SC's that put luxury ahead of priorities

[greensinestro]

I have several stories I could tell on this one, but I think I will only tell a couple I can think of off hand. This relates to people who buy things they don't need, putting luxuries ahead of things like their families, their homes, and things more important, at least to us.

Earlier this month, my company finally started offering DSL, although it's been disasterous so far. Because of this, we've had supervisors actually visiting the customer's homes to do self installs for them, because of faulty equipment. What really gets these supervisors later on are the conditions of the homes they enter. One entered a home that was so nasty and unkempt, and the children were also not taken well care of, yet this person had the funds to have DSL and other luxuries.

Another story was one my dad told back when he was a phone technician for Bellsouth, long before one could own their own telephone. Back then, the techs came in and wired everything, including the phone, and you had to pay for each phone you had. He was called out to this really bad area of town and came upon this run down, two bedroom house. The lady had reported her phone not working, and when he got there, the scene was deplorable. The house looked like you could just blow on it and it would fall apart, the kids were in diapers that looked days old, and the inside was just in disarray. Yet, this lady had a Princess (AKA Trimline) phone of each and every color in her home! She had previously had a technician wire ten jacks and then installed these phones for her. With a house like this, it makes one wonder where you can find room for ten jacks.

I have some luxuries in my home, but I still put my family and home first.

[AirHostess]

I've had passengers buying champagne to down inflight and leaving poor little baby crying for food

[AriRashkae]

These are the people DSS is supposed to catch

[Catwoman2965]

An old boyfriend used to work for Nielsen, the tv rating company. His job was to sign people up to be Nielsen raters, and go and install the equipment in their homes and the stories he would tell! His territory was some of the poorest, most rundown areas in the state, and he had many of the same experiences…he’d go in to install the equipment, and some of these places were just filthy, roaches, clutter, etc., obviously none of these people had a pot to piss in, yet they’d have 3 or 4 tvs, vcrs (back before DVD), etc. one in every room, and sometimes more tvs than people actually living there!

[OfficeSlug]

One of my former friends lost his job (legit layoffs), and eventually his fed-up jobless wife moved out with the 3 kids (to live with a friend).

Instead of bucking up and getting a job, any job, to keep his wife and kids, he took what little he had and bought pizza, beer, and cigars for himself while some local charity paid his rent and electric - and his wife got WIC for the kids.

I cannot tolerate this type of thinking! I work 2 jobs to pay for what I need; what I want comes WAY after the necessities!

(edited) She eventually went back to him, and they rented a tiny 2 bedroom place for the 5 of them, but they wanted a big house so now they're renting a way too expensive house, HE's going on trips while she stays at home, and she's complaining AGAIN that they have no money for electric/food, yet he is always buying dvds/games ... she didn't learn the first time...

[Boozy]

What's your company's stance on reporting conditions in your clients' homes to social services? (Or is it not quite that bad?)

I mean, if someone wants to live in their own filth, that's one thing. But I'm concerned about their toddlers crawling around in soiled diapers on filthy floors.

[greensinestro]

What's your company's stance on reporting conditions in your clients' homes to social services? (Or is it not quite that bad?)

I mean, if someone wants to live in their own filth, that's one thing. But I'm concerned about their toddlers crawling around in soiled diapers on filthy floors.

I don't really think my company has a stance. If we reported things like this, the customer is most likely to retaliate, and would most likely also know the identity of who reported them to child services. I had a next door neighbor who had a nasty apartment, had cockroaches up the ying yang (which eventually made their way to mine), and their child was always in need of a bath. Yet, the parents always had money to smoke and drink right outside my door each night, plus they had satelite TV, a luxury I could not afford, and I was single then! I thought it would have been the right thing to report this couple, but I was always afraid of them finding out it was me, and they could exact revenge. They knew which car was mine in the parking lot, and the wife had a bad temper much of the time.

[SuperB]

I've had them in the store scrounging their coins together for a pack of cigarettes and then tell their kids they don't have enough to get them a treat.

People like this piss me off more than anything and flame away if you want but they're the reason I'm a conservative republican. I'm sick of working my arse off for what I need only to watch the government hand it over to someone who sit's on theirs all day and then come in and ask if we take food stamps for beer.

[draftermatt]

See and that's the problem. People (and companies) too scared to say something for fear of retaliation, so the kids suffer.

[Sliceanddice]

personally i would report it no matter what, and if they retaliate well... hell most likely its illegal.
and arent there silent witness lines where oyu live?

[RecoveringKinkoid]

I've had them in the store scrounging their coins together for a pack of cigarettes and then tell their kids they don't have enough to get them a treat.

Treat, nothing. I dated a guy in high school who had four brothers, the youngest of which showed signs of malnutrition. I understand breakfast in that house usually consisted of hot chocolate mix and water. The family had one car between them that was so beat up the doors were held on with bent coat hangers.

There were always several cases of cigs in the kitchen, though, because the Dad was a heavy smoker. Young boy is underweight, sickly, and hollow cheeked, but by damn the old man didn't have to do without his smokes.

[Jadedcarguy]

An old boyfriend used to work for Nielsen, the tv rating company. His job was to sign people up to be Nielsen raters, and go and install the equipment in their homes and the stories he would tell! His territory was some of the poorest, most rundown areas in the state, and he had many of the same experiences…he’d go in to install the equipment, and some of these places were just filthy, roaches, clutter, etc., obviously none of these people had a pot to piss in, yet they’d have 3 or 4 tvs, vcrs (back before DVD), etc. one in every room, and sometimes more tvs than people actually living there!

Is that why TV mostly sucks anymore?

[wagegoth]

I reported a family one night who lived next to me, and I was shaking so hard I could barely hold the phone, but I was more scared by what I heard coming from next door (paper thin walls) and I knew I couldn't live with myself if I didn't call. My husband traveled a lot for his job, which meant I was alone for weeks at a time, but I had a 100+ pound dog (Briard), and the crying of the children was killing me.

The cops came. They must have taken the whole group into custody, because I never saw any of them again.

But the casual abuse and neglect of children eats at me. I worked in an elementary school at one time and I was crying myself to sleep at night, grinding my teeth away from tension headaches. I could never go back.

When I say, "Global birth control," I'm not joking.

[blas]

The cable company must offer some kind of discount or free digital cable to low income people/people on welfare. My ex roomate's gf was below poverty level when he first met her....and she had digital cable and plenty of beer in the fridge.

My ex neighbors.....the children probably had one bath every 2 weeks, all you could smell was marijuana and BO seeping from the windows, and yet there were speakers bumping rap music that rattled my walls and the crackwhore elephant always had cigarettes. Not only that, but I could hear her TV, sometimes we'd both be watching the same channel, so SHE had digital cable as well.

Ex roomate wanted to cancel digital cable because it was starting to cost almost $120 a month for all the channels and internet...............I kept the cable in my name and struggled each month to keep that ONE luxury.......nowadays I cannot afford it at ALL and just settle for the free cable my landlords provide....

And you're telling me people on welfare get digital cable and satellite? Uh uh. It'd be one thing to deprive them of tv and local channels, which are free. It's another to give them a LUXURY that most working class people struggle to afford or flat out CANNOT afford for free or damn near it!

[Hopefull7]

IF you are in the USA (not sure about abroad) you can call CPS and be anomous. In cases like these people really should report these conditons. You may be the only one who can help these kids.