BrewBlog

Reserve the Right to Refuse (Part 1)

The story about Sprint firing some of their customers is old news now but I'm compelled to blog about it anyway since it's worthy of some thought. There are two sides to this and I'm not as interested in taking sides as I am fantasizing about the possibilities. For those that don't have the background info I can make it brief and then we can look at both sides of the coin. Sprint sent a letter to a bunch of their customers notifying them that they (Sprint) are canceling their (customers) service. The cause stated has flavors of "irreconcilable differences" similar to what you'd see in divorce. Sprint is claiming that they cannot satisfy the needs of some of their customers and are exercising their right to terminate their contract as a result. The said customers are gobbling up too many Sprint resources to no satisfactory end, calling and calling and calling customer service. To me it looked like it was a no win situation for Sprint or the customer so Sprint decided to cancel the contract and pay these select customers balances and sent them on their way. I'm leaving out some details but that's basically it. I can defend both sides as I suspect there are a couple of problems here. My guess is that Sprint has been crappy enough in some way to cause all these people that probably have better things to do to incessantly call customer service and customer service sucks badly enough that a resolution cannot be reached. When you hear enough people complain about a company you tend to assume that the company in question sucks in some way.

To illustrate my point about crappy companies, I'll use Comcast as an example. I can't even recall how many people I know have complained about how bad Comcast is. Folks use them because they are in the forefront of the types of services people want so we put up with it.  It's all about accessibility.  I'm still a customer of their digital cable and to be fair, it's been totally fine.  But I'll share a fun piece of anecdotal evidence to make my point. When I went to a Comcast facility to return a cable box a few years ago, which I shouldn't have to do to begin with, I immediately noticed something that screamed "we suck". All of the employees were behind a counter that had several inches of dual-paned plexiglass that went from the counter top to the ceiling and stretched the entire length of the building. All the employees are on one side and the customers are on the other. While I was in there waiting in line there was a heated argument going on between a customer and a "customer service" representative. I joked to myself that that was the purpose of the plexiglass while really assuming the glass was to protect them from robbery or something. It was a crappy area of Sacramento after all. Robbery at a Comcast didn't make much sense to me though because it's not really a place that would have cash or anything worth stealing. Hmmm. When it was my turn I walked up to the window and I swear it was a window like you see at the bank teller drive up where there is a chamber open on either side with plexiglass doors on each end. My end of the box opened and put the cable box in it, bitching to the guy on the other side about having to drive all the way the hell out here to do it. Once my little door closed, his opened and he could safely retrieve the cable box without risking being assaulted by me. Seems ridiculous doesn't it? I asked the guy what all the plexiglass was about and he simply stated that people get pissed off and they've had a problem with people throwing their cable boxes at the employees, endangering their health and safety. No shit, I thought to myself. "Why would someone get that angry about cable", I joked with the dude, remembering all the cursing I did while I was on my way there. I spent literally two hours driving around looking for the damn place because the dumbass there gave me bad directions, calling it a "street" when it was really a "road". Big difference when there is a same named location on the clear other side of town. So let me get this straight, they suck so badly that they need to barricade themselves behind plexiglass to protect themselves from violently angry customers? Nice. My experience that day warranted a spontaneous margarita in the middle of day. Someone else may have dealt with it by driving their car through the building while screaming profanities at the top of their lungs, but not me.

Let's look at another example. At least when I did call Comcast I talked to someone that could speak English (albeit bad English). Calling customer service these days often results in a difficult conversation with someone that doesn't speak English very well at all. Of course people across the world don't need to speak English. After all, I don't speak other languages. But when call centers are moved to other countries to save money it's the consumers that suffer. I don't care what language is spoken in what part of the world but I do know that when I call because I'm having a problem with a service in Roseville, California, U.S.A, I need to be able to communicate with the person that is there to help me. When I call and hear the faint ring I get nervous. Then I hear "Hello, my name is Tom, how may I help you" in a very very very thick accent, my first thought is that their name is in fact not Tom. My blood pressure begins to rise because I know the conversation is going to be difficult. It's not their fault either so that's not the point. The point is that customer service in general is an afterthought more often than not these days. I really can understand why people get frustrated with the phone company, cable company, insurance company, bank, etc. Let's face it though; companies only do this to increase their margins to remain competitive and to put more money in their pockets. They are a business after all. And there is another side of this whole Sprint argument. Maybe the problem is in fact crappy customer service but I tend to think blame can be shared with all the stupid people in the world (no offense stupid people). Let's take a deeper look at this side of the argument in the next post…

Bad Religion - New Maps of Hell

Quick thoughts on this one.  I've been a fan of Bad Religion since about 1995, which is almost halfway back to their beginning.  I like "New Maps of Hell" and they've been on quite a roll as far as I'm concerned.  This one is about as good as their previous two, which I really liked as well.  Bad Religion has a formula that works for me and rarely disappoints.  Check it out.  Like I said about Interpol in my last little mini-review, you can get the gist from a snippet.  It will grow on you though and you'll find yourself singing a lyric or humming a melody before long.  They usually have a message and never shy from giving their opinions about politics, religion, humanity or whatever else.  Even though I only agree with less than half of what they have to say, I have no problem hearing about it.  Sometimes music with a message gets on my nerves but Bad Religion has always had my support regardless of our alignment of viewpoints. 

