Service Blunderbuss

Slouchy service at Walmart Deli

2011-12-05T06:38:00.001-08:00

I have to say that usually, clerks at Walmart are very helpful. While they aren't always as on top of things as, say, a home improvement store customer assistant, I've never had a problem with their responsiveness. That is, except for the Deli.

The Deli at the Wake Forest, NC Super Walmart is a case in point. It is one thing to have a very narrow selection of mock-branded cold cuts. But they are chronically understaffed. Of the staff that is there, they are split 50/50 between the responsive people and the slow, we-don't-care-if-you-ever-come-back types.

Miss L (to protect her privacy) was one of the nice ones. Very deliberative, very good attention to what you want. The last time we were there, we waited while Miss L took care of another customer. In the meantime, a slow woman slowly washed off a deli machine with an old rag. As she cleaned, another customer lined up behind me. Then another. Soon there was a long line.

The slow woman finished her task, threw the towel to the side, and walked off.

A few minutes later, she came back with a broom and dustpan. She started sweeping.

As we waited, I wondered aloud if perhaps she wasn't allowed to service customers in that department?

We waited as the slow lady swept dust around -- some of it no doubt getting swept up into the air around the food that was being cut. Miss L was busy taking care of the first customer.

Finally, the slow woman finished sweeping. She walked off again. When she returned, she chatted with another coworker, then with Miss L, and went to get some plastic gloves.

Miss L was just finishing up, when the slow woman approached and asked what she could get for us. At that point, I should have just told her I did not want her service. Instead, I asked for a half pound of the Pepperoni.

Slowly, she got a hunk of pepperoni out. She turned to Miss L, apparently confused. They started discussing something... I don't know what... but at that point I finally had enough. I raised my hands to wave at them and just said, "You know what? Never mind, I don't want it." I let the customer behind me go instead, and just left in disgust.

I won't be returning to the deli, and may not return to this store.

How can Starbucks Survive?

2010-09-11T18:51:00.000-07:00

That I don't often post here should tell you something, but tonight I have some fresh sucky service to report.
We went out to a movie tonight, to see the new Resident Evil installment. It was just the wife and myself, so we thought, why not just go to a coffee shop and sip a decaf together? We don't know a lot of places in Wake Forest, and anyway there was a Starbucks next to the theater on Common Oaks drive, so there we went.

Well, it was packed with college students. Apparently the local seminary students like the place, so that was a bad sign right off: at 9pm on a Saturday night, there was nowhere to sit. We ordered two decafs anyway, and waited.

And waited.

And waited.

And waited.

And while we were waiting, we wondered, "How in the WORLD can Starbucks survive as a company when it takes THIS LONG to serve a couple of decaf coffees?". And three people who ordered after us got served, while we waited.

We peered over the tall counter in the cramped storefront. The clerk was pouring what turned out to be lukewarm water into the tops of two drip filters. And he waited. And waited. Then he poured some more. And waited. And while he waited, he served three other customers. While we waited too.

Our eyes rolled. "The coffee better be good," we hoped. After waiting for what seemed like ten to fifteen minutes, we got our coffees. Then we fixed it, and walked down the street to the (now closed) Brueggers, which had outdoor seating. And we sat, drank, and were disappointed. The coffee tasted off somehow, like the water was skunky or the cream a bit too old. Anyway, it was not good coffee. We threw it out and left.

So, next time you're in Wake Forest, don't bother going to the Starbucks at the Common Oaks shopping center. You may be disappointed too.

We just expected a little more

2010-07-05T05:04:00.000-07:00

The wife and I decided to try a new restaurant in Rolesville, Fitzgerald's Seafood. The place is always hopping on a Friday night, so it seemed a reasonable guess that it would be worth our while. It was not.

I imagine there must be rational explanations as to why so many folks like the place, and since this blog isn't about restaurant review I won't go into that here. What I will mention briefly is that we did not get great service. The impression we got was that the service you will get, may well depend upon whether you are well-known by the old timers. Come to think of it, when we were first seated we noted that all of the other patrons were white haired 60+ folks and their 40+ kids. The side-long glances from neighboring tables did not make us feel more welcome, and while this isn't exactly the fault of the owners one can always expect the same kind of fish to follow certain kinds of bait.

But it was the gruff and harried waitress that I felt it really important to comment on. The younger, dark haired ladies sitting nearby were largely ignored by her, as were we after the order was taken. Someone else delivered our order, and my drink was omitted. No one ever returned to ask us how the meal was, or if there was any way that we could be served. We waited patiently, enjoying our company and trying to catch the eye of the waitress with our ticket, then finally went to the cash register to end the experience. Another waitress got us a take-out box for over half of our meal left over, which we probably should have just refused.

All in all, the staff is not so much overworked as out of shape and unable to keep up given the organization. But that is no excuse for treating new customers like they don't exist. We left a small tip, a very small tip, to show our dissatisfaction.

Wake County Public School System and Prestige Portraits

2010-07-03T11:53:00.000-07:00

Our kid is going into his senior year at high school, and as part of the yearbook process someone really special must have been put in charge.

Now, I support educational institutions, don't get me wrong. But like Homeowners Associations and local town boards, schools get corrupt mainly due to the neglect. The yearbook process is to me an indication of just how ugly it can become.

