Atomictumor

So, yesterday MastaG had his dental checkup, and of course, him being of prime “make money off his teeth” age, they referred me to an orthodontist for an overbite problem.  I was waiting for this.

While I never had braces myself, I’ve always had an overbite.  Mom was told that I’d need braces, and I think not getting them was great, seeing as how

• Middle school sucks enough without metallic pain on your teeth
• I had a tendancy to get migraines
• They’re hella expensive
• No problems later in life.

Now, ol’ MastaG fits the first three settings there, and doesn’t have any eating/biting/mouthy problems that he complains of now.  He does have a snaggletooth, where a tooth is determined to grow in where it doesn’t have room, but nothing that affects him negatively.

So, why get braces?  America does have a certain amount of a straight tooth fixation that other countries in the world lack, and the way I see it, as long as his teeth and mouth are otherwise healthy, I don’t want to put the boy or my wallet through the trouble of braces.  I know, in my case, the mouth pressure would have triggered headaches, and I have a feeling for him that it would.  I don’t see the point in putting him in pain for vanity.

Problem is, I doubt an orthodonsist, who sees my kids mouth as a boat payment, would necessarily tell me “Well, by the standards we like to set in the AMA, in that he doesn’t have a ‘perfect’ set of teeth, he could use braces, but for all practical purposes they wouldn’t do him any good”.

That’d be super, but hell, everybodys gotta make a buck, right?

So, whats a boy to do?  My instinct, and MastaG’s request, is to avoid braces if at all possible.  He had a clean bill of dental health otherwise, no cavities or nastyness, so I’m wondering.

Hmm.

And so I submit it to the Atomictumor Hive Mind, what do you figure?  Of course, I’ll take him to the orthodontist, have the guy check it out, and if it looks like there’ll be developmental problems that’ll crop up, we’ll suck it up and do it. 

OK, so I got my bad ass phone, yes.  I also signed up for a years service with Verizon to get the thing, with a 20% employee discount on account of working for a company that finangled a 20% employee discount with Verizon, so I got a reduced price on the phone and the service.

Good deal, right?

Yeah, I thought so too.  Until I got the ‘welcome’ thing in the mail a few days after getting and activating the phone, which had my contract end date as 1/2009.  “Hmm,” I thought “I’m not a mathematician, but that looks like a two year contract.”  I’m not necessarily adverse to a two year contract, but if thats what I get, I should have the two year discount on the phone, and shouldn’t have paid the activation fee, because thats what it says all big and black on the website I ordered the stuff through.
So, I sent em an email.  I said something to the effect of:

“Hey guy, there appears to be a problem with my dealy.  I believe that you’re either short a year, or short about a hundred bucks.  Go ahead and get with your people, and then straighten me out, and then I’ll continue going around happy”

And they replied (this is all paraphasing now):

“No.“

Well, thats a pisser.  So I took a screenshot of the website showing the price I paid as the 1 yr contract price, and a price significantly lower as the two year, and replied suggesting that perhaps they rethink the issue.

My response:

“You’re dumb.  No.“

Yeah, they told me that it clearly states that 249 is the two year price.  I opened up the screenshot again, just to make sure that the moonshine hasn’t dulled my senses, and no, it seems to be agreeing with my original point.  This was at 6 AM this morning, and my blood pressure started to rise.  That right eye started to twitch.  I started turning into the Hulk.

So, I called em, and talked to a sweet girl named Margaret.  She told me theres nothing she can do, that I should talk to the point of contact with the employer.

So, I sent him an email today.

Now, this is my problem.  By rights, I should cancel the contract, curse their mothers name, and set fire to the phone.  However, I really like the phone, and the monthly bill likes that 20% discount.  I hear good things, otherwise, about Verizon, so I’m holding off for now.

But damn.  I hate hate hate dealing with companies.  Corporations are the American evil.

Discuss amongst yourselves.  I need to find some gasoline and a match, just in case…