Woah! We have a blog!

So, Todd and I have been pretty terrible at keeping this updated. I think that a lot of it stems from the fact that we've gotten in our own comfortable routine. There's nothing super exciting, so we don't feel that we have anything to blog about. But that's all changed! I injured my back!

While at work on Tuesday, I was asking a child to get down from climbing a shelf. I gave the child a choice to be safe and get down from the shelf or Teacher Ashlee was going to help him be safe and get down from the shelf. The child did not respond to me (which is normal for this particular child when he knows he's not following directions). So I wrapped my arms around him in an effort to lift him off the shelf. As soon as my arms were around him, the child collapsed in my arms (also not an unusual behavior for this child). I wasn't quite prepared for this and I felt something really strange in my left shoulder blade. It hurt at the time, but it didn't floor me or anything. I told my CDA what had happened and went through the rest of the day (only about another 2 hours). After work, I called my manager just to give her a heads up, since that's what we were advised to do at a recent personal injury training.

The next morning (Wednesday), my back still hurt and my manager advised me to go to the health clinic and get it checked out. Once the doctor started poking and prodding and asking me to move, I realized that this little back injury might be worse than I thought at first. The doctor agreed and prescribed anti-inflammatory pills and Vicodin and then told me to go see the physical therapist next door. They hooked my back up to electrode things and ran electricity through it for a bit while icing it. I scheduled another therapy appointment for Friday morning and a doctor's visit afterwards.

The next two days were spent at home. I didn't do much and Todd had to help me with lifting anything heavy. On Friday I once again returned to the clinic, went through therapy (this time they actually made me work and it really made sore!), and talked with the doctor again. My back still wasn't feeling better and, in fact, I started having severe pain spasms through my back. The doctor prescribed me some muscle relaxant and told me we would see how I felt on Monday.

So, the weekend has passed. My back is still really sore but there's not sharp pain when I move anymore. I'm hoping I am cleared to go back to work on Monday, though I cringe at the thought of little kiddos hugging me too tightly or, heaven forbid, jumping on me. I don't know how much I can lift and I really want to make sure that I take care of this injury completely.

Here's to hoping one more day of rest brings about a recovery!

Resolution

So, I received a phone call today from the Executive Resolutions Office of Cox Communications.

It seems that they start to listen when the Better Business Bureau registers a complaint for them. I talk to the lady this morning and she called before I was done with work to day that the documentation had been found, the payments credited to our account, and all late fees removed.

However, through my bank I'm apparently supposed to have a conference call with Cox to clarify why this issue took so long to resolve. I also plan on continuing my conversation with the Executive Resolutions Office regarding this.

I would post about my first two days of school, but I still need time to process.

Let's See What Happens Now...

Complaint Submitted

Your complaint has been submitted.. The complaint has been transferred to the local BBB to be handled in their system. You may wish to copy or print this information for further reference. Press OK when ready. 

The complaint is being handled by the BBB listed below. Please contact them with any questions. BBB of Central, Northern & Western Arizona (Phoenix, AZ) 4428 N. 12th Street  Phoenix , AZ 85014-4585 Phone: (602)264-1721 Fax: (602)263-0997 Email: info@arizonabbb.org Web: http://arizonabbb.org

Playing Host & Hostess

Over the weekend Ashlee and I cleaned house some, and that was partly because we had company. Last night Pat and Wanda came over for homemade pizza and today Nicole (from TFA) was treated to Ashlee's red pepper pasta.

Our plan for pizza was simple. We would use our bread machine to make the dough and then put our favorite toppings on it. We aren't particularly fancy: mushrooms, pepperoni, mozzarella, bell peppers, and pasta sauce. We've done this at home before, but this time we needed to cook for four, so we doubled the dough recipe to allow for two small/medium-ish pizzas. One hour and fifty minutes later, we opened the machine to find pizza dough soup. It was about the consistency of Elmer's glue, and sticky, of course. We were already running a bit late, so I hopped in the car with Pat and drove to the grocery store and bought their pizza dough instead. In the meantime, Ashlee turned the bread machine back on for another dough cycle. We eventually got the pizzas made and baked, although they were still a bit doughy, and had a decent meal. Wanda's strawberry Jello and pretzel dessert was a great way to finish.