Take, for instance, the decision to take senior portrait photos in the summer prior to the senior school year. Kids are still growing, so their pictures look like junior year photos. They are also coming and going to different schools, so there has got to be a lot of coordination, and probably a lot of mistakes made in getting them into the right yearbook.

Then again, there are the printed instructions on the mail-in proof sets:

Choose 2 poses for YB. Yux/Drape pose only on moonlight blue b/grnd and any casual pose that's not full body. NO HORIZONTALS.

These instructions would be clear, except that the mailed package includes only one sticker for choosing a yearbook pose. "Ah," you think, "I can go on-line to select the portraits there!" But no, the on-line guidance is virtually non-existent. It says cryptically, to chose a "favorite" pose, and a "yearbook" pose. Once the yearbook pose is chosen, it is fixed... there is no option to make a change, so watch out if, oops, you chose wrong. Then again, what if you mail in a selected proof too? Sounds like whoever designed this process was an amateur shooting from the hip.

So, OK, all that could be forgiven if they were a startup still figuring it out, or a value-oriented operation. But Prestige Studios has had its hooks into our school systems for years and makes 1300 percent more profit from the smallest photo print ($65 for two 5x8's vs a $5 typical cost for a photo quality print = 13 times) . That is by definition price gauging by a monopoly.

Then there is the conflicting interests of the yearbook photos with the advertising of the photo sitting packages. The yearbook can only have two photos (at most), so paying extra for lots of additional shots is worth very little. The parents pay the sitting fee for the shots, then find out later that the photo packages run way out of line with customary and usual portrait fees, well into the hundreds of dollars. It is a formal bait and hook operation, advocated by the school system itself.

Backyard Bistro a bit slow on the uptake

2010-03-17T13:22:00.000-07:00

So I tried to have lunch with my spouse at the Backyard Bistro during her lunch hour. I had lunch with a colleague once before; the food was nothing special, your typical slightly over-priced, average sports-bar fare. But it was different, and being only about 5-10 minutes away depending on traffic, we made it there and were ordering by about 10 after the hour. Two guys in military camo outfits followed us in, as well as another couple and a middle aged guy. By 20-of, all the others had been served food by some guy in street clothes. We waited and looked for the waiter, who was nowhere to be found.

I thought about it. Should I call a manager and futz about them forgetting our order while my wife's remaining lunch hour expires, let her go hungry, and end up being late? I did the next best thing: I walked out, got my wife a sandwich at Wendy's, dropped her off at work just in time, and returned to explain to the manager why I was unsatisfied with the service.

What really irks me is that the manager turned out to be that the guy in street clothes passing out the food to the people around us. The waiter never appeared again after initially taking the order. Instead I surmise that the manager took over and, confused about some detail, simply skipped us. Instead of acknowledging the oversight, he claimed the waiter said to him that the meal was ready 7 minutes after we ordered, and when he went to pick it up at the kitchen window we were gone. As he looked at me with glazed over eyes, I let him know we had been there for over a half hour waiting. He had no response except to look befuddled.

I thought it would be nice to try someplace different for a change, but I was wrong. It wasn't nice at all, it was an aggravating waste of my time.

Godaddy sucks like snail snot

2009-08-04T14:32:00.000-07:00

Agile Markup Corporation is in the process of migrating its Web site to a new host. We were initially at oneononeinternet.com but feel they no longer provide a good value. We have long offered Godaddy hosting to our clients but we have seen the response times dragging and the amount of effort required to wade through the administrative menus is absolutely maddening.

Lately, we set up this Joomla system on a Linux Shared Hosting under Godaddy. We have found the response time to be extremely poor -- typically on the order of ten to fifteen seconds per request. If this were dog food we wouldn't feed it to our own dog. So we are looking for another solution, and will probably be using a cloud based service. So if you see this site, and wonder why it is so slow, don't blame PHP, MySQL, or Joomla. The brand recognition of Godaddy.com does not translate into a performance hosting solution.

Open Message about CyberPowerPC.com Gaming PC -- Don't Buy

2009-07-11T09:11:00.000-07:00

I purchased a gaming system with SLI from Cyberpower, for my teenage son.
First thing, the Web site configurator did not mention that the gaming keyboard was backordered, so we were wondering when, or if, they had forgotten it in the initial order. There was no ETA on it. Several emails cleared that up.
When we unpacked it, cables were loose, not good.

The worst thing is that the system freezes up constantly.
We submitted a support request, and got NO RESPONSE. None. Nada.
Reading forums suggested that we turn off SLI, and that slowed the rate of freezing, but it still freezes up regularly.

Like memory, SLI is a basic feature of the system and should have been thoroughly tested, but my experience says that CyberPowerPC doesn't test adequately.

It was very poor customer service of CyberPowerPC to ignore our support request.
Now in every conversation he has, my son tells his friends to _avoid_ CyberPowerPC, and we know he influenced one purchase decision away from CyberPowerPC.
My own recommendations to clients, local friends, on Facebook, Twitter, and Blogger are to avoid CyberPowerPC.
A copy of this message was sent to CyberPowerPC. I will repeat blogging this opinion as long as I have a freezing CyberPowerPC.

