• Posted 12/19/2024.
    =====================

    I am still waiting on my developer to finish up on the Classifieds Control Panel so I can use it to encourage members into becoming paying members. Google Adsense has become a real burden on the viewing of this site, but honestly it is the ONLY source of income now that keeps it afloat. I tried offering disabling the ads being viewed by paying members, but apparently that is not enough incentive. Quite frankly, Google Adsense has dropped down to where it barely brings in enough daily to match even a single paid member per day. But it still gets the bills paid. But at what cost?

    So even without the classifieds control panel being complete, I believe I am going to have to disable those Google ads completely and likely disable some options here that have been free since going to the new platform. Like classified ad bumping, member name changes, and anything else I can use to encourage this site to be supported by the members instead of the Google Adsense ads.

    But there is risk involved. I will not pay out of pocket for very long during this last ditch experimental effort. If I find that the membership does not want to support this site with memberships, then I cannot support your being able to post your classified ads here for free. No, I am not intending to start charging for your posting ads here. I will just shut the site down and that will be it. I will be done with FaunaClassifieds. I certainly don't need this, and can live the rest of my life just fine without it. If I see that no one else really wants it to survive neither, then so be it. It goes away and you all can just go elsewhere to advertise your animals and merchandise.

    Not sure when this will take place, and I don't intend to give any further warning concerning the disabling of the Google Adsense. Just as there probably won't be any warning if I decide to close down this site. You will just come here and there will be some sort of message that the site is gone, and you have a nice day.

    I have been trying to make a go of this site for a very long time. And quite frankly, I am just tired of trying. I had hoped that enough people would be willing to help me help you all have a free outlet to offer your stuff for sale. But every year I see less and less people coming to this site, much less supporting it financially. That is fine. I tried. I retired the SerpenCo business about 14 years ago, so retiring out of this business completely is not that big if a step for me, nor will it be especially painful to do. When I was in Thailand, I did not check in here for three weeks. I didn't miss it even a little bit. So if you all want it to remain, it will be in your hands. I really don't care either way.

    =====================
    Some people have indicated that finding the method to contribute is rather difficult. And I have to admit, that it is not all that obvious. So to help, here is a thread to help as a quide. How to become a contributing member of FaunaClassifieds.

    And for the record, I will be shutting down the Google Adsense ads on January 1, 2025.
  • Responding to email notices you receive.
    **************************************************
    In short, DON'T! Email notices are to ONLY alert you of a reply to your private message or your ad on this site. Replying to the email just wastes your time as it goes NOWHERE, and probably pisses off the person you thought you replied to when they think you just ignored them. So instead of complaining to me about your messages not being replied to from this site via email, please READ that email notice that plainly states what you need to do in order to reply to who you are trying to converse with.

Comcast

Lucille

Lucille

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Come home, check my online Comcast bill from the email alert they sent, it has nearly doubled. Call Comcast and get this snotty kid who asked if I thought I had a forever low price contract, told me I had to pay the double price for three months, company policy, before I could choose a different plan.

In a rare occurrence, I actually told him what I thought of him. Hung up, called back, get a different person, asked to cancel my Comcast account.
Young lady apologizes, fixes my account immediately and gives me a year more at the lower price I was paying.

I feel like I have to be on top of my game to negotiate with Comcast, sort of like at one of those bazaars where you buy goats and chickens and the sellers spend all their time trying to charge as much as possible in an extremely vocal manner. When did this happen? They've always had promotions that lasted only so long, but all this other snotty stuff?

All's well that ends well, and hopefully I will not have to visit the Comcast Bazaar for another year.
 
yeah cable companies are brutal. I like how they advertise a low price for 2 years but when you call and get the same package you currently have with their competitor it cost just as much as you were already paying. We all love TV but its a rip off. what are you going to do.:shrug01:
 
chrisis697 said:
yeah cable companies are brutal. I like how they advertise a low price for 2 years but when you call and get the same package you currently have with their competitor it cost just as much as you were already paying. We all love TV but its a rip off. what are you going to do.:shrug01:
Click to expand...
Four years ago I cancelled my CATV and have been without cable or DISH ever since. I haven't missed it. Netflix is about $10 per month if I want to watch a movie, I get my news on the internet, and no one in the household is interested in watching live sporting events.
 
bcr229 said:
Four years ago I cancelled my CATV and have been without cable or DISH ever since. I haven't missed it. Netflix is about $10 per month if I want to watch a movie, I get my news on the internet, and no one in the household is interested in watching live sporting events.
Click to expand...

