Quick week in review

It's that time of year that H'ville has sunk into the humid outer cusp of hell. Thankfully, the last couple of days had a good dip in temps/humidity and I was able to spend some time out of doors.

But the week started off with me going outside at 6am. H'ville's Cotton Row Run was Monday (Mem Day) morning. My Scout troop has manned (boyed?) water tables on Tollgate Road for more than 15 years. I was thinking late last week about the site and the dogwood type trees that line the street. Those trees are just the type for Calvin to climb...hmmmmm... So I asked Calvin if he wanted to wake up with me before the sun came up and help the Scouts give water to people running in a race. There was no hesitation, he wanted to go. I woke him up at 5:45am and had him dressed, eating breakfast, and at the church waiting for the other Scouts for a convoy to the site. Okay, one hurdle down. We got to Tollgate Road and while the Scouts set up the tables, I gave Calvin some tree time. When we started filling cups and putting them on the table, he jumped right in with the rest of us - and he did a super job with NO spills! My plan was to have him stand next to me cheering on the runners while I handed out water. While he was incredibly cute cheering "Way to go! Good running," it didn't take long before he wanted to hand out water too. After a couple of minutes of showing him how to hold the cup, he was set. The front runners had little interest in getting their water from a 4 year old. BUT, when the ladies came along that didn't care about their time, he was in business. I stood about 5 feet in front of him and could see the women running down the street looking fatigued after the hill...then..."Oh, how cute!" and with a smile, they would make their way to Calvin to get his water. At one point I saw one woman getting her water from him while two others stood in line to get their water from him too. Calvin was a hit with both the runners and with the Scouts and adult leaders. I couldn't have asked him to have behaved any better than he did. Of course, he took it out on JD for a few hours afterward...but he did regain his niceness balance before long.

I spent Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning finished a proposal for a RFQ out of NASA HQ. They're looking to contract out speech writing for their top three administrators. We found a great writer in D.C. and put our numbers together. We found out on Wednesday that nine contractors submitted and they should make the award sometime this next week.

Wednesday and Thursday were spent doing a proposal for presentation preparation and writing for a dept at MSFC. K had talked to this guy about a white paper she was asked to write up by another NASA employee. This new guy asked if she wouldn't mind looking over a PP presentation he was preparing. It was HORRIBLE! She gave him her opinions and he replied with glee and asked us to put a proposal together for how we would approach re-doing the presentation for him. Since we're an 8(a) company, he's going to sole source the work to us rather than releasing a solicitation for the work. It was submitted yesterday and now we have two things we hope to hear back on next week.

Tivo's Customer Service Sucks

Last weekend I got the cool Series 2 Tivo w/ a dual tuner for my birthday. Since we have a ton of stuff to still watch on the old Tivo in the bedroom, I wasn't in a rush to hook it up. Today I decide to reconfigure the electronics in the bedroom to add the new Tivo and put the old Tivo in a position so I can easily remove it once we've finished watching the 8 or so L&Os (original, SVU, and CI). I pull everything out of the box. The quick guide says that since I don't have a cable box, I only have to open Bag A. I look for Bag A. I have two Bag Bs and no Bag As. Bag A has such things as phone cords, RCA cables, power cord - the essential wires and such - while Bag B is all the junk you need of you have a cable box.

I go to Tivo's website to see about getting a Bag A or swapping a B for an A. The page that comes up says for me to contact the manufacturer. "To find manufacturer contact information, see *link* Contact Customer Support *link*" I click the link and am sent back to the Support Search page. I try different combos of keywords to find the contact info for manufacturers...even going to the point of copy/pasting "manufacturer contact information" for the damned sentence quoted above. Nothing. Finally I drop the manufacturer and find Tivo's support number. Don't you know that the page that has that info -and all the manufacturers' contact info- is called "Contact Customer Support." WHY THE FUCK DIDN'T THE LINK GO TO THIS PAGE RATHER THAN THE SEARCH PAGE!?

I dial up Tivo's help number since I believe they are the manufacturer. I try to use the automated system but none of the options are pertinent and it doesn't recognize my request for "missing parts" or whatever. I give up and press 0 for an operator. Thankfully, I get one immediately...but before we do anything she wants to look me up in their computer. I now have three Tivos, all of them were presents from the in-laws and each one was purchased when I lived in a different location. She asks for my phone - nope, doesn't work. I try to explain my mobile situation and she suggests looking me up via the serial number off the back of one of my old Tivos. I do that and she needs to verify my name and email addy. I give her mine - nope. I give her my father-in-law's and she said the name was right but the addy was different. I try two of his other addresses. She finally gives me a hint that the domain name was correct the first time but the name before "@" was different. I give her JD's addy - FINALLY, success!

I tell her that I'm missing Bag A. While I have plenty of coax and RCA cable, I do need a power cord. Then begins a series of her putting me on hold for 3-5 minutes, coming back to ask for additional info (she verified all my contact info 3 times, wanted me to tell her everything that was in Bag B -the bag I have two of?), putting me back on hold again, and then she came on to tell me that she's still working to solve my problem and lists everything in Bag A except for the power cord. Finally she claims that there isn't any way for her to just order another Bag A for me, but will have to order each of the parts that are included in Bag A. Not only that but she claims that she would get in trouble with her supervisors if she put all of the parts on one case file. She must complete a separate case file for each part! After spending 57:03 on my phone, she assures me that the parts have been ordered and will be in the mail soon. She says she's going to transfer me to a supervisor to get my feedback. Instead of a supervisor, I get a 5 question automated survey.

That wasn't enough for me. I've wasted an hour of my afternoon...I WANT SATISFACTION!

I call back and wend my way to a supervisor. I provide a quick backstory to why I called to begin with and ask that since there's a part number on the bag of parts I have wasn' t there a way to just order another Bag A. Nope. I ask about the policy the previous person mentioned about having to file separate case files for each part. "Yes, sir, that is our policy." That was it - no empathy, just cut and dry - "that is our policy." I let her know that it is poor customer service to require me to wait for an hour and get asked my information for each case. I suggested that my Tivo boxes have completely satisfied me but the company needed to work on how they dealt with customers and processed these sorts of things. She then says that she's going to compensate me for my time. I say thanks. She then says that she has credited $25 or some similar amount to the credit card they have on file and for me to expect the parts (separately) in the mail in, at least, 14 business days.

WTF? 14 BUSINESS DAYS - 3 weeks for a fucking power cord!?

Not only that but the card they had on file was my f-i-l's card. I told her that my f-i-l might appreciate getting the money but how was she going to compensate me. She says nothing. I ask again. She says she compensated the credit card. I repeat my question about ME getting compensated. "What would you like me to do, sir?" *deep breath* I told her that I would like for her to take the money she would credit to the card and use it to FedEx my power cord to me. I would be completely satisfied if she did that. Nope. "Sir, you have to wait 14 business days for the parts."

So, here I sit steaming at the computer waiting for them to transport my parts via rickshaw/packmule/bottle thrown into the sea.

I love Tivo - I HATE TIVO CUSTOMER SERVICE!

auronsgirl, I did my best to channel you while on the phone. If I had been able to successfully make that psychic connection, I bet she would have FedEx'ed the parts to me. *sigh*