Random Thoughts From Chickerdude

Sprint Customer Service SUCKS ASS

nobody@vox.com(chickerdude) — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 09:54:23 -0500

Unfuckingbelievable! So poor. This started in MAY, when I tried to use *4 to check number of minutes used. "This service is not available. Please try again later." For over a month now, this service is not available to me. So, I think to myself, "I know. I'll check the website."

Not so fast. Can no longer use telephone number to log in on website, must now create "member name and password." Now I'm not going to claim I'm the shiniest marble in the bunch, but this should be a relatively simple procedure... right? No. The website does not register my changes, and it is now impossible to log in. Little note on website says "if you are still experiencing difficulty logging in, contact customer service." Ok, I say to myself. I dial, and am immediately informed that I am in store for a wait of over 20 minutes. Fuck this, I think... I'll call back later. I tried 6 more times, at various times of day and night, only to be told that due to the high volume of calls, I should be prepared to wait in excess of 20 minutes. Yeah, I bet folks are calling in ... TO TELL THEM THAT NEITHER AUTOMATED SERVICE NOR WEBSITE WORK!

So, yesterday I try the website again, with the same disasterous results as before. Try customer service again- get the same message telling me to wait 20 minutes (or more). By now I'm steaming mad, and I decide to wait out of sheer stubbornness. When I finally get a little chickie on the phone, she just goes to the same fucking website I had just been on, and tries to change my login credentials EVEN AS I TELL HER THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I HAVE BEEN TRYING TO DO FOR THE LAST FOUR WEEKS!!! "Huh," she says. "That's weird." She tries to put me through to tech services, but they have an even longer posted wait time, so I ask her for a direct number I can call later. She puts me on hold for 10 minutes, and then tells me "oh, they don't have a direct number. you'll have to call customer service and we can patch you through." I have now been on the phone for approximately 45 minutes, and she is telling me my wait will be over 1/2 an hour, for a problem she does not think they can resolve at this time, due to technical problems with their new program.

"Ok," I say "whatever. Can you just tell me how many minutes I've used in my plan, then?" "Sure," she tells me. "Oh, wait, I can't really tell from this screen."

So. It is apparently now impossible for me to monitor my usage, as their website doesn't work; their automated service doesn't work, and even if one can muster the gumption to sit on hold for an indefinite period, once you reach a customer service lackey, they may or may not be able to tell you anything. I finally told her that at this point I believe Sprint is not fulfilling it's contractual obligation to me. Accordingly, their breach has effectively terminated the contract, so when I switch providers I will not be paying any early termination fees. We'll see how that flies.

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full circle

nobody@vox.com(chickerdude) — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 23:00:25 -0500

I consider myself lucky to have been born into a "mixed family." Mom was catholic, before she got knocked up by my jewish (sort of) father. He decided to marry her to make an honest woman of her, but her concession was to force her faith underground. I think she continued to believe in a big-G god, but she had to keep that very much to herself. As for my father, I say he was sort of jewish, as he proclaimed atheism most of the time. He only referred to his jewish cultural heritage when it was convenient for him. For example, when he was fired, it was because his boss was anti-semitic (and of course had nothing to do with what a miserable pill he was, or his own gross incompetence. Nope, anti-semitism!)

And that's pretty much how my brothers and I were raised. Questions of actual faith were not discussed, and we were left to our own to cobble together whatever mishmash of spirituality we could come up with. We celebrated secular versions of xian holidays (christmas tree, easter baskets, etc) because it was convenient, and sort of fun so long as we didn't ask any questions.

As an adult, I dabbled with various modes of spirituality. Not having been steeped in any one tradition, I found them all rather absurd. The mythopoeic aspect of catholicism did nothing for me. Eat of the flesh? Drink of the blood? That just grossed me out more than anything. The virgin birth, the resurrection? That seemed as remote and stupid to me as zeus sprining from his mother's head, or the other stories from greek and roman mythology. Judiasm, with all the food rules and misogyny held no intrigue. I gave Starhawk and the wiccans a good go, but holding hands on a moonlit evening and chanting to diana, queen of the moon, started feeling pretty idiotic pretty quickly, too. So, back to square one, it appears. I'm an athiest, except now that I've gotten there myself, I'm digging it.

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How can it be?

nobody@vox.com(chickerdude) — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 10:07:48 -0500

How can so many people be so incredibly self-indulgent? I mean, I have to include myself among the navel-gazing masses, as here I sit pecking away at my laptop from within this community of navel gazers... but really. I browsed a few of the other blogs on here. Are there really people out there who would care what songs come up in which order on my ipod? Can this really foster a sense of "community" somehow? And what would it say about me were I to post this list... that I belive my musical taste is somehow noteworthy to the extent other people should be made aware of what I am listening to at any particular moment? How could that possibly matter to anyone else, in the grand scheme of things?

I heard somewhere that the average american today processes as much information in 24 hours as someone 100 years ago processed in a lifetime. That seems plausible, I guess... but how much of that information today is useless. People used to know how to make things, how to build houses and grow food and whatnot. Today we know that someone we've never met is currently playing a song we never heard of on their ipod.

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Futility

nobody@vox.com(chickerdude) — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 16:23:18 -0500

I'm not at all sure this is going to work. After all, I have never been able to keep a journal for more than about a week at a time. But, I'm going to give it a whirl and see if I can't come up with some interesting thoughts now and again. I have a crazy job, in which I come into contact with a LOT of crazy people. Very crazy. I'll start mining my experiences there for material soon.

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