TWC Strikes Again

2009-06-28T15:16:00.000-07:00

For me, Time Warner's broadband Road Runner internet capabilities beats Embarq's by a long shot. But both businesses culture's discourage initiative and customer service that really sucks big time.

They are their own biggest fault modality: of the issues that I've had to endure as a customer, virtually all have been caused directly by unthinking, bureaucratic actions on the part of TWC people. Of course, a few have also been caused by unthinking Embarq contractors as well, and maybe some of the fault lies with the marking people too.

Here's the pattern that has repeated itself over and over:
1) marker guy walks all over my property spraying paint on my lawn and driveway, along the street, etc, etc.
2) contractors come out to dig something in
3) me or one of my neighbors points out that the marker did not mark the cable and/or phone. We say clearly "DO NOT DIG HERE" because there is something buried. We tell every one of the contractors on site.
4) Contractors ignore our information, trench directly across the cables. We lose phone and/or cable service for a couple of days.
5) Finger pointing beings.

Not to mention that these companies constantly send people out without notification to spin these problems, but can never identify exactly when a crew will fix the problems. You're supposed to be home "sometime between 9 to 1" or some such huge window. And even if it is noted as a cable cut on their work order, they may well test the signal at the pole and mark it "resolved" if no one is home.

I'm fed up with them. This last time it was the phone contractor who restarted the cycle. They were digging in fiber across the street. We went over and told them, look at the pole: we have internet and cable service coming from that pole. Please don't cut it. They cut it. Several hours later, TWC shows up and patches the cable.

Ok, fine, they patched it. But a week later, they show up again, this time with trenchers. I tell them, there is a phone line buried in my driveway, and ask why in the world they are replacing my cable, when it is SOUND. The cut was across the street. THERE WAS NO REASON TO REPLACE THE ENTIRE SPAN OF CABLE. It was completely unjustified. No, they said, this is how it is done. So away they go, and cut my phone line. Too bad they say, it wasn't marked by the guys who do the marking.

So now my phone doesn't work, and who knows when service will be restored. Worse yet, it is as likely as not that they guys who come in to fix that will again show their lack of competence by cutting through something else.

Stuff like this makes me yearn for a way to do without a phone company or ISP. The technology is sufficiently advanced to conjecture that a peer-to-peer urban/suburban wireless last-mile architecture could work. Something like an ISP co-operative. Something where the network terminators were themselves extenders for a co-op owned network segment, and segments were strung together through their nearest neighbors, with support provided by the cooperative but no ISP restrictions by a corporate ISP.

Of my service providers, the two who stand out as shining examples are Wake Electric, and Freedom Federal Credit Union. I would be much happier doing business with one of these kinds of companies than TWC or Embarq, who have completely lost touch with their local customers.

Web Design in a Pig Pen

2009-06-18T17:25:00.000-07:00

Several years ago, I put together a functional prototype in Joomla for a non-profit organization. In the process I hoped to educate them about how they could operate the site mostly by themselves, with minimal support costs after the site was up. Bear in mind that the site was substantially complete, and completely free to them. In discussing the site with a business member working with me on the site, he suggested that the non-profit could monetize the site by advertising. At that point, the board of the non-profit decided to give the site development to a local PHP Independent Software Developer (ISV). One of the board members had worked with the ISV on a business venture, and they liked the work that was done.

The board asked for a quote to create a Web site with unspecified features. Despite all the effort that had gone into analyzing and developing the site, it became evident that the non-profit had neither fully understood their own Web strategy nor appreciated the value of the efforts already expended, voluntarily, to create the basis of the necessary Web site. Knowing that the decisions had already been made, I first wrote a somewhat incensed response and then softened the tone, but still felt it important to include a detail of the risks and support issues regarding the ways a site could be deployed. Being a resident of the area served by the non-profit I am genuinely concerned about their success, but must admit I was not too troubled about not getting their business. The ISV was given the business having done nothing at all for the non-profit.

All I had lost was a substantial investment of my time, which after all was said and done, was offered voluntarily anyway. Still, I learned to be more discerning about the character of the non-profits for whom I perform work. I also learned that it is possible for people to completely miss a value proposition even when it is sitting in their lap staring them in the face and knocking on their forehead. Clarity in communication is key, and we did not have the ear of the power brokers on the board.

The non-profit had lost in the transaction too, not just from the thousands of dollars in work it had discarded, but also in demonstrating an organizational inability to be forthright with its volunteer members. Impressions like this last and have consequences far beyond what might initially be obvious.

No Good Deed Ever Goes Unpunished

Recently I had a chance to speak with the non-profit about their Web site in conjunction with a separate promotional initiative. It turned out that the ISV had used the non-profit -- their client's -- money to write custom software. Without full realization of their agreement the non-profit had funded the development of a home-brew, custom, one-of software product. The software was a kind of bare-bones PHP based content management system, intended for use as a community portal. Indeed, it appeared to be much like a version 0.3 level of any number of popular open source CMS projects like Joomla or Drupal.

The software was similar to Joomla because it used the same low-level PHP MVC framework and template engine. Yet the code was home-brew, and it was missing virtually all of the critical features of the mature CMS projects which in my professional opinion are critical for promotional activities. On the other hand, the features they had implemented could have easily been deployed using minor adaptations to existing components.

