Verizon's Prepaid $0.99 a Day Theft Plan

So, I am just sitting here, minding my own business, when all of a sudden I get an IM from a friend of mine that just needs to be shared. (he wanted me to, which is why he told me about it.)

byte: I was checking out prepaid cell phones today online..
byte: and while I was at verizon's site, this popup thing came up on my end...
byte: wanna see the convo?
byte: lol
app: sure

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Please wait for a Verizon Wireless sales representative to assist you with your order. Thank you for your patience!

A Verizon Wireless online pre-sales specialist has joined the chat. You are now chatting with Kelly.

Kelly: Hello. Thank you for visiting our chat service. How may I help you today?
Kelly: Are you an existing Verizon Wireless customer?
You: No
You: I'm looking over the prepaid plans, and I'm wondering how Verizon thinks they can get away with charging $0.99 per day even if I were to not use the cell phone.
You: that's theft
Kelly: That is the access fee for that plan.
You: access fee for accessing nothing?
You: theft.
You: do you have a legal degree, or is there a lawyer present?
Kelly: No, there is not lawyer here.
You: I was honestly considering a prepaid phone through Verizon - until I read that your company will be stealing $0.99 per day EVEN if I DON'T use the phone. Then, unfortunately for you, this jackassy pop-up came popping up, asking me if I wanted to talk to someone.
You: sorry you were there to catch the brunt of it.
You: I have STRONG reason to suspect that I will be going with another provider OTHER than Verizon.
You: sheerly due to the fact that no matter if I use the phone or not, I'll be charged $0.99 each day.
You: a $15 card would last how long at that rate?
You: just shy of 15 days?
You: yet it expires in how many days?
You: that's gotta be deceptive advertising
You: a $15 card will NEVER last 30 days.
You: not with you all stealing $0.99 each and every day even if the phone ISN'T USED!
You: Cingular at least is kind enough to not commit such theft.
You: TMobile is nicer as well
You: what do I get with Verizon?
You: what is the "party-bonus" that I get if I go with Verizon and your theft plan?
You: *prepaid plan
You: my mistake
Kelly: We do offer the in calling and night calling free with that plan.
You: ok - anything else?
You: what are "ringback tones?"
Kelly: That is tones that the person calling you hears before you answer your phone.
You: alright
You: well, I have to say that it seems as if Verizon's prepaid plans are, for lack of a better word, flat-out theft from the pocket phones of the prepaid world.
You: even if I don't use it, I get charged?
You: what the fudge?
You: who was smoking what when this idea came around?
You: You see, I'm not a phone addict like you would wish I were... are there any plans which won't charge me even if I don't use the phone? prepaid plans?
Kelly: WE do have the Easy pay plan that allow you 350 minutes for $50.00 per month pre pay.
You: do you have any plans comparable to the $29.99 prepaid cards (which aparently, with your company's theft of $0.99 per day even if the phone isn't used, would only last 1 month anyhow)?
Kelly: No, unfortunately we do not.
You: ok, well thank your supervisor for this jackassy popup appearing on my end, and for your company offering what appears to be crappy prices and theft. in the mean time, I would like to thank you for working for complete and total morons who probably figure no one reads the fine print.
You: I hope you have a very nice day - honestly I do.

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byte: that poor gal prolly never expected it
byte: damned jackassy popups
byte: "Do you want to talk with a representative?"
byte: no, but since you're bothering me with a popup, fucker, sure.
byte: right now, I'm thinking about Cingular for a prepaid
byte: I haven't talked with tmobile yet
byte: not extensively enough to decide
byte: it's gotta be better than Verizon's theft plan
byte: *prepaid plan

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I really do need to start another blog...a group one...for the occasional ranters among my friends. That way they can have their own place for this and won't have to borrow my blog. (lol)

Introducing Laggy the Snail

I got an attack of creativity earlier today and this little character was the result.

I made a couple of posts on the DonationCoder forum that were from the same site. Normally, I would include a screenshot of the web page in case mouser wants to blog it.

The problem was, if he decided to blog both, the pages were similar enough that they could be mistaken as being the same image. It wouldn't look right on the blog.

One of them linked to an article about a throttled proxy for the purpose of web designers being able to see what the experience of visiting their site would be for dialup users, at various speeds.

Something about the content of that article hit close to home and made me think of all the time I was stuck on dialup with the old P1.

So I opened up Paintshop Pro and started playing around.

I took a photo of the monitor from my old P1 computer and a screenshot of Firefox from this computer, combined it with some text and drew the snail's body with my mouse.

Like magic, this little guy appeared on my screen. I think he is cute and has a lot of personality. My daughter named him Laggy.

Laggy moves at a blazing dialup speed of 33.6k. He doesn't talk, verbally. Every idea and feeling he wants to express, appears on his monitor. Read his screen and you basically read his mind.

I plan to continuing working on this idea and improving it as much as I can, although I don't think it will get much better than it is right now.

I wish I was as good of a digital artist as nudone. Maybe I will throw this idea in his direction and see if he wants to take the idea and expand on it. I think it could become something great in the hands of someone with real talent and skill. Laggy could be the perfect compliment to Cody...a sort of side kick or friend.

Halo theme: Corpomix

If you didn't get enough of Corporeal in my last post, here is some more:

If you would like to download the MP3, of this, they have it here on their website: http://www.corporealmusic.net/forthehalofans

3 Guys, 1 Guitar

This 3 members of the progressive rock band Corporeal, from Libertyville, Illinois...all playing the same guitar at the same time.

The song is called 'All We Got'.

Pretty cool stuff!

Time Bug

Anybody that knows me knows I am obsessed with clocks and timers. So naturally I am going to tell you when there is a major bug that could upset how accurate your clocks are.

In 2005 a new law was passed that changed the start of Daylight Savings Time from the first Sunday in April to the second Sunday in March, in the US. This is 3 weeks earlier than it used to be. Canada will be following the US and will also be changing the date as well.

Software created before this law was passed has the potential for screwing up. And computers aren't the only devices that can be affected by this...your old VCR or wrist watch has the potential of having problems too. Any device that contains a clock that adjusts for Daylight Savings Time can be affected.

Some older operating systems that are affected (Windows 95, 98, ME, 2K) are not longer supported and there is no patch available to correct it (if you know of a good 3rd party one, leave the link in a comment). For these operating systems, you will have to turn off the automatic time adjustment and fix it manually when the change is supposed to occur.

For those running XP, there will be a patch available that will be sent out as an automatic update on Tuesday. You will need to have Service Pack 2 in order to receive this update.

Vista users are immune, as that operating system was created after 2005 and doesn't have this bug.

You can still be affected by this bug even if your operating system is patched, corrected, immune....other people may not have fixed theirs. Be very careful about trusting times for meetings and appointments from March 11 to April 1...confirm them and make sure everyone's clocks are synchronized, otherwise there could be problems with people showing up at the wrong time.

Also, avoid any type of transactions where the date is important within an hour of midnight, unless you know the system that will be recording the transaction is corrected. This means that your transactions could be recorded with the wrong date if you are not careful. Don't put off paying your car insurance till the last moment or you could find yourself with a lapsed policy.

Also be aware that any software that you use to update the time on your PC automatically, will need to be patched. Please check with the company that released that software for a patch or newer version. Most of these programs check with an official time server that gives the time in GMT and the software just subtracts time based on the date. If the date used in the software is wrong, your clock will be wrong.