Am I turning into a crotchety old witch? It's starting to seem like it since it feels as if all I do these days is rant about stuff. Or is it because there's just more stuff about which to rant? I don't know. But at least this one is a different subject - away from geopolitics or elections or the regular stuff.
Today it's Microsoft. I am so freakin' fed up with Microsoft and their screwing things up for the user I could scream. In fact, I think I will. Quietly and on paper because I don't want to disturb the slumbers of my colleagues. I think that's best.
I'm pretty good about staying on top of Microsoft's updates for the Windows OS. When I get notices that there's something new out there, I'll generally wait a couple of weeks to let others suffer the consequences of poorly written code. Then, once I think the complaints have flowed in, the programmers have reprogrammed and the danger has passed, I'll download the patches and fixes and updates.
A few months ago I did that right after the updates were released. B-I-I-I-G mistake. My computer was hosed for two days. And those two days were just to modify it from expensive doorstop to semi-quasi-usable laptop. Then I spent hours upon hours over the course of two weeks to get it back to where I wanted it to be.
First, I had to go through a nightmare of trying to restore the operating system to a point where I could reinstall my programs. That took, literally, half-a-day. Then I had the pleasure of reinstalling my programs, re-downloading Firefox, etc. (since Bing is a pile of dung as a search engine and IE is so full of holes and vulnerabilities I use it only when I absolutely have to on the backward sites).
Fortunately, all of my files were still there where I expected them to be and were intact so my head didn't explode. Also fortunately, I had recently backed my files up to my flash drive, so I was doubly secure.
That taught me to wait that period of a couple of weeks before downloading any updates, and to back-up my files before downloading so if it does end up as a pile of useless rubble I at least have the capability of transferring my files to a new computer.
Unfortunately, Microsoft has wrested control of my laptop - the computer that I, not Bill Gates & Co. bought. The same piece of equipment for which I pay a princely sum each month so I can connect to the interweb. Can you tell this irritates, me?
This morning I turned it on, having a little time to mess around on said interweb before getting ready for work and... crap! It started downloading updates.
Now I did not ask it to start downloading or installing updates. That is something over which I prefer to have control. I will usually do such things at night, while I'm in bed, sleeping, not during those precious waking hours when I want to use the thing.
So now, after it's done, I have to go into the guts of my operating system and try to find that switch that will go to the Off position so that I can take back control.
Aside from that, my annoyance stems from the fact that I started this thing at 4:50 this morning. Yes, that's correct: ten minutes before five o'clock. The chickens aren't even up at that hour, but I was and so, or at least so I thought, would be my computer.
Wrong!
I hit the power switch and it started and... Downloading Updates. * Heavy Sigh * of resignation. Okay. I'll do the cat, get my coffee. Did those things, took my shower, dressed, made my bed and checked back - forty-five minutes later. It was still running.
WTF!??? Forty-five minutes? And no one else in the house is watching TV or on the computer or interfering with my internet connection and it's forty-five minutes? Yep. It was. And another forty-five minutes of waiting. Ninety minutes of foot-tapping impatience and it finally finished at 6:25 am.
Okay, cool. I have a few minutes before I have to leave. It restarts and gets back to the front page - the pretty picture of a beach someplace. I hit the mouse button and log on. All seems to be going swimmingly and then... blue screen. Not the one of death but of Purgatory.
They're advertising for God's sake! "We have a bunch of new features." WTF!???
Hello! McFly! I. Don't. Care!!!! I want to use my computer for what I want to do with it when I want to do it! Or are you still loading a bunch of BS in the background? Or is it that you're digging around in the guts of my computer looking for something that is none of your damned business?
That went on for a minute on one screen - that didn't advance for nearly forty-five seconds or so (it seemed like an hour at that point). Then it showed me that they have new features - another minute until I finally got so fed up I just closed the damned lid on it. I'm irritated enough that I almost don't care of the freakin' thing works again when I re-open it. That will instantly pass if it doesn't work, but for the nonce, I am that angry.
Dear Bill Gates & Co.:
A) Don't advertise on my computer, okay? I don't care.
