: #DeleteFacebook
I hope your contract negotiations go smoothly. No doubt you have all the paperwork to state your case clearly, but the fact is you need to do it. Why could they not just bill you correctly in the first place?
Recently I had a remarkable experience with Target online. They have paper towels in a size that I can't get in the local stores; not even their local store. Thus I like to order from them online and have had no problems in the past. They won't deliver unless my order is over a certain dollar amount, but I seldom have problems reaching that figure. The last order I placed with them was before Christmas wherein two bundles of Bounty paper towels were ordered. When the delivery came I got all the items I ordered but only one bundle of towels. The order showed a quantity of 2, but the packing slip showed they only sent 1. This happens on occasion when they are out of stock and a second delivery is made when they are resupplied. So, I did nothing and decided to wait for that second delivery.
It's been nearly a month now and no sign of that second bundle. However, my credit card was charged for it. I never was notified that I missed a delivery. They simply didn't follow up. As is normal for Target they send a survey a couple days after they ship the order. One of the links on the survey was to {Fix It} should I have experienced a problem. Well, I certainly wanted to "fix it" but didn't have much hope that it would actually happen. But I clicked and was taken to a copy of my order. All the items I ordered were listed with a checkbox in front of them. I checked the box and was given an area to describe what I wanted fixed. It was simple. I just said I ordered two and only got one. Then the question was do I want a refund or do I want to reorder? Refund!
Got a confirmation that things were being "Fixed." Later that day I got another e-mail saying it will take a day or two to credit my account. And that is what happened. They refunded the amount for the missing bundle without further question. I consider this to be remarkable. All I had to do was reply to an e-mail. Didn't have to talk to customer service in India nor provide any proof of anything. They just took my word for it - probably because they knew they didn't ship that second item. But still, the process was amazingly clean. Bad on them for not telling me the won't ship it, but Kudos to Target for resolving the problem like a pro.
Recently I had a remarkable experience with Target online. They have paper towels in a size that I can't get in the local stores; not even their local store. Thus I like to order from them online and have had no problems in the past. They won't deliver unless my order is over a certain dollar amount, but I seldom have problems reaching that figure. The last order I placed with them was before Christmas wherein two bundles of Bounty paper towels were ordered. When the delivery came I got all the items I ordered but only one bundle of towels. The order showed a quantity of 2, but the packing slip showed they only sent 1. This happens on occasion when they are out of stock and a second delivery is made when they are resupplied. So, I did nothing and decided to wait for that second delivery.
It's been nearly a month now and no sign of that second bundle. However, my credit card was charged for it. I never was notified that I missed a delivery. They simply didn't follow up. As is normal for Target they send a survey a couple days after they ship the order. One of the links on the survey was to {Fix It} should I have experienced a problem. Well, I certainly wanted to "fix it" but didn't have much hope that it would actually happen. But I clicked and was taken to a copy of my order. All the items I ordered were listed with a checkbox in front of them. I checked the box and was given an area to describe what I wanted fixed. It was simple. I just said I ordered two and only got one. Then the question was do I want a refund or do I want to reorder? Refund!
Got a confirmation that things were being "Fixed." Later that day I got another e-mail saying it will take a day or two to credit my account. And that is what happened. They refunded the amount for the missing bundle without further question. I consider this to be remarkable. All I had to do was reply to an e-mail. Didn't have to talk to customer service in India nor provide any proof of anything. They just took my word for it - probably because they knew they didn't ship that second item. But still, the process was amazingly clean. Bad on them for not telling me the won't ship it, but Kudos to Target for resolving the problem like a pro.
Re: #DeleteFacebook
I have something similar. I buy Array brand toilet paper from a food service supply house that's a long ways west of my location. Array still makes 4-1/2 inch wide rolls of toilet paper, but the sheets are only 4 inches long each, so they can claim more sheets per roll, which is no matter, because I only go by the square inches on a roll to determine if it is a fair price or not.
