Eat curry and don't get kissed. Two day minimum waiting period.
Hmmm, no blog for a week. And yet, more of the usual nothing to say. :P
Indian Guy is gone. He's off to India for two and a half months. His plans for while he's there? Eating mostly.
Most of the week was pretty strained with him, it seemed. Actually, when I went in for my first day of the week, he was pretty distant. The most telling part was that we didn't do tea - which sounds like nothing but is a big thing for all of us, as all of the guards meet and he shares out the chai he made at home. We phone each other to arrange to meet up, and we've never missed one. I didn't actually get to talk to him until just before he went home, at around 0530. And even then you could see something was bothering him about me. Very strange.
On the next day it continued - he just made himself absent whereas usually we'd hang out yapping.
So when I was doing one of my rounds, I happened to pass through the lobby and there he and Buffalo Kisser were, just heading out. So I went up to him and asked if I could talk to him for a minute. He looked displeased, but he's nothing if not agreeable by nature. So we went into HR (closest private office) and we talked.
"Is everything okay?" I asked him. "I know you're busy showing Buffalo Kisser all of the extra stuff that he'll need to do your shifts while you're gone, but it seems there's some tension between us. I was going to leave this alone and let whatever is bothering pass on its own, but you're leaving in a couple of days and I'd hate to leave problems between us."
He looked off and said "How do I say this... (that property manager that was trying to get my site to remove me) mentioned on the phone that we (bike patrol guys) don't patrol as much as we used to. He said it idly, as though it was an offhand comment. He also said that someone from your site complained to him that we never do anything."
"Okayyyyy." I said. "What does that have to do with me?"
"We thought that maybe it was you that called him, or that maybe you badmouthed someone at your site about us, and that's why they complained."
Holy crap!
So I assured him that I'd done neither thing - and that I was surprised that he'd even think such. His posture softened slightly, and he said that he'd been surprised at it too. And went on to say that since it's the last few days before he goes off, he didn't want a bad reputation at the site where he'd been for a year. So we made up, and all is well.
Oddly enough, Indian Guy also bought a remote control truck and trailer with a back gate you can remotely open and close, and a tiny little remote control car that works on the same remote that you can drive up into the truck.
When I showed up for one of my shifts, he was playing with it in the lobby. And did so for most of the night. Ten bucks!
Barney (my S/S) seems to have been playing some games this week too. He's been cosying up to the bike patrol guys and saying that I told him they were doing various bad things (all reasonable guesses, but I haven't told him shit). Then when I ask him about it, he says that he didn't ask them anything. I can see how Indian Guy might have got his suspicions about me. Damnit.
There's been a weird vibe at work this week, too. Fewer people coming in early, and fewer people staying late. There's a funny tension there too.
Paranoid as I am (crap, it's me they're reacting to! Am I going to be replaced?) I wonder if it's because of how they were sold a couple of months ago, and the deadline for the new owers taking possession is coming up in a couple more months. Maybe people aren't feeling confident about their jobs, and the zip's gone out of their zing.
It must be hard on them.
And... AND! I've got a cell phone from Fido. In the past two months I've had nothing but problems with these bastards. The service used to be just fine, but they shut off my account this weekend. Did they give me any notice?
No.
Oh, but I owe them money, right?
No.
Well, you can just call up customer service and have them correct the error, right?
No. Customer service can't do anything about this.
So I finally borrow a phone and call them up. The trouble is that someone's finger stuttered when they were changing my account a few months ago, and they double charged me for a security deposit.
This keeps showing up on the bill, and I've been on the phone with customer service a few times about it, and wasted far too much of my life for their mistake. Each time they tell me things are fixed, and I go on. Until I get the next sms warning me that my account is overdue, which is isn't, unless I pay an amount that always seems to correspond to the size of that mistaken security deposit.
So anyway, this time they didn't send any notice (hell, I last paid my bill on April 6, for crying out loud) and I only knew the phone was cut off because my mom sent me an email telling me they were home, and that she was emailing me because the phone told her I wasn't available. So I tried to call her back.
