It is amazing to me that I spent the whole day getting ready to move, and I still haven't packed one box! Once I scheduled my mover and got a move out and deliver date defined, I was able to start up and cancel utility services. That entails gas and electric, Internet, TV, and land line phone.
Fortunately, I called SMUD, the Sacramento Utility service first. Once they set my gas and electric account up, they immediately directed my phone call to "All Connect" in Arkansas. "All Connect" is the trick! They researched if ATT Universe was available in my area for me. It wasn't, so they set me up with Comcast and DirectTV and applied every discount coupon available!!!
The bummer was disconnecting my services. SDG&E was not problem to disconnect. I called the number on my bill, was efficiently directed to the customer service representative who handles these matters, and scheduled my service disconnect within 5 minutes.
5 minutes from calling to disconnecting service was not the case for ATT, however. The website is way to complex and hard to figure out which hyperlink is the gateway to cancelling my service. Sure they had a tag, "Moving? Call ...." That would have been easy, if it wasn't a sadistic tease. The phone number was not appropriate for my area. I used my cell for to see if it was more appropriate. It wasn't.
I scanned the website more closely and after about 10 minutes of trying to chat or search for "Cancelling Service," I finally found an ATT webpage with "cancel" on it. The cancel section wasn't very helpful. It redirected me to login and start over. Yeah right! Then I scrolled the page and found another tab that said "Cancel Service." As I hovered my mouse over the tab that opens the content of a summarized section, a phone number blinked. The problem was that it blinked so fast that I didn't get the phone number copied. My mind couldn't capture the image in my head, so I couldn't write it down. How sadistic of ATT!!!
Finally, I noticed a remote button called "Open All" above all the tabs. This was the successful link to cancel my service---a usable phone number! I still had to talk with a person, but most companies make you talk to them to cancel your service, so I expected that. However, ATT made the hold time so long that I actually made a call to Schwab on my cell to arrange a visit about funding my new trust.
Lunch was welcome, since I was brain dead from making so many decisions about this and that service feature. While eating and surfing the internet, I worked on my kids' FAFSA. SFSU still hadn't received Drew's which befuddled me, so I just downloaded and printed a "Dependent Verification" Form which I knew he'd need, filled it out, and sent it off to him with a note to go to his financial aid office.
Doing an IRS transfer into my kids' FAFSA became a learning experience. Last year it was so simple, but this year wasn't. My electronic tax returns were entered onto the system on Monday, so my accountant and I thought that I could do a data transfer to FAFSA. No, I have to wait two weeks for the IRS to release my electronic tax return to my FAFSA online forms. I guess instantaneous availability of electronic information is 2 weeks to the government!
Once I realized that I'd done all that I could to finish the kids' FAFSAs, I set off to Office Depot to get a paper shredder to shred my monetary account papers and use them for packing material for my doll collection and other fragile items. Then I headed off to Schwab to have them lead my frazzled mind through changing my regular account to be in my new trust's name---fund my trust. While I was there, I also had them order more checks with my new Sacramento address on them. I did the same for my regular Bank of America accounts. My trust is officially funded!
The final action item of the day was the most pleasant. I dropped off my surfboard at Rosa's, since her daughters both want to surf. Now they have a great beginner board with a rose and butterfly on it, and Protect Fins to keep from getting sliced by the sharpness of regular fins. It was great having one on one time with Rosa, too. We laughed, reminisced, and cried together. I'm going to miss her seriously intelligent view of life! :(
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