Since I’ve been living in Belgium for years now, I’m pretty much in the dark when it comes to how the whole TV-phone-internet setup works back in America, so I was hoping you guys could help me out with something:
I don't have anyone left back home except my parents, both 75-year-olds. They used to have a basic cable package. For them, having that connection along with the internet is basically their only window to the world.
Back on October 26th, there were some major outages, and they were without phone, internet, or TV for about ten days. After that, the internet folks came out to fix things and everything seems fine there, but we’ve run into a huge mess regarding the landline. Basically, the AT&T technician wouldn't even listen when my mom begged him to leave the landline functional; he just clipped the wires and told them to just use a cordless phone instead. But here's the thing—if the power goes out, my elderly parents can't call a doctor because a cordless phone won't work without electricity...
After that, they promised to get the cable service sorted out, but for one reason or another, it just hasn't happened (honestly, I still don't understand why my parents can't get their service when the entire neighborhood can!).
Then, some "genius" suggested satellite TV, claiming they'd get all the same channels they had before, so my parents agreed (they'd agree to anything just to get their shows back). A week later, a fourth technician shows up and tells them satellite isn't even an option (which makes sense to me, since they live on the coast near San Diego where those heavy winds blow constantly).... And ever since then, it's been a total disaster. Nobody responds to our emails or phone calls. Meanwhile, my parents still received the bill—and paid it promptly!
I have this feeling that these technicians try to push nonsense on people (they see two seniors and probably think they can easily take advantage of them). I honestly don't know the first thing about how these services operate in the US anymore. I tried looking up other providers online, but the info on their websites doesn't really tell me what I need to know.
Can anyone tell me which bundle (TV, internet, phone) is worth picking? Which one actually provides decent service while keeping the price reasonable? I am honestly getting so fed up with AT&T! After all the requests and complaints, and after a month of back-and-forth, they still haven't found a permanent solution! At this point, I'm thinking it's best to just switch to someone else... what do you all think?
Thanks in advance!
PS. If I posted this in the wrong forum, sorry! A moderator can move it if needed. THX
AllweEverWanted said:First you go through denial, then anger, then sadness, and finally acceptance... looks like you're still stuck in the denial phase.
I don't really do those "phases" thing 😎. Once I make up my mind, I stick to it, honey 😁
mistyhound2 said:Why would it fall apart in five years? Just because you're living on the other side of the world? That's total nonsense. If anything, it’s only going to get stronger.
👍 Honestly, you took the words right out of my mouth!
Personally, I’m against it. At least not until they actually sort out the whole human rights situation. Plus, if you ask me, they’re still far too dependent on foreign aid to be making their own calls—let alone deciding things for us, heaven forbid. Aside from those few tourist spots that look halfway decent, most of the places there are just pure struggle and poverty.👎
Kate Martin76 said:And from what I’ve been hearing, those little gifts or "tokens of appreciation"—you know, things that aren't straight-up cash—don't even come close to being as useful as just handing over some money... honestly, the whole thing feels pretty gross to me.👎
Honestly, you really just have to watch their faces when you hand them a gift. It could be a fancy box of Godiva chocolates, a nice bottle of wine, or whatever else you decide on—it doesn't matter. Nothing beats the look on someone's face; you can practically see them grinning from ear to ear because they know they're getting something tangible. It's almost better than the cash itself!
copperridge912 said:Oof, my bad! I honestly thought you were still hitting the books, but turns out you're already out there in the trenches working... 😵
No special treatment here—you've actually managed to end up on my bad side now! 🙂
Studentica said:so it doesn't matter WHAT DEGREES CAN BE BOUGHT AT MANY UNIVERSITIES AND OTHER THINGS LIKE THAT
You’ve got a point there, Studentica. I know corruption exists everywhere, and unfortunately, it creeps into our schools too. I'm not trying to excuse it—and I know you aren't either—but I actually started this thread out of pure curiosity. On another forum, people were really coming after me for bringing up bribery, arguing that you rarely ever find a doctor who takes kickbacks, whereas lower-level medical staff almost never 😲 but my own experiences have been 100% different from that!
