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Virgin Mobile vs Public Mobile
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Blog
- Hits: 75
So, some 15 years with Virgin Mobile, pretty much like every relationship I've had the past 15 years proved a small masterpiece of gaslighting, manipulation and abuse.
Story as old as time.
So my phone's been paid off for a couple or three years, an S22 Ultra, it's still good although as of late I've broken the screen and will need to look at getting a replacement. But - it's served it's purpose.
Anyways, the past 3 years just paying for the plan, not the phone, $65.00 a month and unlimited text/call in Canada, 90 GB data. Rarely do I use that much data, but it's good to have just in case.
Last phone bill I wondered why it was so high. It's $85 a month, and when did the price go up $20 a month and why was I not informed?
I'm annoyed. I get online and search for better deals. And, let me tell you, there are better deals. Fizz, Public Mobile, there are others. I sign up for Public Mobile, which promises me unlimited text/call in Canada, 80 GB data that rolls over the unused data to the next month *(!!!!!) - meaning that for all intents and purposes I have unlimited data, and - all this for - ready? $35 a month. 35 fucking dollars. Virgin was charging me eighty-five.
Fuckers.
It's a no brainer, sign me up, deal with the hassle of call centres, CSR's with no training in remedial English and accents that are too thick to interpret, to the deadness of AI operators that route your call accordingly, to the looking up of old contract numbers and e-sim cards, etc, etc, but I get it done. And - to put the icing on the cake I call Virgin just to ensure they've cancelled my account.
Another thick accent, the CSR trying to persuade me that I'm on the BEST PLAN and I regretfully disagree and terminate the call.
So, on to Public Mobile.
I get a saves call yesterday from Virgin Mobile, they leave a message, loyalty, rewards, they can give me a new plan, the standard unlimited and 100 GB a month for $30....
This just angers me - it means I've been overpaying $35-$50 a month for years now.
I'm not switching. I have no illusions about Public Mobile, Telus (their carrier), they're BS as well, but - BS in a different pile and Virgin - well...they had their chance and they blew it...
They call back again. Then - today; 4 times. I imagine the saves team gets a pretty big commission from every customer they bring back to the fold.
I'm happy. This is a small victory, and a penny saved is a penny earned. And I have now a better bargaining chip when I go shopping for cell plans knowing what their margins are...
So - just a word to the wise out there - look at your phone plan, what you're paying, what you're getting, then shop around. You could be getting a much better deal...
The Reflecting Skin - 1990
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Film
- Hits: 59
This was an odd one and I'm not quite sure what prompted me. Starring a young Viggo Mortensen it tracks a young child who's come to believe his neighbour is a vampire.
In the vein of David Lynch, preposterous characters, affected dialogue (and acting), the big winner is the landscape and cinematography - set in 1950's rural Idaho but - in reality filmed in Crossfield outside Calgary. Absolutely stunning.
The rest, well, not so much.
The Enshittification of the Internet
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Rants
- Hits: 73
This was a phrase I'm pretty sure was coined by Boing-Boing, and refers to the way that everything that used to be good and fun about the internet has become shitty through the relentless pressure to have ads.
For example, YouTube used to be a content option. Now, set up a playlist and there will be an ad between every song. I've even tried listening to longer pieces, Mozart, Chopin, etc, 17 and 30 minutes symphonies, and - believe it or not, 3 or 4 minutes in I'll get an ad. And if you're not handy to your phone that ad will play for longer than the symphony...
This is peak-enshittification, make the experience so grueling that you have to buy a subscription.
Boing-Boing as of late has done much the same thing, sadly without the self-awareness that should come to a site that coined the phrase...the site, so infested with ads that you're unable to scroll without being taken to a sponsors website, on a slow connection the site - the content - takes forever to load, ads must load first (after all), and for the most part all you're getting is a rant similar to this and maybe an outward link to another site. Nothing is provided there that isn't better provided elsewhere.
And, in a masterstroke of web-understanding they now offer a subscription - $5 a month, and they'll pull the ads for you. What a bargain. The subscription option is a particularly annoying pop-over that you need to close before you can see their round-up of days news and opinion.
They've kind of proven the phrase that if you live long enough you'll see yourself become the villain...
A Woman heard voices in her head telling her she had a brain tumour...
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Link of the day
- Hits: 62
An interesting read, the title of which does it no justice.
A woman hears voices in her head telling her to see a doctor. At first she ignores them, until...
Anyways, read for yourself. Fascinating in the extraneous bits of information the voices provided her that she shouldn't/couldn't (??) have known...
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