Don’t Shop at Haverty’s

I’m writing this quick post out of anger and as a warning to my friends and those who read this blog.

In March, when I decided to move, I realized that I needed an entertainment center for the 60″ flat screen TV that until then had sat on a shelf above my fireplace.  I went to Haverty’s and got a line of credit so I could buy something of good quality.  Haverty’s assured me that I was getting 12 months same as cash.  Fine.  I knew that I’d have to pay this off by March of 2010 or pay some very hefty interest, not just as of next March but all the way back to the date of my original purchase.

Earlier this month I went back to buy a desk and file cabinet, since my old ones did not fare well in the move and certainly would not survive another move.  I was offered the same deal–12 months with no interest.  For the desk and file cabinet, I had until October 2010 before I would have to pay interest.

This month I got a notice in the mail that Haverty’s is changing the agreement.  As of December, I’m being charged 26%.  Fortunately, I decided to pay off my credit debt off prior to moving, so I no longer owe Haverty’s anything, but I’m still angry.  This is not what I agreed to.  Haverty’s, having sucked me in with the great deal, changes the deal thinking I’ll have no choice but to pay an outrageous interest rate.

Do not buy furniture at Haverty’s.  This company doesn’t deserve anyone’s business.

 

 

 

The End

I’ve been thinking for a while about what to title this post; what metaphorical phrase fits?  The bitter end?  The last straw?  I can’t make up my mind.  Perhaps just “the end” is best.

This weekend I sat alone in a theater, after getting the lamest of excuses from a friend I’d invited to come with me, watching The Invention of Lying.  I had heard that it pokes fun at religion–it does–but what I didn’t realize is that I would see  in the story a bitter truth about my own life.  Ricky Gervais’ character was desperately in love with Jennifer Garner’s character, yet she doesn’t consider him worthy of her because he’s fat.

When I say I was alone, I don’t just mean that I didn’t have a friend to see the movie with.  I’ve seen a movie every Friday since moving to my apartment, all of them alone.  But this Friday I was the only person in the theater.  It occurred to me that this is what my life is here in Virginia–sitting alone in a  dark, empty place.

I’m afraid that if I stay here I’m going to die.

When Hal died, I considered moving closer to my family, but although I would have them nearby, I wouldn’t have anyone or anything else, and I worried that I would miss my dojo and my friends.  But the best of my friends is dead, and I’ve left my dojo.

As I sat in the theater, depressed by the happy ending, I decided that the time has come to go to Colorado.  It’s said that home is a place where when you show up they have to take you in; I won’t exactly be going home (I grew up in Texas), nor will I be showing up on my sister’s front porch needing to be taken in.  I’ll be renting an apartment in Denver, I think.  Still, I’m sure the feeling will be much the same.

A Very Good Week and (I expect) a Great Weekend

After 5 days on the correct version of my medication, I can look back on a very good week.  I did some work for my Walt, put bids in on some freelance work (didn’t get them, but that’s a separate step), got to the dojo three times and the gym twice (!!) and lost a couple of pounds. I even worked on one of my novels this week.  I had a bad night on Wednesday, but on the whole it’s been a very productive week.  I almost feel like a normal person.

This post is a quick one because something else has happened that has made me appreciate being unemployed and without any connections or obligations.  A friend from my writers group, who has been reading my blog, understands what I’m going through and offered to be a sympathetic ear if I need one, invited me to spend a couple of days on the Outer Banks with her family.  She was supposed to have friends coming in from Connecticut, but they couldn’t make it.  They paid their share of the house rental anyway, so she offered their bedroom to me.

I’m immensely grateful to her for thinking of me and wanting to do what she can to help me feel better.

I went out this morning and bought a GPS.  I’ve wanted one for a while, and this trip gives me an excuse to get one.  I’ve spent the evening posting an article on Examiner.com and getting ready for the trip.  I’m going to do something I haven’t done in several years; I’m leaving my laptop at home.

Just a Little Code

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On Complaining

On Sunday I passed a class that will allow me to carry a concealed firearm.  I shot 270 out of 300 on the range, a full 60 points more than the minimum passing score.

I’ve never felt the need to own a firearm.  I feel safe at home and in the town where I live.  But if I’m going to move across the country in a year or so, I’m going to want one. A woman driving across six states alone, not knowing anyone and no one knowing her–who would notice if she simply went missing?  So I bought a .38 last month and plan to shoot it every week so I can be very comfortable with it by the time I set out on this drive.