B) Don't scroll the screens slowly enough to tell me that you think I'm a backward remedial reader still at the stage of sounding out the vowels and consonants. I can read, thank you. I don't need you to sound it out for my benefit, okay?
C) Don't show me this crap at all!!! If you're going to mess with my computer, mess with it and get it over with. Don't tease me like this because all you're doing is pissing me off!!! Okay? Got that??
Am I annoyed? Hell yes! It's half-a-day later and I'm still furious.
If I want to download updates and fixes and other things, fine. That is my choice, my prerogative. Having some outside company just decide to take over my computer for which I paid and for which I pay to access the internet is far more than 'annoying'. It is intrusive in the extreme.
I appreciate that Microsoft is trying to fix holes in its programming. That's fine, I get it. But can I please just do it on my schedule or suffer the consequences if I'm too freakin' lazy or lax to take care of biz?
How about if they give control of downloading and installing back to the user?
How about if they give you an option of looking at their new features? Two buttons: Yes / No or Sure / Later or some other combination that gives me at least a feeling of being in control of my computer?
Gr.
Maybe next time I get a computer I'll look into Apple and drop MS entirely. Or maybe Linux (although I think you have to have an advanced degree in programming to make that function smoothly). I don't know. All I do know is that I am sick and tired of Microsoft running the world (or thinking that they do).
Whew! Now that I have that off my chest - I hope you have a don't-download-unless-you-choose-to-day.
Best~
Philippa
Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PhilippaStories
Showing posts with label Frustration. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Frustration. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 5, 2016
Saturday, October 31, 2015
Grr. When Best Laid Plans Go Awry
Okay, here's the deal.
I was asked to make flight reservations for a trip that's already been rescheduled once. That trip got cancelled in the first twenty-four hours, so we didn't have to pay for the tickets. That was the rant I had a few weeks ago about United. An airline I will never, ever fly.
This time, I decided to try American. Which, by the way, after this experience I will probably never fly. We'll see (the jury's out having a smoke).
The reservation process was easy and painless. I got all three seats reserved on all four legs with no muss, no fuss, no bother. Suspecting this trip might also get canceled, I thought I would be clever and buy insurance on the tickets. That way, 'when' the trip got cancelled, for the nominal fee of $76 plus change, we could get a refund on the bulk of the price of the tickets.
W-R-O-N-G!!! (Insert favorite swear words here) It's just like every other insurance policy you buy.
You pay for it - in this case one time - and, when you need to use it, you might just as well have flushed your money down the toilet. It would be better used.
Okay - so these are three tickets. It's almost $1,300. But I ask you: how many insurance policies are bought on each flight each and every day? Hundreds? Thousands? Tens of thousands?
The chart below is from a website I found when I Googled "us domestic airline capacity"
http://centreforaviation.com/analysis/the-big-3-us-airlines-american-delta-and-united-increase-3q2015-profits-despite-lower-unit-revenue-245655
Look at this. ORD = Chicago O'Hare. 770,282 seats in one - just ONE eight day, non-holiday period.
Okay - that's United. But I'm willing to wager American isn't far behind. Let's say for the sake of discussion, they sell "only" 500,000 seats per eight day period through O'Hare. And I wanted to insure three of those seats - just three. Less than 0.0003% of the seats sold in that eight day period.
Oh! My! Gawd! Yeah - those seats are going to put a HUGE dent in American's profits, aren't they? As if they won't be resold in a quarter of a heartbeat. Given that - why doesn't the airline just not pay Allianz, the insurer, the fees (probably huge) they pay Allianz for the insurance policies. Why not just charge, say... $75 per ticket to allow refundability?
No. When I checked, the refundable tickets were close to twice as expensive - so it's almost an 100% upcharge for refundable tickets through the airline.
To me, that makes zero sense. If the profit margins on each seat are so minimal, why stay in business at all? Why not either: restructure through bankruptcy to get rid of the horrendous union contracts, remodel your business so it runs more efficiently, and keep it private! Then you don't have stockholders and unions holding your passengers at virtual gunpoint.