"Thank you for calling Fido's account receivable department. We are currently closed. Please call back during our business hours. It will be our pleasure to serve you."
Gee, how wonderful.
Anyway, the guy on the phone kept telling me that the extra security deposit error had been fixed months ago, and so whatever I currently owed was what I owed. So I had him go through my bills, line by line, month by month since that time.
Twenty minutes later...
"Sir, you appear to be right. I'm not sure why, but you are still getting charged for that extra security deposit, and because that amount has been overdue for so many months, your account has been frozen."
"I KNOW!!!!!!"
"So when I correct the balance, removing that deposit and the interest that's accrued on it, we end up with (amount I can't remember offhand), which is your usual monthly amount and is on the bill we just mailed, which you wouldn't have yet."
"So you're telling me that from my point of view, the balance on my account is zero?"
"Yes, that's right sir."
"Then do you mind explaining to me why my phone was disconnected with no notice, on a weekend when there's nobody there who can reinstate it, when this phone is primarily used by a pregnant woman when I'm not around in case she has any problems?"
"Well sir, 911 still works from it."
"That's hardly the point, is it? How about if she needed something brought to her, or she gets stuck somewhere? This is all besides the point - why has this happened, and what can be done about it?"
"Sir, I'm afraid that we don't have the power to change your account when the Accounts Receivable department has locked it. So you'll have to call back on Monday and clear it up with them. I'll put a note in your file about all this... hmmmm."
"Hmmmm? What's hmmmm?"
"Sir, I was just going to put a note in your file, but I see there's already a note in your file. Two of them, both detailing this problem from the other representatives from your earlier inquiries."
"..."
"So I will put the note in sir, so that when you call on Monday they'll be able to refer to this call."
"Wait, doesn't that mean that when accounts receivable should have read those earlier notes if they were accessing my account and then shut it off?"
"Sir, I'm sure they read them. They just didn't do anything about what was in them."
Gah! As the person whose phone I borrowed to make this call pointed out, Fido customer service appears to be going the way that Telus' customer service had gone until a year or two ago. And what happened? Telus lost lots of customers to Fido. Maybe this Virgin service that's appeared will be better. Let's see how that Monday phonecall goes, though.
Here, have a remake of Pulp Fiction done with United Statesian politics.
Jon Stewart on Star Wars merchandising.
And Jon Stewart's weekly Mess O'Potamia address.
And how to protect your iPod from theft. Thanks Mr. Mercer.
On a site I used to go to, they had accounts from tech support people about stupid customers. It expanded into any ridiculous story that somebody had about their computer stupidities. And I remember one in particular that greatly amused me.
They took a screenshot of this guy's desktop and set it as the wallpaper. Then they removed all of his desktop icons, and hid the taskbar.
"No matter how fast I click, I can't get anything to open!"
This is an even better way to mess with people. :)
Cows With Guns. The video is a bit lacking, but the song still stands up after all these years.
Manamana. Ah, the first full duet I ever sang with Squirrel. :)
Very cool animated short about fishing in a rockbed. Miners beware. Might be slow to load.
Another one from the same site. In the Rough.
And finally, the clip that stopped our weekly Vampire game dead in its tracks as we all ran this, Whack Your Boss. See if you can find all twelve ways to whack him!
Speaking of game, we practically had our asses handed to us. Who knew that three on five was bad odds? And who knew that fire would be so detrimental to walking dissicated corpses? Good thing the sneaky bugger in our party managed to finish them off when the other two of us went down. :P
Went with Squirrel to see Fever Pitch last night. It's about what you'd expect from a Drew Barrymore movie, only with baseball. Some cute moments, some irritating moments, and a deep sense of irrelevance is had by all.
And lastly... you know how when there's something happy happening, and yet somehow it's bittersweet for you? Any ideas on how to get past that? Everybody is all smiles and giddy with pleasure, but as you're smiling you're feeling that lump at the back of your throat?
