It’s Friday, April 30th, 2010 and I’m sure glad I bagged my turkey already.
Been having some trouble with a rather persistent blog spammer of late. If you’re one who comments here, you’ll notice that I’ve added a “captcha” plugin, which has stopped 90% of the spammers, but this one guy/gal seems to be able to get past it.
Whoever it is, they seem convinced that my readers have monumental issues with erectile dysfunction and tries to post up to 10 “comments” a day with links to places selling viagra and such. That or it’s some spam bot that’s not smart enough to realize that it’s already been unsuccessful here. Whatever/whoever it is, you’re beginning to annoy me and you’re gonna find that this is a bad thing.
On the off chance that this idiot is actually reading my blog and trying to post this crap manually, be advised, all comments are MODERATED. Meaning that every single one goes into a queue to await my approval/disapproval. Yes, it’ll show your recent comment, but that’s just to you. No one else will see it until I approve it. You’re not gonna get through. If you want to advertise on elimtevir.com, then by all means, contact me and we can work something out. Otherwise, your stupid attempts to get free advertising at my expense are just wasting your resources and mine.
Most of the comments are saved for Wednesday’s Reader Mail feature anyway. So if you have something to say, join the conversation. Otherwise, go kill yourself.
In other news, I don’t usually do this, but a
recent editorial by the Billings Gazette’s David Broder got my back up a little. Broder whines about Arizona’s new law to deal with illegal immigration and while he seems to have done some research, it appears that he’s not actually read the new law.
It’s his use of the term “Gestapo” that irritates me.
Now, as much as I deride this politically correct, culturally sensitive crap, the terms “Gestapo,” “Nazi” and “Hitler” evoke very strong, very real emotions. They’re not terms to be used lightly, but some “journalist” and political hacks use them to ramp up the shrillness of their rhetoric. These days, no one pays attention to you unless you’re shrill.
As to the new Arizona law, the term “Gestapo” is wholly inappropriate. Had Broder actually read and understood the law, he’d see this, but then his article would have been very different. Having read the law myself, I see nothing within that evokes imagery of jack-booted troops stopping people on the street to demand papers. I see nothing that makes me think of concentration camps. I see nothing that makes me think of wholesale human rights violations.
Using the term “Gestapo” diminishes real instances of Nazi-like behaviors in ways I can’t begin to enumerate. You see a picture of Bush or Obama or anyone with a swastika on it and although the intent is to portray the person as a Nazi, the result is one of dismissal. I know if someone accused me of being a Nazi, they’d be spitting teeth just as soon as I could get to them.
Yeah, it’s a serious deal.
But if you use Broder and his get in formulating your opinion, then yeah, I can see why some people would be upset. The thought of US citizens being mistreated by government entities is offensive in the extreme and were this the case, you’d find me and people like me up in arms. Instead, we now have to (to the extent possible) lay out the truth and hope against hope that thoughtful, engaged people see and recognize this fear mongering for what it is.
The text of the bill is here.
I’m tired of “journalist” and political animals trying to play to my fears. It’s not just “journalist” doing this crap either.
The night before last, I got a call from “Unknown Name, Unknown Number.” Usually, this is a telemarketer and an opportunity to have some sport. Only this time, it’s some guy calling on behalf of Congressman Rehberg. The guy went into a litany of transgressions committed by President Obama and his minions. I told the yahoo that he was preaching to the choir, but he went on. He concluded by asking me for a generous donation of $75 to help save the universe.
I told the douche that while I agreed with him and with Congressman Rehberg, I wasn’t about to send him any money. When he asked why, I told him, “Dude, we’re in a recession. I don’t want to part with $75 dollars right now. I cut him off six words into his prepared response, “Listen, I don’t give money to politicians. I’m not enthusiastic about them having sway over my tax dollars. I damn sure don’t want to give them any more, even the ones I agree with to waste on bullshit.”
He was determined, I’ll give him that, but when it comes to money and I say “no” then we’re done talking. As tempting as it was to keep him on the line (thereby preventing him from annoying someone else) I hung up on his dumb ass.
I know I have Rheberg staffers checking in here from time to time, so get this message to your boss:
Don’t call my house, ask for money and then want to argue with me.
