New Church Website: Cornerstone Community Church

This was our old site design:

This is our new site design:

A volunteer team consisting of 4 guys from my church have been working in our spare time on a new website for our church, after over a year of after hours work here and there we have finally made it public. The new site has many new features: Video, an improved search feature, a calendar of events, updated resources and categories among other things.

The old website was done strictly using PHP. The new site we chose to utlize Joomla! based off the database integration, the use of modules, and the ease of updating via the front and back end admin areas. If your church's web presence utilizes a database for sharing sermons and the like, Joomla! may be an option you want to look at when it comes time to update your site. Joomla! is open source as well.

If you want to view the site you can do so here: Cornerstone Community Church website.

For comparison purposes, you can view the old site here: Old Cornerstone Community Church website.

If you happen across any errors, please do let me know. Thanks.

Sprint 'ing To Another Mobile Phone Carrier

Confession time: For the past 12 years I have been involved in a love/hate relationship. We had some good times together and we had some very, very bad moments, but through it all we always were willing to work things out and overcome our issues... that is, until now. We finally hit a roadblock in our relationship that neither of us were willing to budge on. Usually about every two years, we would hit one of these roadblocks and we would bring in a mediator. This year, the mediator just couldn't help us bridge our differences. So, I'm leaving. After 12 years in this relationship, I am finally packing my bags and moving out at the end of the month. As a matter of fact, I have already found a replacement and her name is Virgin Mobile. Yes, I know Virgin Mobile is her sister and they share the same network, but she made me an offer I couldn't refuse so I took it.

Details? I'm glad you asked. For the majority of my 12 year relationship with Sprint I was under a retention plan. The retention department (aka our mediator) always seemed to pull through after the 8-12th call to them. Every 2 years I would get a better plan at my previous price point or I would get the same plan at a cheaper price point.
Currently my Sprint plan is the following:
-Unlimited Data/Web
-Unlimited Texts
-Unlimited Picture Mail
-Free Roaming
-Free Nights and Weekends starting at 7pm
-Free Mobile to Mobile
-GPS
-800 Anytime minutes with additional blocks of 100 minutes for $5.00 if we go over.
-2 lines
This costs us a base fee of $72 something a month before taxes and fees.

What caused us to leave? I'm also glad you asked. We wanted to upgrade our phones to either blackberry phones or Android phones. We currently have the Samsung Ace (Windows Mobile) and a Samsung flip phone. Sprint informed me that I would have to upgrade my data plan if I wanted a smart phone. My Windows Mobile phone (Samsung Ace) is a smart phone and utilizes the web, Windows Marketplace, GPS, etc. just fine on the current data plan but for some reason my data plan wouldn't work with the newer phones. In reality Sprint just wanted me to pay more for the same service I already have by calling it a different name and applying it to other phones. Data is data. I did not want to pay the additional fee and I didn't want to pay an additional 10 dollars a month per phone (if we got 4g phones) as we don't have 4g in our area. This time retention could not keep my bill at the same price point and allow us to upgrade our phones so I started looking around.

I looked at AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, and Cellular South. I really looked at going with Cellular South but they were still going to be more expensive that my current plan with Sprint (all the others were way more expensive) and they don't have 3g data service in my area (7 miles on either side of me, but not here). That's when I thought I was going to have to just grin and bear it and just accept that Sprint had one this battle. That's when I happened across an ad for Boost Mobile. I looked into it and thought it was great. It was still more expensive than Sprint at the onset but after 18 months you get unlimited everything for only $35 dollars a month (it starts at $50 a month and gradually decreases over set month intervals: 6, 12, 18). Plus, there is no contract and the taxes and fees are included in the price points given. Once I started looking at it, I found out they were utilizing Sprints CDMA and IDEN networks (remember NEXTEL?). Ultimately I wasn't impressed with their phone selection... but I read somewhere that new ones should be rolling out in April (it could be nothing more than a rumor).

