How can I love you if you won’t lie down?

1. The Misanthtropic: Name something (about humanity) you absolutely hate.

     When someone has every need provided for them, they tend to get lazy, and unwilling to do anything for themselves.

2. The Meretricious: Expose something or someone that’s phony, fraudulent or bogus.

     Al Sharpton.  Does that guy actually do anything besides get people riled up about ridiculous crap?

3. The Malcontent: Name something you’re unhappy with.

     Today, I feel like in an eternal cycle “waiting it out.”  Waiting for my house to be ready, waiting for payment for services rendered, waiting for a couple more opportunities, waiting for callbacks on a few different things…

4. The Meritorious: Give someone credit for something and name it if you can.

     Thanks to Fracas & Jason for being such good sports and reposting that silly survey the other day. 

5. The Mirror: See something good about yourself and name it.

     I work hard.  I play hard.

6. The Make-Believe: Name something you wish for.

     I kinda wish I could put myself on autopilot and jump forward two months in time.  That’d be way cool.

Now it’s your turn.

You can take part in The Monday Melee, even make it a regular feature at your site by visiting The Monday Melee page and following the steps. Kick-start your brain on Mondays and meet other bloggers.

If not of satan, then a spawn of said demon.
They are almost as bad as Wal-Mart, yet another corporate money-grubber I hate with a purple passion.

I went to pay my monthly Comcast bill online by check. Have technology, why not use it. Save a stamp, save a tree.
Well, when I clicked submit, it gave me an error message and number, which I’m glad I wrote down. So, I called and went through an seemingly endless barrage of the same automated questions being asked over and over by an annoying voiced robot. Then, as has been every other time I’ve called Comcast, I was put into the standard holding pattern like an Airbus 300 waiting to land at Los Angeles International Airport.

I was given clearance to land, and began my decent into the always fun world of call center customer service.

I spoke with girl this time who said she didn’t see any pending payments or anything and that I should just make my payment over the phone.

So, I did. With my debit card, which goes immediately. Come to find out 30 minutes later, the internet payment had went through and here is my confirmation.

So, I call them (Comcast) back, I go through the automated answering phone maze again and back into the standard holding pattern like an F16 circling Baghdad, only to talk to a not so pleasant or helpful fellow named Josh. They can’t stop either payment, he says.
“Hello.” Say I, Just reverse the charges on the debit card, pal!!??!!”

To which Josh says repeatedly, “I’m sorry, ma’am. Once payments are through, they are through and there is nothing we can do about it. I spent more than 45 minutes of my valuable time, not to mention all the hold time, fighting with Josh about how all of this is not my fault.
I would have never paid over the phone had I not received an error message up on the clicking of the submit button.

So, I get on my cell phone and call the bank whilst on hold . And, as the useless bloodsuckers they are, can’t stop any payments, as both are technically electronic payments.

Color me screwed. So two payments in the amount of $153.00 are going to be sucked out of my bank account because Comcast’s website sucks on severely proportionate levels

Now I’m on hold with them again, as they always have higher than normal call volume.

     This post was almost cancelled due to an unexpected case of sleep.

1. The Misanthtropic: Name something (about humanity) you absolutely hate.

     Gossip sucks.  Seriously.  Who cares what X did, and who cares what Y has to say about it?  And why does Z feel a need to repeat it, especially if they know Y is nothing but a damn gossip?

2. The Meretricious: Expose something or someone that’s phony, fraudulent or bogus.

     Can Offshoring with an Indian company really help your business?
     No… More on that later.

3. The Malcontent: Name something you’re unhappy with.

     I was supposed to move into a house on the 20th.  That didn’t happen, because the previous tenants are pigs.  Thanks to all that, I’ve been busting my ass to get moved at the last minute.
     Sadly, I was really counting on that place.  This put me in a position where I had to find something at the very last minute (Saturday) when I’m supposed to be out my current place today.
     Fortunately, thanks to my friends, I found a solution.

4. The Meritorious: Give someone credit for something and name it if you can.

     Very often, you never know who your true friends are until they’re tested.  Having been put in a rough spot the last few days, I’m glad to know that some of mine passed with flying colors.
     Thanks, Swanky and Jewel.

5. The Mirror: See something good about yourself and name it.

     Everything being so upside down lately has had me a little in-the-dumps.  But yesterday, after getting the worst part of the moving done, I realized something:  Sure, a lot of things haven’t worked out lately, but at the end of the day, I’m still laughing and trying to making the best of it.
     I must be doing something right.

6. The Make-Believe: Name something you wish for.

     I’ve peeled away a lot of layers and facades in my life the last couple of months … so much so that right now feels like starting over from scratch.
     There are a great many exciting things in my not-too-distant future.  I wish that every single one of them would come into fruition.

Now it’s your turn.

