Fueling Fires

Parlez-Vous E.U.?

This guy really hit it on the head with his mention of personal accountability.  It’s about time people start owning up to the mistakes they have made and dig themselves out of the hole.  Children who’s parents bail them out constantly through life end up weak and unable to make it on their own in many cases.  I see a distinct comparison between that and the scenario today where the government is hell bent on cleaning up after all the irresponsible people in this country.  That said, I am not accusing everyone that has foreclosed or gone bankrupt as being irresponsible.  Obviously layoffs, deaths in the family, and other situations represent truly unforeseen scenarios that could lead to financial troubles, but if it’s just because someone racked up the credit cards or bought a home they couldn’t afford then I really have no sympathy, nor do I want to be taxed to bail them out!

So last year, I literally never got into the waiting room to buy Cubs tickets, but this year I am in for two games!  I am pretty pumped about it, this is going to be a good summer I can feel it.  I am going to the June 14th  game against the Twins (bleachers) and the August 28th game against the Mets (upper deck infield box).  Should be a great time as always!

Funny story.  I forgot my login to this site I use frequently.  After a few unsuccessful attempts, I completed the password retrieval form and checked my email for the response.  I received no response after a decent amount of time had passed, so I started up their live chat feature to ask for assistance.  They tried to send it again manually with no luck, so I figured it might be an issue with Hotmail.  I asked if I could have the information sent to my work email.  Here is the funny part.  The response I get is that I need to provide my password and last four digits of my credit card.  I had to laugh at the fact that guy is asking me to provide my password as authentication so he can email me my password that I do not know.

Seriously…arguably the worst customer service on the face of the earth.  First off, after six months my “12 month rate” suddenly disappeared.  They told me I was mistaken and it was only a six month rate.  I thought I would bluff a little so I said I would consider canceling my service for satellite if they did not keep it going for the remainder of the year.  Their response was simply, “Would like me to transfer you over to cancellations now?”  I felt like an idiot since I really had no intention of canceling so I just said no and got off the call.  Looked dumb, felt dumb.

So the other day we were having more problems with the service.  Constantly it we were having pixelation and just these pauses that would happen here and there and had been going on since I could remember.  I thought about calling them, but then remembered the above experience, so instead I just called and signed up for satellite.  This will not be connected for another two weeks and I have not informed Comcast of this yet.

In the meantime, I had some issues with the internet the other day, so I gave tech support a call and waited on hold for over twenty minutes and finally just hung up.  I thought I would try again, but this time select the option for purchasing new services.  Shocker, someone picked up immediately.  Good to see that they do not keep enough staff on hand to help existing customers, but keep plenty on hand to sell you more garbage.  I told the guy that I needed tech support and asked if he could connect me without the massive hold times.  He of course replies that he cannot and pretty much acted like an ass to me for having bothered him with this.

Something is seriously wrong because when a business is allowed to be the only provider for their designated areas they basically couldn’t care less about earning their business.  Why would they when its handed to them?

So I donated blood for the first time today.  All went pretty well except for the fact that I moved my arm after they lined things up and caused them to misfire on the first arm.  The second arm went off without a hitch, but I was pretty disappointed by the fact that I lost in my race with a coworker next to me.  I like to win at things.  So I thought about posting pics of my arms, but upon further review, it’s pretty gross so I won’t.

So the original review process was on Ebay was awful since as a buyer, you were practically handcuffed into leaving positive feedback for sellers in the fear they would retaliate with a negative feedback for you.  The clearly recognized this with their recent change where sellers can only issue positive or neutral feedback to a buyer.  This may solve some problems, but there are still several flaws in this process.

1. A buyer sometimes DESERVES  negative feedback if they are a pain in the ass, don’t pay, or any other number of reasons they make the transaction a living hell.
2. With this system I still find that sellers absolutely will not leave me feedback 90% of the time until they have received my positive feedback.  This pisses me off.  As a buyer, if I pay instantly, I have done my part and it is really in the seller’s court after that to make the transaction successful going forward.
3. They can still leave a neutral as retaliation, and to be honest, I want all positives.  A neutral may not be a negative, but you bet your ass it still draws attention to what supposedly happened.

