I personally like how a company just can't seem to make a profit and is $10 million in the hole each year. Of course, the CEO gets paid $5 million a year and the board easily eats up the rest of the 10 million.
I think netflix had a year like this, apparantly they lost 4.x million dollars, and their CEO's salary was 4.x million dollars (the difference was less than 10% IIRC).
Even with non technical stuff, they don't even read what they are passing. I'm sure a lot of it has to do with legislation that is extremely lengthy, but lobbying is basically getting people* to read a couple words on a piece of paper that you give to them.
*People who are normally so lazy that they simply rubber stamp the opinion of the party line without a glimmer of independent thought.
There are exceptions, but they don't make up the majority.
Why would the mythical Joe Sixpack be managing a computer or domain with 500 users,
Why indeed. Why God? Why!?!/runs to corner and cries.
Although I don't agree with the op, I think that windows is sometimes too easy - with a *nix server, it is pretty hard for "Bob who sat beside the laser printer and was promptly promoted to head of IT" to get it to do what you he wants to without fucking up or getting frustrated to the point where he calls in someone who knows the difference between a nic and a modem.
With windows, you get a "configure your server" screen when you first login that basically guides you in an idiot proof manner to do simple stuff - and even if you don't use the wizzards, you can usually poke around and find it. Of course, after a while, Bob futzes up the whole setup and has to call someone in who is glad to bill them at $300/hour.
I had a mp5 waved at me in Berlin. That was fun, especially because I don't speak any german. Someone xrayed my (non carry on) bag and found a tiny ass pistol cigarette lighter that I bought in Italy./good times
But getting any sort of useful help from the peons is damn near impossible because they tend to form their little groupie things and engage in chats. (i.e. "Get this TV out of the back for me" Every time I go, I see employees screwing off and doing nothing / looking busy.
Lets start with customers who regularly come in to a store, tie up a sales person asking endless questions, then go home and buy the item on the internet from a mailorder business. And before anyone fires up a reply saying "well then, the store should lower its prices", no brick-and-mortar retailer will ever be able to match the price of a mail-order only business, and you are being totally unrealistic (and very ignorant of business) expecting them to do so.
Lets. X number of employees getting paid Y (probably minimum wage plus commission) per hour. Each of these employees are getting paid regardless whether they are talking to a pita customer or not . Unless every other employee is busy, there really isn't any difference if the PITA customer is taking up someone's time.
Behold the $27 standard AC power cable. http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage .process ?Merchant_Id=&Section_Id=19&pcount=&Product_Id=162 59 Yes, from Belkin./you shouldn't be surprised, $45 usb cables aren't uncommon in electronics stores.
If the shoe passed those tests, I would take the shoes back, / You know, I had somewhat of a bad experience on that end, something (the plastic? stiching apparantly) managed to stick through the inside of the shoe less than a week after I bought it and became a major pain in the foot. Store refused to take it back until I pulled off my sock and showed them where it had rubbed the skin raw. (damn hike)
Hope my ass, they know that the majority of rebates won't be claimed - either because of customer apathy or because their fly by night rebate center ensured that only x% got through.
Maybe, just maybe, not LYING to your customers during marketing might of have avoided the problem completely. There aren't really many ways to define unlimited.
Ok, you're another person who was bullied by first level support / customer interaction. For the good of everyone, fight it. You put down probably ~20% of the cost of the DVD player on the warranty, get your money's worth. If you don't, it only encourages them to sell more worthless crap to their customers and refuse future claims.
Another thing about the service plans is that while the majority of stores have them, very few actually have the entire (or even partial) terms and conditions listed on some tangible medium (i.e. paper)). While this imho unethical practice is apparantly legal (although I am not even close to being an authority on contract law) I'd presume that once you paid the warranty fee, a contract exists between the company and yourself, and I'd also assume that both parties entering into a contract must have an basic understanding of the terms and conditions. The "suggested the the plan covers power surges" is also disturbing as well.
Quick hint - microwave oven, not more than 5 seconds at a time, works best if you don't have a metal case, because paint tends to do strange things if there is electricty running beneath it. You won't see any visible physical damage unlike what you would expect if you plugged 110V into a Svideo port, however most electronics most certainly won't work after 2-3 "sessions". Assuming it fits of course.
You know, I have been also of the same mindset - but recently - at Fry'd Electronics - I've been told that the resealed box was guaranteed to have every part in it and that there is no possible way that a part is missing so I must be a lying thief if I found something missing./fuck fry'd, buying newegg from now on.