Or, if you don't want to go that route, have your professional analysts that you already have on staff perform an analysis on the actual cost per seat per route per flight and the actual average number of cancelled / unused tickets per period - twenty-four hour, weekly, monthly, quarterly - and then have them do an analysis of the real cost to your business.
You know why that will happen at about the same time the herd of pigs takes off from O'Hare? Because those things are "hard" (they're not, really. Painful in the short-term, perhaps, but not hard.)
So here's the flip side. I bought the seats. We paid for them with a credit card. American got it's money - and I got the shaft. Actually, I didn't personally, but I have to deal with the shaft that our company will get as a result of the fact that I, as about 99.9999% of the people who buy such insurance, didn't read the fine print.
After all - if you do read the multitude of pages of fine print and you don't like what you're reading, what are you going to do about it? Really? Are you going to try to negotiate? Are you going to not do what you thought would be a good idea? No. Probably not. So, like that 99.9999% of other people I did not read the fine print because it would make no difference in this case.
Now, it falls to me to try to collect the money that paid for three seats that won't be used by three colleagues, but may well be resold and used by others - double profit for the airline, don't you see?
After all, if that flight has too many people wanting to fly on it - and two of the legs are between San Francisco and Chicago and back - and some of those people line up on 'stand-by' and three people who have reservations don't show and check-in before the designated time, the airline can sell those seats to those stand-by passengers.
To say this insurance scam perpetrated by the airlines pisses me off understates the irritation I feel to no small degree.
Plans change. Stuff comes up that interferes with the best-laid plans. But to hold a customer over a barrel and pick their pocket is just plain wrong. And that's what I feel is being done now.
Because the airline and their third-party insurer won't just cancel the tickets so the seats can be resold to other passengers, those seats may well remain empty. In exchange, I get the thrill and pleasure of fighting with an insurance company to recover nearly $1300 that could easily have been credited back to the card against which it was charged.
And, for clarity, I tried to cancel these tickets on Friday afternoon - 72-hours before the flight. It's not like a last minute cancellation or no show.
Given that, why can't the airlines do as most other businesses do?
At the hotel, it's a twenty-four hour notice.
At the car rental agency, they didn't seem to care one way or another, but thanked me for my call.
At my doctor's office which, I realize is a complete non-sequitur in this diatribe, it's a twenty-four hour notice.
Why can't the airlines have the same kind of policy? How about:
If booked a minimum of ten days in advance and if the tickets are cancelled within twenty-four hours of booking, the cancellation is made, no charge.
If the twenty-four hours lapse, but you call to cancel three days - seventy-two hours - in advance, there's a fee of $75 per seat. The airline has three more seats on its flight and can resell them, plus snap up the $75 cancellation charge.
If you wait until the last minute and cancel, sorry bud, you're SOL unless you bought the insurance and have the time, energy and willingness to fight with the insurer to recover your money.
Does that sound unreasonable?
Dang. I'm grumpy.
And I have to take part of my Saturday to call the airline and clarify something the agent said yesterday. These tickets might be reusable later on, within one year, with an up-charge. I need to find out what that up-charge is. Was it a flat $200 - or $60-something per seat, which would probably make sense to take advantage of since the new discussion is to make this trip in January - or was it $200 per ticket, which makes my fight with the insurance agency, assuming I'm successful with the claim, look a bit more cost-effective.
I don't know. All I do know is that I'm grumpy. So, I'm going to grump away here and start looking forward to NaNoWriMo which starts tomorrow.
Have a pain-free day!
Best~
Philippa
Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PhilippaStories
I was asked to make flight reservations for a trip that's already been rescheduled once. That trip got cancelled in the first twenty-four hours, so we didn't have to pay for the tickets. That was the rant I had a few weeks ago about United. An airline I will never, ever fly.
This time, I decided to try American. Which, by the way, after this experience I will probably never fly. We'll see (the jury's out having a smoke).
The reservation process was easy and painless. I got all three seats reserved on all four legs with no muss, no fuss, no bother. Suspecting this trip might also get canceled, I thought I would be clever and buy insurance on the tickets. That way, 'when' the trip got cancelled, for the nominal fee of $76 plus change, we could get a refund on the bulk of the price of the tickets.
