Dumping Grounds

It’s been a while since someone has really pissed me off with an overwhelming sense of â??I don’t really care what you are saying, now where’s my money?â?

But Nationwide Insurance has done it. They suck. Yep. Nationwide Insurance sucks. That should help the search engine placement a bit.

Specifically, the David Stidham Agency of Carrollton, TX sucks. I would make this post about David and his agency in specific, but when I called Nationwide to have my policy changed to another agency, no one ever called back. Ever. So I really have no choice but to assume that suckage is one of Nationwide’s founding principles, and their goal of complete suckage is enshrined in their mission statement.

All that said… I have no reason to believe that my claim will not be paid. Hell, I don’t even have a claim yet. I can’t get them to do anything for me, AND I’M NOT EVEN ASKING THEM TO PAY ME ANYTHING.

I go months, if not years, without talking to my insurance agent. When I have, he’s been short, somewhat rude, and in general radiating a vibe of â??why are you talking to me, you annoy me.â? I went with him when I very first purchased my house because he was the cheapest at the time, and, at the time, that was very important to me. So, let’s set the stage for today’s story… it’s been at least two years since I called this guy about anything. Of course, the draw from my checking account is always serviced promptly.

As you see from the last post, I purchased a new car. I called to have the coverage updated. On Saturday. Tuesday comes, and I still have not heard from anyone. So I call again. At 8:15 am. â??David is not here, he does not get here until 8:30, I’ll have him call you.â?

No one ever calls.

I end up calling the Nationwide 800 number and getting my coverage updated. On Wednesday. During the course of this call, I ask that I be switched to another agent, and that I need to place a homeowner’s claim (my roof is leaking). â??Oh, you can expect a call from your new agent in 1-2 days, and make the homeowner’s claim with them, it’ll give you a chance to work with them.â?

Seemed reasonable.

Except the NEW agent never called. I waited a week.

So today I call the David Stidham agency, which sucks, who represents Nationwide Insurance, who also sucks. Someone actually answered. I could not believe my ears. It wasn’t a machine. I actually teared up. It was a special moment.

â??I need to have someone come out and look at my roof.â?

â??What?â?

Maybe I didn’t speak clearly… â??I need to have someone come out to look at my roof.â?

â??Oh. You have a [number omitted, but it was more than $1K] deductible.â? Yes, this really was the first thing out of her mouth.

â??I’m aware of that. I need someone to come out and look at my roof.â?

â??Oh. Have you had a roofing company out to look at it?â?

â??Uh, no, I figured you guys would want to look at it first.â?

â??If we do, even if the repairs are below the deductible amount, it counts as a claim.â?

â??So?â? Obviously I am clueless.

â??Well, if you claim 3 times in a three year period, we’ll cancel you.â? Yes, this really was what she said, and it really is true that the very first two things she said were:

• This is how much it is going to cost YOU if you do this
• If you have the nerve to actually claim on a policy that you have been paying on for 6 years, and never made a claim before, we’ll cancel you.

â??Ah, so if I actually make a claim, you cancel me. Gotcha. I’ll have a roofing company come out and look, and I’ll call back with more complete information.â?

We proceeded to have a conversation about her (I was speaking to David’s assistant, or secretary, or something, he could not be disturbed. I assume he was in his chamber of solitude with his helmet off, communing with the Emperor or something) not returning calls very promptly, and the fact that she never did transfer my new car onto the account, I had to call the 800 number to do so.

â??I did transfer your car.â?

This is a direct lie. I was on the phone with the woman who did it, via the 800 number, and the assistant (who I’m not naming, and I can’t figure out why) called me with a question about 5 DAYS after I had it done via a phone call. I had verified that my coverage had been updated by reviewing my policy on the website days before.

I got off the phone as soon as possible, to avoid dropping a f-bomb on her from my work desk (I get away with a lot at work, but loudly hurling obscene sexual epithets is probably a bit rough, even for my workplace), and called Phillips Roofing.

In less than 2 minutes they had someone scheduled to come out, tomorrow, and they didn’t even require that I be there.

Maybe I should place a call to Nationwide now, so I can get a call back sometime in July.

Just this very morning, I finished Shadow of the Giant, by Orson Scott Card. This book represents the eighth (and unless Card finds himself desperately in need of money, final) story in what has commonly been called his â??Ender Sagaâ? but I think could more accurately be called the story of the Hive Queen and the Hegemon (not to be confused with the books of the same name in the story).