The problem is, this makes me a part of a group that I would otherwise want nothing to do with–the gun culture people.  Judging from the instructor and the others in the class I took, these are ultra right-wingers, conservative to the point of bigotry and far too macho for my taste. In 6 hours I got about 2 hours of decent instruction on the legalities and responsibilities of carrying a concealed weapon; the rest was posturing and war stories from the instructor, a retired police officer.  Most disturbing was his advice on how to skirt around the laws regarding carrying and using a firearm.

Yes, I own a gun.  No, I’m not one of those people.

On the Heartlessness of a Bank

Maybe I’m just not remembering it right, but it seems that this week has been the hardest since the week after Hal died.

During the first few months, I was busy.  There were days when I couldn’t stop crying, when I went all day without getting dressed, and when I wondered if I could really survive losing Hal, but there were also things that needed to be done.  As grim as they were, tasks like completing insurance forms, canceling Hal’s credit cards and selling his truck actually helped to fill my days.  After the new year I spent almost four months juggling my volunteer work with AARP Tax-Aide and my writing job.  My days had a purpose, a momentum that kept me from being too depressed.

When I got home from my trip, I set a new routine for myself and got to back to–and the quotes are necessary here–”normal life.”  This is how it was going to be for me, I thought.  This is my sad and lonely life now.  But after just a week, I’m not sure how I’m going to stand it.

The Department of Motor Vehicles informed me by letter that I had to re-register my truck under my own name.  So on Thursday I set out to do that.  The problem is that my truck is really Hal’s truck–his name is on the title, which is in the possession of my bank until the loan is paid.  My first stop, then, was at the local branch to assume the loan.  But my bank refused to let me do it.

The funny thing is, that they have been accepting my loan payments for the last seven months without complaint.  As long as they were getting their money they were happy, I guess.

I explained to more than one customer service representative that I had to take over the loan to register the truck or I wouldn’t be able to drive it after June 30.  They didn’t care.  Can I take out a new loan under my own name?  Sure, the branch manager told me, but at twice the interest rate and another $200 per month.  I began to cry.  No one at the bank even had a tissue to offer me.

It seems that they’re only interested in offering me options that translate to more money for the bank.  I can take out the more expensive loan or I can give up the truck.  And here’s the strangest thing:  If I were “upside down” on my truck, I could simply default on the loan and let the bank repossess it and sell it at a loss.  It wouldn’t affect my credit at all–it’s Hal’s credit rating that would suffer.  But I can’t do the responsible thing and continue to make the monthly payments in hopes of owning my own truck.  I can’t even sell the damned thing, because it isn’t mine.

The bank is Suntrust.  Apparently, all this is just their policy.

So I went to Wachovia and spoke to their branch manager.  She was horrified at my treatment at Suntrust and helped me apply for a line of credit that would let me pay off Suntrust without wrecking my budget (which I have to stick to because I’m on a fixed income now).  While I was there I opened a checking and savings account.  As soon as I get my checks in the mail, I’m going to use them to sever my my 20-year relationship with Suntrust.

The branch manager at Wachovia was very helpful, and I’m grateful to her and to the friend who arranged for us to meet.  But it has not erased the pain of Suntrust’s indifference.  And so I sit at my computer, still awake at 1 a.m., trying to purge my feelings by making this blog entry and drinking sangria in the hope that I eventually will be able to go to bed tonight.

On Coping with Frustration

Frustration can be hard to deal with, especially when it involves your computer. Things that are supposed to work suddenly stop working, and the help file is no help. Technical support is nonexistent or costs money, leaving you floundering.  The hours pass while you try to solve your problem, hours when you could have been working or watching TV or just going outside. You gain a new appreciation for the idea that the computer, which is supposed to be a great time-saving device, isn’t.  All the time you saved is suddenly erased by the time you have to spend dealing with your computer problem.

When you’re grieving a loss and trying to deal with your life on your own, this type of frustration is even worse.  I spent most of yesterday in tears because my Quicken software stopped working correctly.  Instead of getting some writing done or preparing for my trip to visit family, I spent 5 hours trying to solve the problem myself, 3 chatting with technical support, and finally 12 hours re-entering four months of financial data in Microsoft Money. My Quicken data–several years worth–is lost.

Here’s the letter I wrote to the CEO of Intuit, which makes Quicken.  It also talks about my problems with using Turbo Tax, another Intuit product, and another source of tears of frustration in the last week.