W-R-O-N-G!!! (Insert favorite swear words here) It's just like every other insurance policy you buy.
You pay for it - in this case one time - and, when you need to use it, you might just as well have flushed your money down the toilet. It would be better used.
Okay - so these are three tickets. It's almost $1,300. But I ask you: how many insurance policies are bought on each flight each and every day? Hundreds? Thousands? Tens of thousands?
The chart below is from a website I found when I Googled "us domestic airline capacity"
http://centreforaviation.com/analysis/the-big-3-us-airlines-american-delta-and-united-increase-3q2015-profits-despite-lower-unit-revenue-245655
United Airlines global top 10 hubs/bases/stations by seats: 21-Sep-2015 to 27-Sep-2015
Look at this. ORD = Chicago O'Hare. 770,282 seats in one - just ONE eight day, non-holiday period.
Okay - that's United. But I'm willing to wager American isn't far behind. Let's say for the sake of discussion, they sell "only" 500,000 seats per eight day period through O'Hare. And I wanted to insure three of those seats - just three. Less than 0.0003% of the seats sold in that eight day period.
Oh! My! Gawd! Yeah - those seats are going to put a HUGE dent in American's profits, aren't they? As if they won't be resold in a quarter of a heartbeat. Given that - why doesn't the airline just not pay Allianz, the insurer, the fees (probably huge) they pay Allianz for the insurance policies. Why not just charge, say... $75 per ticket to allow refundability?
No. When I checked, the refundable tickets were close to twice as expensive - so it's almost an 100% upcharge for refundable tickets through the airline.
To me, that makes zero sense. If the profit margins on each seat are so minimal, why stay in business at all? Why not either: restructure through bankruptcy to get rid of the horrendous union contracts, remodel your business so it runs more efficiently, and keep it private! Then you don't have stockholders and unions holding your passengers at virtual gunpoint.
Or, if you don't want to go that route, have your professional analysts that you already have on staff perform an analysis on the actual cost per seat per route per flight and the actual average number of cancelled / unused tickets per period - twenty-four hour, weekly, monthly, quarterly - and then have them do an analysis of the real cost to your business.
You know why that will happen at about the same time the herd of pigs takes off from O'Hare? Because those things are "hard" (they're not, really. Painful in the short-term, perhaps, but not hard.)
So here's the flip side. I bought the seats. We paid for them with a credit card. American got it's money - and I got the shaft. Actually, I didn't personally, but I have to deal with the shaft that our company will get as a result of the fact that I, as about 99.9999% of the people who buy such insurance, didn't read the fine print.
After all - if you do read the multitude of pages of fine print and you don't like what you're reading, what are you going to do about it? Really? Are you going to try to negotiate? Are you going to not do what you thought would be a good idea? No. Probably not. So, like that 99.9999% of other people I did not read the fine print because it would make no difference in this case.
Now, it falls to me to try to collect the money that paid for three seats that won't be used by three colleagues, but may well be resold and used by others - double profit for the airline, don't you see?
After all, if that flight has too many people wanting to fly on it - and two of the legs are between San Francisco and Chicago and back - and some of those people line up on 'stand-by' and three people who have reservations don't show and check-in before the designated time, the airline can sell those seats to those stand-by passengers.
To say this insurance scam perpetrated by the airlines pisses me off understates the irritation I feel to no small degree.
Plans change. Stuff comes up that interferes with the best-laid plans. But to hold a customer over a barrel and pick their pocket is just plain wrong. And that's what I feel is being done now.
Because the airline and their third-party insurer won't just cancel the tickets so the seats can be resold to other passengers, those seats may well remain empty. In exchange, I get the thrill and pleasure of fighting with an insurance company to recover nearly $1300 that could easily have been credited back to the card against which it was charged.
And, for clarity, I tried to cancel these tickets on Friday afternoon - 72-hours before the flight. It's not like a last minute cancellation or no show.
Given that, why can't the airlines do as most other businesses do?
At the hotel, it's a twenty-four hour notice.
At the car rental agency, they didn't seem to care one way or another, but thanked me for my call.
At my doctor's office which, I realize is a complete non-sequitur in this diatribe, it's a twenty-four hour notice.
