Homestead philosophy, Self reliant, Stuborn, or simple minded?

[DanG]

FDH, you could buy the service from Verizon, but it would still come to you via Ma Bell.  Whatcha got against them, anyway.  They're no better or worse than anybody else.

Furby, if you could get one of them cellphones that would plug into a USB, it oughta work just like a landline.  I guess you'd have to have a regular ISP. ???

[Fla._Deadheader]

 Mostly paying about $60.00 a month, NOT including long distance.
When we moved and changed numbers, they snuck in a $5.00 PER MONTH charge for NOT putting the number in the directory. Then, they snuck in $4.00 PER MONTH for inside line maintenance. I don't need all those charges. If we had paid the bill, we would be stuck paying for the whole 12 month billing period.  >:( >:(

  Being charged for NOT doing something burns my butt  >:( >:( >:(

[Furby]

You CAN deny the $5 directory charge, I do!
The inside line maintenace I don't know.

[Tom]

You can deny the inside line maintenance charge too.

What you have to be careful about is that they will continue to put it on the bill whether you sign up for the service or not.  It 's a good idea to check over your bill regularly to make sure that you aren't paying them for something that you didn't order.  It pays to look at your long distance carrier too.

[Fla._Deadheader]

Seems to be the new way to sucker your customers. Charge them in an obscure place on the bill, then, you can't cancel for 1 year. Ever get those offers in the mail ? If you do not send the card back to stop the service, you automatically get billed ??  >:( >:(

[SwampDonkey]

Our phone company was running a scam for awhile. Or I call it a scam anyway. The old rate for dialup was the same as now, but they were charging for extra minutes past 100 minutes. Well new customers were coming online (I was a new customer) and getting the same shooting match with unlimited time.  Meanwhile the greasy buggers where still charging the old customers the overtime.  >:( My bother found out through me what they were doing and he confronted them with it to make it right. They gave him back credit. They did the same thing with party line. Everyone in the neighborhood went private except the neighborhood snoop. She essentially had what amounted to a private line, which was $10 cheeper than the rest. My brother said he wanted party line too, since this person had it. They said they didn't have party line any longer, which was a total lie and he gave them a hard time. I don't think there is party line any longer. ;D :D

[DanG]

I never heard of this stuff about not being able to make changes for a year. ???   I ain't sure they can make that stick.  I can see their point on the inside wire maintenance, though.  They're charging $4 per month, right?  How many months of that do you suppose it takes to roll a truck just to replace a jack in your bedroom?  They gotta have some way to protect themselves against people who would sign up and pay $4 for one month, get the problem fixed, then cancel the service.

The biggest savings you can get for yourself is to get rid of your long distance carrier.  You don't need it, and you're paying several bucks a month in fees, even if you don't use it.  You can make your LD calls on your cellphone, or use a prepaid card that you can buy most anywhere.

[Fla._Deadheader]

Don't HAVE a cell phone.  :  My long distance is reasonable. $3.00 per month, with a free 800#. 3.9 cents per minute, billed at 6 second increments.  ;D

[SwampDonkey]

I use YAK for long distance. Don't need to sign up for nothing and it's 5 cents per minute in USA/Canada with huge discounts on rates world wide. They even have a cell dial-around service (requires account) for calling over seas (YAK World Cell). They also have Voice over IP (VoIP).


It shows up on your land line phone bill.

http://1010yak.yak.com/en/

[Buzz-sawyer]

RockinH
you are the closest to the the goal I  have.
I have read accounts of getting 16k over the cell lines......back in the 90's
I am tired of havin the caniving cheating lying phone company in my life.......so as many divirced folkes do, I am hooking my waggon to a new star.......CELL PHONES :D :D :D

[Kirk_Allen]

Went ROUND AND ROUND with Cingular today about my old cell phone.  I got a new one a couple months ago and kept the old one so that it would give me time to let everyone know the new number. 

Tried to cancel the old one last week and they said I cant cancel the service unless there is a zero balance on the account.  They REFUSED to cancell my service.  Made a BOAT load of calls today to fight this and finally had to have my attorney contact them.  He had no problem getting it cancelled.

He said I should have a final bill in a week or so and is looking into there practice.  Seems they are bullying customers into terms that are neither legal or ethical.  He wanted to pursue further action but I told him I just want it cancelled. 

My new cell phone has a USB connector cable that permitts me to use my cell phone to access the internet.  Havent tried it yet but could be handy when Im on the road. 