Studentica said:I hope things change once we fully integrate into the European Union and healthcare quality improves. But that will only happen if we, as a nation, establish higher standards and actually start investing in education and expertise!!!
Sadly, I don't think that's going to happen anytime soon. It’s going to take an entire generation before people's perspectives shift and we see a real change in the collective mindset. Just to give you some context, through a stroke of luck, I ended up attending a specialized college in Belgium for the same major I studied back home in America. At the start of the semester, they gave us a full list of all the professors, including their private addresses, phone numbers, emails, and everything else, along with a note saying we could consult with any of them at our own discretion. Honestly, I can't even describe how kind and helpful those people were. You can truly feel how much they care when you show interest in their subject; they share their knowledge with such genuine passion. Long story short, I got all the help I needed and finished right on schedule! I'll never forget that experience, whereas my memories of college in America are mostly just of struggling through while TAs acted condescendingly whenever they felt like it, and the professors were completely unreachable, acting like they were gods!
placidjackal97 said:is that common practice here in the States? In Germany, that kind of delivery is very rare, and personally, I don't know anyone who requested an induction with an epidural. They just ask for the epidural to be available when the time comes, and then they go with natural labor.
Around here, it's almost the norm and pretty much the only way people do it. Almost every woman opts for an epidural; it's been the trend for the last decade or so. Generally, you coordinate the delivery method with the OBGYN who handled your pregnancy and oversaw the birth.
Rebecca Fox53 said:Well, if that's the case, then there's no issue at all... Just let me know where you work, and we'll consider you one of our own... though I really hope it isn't something like anatomy...
😁 👍
Before all that, though, they really ought to fix the situation so that Casey Palmer5 gets paid based on actual revenue! Honestly, she shouldn't even have to deal with kickbacks.😉
Carol Grant33 said:They tend to burn out or act up pretty quickly....
Nicole Sanchez45, I was absolutely dying laughing at your post.😁 I don't know if it’s actually funny, though... I just know exactly how that script plays out. 😁 Living here in San Diego, I see this kind of behavior all the time. I feel like I'm constantly having to stand my ground.😢
I hear you, Carol. My sister deals with the exact same thing over in San Diego and she tells me all about it! Honestly, you just have to fight those battles and claim your space. Once people finally figure out who you are, they usually back off and leave you alone. At the end of the day, we all need to show up to work on time and get things moving—you can always grab your coffee once you're actually at your station! And being kind? That doesn't cost a dime.
Every healthcare worker (and really, any regular person) loves walking into a shop or a hair salon and being greeted with a smile. Why can't they start acting that way too?😕
Honestly, I didn't even know whether to laugh or cry! For starters, before I moved away, I lived in Washington, D.C., and I’m just not used to being treated like that. On top of that, I have this nagging feeling that this kind of behavior is becoming the norm, mostly because everyone else standing in line ahead of me was just waiting there so obediently, like little sheep. It made absolutely no sense to me.
And what I truly can't wrap my head around is why these people (and I’m talking about the clinic in Bakersfield) act like they’re somehow superior or more powerful than everyone else just because they're doing their jobs. Is there really nobody sane enough to actually step up and tell them to get in line?
I just can't fathom it! If anyone ever put me in charge of that office, I swear I’d have them all behaving themselves within a month tops!
I know this is a bit of a tangent, but I really need to get this off my chest!
So, back in mid-July last summer, I was traveling through America. About ten days into the trip, I started dealing with this persistent cough that would only flare up whenever I laid down—whether it was heading to bed for the night or just settling in on a beach towel. It felt pretty strange to me, honestly. I wasn't running a fever, my throat didn't feel scratchy, and I didn't have that heavy, wiped-out feeling you usually get when the flu hits. It was just this one weird symptom. The cough was just so relentless that I found myself hacking away until 5 in the morning—and mind you, I don't even smoke. It was one of those frustrating things where if I actually got up and moved around, it would settle down for a bit, only to come roaring back the second I tried to lie down again. Honestly, looking back on my life, I can't remember ever dealing with a cough quite this intense.