The series has been, even the biggest Card fan would have to admit, inconsistent. Ender’s Game and Speaker for the Dead each won both the Hugo and the Nebula awards for outstanding science fiction, and well, the kindest thing we could do is not mention that Children of the Mind and Shadow Puppets ever happened.

I’ll end the suspense, and say that Shadow of the Giant is a fitting end to the series. It is far more comprehensible than the previous two â??Shadowâ? books, with their incredibly convoluted politics and â??cross, double-cross, and tripe-crossâ? interpersonal relationships. Unlike those volumes, events are tied in with the original â??Enderâ? storyline, and quite simply, the entire story makes sense. this was more than you could say for some of the recent outings with these characters.

The crowning achievement of Shadow of the Giant however, is precisely where 90% of novels fall apart. The ending. It is, in a word, perfect. It is satisfying, it fits, and the reader is not left confused, disoriented, disappointed, or wanting more. The story is finished.

There are a few small storylines that are left unwrapped, but none that I think should become their own novel. It is good to have a little think about, a little wonder… â??What do I think would have happened to…â? The very fact that not everything was wrapped in a tidy little package with a bow on top makes the ending seem more real. Real life does not come in a package, and the story never ends so neatly. Bad guys don’t always lose, good guys don’t always win, and they certainly cooperate to give storytellers a convenient â??ending.â? (Unless, of course, there’s a big fight and everyone dies… not usually a satisfying ending)

Card claims that the ending was reader-inspired, and he had the good sense to recognize an improvement when he heard one. This is not always a solid approach. Nelson Demille’s ending to Nightfall, inspired by a reader (his son) was nothing more than a convenient cop out to a writer who had written himself into a corner.

Unfortunately, unlike Ender’s Game, Speaker for the Dead, and even Ender’s Shadow, Shadow of the Giant is not a stand alone volume. I can’t imagine picking it up without reading the other â??Shadowâ? books first. And that would be a struggle after Ender’s Shadow. But if you are bound and determined to read all of the books in the series, rest assured that the payoff is worth it.

I know some of you thought I would not actually buy the thing, I talked about it too much… but I did. And WOW is it cool.

The only negative criticism I have seen anywhere on the internet about this camera seems to revolve around, �??It’s not a Canon 20D�?�

Well, Duh. A 20D is about $600 more, and is target at the low end professional market, where as the Digital Rebel XT (350D) is targeted at the high end consumer level. The 350D is also smaller and lighter, so much so that some has proclaimed it a problem, but the size fits my hand fine, and if I were to take it backpacking, yes, every ounce counts.

I don’t have a nice lens yet, but I was still somewhat impressed by what I could get accomplished with the el-cheapo kit lens.

Here’s a few examples:

This is the VERY first shot I ever took, and is presented ONLY for historical reasons.

And continuing my recent trend of Moon shots… not terribly impressive, but considering that I was only using a 55mm lens (not much zoom)

This would be Delaney’s best friend, Sasha. Just about to kill the ball.

This is Sammy, who lives with Sasha, and has far too much sense to chase Delaney and Sasha all over the park.

This is Precious Lou, who also lives with Sasha, and loves to bite Delaney on the leg. No, I don’t know why, she just does. And Delaney hasn’t killed her yet, so I guess it’s ok.

I know this appears to be Sasha and her three groupies, but I don’t think it is. It’s Sasha, with her groupie (Delaney) being followed by her groupies (Ellie and Precious)

Hey I’ve only had the camera for one day, so what did you expect? Variety?

OK, so ABC has a new TV show. No, not the one with William Shatner (Boston Legal, which looks like a lot of fun), and no not the one with all the incredibly horny women (Desperate Housewives, not The Bachelor, although I guess both fit the description.

This one is called Lost, and it’s supposed to be ABC’s new kinda edgy, somewhat violent, cult drama.

Except for one thing. They’ve done it before. It was edgy 10 years ago, when it was called Twin Peaks. It’s the same show. Only in a jungle. I expect by week 8, we’ll see a midget in a red suit walking strangely down the beach.

With all that said, it’s still entertaining, and yes, I am hooked. But I was a huge Twin Peaks fan, too. I even went to see that crap movie they made.