Then I found Virgin Mobile and saw they use Sprint's CDMA network and they had a little better selection of phones and one phone in particular that has good reviews all around: the LG Optimus.

Virgin Mobile's plans are as follows:
-Unlimited everything: $60
-Unlimited everything except for voice (1200 minutes): $40
-Unlimited everything except for voice (300 minutes): $25

With Virgin Mobile they also have the fees and taxes included so there is nothing to add on top of your monthly bill. And, like Boost Mobile, they do not tie you up with a contract either.

I also checked out Wal-Mart's offerings (Straight Talk) and wasn't impressed with their phone selection. I understand it uses T-Mobile's network, but the phones are less than stellar.

For me, Virgin Mobile allows both my wife and me to have an equivalent plan to what we had for a cheaper price point (she is getting the $40 plan and I am getting the $25 plan) and we were able to upgrade our phones to the LG Optimus V (V stands for Virgin Mobile). We bought the phones through BestBuy for $129.99 a piece which is cheaper than elsewhere at this time and that is about what we would have paid to upgrade our phones with Sprint if they would have chosen to keep us as customers. The only thing that we will not have is the Roaming service as Virgin nor Boost offer that. With that being said, I don't know when the last time it was that I wasn't in a Sprint network area for any length of time.

We picked up our phones a couple days ago and have hooked them up to our wi-fi connection. They are very responsive and seem to be a great phone for the price. (the two cons listed in the linked review above are easily addressed by Skyfire for seeing flash content and Quick Settings for making your phone a wifi hotspot from the Android marketplace)I would definitely recommend the phone and I don't see why I wouldn't be happy with the Virgin Mobile service as it will use the same service that I am used to minus the roaming. We are going to change our numbers over to Virgin Mobile towards the end of the month as Sprint will not prorate service when your 2 year commitment has expired and you are on a month to month plan.

If you run across this, note it was written on March 9th, 2011 and hopefully it will broaden your options when considering your next phone carrier.

Message From The Womb

Our first glimpse at our second son.

If this is any indication of what the future holds... please pray for us.

The Jesus Story Book Bible

We have been purchasing several books in an attempt to build a library for our son (and future children God willing). We don't want to feed him just any stories, but good stories that promote godly character and that focuses on things that are good, things that are honorable and praiseworthy. We wanted to find books that will help us to steer him in the way he should go so that he won't depart from it.

In light of that, we use the Big Picture Story Bible in our children's Sunday School curriculum so we know that he will be getting exposed to that once he is old enough to attend.

We have also recently purchased for him Fool Moon Rising and The Chronicles of Narnia Pop-Up Book.

I then read about The Jesus Story Book Bible on Timmy Brister's blog and after reading some reviews thought it would be yet another good fit for our family. When I went to their website I found out that a deluxe edition is in the works and will be out soon. Not only that, but if you post about the book on your blog, they will enter you into a drawing to win several free copies of the deluxe version for yourself and to whoever you want to give them to. I am looking forward to either winning or purchasing one so that our family can benefit from the blessings of reading books together as a family. Give it a look and if you are anything like me and my family, I am sure you will not be dissappointed.

EXACTLY! Clients & Vendors

With my videography business I deal with this all the time. Satire is great.

Seven Part Series Through The Book Of Exodus With Dr. Ray Van Neste

Dr. Ray Van Neste, Director of the R.C. Ryan Center for Biblical Studies and Associate Professor of Christian Studies for Union University as well as one of the pastors at Cornerstone Community Church leads a seven part series on the book of Exodus. Dr. Van Neste handles the text in an expositional manner while making pointed application for the church today. He also carefully draws out insights from the familiar texts we all too often skip over.

This series will be sure to englighten and challenge anyone who is looking to understand scripture better.

This is a series we (my company) filmed back in January and completed about a week ago. It was exceedingly good for me to spend hours working through editing the video as it helped to reinforce the importance of the book of Exodus and how it fits into the storyline of scripture as a whole story.

