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Happy Memorial Day, everyone.
Jeanette got Batman and Superman pajamas for the boys. They love them. After my last post I realize the world may be going to hell, but I'll be damned if MINE is. Thanks to Jerry Siegel, Joe Schuster, and Bob Kane and Bill Finger for creating these cultural mainstays that we all look up to.
I'm one that would, like most of us I'm sure, prefer blue skies, green lights and happy times. A world that I grew up in. Sadly, that world has changed. Without sounding all doom and gloom there's definitely a problem afoot. Customer service and doing things easily just doesn't happen anymore. And it sucks.
Case #1: My wife gets a Verizon Wireless bill for our cell phones and discovers that she has been charged for minutes she never used. The number is 777-000-0001. Weird, eh? 1 minute calls, over 30 of them, totaling $50 of additional charges. She calls Verizon and after being on hold for 15 minutes has someone tell her that she was "using 'get it now'". She doesn't use whatever "get it now" is, but this silly cow on the other end won't back off. "Well, you can register a complaint to our fraud department". She transfers Jeanette over.
"Sorry, we don't handle data usage fraud, I'll just transfer you back." "Wait, they just transferred me over here!" "Sorry, hold on!"
"Well, you used the internet." "No, I didn't. I never use the internet on my phone." "Yes you did." Uh.. okay.
Am I missing something? Sure, there are customers out there who aim to get everything they can and trick companies to make a few bucks, but does that mean every customer has to suffer? And what happened to being polite and trying to help rather than accuse and point fingers?
Case #2: I need a PIN number changed for my debit card. I call the bank and they tell me that it's no problem to issue me a new PIN. "I'm just going to send it to this address here..." And she reads me the address.
It's my old address. Even though Jeanette changed our address when we moved, and her debit card works fine, apparently DEBIT CARDS HAVE THEIR OWN ADDRESSES. And I didn't change it. So, to get a new PIN with a new address would mean a 30 day wait. Why? It's policy. They have to verify that the new address is correct and that takes 30 days. (!!!!???) Unless I wanted a new debit card issued, then I wait 5-7 business days for the new card, and 9-12 business days for the new PIN.
I'll tell you what's wrong here. There are MORONS running businesses these days. They don't take customer feedback, they don't make things easy for a customer. All that matters is money, and getting it any way they can. If you lose a few customers, who cares. You've got millions to spend on television commercials to get more customers.
This kind of thinking is wrong. I only wish I was in a position to stop it. It definitely makes one want to change careers, that's for sure. Write in, brothers and sisters of CS. Tell me your horror stories.
Taking a look at my inbox can be depressing. At least four people have asked questions about the album that I haven't yet responded to. Not good. Suneel provided me with a much better version of Hope II which I'd like to post, but I haven't gotten 'round to that yet either. Also not good.
Granted, with children and a day job a lot of people seem to understand the time sink. And I'm understanding that even though I've written Chip Davis (Mannheim Steamroller) twice I haven't gotten a response. But of course there's a bit of dissapointment. I don't want family, friends, or fans to experience that dissapointment.
Time really does seem to be working against you when you decide to live the American Dream (if such a thing exists).
Anyway, for those of you good enough to keep faith even with the lack of regular updates, I salute you. Keep on trucking!
Behold, the Samsung SCH-i760. The Treo 600 finally bit the dust and a new portable device takes the throne.
The benefits:
- 12 track digital audio workstation
The drawbacks:
- No unit conversion in its calculator
- A few more button combinations to use / tougher UI
A mini laptop, so to speak. I confess I'm taken aback by the fact that this thing can emulate an AdLib sound card that, when it was released twenty years ago was twice the size of this thing, and something that would have run so many applications would have been at least ten times bigger, ten times heavier and would have cost ten times as much.
Why then, has such advancement in capacity and capability come with automobiles? According to something my dad read, "cars would be the size of roller skates, would go the speed of light, and cost as much as a television."
Truth be stranger than fiction, my friends.