Finally, on May 8th—which happened to be a holiday here in the States—I just couldn't take it anymore. I finally bit the bullet and headed straight to the ER in Bakersfield. I pulled up to the clinic around 7:45 in the morning. There were about five or six people already ahead of me in line. I went up and asked if the doctor had actually started seeing patients yet—since the sign on the door clearly says they open at 7:00—but everyone just told me he wasn't in yet.
I was walking down the hallway, a few doors down from where I was sitting, when I started hearing this burst of noise and laughter coming from around the corner. I decided to head over that way, mostly because I wanted to check if the doctor had actually started his rounds yet. When I got there, I found four nurses, two custodial staff members, and an ambulance driver all gathered together. They were just sitting there, sipping coffee and having a good laugh. I made sure to give a polite knock first—didn't want to be rude or interrupt their break too abruptly—and apologized for the intrusion. I just asked if the doctor was seeing patients yet, since the waiting room was absolutely packed.
So, I was talking to one of the nurses earlier, and she actually looked me right in the eye and asked, "What's the big rush? Why couldn't this wait until tomorrow or even the day after?" Honestly, it’s funny how people react when you're trying to get things moving. I ended up feeling a little caught off guard, so I just told her that I didn't really want to bore everyone with my health issues and that I was just looking to see a doctor. Her response? She basically told me, "Fine then, go stand outside and wait in line like everyone else. We don't have time for social cases like you here."
I honestly just lost my cool for a second there. I told her straight up that we were done talking—there was just nothing left to say between us. I let her know that if she wanted to continue this conversation, she’d have to go through her manager instead. At that point, I decided to be completely professional about it; I gave her my full name and asked her to do the same. I figured if I'm going to sit down and file a formal complaint later, I need her actual name on the paperwork so I can hold her accountable.
It was right around the end of my coffee break when things started getting weird. Most of the staff had already stood up to head back to their stations, but this one woman just sat there for a second before she completely lost it. She started screaming "Van!" at the top of her lungs, totally hysterical. I wasn't even inside the room—everything was happening right by the doorway—but I felt stuck. I couldn't exactly walk out while she was spiraling like that, and then, before I knew it, she just bolted out of the room and vanished. Honestly, who knows where she went.
It took about fifteen minutes of waiting before I finally made it to the front of the line and stepped into the exam room. To be honest, I couldn't quite tell if the doctor was an intern or not—she had that certain vibe about her—but hey, who am I to question the expertise of medical professionals?
So, an outpatient clinic basically looks like this: just a single room where a nurse and a doctor sit at a desk, facing one another. Patients—or whoever happens to be coming through those doors—just drift in and out pretty smoothly. It’s a very low-key, steady flow without any real chaos or fuss.
So, I just gave her the rundown on my symptoms and everything I’d tried to throw at them. Honestly, I'm a little embarrassed to admit it, but I ended up taking pretty much every cough suppressant and syrup we had sitting in the medicine cabinet at the time. I even went through an entire bottle of Albuterol. It wasn't until I hit that point—where nothing else was touching the congestion—that I finally realized I had to go see a doctor. She just shot back at me with, "Look, if your Albuterol isn't doing the trick, you seriously need to head to the ER!" So I just looked her right in the eye and said, "Fine then, send me to the hospital." Honestly, I think she was hoping the mere mention of a hospital would spook me enough to make me run off and follow her advice, but that wasn't going to happen.
The nurse pointed me toward the exam table to have my lungs checked out. I actually hesitated for a second, mostly because I was thinking that before I started undressing, maybe one of the nurses would step out and lock the door or something—you know, just to stop the constant stream of people walking in and out. But apparently, stripping down right in front of a crowd is just business as usual for them.