I tend to go into CompUSA (major offender) or some other store before closing or the day before the sale - I don't plan it this way, but I usually don't shop in the morning or whatever, and I tend to go in on Saturdays. I see something on the shelf with a sale sticker. "Hey," I say to myself, "this is a pretty good price." I take it up to the register and it rings up wrong. Umm, ok. I ask, "Why is this twice the price on the shelf." (actually was 3x the price for an item this very Sunday) The 16 year old pimply faced sheep shrugs his shoulders, mutters "no it isn't, you're wrong", and after a bit of bitching on my part, calls over the manager to give an explanation / let them take another customer. "Umm, that's tommorow's price" Says the 42 year old sheep, proud to be making $12.36 an hour while wearing a red shirt. "So why the fuck is that price on the shelf today?" Note that there isn't any date or any other information on the tag - unless it is encoded into the barcode, which, of course, I can't read. "umm. ..", "umm. ..", "umm, well, its because someone put the sale tag up early." They look at me proudly, like their response was written by motherfucking Hemmingway and delivered by the almighty himself and that it should clear up any questions I have from this point in my life on.
But for some reason, it doesn't. Whether they give me the stuff for the sale price or not, I'm still pissed and I bitch. Why? I don't know - maybe it's just me, maybe I'm just simple or something, but if a product is on the shelf, and the price tag is right beside it, shouldn't the store honor that price? I think this should be pretty simple, and I don't think it should be a major issue, but for some reason it is.
Besides, it's not like the store is losing money. They have already commited to sell the product at that price, and the retail store is more than happy to offer rebates, since they don't have to put up with the bullshit and angst that normally follows with such things.
The problem isn't that the customer isn't always right, but the fact that virtually every company treats the customer as always being WRONG from the initial contact. That pisses me off more than anything, and although this attitude is present in virtually every call center, it is rubbing off onto retail stores. Their behaviour is getting worse - CompUSA (aka, holders of the most expensive shrink wrap in the world) and Fry'd Electronics return people are downright arrogant and a true pain in the ass to deal with. The new policy seems to be "piss off the customer enough, and they will just go away and we won't have to pay for dealing with our mistake". Hey - it works. I see this happen to people who are bullied by companies on a daily basis. People who bought extended warranties give up on repair because they are given bullshit excuses by the front line of customer service people. (I had a bad case recently with circuit city - where the warranty coverage company (outsourced of course) refused to even look at the item in question until a store manager called and gave them shit.) Or people who buy stuff from a store (you don't have to guess this is Fry'd Electronics), open the box and find that the box is missing items and are told that the product won't be exchanged and end up sucking it up.
These companies are more than happy to train their employees to lie to your face if it will get you out of their store / off the rebate status line. Staples (what a fucking shithole to work at by the way) trains their employees to suspect every customer as a thief - and claims that each and every customer will not hesitate to steal anything if given the opportunity. I've had rebate people lie to me and swear up and down that I am a liar, that they never received my form when I am sitting there with the delivery / signature confirmation screen in front of me.
Feh, fuckit, enough ranting. MY point is that sometimes the customer is right, and Best Buy, et al might want to allow for that possibility.
and as far as I'm concerned, returning the product after getting the rebate, for full price, is just fraud.
You know, I keep hearing this, but it seems to be ignorant of one critical point.
BEST BUY AND EVERY OTHER FUCKING STORE OUT THERE DOES NOT ACCEPT ANY RETURNS WITHOUT THE UPC!
Sorry, it's true. Sadly, the corporate management of most major chains probably have no idea this is true, or of the other policies they have in place - so Selden might sound like a rational, reasonable person.
To me, and I'd hope to all others who shop for themselves, Selden sounds like he needs a reality check - either that or he is making outlandish statements to try and get noticed by someone and / or to pimp his book. Look at his quotes - "evil customers", "cheat us", "value destroyer", "demon customers". Come on, I'd expect this from someone a child, not someone who apparantly holds a position in a major university.
Slashdot Mirror
I personally like how a company just can't seem to make a profit and is $10 million in the hole each year. Of course, the CEO gets paid $5 million a year and the board easily eats up the rest of the 10 million.
I think netflix had a year like this, apparantly they lost 4.x million dollars, and their CEO's salary was 4.x million dollars (the difference was less than 10% IIRC).
The advantages of firewalls are insufficient to outweigh the disadvantages of not having a real public IP.
I'm guessing you haven't tried setting up XP on a unfirewalled box with a public IP recently.
