because not enough websites start with the letter “Z”
Posted in life on Apr 12th, 2008
This is the tale of buying a portable digital piano keyboard. The final decision involved two brick and mortar stores, hours of Internet research, several online retailers, and ultimately came down to customer service.
Bad Customer Service
Sibylle has wanted a good portable, digital piano keyboard for her studio for a while. A good keyboard with [...]
Posted in random on Jun 18th, 2007
Over the weekend I added international calling to my phone. This seemingly simple goal was made overly complicated by the “customer service” paradigm employed by AT&T.
Online Ordering
Repeated attempts to access my account in order to add the new service via AT&T web account manager failed. The error message displayed was ambiguous as to [...]
Go to your nearest pastry store, bakery, or donut shop and buy a couple of your favorite whatever to go. Watch carefully what happens next. The person behind the counter will grab a sheet of tissue paper, usually decorated with the name of the establishment and it’s logo, to handle the food items you are [...]
Posted in random on Nov 21st, 2006
Yesterday I set out to pay some bills online. Most of the creditors I have sport payment pages on their web site making it easy to point, click, and pay. One loan, however, proved to be the exception. Several years ago, when purchasing the two Apple computers I own, a line of credit was established [...]
Posted in random on Jul 7th, 2006
Believe it or not, my windshield woes continue. In our last episode the technician came and examined the rain sensor assembly and decided that a new “gel pack” was needed. He called his office and they placed an order. Later that day I was called by the dispatcher and informed that the parts would arrive [...]
Posted in random on Jul 1st, 2006
This morning’s windshield repair got off to an inauspicious start when the technician called me from my work location. Oops. Luckily it’s only about a 25 minute drive and he was able to come straight to the apartment.
In examining the situation he determined that the original rain sensor (what appeared to be a thick, rubbery [...]
Posted in random on Jun 29th, 2006
My worst fears about the reapplication of the rain sensor to the inside of my new windshield were realized this afternoon. Just 90 minutes after the repair was completed the sensor was once again dangling from its wire harness.
<Expletive deleted />
I called the SafeLite people once again (it’s a bad sign when you can remember [...]
Posted in random on May 10th, 2006
Last month I blundered and ordered a new phone from Amazon before determining if I could transfer my existing cell phone account to it. The terms of the offer, when I bothered to read them, specifically said the phone was for new service only. As soon as the phone arrived I return shipped it to [...]
Posted in random on Apr 4th, 2006
The building where I work has a cafeteria on the ground floor, and vending machine areas on the third, forth, and fifth floors. Why the second floor got skipped is beyond me, and a subject for another rant.
The third floor vending room has a change machine, a soda machine, and a vending machine with the [...]
Posted in random on Jan 9th, 2006
Over the weekend I purchased a second set of insoles for my work shoes. The first set has made a huge difference in the amount of pain I have from my fallen arches, but I was getting tired of swapping them from the brown work shoes to the black ones and back again. So, Saturday [...]