[Roxie]

Kirk, you should let your lawyer have at em!  Can you say, "Class Action Law Suit?"   :D :D  You might be saving someone's poor Granny from being intimidated by their illegal practice. 
Deadheader....ya really ought to have a cell phone.  You don't have to give the number out to anyone you don't want to, but it's nice for your family to know they can get in touch with ya.  If ya have a cell phone, some senorita could whisper sweet nothings any time of the day!   

[beenthere]

............  If ya have a cell phone, some senorita could whisper sweet nothings any time of the day!   

It's those "sweet nothing-doing's" that FDH (CRDH) doesn't WANT to hear!   

[Buzz-sawyer]

Soooo....
How is life out on the farm for all you hicks hillbillies and back woods fols.....yes that even includes hilltops in costa rica with a view of the valano :D :D

[SwampDonkey]

Well, all I can tell ya right now Buzz, is she's time for a new truck. And that new truck's gonna have the Toyota emblem. The old '98 Dodge is gonna cost $850 for new air conditioning unit, $900 for front left universal, $700 for front end alignmnet and parts, then add 15% tax to all that.  : Looks like about 6 months payments on a new (used) truck. ;D Anyone know where I can get a used Toyota Tacoma 4 Cyl with under 60,000 km for under $20,000 CDN ? :

[Buzz-sawyer]

Well swamper, I thinkI feel your pain....just about 7 or 8 out of my old trucks need love all the time in one fashion or another....maybe you could make a project outta fixing the old beast yourself???

[crtreedude]

How about buying a home for 10,000 USD? We wanted to buy a little house notched into one of our properties - from the outside, it looked pretty run down but we figured we could fix it up to live in while building our house.

I dropped Amy off while I ran down permits - when I returned 6 hours later, Amy told me the good news.

There was no bad news! Inside the house is actually pretty nice. Just fine for us. So, we decided not to build, but just start with this house - and expand a little (hah! a little)

So, add another 10,000 USD and we are done. I am in shock!

Lots of fruit trees --- and a few coffee bushes even. Like a million mangos - star fruit, 5 types of bananas, manzanas de aguas, etc, etc.

I know, I know, got to have pictures!

[Buzz-sawyer]

What a blessing Fred!...

Those fruit trees seem to add a specialness to even a modest property,no?
Is this a new development.............
or from when you first arrived?

[SwampDonkey]

I've heard mangos are hard to grow because of disease, true?

Buzz, the transmission is bad on the truck to. Would cost me $5000 easily to fix, plus I have nothing to work with, and tools ain't cheap. The dang truck ain't worth $5000.  : Never had any luck with domestic trucks, the front ends just don't hold a candle to a Toyota.

[crtreedude]

I have never seen a Mango tree here with disease. We even have old-fashion varieties - the fruit is sort of heart shaped. We have so many mangos at times that we feed them to pigs.

This house was just bought last week. The fruit trees are no more than 10 years old, I think a little younger - this does mean they are big.

We are going to be buried in fruit!

Not sure it would be considered a modest property - it is within our second plantation which is 70 acres. Howler monkeys, etc. etc.

And we will be expanding our land ownership there - I am looking at a couple of places - 200+ acres for next year. Running out of room (again)

Going over to the finca today to say where to run the bulldozer - building a spring fed pond too!

[SwampDonkey]

Here is something to check out for heating water.

http://www.foreverhotwater.com

Paul Harvey made mention of it on the radio Monday.

[breederman]

If any one has one of those I'd like to know their impressions.  We looked at them a year ago and decided to repair our coventional forced vent heater instead.  I saw similer water heaters years ago but they were NOISEY,  sounded kinda like a jet plane. :(

[SwampDonkey]

I never spent alot of time trying to read about it. The site was slow loading on dialup, so I loose patience. ;D There is always a catch to some of these gimmick. Besides, my power bill is pretty cheap including hotwater tank rental. If it breaks, I ain't gotta fix nut'n. They come and put another in it's place. ;)

[bitternut]

SwampDonkey are you saying that you rent an electric water heater? I never heard of renting a water heater.

I looked at those tankless on demand water heaters and decided against getting one. The main drawback I see with them is that you need one at each location which can add up to quite a chunk of change for the units and the installation.

[getoverit]

I know it desnt matter for many of you, but here in hurricane country the hot water tank doubles as a 50 gallon drinkable water storage tank in the event we have an extended power outage due to a hurricane. With the tankless heaters, you're up a creek.