Interpol - Our Love to Admire

Interpol is back, finally, with another great offering in Our Love to Admire.  Fans of Interpol are guaranteed to like this because it's very similar to previous efforts.  It sounds great, has good variance of pace and a fair amount of depth to get into.  I prefer the faster songs but that's typical for me.  The melodies and riffs sound like their other two main releases but I have detected some different sounds and approaches here and there.  Antics showed a great deal of growth and I actually think this one builds even more on Antics.  Interpol is very accessible and you'll be able to tell from snippets if this is a band you can get into.  I highly recommend checking them out and I'd start with Out Love to Admire and work backwards. 

I loved Antics when it came out and found that it has better than average lasting power.  It took about three years for this follow up and that seems long for a band on the rise but I can get over that.  Our Love to Admire is solid throughout and I can tell it will have the same lasting power as Antics.  For me they fall into that category of mainstream music that I actually like.  But admittedly, I don't think I even know what mainstream is anymore (because I'm getting old).  It falls into that alternative/indy category.  This is actually Interpol's major label debut but I wouldn't have been able to tell.

To Catch a Pervert

Popular NBC television show "To Catch a Predator" has been under fire lately for humiliating the pedophiles and in one case, causing them to kill themselves.  Oh how sad, a sexual predator is dead.  What will the world do without another sick bastard.  Seriously though, the argument in general is that these victims of a police sting are lured in by girls that are in fact of age and then needlessly humiliated on television.  Some pedophiles and other sexual predators do reform their lives and can be productive members of society.  Other critics are pissed that the television show exploits these people for ratings and a dollar.  To all these claims and arguments I say, so what.

First, sexual predators are among the lowest forms of life on this planet.  I understand that these people have serious issues, typically don't murder people and are otherwise productive in many cases.  Again, so what.  These people know that what they are doing is very wrong and they know that there are consequences.  I have absolutely no sympathy for anyone caught performing or trying to perform these heinous acts.  Being a sicko is one thing.  The impact on their victims is so profound, often times their lives are ruined or deeply affected by the emotional problems caused.  The problem is widespread too.  I've known so many people that were molested, raped or whatever.  It's awful and I don't even like talking about it. 

Now, should we really worry about humiliating these sexual predators?  Hell no.  They deserve it.  Who cares if the bait is girl of age.  The point is that these guys connect with them on-line and show up somewhere thinking they are going to have sex with a 12, 13 or however old girl.  As far as I'm concerned they have whatever happens coming to them and I don't feel the least bit sorry for them.  I feel sorry for their families.    Their families may not want them punished but that's too bad.  We can't have a society where people act on their impulses.  Even though many criminals can reform, most of them don't and that's a statistical fact.  Why give them the benefit of the doubt.  We don't need them in society because they have proved that they harm innocent people and that harm has a ripple effect that hurts many people and lasts a lifetime. 

I sound like a broken record when I say this but these perverts and predators and other such criminals should simply be locked up.  There are plenty of us non-criminal types to run the planet.  We don't need them.  The guy that killed himself was an assistant DA.  We can easily get another assistant DA.  I'm sure there are non-predator folks that are lined up to take that job.  At least he killed himself and we don't need to deal with him now. 

Family Ring

This past weekend marked the passing of a family ring to me from my dad. I went over to my dad's house for a visit, something even more important than usual because Jackson can get to know his grandpa. Having never met either of my grandpas makes it especially rewarding for me to see Jackson interacting with both my dad and Allison's dad. He's lucky to have all his grandparents and even a great grandmother (my dad's mom) even though he doesn't know it yet. My dad was digging around his office for something while I was over there and came across a ring he'd been meaning to give me. It's a gold ring that's been in the family for a long time and is meant to be passed to the first born male child of each generation. My dad isn't sure of his origin but suspects that it was either his great grandpa's or grandpa's. The inscription on this inside reads "HGB", which likely suggests that it could be his grandpa, whose name was Harry. Uncertain what his great grandpa's name was he couldn't be sure. Either way, it goes back a long ways.

Since I'm my dad's first and only son, the ring now belongs to me and I'll hold it for much of the rest of my life. While my dad and I were talking about its possible origin Jackson was practicing trying to jump and babbling some of his new words. He had no idea what we were talking about. I'll look forward to the day that I pass this ring along to him because he's next in line. It's exciting to be able to continue the tradition and I feel lucky to have been given the ring because it represents a part of my heritage. I've never known much of my family's history but as I get older and now that I have a child of my own, it is more interesting to me.