All Lost needs is a catchphrase, which Twin Peaks was chock FULL of. TP was very quotable. â??The owls are not as they seemâ? â??She was wrapped in plasticâ? â??Damn good good coffee, and HOTâ? â??this is where pies go when they dieâ? all phrases I didn’t even need to look up, even a decade later. Lost doesn’t have this yet… episode 2’s â??Where are we?â? didn’t seem to have the same lasting impact.

Personally, I don’t think this show has a long life ahead of it, I just hope ABC has the common sense to wrap it up, which they never did with Twin Peaks. But I’ll have fun watching it until it goes away.

Now playing: American Pie by Don McLean

In the last hour, I have watched HBO’s Nine Innings from Ground Zero, about the role that the 2001 World Series, and the Yankees in particular, played the the nation’s recovery following the September 11 destruction of the World Trade Center.

It won’t get the press coverage, or inspire the violent reactions (both pro and con) of Fahrenheit 911. It’s not that type of documentary. It’s not about hate for the president. It’s not about hate for the terrorists. It’s about the healing process. It’s about love for country, baseball, and the Yankees.

I don’t know that I have any deep review, and I don’t really know that it even made me think that much. But it does take quite a bit of filmmaking (or maybe just spectacularly tragic events) to make me almost like the Yankees. They even have a quote from members of the Red Sox front office saying “I did not think there was anything on this earth that could make me cheer for the Yankees.”

It’s hard to say that anything about 9/11 can be a feel good story, but this was close. The stories of what the players did for the community. The stories of the president and Mayor Giuliani, and even the stories of Joe Torre put a different, more personal face on the tragedy, and the days after.

And yeah, there are some really goofy Yankees fans to laugh at, too.

Four stars. Joe Bob says check it out.

Currently playing in iTunes: I Feel Lucky by Mary-Chapin Carpenter

I just upgraded to MovableType 3.11, and it could not have possibly gone smoother (and no, this is not the new software I am testing).

It adds quite a few new features, but the most noticeable one is likely that I can now have sub-categories, which I plan to take advantage of in the photography section as soon as I can. Probably won’t be tonight, as I have to go to work early in the morning.

The software that I have been talking about for the past two entries is something called Ecto (available for both Mac OS X and Windows). It runs on your desktop, and allows you to maintain your blog (making new entries, editing old ones, setting preferences, etc.) all from a desktop app, so you don’t have to paste everything into a web form. It has a good preview function, which even goes and gets your site’s style sheet so the preview is accurate. It will also auto-scale and upload pictures to your blog (which I plan to take advantage of, as it will be a LOT easier to post photos. It even has an integrated spell checker.

Unfortunately, Ecto does not yet support the sub-categories of MovableType 3.11, but I am sure it will before long.

Ecto can also add the little “iTunes is playing…” messages to the bottom of my blog entries automatically. I plan to link them directly to the iTunes Music Store, so if by some bizarre chance I am listening to something you want to buy, click the link from my site, and I’ll get a nickel.

I also plan to make a couple of changes to the style sheet in the next couple of days, although I am not going to change the look as drastically as I planned to before.

OK, so I know this post was light on content, but it’s basically another test to see how Ecto will behave. I’ll get back to my normal level of useless crap soon.

EDIT: It is worth nothing that there is a beta of Ecto 2.0 available, and I am only using 1.1.8. 2.0 may do all sorts of cool stuff I have not even realized yet.

Love And Luck from the album BUFFETT LIVE Tuesdays,Thursdays,Saturdays by Jimmy Buffett

You should be seeing this now… I am checking to see how some new software for posting to my blog works. I have to make this long enough though that it actually will auto generate a summary. If I get this working correctly, I will probably write up a message about how cool it is. I’m not sure if this is long enough, so I will write just a bit more.

I’m going to edit this next link to actually link to the iTunes music store.

Come Around from the album Carencro by Marc Broussard

The full article should no longer be mislinked. Seems like I should not assign multiple categories to a post. If anyone knows what a trackback is, and how it works, feel free to go ahead and test that. I only know of one person who links to any of my stuff… so, Liz, you might be my only Trackback tester.

All of you Blogger folks, this software works with your system too, and it’s available for Windows… so help me test Let me put a body in here to see if I can make it work.

