Friday, September 04, 2009

Are You Prepared for a Major Emergency? "There's smoke coming from the Pentagon!" one of my coworkers shouted. I ran to his office window where we worked at the top of the Old Post Office Building in downtown Washington, DC, to witness black ribbons flowing from the Department of Defense building. This, after just watching the Internet's news about the attack on the World Trade Centers that morning, September 11, 2001. We were allowed to leave work-but I was at a loss as to how to get home since I had heard that the subway was closed. I had just moved from DC to a suburb in Maryland, and didn't know an alternate way to get home. I ended up stuck on a gridlocked bus for four hours because I didn't have another plan. Are you prepared for a natural disaster, potential terrorist attack, or other major crisis? September is the sixth annual National Preparedness Month, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The companion website, Ready.gov, gives you tips on what to include in a basic emergency supply kit, and suggests ways to contact and regroup with family members in an emergency. It also offers information on a variety of emergency situations, such as influenza pandemics, wildfires, chemical threats, and winter storms, and recommends preparations for businesses as well. Interactive features help you personalize a family emergency plan, and links take you to sign up for free emergency alerts from your local government. You also can follow Ready.gov on Twitter, or take the Readiness Quotient quiz. USA.gov offers information on preparing for emergencies for specific groups, including people with disabilities, kids, and pets, and links to federal information on disasters and emergencies. Since 9/11, I've maintained an emergency supply kit and made it a point to learn a variety of ways to get home. Do you have an emergency kit and plan? - Stephanie [Gov Gab: Your U.S. Government Blog] 9:42:54 AM     How to file a complaint This past month my Internet service provider has been the bane of my existence. My service has been fickle, at best. More often than not, it will work for a few hours and then stop. And then I'll spend another hour on the phone with customer service trying to troubleshoot. They've sent a technician once to fix the problem, and our service worked for a week or two, but then last week it went out again. I wasted more time on hold and talking to very nice and very helpful customer service agents. (That's not sarcasm, the people I spoke with this time around tried to do the best they could.) But alas, my service still goes out every couple hours and then stays out for several more. I finally had to file a complaint against the company. I've never had to do that before so I turned to ConsumerAction.gov for advice on what to do. My first instinct was to call up my Better Business Bureau, but ConsumerAction.gov advised that I try to contact someone higher up at the company first. So I hunted around on the company Web site until I found a contact name and email for the Vice President of customer relations. Then I followed some of the suggestions from one of the sample complaint letters and read about next steps to take. I decided I'd wait a week before contacting the BBB to see if the company could resolve the problem. Earlier this week I got a phone call from the company telling me they were trying to get the problem fixed as soon as possible and I have another technician coming out this week. I really hope this solves the whole problem. I hate paying so much for service and then not having it and I'd really rather not have to file a complaint with the BBB. Have any of you ever had problems with a company that you had to file a complaint against? What was the process like? Was it easy or tough and did you get the results you wanted? - Jess [Gov Gab: Your U.S. Government Blog] 9:17:44 AM

© Copyright 2009 Jocelyn Shaw. Last update: 9/16/2009; 9:12:10 AM. Photo curtesy of Marjorie O'Brien