The non-profit client had paid several thousand dollars to the ISV, considerably more than the quality of the Web site might suggest to a good designer. Simply put, developing new Intellectual Property (IP) is expensive. It is considerably more costly than integrating off-the-shelf components and focusing on a coherent branding and a usable design. It is simply silly to pay a mechanic to build a car when they are commonly available both new and used. In the client's case, the initial cost was only two or three times the reasonable cost of a decent site. The ISV knew what would be "good enough" to pass acceptance by un-knowledgeable users and succeeded in that respect, but neither the design nor the software were worth several thousand.

In speaking with the client, it became evident that the most fundamental question of ownership of the IP were not well understood. They were more or less unaware of the distinction between having a Web site developed for them, and of funding someone else's proprietary software product. The issue was raised when the ISV refused to replace the site Flash banners saying they were a part of the code, not the content. It is unclear that the developer has any intent of releasing the source code, allowing access to the database, or providing enhancements to the site. Ownership of the IP is now an issue.

Such behavior sullies the profession and has an appearance of being unethical on its face. Simple updates, like posting a PDF file, are not possible. The client thought they were getting the ability to update any content on the site, but the ISV's response is that posting some of the requested content actually constitutes a change to the template, and that such modifications require additional money. This is what I call a "vendor hook".

In this situation, the client has little choice: either pay for additional development, or discard their investment. The ISV has a complete monopoly, and the client has little real power to determine the future direction of their own Web site.

Now, it should be pointed out again that the client was warned of these same issues when the volunteered Joomla site (probably already worth a few thousand dollars itself) was discarded. The client neglected the advice, failed to exercise its own due diligence, and got exactly the result one might have expected. They funded someone else's development effort, and now have neither the capacity to maintain the software product nor clear ownership of their design templates, which is to say, their own brand.

Summing it Up

Client contracts for Web Site, pays for Software Product
Under pretense of Web Design, Vendor develops Software Product
Vendor neglects to inform Client of potential Intellectual Property interests
Vendor effectively asserts copyright over the design, just because the templates are "part of the code"!
Client was ignorant of the comparative cost differences between deploying features using one-of custom code versus off-the-shelf prepackaged components, or of use of an open-source CMS versus home-brew platforms, despite clear warnings.

Questions of Ethics

Caveat Emptor. Despite the Client's inability to cope adequately, is it in any way ethical behavior for an ISV to fund a software project when the client believes they are paying for a Web site? Or to reserve the right to refuse modifications to the design templates when the design was commissioned and paid for by a client? As a professional, my view is that this is not even arguable, and the answer is no.

Further, I think it is questionable behavior to even take a client on such a bait-and-switch ride, using funds clearly intended for one purpose to achieve one's own goals, when the client is obviously ignorant of the alternatives and consequences of their choices. To my mind, the vendor used the ignorance of the client in a parasitic manner. Clarity of communication and helping the client to discern consequences of decisions, are what XP and Agile development are all about. Too often, truthfulness is not a value held by ISVs, even by those who would promote themselves as "Honest and Ethical" or -- dare I say it -- followers of Christ.

Another way to view this issue is in terms of standards of professionalism, or lack thereof. Suppose I feel unwell with pains in my back, and seek out two doctors. One doctor happens to be a back surgeon, who takes no history but suggests invasive back surgery. The other happens to be a generalist, who takes a history and suggests a referral to a podiatrist. In this case the generalist may lose the business but is acting in my best interest, whereas the surgeon is well-qualified for the work but is remiss in failing to adequately assess the proper treatment protocol. If the surgeon were to work on my back, it would clearly be unethical, even if I knew of other options. A doctor's profession obligation is to follow a protocol that presents the least risk and best opportunities for long-term outcomes, but that is true for any professional.

Never argue with a pig, it just frustrates you and annoys the pig.

I've decided the best thing to do at this point is back away slowly, and try to avoid being a party to what appears to be an inevitable conflict. Perhaps they can work it all out -- the ISV has shown itself adept at navigating social situations to its advantage -- but observations suggest a continued disconnect between what both parties say and what they do, contrary to what should be an ethical concern for mutual best interest.

Google Sucks even More

2009-06-13T15:50:00.000-07:00

I've been trying to figure out exactly WHY my personal note was displaced with a Google message about using the IPhone to access maps. So far, I haven't been able to reproduce it! Note: capriciousness is generally not considered a positive quality with regard to the behavior of software.

This is assuming that Google's mapping software is not buggy. Monkeying with it shows what happened: my printer was in landscape mode when the print preview first showed. Someone with the excellent judgment of a pot smoker must have decided it would be cool when in landscape mode to replace the note with a hint on how one could use an IPhone. But silently replacing the content of a user-generated page is uncool and not at all unobtrusive.

Here's a hint to software developers: MAKING DECISIONS FOR USERS IS ALMOST ALWAYS A STUPID THING TO DO. You only end up giving "Gilligan Help", the kind of help that screws up the scene more than if you had never entered the frame. We don't need this kind of help.

