Citibank

Recently Congress decided that credit card companies were taking advantage of their customers.  As a result, Congress passed new regulations pertaining to the credit card industry.  However, the credit card companies cried that they “needed time to prepare their systems” for the new changes.  They were given 10 months to get ready and then the new rules would take effect.  Now what in the hell did Congress think was going to happen during this grace period?  Did they think that the credit card companies really needed time to prepare their systems?

Well, this is an example of what is really happening.  Citibank sent a letter recently saying that in order to continue offering credit card services, they were INREASING the interest rate on all cards to 29.99%.  WTF?  This is preparing their systems for the changes?  Well of course it is!  They are adjusting the terms for accounts BEFORE they have to start abiding by the terms that Congress has laid out for them.  In other words, Congress got played by the credit card industry.

Oh, I did forget to mention that Citibank has a rebate program for interest.  If you pay on time every month, then you can get 10% of the interest paid back as a rebate to your account.  What a deal!  Do the math on that one.  You pay 29.99% interest on the money you owe.  Then they will give you back 10% of what you paid.  When you are doing the calculations on that, remember that credit card companies NEVER let things work to your advantage.

Boss Engrossed in the Internet

My boss has become totally engrossed in the Internet.  WTF?  Are not the employees supposed to be the persons using the web to an extreme at work?

I don’t know what is going on here, but he will zone out seated at the computer on the sales floor surrounded by customers and then appear as if he is completely unaware of the customers presence.  It is rather amazing, the sheer focus with which he uses the net.  I, for one, have never really been able to concentrate like that on one particular activity.

Ringtones

When picking out a new ringtone for you phone, one should be kind to those around them.  For example, the tone for a text message should be short and sweet.  A nice ping or bing or chirp, for example.  IE, not a 20 second song clip.  Why you may ask?  Because, typically people will carry on some kind of conversation using text messages.  This results in the selected tone being played, over and over again.  I think one can see how this is going to get pretty annoying, pretty quickly.

Just a thought, one can choose to utilize this advice or not.  But, don’t say you were not warned!

“The Shack” Gets Free Press from HLN

I made a post the other day about RadioShack changing their image to “The Shack”.  I really find the whole affair rather ridiculous and quite humorous.  This morning, while performing the early morning ritual of watching the national news (if you can call it that), imagine my laughter when I see that “The Shack” is getting some free press from HLN.  The most disturbing item in the “news story” is the fact that “The Shack” is spending $200,000,000 to perform this image modification.  WTF?  Have you been in their stores?  Why don’t they keep the 90+% name recognition brand name and use that $200 Million to get some actual up to date and cuttin edge technology into their stores like they claim to have now.  Hello RadioShack, or excuse me, “The Shack” corporate offices and C-level employees, almost nothing you have can NOT be found at Wal-Mart for cheaper!  Sure you may have some parts and what not that I can’t get at Wal-Mart, but most of the time, the actual parts I need, you don’t have.  This leaves me ordering on-line and while I’m there I go ahead and pick up those few items that you do have, but for less money.

Bottom line, quit trying to compete with Wal-Mart and get to tech that blows the pants off of Best Buy.  Otherwise, “The Shack” is floundering, if not dead in the water.  Get back to your “hacker” roots.  Have any of you even cracked open a copy of “Make” magazine?  People want to make stuff and buy things that they can make do things they were not necessarily intended to do.

The Shack

RadioShack has now decided to go by the moniker “The Shack”.  As many of you may already know, many techies have ridiculed this decision.  I myself have had many laughs about this choice.  These silly “image change” choices have almost always ended with the company going away, being sold to some other company, or changing back to the old way and trying to forget about the “great change”.  For some reason, I feel that the first two examples may happen in this case.  The electronics retail business has become pretty sketchy in the brick-and-mortar arena.  There are just too many cheaper alternatives.

Took a Little Break

I have been on a little break, plan to resume my nonsense soon!

Truely Annoying

Do you have anything that is truly annoying to you?

I think that maybe I have too many things that annoy me!  Of course, if I didn’t then maybe I would not be me.  I would instead be a mindless follower.

At the moment, there is someone 30ft away from me typing on a keyboard.  It is one of those modern keyboards that make almost no noise when used properly.  You may as yourself, “How does he know that this person is typing on this nearly silent keyboard?”.  And the answer, because this person is a 2 finger, hunt and pecker that is bashing the shit out of that keyboard.

I must say that it is truly annoying!

Anyone else who needs to let off a little steam, feel free to send a comment!

WTF?

I mainly use this place as a place to bitch.  And I can tell you that I have not been bitching enough lately.  So I resolve to bitch more.

I have decided to try and write a book.  If I can’t get someone to publish the book, I will just do one of those self publishing things.  At least I will be able to say that I once published a book.  While I am pretty sure that no one will want to read the thing, I think that it does have a little potential.  If nothing else, what I plan the book to be about will make a good guide for just about anyone in the customer service industry.

Well, off I go!

Stupid Question of the Day – 05 Feb. 2009

“Do you have one of those new BlueLine Players”?

Hmmmmmmmm.

Read the Manual

I have probably bitched about this before, but I am going to bitch again.  Mainly because we have had countless customers in the store who have had this problem.  The problem, as you can figure out from the title, is “not READING the f-ing manual”.

One customer asked if we had a radio scanner over one month ago.  We had one, so she asked us to hold it for her to come and pick it up.  She comes to the store and decides that she wanted the thing programmed.  Ok, she never asked for that, but we can do that.  She said that she would run a couple errands and come back.  We program the scanner.  She never shows up to get it.  Two weeks later she calls again asking about the scanner.  It is here we tell her and she asks surprised.  She also stated that no one called to tell it was done. (You can probably tell what we are dealing with here!) She finally comes in the store and purchases the scanner.  Two days later she calls to say that she can’t make it work.  Holy shit!  We finally tell her that she can return the scanner or keep it!  See, this is the 5th time that we have dealt with this woman and radio scanners.  Everytime we have ended up with the woman claiming the it is broken or doesn’t work right.  It all boils down to NOT READING THE MANUAL!

Televisions are the absolute worst.  We get calls on the phone and people comping to the store all the time that have no idea how their TV’s work.  Why?  They don’t read the manual.  They call bitching because, through no fault of their own, their TV will not display what they want it to.  Either the cable, satellite, DVD, Blu-Ray, etc, etc.  They have not looked in the manual to figure out how to make the TV work.  For some reason they think that it will be easier to call some random guy at an electronics store than to take a little spare time and review the features and functions of their new, expensive TV’s.  They are just completely baffled by the things.