May 1, 2008

Scott David Cook, Chief Executive Officer

Dear Mr. Cook:

I want a refund for my purchase of Quicken Home & Business 2008 and Turbo Tax Federal and State 2007. Both the programs have caused me a great deal of trouble, forcing me to abandon them for other software.

I paid $89.99 for Quicken on September 19, 2007 and $89.95 for Turbo Tax on January 29, 2008.

I have used Quicken for several years, and began having trouble in the last year or two. After successfully downloading transactions into my accounts for days or weeks, I would suddenly find that my transactions failed to appear in the tab that would allow me to compare them to my register. Calls to technical support eventually led me to the online services tab in the account overview, and I would have to periodically disconnect the connection to the bank in order to download my transactions. This happened over and over.

After upgrading to the 2008 package, the problem happened again. This time the transactions would appear in the online center rather than the register tab, but I could not get them to compare to my register. Instead, they would remain in the online center, and nothing I did could get them out. Because the transactions were there, I could not sever my connection to the bank in online services, leaving me with no way to correct the problem.

I then tried to reload Quicken from the disk, but I found my unlock code no longer worked. I chatted with Pankaj Mishra, who directed me to the free download site, but the program wouldn’t install. She directed me to the Windows cleanup utility and had me rename my Quicken folder in an attempt to get the software to install, but nothing worked. I later chatted with Honey Gautam, who wanted to take the same steps, but again, this was no help. As a result, I have no Quicken software on my system, no way to get it to install on my system, and years of financial data I can no longer access.

I had considered changing to Microsoft Money some months ago, but my Quicken data wouldn’t import correctly. This time, I was left with no choice. I had to accept that my old data was lost, and spent 12 hours (after 8 hours trying to solve the Quicken problem) inputting 4 months of financial data manually. I am now a Microsoft Money customer.

I also had problems with Turbo Tax this year. I was surprised at the hefty fee I had to pay for the privilege of e-filing, and at that moment resolved not to use Turbo Tax next year. However, when I had to amend my return, I discovered that the software is designed to lead me to e-file my amendment for another $17.95, rather than print a 1040x I could mail. I managed to get the 1040x to print, but I didn’t know that even though I added new data to my Turbo Tax file, it did not update my state tax return correctly. As a result, one of my tax credits was denied and I was billed for additional taxes. Further, because I used Turbo Tax, noone at my local or state tax offices could help me resolve the problem. I eventually had to refile my state taxes using pencil and paper.

Considering the loss of years of financial data, and the fact that I had to abandon Turbo Tax altogether to get my state taxes straightened out, I think the least your company can do is refund $179.94 to me. This will allow me to pay for a Microsoft Money software package.

I am greatly disappointed by your products, especially with the fact that the problem with downloading transactions is well-known to you (judging from your knowledge base and forums on the Internet), but you have not corrected it. Turbo Tax has become a money-making scheme; between the cost of the software and the price of e-filing, it is no longer a bargain over a paid tax preparation service. I will not use either product again.

Sincerely,

Something Unrelated

This is not normally what my blog is about, but I was infuriated about what is being done to a young and talented artist.

Each year, the Virginian-Pilot, a newspaper serving the Hampton Roads area of Virginia, holds an art contest for students. This year, the jurors–the contest judges–chose a nude self-portrait by Nancy Reid, 17, as the winner.  However, the newspaper’s publisher, Bruce Bradley, deemed it inappropriate, so he told the jurors to choose another winner. Aaron De Groft, director of the Muscarelle Museum of Art at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, resigned in protest. Bradley then turned to another juror, Scott Howe, who is the education director at the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, and told him to pick another winner.  He chose a sculpture, a torso of a nude and pregnant woman called “To Embrace Life” by Jasmine Childs, but Bradley would not allow this selection to win either. Ultimately the paper’s marketing and advertising department picked the winner, a collage.

At stake was a $1,000 cash prize and the ability of Miss Reid to list her win on her resume.

Fortunately, Miss Reid has received donations from individuals who were also infuriated by this censorship, and this shameful incident may serve her better than having won when it comes to her pursuit of a career as an artist.  Still, this censorship is inexcusable.

To see a photograph of Miss Reid’s painting and read an article by Tamara Dietrich, who writes for the Daily Press, another Virginia newspaper, go to http://www.dailypress.com/dp-news_tamara_0409apr09,0,190651.column