On the few occasions we are out west for some reason, I always stop in there and pick up a few things, a case of TP being one of them. Because I buy under my business name, I do get the wholesale price, but I also pay sales tax so I don't end up having to claim Use Tax on my tax forms. They are OK with collecting sales tax from me, most places are!
I saw one of their delivery trucks at a nearby restaurant, so knew they do deliver in our area.
So I called them and asked about a home delivery, at first they said no they don't do that, so then I said what about a drop off at a restaurant you already deliver to. They said I would have to make arrangements with the restaurant to place the order for me, and talk them into doing it. I did talk to the restaurant and they don't have room nor the desire to do such a thing.
I had Debi call them and ask if they deliver to businesses that are not restaurants, the guy said all the time.
She then asked what was their minimum order to have a delivery made. They told her, plus they said if the order is double the minimum there will not be a 10% delivery charge. Their minimum order is 150 bucks and they don't have all that much we buy from them. I would have to buy six cases of TP plus a couple of odds and ends to get up to that amount.
I happen to have a doctors appointment at a new doctor out that way, so we stopped in to grab a case of TP and see what else we could use to add to an order if we wanted it delivered. Debi made a ton of notes, hi hi.
About a month later we called up and placed a 215 dollar order to be delivered, so I knew there would be a 21.50 delivery charge. We used our business name for the order of course, and my home address, along with a note that we were only 6 blocks away from such n such a restaurant.
Instead of coming in their normal straight truck the deliver to the restaurant in, the driver showed up in a tractor trailer and he was fuming mad, hi hi. Tractor trailers have no problem coming to my house, never have a problem getting back out either. Volunteer Express comes to my house in a LONG tractor trailer all the time.
He went on and on about they do not deliver to residential areas and especially not to homes.
Mumbled and grumbled the whole time he was moving my order to the back of the truck for me to take off.
I offered him an extra 10 bucks, hoping it would appease him some, but he wouldn't take it.
He was also short one case of TP, said their stock didn't come in and won't be there until later in the day.
He must have been mistaken, because no sooner than he pulled down the road to leave, here comes their straight truck. 30 seconds sooner and he would have met the other truck, hi hi.
Now this guy was as pleasant as all get out. Told me the driver left without my whole order, they were busy unloading and he was impatient and wanted to hit the road and refused to wait 15 more minutes.
I told this driver how grumpy he was, and all he could say is, we know, he's a royal pain. And he was not supposed to even have my order on his truck, he normally only delivers to Sevier County restaurants, not Knox County restaurants.
He did say, the next time I order, tell them Straight Truck Delivery only, or you can mention my name, they call me Double Matt at the shop, hi hi.
Then he said something that floored me. He said I don't have to place a minimum order if I tell them to only make delivery when we are going to such n such a restaurant or are will be in the area. And again he said, or just tell them to give the order to Double Matt to handle, were pretty casual there.
On the few occasions we are out west for some reason, I always stop in there and pick up a few things, a case of TP being one of them. Because I buy under my business name, I do get the wholesale price, but I also pay sales tax so I don't end up having to claim Use Tax on my tax forms. They are OK with collecting sales tax from me, most places are!
I saw one of their delivery trucks at a nearby restaurant, so knew they do deliver in our area.
So I called them and asked about a home delivery, at first they said no they don't do that, so then I said what about a drop off at a restaurant you already deliver to. They said I would have to make arrangements with the restaurant to place the order for me, and talk them into doing it. I did talk to the restaurant and they don't have room nor the desire to do such a thing.
I had Debi call them and ask if they deliver to businesses that are not restaurants, the guy said all the time.
She then asked what was their minimum order to have a delivery made. They told her, plus they said if the order is double the minimum there will not be a 10% delivery charge. Their minimum order is 150 bucks and they don't have all that much we buy from them. I would have to buy six cases of TP plus a couple of odds and ends to get up to that amount.
