Problem Finder -or- Problem Solver?
I got a real problem with being a picky son of a bitch. I'm not sure if I'm just making things harder on myself or if I'm the only one that doesn't cut corners. Now, I'm gonna give you some examples and you can tell me if you understand this. This may be terrifying or amusing to you.
1) Postal Delivery.
I take postal delivery very seriously. I also take notice of all the federal laws connected to people’s mail. Messing with the wrong mail can land you in jail easily. People have gone to jail for things like putting non-stamped fliers in peoples mailboxes and situations like not putting the correct amount of stamps on letters consistently. I guess it doesn't help I ran a mailroom for 3 years. I recently broke off the flier hooks on our mailbox because our mailbox is old and frail and those damn bastards kept putting ad bags on them EVERYDAY. When the wind blew it would wind the bag around a hundred times making it almost impossible to get them off. But this is besides the point I'm getting to.
Within the last year, our regular mail carrier was either fired or removed from his route for being extremely lazy. I remember not getting the mail till after 6pm. I remember passing him on my way to work everyday at about 3:20pm not more that a quarter mile away from our place. He would be in the little quirky mail truck with his feet up on the dashboard, food in one hand, a cell phone in the other, cigarette in the mouth and just gabbing away as if not a care in the world. Ever since that dickhead was deleted, we have been getting a rotation of about 4 or 5 carriers. Most of the carriers are great and very consistent. We have even had our mail delivered before 10AM once! But there is one bad one that hits the rotation. He is the one that mixes up the whole streets mail so that everybody gets the wrong stuff. He is the one that walks through people’s flower gardens to take short cuts. So, overtime this guy delivers our mail, there is usually something incorrect about it.
For the most part I ignored the flaw and just put the incorrect mail back in our box. Until one day. The day I got a letter addressed to an address in St. Louis, MO that came from California. I was bewildered. I know that the post office uses a lot of hand writing recognition scanners that can screw up, but a human intentionally put the mail into my mailbox. I stomped down the street to catch the mail carrier and and questioned what the hell he was doing. With a simple and sad apology he took the letter and walked away. Ever since then he has continually given us mail from several different addresses on our street and I have been consistently filing complaints through www.usps.com .
After about the 4th complaint I feel that the main post office has finally got the message that a single mail carrier is causing the havoc. Their big solution? I now have a sticker on my mailbox, placed there by the postal service, that reads: "LETTER CARRIER: PLEASE DOUBLE CHECK ADDRESS FOR ACCURACY" Isn't that the whole fucking point of having a human deliver the mail? Isn't that "Mail Delivery 101"? I think it’s a sad day when the post office has to remind itself to read the address before they put it in your mailbox.
2) Rental Maintenance
For the most part our landlords have been cool. They have fixed various things and have not raised our rent. Since we have not been too demanding and we have inhabited the residence for several years and paid rent on time, I though it was time to get some major things fixed. We came to an agreement to fix 3 things after my initial inquiry in March.
The living room floor needed extra supports because it was wobbly.
The doors and windows need to be resealed because they leak outside air like crazy.
The drainage pipe leading to the street curb needs to be replaced due to the fact it’s crushed and all the excess water makes its way back into our basement.
The floor was fixed immediately. It was fixed in April or May, I forget. No problems there. The door and window seals have been ignored. Then downgraded to only resealing the doors by the maintenance guy. This has yet to be done.
The drainage pipe is the problem. The same maintenance guy kept coming out, after I repeatedly called him, and he would just stare at the problem and make a bunch of promises. One day in late June he came out to survey the problem and tried to downgrade the issue. So he dug a hole where the main drainage pipe leads out of the structure. The pipe was snapped in half exactly where he dug. PLUS the fact that the pipe is visible crushed by the street. So he left with the hole uncovered.
It wasn't until early August when I gave up on trying to reason with the guy and sent an informative but stern e-mail to our landlords. In that e-mail, I quoted city code. Two days later the guy was outside digging trenches and picking out pieces of crushed pipe everywhere. That was on the 13th. Six days later he shows up with some pipe and starts attaching pieces. I went outside at one point to talk but he just ignored me. Poor baby had to do the work he was supposed to do months earlier. That was on the 19th.
