Holy cow, I hope you have a lot more quotes lined up. When I went through this in my house, I ultimately found a fellow (sole proprietor) whose rate was a fraction of what the larger outfits charged. Solved my problem, which no one else had been able to do over several years. I found him through my NextDoor group.
The “AHA!” moment for me with Dweezil was the first time I took him to a playgroup after Moon Unit was born. While I was pregnant, I was still working full time, then I was on bedrest, then Moon Unit, as a preemie, didn’t need to be around 3-foot-tall walking petri dishes. So I had literally not seen him around other kids for about 8 or 9 months.
The mom hosting that one did a game where there were pictures of cartoon characters in a circle on the floor. She’d play some music, the kids would walk around, and when she stopped she’d ask “Who’s next to Big Bird?” or something like that. The child in question would say “I am!”
I realized that I literally could not imagine Dweezil having that kind of interaction. I told my husband that night that I thought we needed to get him seen by someone. He pooh-poohed it - Terrible Twos run in his family after all - but 2 days later we were at a birthday party, and Dweezil was not participating and was basically running away; we left early, and were sitting in the car and he turned to me and said “Make the call”.
Dweezil simply did not converse - pragmatic speech, I think the term is. His vocabulary and pronunciation were spot-on - possibly ahead for his age, which masked the other issues. I had no clue. In hindsight, there were a LOT of red flags - his stunningly poor sleep from day 1. If he got upset, he became completely, utterly unreachable. He’d freak about the weirdest things, like the time we tried to take him on a train ride at a local park (note that this kid loved trains more than anything).
I likened it to someone being plunked on another planet, with people who didn’t speak the same language and didn’t even have the same physiology as us puny humans. None of this Holland versus Italy bullshit - we got a kid from a gas giant around Alpha Centauri.
When you have to send me a passcode to log into my account on your password, do you think you could position the cursor in the box where I’m supposed to enter the passcode? I mean, where else would I need to enter anything on that page?
Also: Stop prohibiting the pasting of my password into your login and license activation dialogues. It recently took me about five tries to activate an old license on a computer I just restored, because (a) I couldn’t paste the password from the order confirmation email, and (b) I couldn’t see the characters I was typing. It was a completely random non-memorizable password like 352OBE55Z2.
xFinity Home Security: Downloaded security cam clips have no running timestamp. You can’t see when something happened while you’re actually watch the video. Isn’t the running timestamp a very basic feature of security camera footage? I belive it is. xFinity, you suck.
That’s some serious Yikes! I hope you get some more reasonable ones.
One of my quotes came in at $950. Yay! It always amazes me how quotes can be so widely varied for the same work. I had already checked out the companies on Nextdoor and they all had many recommendations. I don’t always go with the lowest bid but I’m good with that this time.
The hospital I was at can’t do the endoscopic ultrasound with biopsy I need done, and they said they couldn’t send me to another hospital in the same group where it is done because for some reason my insurance isn’t accepted there.
Instead, they referred me to a doctor in the University of Pennsylvania Health System and said to get an appointment within 3 days.
It’s been 10 days now and still no appointment. My doctor is trying to get one scheduled but for some reason the people at UPenn can’t get off their thumbs. They had promised her that I’d be getting a phone call for an appointment yesterday, but I never heard from them.
It probably didn’t help that the original hospital referred me to a doctor who doesn’t work in the office I was referred to and that the doctor doesn’t do the procedure I need. My doc had chased down the right group and they were the ones supposedly calling me yesterday.
Meantime I’d hoped to go back to work part-time Monday and found to my dismay that I couldn’t even do that.
This sucks in so many ways.
I am less than pleased.
quite often, those types of companies are not “cost+” driven in their pricing, but tend to charge based on their “free capacity” … printhouses are notorious for that …
their reasoning seems to be “i am pretty full with work, and if I take anything else in it better be worth it” … your second quote quote company … might be very idle at the moment … and thus fishing for business to keep the lights on.
I have had some (recurring) print jobs quoted nearly quarterly and the prices were all over the place (from the same 3-4 companies)
I had to watch printing costs back in the day, and our favorite (huge) printer was very honest about “supply and demand of their time”. I did a few press checks at 2 am because they were going to have a slow night,so wegot a discount.
And one time they said “You might want to get a quote from CMYKowalski (two-person shop). We’re so busy we’d just job it out to them.”
Well, in this case the quotes vary because the amount and type of work they do varies. We just can’t afford to do it the “best” way.
That company will inspect every inch of your house, seal up anything that might be a crack (~100 yr old house), capture the critters live, find their nests, fumigate/deodorize, then come back and do it again and give you a lifetime guarantee. All for $4,000 per species.
Yes! I was filling out a form for the school district this morning and the question was “at what age did he start using two word sentences?” “Me go” etc. I was like… I don’t think ever? He just has this vast repertoire of memorized phrases. Sometimes he busts out with spontaneous sentences, such as, “I put my socks in the hamper!” But he’s not really communicating with that kind of speech. His communications are a single word or short phrase that he’s memorized. “Fix it!” “All done eating!” “Another song!” But it was so easy to miss it because he had so much rote memorization. He can identify and pronounce triceratops and pterodactyl for god’s sake.