I happen to have a doctors appointment at a new doctor out that way, so we stopped in to grab a case of TP and see what else we could use to add to an order if we wanted it delivered. Debi made a ton of notes, hi hi.
About a month later we called up and placed a 215 dollar order to be delivered, so I knew there would be a 21.50 delivery charge. We used our business name for the order of course, and my home address, along with a note that we were only 6 blocks away from such n such a restaurant.
Instead of coming in their normal straight truck the deliver to the restaurant in, the driver showed up in a tractor trailer and he was fuming mad, hi hi. Tractor trailers have no problem coming to my house, never have a problem getting back out either. Volunteer Express comes to my house in a LONG tractor trailer all the time.
He went on and on about they do not deliver to residential areas and especially not to homes.
Mumbled and grumbled the whole time he was moving my order to the back of the truck for me to take off.
I offered him an extra 10 bucks, hoping it would appease him some, but he wouldn't take it.
He was also short one case of TP, said their stock didn't come in and won't be there until later in the day.
He must have been mistaken, because no sooner than he pulled down the road to leave, here comes their straight truck. 30 seconds sooner and he would have met the other truck, hi hi.
Now this guy was as pleasant as all get out. Told me the driver left without my whole order, they were busy unloading and he was impatient and wanted to hit the road and refused to wait 15 more minutes.
I told this driver how grumpy he was, and all he could say is, we know, he's a royal pain. And he was not supposed to even have my order on his truck, he normally only delivers to Sevier County restaurants, not Knox County restaurants.
He did say, the next time I order, tell them Straight Truck Delivery only, or you can mention my name, they call me Double Matt at the shop, hi hi.
Then he said something that floored me. He said I don't have to place a minimum order if I tell them to only make delivery when we are going to such n such a restaurant or are will be in the area. And again he said, or just tell them to give the order to Double Matt to handle, were pretty casual there.
Re: #DeleteFacebook
Your story is based on talking to real people. In my encounter with Target I never even talked to a robot. It was all via my browser and e-mail. The whole point of the Internet sales is to make it easy and convenient, but there are places that know nothing about their customers' experience nor do they care to learn. My pet peeve is with the pharmacies I have to deal with. I prefer to arrange things online so that all I need to do is go to the store to pay for what I ordered. The records in the store never match what is online. A good example is my last encounter with CVS. Our insurance company had them as a preferred vendor of drugs. The problem of coordinating the store with the web site was finally worked out after about a year. At that time we changed insurances and now must deal with Walgreens. So, on the last day of my insurance with the old company I went to the CVS website and closed out all the notifications and moved all my prescriptions over to Walgreens. About three days ago CVS left a message on my answering machine to come pick up the prescription they filled for me. I told them many times not to automatically fill my prescriptions, both on line and in the store, but they can't seem to figure that out. Plus, they do not seem to know that I no longer want to deal with them because, of course, I did it all on the website. Unbelievable.
Re: #DeleteFacebook
I almost ran out of one of my pills because I had an overstock of them so haven't ordered since I moved from Walmart to Walgreen's.
Since that time, my doctor has left the practice, and his assistant who has been seeing me since, while waiting for the company to hire a new doctor, does not have the authority to prescribe a script. And the doctor who is filling in won't renew my script without a visit first. I said I was just there a week ago, and I've been on these pills now for over 5 years, what seems to be the problem. I had lab work done the last visit too.
Their excuse was, we don't show that drug on your prescription list for the past two years.
That's right, my bottle was dispensed in 2015 and expires in 2017.
However, I have obtained the drug elsewhere and refilled this bottle because it fits my box just right.
Debi's sister's doctor is always changing her dosages or drugs around, and she ends up with some on her shelf that he took her off of, and she will send them to me rather than throw them away.
Also, my doctor who wrote the script did so for 5MG tablets. A script of 90 2.5MG tabs cost the same a 90 5MG tabs, so he left the script alone, even though he cut me back to using only 2.5MG, so I cut the 5MG tabs in half.