If you are like me, the book of Exodus is not one that I look to for instruction concerning my every day life- however, after going through this study, it has helped me to realize how important that book (and the rest of the Old Testament) really is to understanding the fullness of the riches given to us by God through the written scriptures.

I would encourage you to visit the link below and watch session seven the series and even pick up the series if you are so inclined to do so. I think it will be worth your while and aide you in your sanctification.

You can purchase the whole series here.

Some questions:
-How does the old testament impact your walk as a Christian- assuming you are a Christian?
-Did you learn anything from watching session seven that challenged you in your faith?
-What do you think causes the lack of focus on the old testament by Christians?

Mint.com: Great Free Tool For Budgeting

I've started using mint.com as a one stop shop for all things having to do with my finances. It is a really ingenious tool that I think Dave Ramsey himself would be envious of. If you have even thought about it at all, you're probably asking yourself the same questions I did when I first ran across this online program: "Why do I need another place to go to online to view my finances?" "And, what does it have to offer that my bank's online service doesn't?" Well, those are fair questions and I hope to explain below how it was answered for me. But, let me give a little more information on the online service before we delve into it.

When I first heard of this my initial response was that I wouldn't give a company access to my financial information- especially if it allows third parties to store the data (as duly noted on the sites TOC). However, after reading several reviews, carefully reviewing the terms and conditions, and checking out their security certificates I was curious enough and at ease enough to set up an account.

Setting up an account was about as easy as signing up for email- in fact, it couldn't have been easier. No issues there. Once complete I then was directed to a screen to set up accounts. You can see that screen below in the screen shot (click on it to enlarge).


So, once here, you click on the box that says "Click to add any of your accounts" and it will bring up a list of common big name accounts and a search box. You can search for yours- that is what I did for mine. I typed in my bank's name, it found it and I started typing in my user name and password for the online banking of my bank's website.

This is where I first ran into an issue (not the site's fault mind you). I couldn't remember my security questions for my banking site (personal, business and savings). They want the service to be secure, so they make sure you know your security questions. Not only do you need to remember the answers, but you need to remember which questions you chose to answer. I had to log in to my bank's site and review my questions and answers (for me, capitalization mattered). So, make sure you know your security questions! Once I got the bank set up, I added the one credit card we own via search and repeated the process. Then I added our ingdirect account without a hitch (well, the security questions was an issue again, but I knew how to solve that) and then I wanted to add my mutual funds but I don't think I ever checked them online. However, I wanted to make sure they were on the mint.com list, so I did a search for them and sure enough, they were there. So, I need to retrieve that information from my financial advisor so I can add those too.

Once you are done here, it syncs up to your accounts every evening to get the most current information automatically.


On the overview section of the site, it gives you, well, just that, an overview. Here you can see your net worth, cash assets, debt, budget, investments, etc. If you just want to see a summary of what you have, this is the page to be on.


This screen shot is just a continuation of the previous as there was some items left off on the bottom, namely cashflow and net income. I wanted you to be able to see everything that is on the page.


Almost everything is customizable on this site when you are logged in. While still on the overview page, you can click on the budget and set it up how you wish. I have yet to do this (but I am). The only drawback I can see here is that you can't import an existing budget. I currently use an excel spreadsheet that I made that allows my wife and I to see our money on paper (technically on screen) and it would be nice to be able to import that and dump in the information and make adjustments on the back end if necessary. So Mint, if you are listening, this would be a nice feature to add. Other than that, this will be a nifty little tool to use as it sends out alerts (if you tell it to) to tell you when you have gone over on your budget or any other alerts you may care to know. It can do this via email and/or phone text messaging.


Trends is a tab that shows you were your money is going. It gives you graphs and charts- just like Ross Perot! However, these graphs and charts pertain to just you and your finances and whatever you wish to compare it to. If you hover over a pie piece or a bar on a graph, it will give you a pop up with further information and options for you to change items. For instance, if you notice on ours, shopping takes up the biggest portion of the pie. Well, that is because we bought our groceries from Wal-Mart (we are using a meal plan called e-mealz.com and that is the only option in our area- we would have preferred Kroger) and we have yet to go through and denote Wal-mart as groceries and not shopping- yes you can change the categories.


