davejenbarnes
I have worked for a few companies in the past — I’m not limited to Roma ISD as a previous employer — and those companies DO NOT like negative word-of-mouth advertising. In fact, one company even flat out told me as an employee to make the guests say positive words in reference to their quality of product to associate their brand name with the positive word that the guest thought of when asked a specific question. That particular company was Texas Roadhouse and they LIVE for this kind of advertising: Texas Roadhouse has THE BEST steaks I have EVER had from a restaurant. Their filet is the best steak I have ever eaten (have to get it medium rare, though, for the real thing). Texas Roadhouse steaks beat the living daylights out of anything Outback can cook. And they didn’t have to pay me to say that, either.
One company, though, deserves some negative advertisement: UNICARE. This is an insurance company. DO NOT EVER use UNICARE for your insurance needs. When we first opened a policy with them, back when we still used our credit cards, they charged our credit card twice for the first premium. Since then, there have been many bookeeping and records keeping mistakes that are simply unacceptable. For instance, when I had my last annual checkup, all three claims were denied on basis that I did not exist as an insured person. Because They Had My Birthday Wrong. They had my birthday listed as David’s. More recently, the third claim from the same appointment back in May of ’04 has been denied THREE TIMES because they are filing the claim under David’s old account which was closed in early 2003 so they’re saying that the patient was not active at the time of service. I don’t know how they got David’s old insurance ID number associated with that claim. This was a Women’s Clinic, which had never even seen David, which had a copy of my insurance card. I had copied the card for the billing agency (which billed me after the first two claims were denied due to being processed incorrectly by UNICARE in the first place) and they re-filed the claim. There are many more examples but need I go on? This is just rediculous. That last one just set me off. Why would you process a claim for a PAP Smear under a MAN‘s policy? Sheesh. I know David and I are identical twins an’ all, but we have totally different social security numbers. Come ON people! Needless to say, I will never do business with UNICARE again.
My mom and dad are in Kansas City this week visiting my Grandma and Grandpa. I hope we will have time to visit the horseys and give them some love. Rascal is getting very very very old… I worry a lot about him dying in pain. We all know his time is nearer now than ever before, but it is so sad seeing him lose so much horsey-weight and seeing his big ol’ bones jutting out everywhere. I will miss that horse so much, even though I rarely rode him. Here’s praying Rascal is still alive when mom and dad get back to Texas.
Rascal on the fourth of July
I would like to wrap things up tonight with a little bit of good advertising. Our Apartment Complex rocks. Anyone looking for an apartment complex in the North Austin Area, drop us a line. We had breakfast with the staff a few Saturdays ago and Greg, the leasing manager, stopped by where we were sitting and checked in with us. Not wanting to complain, but still wanting to mention some things, we briefly told him about the ceiling fan in the bedroom. This ceiling fan had a High-Low-Off-Off setting the medium setting was missing or turned off or something. We got a new fan. Not a new version of the old fan. A new buffed-up totally better brand of fan. This fan is sweet. And quiet. Not only that, but the maintence guy replaced the ballast in the kitchen fixture and it is SO blindingly bright in the kitchen now. Greg and Mark who work here, you guys are the BEST! Thank you guys for all the hard work you do to keep our place in tip-top shape! We have never been disappointed.
