Yesterday our next door neighbor, Deter, came by and asked a favor. He rented a big trailer and was going to use it to bring all his grass clippings, tree branches he'd cut away, etc... to the recycling center. We have a tree in our backyard, and some bushes in our front yard, that had grown a bit too high and were blocking sun to his wife's flowers. He asked if we minded if he came by with his tools and cut them back. I told him no problem, and I'd be happy to help.
Before we got started today I had to head down town. We still hadn't received a letter from Vodafone saying our account was closed, nor one from T-Mobile saying it would be starting soon. I first stopped at Vodafone. It just so happened that Herr Hoxha, the guy who had set me up originally and had answered my questions when I'd made subsequent visits, was there. I explained that I had come in 8 days ago and cancelled the account, and told him why, and that I hadn't heard anything despite the guy at the time saying it'd take 5 days. He called Vodafone HQ and confirmed they'd gotten the cancellation request, but it takes 5-10 business days, so I should get the letter next week. Since he knew I wanted faster speeds then they could offer, he suggest the Cable company, KabelBW. I told him I'd checked there, but they didn't have cable that ran to our street. I then told him I was going to go with T-Mobile because their website said our address could get high speed. Then he did something that blew me away. He said he'd walk over to the T-Mobile store with me to translate in case the employee there didn't speak English. The Vodafone shop is on the main Schlossplatz stretch where there's a ton of phone shops for O2, Vodafone, T-Mobile, etc... He said they all know each other, and this way there'd be no confusion on T-Mobile's end and he'd help verify that we could get the faster speeds. So we walked over to the T-Mobile shop, waited in line, then he spoke to the Rep in German, explained the situation, and the person happened to speak English so he then turns to me and says they didn't see an account creation request, but he'd be happy to set me up now. So he did, and when the Rep wasn't sure how to say something in English, Herr Hoxha stepped in and translated. I couldn't believe it...this guy didn't have to do any of this, but he volunteered to walk over & translate for me.
Bottom line, assuming all goes according to plan, we should have phones & internet on July 19th.
Once I got home, Deter came over and we spent the afternoon cutting back the bushes in our front yard, then cutting the tree back in the backyard. We talked while doing it, and I told him this was the first house we'd lived in with an actual yard, and therefor we didn't really have any tools yet. He said we were always welcome to use his, and he was done with them for the weekend if we wanted to borrow them. I definitely took him up on that. When Shanna got home she changed and helped us out, then trimmed our front hedges.
So it's been a long day...a cold shower never felt so good. Tomorrow we're going over to a friend's house to watch Germany Vs. Argentina, then Sunday we're off to Bavaria to tour King Ludwig's castles! I'll have pictures up next week and a blog post detailing our day there.
No comments:
Post a Comment