I did similar, but Comcast is my internet provider.
 
I heard the other day on a radio talk show, that Comcast is the most despised company in this country. They are supposed to be working on P.R.
 
They just recently changed a customer's name to A--hole Brown, and another one to SuperB--ch Bauer...

Yeah they have EXCELLENT customer service...NOT!
 
Might want to be careful, if you call in to complain about Comcast's ineptitude - they might retaliate.

http://www.cnet.com/news/comcast-sued-by-a-man-who-claims-company-got-him-fired/

After complaining about his Comcast service, Conal O'Rourke claims the cable giant contacted his boss and got him fired.

by Chris Matyszczyk
@ChrisMatyszczyk
October 17, 2014 9:41 AM PDT

Comcast is now being sued by an unhappy customer who claims the company got him fired.

Last week, I wrote about the story of Conal O'Rourke. After a year of being dissatisfied with his Comcast service and persistently complaining to the company, O'Rourke was fired by his employer, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, which provides consultancy services to Comcast.

O'Rourke claims Comcast discovered where he worked by performing a Google search and contacted his bosses, who then launched an ethics investigation against him. After that, he was fired.

Comcast apologized for the poor service, but claimed the company had nothing to do with his firing. Now it may have to prove that in court. For O'Rourke's lawyers, the Dhillon Law Group, yesterday filed suit.
Click to expand...
 
Hey Lucille,
I had a very similar experience with Time Warner, now rated among the lowest for their poor customer service. I asked why my bill was suddenly so high and he said, well your one year agreement is up. I said in light of customer loyalty,(been there at least 10 years), how about some consideration for another good yearly rate? His response was feel free to shop around as we are very competitive. I was a bit floored and did end up shopping around. After switching, I now get all of these please switch back to us letters. I'm not sure if you are old school or not but it seems for the last 20 years or so that customer service isn't as big of a deal and some can't even give you change properly without entering the amount you gave them into the cash register. Total is 10.57, you give them 15.07 and they look like a deer in your head lights instead of just giving you 4.50 if you know what I mean lol.
 
With all due respect most of these offers are pretty clear that they are only temporary.

You sign up for a year at the bargain price and you are stuck for another year at the regular high price.

I'm not saying that is what happened to any of you but if you do fall for it you only have yourself to blame. You have to read the fine print for cancellation fees as well.

I don't have any cable or satellite TV service but it seems these are terrible when it comes to customer service. All my services (internet and cell phone and land line phone) are no frills and I keep getting calls to switch to lower priced plans that promise more service but they always require a multi year agreement and the low price is only for an introductory period. I can cancel any of mine at any time with no penalty.

I realize that not everyone's situation is the same as mine. My BIL for example lives on his cell phone and his business depends on it. He couldn't survive with my no frills plan. That's why he is held captive by his provider which happens to be the same as mine. One advantage he gets is 4g service and when we are sitting side by side he can surf the web and do pretty much anything he wants while I can't get a stupid 3g signal. I pay about 150 bucks a month less than he does though.

I've also found that calling and threatening to cancel doesn't always get you as far as it used to. Most companies know the trick and the threat so they figure go ahead and leave. They'll just get you back in a year or so when your new provider pulls the same crap and you threaten to quit them. The last 2 or 3 times I had to call and cancel something they just said OK and closed it out.
 
Steve, in my VERY first post I addressed the issue of timed promotions, and clearly that was not my issue.
And apparently the first employee's info that I was stuck for three months was not true, because when I called back, I was told I would receive the price I had been paying, for another year.
 
I'd give anything for cable service out here. The satellite providers are just as bad. At least with cable, I always had fantastic internet speeds. :(
 
kind of late, but I work for ComCast. or well a Vendor for Comcast on the technical side of things (tier 2 internet support) if you ever have an issue, just immediately request a supervisor, or play nice then ask to go to the loyalty dept or retention. since the start of 2015 we finally put in place VoC (Voice of the Customer) which is a HUGE deal now, one bad run in with an employee and you get a survey, answer honestly, if they sucked they most likely won't be there much longer.
 
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