NC DOT Sucks

2009-06-13T15:15:00.000-07:00

Related to the previous post, it would certainly have helped to have half-decent street signage. Driving across the area, we found that most of the intersections in Wendell and Zebulon lack proper signs, and those that exist are -- as often as not -- oriented opposite to the side from which we were entering the intersection. This I would have to guess is due to the professional incompetence of the NC DOT. After it became evident that we would have to rely heavily upon street signage to find the destination, we gave up and went home.

Google Maps: WTF ???

2009-06-13T15:04:00.001-07:00

I've learned to despise Google Maps. Just now it cost me an evening of conversation and two hours of driving in vain.

A friend had invited me over for a cook-out. It was the first time we'd been to her house, so I looked up the address in Google maps and confirmed some of the streets with her. When I set up to print the map, Google provided a field labeled "Notes". Convenient. I inserted the friends' name and phone number, figuring if something was wrong with the map I could call. Off we went.

When we got close, I pulled out the map. Surprise surprise, it had omitted the landmarks. That's a scale issue. Well, no problem -- I'll pull out a road map. My wife informs me that for the n-th time, that she doesn't keep a map in her car. Nice. My truck has a GPS in it, but my truck is at home.

So I'll call. Wait: Google has replaced my note with a note about using Maps on my IPhone. #@$#@!#!!!! GOOGLE, I don't have an IPHone, and if you weren't going to print my #@$#@$@! note, you shouldn't have pretended with an entry field.

WTF Google?

Google's account management sucks Part II

2009-06-11T08:31:00.000-07:00

Turns out that signing up for Gmail displaces your primary Google account name with the new Gmail account name. This is not what I expected, and certainly didn't ask for it. Servicethatsucks@gmail.com was just set up to try out adding advertisements to the blog, not to be my primary identity on Google.

And I can't switch back to my original account name, at least not directly on My Account page. That kind of ticks me off, and if it were any other service I'd dump them just for that.

Google's account management sucks

2009-06-11T08:15:00.001-07:00

At one time, I played with putting Google AdSense on my company site. I found out quickly that it often wasn't a straightforward process to get things enabled under Google, but hey, they were new, and one can be forgiven for clunkyness in start-up services.

Now Google is the giant, not the new kid on the block. Yet their customer interfaces and procedures barely appear to have been changed. One apparent process design principle that has been a hallmark of their account management is that the user cannot back-out of a failed process, or a set-up that went awry, without waiting for human approvals.

Once you've started using a name or email on a Google service, it is as if it is a barbed hook: you cannot pull it out. Cancel buttons are missing. Roll-up and Confirmation screens are missing. "Terminate My Account" is no where to be found. Apparently once you've used an identity in Google services, Google is committed to it forever even if the process hasn't created any auditable transactions. I was going to set up AdSense for this blog, only to find out that the experimentation I did years ago under a now-defunct email, is still out there under my name, and according to Google policy only one account is allowed per person. At the same time, I also have a Google account unrelated to the AdSense junk. So I can try to link up the accounts or sign-up for a prohibited new account under servicethatsucks@gmail.com, but the whole point is this: the whole process is a mystery and Google's policy of "no undo" when initially setting up is service that sucks.

Time to make the Donuts ???

2009-06-11T07:36:00.000-07:00

I like the people at Daylight Donuts here in Rolesville. It is a small town, and you know they are genuinely interested in the community. Still, it is disappointing to see the place (1) out of donuts by the middle of the morning and (2) closed at odd hours.

On the second point, they have been closed on Mondays (do people really buy fewer donuts on first day of the work week?) but as often as not I go to a donut shop to drink good coffee, meet with clients, and do work over Wi-Fi. But when they are closed at random times I cannot use them for that purpose. In point of fact I must plan to avoid them when working with clients: it would be too damaging to show up and find them closed.

This brings up a third point, which is that there aren't any really good coffee shops in Rolesville. Even the local McD's product often tastes burned like someone left the pot on overnight. I'm not holding out hope for the new drive log cabin, whenever that gets built, since it will have no place to sit. Rolesville is where I live, and I don't want the community turned into a drive-through. That's why I hope the donut shop succeeds despite its failings.

Beggars or Scammers at TigerDirect/CompUSA

2009-04-11T05:23:00.000-07:00

Former Tiger Direct, now called CompUSA, has a retail site on Capital Blvd (Rt1) north of the 440 beltline. Don't get me wrong -- this post is not about Tiger/CompUSA -- but about the apparent pattern of scammers targeting their parking lot.

I went there yesterday evening, accompanied by my teen-aged son, and for the third time in a few months was approached by a stranger who began in an impassioned tone explaining some vague story about an alternator, something about money -- flashing a wad of bills -- and seeming to want something but not asking it directly. Now, I'd been duped easily when I was my son's age, but nowadays I'm not inclined to open up; I rarely carry cash with me anyways and didn't that night.

So I simply said so. The first hint that something was wrong was, he didn't take no for an answer. Keep in mind my son was with me, and felt a little intimidated by this guy. That was enough to raise my hackles, but something else seemed familiar. Here was a guy, complaining about a car part in the middle of a parking lot at a computer store, when not two blocks up the street were three auto parts stores. There was also that wad of cash, and that for no apparent reason he kept his cell phone out, and it was rather expensive looking.

