What’s Gotta Go

Today I was reading this article by Glenn Beck, and frankly it just outlines a few things looming in our not that distant economic future that really scare me.  Give it a read, then come back here and share your thoughts.

Let’s be clear, I am not an alarmist, extremist, or any kind of -ist for that matter.  I tend to tread in the middle road on many things.  Even though I am a conservative politically and morally speaking, I am very much one to mix with all types and be happy with the melting pot.

I think we can all pretty clearly agree that our national economic situation America is downright screwed up.

We, as a country, have been borrowing against the future in a big tremendous way in order to enjoy the current prosperity.  Politicians continue to do it because it just isn’t easy to get elected without giving people the easy answer to making their our what we all want.  It has been easy to let it happen because frankly we all enjoy the good times, and the negative backlash has seemed so far in the future that we all figure some kind of fix will be figured out along the way.  Not my problem, right?

Wrong.

All indicators and difficulties of our current recessive backsliding underway, we are headed for a major bursting of our financial bubbles.  It drives me insane to see us continue to operate at a deficit as a country in such enormous sums that the average citizen simply cannot wrap his or her mind around it to be concerned.  It’s like the individual that is so deep in debt that they just ignore the bills out of the sheer feeling of futility of doing anything about it.

One life getting fouled up with band financial decisions is a bad thing, an entire country is in an entirely different scope.

I truly believe that our generation needs to be the one to take this problem by the horns and do something about it.  Even if it means a decade of some very difficult times, it isn’t going to get any easier the longer we put it off.  We are well past the point of thinking we can just maintain status quo and it will somehow resolve itself.

Tags: economy, finances

Remember that vocal minority of annoying customers I have been talking about? Apparently many of them have the time and ability to check their bank/credit card statement several times a day, but no idea how to properly read what is on there. Let me explain with a few choice examples of what we frequently get in the customer service logs.

“You double charged me!”

We get this so often I get a little chill down my spin every timeI hear the customer service reps in the next room dealing with it. The problem arises from those banks that are so helpful as to show authorizations on your card as well as the actual transaction. An authorization is when a company first checks to see if the money is available, and then later closes the authorization for either the amount checked or a part of it. Various business we all use do this every day, such as pay at the pump gas stations and restaurants that allow for tips to be added later.

Simple concept, right? Apparently not.

Another version of this is when we do issue a refund to a client, which appears as a credit on their statement. Somehow that +/- difference, sometimes shown in the typically accounting fashion with parenthesis surrounding the number is a difficult one to grasp. Even when it says “credit” next to the transaction we get people who assume this new line item on their statement means we have the gall to be charging them again. Pick up that phone and lay into a customer service rep, that’ll teach ‘em!

The kicker is that those that don’t get this concept right off, and take the time to call in and complain, either never get the concept or won’t back down on it. These people will hang on the phone forever arguing with reps that are sincerely trying to explain this in the simplest of terms. Our reps often will have to resort to asking the customer to fax in their statement as proof, which many do not do, likely because they finally realize their error. Yet, somehow we have customers that will fax things in only to show that it does in fact say “credit” or “authorization” right next to the transaction just like we are trying to explain.

“You need to refund every charge I have on here that is unauthorized”

This is another oft repeated concept in a variety of ways. When people purchase products online, they seem to do it in spurts. I find this is true of myself in fact; though I try hard not to compare my spending habits to those I complain about here, they are on a much different level. Because our company actually answers the phone because are a legitimate company we tend to waste a fair amount of time trying to convince people that we cannot in fact provide customer service for other companies on their statement.

Does this sound ridiculous to you? I hope so.

Sadly, there plenty of companies out there that try hard not to help their customers with billing customers as a part of their business model. Their modus operandi is to see if customers will just give up and let the business keep their money. We on the other hand feel good about the products we are offering, and though we deal with our share of loonies that we end up refunding, the bulk of our customer base is happy and enjoys the services we charge for.

Funny thing is, next to every charge on your statement is a “descriptor” that a business can customize with a limited number of characters to help customers identify the charge. We include our toll free number as part of that descriptor to help customers get a hold of us, as do many other businesses. When our reps suspect a charge is not from us, they ask the customer to read off what it says next to the charge - no small feat in many cases - and even when it says another business name, the customer will refuse to believe it is not our company! No matter how hard I shake my head, I cannot get my mind to clear enough to understand the logic on this.

Our reps are repeatedly called liars, thieves and many other choice names when they continue to deny these charges are from us and therefore not our responsibility. Just today a lady just kept screaming “LIAR!” over and over to a nice girl on our end until she finally had to just hang up.

BCB - The Better Customer Bureau

I really am baffled out people like this can act this way to customer service reps. Even beyond that, I just don’t get how people that cannot read a statement or understand the concept of taking responsibility for their purchasing habits can feel justified in trying to bully their way into getting a charge refunded. I really think there needs to be some business reporting process that allows companies to report errant or fraudulent customers back to credit card issuers and banks. Some kind of flagging system so you have the ability to know if a “problem” customer has a history of buying and charging back items without basis. Though the eBay system is flawed in many ways, having some public accountability for their actions keeps many customers acting nicer than they might in a more anonymous world. Think of it as the Better Customer Bureau. I know there are many privacy issues and other flaws with this concept, but I’m here to tell you that most BBB and Consumer Protection Agency complaints I have seen over the years are just if not more flawed..