So it took me a long time to eventually run out, hi hi.
And as I said, now they are saying I'm not on that particular drug.
And I'm saying, yes I am, so write a script for it so the pharmacy can refill it for me.
Crazy People!
Since that time, my doctor has left the practice, and his assistant who has been seeing me since, while waiting for the company to hire a new doctor, does not have the authority to prescribe a script. And the doctor who is filling in won't renew my script without a visit first. I said I was just there a week ago, and I've been on these pills now for over 5 years, what seems to be the problem. I had lab work done the last visit too.
Their excuse was, we don't show that drug on your prescription list for the past two years.
That's right, my bottle was dispensed in 2015 and expires in 2017.
However, I have obtained the drug elsewhere and refilled this bottle because it fits my box just right.
Debi's sister's doctor is always changing her dosages or drugs around, and she ends up with some on her shelf that he took her off of, and she will send them to me rather than throw them away.
Also, my doctor who wrote the script did so for 5MG tablets. A script of 90 2.5MG tabs cost the same a 90 5MG tabs, so he left the script alone, even though he cut me back to using only 2.5MG, so I cut the 5MG tabs in half.
So it took me a long time to eventually run out, hi hi.
And as I said, now they are saying I'm not on that particular drug.
And I'm saying, yes I am, so write a script for it so the pharmacy can refill it for me.
Crazy People!
Re: #DeleteFacebook
You won't get any arguments from me about the sanity of Wallgreens Pharmacy. Be that as it may, there are also some pretty heavy laws regarding prescriptions. They are indeed only good for 12 months. If you manage to get refills beyond that, the pharmacy filling the prescription is still bound by the orders they have. I don't know about physicians, other than they do try to follow good practices and want to see you annually if you need some drugs. Again, if you circumvent the system, you do it at your own risk. The doctors and pharmacists are not going to do anything to jeopardize their license to operate or break any laws. You might be clever enough to get around the system, but they are not likely to put themselves in jeopardy.
It's always a problem when a doctor leaves the practice regardless of what notes s/he leaves in the patients files. The new physician will always want to cover his butt and it's too bad if you suffer for it. They can be an arrogant lot, but I do understand why.
It's always a problem when a doctor leaves the practice regardless of what notes s/he leaves in the patients files. The new physician will always want to cover his butt and it's too bad if you suffer for it. They can be an arrogant lot, but I do understand why.
Re: #DeleteFacebook
There are a few scripts I used to be on, but I don't buy them from the pharmacy per se, not as a script, because it would drive me into the doughnut hole faster at their prices they charge insurance companies. Or actually what retail value the insurance company puts on them to drive you into the doughnut hole faster.
Two of the drugs I take I can get OTC off the pharmacy shelves without a script, and in the same dosage usually.
And, if I'm really frugal, I can keep hunting or waiting for one of the super cheap generic companies to stock their shelves.
So, this is why I get a 38 dollar drug by script, for 16 dollars OTC name brand, 12 dollars store brand, or normally 10 bucks generic. However, one company does put it on their shelves occasionally for only 88 cents. When they do, I stock up!
The test strips I use in my meter, through the pharmacy is retail priced at 99 dollars for 50.
I already know my insurance company shows the amount as 129 dollars as far as pushing me into the doughnut hole.
Using a prescription card combined with my insurance I get them for 19 dollars without having to pay my 455 dollar annual deductible first. But once I do reach my deductible amount buying other things, then the test strips only cost me 9 dollars because the insurance company picks up the rest.
Have you ever tried to understand those EOB pages we get from Medicare and our Insurance Companies?
Mine always looks like the insurance company paid out next to nothing.
I don't have one here in the office, but it may show the doctor charged 175 dollars, Medicare allowed 32 dollars, all the other columns have a zero in them until you get to the Insurance covered 3 dollars, and I paid 4 dollars co-pay. Who paid all the rest? Or did the doctor have to write it off?