This is phenomenal. My wife was saying to me a while back, "I wish I could make a notation on a reimbursement on our account." Well, guess what? Now she can. But before I get a head of myself, take a look at the screen shot. It pulls all this information from our bank account and gives us a each charge, credit and reimbursement and also allocates it as best it can based on the vendor. I find this to be very helpful as it allows for us to go through the list of items and reconcile the bank statement with our receipts. If there is something we know will come up again (like for my business taxes), we can now add a note to it so we can review it with ease. That leads me to the next screen shot.


Here you will notice that I expanded the edit details bar. You can split the transaction, edit the name (on ours Deals was called some sort of jibberish, but we just simply renamed it and all was well with the world), edit the category and/or make the category and/or name permanent for this entry every time it comes in. So, If I went to deals today after making the change and setting it to always rename, then the transaction that took place today will show up as "deals" and not the jibberish it was before.

If you sign up, I recommend it, you will notice that there are two tabs I did not provide screen shots for or review. This is b/c I don't use them. One is investments and the other is way's to save. The first I will use if I ever remember to ask for my mutual fund information for online viewing. The second one I looked at and it looks as if it is a partner page type deal. It seeks to give you ideas of money you could save if you changed your current financial providers to other providers. For instance on ours it says our bank does not offer interest on our savings account. Well, in fact it does, but it does not register it (however it does show the interest in our transactions tab). With this they say we should move our savings to another bank that will offer x amount in interest and therefore after one year we would have made x. They do the same thing with our money market checking account. So basically, as good as I can tell, they compare your current financial institutions' offerings to their sponsors' offerings and let you see the difference (which in our case, was wrong).

However, I think this is a great tool and why it's free I haven't a clue. I can say this though, I recommend the service. I am leery of all things web- especially when it comes to accounts and the like, but after doing some research and trying it out myself, I really like it and benefit from it- hopefully you will as well.

If you do set up your account, comment below and let me know how it is working out for you.

Are The Rumors True?

Has this blog's authors gone MIA? Could this be the end of BDW? Will Batman be able to escape the ice block of Mr. Freeze? Will Robin make it to the commissioner in time?

All of these are fair questions and if you were/are a half way interested reader, it is a pertinent one.

Well, I have no intention on shutting down, however I don't think I (j razz) will be posting much for the next several months. The hustle and bustle of work have taken precedence(a very good thing!), plus the Lord has blessed my wife and I with an extremely small child growing in the womb of my wife as I type this. (That last link is how we told our family) Apparently her anatomy is such that it finds the idea of this small child growing within it somewhat repulsive as almost anything she eats comes back up and almost any type of food does not sound appealing to her. Word on the street is that after 3 months, these symptoms usually taper off- she is one week away from the 3 month mark so we will wait and see.

If you feel so inclined to do- please pray that I will be a minister to her throughout this whole time and will not be selfish when it comes to wants and needs. I need to remind myself of my role.

Thanks to all who have read and will continue to check back on occasion. Who knows, maybe some of the other contributors will write more often. To be continued...

Tim Is Giving Away Free Copies Of God In The Whirlwind

So you better act now!

Here is the link.

More From Puerto Rico

El Morro En Viejo San Juan

If you haven't noticed I haven't been posting much in the past couple of weeks, well, you need to read the blog more often :)

I have been in Puerto Rico with my wife and a couple we are friends with from Church. I thought I would share some pictures. I will add more later on (and resume posting regularly), but I have a lot of catching up to do with work at the present moment.

Enjoy the Pictures! They were taken in Old San Juan, mostly at the Spanish fort- El Morro.