Why can't the airlines have the same kind of policy? How about:
If booked a minimum of ten days in advance and if the tickets are cancelled within twenty-four hours of booking, the cancellation is made, no charge.
If the twenty-four hours lapse, but you call to cancel three days - seventy-two hours - in advance, there's a fee of $75 per seat. The airline has three more seats on its flight and can resell them, plus snap up the $75 cancellation charge.
If you wait until the last minute and cancel, sorry bud, you're SOL unless you bought the insurance and have the time, energy and willingness to fight with the insurer to recover your money.
Does that sound unreasonable?
Dang. I'm grumpy.
And I have to take part of my Saturday to call the airline and clarify something the agent said yesterday. These tickets might be reusable later on, within one year, with an up-charge. I need to find out what that up-charge is. Was it a flat $200 - or $60-something per seat, which would probably make sense to take advantage of since the new discussion is to make this trip in January - or was it $200 per ticket, which makes my fight with the insurance agency, assuming I'm successful with the claim, look a bit more cost-effective.
I don't know. All I do know is that I'm grumpy. So, I'm going to grump away here and start looking forward to NaNoWriMo which starts tomorrow.
Have a pain-free day!
Best~
Philippa
Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PhilippaStories
Friday, September 18, 2015
Airline HELL
Okay. I thought about this for a couple of hours yesterday and slept on it, but I'm still so ticked off I can't help myself.
Yesterday I was asked to make travel reservations for three colleagues. All they want to do is fly from San Francisco, California to a location in the Eastern third of the country. Nothing but state borders involved. No customs, nothing beyond ordinary domestic travel.
Simple, right? HAH!
I get the hotel rooms reserved - piece of cake. No problem with the car rental, either. All that's left is the flight.
Okay. I fiddle around and check American Airlines. Only two seats were available on the date and at the time requested for this destination. I check Kayak and a couple of other sites and the best "fit" appears to be United.
I check the United website. Doesn't look complicated or like anything resembling rocket science, so I get started.
I find the flight that I had seen - departure time at about the same time as the American flight. Cool! Seats are available and everything. I find a return flight. Great! Seats are available there, too.
Get confirmation that the change in airline is okay and go online to book the seats. This is as soon as I get back from lunch at about one o'clock.
All is well, right? So I start making the online reservation. I get through the first screen where I pick the flight. I pick the seats for all four legs. I get to the payment information. I enter all of that - so far I'm into this project by about an hour - just for one reservation. I think I've got the reservation made, but I never get an e-mail confirmation.
Hmm. Okay. Do I try again, and possibly double-book? Or do I go to the next reservation? I decide to go to the next reservation and see if the first one will pop up in my e-mail.
I pick the flight - out and back. I pick the seats for all four legs. I enter the passenger information, payment information and... Right in the middle of it, I get a "You have been Redirected" message. What!?? Redirected to where? For what reason?
I don't know - I haven't got a clue and the website isn't telling me a thing. So - do I start over and hope that I'm not double booking this one, too?
No. I decide it's best to play it safe and call United.
Oh. My. Effing. GAWD!!!
It takes an act of God to get to an agent.
No. I don't want to talk to the automated system. No! I really don't want to talk to the automated system. NO! DAMMIT! I want to talk to a person - hopefully someone with a brain!
Get through that, then I'm warned that it's going to be a twenty-plus minute wait. I'm both irritated and persistent, so I stay on "rot" listening to their music (thank goodness they're not trying to sell me on how wunnerful United Airlines is at this point). So I wait.
Finally, at twenty-two minutes I get to talk to Rocky.
I explain my problem, including the problem with the website. He says, 'No, the first reservation wasn't booked. Let me transfer you to our other department so you won't be dinged $35 per passenger for talking to me.'
Okay - so I am trying really REALLY REALLY hard to spend nearly $2,000 with this company and this is their customer service?
Needless to say, I am not impressed. But, he offers to transfer me, I accept and after about fifteen seconds of more music, nothing. I mean I could have been in deep space for all I could hear. Still, I wait because I am determined. Five minutes... ten... I give up. I call back.