You can take part in The Monday Melee, even make it a regular feature at your site by visiting The Monday Melee page and following the steps. Kick-start your brain on Mondays and meet other bloggers.

     Last week, I inherited a website maintenance customer from a partner company.  After getting everything working on Wednesday afternoon, I sat back and waiting until the next time they’d call.

     On Thursday, I was forwarded an e-mail saying there was an additional issue with their site.  I looked at the file dates, and of course, one of the files in their e-Commerce software had been modified at 9:03AM on 19-Apr-2007.  I rebuilt the file, inserted the requisite variables, and called the customer.
     “No, I haven’t been in it,” he said.  “I just got this stuff yesterday.”
     Clearly, someone had.  The site worked perfectly fine when I left it on Wednesday.  Regardless, I took his explanation, and asked that he setup an account with us.
     “No, all this stuff should be part of the Setup,” he monotoned.  “My wife does all of the billing, anyway.”  Eventually, he promised to have her called me on Friday, 20-Apr-2007.

     Friday came and went without a phone call.

     Monday came, and there were new issues.  At 3:30PM, interns at the company called me to tell me that they were unable to login to the website’s backend yet again.
     Investigation showed that files had been changed at 2:30PM, an hour before they called.  I told them I would call them back, made the required changes, and got it all up and running again.

     The first intern I talked to didn’t know anything about setting up an account with us, but would pass me onto the person who did that.
     Of course, the second intern didn’t know anything about setting up an account with us, but would pass me onto the owner.  “Oh, she’s not in, but I’ll have her call you back tomorrow!”

     Today … I never received a call from them.  I called the company again, attempted to speak to the owner, and was told, “Oh, I’m sorry she didn’t call you back.  But she doesn’t know you, and isn’t comfortable setting up an account when she doesn’t know what it’s for.”
     “It’s for fixing your website,” I explained.  “I’ve been trying to get hold of her since last week.”
     “No, really?  You didn’t talk to anyone here,” she said in a sarcastic tone.
     “No, I spoke with your sysadmin, her husband, last Thursday,” I explained.  “We need to get this situation resolved.  I need to speak with her, and get this straightened out.”
     “Well, what is it that you do?” she asked.
     “Well, you call us for help, we fix it.  Like when you called me yesterday,” I explained.
     “Well, she doesn’t know you, and, uhh, we might not use you anyway.”
     “That’s a bit rough,” I said firmly.  “You’re leaving me in a position where my only recourse is to revert the fixes I’ve made and leave you with it.  I don’t want to have to do that…”
     “Well, okay, I’ll call her right now,” she agreed.

     An hour later, I get a call from my partner company.
     “Mark, she’s going off that you’re making terrorist threats against her website!”
     “Man, I’m still trying to get hold of her.  Her intern said she wouldn’t call me because they don’t know me.”
     “That’s ridiculous … I sent them the e-mail last week!” he exclaimed.
     “Yeah, and it’s their sysadmin’s position that if they break anything on the site right now, that they’ve already paid for it with setup,” I explained.  “But he’s going to have his wife call me, only, she won’t talk to me, because she doesn’t know me.”
     “Well, she said she’s not going to do business with any company that starts making terroristic threats against her website.”
     “Maybe you should give her the number for Homeland Security,” I told him.

     We had a bit of a laugh at the nonsense of the situation.

     Nobody can fault me on my Customer Service skills.  For that matter, no one can say I’ve ever been unfair when issues like these have arisen.

     This is simply a client who’s attempting to get out of paying their bill.  A previous maintenance company allowed them to pay with barter dollars, so I’m guessing they’re a bit miffed at having to come up with cash or a credit card to for the service.

     Some customers nobody needs.

     But in the meantime — I’m a website terrorist!  *thumbs up*

     Should I start wearing a turban?

     This morning, at 6AM, my telephone rang.
     “Hello?”
     I was greeted by a recorded message telling me about the wonders of Globalization, and how Offshoring can help my business.  I hung up.  The phone rang again, and when I answered, the recording continued.

     I called back the number of my caller ID — 703-738-6669.  It took two tries to get to a human being, who explained that she was with Arctern Incorporated, and was based in — no big surprise — India.

     I asked her why their company was calling people in the United States at 6AM.
     She began reading a broken-English essay about offshoring.
     I told her that at 6AM, no one was open to that kind of drivel.  I also informed her that since I’m on US/Eastern, it was later here than anywhere else in the US, and that her and company have NO BUSINESS calling ANYONE in the United States at that time.
     “Sir, perhaps you should speak to our marketing department.”
     “I will not speak to your marketing company.  You are officially informed that you are not to call this number ever again, and right now, you’ll be extremely lucky if I don’t file a nuisance complaint and have your Fairfax, Virginia telephone number disconnected.”
     At that point, I hung up.

     Arctern’s website lists all sorts of buzzwords.  “Outsourcing.”  “Offshoring.”  “Technology.”  “Research.”

