The Bob Column
Better than me
December 28th, 2007
Well Happy New Year. Goodbye 2007 and GOOD RIDDANCE!
Before we begin, just for fun, when you get to the blue link text in this page, just put your pointer on it. You don't have to click it: just put your pointer on it. Now, on to the commentary:
I have found a group of people who are more loathesome
than car salesmen.
Actually, that's an unfair statement. In March my poor old 2000 Hyundai Elantra met an untimely (sort of) demise. OK,it needed a new transmission, and some body work, and a flex-joint (where the engine meets the exhaust system) and a new rear passenger's window that would stay up by itself, but it was a FUN car!
I T-boned a kid in a blue Honda who ran a red light making a left turn. $ 4,200 residual value... $ 8,000 damage. You do the math, you make the call.
So, off to the car dealers my wife and I went. We ended up at a Honda dealer and leased a 2007 Honda Accord. NICE CAR! And, in truth, it was a pretty pleasant experience. Our salesman was VERY low key with no pressure. And, the dealer actually met MY PRICE per month!
The kid I hit got 100% responsibility for the accident. I got a $ 350 a month payment.
Oh, I inherited her old car, a
2001 Hyundai Elantra! I moved up a year!
But I digress. So, who is the target of my wrath then? Why the
friendly neighborhood Cell phone dealers! I recently got a new Sprint Motorola Razr (where
is the missing "O"?) in trade for my Nextel i730 with the walkie-talkie
thingy. These are company phones, supplied to me because I take a lot of
business calls after hours, and on weekends and holidays. I had asked for the new phone because I wanted
to get a Bluetooth headset, as all my wired ones broke. And I wanted to
get a Bluetooth handsfree for both my car and the new Honda (now my wife's
car). Oh, I am going offline here for a second... It
was my car that got totalled; so why is the new Honda her
car? Anyway, I got the new phone. It took Nextel/Sprint,
who merged, 3 weeks to activate my phone. Between vacations and the fact
that no one else who was around knew how to do it, it took 3 weeks. So I gleefully took my new thin Razr phone home
and charged it up overnight. The next day I brought it to work, and the
battery died in 5 hours. 5 HOURS! Maybe it's because it's missing that
"o". So off to the Sprint/Nextel store I go for a new
battery to replace the defective one. In the store I find rows of counters
with dividers seperating it into individual consultation cubes. You know,
like the Pharmacies were after the HIPPA laws went into effect! To
get to a cube, you have to register at a central kiosk, where your name
is put on a giant screen TV, then you're called to a window when your name
comes up. Just like at the DMV! The screen indicates whether you're there for a sale,
a repair, or if you have special language needs. Yeah, I do: I speak
literate ENGLISH . But here's the thing. I felt like I was looked
upon as unworthy to own a cell phone. Obviously, I wouldn't be downloading
music (although I did download 3 ringtones: LOVELY TONIGHT
for my wife, BROWN EYED GIRL for my daughter and VAHEVELA
for my sailor son.), and probably I won't have unlimited texting,
and I am over 25. As if the staff there was smarter than me because they
can text faster than I can type on this PC. It turned out that the reason the battery only
lasted 5 hours was that the backlight was set to stay on all the time.
Oh, and some automatic roaming setting was set ON. You'd think the factory
defaults would be set to PREVENT these types of issues! When I gave them the phone to be diagnosed,
the young lady was taciturn. When I picked it up 45 minutes later, the
young man behind the counter took my repair receipt, got my phone, entered
the necessary info into his terminal and gave me back my phone. And I swear
HE DIDN'T SAY A SINGLE WORD TO ME! He
did answer my questions about what was wrong with it, as best as he could.
However, in typical 21st century manner, he sort of mumbled
his sentences, some of which contained neither subject nor object! So, between manufacturer's settings and staff
attitude, I guess I now have to feel less than adequate because I didn't
know about my backlit screen or when I have to change the coolent in my
radiator. A new group of people are now BETTER THAN ME.