I re-wrestle with the automated system that doesn't believe me when I say 'Agent' with increasing force.
It finally agrees to allow me to speak to a representative.
By this time I am about to come unglued. Especially when I hear the cheerful automated voice say words to the effect of, "Your wait time will be between fifteen and twenty minutes". So - I've already spent over an hour-and-a-half on this exercise, plus the thirty minutes trying to talk to someone and then waiting while they cut off my call. Another five minutes mud wrestling with the damned automated system and... I get to wait some more?
This is NOT how a successful company deals with its customers who just want to spend their money with them. Or is it?
Gritting my teeth I warn the very nice lady on the other end of the phone that I'm livid and ask her pardon for being short with her, and then I outline my tale of woe. She listens, as she's trained to do. She doesn't get upset - she even offers to waive the $35 per person 'talk-to-me-fee'. Professional. Not delightful. Not pleasant from my perspective at this point, but she was professional.
Unfortunately, the tickets are non-refundable unlike on the website that didn't work.
I don't care. At this point I really do not care. I book the damned tickets which now cost, on top of the airfare, better than three hours of my time. Really?!???
The saying used to be, 'Is this any way to run a railroad?' That's out of date. Now I think the question is: 'Is this any way to run an airline?' Apparently so because the airlines are still in business, still making money.
Personally, after my experience today, I cannot help but wonder how.
Pain, agony and frustration trying to spend money.
Then my colleagues will get to the airport, have to strip off every piece of metal they are carrying. Subject their bags to being x-rayed, and stand with their hands in the air - in the international sign of surrender (as in police scenarios) - so they can have the privilege of being shoved into a space smaller than California allows chickens to occupy.
Really?
All I can do is shake my head and wonder.
At least it isn't me. Yet. Maybe that year-long bucket trip I dream of is not worth the nightmare of booking flight reservations. I wonder if there is a Cunard Liner still plying the Atlantic...
Best~
Philippa
Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PhilippaStories
Yesterday I was asked to make travel reservations for three colleagues. All they want to do is fly from San Francisco, California to a location in the Eastern third of the country. Nothing but state borders involved. No customs, nothing beyond ordinary domestic travel.
Simple, right? HAH!
I get the hotel rooms reserved - piece of cake. No problem with the car rental, either. All that's left is the flight.
Okay. I fiddle around and check American Airlines. Only two seats were available on the date and at the time requested for this destination. I check Kayak and a couple of other sites and the best "fit" appears to be United.
I check the United website. Doesn't look complicated or like anything resembling rocket science, so I get started.
I find the flight that I had seen - departure time at about the same time as the American flight. Cool! Seats are available and everything. I find a return flight. Great! Seats are available there, too.
Get confirmation that the change in airline is okay and go online to book the seats. This is as soon as I get back from lunch at about one o'clock.
All is well, right? So I start making the online reservation. I get through the first screen where I pick the flight. I pick the seats for all four legs. I get to the payment information. I enter all of that - so far I'm into this project by about an hour - just for one reservation. I think I've got the reservation made, but I never get an e-mail confirmation.
Hmm. Okay. Do I try again, and possibly double-book? Or do I go to the next reservation? I decide to go to the next reservation and see if the first one will pop up in my e-mail.
I pick the flight - out and back. I pick the seats for all four legs. I enter the passenger information, payment information and... Right in the middle of it, I get a "You have been Redirected" message. What!?? Redirected to where? For what reason?
I don't know - I haven't got a clue and the website isn't telling me a thing. So - do I start over and hope that I'm not double booking this one, too?
No. I decide it's best to play it safe and call United.
Oh. My. Effing. GAWD!!!
It takes an act of God to get to an agent.
No. I don't want to talk to the automated system. No! I really don't want to talk to the automated system. NO! DAMMIT! I want to talk to a person - hopefully someone with a brain!
Get through that, then I'm warned that it's going to be a twenty-plus minute wait. I'm both irritated and persistent, so I stay on "rot" listening to their music (thank goodness they're not trying to sell me on how wunnerful United Airlines is at this point). So I wait.
Finally, at twenty-two minutes I get to talk to Rocky.