When he refused to take the soft let-down, I dropped down into a somewhat more tense tone. Not harsh, just irate. I told him matter of factly that, look, this is the third time someone like you has approached me in this parking lot complaining about car trouble and asking for something. He started backing off, quickly replying that "there isn't anyone else like me here". But I remembered clearly the same sort of stories from people approaching me in that lot, as I left the store at dusk. There's a pattern here. I curtly informed him that no, I'm leaving now. He got the message, but he now looked very nervous.

Now, I could be paranoid, but I don't think so. What would someone need from me, when they've got the money to get cell phone that I can't afford? A ride? I've got a pickup truck that seats two, and the auto-parts stores are within easy walking distance. And this is a commercial strip... what are these people doing to get stuck here of all places, taking the bus? No, it smells of a scam of some sort, a course in Advanced Begging at the 300 level, or perhaps some worse form of planned theivery. A lot of people shopping at a computer parts store presumably have disposable income, and I'm thinking they've proven to be good targets.

Be careful when shopping at Tiger/CompUSA.

Long time, no posting

2009-04-11T05:21:00.000-07:00

Been in school, university really. Not much business done outside of that, so not much to say.

Vista: Don't Go There

2008-07-21T08:29:00.000-07:00

Well, my Lenovo T61 arrived just in time for my trip. Everything is as promised, so I have to say Lenovo came through. However, Microsoft did not.

Vista Business was preloaded on the machine. I thought, maybe if the vendor had it preloaded with the options preconfigured, it wouldn't be so bad as Vista is reputed. Well, it was so bad, and worse.

From a usability perspective, Vista Business fails.

Vista is substantially slower to respond to user commands -- mouse clicks, movements, and command line requests. This is possibly due to the security features, but two to three second pauses on brand-spanking new hardware is simply unacceptable.

A big difficulty I had was with the combination of Vista Business with Symantec Internet Security Suite. It was well-nigh impossible to connect to my wireless network and exchange files with my older XP-based laptop. I searched for settings that might affect wireless connectivity, firewall, file system permissions... it is a rats nest of settings strewn throughout application panels, OS properties dialogs, and control panel settings... from a users' perspective there is no clear hierarchy of authority, no way to get Vista to respond correctly.

The "User Account Control" dialog opens after every application launch. Yes, I know there is a way to turn this off, but it isn't well-known and certainly isn't obvious. Besides which, unlike many good firewall programs, Vista neither remembers previous answers no offers to remember them. Adding insult to injury, often the dialog will open under an application window or minimized to the icon bar, leaving one to wonder why isn't my application responding? The delay can also cause some applications to time out, forcing the user to restart whatever it was they were doing.

The desktop migration software for Vista was unusable... it acted as if it was making a connection but never progressed. No warnings about connectivity, no recommendations about what steps to take for resolving the issue, nothing. After futzing around with the settings and turning as many of them off as possible, I finally wired up both computers and got them to see each other... sometimes. However, I decided that if my old XP system had a cruddy registry, migrating application settings might not be a good idea. So I just transferred data files and app install zips.

With Symantec installed, the system was unbearably slow to start up and shut down. A six minute wait time for a shut down is completely unreasonable!!! Uninstalling Symantec Internet Security solved much of the the startup and runtime slowness, but the shutdown times were still excessive, on the order of five minutes.

Twice, I got a blue screen error saying that wireless devices were not present. Wait a minute: this is a NEW machine. One of those times I shut off the wireless radio using the switch on the front of the machine during the 5 minute+ shudown. Are the drivers for Vista so poorly written that that they cannot deal with a powerdown condition during shutdown, or is the fault with Vista itself? Either way I should not be getting a blue screen with a new machine.

I don't know about the rest of the world, but I don't need these hassles. I need an OS that is at least barely usable, so I'm dumping Vista and reloading my Lenovo with XP.

Don't Buy Lenovo Online

2008-07-02T08:41:00.000-07:00

It was too good to be true. Lenovo had a sale in June for its Thinkpad lines of laptops, so I placed an order on the 14th. The Order status proposes a shipping date of June 30th, which seems aggressive but reasonable. The 30th comes and goes, without notice of shipment. I check back on the 1st -- nothing -- on the 2nd -- and wow, they've changed the expected shipping date to August 4th!

That spurred me to Google for "Lenovo Shipping Time". That was an eye opener. Apparently Lenovo has had major difficulties in order fulfillment for years (at least since 2005). Reading the experiences of people a few things become pretty clear:

Lenovo knowingly falsifies its expected ship dates. This characterization is accurate because Lenovo has had years to collect data by which to predict with great confidence whether or not they can ship laptop products, yet the expected shipment dates do not reflect an accurate accounting of this history. One might claim they were "overly optimistic" a few years ago, but not now.

Lenovo appears to have supply-chain management problems it cannot overcome. Again, this characterization is reasonable because if they could have corrected their own failures by this time some observable change would have occurred, but the externally observable behavior of the company appears unchanged.

Lenovo employs a kind of "bait and switch" methodology on setting shipping dates. The particular method by which Lenovo falsifies the expected shipment dates appears to be to set a single fixed date for all parts of the order, then when that date arrives to switch the ship dates, with the laptop portion being the furthest out. Consumer experiences have been that this behavior continues, with some people not getting orders fulfilled at all (cancellation offered according to federal law).