After our guests left, Ashlee and I tried to salvage the pizza dough (that was processed twice) by adding some flower and rolling it into bread sticks.

That brings us to this evening, when we had Ashlee's red pepper sauce with chicken over rotini pasta. It was delicious as usual. We used the bread sticks instead of French bread or something similar. They may not have been quite as good as those at the Olive Garden, but they were pretty tasty for being salvaged. Our dessert tonight looked something like this:

There's a bit of a story behind the brownies.

Routine Update

Todd and I are still dealing with Cox Communications and that whole fiasco. After I submitted the "Grrrr" letter, I received this response:

Dear Mr. Hoffmann:

Thank you for your recent e-mail to Cox Communications regarding the recent misapplied payments. We apologize for the delay in our response.

We regret any inconvenience that this may be causing. In order to further investigate the misapplied payments and be able to properly place the payments on your account, we will need a transmittal report from your bank for the payments.

You can fax the transmittal report to the attention of the Misapplied Payments department at (623)322-7500. Once we receive the transmittal report, we will be able to further assist you with the misapplied payments.

Regretfully, we are not able to locate the payments using your bank statements.

Again, we apologize for any inconvenience that this may be causing.

Thank you again for contacting us via e-mail. Please let us know if we can be of further assistance.

Sincerely,

James

E-Care Specialist

Cox Communications - Arizona

It's patently obvious that James didn't really read through my letter. Otherwise, he would have been aware of the fact that the bank did fax our transmittal reports to Cox on July 20, 2010. Eleven days later...no update. But, rather than bore you with a bit more ranting on that topic, I thought I would provide some insight into what's happening here now that our summer routine has come to an end.

As many of you know, I've returned to work. This is my second, and final, year of teaching. I'm feeling so much better this year than I did last year. I understand the paperwork, the agency, the expectations, and the classroom. I have regular interactions with some of the incoming Early Childhood Education TFA teachers and honestly, I don't know if I could go through a first year again. Mine wasn't very difficult, but it certainly was a lot of work. There's so much that you're expected to learn and assimilate in such a short amount of time. On top of that, you attend so many trainings that your mind sometimes feel like it's about to explode. So if any of my transition team members are reading this - Just hang on! It will get better, I promise.

I have a new CDA (Child Development Assistant) this year. My CDA from last year was promoted and, while I'm sad that we're not together this year, I'm very happy for her! Congratulations Fari!

My new CDA is great. I have to admit that I was nervous at first when I found out that I wouldn't be working with Fari. But that worry was completely unfounded. My new CDA's name is Araceli (isn't that a pretty name?). We have a good working relationship and I am so blessed to have such wonderful people to work with. Celeste and I are planning out our classroom and I'm excited for this upcoming year. I feel like the foundation I have is strong and that great things will be happening in my classroom. Araceli and I have done almost all of our home-visits, so I've had the chance to meet my incoming students. It will be a challenging year, but I'm looking forward to it. And, to top it all off, we're keeping our paperwork organized this year!

Since starting work again, Todd and I have returned to our normal routine. The summer was great because I had free time, but the routine is nice too. Today we cleaned the house and the pool and rearranged some furniture. We're about to sit down to some chicken enchiladas and enjoy our evening. Todd is still doing research for his PhD at ASU. Right now, our biggest complaint is the humidity - it's getting into monsoon season, so the rain is coming. Humidity + Phoenix heat = Ugh. But I still love it here!

What is that sound!?!

Is it.....?

Can it be....?

It is! It is!

IT'S RAINING!

A Letter of Frustration

I posted this on my blog last night, but then I realized that it really belongs on this blog. So this is a re-post of our letter to Cox Communications:

To Whom It May Concern:

My husband and I have been dealing with an issues regarding two misapplied payments. This issue has been ongoing since we received notice on June 3, 2010 that our May 2010 payment was not credited to our account. As soon as we were notified of this, we called Cox Communications (623-594-1000) to rectify the situation. The $46.95 for that month had been deducted from our account by Cox Communications, so we began dealing with the Misapplied Payments department at that time.