Two of the drugs I take I can get OTC off the pharmacy shelves without a script, and in the same dosage usually.
And, if I'm really frugal, I can keep hunting or waiting for one of the super cheap generic companies to stock their shelves.
So, this is why I get a 38 dollar drug by script, for 16 dollars OTC name brand, 12 dollars store brand, or normally 10 bucks generic. However, one company does put it on their shelves occasionally for only 88 cents. When they do, I stock up!
The test strips I use in my meter, through the pharmacy is retail priced at 99 dollars for 50.
I already know my insurance company shows the amount as 129 dollars as far as pushing me into the doughnut hole.
Using a prescription card combined with my insurance I get them for 19 dollars without having to pay my 455 dollar annual deductible first. But once I do reach my deductible amount buying other things, then the test strips only cost me 9 dollars because the insurance company picks up the rest.
Have you ever tried to understand those EOB pages we get from Medicare and our Insurance Companies?
Mine always looks like the insurance company paid out next to nothing.
I don't have one here in the office, but it may show the doctor charged 175 dollars, Medicare allowed 32 dollars, all the other columns have a zero in them until you get to the Insurance covered 3 dollars, and I paid 4 dollars co-pay. Who paid all the rest? Or did the doctor have to write it off?
Re: #DeleteFacebook
Yes, the doctor had to write it off. They are under contract with insurance companies and Medicare and as such must agree to the pricing determined by them. It's one of the reasons why you will find some doctors reluctant or refusing to accept new Medicare patients. Of course the doctor does not have to agree, but then the insurance companies would remove that doctor from their network. Do that often enough and you are out of patients.
The part I don't quite understand is what the medical provider can do about the write off. I'm guessing there is a tax break involved in some way, but I don't know for sure. Hospitals would benefit immensely given the huge discount they must provide. They also are legally bound to provide some "free" care, but the discount they must offer normal patients due to their insurance contracts is enormous, as you can see on the EOB's. You are an honorable man and would not want to have any medical debts hanging over your head. But, as you must know, you can negotiate those catastrophic charges. A lot of it can be forgiven because the healthcare provides have insurance to cover such losses and most likely get a tax write off for what the are not reimbursed.
The part I don't quite understand is what the medical provider can do about the write off. I'm guessing there is a tax break involved in some way, but I don't know for sure. Hospitals would benefit immensely given the huge discount they must provide. They also are legally bound to provide some "free" care, but the discount they must offer normal patients due to their insurance contracts is enormous, as you can see on the EOB's. You are an honorable man and would not want to have any medical debts hanging over your head. But, as you must know, you can negotiate those catastrophic charges. A lot of it can be forgiven because the healthcare provides have insurance to cover such losses and most likely get a tax write off for what the are not reimbursed.
Re: #DeleteFacebook
You are correct about the doctor write-off's. Up to a point though.
I forget the fancy letters, DRC or DRG codes for services performed.
Every service has a fixed rate associated with it, and although doctors can charge any rate they want, anything over the established fair rate is known as excess charges.
Even my own doctor, when I was buying insurance, told me not to buy the one that covers excess charges, because they cannot collect on them anymore, only about 5 to 7% of the excess up to only 3% over the nominal charge.
Now, if the DRG says the price of an exam is 175 dollars, regardless of what the doctor charges, which may be 200 dollars. Medicare only covers a certain amount for that particular exam, and it is not always a percentage of the DRG code amount.
This is why we have supplemental insurance, to cover some of what Medicare does not pay.
Medicare may pay 85 bucks, and your supplemental another 5 bucks, and you have a co-pay of 20 bucks.
The doctor has an allowable tax deduction for a 65 dollar LOSS, but cannot claim a LOSS on excess charges.
Medicare and insurance companies have this all figured out so that even with the doctors losses, they still benefit because of the tax deductions reducing the amount of tax they had to pay out if they did get their full fee.