A Baby In Need

This is a personal request. I have a friend from university who recently had his fourth child (two twins boys, another boy and now this one). He got real sick and actually had to be resuscitated. He is currently in the hospital and still not doing well. He has been diagnosed with viral spinal meningitis. I would ask that you pray for their son as well as his parents, Adam and Wendy McCollum. I will update this once I hear more.

Specifically you can pray that:
-Adam and Wendy would not be anxious about anything but trust in the Lord that He knows their needs and will meet them or exceed them with His sovereign plan as He is a kind and loving God that is powerful enough to act on that love and kindness and ensure that nothing hinders it.
-Their son would indeed come out of this without ill effect and this would cause his parents to glory in their God and be thankful to Him for the skill and knowledge of the doctors and nurses who are working with their child.
-That the doctors would be wise and diligent in doing what is in the child's best interest.
-That this situation would draw all involved closer to the Lord for His glory and our good.

Motorcycle Etiquette

I don't really understand this, but it kind of fascinates me. I bought my bike back in November of last year and ever since a strange thing occurs. I don't really know what it is called or how it got started but it is intriguing none-the-less. When you are riding your motorcycle and you see another motorcycle you are to signal to them that you acknowledge they are riding a bike and they signal back to you that they are doing the same. At least that is what I think we are doing. I find that if you do not do this, it is frowned upon by all who have and have had motorcycles. I would say it is a wave, but its not. Basically you extend your left hand out and down at about a 45 degree angle from your body and curl in all of your fingers save for the index. It is to remain fully extended. If you are passing another motorcyclist, you are to take your left hand and drop it as far down on your right hand side and again, curl your fingers up into a fist leaving only the index finger extended.

If anybody who has knowledge concerning this phenomenon would care to comment (or anybody who would like to venture a guess) feel free. It is kind of like one of those things that have been a "family" tradion for so long, nobody remembers why it is done but everybody in the family does it. You don't see people in cars doing this or truckers doing this sort of thing... just a funny observation I thought I would share.

Movie Rentals & Purchases Via The Playstation Store

I was reading through the user agreement for the new patch for the Playstation 3 and saw a section about three fourths of the way through that discussed movie rentals and purchases in both standard definition and high definition. After reading through it and finding nothing questionable I turned on the playstation and downloaded the new update. The store now has a video section where you can rent or buy movies and tv shows both current and classic by the season. The prices are no different than going to blockbuster. I am unsure what rights you have if your hard drive crashes or you lose your purchased content. It was not spelled out in the user agreement if you could download again by showing proof of purchase or if it was just your loss.

Regardless, if the content selection continues to grow I don't know if I see a reason to visit Blockbuster anytime soon (I rent maybe once a month). And those who own xbox 360's have been given the ability to download Netflix rentals, there may not be much of a future for walk-in movie rental stores.

Also, if anybody is considering moving up to BluRay, I would urge you to consider a Playstation 3. I bought mine so I could watch my high definition video that I filmed, but after buying it, I realized it was also useful as a media reciever by setting up a media server on my computer (check a box in windows media player) and for watching bluray movies, listening to music through my home theatre via mp3 and wma's, surfing the web on the tv, video conferencing with anybody else who owns one (all of these things are free by the way) and if you are into games, you can also play those on it.

Tim Ellsworth's New Book: God In The Whirlwind Is Available

Tim Ellsworth, a good friend of mine (and fellow Christian), has completed his first book titled God in the Whirlwind: Stories of Grace from the Tornado at Union University. It seeks to recount the stories of the students who were trapped in the rubble of the dorms at Union University, and it has plenty of pictures taken by Union University photographer Morris Abernathy. What is more, Tim has a great talent when it comes to writing and he put that talent to use in his penning of the stories that highlight what is most evident from that night: the providential act of God in sustaining the lives of every student that was on campus that night. It was very evident to everyone involved in the storm that God was in their midst.

