2019 - Day 357/8 - Monday...Fire-Sale...

It was one of those days. A day that every step forward was met with a step or two backwards. Not a terrible day, just a day of small inconveniences. Here is an example: Last week we switched our telephone system to a cloud based system. No more physical land lines in the office. I had to call our security monitoring service today to tell them they needed to know for monitoring purposes. The first person said there would be a one time $100 charge (plus applicable taxes) for that service. The second person said there would be a one time charge of $218 (plus applicable taxes) and that our monitoring expense would increase by $19.95 (plus applicable taxes), per month. At that point, I asked them if I were contractually obligated to maintain that service, and they said 'no.' At that point I asked why the one time fee had more than doubled within a five minute time frame. The call was escalated. The next person (so far three) said he was authorized to waive all the fees, period, and that the call was being recorded, and he was going to follow up with me by e-mail, but that he wanted to read what the e-mail would say...and during that time, there was some verbiage about this agreement would constitute a 60 month contract period, during which time the rate would be 'locked in.' He asked if I agreed, and I told him I thought ADT was sneaky, and that he thought I was a dumb-ass, and that I was not going to agree to that and that I WOULD agree to a 12 month agreement. He started to negotiate with a 36 month agreement and I said I really was NOT a dumb-ass, and that is when I got to talk with the fourth person. Bottom line, I did the 12 month agreement, and then it took another 25 minutes for them to tell me what day/time they could come out and make the change to the service. Now I have to be in the office tomorrow morning at 8AM for my 8-12 appointment window. Everyone in the world is a con-man, except me, of course! On the bright side, traffic on the way in to town this morning did not suck.

Fire-Sale -- Adjective. heavily discounted. "Almost all the major air carriers offer transatlantic trips at fire-sale rates: London for less than $400, Dublin with a companion for $500!" Gary Lee, The Washington Post, November 12, 2000

Did You Know? The term fire sale flared up in the late 19th century as the name for a sale of items damaged by fire. As you can imagine, much of the merchandise at a fire sale was sold at very low prices, which fanned the flames of the use of fire sale for any sale with discounted or low price tags. The extended meaning of the term sparked an adjectival use that had burst into a full-blown blaze by the mid-20th century. Since then, people have embraced "fire-sale prices" in the marketplace, well aware that they won't get burned. UGH!