One could reasonably conclude that Lenovo is as bad or worse than any other no-name supplier -- hardly the world-class company that the former IBM reputation suggests.

Update: I called to cancel, explaining that they switched the shipping dates. I also explained that after investigating I found that Lenovo had a history of doing so, and that if I had known Lenovo could not fulfill such orders I would rather purchase from another vendor. The polite woman on the line informed me that the expected shipping date was July 9th. Ok, that's reasonable; if it isn't shipped by the 9th I'll call again to cancel without second thought.

Update: July 9th came. According to the Web site, shipment status wouldn't be posted until the next day, so I waited and prepared to make a cancellation call. However, on the 10th the order status shows as "shipped". So now I enter the next stage of the game and ask the questions: (a) did it really ship, (b) was the product shipped properly configured per my specifications, (c) did they intentionally ship a defective unit just to respond to my complaint, and (d) will it get "held up at customs" ? Given (b) or (c), I intend on making a return immediately, because Lenovo has a very bad track record in this area.

Dentists, Fees, and Transparency

2008-05-10T07:00:00.000-07:00

The dental profession doesn't make its fees easy to find. Never mind the insurance companies, the dental offices themselves don't publish their fee schedules on the Web. I suppose this is common for service companies.

There are at least certification boards. For North Carolina, the board is the NC State Board of Dental Examiners. An interesting read are the disciplinary actions taken against licensed members: http://www.ncdentalboard.org/disciplinary.htm
(Although you won't find many actions taken.)

XBOX 360 Design Defects

2008-02-28T15:16:00.000-08:00

This isn't Wake County specific, but I haven't had anything to complain about recently.

My son kicked the RJ45 internet cable on his XBox 360 while it was running.
No big deal, right? It hardly tipped at all. Big mistake. Microsoft, at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/909819/en-us, says
"If you feel that the disc was damaged by the Xbox 360 console in some way, please contact Xbox Customer Support."
as if they didn't already know the units have a defective design. Nothing in the support log suggests that the unit should not be placed in a vertical position. In fact, minor movement of the unit will likely cause a spinning game disk to impact a part of the drive and damage it.
Googling for the problem suggests that Microsoft has known about the problem long enough to have made manufacturing changes for our unit, which was purchased in 2007. One page (http://www.llamma.com/xbox360/news/Xbox-360-Game-Disc-Scratched.htm) shows the problem in detail, and how a little foam bumper could avoid the problem.

Squrrel & Cooke's Tree Service

2007-12-23T12:53:00.000-08:00

I was prepared to put up pictures of Joe Cooke and Joe Kiker, of Squirrel & Cookes Tree Service. However, their partnership has apparently dissolved. This is one of the Joe's trucks. This picture was taken the first day of a job started by Squirrel & Cooke.

Long Story, Short Version:
Joe and Joe gave me a cut-rate price on taking down a lot of trees, took down about half of them, then made me wait for months before an offer of a few hundred more dollars convinced them to return to finish the job and take a few more trees down. Yet they still left about a dozen logs in my front yard. I ended up having to cut up and cart away the logs myself. They worked hard, but not very professionally.

Long Version:
Joe Cooke and Joe Kiker stopped at my property in Rolesville in early August, informing me of a dead tree they had observed that might threaten to fall on my, or my neighbor's, yard. I thanked them for informing me of the problem, and agreed to pay them a very small fee to take it down, which they did quickly and efficiently on the spot. I disposed of the tree myself. Impressed with their work, I asked them for a business card and a quote to clear the other possibly diseased pine trees from the same area. Joe Kiker wrote a quote of $900 on the back of his business card.

About a week later, a large upper section of a sweet gum tree in my back yard was broken by high winds, and fell into my neighbor's yard. Clearing the debris myself was punishing work, and this experience motivated me to have the remainder of the sweet gum, and additional pines, removed. I phone Squirrel & Cooke, and they agreed to come out to clear 16 trees from my yard, for $1600.

They began the work, and very effectively began to remove the trees. Ten of the trees were taken down. However, the sweet gum and many of the pines were left standing, and several logs were left on the ground along with plenty of brush. I had paid them the full amount they requested, and they left without completing the job.

The following photos illustrate the mess Joe Cooke and Joe Kiker left in my yard.

The blue tarp seen on the right covers a well-house, which I have been unable to properly access due to the presence of the debris. The unsightly mess has remained since August 2007, when Joe and Joe were paid for the work. They have not finished the job despite numerous phone calls from me, and despite them having given promises to return on specific dates.

Although both Joes were apologetic, and Joe Kiker visited to pick-up ropes he left, the job remained unfinished as of mid October, 2007. Cooke was working as a tree sub-contractor for the Wake County school system, so he was busy, but three months is ridiculous.

They didn't return until I offered to pay for an additional tree to be taken down. Cooke brought a chipper to clean up most of the remaining brush, and they took down the trees they had agreed to take down. Even so, they left without removing ten of the logs!

Enough was enough. After three more good-faith calls, I decided to make this post and at least clean up my yard. I felt like I was being played. It took three days of work for my Huskvarna and a circular saw to reduce the logs to manageable pieces, and cart them away, after which I was sore for a week.