As per the advice of the customer service representative, we sent a fax to Cox Communications the relevant information on our bank statement so that this problem could be rectified. We also corrected the account information we had in our online bill-pay profile so that this would not occur with subsequent payments. It was at this time that we scheduled the June payment. Concerned about getting this situation resolved, we called back to make sure that Cox Communications had everything it needed to fix the problem. I was assured that this was the case and that Misapplied Payments would be able to track down the payment and credit it to our account within 24-72 hours. I informed the customer service representative that I had scheduled the June payment as normal, confident that the May payment would be applied to our account.

The problem was not resolved. Our service was disconnected. Alarmed, we immediately called customer service to find out what was going on with our account. We were informed that our account had an overdue balance on it. I told the customer service representative the situation (that the May payment was supposedly being dealt with by misapplied payments and that the June payment had been scheduled). Our service was reconnected and the service fee was waived.

Later, we received another communication from Cox, noting that our account had a overdue balance. When we called Cox Communications, we were informed that our May and June payments had not been made. I went online and verified the account information in my online bill-pay three times with the Cox customer representative. The information was correct. And I was able to see on our bank account that Cox Communications withdrew the $46.95 from our account on May 19th and June 21st. We then inquired about the May payment, since we were assured that would be resolved as well but it apparently hadn't. The customer service had no additional information to give us, except for an email address (az.tucsonresolutionspecialists@cox.com). I then emailed that address with a bank account statement, the bill-pay information, and confirmation that a payment had been sent to Cox Communications, as per the advice of the customer service representative. This email was given the subject of: Attention: Misapplied Payments - Veronica and was sent on July 15, 2010.

Over the weeks, my husband and I have continually tried to resolve this issue. We've been told by multiple customer service representatives that they would check into the situation and call and update us on it. James called back once, as did Veronica. That's it. I've spoken with numerous representatives, including Carlos (July 3rd), Aaron (July 8th), James (July 13th), Crystal (July 14th), Thomas (July 16th), Christie (July 19th), Berri (July 19th) and finally Gary (July 24th). I feel it necessary to remind the reader that this list is only composed of those service representatives that I started recording because I felt it prudent to start keeping a record of my interactions with the company. There were at least 3 customer service representatives that I spoke with before Carlos, but I failed to properly record their information.  

During this long list of constant communication with  the billing department, my husband faxed bank statements, I sent pdfs of bank statements, account information, and bill-pay information. Mary, our customer service representative from the bank, also faxed over statements, forwarded screenshots of ACH reports, and faxed transmittal reports. We were constantly promised to be kept informed of our account status but this rarely happened. As can be seen by the multiple phone calls we made to Cox, we were trying to do everything in our power to resolve this situation.

As of the writing of this letter, the situation remains unresolved. We were promised that we would received a phone call regarding our account after the faxing of the transmittal reports. That phone call was supposed to have been made by today. Since it was not, I called Cox Communications once more to get an update on our account. No information has been updated since July 21, 2010 when Veronica finally noted that the screenshots I sent her on July 15, 2010 did not give enough information to resolve the issue. In the meantime, the transmittal reports were faxed on July 20, 2010, which apparently have not been looked at or considered in regards to our account.

We are extremely frustrated by the complete lack of communication we have experienced throughout this process. We have tried as hard as possible to do what we can to resolve this issue and it seems like we are hitting an apathetic and uncommunicative wall from Cox Communications. At this point in time, we don't know what to do. Throughout this time, I feel as if it's been a one-way conversation - us calling Cox to fix this, not vice versa. I'm at a loss for words to describe the complete disregard that Cox Communications has shown us. Disappointment, frustration, anger, helplessness...these are all emotions that I feel at this point in time. I doubt that we will continue to be customers of this company if this is the sort of customer service and responsiveness that they give to consumers who are proactive in trying to do the right thing.

Sincerely,

Ashlee and Todd Hoffmann