The doctor pressed her stethoscope against my left shoulder blade—hardly more than three seconds—and then moved it right over my heart for about the same amount of time. She let out this big sigh and just told me, "Your lungs are as clear as a sunny day." So, I was feeling pretty great, honestly—just telling her how much better everything felt! But then she asks me, "Well, if you're so good, why on earth are you coughing so much?" She actually suggested that maybe there might be fluid in my lungs. I just looked at her and said, "If my lungs were full of fluid, I don't think I'd feel this 'great,' would I? You'd definitely hear it." At that point, the poor woman just gave up. It was one of those moments where I realized she really didn't have a clue what she was talking about. She just stared at me and admitted, "I honestly don't know what's going on with you. This is strange, and I've truly never seen a case quite like this before." So, I decided to pivot and asked if it could possibly be some kind of allergy. That actually got her excited again, and she was all like, "Oh, absolutely, that's definitely a possibility!"
I realized there was just no point in arguing with someone who hasn’t dealt with a "situation" like this before, so I decided to stop engaging. Honestly, I've already spent way too much energy listening to nonsense! She just grabbed a pen and started scribbling down prescriptions (I guess that's about the only thing she's actually good at). So, I walked away with an antibiotic, an antihistamine, and an antitussive. At that point, if you'll excuse my language, I would have swallowed just about anything just to make the Cough stop so I could get one single night of peaceful sleep!
Another thing—after finally hunting down the number for the 24-hour pharmacy in San Diego on my phone (since neither the doctor nor the nurse had a clue), I drove all the way there, only to realize I had to drive right back to the clinic. The doctor completely forgot to electronically send over the prescriptions, and you can't pick up medication without valid orders.
To top it off, they billed me for an "extended consultation" at $8.00, even though a standard visit is only $4.00 per the price list. I have no idea what was so "extended" about my appointment, considering she didn't even bother to use a tongue depressor!
Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to sound stingy. The actual cost isn't the issue—$8.50 is nothing when we're used to paying $16.00 elsewhere—it's more about the quality of the service I actually received!
In the end, surprise, surprise: none of those medications did a lick of good. The Cough just sort of "settled down" to a tolerable level on its own after about fifteen days. I still have no clue what was wrong with me, and I probably never will.
This whole odyssey was a total nightmare for me. I really feel for anyone who needs a doctor in our "beautiful country." It's not even because of the illness itself, but because of all this bureaucratic nonsense and the blatant rip-offs that follow any visit to these medical facilities. It’s so exhausting when you're already feeling sick, having to practically bow down to various nurses, doctors, and all that medical and administrative staff just to access basic healthcare!
Look, I get it. I know money is tight, the equipment is outdated, working conditions aren't great, and salaries are low. I hear all the excuses for why the service can't be "top-tier," but I also know that a kind word and a little empathy don't cost a dime, and they mean the world to someone who's suffering.
I don't even have to imagine it. I've lived it. My mom works in healthcare, and she’s always been strictly by the book—never once took a bribe. She’s always been fundamentally against that kind of thing, so that was the moral compass I grew up with. But honestly? In my own experience, it wasn't about cash, it was about connections. Like, when my mom came to the hospital with me, the department head and the chief of staff recognized her. Suddenly, tests that usually have a six-month waiting list were done for me in just a couple of days. 🙄
I totally get where you're coming from. Most of us end up doing it; I wouldn't call it bribery per se, even though I know it isn't right, but it feels like just part of being human in this system. I didn't really realize how deep the issue went until I actually had a sick family member to worry about. At first, I thought people were just assuming I was pulling strings because I work out in the field and they think I'm raking in the dough. But once I started asking around, I realized this practice is everywhere.😲
What makes it even worse is that there is basically no specialized care for the elderly. Nobody seems to give a damn about them. It’s nearly impossible to find them a bed in a facility, and even if you do, you can bet they won't approve any expensive diagnostic tests unless someone hands over a thick envelope. Honestly, if you dare to go back home and grow old, good luck. 🙂
To actually report someone, you need rock-solid evidence—witnesses, documentation, the whole nine yards. It’s definitely not some simple task! If you ask me, how all those doctors manage to stay tight-knit and protect one another seems almost impossible. Just take a look at the news; you see headlines about doctors being investigated all the time, and then what happens? Poof. They just disappear from the conversation entirely. The real question is whether a patient's family, after dealing with all that sickness and chaos, actually has the strength left to file a formal complaint. Why would they want to pick a fight with powerful people and make their already complicated lives even more of a mess?