UPDATE: I don’t think anyone is reading this entry but me, but I have subcategories and multiple categories working. Woot! Now I just need to come up with some decent content.

Here is a wonderful little tribute to one of the greatest movies ever made, one that launched the career of Steven Spielberg. (Specifically, it’s # 48, and it’s on my Amazon Wish List)

So, how many of those movies have you seen? I’ll count later, and post my number.

What struck me as a little funny about this link was the fact that I re-read Peter Benchley’s Jaws earlier this week. If you have never read it, especially if you liked the movie, you really should. The book is quite a bit different than the movie, and one of the most shocking differences is that the shark is actually a fairly minor character. Ellen Brody is a much more complex, involved character, and Hooper is, well, let’s just say he’s not the same person Richard Dreyfuss played in the movie. It’s a very quick read, give it a shot.

The title is a play on Orson Scott Card’s “Uncle Orson Reviews Everything” which I used to read all the time, but don’t often anymore because, although he is my favorite author of all time, I don’t get the impression I would like OSC in real life very much. He has just a little bit of an elitist attitude that comes across pretty strongly in his columns (he also writes a regular column for The Ornery American, a rather conservative political web site). He scores major points for introducing me to Eric Snider, who I also used to enjoy reading. I changed computers about the time that he was let go from his job for a perceived conflict of interest in a story he wrote. I didn’t move the bookmark over, and as many of you who know me are aware, I don’t browse the web very often. If I don’t have it bookmarked, I probably don’t go there.

So for this week, I guess those are my first two reviews OSC’s weekly column gets 2 stars, (out of 5) and Snider, assuming he has resumed writing will get 4 stars. Note: I just went and re-bookmarked the sites again. I have to lower Eric’s rating to 3 stars, as he now charges to read any of his new columns. The movie reviews are still free.

Next, we’ll review some recent customer service experiences I have had. We’ll go in chronological order:

Classic BMW sucks.

Well, I guess I have tipped my hand on this one, but I want to see if I can get “Classic BMW sucks” indexed in Google. For anyone unclear, that’s Classic BMW, in Richardson, TX, on Central Expwy (US 75). They suck. Yes, Classic BMW sucks.

OK, that should do it.

I got the battery replaced in my car recently. Well, when I did, that pretty much involved cutting power to my radio, which immediately came to the conclusion that it had been stolen. The anti-theft system kicked in, and the radio would not play again until I entered a CODE (caps BMW’s, not mine). No problem, I thought, I’ll call Classic (they suck) and get them to read me the code, so I can play American radio again.

Side note: Apparently Japanese car radios do not have anti-theft systems. Don’t know why. Maybe Japanese folks don’t steal radios. Regardless, if I went into admin mode on the radio and convinced it I was in Japan, then the radio and CD would play. Unfortunately, the standard frequencies for Japan are not the same (or even similar) on the AM or FM bands, so this was, at best, an interim solution.

Anyway, back to Classic BMW, who sucks. So I called them, and asked for the radio code. “You have to bring it in” they reply.

“why?” I ask.

“So we can get the serial number off the back of the radio.” says Gary, the idiot (although I did not realize that he was an idiot at the time).

“You don’t have the serial number in your database?” I ask incredulously.

“Nope.” Gary the idiot responds.

“BMW has no record of what radio they put in my car by the VIN number?” I asked (having written systems for Ford and Land Rover, I know that this is not true, unless BMW is run exclusively by imbeciles).

“Nope, no record at all.” I now have my first inkling that Gary (the idiot) is an idiot.

“Well, you guys are quite a long drive over there for me, can I just read the serial number off to you?”

“Sure, you have to pull the radio out of the dash.”

“There’s no other way?”

“Nope.”

I am surprised by this, but I do not know any better, so I head out into my driveway, and proceed to pull the radio out of my dashboard. There is nothing labeled “Serial Number” or “SN#”. I place another call to Gary, the idiot, who works at Classic BMW, which sucks.

“Which one of these numbers is the serial number?”

“I dunno.” (I now no longer merely suspect that Gary is an idiot.)

“What is the format of a serial number? Numbers, letters? How many digits?”

“I dunno.” (I resist the urge to scream).

“Try this… DSX548920356″

“Too long.”

“How do you know it’s too long?”

“Computer won’t accept it.”

“Well, Gary (you simple-minded shit) how many did it accept before it refused?”