I have yet to see him work on it again. I still have several small trenched in the yard with visible pipe lying about and a single lonely orange cone marking the largest hole. I hope he doesn't thing he is almost finished because he has only gotten about 20 feet of the pipe replaced. Ignoring the fact that the pipe goes under the sidewalk and connect to a hole in the curb. Ignoring the fact that there is a second pipe that comes from a gutter that he completely missed. In fact, the pipe he has laid is actually rammed into the dirt and doesn't connect to anything at all. Shitty work if you ask me. Because of shitty work and attitudes, the foundation has cracks that are widening and the north side of our basement has a lot of mold. I mean, a LOT of mold. As I told the landlords, the more you wait, the more expensive it gets. Bandaging the problem instead of doing the proper fix is only delaying the inevitable.
I pay rent for that basement and I expect to be able to use the whole thing. One day the maintenance guy asked me what my deal was. I told him it’s all in the city building code and that he should look into it.
Just in case you think I am digging my own grave on this one, there is a law that protects renters from back lashing crabby landlords in this situation. Plus, I haven't even started to act on escrow, which will be my next option if the landlords do not agree with me in this situation.
3) Customer Service Telephone Numbers
This is more of a general argument. Why do companies list customer service telephone numbers anymore? Most of the time, before I call that wonderful 1-800 number, I have already looked up some of the information I was looking for on the Internet. If the Internet is insufficient, according to me, then I pick up the phone for that human touch that can tell me what the web site is not. That’s how it’s supposed to work .... Right?
How come I know more about the company that the alleged "expert", "account manager" and/or "customer service" representative? How come I get a shitty attitude when I ask for detailed information? How come I know more about their problems than they do? I get a shocked sound from them when I explain my problem? Yet, I waited for 20 minutes... what am I waiting for?
What a waste of money! Don't ship it to India either, because they are all in the same boat as the rest of the CSRs in the US. Fire 'em all. Use the money more on your web site. AND DON'T put those stupid chat screens in... I've actually been ignored in the customer service chat rooms before! Cut the human resource and stick with machines... they don't lie or give you an attitude or get sleepy or take extra long breaks while everyone is on hold. I ask all companies to purge their telephone rooms of the gutter slime that leeches your bottom line and fill them with useful computer servers please.
What companies am I talking about? Electric companies, gas companies, rental companies, TELEPHONE companies, computer manufacturers, internet companies, cable companies... you get the idea. Oh yeah, banks. I got into a huge fight with a bank guy one time, it got REAL nasty... but thats a story for another day.
Too bad a computer can't replace out drainage pipe.
1) Postal Delivery.
I take postal delivery very seriously. I also take notice of all the federal laws connected to people’s mail. Messing with the wrong mail can land you in jail easily. People have gone to jail for things like putting non-stamped fliers in peoples mailboxes and situations like not putting the correct amount of stamps on letters consistently. I guess it doesn't help I ran a mailroom for 3 years. I recently broke off the flier hooks on our mailbox because our mailbox is old and frail and those damn bastards kept putting ad bags on them EVERYDAY. When the wind blew it would wind the bag around a hundred times making it almost impossible to get them off. But this is besides the point I'm getting to.
Within the last year, our regular mail carrier was either fired or removed from his route for being extremely lazy. I remember not getting the mail till after 6pm. I remember passing him on my way to work everyday at about 3:20pm not more that a quarter mile away from our place. He would be in the little quirky mail truck with his feet up on the dashboard, food in one hand, a cell phone in the other, cigarette in the mouth and just gabbing away as if not a care in the world. Ever since that dickhead was deleted, we have been getting a rotation of about 4 or 5 carriers. Most of the carriers are great and very consistent. We have even had our mail delivered before 10AM once! But there is one bad one that hits the rotation. He is the one that mixes up the whole streets mail so that everybody gets the wrong stuff. He is the one that walks through people’s flower gardens to take short cuts. So, overtime this guy delivers our mail, there is usually something incorrect about it.
For the most part I ignored the flaw and just put the incorrect mail back in our box. Until one day. The day I got a letter addressed to an address in St. Louis, MO that came from California. I was bewildered. I know that the post office uses a lot of hand writing recognition scanners that can screw up, but a human intentionally put the mail into my mailbox. I stomped down the street to catch the mail carrier and and questioned what the hell he was doing. With a simple and sad apology he took the letter and walked away. Ever since then he has continually given us mail from several different addresses on our street and I have been consistently filing complaints through www.usps.com .
After about the 4th complaint I feel that the main post office has finally got the message that a single mail carrier is causing the havoc. Their big solution? I now have a sticker on my mailbox, placed there by the postal service, that reads: "LETTER CARRIER: PLEASE DOUBLE CHECK ADDRESS FOR ACCURACY" Isn't that the whole fucking point of having a human deliver the mail? Isn't that "Mail Delivery 101"? I think it’s a sad day when the post office has to remind itself to read the address before they put it in your mailbox.