The only thing I like bittersweet is my chocolate. :)
Indian Guy is gone. He's off to India for two and a half months. His plans for while he's there? Eating mostly.
Most of the week was pretty strained with him, it seemed. Actually, when I went in for my first day of the week, he was pretty distant. The most telling part was that we didn't do tea - which sounds like nothing but is a big thing for all of us, as all of the guards meet and he shares out the chai he made at home. We phone each other to arrange to meet up, and we've never missed one. I didn't actually get to talk to him until just before he went home, at around 0530. And even then you could see something was bothering him about me. Very strange.
On the next day it continued - he just made himself absent whereas usually we'd hang out yapping.
So when I was doing one of my rounds, I happened to pass through the lobby and there he and Buffalo Kisser were, just heading out. So I went up to him and asked if I could talk to him for a minute. He looked displeased, but he's nothing if not agreeable by nature. So we went into HR (closest private office) and we talked.
"Is everything okay?" I asked him. "I know you're busy showing Buffalo Kisser all of the extra stuff that he'll need to do your shifts while you're gone, but it seems there's some tension between us. I was going to leave this alone and let whatever is bothering pass on its own, but you're leaving in a couple of days and I'd hate to leave problems between us."
He looked off and said "How do I say this... (that property manager that was trying to get my site to remove me) mentioned on the phone that we (bike patrol guys) don't patrol as much as we used to. He said it idly, as though it was an offhand comment. He also said that someone from your site complained to him that we never do anything."
"Okayyyyy." I said. "What does that have to do with me?"
"We thought that maybe it was you that called him, or that maybe you badmouthed someone at your site about us, and that's why they complained."
Holy crap!
So I assured him that I'd done neither thing - and that I was surprised that he'd even think such. His posture softened slightly, and he said that he'd been surprised at it too. And went on to say that since it's the last few days before he goes off, he didn't want a bad reputation at the site where he'd been for a year. So we made up, and all is well.
Oddly enough, Indian Guy also bought a remote control truck and trailer with a back gate you can remotely open and close, and a tiny little remote control car that works on the same remote that you can drive up into the truck.
When I showed up for one of my shifts, he was playing with it in the lobby. And did so for most of the night. Ten bucks!
Barney (my S/S) seems to have been playing some games this week too. He's been cosying up to the bike patrol guys and saying that I told him they were doing various bad things (all reasonable guesses, but I haven't told him shit). Then when I ask him about it, he says that he didn't ask them anything. I can see how Indian Guy might have got his suspicions about me. Damnit.
There's been a weird vibe at work this week, too. Fewer people coming in early, and fewer people staying late. There's a funny tension there too.
Paranoid as I am (crap, it's me they're reacting to! Am I going to be replaced?) I wonder if it's because of how they were sold a couple of months ago, and the deadline for the new owers taking possession is coming up in a couple more months. Maybe people aren't feeling confident about their jobs, and the zip's gone out of their zing.
It must be hard on them.
And... AND! I've got a cell phone from Fido. In the past two months I've had nothing but problems with these bastards. The service used to be just fine, but they shut off my account this weekend. Did they give me any notice?
No.
Oh, but I owe them money, right?
No.
Well, you can just call up customer service and have them correct the error, right?
No. Customer service can't do anything about this.
So I finally borrow a phone and call them up. The trouble is that someone's finger stuttered when they were changing my account a few months ago, and they double charged me for a security deposit.
This keeps showing up on the bill, and I've been on the phone with customer service a few times about it, and wasted far too much of my life for their mistake. Each time they tell me things are fixed, and I go on. Until I get the next sms warning me that my account is overdue, which is isn't, unless I pay an amount that always seems to correspond to the size of that mistaken security deposit.
So anyway, this time they didn't send any notice (hell, I last paid my bill on April 6, for crying out loud) and I only knew the phone was cut off because my mom sent me an email telling me they were home, and that she was emailing me because the phone told her I wasn't available. So I tried to call her back.