Look, I understand the need to raise money, but if I get another aggressive douchebag calling me again on your behalf, I’ll be giving a long hard look at your challengers in the upcoming primary. All I can give you is my vote. If that ain’t enough, maybe it will be for someone else.
In other news, the Elim Tevir Embargo Wagon rolls on.
Like I said yesterday, I’m in a business where we live and die by the customer experience. I know good service when I see it and I know less than good when I see it too. Less than good is something I won’t put up with. I just can’t.
In addition to everything else that was going on Wednesday, our satellite receiver went deaders. My youngest child spent nigh on to an hour with their tech support before it was determined that our receiver was deaders. They overnighted us a new one that arrived this morning. My youngest went through the setup meticulously, but could not get it to work. Another hour with their tech support determined that they need to send a tech.
Only she (my daughter) can’t authorize that. My wife and my wife alone can do that.
So let’s back up a minute… DishNetwork’s Tech Support KNOWS that a field tech is needed. She’s been on the phone with my daughter for more than an hour now. Yep, it needs a field tech. Only my daughter can’t authorize this.
Okay, so what does DishNetwork think is going on here? Do they think someone broke into my house, found the satellite receiver inop and is trying (without our authorization) to get it fixed? Do they think someone stole our broken receiver and is trying to get it fixed by having a service tech come to the place they stole it from? What kind of scam does DishNetwork think it’s preventing by having my wife be the ONLY person who can authorize a service call? Is there some kind of a rash of unauthorized service calls going on?
It must be one of those “senseless crimes” we hear so much about.
Fine, I’ll call ‘em. Surely I’m authorized to okay a service call. After three minutes of wading through their idiotic, voice activated auto-attendant, I finally start saying “live person” to each question. This eventually gets me to Darrel.
I calmly and rationally explain the situation to Darrell; broken receiver, can’t get the replacement receiver online, my kid has spent hours on the phone, YOUR tech support confirms that a service tech is needed, but the only person who can authorize a service tech is at a conference, in the mountains with crappy cell phone coverage. Now, I offer to verify anything that needs verifying and ask if there’s a way to make this happen.
No. Only my wife can authorize this.
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I (a good deal less calmly and rationally) inform Darrel that if my wife has to call, it WILL be to cancel service. “Okay, she’s the one that has to do that too.”comes the reply. I’m flabbergasted to say the least. Darrel is so rigidly gonna stick to his guns that he’s willing to let a 5-year customer walk, just like that. My boss would wear out both of her feet in kicking my ass if I let a 5-year, hell ANY customer threaten to cancel service without I did everything I could (including escalating the issue to her) to make them happy.
To recap, it was DISHNETWORK’s tech support that determined a field tech was necessary. But I get the bum’s rush when I try to make that happen.
Okay, so we clearly have someone who doesn’t give a rat’s ass about my problem. All that matters is his adherence to policy/procedure/protocol. Hell’s bells, even when I was in the military, you could at least go to your boss to seek a deviation or waiver, but with Darrell, it’s best to lose a customer of five years.
It’s not usually like this with DishNetwork. My experience with their customer service has been dismal at best, but this is the first (and last) time that they’ve out and out pissed me off. When they replaced the cards in the receivers, it took no fewer than 6 phone calls to get the “INVALID CARD” box to go away.
My daughter says their tech support was good, but “good” means the problem got solved. Here the problem (regardless of any effort on their part) remains unsolved. No, no, kiddo. This is fail, the diametric opposite of win.
So I get on the phone to DirectTV. Hey, guess what? I can add a receiver (I’ve always wanted to put a TV downstairs), get 42 more channels and pay $26 bucks less per month. The new service gets installed Sunday afternoon.
Goodbye, DishNetwork. To say that you suck is to flatter you extravagantly. I can hardly wait for when my wife gets back into town and (being the only person who can do it) calls to cancel service. Please, please, please ask why, because that’s when she hands the phone to me. If you think I’ve been hard on you here, just wait until we’re talking together on the phone.
Okay, so with that helpful bit, we are clear. Looks to be a cold, clammy weekend in these parts. To the degree possible, have fun. Be swell to each other and be safe. Back again Monday to talk about how the install went and how non-sucking Direct TV is.