Even with non technical stuff, they don't even read what they are passing. I'm sure a lot of it has to do with legislation that is extremely lengthy, but lobbying is basically getting people* to read a couple words on a piece of paper that you give to them.
*People who are normally so lazy that they simply rubber stamp the opinion of the party line without a glimmer of independent thought.
There are exceptions, but they don't make up the majority.
He got married eh?
I shit blood after I eat from Taco Bell.
Would that work too?
But, you see, when she opened your letter, hundred dollar bills didn't fall out, so she just tossed it aside.
Seriously folks, this is getting f@*&ing ridiculous. The word 'terrorist' is becoming the modern version of 'communist' and 'witch.'
This shouldn't be news to you.
whoa there buddy, easy on the fucking cursing.
;)
Read the Fantastic Manual
Why would the mythical Joe Sixpack be managing a computer or domain with 500 users,
/runs to corner and cries.
Why indeed. Why God? Why!?!
Although I don't agree with the op, I think that windows is sometimes too easy - with a *nix server, it is pretty hard for "Bob who sat beside the laser printer and was promptly promoted to head of IT" to get it to do what you he wants to without fucking up or getting frustrated to the point where he calls in someone who knows the difference between a nic and a modem.
With windows, you get a "configure your server" screen when you first login that basically guides you in an idiot proof manner to do simple stuff - and even if you don't use the wizzards, you can usually poke around and find it.
Of course, after a while, Bob futzes up the whole setup and has to call someone in who is glad to bill them at $300/hour.
I had a mp5 waved at me in Berlin. That was fun, especially because I don't speak any german. /good times
Someone xrayed my (non carry on) bag and found a tiny ass pistol cigarette lighter that I bought in Italy.
I'm sure if you just watched starship troopers or whatever, but I believe the term is air marshall. /nitpick
But getting any sort of useful help from the peons is damn near impossible because they tend to form their little groupie things and engage in chats. (i.e. "Get this TV out of the back for me"
Every time I go, I see employees screwing off and doing nothing / looking busy.
Lets start with customers who regularly come in to a store, tie up a sales person asking endless questions, then go home and buy the item on the internet from a mailorder business. And before anyone fires up a reply saying "well then, the store should lower its prices", no brick-and-mortar retailer will ever be able to match the price of a mail-order only business, and you are being totally unrealistic (and very ignorant of business) expecting them to do so.
Lets.
X number of employees getting paid Y (probably minimum wage plus commission) per hour. Each of these employees are getting paid regardless whether they are talking to a pita customer or not . Unless every other employee is busy, there really isn't any difference if the PITA customer is taking up someone's time.
Behold the $27 standard AC power cable.e .process ?Merchant_Id=&Section_Id=19&pcount=&Product_Id=162 59 /you shouldn't be surprised, $45 usb cables aren't uncommon in electronics stores.
http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPag
Yes, from Belkin.
If the shoe passed those tests, I would take the shoes back,
/
You know, I had somewhat of a bad experience on that end, something (the plastic? stiching apparantly) managed to stick through the inside of the shoe less than a week after I bought it and became a major pain in the foot. Store refused to take it back until I pulled off my sock and showed them where it had rubbed the skin raw. (damn hike)
Hope my ass, they know that the majority of rebates won't be claimed - either because of customer apathy or because their fly by night rebate center ensured that only x% got through.
Maybe, just maybe, not LYING to your customers during marketing might of have avoided the problem completely.
There aren't really many ways to define unlimited.
generally extended warranty operations are handled by third parties.
Ok, you're another person who was bullied by first level support / customer interaction. For the good of everyone, fight it. You put down probably ~20% of the cost of the DVD player on the warranty, get your money's worth. If you don't, it only encourages them to sell more worthless crap to their customers and refuse future claims.
Another thing about the service plans is that while the majority of stores have them, very few actually have the entire (or even partial) terms and conditions listed on some tangible medium (i.e. paper)). While this imho unethical practice is apparantly legal (although I am not even close to being an authority on contract law) I'd presume that once you paid the warranty fee, a contract exists between the company and yourself, and I'd also assume that both parties entering into a contract must have an basic understanding of the terms and conditions.
The "suggested the the plan covers power surges" is also disturbing as well.
Quick hint - microwave oven, not more than 5 seconds at a time, works best if you don't have a metal case, because paint tends to do strange things if there is electricty running beneath it.
You won't see any visible physical damage unlike what you would expect if you plugged 110V into a Svideo port, however most electronics most certainly won't work after 2-3 "sessions". Assuming it fits of course.