I explain my problem, including the problem with the website. He says, 'No, the first reservation wasn't booked. Let me transfer you to our other department so you won't be dinged $35 per passenger for talking to me.'
Okay - so I am trying really REALLY REALLY hard to spend nearly $2,000 with this company and this is their customer service?
Needless to say, I am not impressed. But, he offers to transfer me, I accept and after about fifteen seconds of more music, nothing. I mean I could have been in deep space for all I could hear. Still, I wait because I am determined. Five minutes... ten... I give up. I call back.
I re-wrestle with the automated system that doesn't believe me when I say 'Agent' with increasing force.
It finally agrees to allow me to speak to a representative.
By this time I am about to come unglued. Especially when I hear the cheerful automated voice say words to the effect of, "Your wait time will be between fifteen and twenty minutes". So - I've already spent over an hour-and-a-half on this exercise, plus the thirty minutes trying to talk to someone and then waiting while they cut off my call. Another five minutes mud wrestling with the damned automated system and... I get to wait some more?
This is NOT how a successful company deals with its customers who just want to spend their money with them. Or is it?
Gritting my teeth I warn the very nice lady on the other end of the phone that I'm livid and ask her pardon for being short with her, and then I outline my tale of woe. She listens, as she's trained to do. She doesn't get upset - she even offers to waive the $35 per person 'talk-to-me-fee'. Professional. Not delightful. Not pleasant from my perspective at this point, but she was professional.
Unfortunately, the tickets are non-refundable unlike on the website that didn't work.
I don't care. At this point I really do not care. I book the damned tickets which now cost, on top of the airfare, better than three hours of my time. Really?!???
The saying used to be, 'Is this any way to run a railroad?' That's out of date. Now I think the question is: 'Is this any way to run an airline?' Apparently so because the airlines are still in business, still making money.
Personally, after my experience today, I cannot help but wonder how.
Pain, agony and frustration trying to spend money.
Then my colleagues will get to the airport, have to strip off every piece of metal they are carrying. Subject their bags to being x-rayed, and stand with their hands in the air - in the international sign of surrender (as in police scenarios) - so they can have the privilege of being shoved into a space smaller than California allows chickens to occupy.
Really?
All I can do is shake my head and wonder.
At least it isn't me. Yet. Maybe that year-long bucket trip I dream of is not worth the nightmare of booking flight reservations. I wonder if there is a Cunard Liner still plying the Atlantic...
Best~
Philippa
Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PhilippaStories
Wednesday, August 19, 2015
One of THOSE Days. Grr.
We all have them - those days where nothing is right, no matter how right it is.
See? See that!? I tried to get the title to italicize 'those', entered the wrong code and got the nasty buzzer that says "WRONG". I fixed the wrong thing and pressed Enter, thereby posting this post which consisted of one sentence.
It is one of THOSE days and I'm just starting it and I am not happy with it.
Last night was irritating. Hot, cold, hot, cold all damned night long. Blankets on, blankets off, comforter off, blanket on, blah, blah, blah until the alarm went off at 4:45 - as usual. Couldn't face it, needed more sleep, so turned it off and set the next one at 5:15. Juuust as I'm about to fall asleep, it's 5:15 and the alarm is going off. It's lucky it's a melodic tune or it would have flown across the room and out the window.
Instead, I dutifully got up and got my day started, taking care of myself before everyone else for a change. Showered, dressed and just about ready to walk out the door, I open the door to Sam's room (and, in case you're just dropping by and don't know, Sam is our 18+ year old cat whom we do not allow to maraud through the house at night - even if he wanted to - so we lock him in the spare bedroom).
Oh, yay. Yippity-skippity - Sam peed on the floor. Even though I just changed his box last night and, when I lifted the lid to scoop it, it had one tiny spot of pee in one corner. Apparently that was just too much for my fastidious cat. He'd rather pee on the floor and watch me clean it up.
Got that done. Then I had to stand at the sink so Sam could drink out of my hand. He's got arthritis in his neck and shoulders so can't stoop low enough to drink from the faucet himself and won't drink from a bowl of still water, so I hold my hand under the water and let him drink from my palm. Ten minutes shot. Got him watered, fed and re-locked in the spare room so hubby can sleep until whenever. Got my MIL's nutritional drink. Got my coffee and realized I had "nothing" for lunch. Great.