2) Rental Maintenance
For the most part our landlords have been cool. They have fixed various things and have not raised our rent. Since we have not been too demanding and we have inhabited the residence for several years and paid rent on time, I though it was time to get some major things fixed. We came to an agreement to fix 3 things after my initial inquiry in March.
The living room floor needed extra supports because it was wobbly.
The doors and windows need to be resealed because they leak outside air like crazy.
The drainage pipe leading to the street curb needs to be replaced due to the fact it’s crushed and all the excess water makes its way back into our basement.
The floor was fixed immediately. It was fixed in April or May, I forget. No problems there. The door and window seals have been ignored. Then downgraded to only resealing the doors by the maintenance guy. This has yet to be done.
The drainage pipe is the problem. The same maintenance guy kept coming out, after I repeatedly called him, and he would just stare at the problem and make a bunch of promises. One day in late June he came out to survey the problem and tried to downgrade the issue. So he dug a hole where the main drainage pipe leads out of the structure. The pipe was snapped in half exactly where he dug. PLUS the fact that the pipe is visible crushed by the street. So he left with the hole uncovered.
It wasn't until early August when I gave up on trying to reason with the guy and sent an informative but stern e-mail to our landlords. In that e-mail, I quoted city code. Two days later the guy was outside digging trenches and picking out pieces of crushed pipe everywhere. That was on the 13th. Six days later he shows up with some pipe and starts attaching pieces. I went outside at one point to talk but he just ignored me. Poor baby had to do the work he was supposed to do months earlier. That was on the 19th.
I have yet to see him work on it again. I still have several small trenched in the yard with visible pipe lying about and a single lonely orange cone marking the largest hole. I hope he doesn't thing he is almost finished because he has only gotten about 20 feet of the pipe replaced. Ignoring the fact that the pipe goes under the sidewalk and connect to a hole in the curb. Ignoring the fact that there is a second pipe that comes from a gutter that he completely missed. In fact, the pipe he has laid is actually rammed into the dirt and doesn't connect to anything at all. Shitty work if you ask me. Because of shitty work and attitudes, the foundation has cracks that are widening and the north side of our basement has a lot of mold. I mean, a LOT of mold. As I told the landlords, the more you wait, the more expensive it gets. Bandaging the problem instead of doing the proper fix is only delaying the inevitable.
I pay rent for that basement and I expect to be able to use the whole thing. One day the maintenance guy asked me what my deal was. I told him it’s all in the city building code and that he should look into it.
Just in case you think I am digging my own grave on this one, there is a law that protects renters from back lashing crabby landlords in this situation. Plus, I haven't even started to act on escrow, which will be my next option if the landlords do not agree with me in this situation.
3) Customer Service Telephone Numbers
This is more of a general argument. Why do companies list customer service telephone numbers anymore? Most of the time, before I call that wonderful 1-800 number, I have already looked up some of the information I was looking for on the Internet. If the Internet is insufficient, according to me, then I pick up the phone for that human touch that can tell me what the web site is not. That’s how it’s supposed to work .... Right?
How come I know more about the company that the alleged "expert", "account manager" and/or "customer service" representative? How come I get a shitty attitude when I ask for detailed information? How come I know more about their problems than they do? I get a shocked sound from them when I explain my problem? Yet, I waited for 20 minutes... what am I waiting for?
What a waste of money! Don't ship it to India either, because they are all in the same boat as the rest of the CSRs in the US. Fire 'em all. Use the money more on your web site. AND DON'T put those stupid chat screens in... I've actually been ignored in the customer service chat rooms before! Cut the human resource and stick with machines... they don't lie or give you an attitude or get sleepy or take extra long breaks while everyone is on hold. I ask all companies to purge their telephone rooms of the gutter slime that leeches your bottom line and fill them with useful computer servers please.
What companies am I talking about? Electric companies, gas companies, rental companies, TELEPHONE companies, computer manufacturers, internet companies, cable companies... you get the idea. Oh yeah, banks. I got into a huge fight with a bank guy one time, it got REAL nasty... but thats a story for another day.
Too bad a computer can't replace out drainage pipe.
posted by Benners at 7:48 PM
1 Comments:
It's called customer service and you have every right to complain and get your way. Good for you for sticking up for what you believe in and you know is right.
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