So, when viewed that way, the doctors are neither losing money or making money on the set fees.
Technically, when all is said and done, there is only a 45 dollar difference which is yet another tax deduction on their personal income tax.
The veterinary industry has for years been trying to get in on this insurance price inflation game. Some are managing to pull it off with great success, but others can't seem to get by with upping their rates to meet the insurance companies minimum allowable fees before coverage, or should I say before they pay the vet.
I forget the fancy letters, DRC or DRG codes for services performed.
Every service has a fixed rate associated with it, and although doctors can charge any rate they want, anything over the established fair rate is known as excess charges.
Even my own doctor, when I was buying insurance, told me not to buy the one that covers excess charges, because they cannot collect on them anymore, only about 5 to 7% of the excess up to only 3% over the nominal charge.
Now, if the DRG says the price of an exam is 175 dollars, regardless of what the doctor charges, which may be 200 dollars. Medicare only covers a certain amount for that particular exam, and it is not always a percentage of the DRG code amount.
This is why we have supplemental insurance, to cover some of what Medicare does not pay.
Medicare may pay 85 bucks, and your supplemental another 5 bucks, and you have a co-pay of 20 bucks.
The doctor has an allowable tax deduction for a 65 dollar LOSS, but cannot claim a LOSS on excess charges.
Medicare and insurance companies have this all figured out so that even with the doctors losses, they still benefit because of the tax deductions reducing the amount of tax they had to pay out if they did get their full fee.
So, when viewed that way, the doctors are neither losing money or making money on the set fees.
Technically, when all is said and done, there is only a 45 dollar difference which is yet another tax deduction on their personal income tax.
The veterinary industry has for years been trying to get in on this insurance price inflation game. Some are managing to pull it off with great success, but others can't seem to get by with upping their rates to meet the insurance companies minimum allowable fees before coverage, or should I say before they pay the vet.
Re: #DeleteFacebook
The general idea in healthcare is the same as in any other business; maximize profits. There are incentives built into our system to be competitive and provide a high quality service or product. Those incentives are what drives the business people to do better than the competition so that the bottom line increases. A lot of people object to healthcare operating on the same level as other major corporations primarily because of the out of pocket expenses they must endure. It's true that our current system allows for price gouging and profiteering, but what is the alternative? The alternative is to put all healthcare into a single basket, you know, like Medicare for All. Doing that not only takes control of the prices at the end user level, but it also puts all the health care providers on equal footing. While that may sound good to you and me who end up paying next to nothing for drugs and healthcare, the providers would lose their incentive to do better. They would all be paid the same for their services after all. In other words they could not be allowed to maximize profits under those conditions.
Oddly enough only a few countries in the world do not have a national or centralized healthcare system for all their citizens. Both you and I hear stories about the downsides; all valid I might add. Apparently good healthcare is not a god-given right. Some people must do without.
Oddly enough only a few countries in the world do not have a national or centralized healthcare system for all their citizens. Both you and I hear stories about the downsides; all valid I might add. Apparently good healthcare is not a god-given right. Some people must do without.
Re: #DeleteFacebook
I know many who try to compare our healthcare system, especially Medicare with Socialized Medicine.
Sometimes it almost seems like they are right, hi hi. But their are alternatives, we do have choices.
And most of us do need more than Medicare provides, which is why we pay for supplemental insurance policies.
I have friends in countries with socialized medicine and they cover very little, you are on your own if you have something their hospital plans don't cover. The sad thing is, because medicine is socialized, they can't go out and buy supplemental insurance as we can here.
Sometimes it almost seems like they are right, hi hi. But their are alternatives, we do have choices.
And most of us do need more than Medicare provides, which is why we pay for supplemental insurance policies.
I have friends in countries with socialized medicine and they cover very little, you are on your own if you have something their hospital plans don't cover. The sad thing is, because medicine is socialized, they can't go out and buy supplemental insurance as we can here.