Any laws, rules, etc. a newbie in Madison should know??? (Maple Bluff: transfer, salary)

[mommyntheoc]

IMO, people in Madison drive like zombies, very slow and without much thought...but they are INFINITELY more considerate than Californians...9/10 of the time Madison ppl let you over with a signal! I've only had 1 person in the 2 weeks we have been here who has done anything inconsiderate to me on the Madison roads...I changed lanes, with a signal, about 100 feet in front of him and so he started honking, tailgating...I brake checked him, he got this "oh crap" look on his face, and drove up beside me. I smiled over at him, a very sweet smile, and he just nodded and went on. It seems like making that holding my own and making that personal eye contact, unafraid, made the situation go away.

I'm not sure how racist this area is, or how people of different races feel it is, but I've noticed more aggressive driving so far in the same areas with higher percentages of certain races...wonder if this could be tied to socioeconomic status and related anger due to placement. But enough psychoanalysis, just a thing I've noticed and wondered about.

Originally Posted by sondra_finchley

Kohler too.... man we are overrun with them in the summers!

I have to say (and not to start some fight here or something or refute someone elses observations) my partner and I have also experienced some significant issues whilst driving here, including considerable tailgating (yesterday in fact, on the west side of town by Trader Joes). Its gotten to the point where I will bike just about anywhere in town to avoid having to drive- I find drivers here quite inconsiderate (lack of directionals used, not paying attention to the road due to phone use, speed problems, parking issues, poorly timed stoplights, the insane wear and tear my brake pads are taking, etc). One gentleman back in February I thought he was either going to run us off the road or was going to follow us to our destination to do... something. He was so aggressive and actually staring us down that I got my phone out to call the police and report him out of fear for my safety. My car has WI plates but other than that just an S (for Sweden) and a Swedish flag. (maybe the guy had issues with social democratic nationalities?) Disclaimer- I have a low tolerance for driving but find Chicago a breeze to drive in compared to Madison. YMMV obviously.

The driving/parking situation is one of the aspects we dont enjoy about Madison and we will likely be moving on once he is finished with school. This town just isnt for us, even though it is lovely at times.

[mommyntheoc]

I should add, I'd take zombies over maniacs anyday :-)

[JBoughton]

Originally Posted by mommyntheoc

So whenever I mentioned CHARTER, people all started complaining about them...but our hookup and billing has been flawless. The bill came and it is correct, the hookup for internet and phone went quicker and smoother than any company I've ever dealt with in CA...I can only think the expectations are higher here, these consumers would go crazy dealing with customer service in southern CA. lol

Our phone is running at $42 per month with taxes included...very high, however it includes all the calling features (voicemail, unlimited long distance, caller id, etc)...there is no option to remove these options, and we don't use them except the long distance.

Our cable internet is running at $31 per month with taxes, it has been faster than any other cable internet provider I've ever had, and I've had a variety within the past decade. We used our own modem that we bought from Cox last year...worked perfectly right away even with our wireless router.

TV is an additional $10 per month, but we didn't get it since we don't watch tv generally. The only thing that would ever be turned on is PBS, well it turns out SW Madison has PERFECT airwave reception, even in HD, for many stations with an HDTV antenna...looks perfect on our 37" LCD HDTV - I think it looks better than the compressed tv coming through the lines. Just a heads up for anyone moving to this area... :-)

Just wait 6 months until the bundle expires...

[mommyntheoc]

Aww is that the trick of it? What is the most they charge for phone and internet, Cox (CA) charges $60 per month internet, and we're already paying over $40 to Charter for phone...doesn't seem like such a hot deal to me...Vonage is $30 per month and TDS (?) is local and $5 cheaper for DSL...doesn't seem like the rates can really go up much higher than this to meet competition and demand. Enlighten me, please :-) No one could give me any reason they hated Charter except that their billing was off and the customer service was bad...neither of which I've seen yet (always seen that with every other company right off the bat).

[rekuci]

i despise AT&T but i think you could get away a lot cheaper with them, for the services you're trying to get. we have a stripped-down AT&T phone plan (something like 2 cents per local call, no long-distance but you can just use 1010 numbers) and the next-from-cheapest dsl service for about $45/mo total, which wouldn't even be allowed to be called "high speed" in most countries but it's alright for most purposes. despite having a contract for 2 years dsl for $20/mo, they "upgraded" the service with "security features" (yeah right...scam *cough*) and are now charging us $25/mo, but what can you do. their customer service is AWFUL and you will spend at least 1 hour on hold for any problem. but bottom line in the end is that they're the cheapest option around here.

broadcast tv is good for you because you're probably 0.5 miles or less from the towers we're about 1 mile from the towers (fox is on the east side i think, and comes in a lot worse) and the signal is OK...the sound cuts out every time a car drives by outside, or if you don't sit in the correct position on the couch, or if it's a little windy outside. i do really like the extra channels though, they bought me off this time.

[mommyntheoc]

Our internet is the cheapest one Charter offers, but it is faster than Cox was so I'm happy with the speed...I get really irritated with slow internet (wastes too much time). Since we know absolutely no one in this state, we are only calling long distance, plus I can't wait to ditch our cell phones at the contract expiration soon.

My husband refuses to use AT&T so I guess I don't get to save the $15 a month *sigh*..he had so many problems with their DSL that it took him almost 2 years to get a refund and it was already on the credit report by then despite it being in dispute because they changed their end of the contract without notification. :-/

Yes, we can see the towers from our house, and we are up on a hill! hehe I'm pretty excited that PBS comes in and weather...we don't watch tv except if the kids are sick (like today). :-) I checked our location signal strength on some website suggested to me, antenna signal .com or something like that..

[mommyntheoc]

Has anyone tried Vonage? Our friends in CA loved it...I figured we could switch at the 6 month mark if Charter tries to up the phone rate from ridiculous to absurd :-[ Any info on TDS? Our neighbors seem to like them, they lock in a 1 yr contract.

[Megan1967]

TDS is okay.

Vontage.... Well, this is the only thing I know about them. When a friend signed up with them all of his voice mail went into someone else's voicemail box (and that person's voice mail went into his). He struggled with this for 6 months. I don't know what ultimately happened in term of contracts or what not, I just know he is on US Cellular now. He doesn't have a land line, just a cell phone.

[mommyntheoc]

Yikes, that would really suck.

Personally, I don't want voicemail or an answering machine, if I want to reach someone, I will :-) I'm so tired of electronic leashes, hence the reason I can't wait til the cell phone expires (it was given to us). Email is enough of a leash for me. :-/

[Megan1967]

Heavy sigh.... People without voice mail are the bane of my existence.

Sorry.

I've just spent an inordinate amount of time trying to get a hold of people who have left messages regarding our programming. The ones without voicemail/an answering machine are also *never* home.

I can't stand when people don't return my calls so I like to make at least some sort of contact.