Throw a bunch of crap together - all solo items that are available. Cottage cheese, pre-mixed lettuce (carrots, cabbage, etc.), part of a can of refried beans. Nothing at all appealing or exciting, but at least it's filling. Out the door on time (for a change!).
Got here early because I need to leave a little early to do something I HATE doing. I have to get my hair cut. I like my hairdresser. He's a nice guy and we chat while he works but along with hating to spend money on nonsense like getting my hair cut, I hate making small talk. It's all empty and meaningless, forgotten two minutes after I pay and leave and it's a waste of energy, so I hate it. But it's normal and expected and part of the deal. Otherwise I sit the chair for thirty minutes.
The first item on my hit parade here is preparing a Purchase Order Requisition and filling out a bunch of forms. Next will be my weekly team meeting - which is fine, but we're going to have to hurry through it because of other obligations and no one really has time to spend.
This just is not promising to be a 'happy' day - but it's mine and I'll own it and get through it and tomorrow will be better. At least that's the carrot on which I'm counting.
In the meantime, I do hope your day is lovely!
Best~
Philippa
Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PhilippaStories
See? See that!? I tried to get the title to italicize 'those', entered the wrong code and got the nasty buzzer that says "WRONG". I fixed the wrong thing and pressed Enter, thereby posting this post which consisted of one sentence.
It is one of THOSE days and I'm just starting it and I am not happy with it.
Last night was irritating. Hot, cold, hot, cold all damned night long. Blankets on, blankets off, comforter off, blanket on, blah, blah, blah until the alarm went off at 4:45 - as usual. Couldn't face it, needed more sleep, so turned it off and set the next one at 5:15. Juuust as I'm about to fall asleep, it's 5:15 and the alarm is going off. It's lucky it's a melodic tune or it would have flown across the room and out the window.
Instead, I dutifully got up and got my day started, taking care of myself before everyone else for a change. Showered, dressed and just about ready to walk out the door, I open the door to Sam's room (and, in case you're just dropping by and don't know, Sam is our 18+ year old cat whom we do not allow to maraud through the house at night - even if he wanted to - so we lock him in the spare bedroom).
Oh, yay. Yippity-skippity - Sam peed on the floor. Even though I just changed his box last night and, when I lifted the lid to scoop it, it had one tiny spot of pee in one corner. Apparently that was just too much for my fastidious cat. He'd rather pee on the floor and watch me clean it up.
Got that done. Then I had to stand at the sink so Sam could drink out of my hand. He's got arthritis in his neck and shoulders so can't stoop low enough to drink from the faucet himself and won't drink from a bowl of still water, so I hold my hand under the water and let him drink from my palm. Ten minutes shot. Got him watered, fed and re-locked in the spare room so hubby can sleep until whenever. Got my MIL's nutritional drink. Got my coffee and realized I had "nothing" for lunch. Great.
Throw a bunch of crap together - all solo items that are available. Cottage cheese, pre-mixed lettuce (carrots, cabbage, etc.), part of a can of refried beans. Nothing at all appealing or exciting, but at least it's filling. Out the door on time (for a change!).
Got here early because I need to leave a little early to do something I HATE doing. I have to get my hair cut. I like my hairdresser. He's a nice guy and we chat while he works but along with hating to spend money on nonsense like getting my hair cut, I hate making small talk. It's all empty and meaningless, forgotten two minutes after I pay and leave and it's a waste of energy, so I hate it. But it's normal and expected and part of the deal. Otherwise I sit the chair for thirty minutes.
The first item on my hit parade here is preparing a Purchase Order Requisition and filling out a bunch of forms. Next will be my weekly team meeting - which is fine, but we're going to have to hurry through it because of other obligations and no one really has time to spend.
This just is not promising to be a 'happy' day - but it's mine and I'll own it and get through it and tomorrow will be better. At least that's the carrot on which I'm counting.
In the meantime, I do hope your day is lovely!
Best~
Philippa
Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PhilippaStories
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