They worked hard when they were here, and gave me a great offer, but now I can't recommend either.

McCracken Propane (Inergy, L.P.)

2007-11-10T13:07:00.000-08:00

In my last post I noted that my home heating furnace is a dual-fuel heat pump, for which we use two 100 lb propane tanks as a secondary fuel source. This post is to explain why, currently, I take the time to fill up these tanks myself.

First, note that a dual-fuel heat pump operates most of the time without using fuel. It's a pretty efficient system, so we don't use much gas except during the coldest months. Two 100 lb tanks are enough to get us through most of the winter.

McCracken had supplied the fuel for our original furnace, an old, faulty oil burning unit. We sometimes found garbage on the ground after they came out to provide oil or gas, and the employees would remove the safety clasp put on the oil cap to keep my (then young) child from opening it. It was nothing too harmful, just a rather disrespectful attitude that was evident.

We originally had a moderately sized, 100 gallon (not lb) tank, which was provided by McCraken when the previous homeowner purchased a propane-fueled fireplace insert from them. The tank was installed next to the home, and the fireplace insert was smelly and did not appear to be operating correctly. So when the opportunity came to upgrade our oil furnace, we ripped out the gas fireplace insert too. But McCraken sent us a letter, informing us that we weren't using enough propane, and that they would start charging us a tank rental fee. The rental fee was about the cost of a new 100 lb tank, so I told them they could take the tank.

I found that other local companies could fill a tank at a cost much cheaper than what McCraken wanted. Still, they are located right in town, and I like to give local companies my business, so I tried three times on three separate occasions to get a tank refilled at McCraken. On each occasion, employees ignored me or left me waiting without service apparently not knowing how to close a simple sale. That, and the discourteous attitudes I had encountered previously, convinced me that the inconvenience of taking the tanks out of town was well worth not having to deal with McCraken again. Even with BJ's recent decision to refuse to fill 100 lb tanks, it still feels like the right decision.

BJ's SKUs

2007-11-10T12:41:00.000-08:00

That's not a misspelling for "BJ's SUCKs". The wholesale club is actually a pretty nice store for certain things. But a recent change in their business practice has left me out in the cold - literally.

For several years now, since I replaced my antiquated oil furnace with a new dual-fuel heat pump in 2001, I've been taking two 100 lb propane tanks to the BJ's at Briar Creek shopping center for fill up. (Why I'm using 100 lb tanks, rather than having it delivered to a fixed tank, is another topic. Basically, with the heat pump, we just don't use enough propane.) Today, knowing that the tanks were nearly empty, to prepare for the cold weather I took them to a new BJ's on Capital Boulevard (Rt 1 in North Raleigh at Old Wake Forest Rd). "Sorry," I was told, "we can't fill up those tanks because we don't have an SKU for them." I started to argue, telling the worker that I had gotten propane from BJ's before, but he couldn't seem to give any better explanation other than "the computer won't print a receipt."

I decided to take it to the store that has always provided me with service, at Briar Creek. However, I got a similar story there. The clerk, however, was a bit clearer on why: the store manager observed the employee filling up 100 lb tanks, and had specifically instructed him not to fill up any more. The reason given was that no SKU had been assigned to that service. This BJ's has been filling up my 100 lb tanks for years. Based on the similar language between the stores, it is evident that BJ's management made a decision to stop selling propane to customers with big tanks. One might conjecture that it has something to do with the recent spate of "propane shortage" news stories.

In any case, BJ's refusal to provide service leaves me searching for a source of propane.

Rotten Tomatoes at Wake Forest WalMart

2007-10-15T05:36:00.000-07:00

WalMart has a lot going for it... its super-efficient, large scale processes and tough negotiating lead to low, low prices. Unfortunately, sometimes quality is lost in the processes. This shows up particularly in the handling of fresh produce at the Super Walmarts. As often as not, it is composting right on the store shelves.

We often shop at the Wake Forest Super Walmart. It is not clear why bad product seems to show up so much at this Walmart. The staff seems to be very hard working and always busy - perhaps they are chronically under-staffed. On the other hand, the produce itself seems... less well "manicured". For instance, the celery packaged in plastic wrap is often caked with bits of mud, and the lettuce frequently shows signs of being crushed. (In that respect, the handling is more reminiscent of a farmer's market than a grocery.) Yet mold is a health hazard in itself and should be removed immediately, not left to spread through the product on the shelf.

We still shop there. Caveat Emptor.

Poor Customer Service In the Raleigh-Durham RTP area

2007-10-13T06:59:00.000-07:00

Ever get the feeling that the business you've been so loyal to just doesn't feel the same way about you? I mean, let's face it: some businesses just SUCK at customer service, and they couldn't care less about the quality of whatever it is they are providing. Of course, even when you feel that way, it isn't always the fault of the business: sometimes you're the one having a bad day. But then, when it happens over, and over, and over again, there's a detectable pattern of behavior. This blog is a place for me to remark about such patterns.

I'll try to keep it factual: not venting or even attempting to opine on motivations, just observing behaviors. Most posts will be of subjective personal experience. You decide whether or not it means anything to you.