Here is my proposed solution.  A seller is required to leave feedback before the buyer leaves theirs.  This would required the seller to leave an honest note about whether or not the person paid on time and did their part, without taking what the buyer left them as feedback into consideration.  Once the seller has left their feedback, the buyer would then have permission to leave feedback for the seller.  This is the order the transaction takes place, so why not the feedback?  Yes, some might point out that this could give the same opportunity to the buyer to leave retaliation feedback.  I argue that in the sales industry, the customer generally gets the benefit of the doubt and an online retailer or seller should conduct themselves similar to that of a department store when dealing with customers.  Anyone else have thoughts on this or some ideas they figure to be more productive?

http://www.tracyandmatt.co.uk/blogs/index.php/2008/08/22/htc-touch-pro-review

This review has me pretty excited about the Touch Pro.  I am using the PPC 6800 (Sprint Mogul) currently and while it has been a decent phone, it is still constantly constrained by the lack of memory and unresponsive touch screen, not the mention that call quality is average at best.  It sounds as though they addressed all of this and more with this model and have even added some pretty sweet features if I say so myself.  One of the simple features they mention in this review that seemed really cool was the ability to silence your phone by simply setting down face down.  That would be handy in a lot of situations.

Also, here you can find a video of the unboxing of the Touch Pro:

http://www.tracyandmatt.co.uk/blogs/index.php/2008/08/14/htc-touch-pro-unboxed-exclusive

Okay, this is my first entry and I want to talk about something that has bothered me for years.  Let me paint a picture for you.  I am a grocery store novice.  I don’t necessarily shop often, but when I do, I am excellent at getting as little as possible for the most money. 

As I walk into the store, I quickly realize I am in over my head.  Now I don’t know about you, but when I go grocery shopping, I always get these crazy ideas about eating healthy and decide that now is a great time to make some changes in my life.  I immediately head over the produce section, where I buy at least $20 worth of fruit that will end up rotting either on my counter or in the crisper.  This is usually followed by a trip to the organic section, where I buy a couple of bags of wierd stale chips that I will eat entirely that same night, completely nullifying any health benefit they may have had. 

After this I am forced to walk through the meat section, followed by the bakery.  Needless to say, I usually lose all focus on healthy food at this point and purchase any combination of CheddarWursts, large quantities of meat that I am too lazy to cook, and some random cake item from the bakery.  Things are going wildly out of control at this point, but nothing too bad…..yet.

As I turn the next corner, and enter the dairy section I list off the items in my head that I will need from here in an effort to zip through effeciently.  This plan is quickly foiled by the employee that is seemingly always in the aisle unloading a pallet of yogurt that blocks 85% of the aisle.  The remaining 15% is taken up by some one struggling with the tremendous decision of selecting a pack of American cheese. 

What’s left in the aisles following this are primarily ingredients for meals, so I quickly pass those as I head for the cereal and granola bar section.  This aisle is not quite as roomy as the dairy, and it never ceases to amaze me that the only two people in the aisle always park there carts right next to each other on opposite sides to ensure that nobody can pass.  I stand there and wait for them, and most of the time it is as if they are completely oblivious, enjoying the fact that they are causing my eyelids to twitch in frustration, or they just plain don’t give a crap about anyone but themselves.

While checking out, I usually feel like the person in front of me thinks I am stuck up as I place the little bar between my stuff and theirs.  After waiting ten minutes for the one person in the world that still writes checks to pay, and I am forced to keep a straight face as my total goes at least $50 higher than I had planned.  I swipe my card, all the while thinking about how much money I waste on food when I could be purchasing lots of other more useful things like DVD’s and video games.  So you know how they have the two seperate lanes to send your goods to the end of the counter to be bagged.  Well I am that guy that still hasn’t finished bagging his groceries when the guy after next is paying so the cashier is forced to start letting his stuff run into mine.  This is partially because of the fact that I am slow, and also can be attributed to the fact that I use double plastic bags for everything I take with me, including the milk.  You might ask, why would someone do that?  Isn’t that bad for the environment?  Well, it is a combination of two things.  One being my paranoia that the day I don’t, the bag will rip scattering my beloved groceries all over the parking lot.  The other reason is that I like to hoard the bags for things like taking my lunch to work and picking up my dog’s crap.  It’s sick, isn’t it? 

I love grocery shopping.