You can buy the book at LifeWay Christian Stores, online at LifeWay.com, and soon online at Amazon.com. If you are close to Jackson, TN, you may want to stop by this Saturday at the LifeWay Christian Store on Union's campus and pick up a copy for a discounted price and have Tim sign it. He will be there this Saturday from 11am to 1pm signing books and greating patrons. Stop by and say hi. And, just so you know, a portion of the proceeds go to the rebuilding efforts for Union's campus as it underwent over 40 million dollars in damage.

For those of you who were not reading my blog during that time (February 5th, 2008), you can look back through some of my coverage here.

You can also watch my mini-documentary of the event here which includes an interview with Tim Ellsworth. It is titled The Providence of God in the Midst of a Storm.

Everybody Does It...

So, we are at the St. Louis Zoo and after watching the Puffins shoot poo several feet across their exhibit, we walk into a small gift store before exiting that exhibit. To our chagrin, we see several books with words synonymous with poo in the title.

Some questions:
-Is such books necessary?
-Haven't we figured this out centuries ago?
-Why would a zoo carry such a book including humans with all the other animals?
-What are your thoughts concerning such a book?

St. Louis Over Memorial Day Weekend

Over Memorial Day my wife and I went with another couple to St. Louis and spent the weekend. It was a great time. We stayed downtown with a great view from our 15th floor room overlooking the Arch; right across the hall on the other side you could see the new stadium built for the Cardinals. Needless to say, the hotel was in a great location.

Our plan was to not be rushed and feel bound to an itinerary, so we had a few places we wanted to visit and anything else was bonus. We got in Friday night/Saturday morning and went to bed and spent all of Saturday at Six Flags St. Louis. If you are planning on going, I recommend looking online for tickets as you are almost guaranteed to get them cheaper anywhere other than the park. We stopped Friday night in Cape Girardeau to pick up some at Schnuck’s but the “Courtesy Desk” was closed and no one could get us tickets until 7.30am the next morning. The next day before leaving the hotel we printed off some from SixFlags.com and gained admittance for what was normally a child’s fare.

Six Flags was great. Roller coasters in general are great. The Boss, a wooden roller coaster, is at the top of my list (and in the top 5 in the nation for wooden roller coasters). We stayed until the park closed and headed back to the hotel to turn in for sleep.

The next day we spent some time at Forest Park, at the Science Center, the Jewel Box, and the Zoo and topped it off with a great dinner at a local restaurant downtown. We saw some amazing things at all of these places and I will post a link on this post at some point in the near future to show off some of the things we saw- just can’t do it today.

Then on Monday we left out and went to the Botanical Gardens and The City Museum. The Botanical Gardens really make you pause to think on the creativity of our God. It is a great, peaceful place that is nothing short of beautiful. Finally, before we left for home, we spent the last two hours of our trip at The City Museum. We did not bring any cameras [I think you can see why] in except for my phone with which I snapped the photos above. This place has been around for 10 years, housed in an old 7 story factory building, and everything in it came from the St. Louis area (including all of the art and items used to construct it). And, don’t let the name fool you, it is not your typical museum. This place was like a giant playground where nothing was off limits (by that I mean you can interact however you wish with whatever is there). They had giant ball pits, a humongous “monkey bar’ set (if you can even call it that) as well as a cave system, giant slides, tunnels, an aquarium, tube systems, as well as art intertwined with the design of the setup. It was the icing on the cake of our trip. If you have ever went to a fast food restaurant and wanted to play on the playground equipment but you were too old and too tall, this is a great place to fulfill that desire! It will be on my list of to do’s when I go back to St. Louis.

So, what did you do over Memorial Day weekend?

***Click the picture below to see the other pictures I said I would post***

Pictures From Holiday In Africa & Europe

Well, I am at a place where I have decent internet and thought I would upload some pictures and make a post.

And, while I am on here, I wanted to thank Randy and Timm for keeping up the blog while I am away. It is much appreciated. Enjoy the pictures (if you click the slideshow it will take you to the pictures where you can fiew them individually).