(This has humorous effect sometimes. We’ve been having trouble getting him to sleep at night, as he FINALLY figured out he can sneak out of his room, so we’ve been having to direct him back to bed several times at night. Last night he padded out into the living room and announced, “Go to bed, Miles!”)
We’ve always seen some signs but it really seems on overdrive lately. The stims alone are MUCH more obvious. Thank GOD I finally heard back from the school district and they think they can get him in for an evaluation in less than a month. I just filled out an assload of paperwork.
Finally I have a true mini-rant. I call bullshit on Panera’s “You Pick Two” menu. This used to be a way to get your meals at a discount, but lately it’s gotten outrageously expensive, I don’t even think they are discounting anything. $16 for a turkey sandwich and some mac and cheese?! Also their app now has this annoying pop-up for a “Frequent Sippers Monthly Subscription” which makes me want to throw things.
I hadn’t been in a Panera in a while, and was in a hurry, so I ran in and ordered a Pick Two sandwich and salad.
“That’ll be $16.” (just like Weasy! I swear it was less than a tenner last time I did that)
“Whaaaat…? Is that any cheaper than ordering them separately?”
“I dunno… [apathetic shrug]”
Out of curiosity I started an online order with my local Panera Bread and decided to see what it cost for a classic pairing; cup of tomato soup and half a grilled cheese sandwich.
Buying them separately cost $14.62.
Using Pick Two and adding the same items cost $12.42.
Not a massive price difference, but not an insignificant one either.
Let’s say I got a small mac and cheese and a half size turkey deli sandwich. Buying them separately costs $16.60. If I were to do the same pairing as a Pick Two, it instead costs $13.96. (And that includes our local sales tax which is just over 10%.)
If the prices are the same at the restaurant you were at, it does seem like the cashier didn’t ring you up properly. (Assuming you didn’t add a drink or something else that cost extra.)
Did you get that annoying pop-up? It takes up the whole phone screen every time and I have to X out of it. I hate the idea of any kind of subscription to do with a restaurant. It’s bad enough you have to subscribe to software now, but restaurants doing it too is a bridge too far for me.
Nope, then again I’m not on my phone, I was on their web site in Edge on my PC. No pop-ups at all. It was actually one of the better web sites I’ve used for an online order. It was well-organized and not hard to find the items I was searching for.
My right hand has a tremor now when it lifts something ( on occasion ) and my right leg is weaker when I climb the stairs. My right eyelid sometimes has a tremor also.
My Dr. has said that I’ve had a a few mini-stroke in the past, which scares me because both of my parents died of strokes.
I feel as though I’m in some trench almost 100 years ago with some Sgt. telling me to
“Smoke 'em if I’ve got 'em.”
Seriously sucky. I hope things change soon.
Update: I heard from my mother-in-law late this morning - calling from her house phone.
Apparently it took longer for the technician to arrive than expected, because he went to 123 Sycamore Street versus 123 Maple Lane (names made up, but you get the picture). MIL said she was… not polite on the phone with AT&T.
The person from corporate called me back today, and I confirmed that things had indeed been fixed - but I mentioned the address problem. He said “The system says it’s 123 Sycamore Street”. I said "No, it’s 123 Maple Lane. They have lived there for years. They get bills there. Their account shows the bills are fully paid. ".
:::clickety clickety click:::
“Oh, I see. The billing address is 123 Maple Lane. The SERVICE address is 123 Sycamore Street”. I assured him that Sycamore Street was not, and never had been, their address.
He said he’d refer it to the appropriate department for correction. I asked him to make sure they didn’t TURN OFF THE SERVICE at the correct address. I am not holding my breath.
I will check daily until I see it’s corrected. And that they still have service. Of note, the other address does exist, and is in their same huge 55+ community.
MIL repeatedly says “We have been AT&T customers for over 60 years” and “Tell them there’s a heart patient and a cancer patient at this address” thinking that this should count for something… and in an ideal world, it would. But even she is ready to throw in the towel if AT&T screws them again.
Good ol’ echolalia.
Dweezil used to say “Hide me, can you find me?”. We were baffled - until one day when we were visiting his preschool, and there was a toy with popup figures, that said that.
I hadn’t thought of that and it does indeed seem to be the case here. I was expecting to get the work done in the next week or so but the owner called this morning and had a crew out this afternoon. They were very efficient and had the work done in just a couple hours. (Removing three diseased limbs and elevating the canopy.) They just finished cleaning up and I’m quite pleased with their service. And now the cats can come out of hiding. 
It’s official: 2023 sucks and I want my money back Unfortunately we are past the 30 day cutoff for returns.
A cousin died of glioblastoma a couple days ago. Funeral is Monday. FIL had a stroke late last night. I’m afraid to adk what happens next.
I am so very sorry for your loss… and for the rolling tragedy that is 2023.
If I could, I’d take 2023 outside and beat it with a stick…
Oh @Mama_Zappa! Jeebus your situation can’t get much crappier can it?
My sincere condolences on your cousin and sympathies for FIL. In fairness, both situations had really crappy trajectories, so this is more a matter of when something happened rather than whether it would happen.
Which doesn’t make it easy but might make it a little bit easier.
Here’s a {{{hug}}} or three. You need 'em.