February 11, 2007
Today my cell phone wasn’t working all that well. Actually, as far as the phone part goes, it wasn’t working at all. Every call I tried to make failed and if I tried calling my phone it would eventually give me a busy signal. I called up Cingular and since my phone is less than two weeks old the best guess was that the phone was defective and Monday I’d have to deal with that department since its not open on Sundays. Ok, not the best scenario, but survivable. There are a few old phones around the house that I can pop my SIM into that would let me get by for a few days. Except that when I put my SIM in another phone it still didn’t work. I then found that my parents’ phones weren’t working either. Something must be wrong with the tower, so I gave Cingular a call back.
The Cingular lady checks into some things and comes back and tells me that my phone isn’t working because there are no towers in my area. Her best guess is that they had a roaming agreement that ran out. She wasn’t quite sure how to explain the fact that I had full bars and that my Alpha Tag said Cingular. I questioned what we were to do now that we won’t be able to get service at the house. I was told our termination fees would be waived. I also mentioned that it would have been nice if there was some sort of notice. She told me that letters would be sent out soon.
I didn’t believe her for a second, but she seemed confident that there were letters being sent out letting us know that we couldn’t get service anymore. That would really be terrible. I quickly did some T-Mobile research but that didn’t make me feel any better. A little while later I tried my phone again and sure enough it was working again. We’ll see where this goes over the next week.
This is just the latest occurrence dealing with a cell phone company. A few months ago I dealt with Verizon and they were completely clueless. It took me over a day and about six people to get my phone activated. Finally I was transferred to a guy who did it in two minutes, the trouble was finding that guy. I went back to Cingular after the Verizon experiment because the call quality was so awful on Verizon (I had a LG VX-8600). I’d been happy with my Motorola RAZR V3, except for the fact that it was getting old and making some buzzing noises. I jumped on the Motorola RAZR V3xx as soon as it came out and it sounds fantastic.
I seem to always know more about how the company works than the people who actually work for them. When the first guy at Cingular told me my phone was defective he said he was going to transfer me to the warranty people. I told him that my phone was less than 30 days old, so this wasn’t going to be a warranty exchange. He disagreed with me and transferred me. The guy in warranty told me that I needed a different department because the phone was less than 30 days old. Hmm, that sounds familiar. This sort of thing happens all the time. I wish I was a little more clueless so I wouldn’t be quite as angry when talking to these people.
My favorite part of any of these conversations is at the end. When there is nothing they can do to help you they ask “Is there anything else I can assist you with?” You just told me I can’t use my phone at home, I think we’re done here.
February 10, 2007
I hate those automated systems that every company has when you call their help line or customer service. I hate how you have to enter all this information before you get to talk to a real person, and then they ask you all the same information again! Why did i have to enter it in the first place??? Even worse is when you have to talk to Mr. Automated Non-Human instead of typing it in. Half the time he doesn’t understand what you are saying. And sometimes if i’m trying to take care of something at work i dont want to say my social, birthday, mother’s maiden name, childhood pet, first known zip code, and favorite color out loud. It seems like Mr. ANH has replaced the humans all together and its nearly impossible to get a real one. Sometimes you have to know the special code-word to tell Mr. ANH to get a human (which, for United Airlines is “Agent” by the way). Then, once you do you get Mr. Guy-With-A-Strange-Accent-Half-Way-Around-The-World, he sometimes has more trouble understanding you than Mr. ANH. Also, i hate when Mr. GWASAHWATW seems grumpy that he has to answer the phone and talk to you at all. You’re a call center! Its your job! Deal!
I’ve talked to about 20 GWASAHWATW’s and a handful ANH’s in the last month trying to set up all my utilities and then having to call backwhen something went wrong. Just once it would be nice to talk to areal human right away, or even after entering a couple choices to narrow down the search (billing questions, setup service, etc) but before entering any personal information. I hope the companies realize they’ve gone too far to save a few bucks and are pissing off their customers. I’m about to the point where i’ll spend a few extra dollars a month for the company that doesnt use Mr. GWASAHWATW and especially ones that dont use Mr. ANH. I hate him!
January 27, 2007
Have you tried Caffeine-Free Coke recently? It seems that every few years I will think to myself, “I hear caffeine isn’t so good for you and sometimes I’d like to be able to have a Coke and have it not keep me awake, I think I’ll try it.” I always immediately regret that decision on first sip. The memory eventually fades and the cycle will begin again. Apparently I’m not the only one who despises it.
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January 6, 2007
The most popular gift in the house this year was a handheld version of Deal or No Deal. Everyone has been playing it: the family, the relatives, any friends or visitors, I think I even saw the dogs playing it. One person hasn’t touched it: Me. What’s the point?
The game itself on TV is pointless, I’ll admit to watching an episode or two. It has that reality show appeal that if you watch a few minutes you need to follow through to the end. There is an element of drama, however there is no skill. It’s pure luck.
So who would want to play the home game where there isn’t anything at stake? Why would you ever take the Bankers offer? Just play to the end to see what was in the case you selected. Better yet, save yourself the time of having to open all the other cases. Write all the possible amounts on paper, put them in a hat, and pick one. Not only is it much quicker, you didn’t have to buy the game or even leave the house.
December 20, 2006
This is random, but I gotta post a question to you guys: I have four friends that are always late. Its at the point where I can just count on them being late. I’m not talking about 5 minutes either, I mean 20-30 minutes +. I often find myself telling them earlier meeting times just so that they arrive on time. haha My question to you guys is: if late people KNOW they’re always late, why are they still late? Did that make sense?
I’m just wondering why they don’t keep in mind that they are always late and thus, start getting ready earlier? Don’t they care that they keep people waiting? What do you guys think? Any comments? Questions? Concerns? haha
November 4, 2006
Its that time of year, the decorative holiday towels have been un-boxed and a series of them will be rotating through the kitchen and bathrooms here at home. Out of all the decorations that come throughout the year these easily reach the Top 3 along with bells attached to doors and anything that plays music when motion is detected.
It starts around here with Halloween. You have your towels with ghosts, monsters, pumpkins, all sorts of spooky things. Then it moves right on to Thanksgiving: Turkeys, Pilgrims, perhaps some corn or falling leaves. Then things just get out of hand with Christmas. Santa and his reindeer, Frosty and his frozen friends, snow, snow, and more snow.
I understand the idea of going all out in decorating for the holidays. I was conditioned from birth that for the holidays the house is to be transformed into something completely unrecognizable from what you are used to. I would accept the towels as part of this package but something goes very wrong. These towels are a quarter the size of the normal hand/dish towels. Not only that, the decoration is some sort of plastic that takes up the majority of surface area. Making the towels unable to perform their natural duty: to dry things, such as my hands.
There are some simple solutions that would please me. The easy way is just to have colored towels with nothing on them. That would be plenty festive. If you must have your plastic pictures on there then please, make the towels a little bigger so that its not costing me any drying space.
I’ve never heard anyone else complain about these but I think everyone has secretly been cursing these things and not telling anyone because the idea is preposterous. Who would be upset with such adorable little towels?