To be completely honest, I tried reaching out to everyone from the Department of Health to major outlets like the New York Times, and guess what? Zilch. Zero. Nothing. I even had half of them send me auto-replies saying my email was deleted without being read... 😲
Casey Palmer5 said:I was just catching up with my best friend earlier today... Her dad is scheduled for a stent placement in about two months, but the doctor isn't asking for a bribe outright or anything. Instead, he’s insisting they come to his private practice for all the follow-up appointments, which end up costing about $333 per visit. They've already had several, and there are at least another 2 or 3 more on the schedule. If they don't play along, they told him he might have to wait a year for the actual procedure—which is a timeline he just wouldn't survive.
That’s exactly how they bleed people dry. I had a neighbor who was diagnosed with brain cancer. During that very first specialist consultation, the doctor looked her husband in the eye and said surgery was absolutely inevitable and extremely urgent. He offered to recommend them to a "truly elite surgeon," but hinted that, essentially, they needed to put $1,800 in an envelope right away. Of course, being desperate, the man booked the appointment immediately, took out a loan, put the cash in the envelope, and rushed his wife to the hospital. She ended up going under the knife within three days. It’s been about 18 months since that happened. In the meantime, they actually had to take out a second mortgage on their house because the "medical expenses" were just overwhelming. The worst part is, she’s getting worse, and it really looks like there's no hope left.......
@ placidjackal97
Just try to imagine a situation where there's no room for joking around or empty talk on a forum. Like, if your spouse falls seriously ill and, just like the situation I described, you need to conjure up a massive amount of money in three days. Would you even hesitate? Would you even have the luxury of time to weigh other options, or would you just toss your own principles out the window in that moment?
My dear Jessica Roberts19, I know exactly what you’re talking about. My late father went through the exact same nightmare. When the paramedics arrived, the driver actually told us they needed to find someone else to transport him because he had sciatica and his back was killing him. The doctor didn't say a single word; he just got up and sat in the vehicle waiting. So, my father ended up at the hospital in Washington, D.C., suffering from severe pneumonia and fluid in his lungs, only to be left sitting in a hallway for five and a half hours in the middle of winter. I kept begging them to at least give him a blanket, but they wouldn't—they said they couldn't, or didn't have any... anything. They wouldn't even let us into a proper ward; we were just stuck in the hallway in a freezing draft. Eventually, they sent him right back home, telling us to just manage with his prescribed medication. A week and a half later, he passed away—from pneumonia! And that's in this day and age!
Regarding the bribery issue, I really wanted to see what everyone here thought because people on another forum were attacking me, claiming that Medicare isn't corrupt. Well, I have completely different experiences! 👎
Thanks so much for sharing this! On another forum, people were claiming that doctors asking for kickbacks are a tiny minority, but honestly, my own experiences have been a total contrast to that! It’s just a shame more people aren't speaking up about what they've dealt with. I won't go naming names, obviously, but you know what I mean.
In any case, Dr. Paladino is such a class act and a true exception to the rule. I’ve heard nothing but wonderful things about him, and I really, truly hope the rest of the medical community starts following his lead soon!
I’ve had some pretty terrible experiences when it comes to bribery within the healthcare system. Honestly, I’ve bumped into so many people sharing the exact same stories that it actually nudged me to start this thread.
It feels to me like this kind of corruption is actually more prevalent in smaller towns than it is in Washington, D.C. Am I off base there?
Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you felt pressured to offer a "tip" or an envelope to a doctor or a nurse, or maybe they were the ones dropping hints first? Did they actually take it, or did they turn you down? If a doctor straight-up asked you for a bribe, would you actually report them? I’m curious to hear what your experiences have been regarding bribery within the American healthcare system.
Look, you’ve got phlegm up to your throat and you're still just sitting there waiting... I guess last night's little episode didn't scare you enough! If it had, you would have already been at the doctor's office.
I truly believe you could shake all this misery in a single day if you just tried some decent treatment, but it seems like you actually enjoy nursing your illness...