"Thank you for calling Fido's account receivable department. We are currently closed. Please call back during our business hours. It will be our pleasure to serve you."
Gee, how wonderful.
Anyway, the guy on the phone kept telling me that the extra security deposit error had been fixed months ago, and so whatever I currently owed was what I owed. So I had him go through my bills, line by line, month by month since that time.
Twenty minutes later...
"Sir, you appear to be right. I'm not sure why, but you are still getting charged for that extra security deposit, and because that amount has been overdue for so many months, your account has been frozen."
"I KNOW!!!!!!"
"So when I correct the balance, removing that deposit and the interest that's accrued on it, we end up with (amount I can't remember offhand), which is your usual monthly amount and is on the bill we just mailed, which you wouldn't have yet."
"So you're telling me that from my point of view, the balance on my account is zero?"
"Yes, that's right sir."
"Then do you mind explaining to me why my phone was disconnected with no notice, on a weekend when there's nobody there who can reinstate it, when this phone is primarily used by a pregnant woman when I'm not around in case she has any problems?"
"Well sir, 911 still works from it."
"That's hardly the point, is it? How about if she needed something brought to her, or she gets stuck somewhere? This is all besides the point - why has this happened, and what can be done about it?"
"Sir, I'm afraid that we don't have the power to change your account when the Accounts Receivable department has locked it. So you'll have to call back on Monday and clear it up with them. I'll put a note in your file about all this... hmmmm."
"Hmmmm? What's hmmmm?"
"Sir, I was just going to put a note in your file, but I see there's already a note in your file. Two of them, both detailing this problem from the other representatives from your earlier inquiries."
"..."
"So I will put the note in sir, so that when you call on Monday they'll be able to refer to this call."
"Wait, doesn't that mean that when accounts receivable should have read those earlier notes if they were accessing my account and then shut it off?"
"Sir, I'm sure they read them. They just didn't do anything about what was in them."
Gah! As the person whose phone I borrowed to make this call pointed out, Fido customer service appears to be going the way that Telus' customer service had gone until a year or two ago. And what happened? Telus lost lots of customers to Fido. Maybe this Virgin service that's appeared will be better. Let's see how that Monday phonecall goes, though.
Here, have a remake of Pulp Fiction done with United Statesian politics.
Jon Stewart on Star Wars merchandising.
And Jon Stewart's weekly Mess O'Potamia address.
And how to protect your iPod from theft. Thanks Mr. Mercer.
On a site I used to go to, they had accounts from tech support people about stupid customers. It expanded into any ridiculous story that somebody had about their computer stupidities. And I remember one in particular that greatly amused me.
They took a screenshot of this guy's desktop and set it as the wallpaper. Then they removed all of his desktop icons, and hid the taskbar.
"No matter how fast I click, I can't get anything to open!"
This is an even better way to mess with people. :)
Cows With Guns. The video is a bit lacking, but the song still stands up after all these years.
Manamana. Ah, the first full duet I ever sang with Squirrel. :)
Very cool animated short about fishing in a rockbed. Miners beware. Might be slow to load.
Another one from the same site. In the Rough.
And finally, the clip that stopped our weekly Vampire game dead in its tracks as we all ran this, Whack Your Boss. See if you can find all twelve ways to whack him!
Speaking of game, we practically had our asses handed to us. Who knew that three on five was bad odds? And who knew that fire would be so detrimental to walking dissicated corpses? Good thing the sneaky bugger in our party managed to finish them off when the other two of us went down. :P
Went with Squirrel to see Fever Pitch last night. It's about what you'd expect from a Drew Barrymore movie, only with baseball. Some cute moments, some irritating moments, and a deep sense of irrelevance is had by all.
And lastly... you know how when there's something happy happening, and yet somehow it's bittersweet for you? Any ideas on how to get past that? Everybody is all smiles and giddy with pleasure, but as you're smiling you're feeling that lump at the back of your throat?
The only thing I like bittersweet is my chocolate. :)
posted by Rimmy at 08:38
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