     I only consider that their “Outsouced,” “Offshore” corporation was unable to leverage “Technology” and “Research” Time Zones before they started mass-dialing the United States at 6AM.

     Arctern Incorporated get the Asshat-of-the-Day award.

     Thanks, Glenn.  Appreciate ya.  *rolls eyes in faux disgust* 

     Met up with some cool people for Blogfest on Saturday night:

• Perry Nelson
• Cathy McCaughan
• Doug McCaughan
• Rich Hailey
• Michael Silence
• Randy Neal
• Barry
• SayUncle
• CE Petro
• Les Jones
• Mike Faulk
• Lissa Kay
• Katie Allison Granju
• Jonathan Hickman
• Dr Helen

     Oh, and Glenn “Instapundit” Reynolds … *snicker*

     Had a few laughs … Had a few Porters … Had a few more laughs … And then … Met up with some more friends … Had a few more Porters … And laughs … and continued to the next venue(s).

     At some point during the night, I actually turned off my phone and left it in the car, because the business calls were really bringing me down after what had already been a long, long, long, long day.  Four business calls per hour gets old on a Saturday night…

UPDATE 11:26PM GMT-5

     Having just read Rich Haily’s blog in its entirety, I wish to clarify something:

Present but not blogging were Les Jones and his wife Melissa, and Mark Steel.

     I submit that I am not the wife of Les Jones.  I have not, nor will I ever be, married to Les.  Nor has anyone ever, ever called me “Melissa.”  I am also sure that Les is not from Utah, nor Massachusetts.
     That said, however, Les and I do have more in common than most of my recent dates, such as mutual affections for Star Wars, Firearms and making fun of the Dixie Chicks.  *snicker*

     Tonight, as usual, I tried to have a good night, hanging out with the Pirate Chicks.  I like them.  And, overall, they give me great insight.

     But…

     Our place-of-choice was, as usual, sub-optimal.  This required me to go to the bar on many occasions to get our drinks, because the service was, typically, sub-optimal.

     And what should happen, just before I left, if one of the servers didn’t come and sit down at our table, telling us all her hopes and dreams, about how she’s going to be a clothing designer?  She’s so much better than “this place?”  How she’s going to move away from Knoxville, and get a “real life?”

     And when I offer her a bit of advice, she says: “I’m not gonna sit around here talking to some f&*#ing bald guy!”

     Let’s see …

     Waitress?

     Old enough to be her father?

     Experience, maybe?

     Already been to the countries she dreams of visiting?

     Know more people than she ever will, most probably?

     No.  Doesn’t matter to her.

     *shrug*

     Long story short, bouncer, bartender, and both of them told me I didn’t do anything wrong.

     “She’s drunk, dude, and being a bitch.  Sorry, man.”

     “I am so sorry, and I don’t know what happened, but you’ve always been sweet to me.  And you’ve — Oh, Thanks!”

     *shrug*

     It’s all about Customer Service, to a very large degree.  Don’t insult your customers.  And if you do, apologize.

     And if you’re a drunken idiot, at least have the couth to say, “I’m drunk.  Bye.”

     Wish I could drink while I worked … *rolls eyes*

That is where we live. No, our politicians are not dictators, but the companies we work for are. They hold our lives in their hands and make decisions on a whim that can destroy us. And we have little recourse. In the state of Tennessee you can be fired for basicaly no reason.

I bring this up for one reason. It is a critique of the notion that if we give more money to the upper crust, it will mean that the rest of the population does better.

If we lived in a country of benevolent dictators this would be true. Unfortunately, as people get lots of wealth and power, they simply want more wealth and power and are less likely to share. They don’t spread it around, they hoard it.

How many companies or bosses have you worked for that pushed you to work more for less and tried to see how far they could go before they made you quit? They didn’t value your ability to make the company better by sharing the wealth you were making for them. They simply used you to make more for them and when you became too squeaky a wheel, they dumped you for someone they could pay less.

This is how most companies are run. The people who do the work that make the money are undervalued, while the people at the top keep getting bigger heads and thinking the only thing that matters to the company is their brilliant leadership which means they deserve more money. They can keep replacing workers. They can keep treating them poorly. They can keep taking more and giving less.

It’s a matter of the human psyche and how money and power corrupts the mind into false flattery. It leads to a nation of distinct and distant strata.

In an ideal world, it would mean that as the companies got bigger and more profitable, everyone would make more money and be better off. Instead, the top layer gets more and more and the bottom layers stay the same and slide back. And the bigger the company, the more extreme the concentration at the top, and the more large the chasm below.

The Republicans have been in control for a good 12 years. The stock market is soaring to new records. But, most of the people I know are making less money and are more worried about their future. Crime is rising, in particular, robbery and burglary, which is a sign of hard times. 12 years and this is where we are. How do you feel about your future?