“9″ Now we’re getting somewhere.

“OK try this 9 digit number…”

“It took that. Now you know we’re not supposed to give these out.”

“Then why do you have a computer program to look them up?”

“I dunno.” He’s nothing if not consistent.

“What’s the code? I am sitting in my car, I’ll try it while you are on the phone.”

“XYZZY” Of course I chaged the code, because I don’t want any of you goofballs reading this to steal my radio.

I enter XYZZY. You see this coming, right? “Code didn’t work.”

“What do you mean, it didn’t work?”

Let me say it slowly for you, you dim-witted pimple on the ass of humanity… “It. Did. Not. Work.”

(For those of you who think I am being too hard on Gary, the idiot who who works at Classic BMW, which sucks, keep in mind, I know where this story is headed, and I am angry about things I have not told you yet.)

“It still says CODE?”

“Yep, that’s pretty much what ‘It did not work’ means.”

“Oh, ok, you will have to bring it in.”

“Why? What are you going to do that we can’t do over the phone?”

“We’re going to take the radio and send it to California for re-programming.” (sounds oddly like removing an impressionable teenager from a cult, doesn’t it?)

“How long does that take?”

“About a week.”

“You have got to be kidding me. And who pays for this little adventure?”

“You do, it’s your radio, and it’s not under warranty.”

“I don’t care if it’s under warranty or not, this is a manufacturer’s defect if you have the wrong code, and I am not going to pay for it, you are.”

“No, we’re not.”

“That’s total bullshit.” This is the very first time I have cursed at Gary, the idiot, who works at Classic BMW, which sucks.

“Well, sir, I have done everything I can do for you.”

“Which is exactly nothing.” Screaming angry, I hang up.

Classic BMW sucks. Remember that this is a review? They get zero stars. None. They did nothing to help me. And I refuse to believe that this is an unusual situation. People change batteries all the time. And yet they were totally unequipped to handle my issue.

So, the story continues with my next review.

John Roberts BMW

I call and leave a message, explaining that I have a radio asking for it’s CODE.

John calls back in about 5 minutes. (notice that John has not earned an epithet)

“We need you to stop by, to verify ownership.” This strikes me as a reasonable request, given that I have not done business with John Roberts before. I HAD done business with Classic BMW (sucks) before, so they were held to a slightly different standard.

“I will come by tomorrow at 4.”

“OK, I will be out of the office tomorrow, but I will make sure Peter is up to speed and is ready to take care of you. Just ask for him when you get here.” (Notice how John deflects a potential problem before it ever becomes an issue.)

(skip to tomorrow)

“I’m here to see Peter, he should be expecting me.”

“First desk.”

(explain issue to Peter, total elapsed time, 90 secs.)

“I have the serial number, I pulled the stereo myself.”

“You pulled it out of the dash? You don’t have to do that. You can get the radio to report it’s own serial number from admin mode.” I knew this by now, but I present it to the reader as further evidence that Gary (idiot) from Classic BMW (sucks) is a simpleton.

“Do you know if it as Alpine or Blaupunkt stereo?”

“Blaupunkt”

“OK, I’ll go ahead and write the codes for both down, just in case.” Uh…. both? They had two radios with the same serial number?

“Thanks”

I leave, go to the parking lot, and type the code into my radio. It works. Unlocks instantly, just the way it was supossed to. I look at the Alpine code… “XYZZY”

That idiot never asked. He never bothered to figure out what kind of radio I had.

Regardless… John Roberts took care of a simple problem in the expected amount of time. Total elapsed time? About 4 minutes.

5 stars. Simply doing what you are supposed to should not warrant a perfect score, but they get bonus points for not being Classic BMW, which still sucks.

OK… non car related reviews of customer service…

CompUSA (4 stars) and Best Buy(3 stars). Both their rating for simply doing what they said they would do. In specific, honoring their return policies, without making me feel as though I had committed some terrible act of heresy by asking them to honor said policy. Actually, CompUSA went a little above and beyond, which is why I rated them a little higher. I wish I could tell the story about what they did for me, but I think I might get someone in trouble, so I better not. Suffice it to say, they took care of me.

The next entry will be the reviews of the products that I purchased at CompUSA and Best Buy, respectively, and maybe something else, we’ll see how the mood strikes me.