You know, I have been also of the same mindset - but recently - at Fry'd Electronics - I've been told that the resealed box was guaranteed to have every part in it and that there is no possible way that a part is missing so I must be a lying thief if I found something missing. /fuck fry'd, buying newegg from now on.
A little bitch of mine goes as follows. . .
.", "umm. . .", "umm, well, its because someone put the sale tag up early." They look at me proudly, like their response was written by motherfucking Hemmingway and delivered by the almighty himself and that it should clear up any questions I have from this point in my life on.
.
I tend to go into CompUSA (major offender) or some other store before closing or the day before the sale - I don't plan it this way, but I usually don't shop in the morning or whatever, and I tend to go in on Saturdays.
I see something on the shelf with a sale sticker.
"Hey," I say to myself, "this is a pretty good price." I take it up to the register and it rings up wrong.
Umm, ok. I ask, "Why is this twice the price on the shelf." (actually was 3x the price for an item this very Sunday)
The 16 year old pimply faced sheep shrugs his shoulders, mutters "no it isn't, you're wrong", and after a bit of bitching on my part, calls over the manager to give an explanation / let them take another customer.
"Umm, that's tommorow's price" Says the 42 year old sheep, proud to be making $12.36 an hour while wearing a red shirt.
"So why the fuck is that price on the shelf today?"
Note that there isn't any date or any other information on the tag - unless it is encoded into the barcode, which, of course, I can't read.
"umm. .
But for some reason, it doesn't. Whether they give me the stuff for the sale price or not, I'm still pissed and I bitch. Why?
I don't know - maybe it's just me, maybe I'm just simple or something, but if a product is on the shelf, and the price tag is right beside it, shouldn't the store honor that price?
I think this should be pretty simple, and I don't think it should be a major issue, but for some reason it is.
Besides, it's not like the store is losing money. They have already commited to sell the product at that price, and the retail store is more than happy to offer rebates, since they don't have to put up with the bullshit and angst that normally follows with such things.
The problem isn't that the customer isn't always right, but the fact that virtually every company treats the customer as always being WRONG from the initial contact. That pisses me off more than anything, and although this attitude is present in virtually every call center, it is rubbing off onto retail stores.
Their behaviour is getting worse - CompUSA (aka, holders of the most expensive shrink wrap in the world) and Fry'd Electronics return people are downright arrogant and a true pain in the ass to deal with. The new policy seems to be "piss off the customer enough, and they will just go away and we won't have to pay for dealing with our mistake".
Hey - it works. I see this happen to people who are bullied by companies on a daily basis. People who bought extended warranties give up on repair because they are given bullshit excuses by the front line of customer service people. (I had a bad case recently with circuit city - where the warranty coverage company (outsourced of course) refused to even look at the item in question until a store manager called and gave them shit.)
Or people who buy stuff from a store (you don't have to guess this is Fry'd Electronics), open the box and find that the box is missing items and are told that the product won't be exchanged and end up sucking it up.
These companies are more than happy to train their employees to lie to your face if it will get you out of their store / off the rebate status line.
Staples (what a fucking shithole to work at by the way) trains their employees to suspect every customer as a thief - and claims that each and every customer will not hesitate to steal anything if given the opportunity.
I've had rebate people lie to me and swear up and down that I am a liar, that they never received my form when I am sitting there with the delivery / signature confirmation screen in front of me.
Feh, fuckit, enough ranting. MY point is that sometimes the customer is right, and Best Buy, et al might want to allow for that possibility.
Kick ass site btw. .
and as far as I'm concerned, returning the product after getting the rebate, for full price, is just fraud.
You know, I keep hearing this, but it seems to be ignorant of one critical point.
BEST BUY AND EVERY OTHER FUCKING STORE OUT THERE DOES NOT ACCEPT ANY RETURNS WITHOUT THE UPC!
Sorry, it's true. Sadly, the corporate management of most major chains probably have no idea this is true, or of the other policies they have in place - so Selden might sound like a rational, reasonable person.
To me, and I'd hope to all others who shop for themselves, Selden sounds like he needs a reality check - either that or he is making outlandish statements to try and get noticed by someone and / or to pimp his book.
Look at his quotes - "evil customers", "cheat us", "value destroyer", "demon customers". Come on, I'd expect this from someone a child, not someone who apparantly holds a position in a major university.
I could also have made up a number, but I hate lying, so I left.
They don't mind lying to you. You shouldn't really feel bad.
And wooden merchant ships were perfectly safe? eh?
People were press ganged into serving on ships of war, not the merchant navy. Foo
You have a point here right?