***Also, if you look to the right, you will see a section with a Lulu logo and the title "A Kenyan Holiday 2008". If you like the pictures (and are willing to fork out the dough) you can buy the coffee table book of the pictures. It is a bit expensive due to the printing costs, but hey, you never sell anything unless you first make it available yeah?***

This Blog Will Be Temporarily Stagnant

Yes. It is true. I will be shutting this site down to an extent for the next little bit. Well, not really shutting down, more like "freezing" it. I have attempted to find some replacement writers to keep the blog up but to no avail.

So, I guess the question arises, why are you shutting down? I will be leaving the country for a while and then heading out to NAB to do some software demonstrations for Sony.

I have always wanted to take my wife to Kenya (I went back in 2001) and with the house paid off, no debt and decent income, I can finally do that. We will be based out of RVA and do some traveling from there. If I am able to post any pictures or send an update I will, but I am not making any promises. I should be back in the swing of things come late April. If you want to join back with me here, just subsribe via email and you will be notified when I make another post.

Sprint's Customer Service Is Severely Lacking

**Updated in the comments section**

After spending 2 hours and 20+ minutes on the phone with multiple Sprint customer service representatives I was unable to resolve my current issue: namely our bill has an unexpected increase in overage fees on text messages. It has always been 10 cents per text message over our allotted amount until this months bill.

My encounter with Sprint goes like this: I was disconnected while on hold multiple times (1 time after 1 hour and 4 minutes on the phone with a representative I was placed on hold and disconnected). I was told by 3 reps that they could not resolve the issue. One could not access my previous month's statements to verify what I was telling him was true. Another told me my pin was incorrect and placed me on hold for over 22 minutes while I waited to speak to his supervisor. He came back on the line and told me that he could ask me a series of questions to access my account but he could not get the supervisor on the line as he was tied up still with another call. Oddly enough, he said he gathered this information from his supervisor. He stated that the messages were 20 cents and previously 15. There were no 10 cent text message overage charges. I told him that was agreed upon as overage in the retention plan I am currently under. He told me that I was not under a retention plan. I asked to speak to his supervisor and he put me on hold and we were subsequently disconnected.

I finally get through again to a guy (you have to wait on hold before transferred to a real person that speaks English as a secondary or tertiary language) and explain the situation yet again and am told that "we cannot change the pricing of overage". I told him that they did: 10 cents to 20 cents. He said he understood but he cannot change it back to 10 cents. He then proceeded to ask me if there was anything else he could help me with (Please note here that I was asked this question multiple times by a couple of the reps. It was like they were saying "Okay, we can't address the issue you called about so drop it. What else can we do for you?"). I asked him to resolve the issue or transfer me to someone who could. He placed me on hold and we were disconnected. I then called back yet again and, to shorten things, was told the general business dept. could take care of the issue. I was transferred and subsequently disconnected.

I called back and finally got through to the general business department. He was able to pull up my bill, past bills and see the 10 cent/20 cent discrepancy. He stated that due to the current system change/migration, the system seems to think my text message overage should be billed at 20 cents so it "corrected" it to that amount even though the previous agreement was for 10 cents a minute. He then instructed me to call back tomorrow and talk directly with the retention department as he was unable to adjust the amount. So, after 2 hours and 20+ minutes dealing with something I shouldn't have to, I still do not have this resolved and will have to embark on this yet again tomorrow.

I must really enjoy wasting my time as that is all tonight was: a waste of time. I have subsequently emailed Sprint and will be awaiting their response to this whole debacle. I will report back their response.

Background Information: I have been with Sprint since 2001 and rarely have problems with them unless I have to call them. I have, almost without exception, come away from every phone call to Sprint frustrated or just scratching my head in wondering how in the world they get by with calling that customer service.

Some questions:
-How would you handle this situation?
-What would be your next course of action if any?
-Does it increase the level of frustration for you when you have to ask the representative to continually repeat what they are saying because you can't understand what they are saying and you are constantly wondering why they call this customer service? (Just curious).
-What would be proper restitution given the situation at hand?