rant

(Un)Professionals

I’d finally decided to re-join the cable TV-watching society with Time Warner Cable, after having been without cable (or any other form of TV broadcast) for over four years. The install was requested, scheduled, and confirmed online, and I was the proud possessor of a confirmed installation 1-4 p.m. yesterday. Yeah, right.

I’d finally gotten through all the red tape in the purchasing department, and my request for a Dell (really Motion Computing, but Dell re-sells to us at a better price than the manufacturer will) Tablet PC. The request hit the Dell site July 28, but I didn’t sweat it; it would get here when it got here, and Dell is usually quick. Not this time, boyo… the estimated delivery date is now advancing to the current date each morning.

Why are businesses so okay now with the idea of failing to serve the customer?

Time Warner could have contacted me (email or phone) to say that the installation workload was too high that day, or that someone called in sick, or just plain “sorry, we can’t make it today”. Instead three phone calls, a cumulative hour and a quarter on hold, and quite a bit of frustration latter, I hear the installers knock off at 7 p.m. (and this being 7:30), so could I reschedule for tomorrow? They didn’t know, by the time my “confirmed time window” expired, what the workload looked like?!?

Dell could have done some contacting of their own, but at least the progression on the computer “assembly” is documented on their website. They do provide a link there for “why is my order taking so long?” which points to a blog post from nearly a month ago saying that there are production delays on certain models of laptop – none of which are the model of tablet I was ordering. C’mon guys… if you’re going to make up a reason for the delay, at least make it context sensitive.

There’s nothing wrong with telling your customers the truth! I would prefer to hear “sorry, can’t make it” than be left in service limbo. Maybe I can find some professionals who are willing to be.

misc

I Love My Car

Back in late May I started payments on a new car, and for the first time in my life we’ve finally got two cars in the household. After quite a bit of research online, and a previous visit to a dealership, I’d decided on a 2007 Toyota Yaris.

I got the two door hatchback, and I had some doubts. I’m 6’4″ tall, and tip the scales around 290 lbs., so a “little butt-bucket” (as my Grandfather would have called it) seemed like a questionable choice. But when I visited the dealership and got to sit in the car, I thought… “this could work.”

It did.

I’ve had the thing for three months now, and put in over 3800 miles in it (and with about two-and-a-half hours of commute time four days a week, that’s actually below my average for a summer) I’d like to think I’ve got the hang of it. And, I am quite comfortable, to my own amazement.

On one occasion I’ve had to haul some luggage, about a weeks worth for one person, and had to flip down the back seats, but that ended up giving me way more room in the back than I needed. I’ve also had my four-year-old son in a booster seat in the back before, and there was more than ample space for me to twist in through the passenger door and buckle him in.

I also love one feature that intrigued me on first viewing this car’s configuration: the driver-side glovebox. There are actually three glove boxes, two on the passenger side, and one behind the steering wheel where the spedometer (and etc.) usually are. The instruments are mounted above and centered in the dashboard area, and once I got over the initial feeling of “wrong-ness” about having a blank panel behind the steering wheel, I found myself loving the new configuration.

Now, when I go back to driving our other car, the speedometer feels totally out of place, and I lament having my own space for storage.

Of course, it doesn’t hurt that my Yaris gets around 37 mpg, which is what drew it to my attention in the first place. (And I still value that point, even if the cost of gas has dropped back to what feels reasonable again… until it goes up again, that is.)

So… hooray for my car.

Musings of an Academic Tech SysAdmin