Angry Old Man: Pennies at a time

Beware the elderly for they are devious and unencumbered by day jobs.
From the Globe and Mail, Nov 23, pg A1: Irate client gives Visa pennies for his thoughts "Us retired guys are the most dangerous, because we have time on our hands. You have to look for the weaknesses in their system, and I think I found it."

Peach Microsystems: Timeline of a Customer Service Disaster

• Day 1: Angryman’s laptop is taken to Peach Microsystems with a malfunctioning screen; diagnosis is promised by end of day.
  
• Day 2: Technician Stan diagnoses a busted circuit board; Angryman authorizes Peach to order replacement part for $159.
  
• Day 11: Angryman departs country; frequent voicemail checks reveal nothing.
  
• Day 18: Angryman returns home, still no word from Peach.
  
• Day 21: Angryman calls Peach and is told by Service Manager Tom that he is sorry, but the laptop has been sitting untouched while Stan has been on holidays. Not to worry, however, as Tom will “take care of it personally” and Angryman will get a significant discount.
  
• Day 23: Stan calls Angryman and asks for authorisation to order same $159 part that was authorised on Day 2. Estimated repair date is Day 30.
  
• Day 30: Angryman calls and is told by Tom that earliest possible repair date is Day 37 due to shipping time of replacement part from Hewlett-Packard (HP).
  
• Day 37: Stan calls Angryman with news that wrong part was received from HP, right part actually costs $500, but regardless is not available in Canada. Stan recommends shipping whole laptop to HP for repair with an estimated turnaround of 21 days and cost of $500. Angryman asks to talk to Tom to discuss other options. Tom agrees to try difficult soldering job (that is unlikely to work but will not make things worse) and call Angryman on Day 40.
  
• Day 40: Tom does not call. Angryman actually breaks down in tears of frustration – he just wants his fucking computer fixed.
  
• Update - Day 42: Angryman calls Tom who says that they are still waiting for a replacement part, which doesn't even make sense. After a recap of Day 37, Tom remembers that the laptop is actually sitting in the corner dismantled without any work having been done. From here on in, Angryman will call every single day.
  
• Day 50: Tom concedes that he cannot fix the damn thing and has to send it to HP, which he could have done 50 days ago.
  
• Day 58: HP ships the thing back in record time. Angryman has a good long talk with Peach owner Bernard. Service charges are waived. Some sense of closure is achieved.

So why did the Angryman stick with Peach for 58 days? Why didn't he go berserk on these guys? Mostly because Peach felt awful about how bad they screwed this up and I wanted to exploit that. Also because you should never go berserk on someone who is in possession of your laptop. Oh, and I'm comforted knowing that at least for now, googling Peach Microsystems brings up this post about how badly they F'ed up.

Anger Gone Wrong

Here's a good reminder from the San Francisco Gate that while there are appropriate times and appropriate ways to express anger, it is never appropriate to be a racist jackass. Focus your rage, be constructive and be polite. Not only are you way more likely to get what you want, but you also won't be inviting the hatred and scorn of the whole world.

Angry at Technology

Tony Long has a great new luddite column in WIRED.
Bonus points for use of “bollocks” and “wooing” in the same paragraph.

You think technology benefits you because it gives you an easier row to hoe? Bollocks. The ease it provides is illusory. It has trapped you, made you a slave to things you don't even need but suddenly can't live without. So you rot in a cubicle trying to get the money to get the stuff, when you should be out walking in a meadow or wooing a lover or writing a song.

How Retarded is Party Poker?

If your customer retention strategy is based on reward points, voiding points after 30 days is probably the dumbest thing you can do. Is wiping out my points supposed to lure me back? Idiots. This is truly horrible customer care. Email will be sent soon to see if I can get the points back as well as some bonus cash. Otherwise, it's time for a new internet casino.

Dear Angryman,

Our records show that your Party Points account has been inactive for more than 30 days. The 6466 Party Points in your account expired at 23:59 hrs on 08-NOV-2005. The balance of your current Party Points account is: 0 Points.

In future, should you wish to save your points, all you have to do is log in and play at a Real Money table within 30 days of your last Real Money game. NB: You must play at a Real Money table to accrue and save Party Points. Logging in alone will not prevent your Party Points from expiring. Your Party Points will expire only if you accumulate zero points for a period of 30 days.

So, don't lose out - keep your account active. You'll keep the Points you play so hard to earn - and you'll have fun re-discovering the excitement on PartyPoker.com!

If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us. Our Customer Care Department is open 24/7 and we look forward to serving you.

Sincerely Yours,
Lucy Jones
Customer Care Manager
Party Poker
info@partypoker.com
+1 (800) 852-4719 (Toll Free from US/CAN)

Another Angry Man: Jim Stanford vs. Canadian Bonded Credits Ltd.

CAW Economist Jim Stanford is in the midst of a very laudable campaign against Canadian Bonded Credits Ltd. You can follow each step on his blog. In a nutshell, after being caught in the middle of a debt collection that he has nothing to do with, Jim is billing the collection agency for wasting his valuable time. CBCL takes the position that stopping their harassing automated phone calls is an adequate response. It isn't. I'm behind Jim all the way on this, and I encourage anyone in a similar situation to follow his example.

If you disagree with the business practices of CBCL, you contact their ombudsman Rob Gaudette by phone: 1-800-281-9636 extension 2561; fax: 416-753-4894; or in writing:
1210 Sheppard Ave. E. – Suite 712, Toronto, ON M2K 3C4

Interestingly, Internet searches reveal plenty of complaints about CBCL, but no company website. It seems CBCL embraces autodialer technology, but is hesitant to embrace the Internet. If anyone finds a website for CBCL or an email address for the ombudsman or president, please post it in the comments section.

I Hate England

Well, actually, I don't, but A.A. Gill does and he does a brilliant job writing about it in his upcoming book The Angry Island. The Sunday Times published an extracted essay which contains some very interesting insights into anger and the English. Here are a couple paragraphs from the Times piece:

Anger has made the English an ugly race. But then this anger is also the source of England’s most admirable achievement — their heroic self-control. It’s the daily struggle of not giving in to their natural inclination to run amok with a cricket bat, to spit and bite in a crowded tearoom, that I admire most in the English. It’s not what they are, but their ability to suppress what they are, that’s great about the English.

The English aren’t people who strive for greatness, they’re driven to it by a flaming irritation. It was anger that built the Industrial Age, which forged expeditions of discovery. It was the need for self-control that found an outlet in cataloguing, litigating and ordering the natural world. It was the blind fury with imprecise and stubborn inanimate objects that created generations of engineers and inventors. The anger at sin and unfairness that forged their particular earth-bound, pedantic spirituality and their puce-faced, finger-jabbing, spittle-flecked politics.