Perhaps one of the most frequent agitated claims my company gets from customers calling in is “These are unauthorized charges!”  When this is the first thing out of a callers mouth, we can be 99% sure that the charges were in fact authorized, but the customer was either not paying attention to or just not remembering what it was they signed up for.

What really gets our customer service reps going is nearly all of these people will never accept the fact that they did actually sign up and agree to the service, no matter how much explaining or proof you provide.  Is this just a gene that some people are born without?  A common sense ability that simply is not available to everyone out there?

Granted, I understand when people are “tricked” by some marketing tactics out there, but when the details of a product or service are repeated multiple times in the purchasing process, I really have little no sympathy.

Typically, going hand in hand with the “unauthorized charges” statement is the claim that “This is fraud!”  Another baseless and completely misunderstood statement being spewed vehemently in an effort to try and scare a representative into refunding all of the charges ever made by a company.

Funny thing is, we not only keep full records of the enrollment by the user, we also take note of the IP address used when the registration took place.  Even without delving legally into the precise user in an ISPs records to know that this was in fact the actual person, you can, with public look up services, identify the city and sometimes even more detailed location of the computer that did the transaction.  When this lines right up with the address of the credit card holder, we can feel fairly safe in knowing that yes, this doofus did in fact sign up.

In the end, though, we typically refund much of the fees charged, which irks me to no end.  We do this for two, sad reasons.  First, the merchant industry is so screwed up that customers can in fact typically charge back anything they want on a credit card, whether they make false statements in the process or not.  Though there are some basic yet futile ways for a merchant to dispute a customer charge reversal, in the end having too many charge backs will get your account shut down whether you have resolved them or not.  Second, we simply find it easier to refund these noisy, annoying customers than deal with long term liability of them making noise with the BBB, State Attorney Generals, etc.  Yes, whether they are true or not, their false claims to organizations end up hurting you more as a business than just giving their money back.

What really bothers me about all this is that our company is in fact in the right; yet, it doesn’t matter.  In the name of protecting consumers, both private and governmental groups are so skewed to the customer that they hurt businesses.  I’m all for protecting consumers from actual scams and deceptive marketing practices, but what about protecting the small businesses of the world from predatory and negligent consumers?

More on the failings of the merchant account industry another day.

Tags: Business, consumers

First, A Little Background

I read a lot of information online. I don’t get a paper edition of any newspaper, and I even rarely watch the news on TV because I get all I need online. I enjoy the ability to pick out the articles I want to read, when I want to read them, and to be able to consume information from sites I enjoy. This means I read a lot of blogs these days as well. Say what you will about the reputability of blogs in general, I find many of the postings on blogs much more than I do many news sites.

Anyway, in my perusing I have read many a rant about terrible experiences with customer service. These range from not being able to close down your AOL or cell phone account, to a complete inability to get a service agent that has a clue about the service you are needing help with. I feel for these people, and the situations they are often describing sound horrific. I have had my own customer service woes, and even one shocker that made me want to reach through the phone and strangle the rep on the other end of the line.

A Personal Example

In my extreme situation I was trying to cancel a credit card that had gone past its promotional period and had lost its usefulness for my situation. I had other cards and this one had been for a business startup that I didn’t need to carry the card for any longer. So, like the average consumer, I looked up my statement and called the number provided. After wading through the menu options, I finally arrived at a live person and made my request to cancel the account. I expected a few “save sale” attempts, and my expectations were met. I politely declined and waited for the rep to get the job done. Instead, the rep took it upon himself to ridicule me saying things such as “So, are you just a freeloader then? You just got our card for the zero interest period and then you’re off to get another card?” I was floored. The comments continued for a bit until my blood pressure rose and I had a few choice yet calmly worded things to say back to the rep. I had never been so insulted in a customer situation before and I really was at a loss as to what to do. I requested his name, agent number and to speak to a supervisor at which time he hung up on me. I’m not sure if this was a prank or if he had not taken his medication that day, but he was way off base and out of line. I called back, got a supervisor, but there was no record of the call (of course) and I had no identifying information to help track down this imbecile.

The Customer Is Not Always Right

Throughout my life I’ve always heard the phrase “the customer is always right” as a mantra to how service should be given by “good” companies. Though this may have worked in some previous generation, I am here to tell you that the customer most definitely is not always right; in fact, in my industry the customer is often wrong, and not all that intelligent either. I know, that sounds pretty harsh, and I’ll give a few details to soften that statement a bit.

I work for a company that sells informational products online, most of what include a monthly membership that customers can keep for as little or long as they want. We offer a free 14-day trial on most of our offer pages that allow the customer to check out what we have and decide to keep it or not. We make this very clear in the process that if the customer doesn’t want to keep the product, cancel (by phone, email or online) and they are charged nothing more. If they want the product, they get charged automatically each month until they cancel. Think of Columbia House Records, BMG, a monthly gym membership, etc. Not that hard to understand, right? Apparently not.

We get the craziest people calling, irate that they have been charged for a membership, and they have the widest variety of excuses, claims and outright lies they give to try and get their money back. We have come to know that these customers usually fall in one or more of the following categories:

• Forgetful – they don’t remember what they sign up for online
• Fraud – the favorite among most is to claim that they never signed up for this and someone has stolen their identity (even though we have all their info correct, even the IP address of their ISP that points right to them having actually done this)
• Scammers – those that are trying to get something for nothing with online offers, or even worse, try to trick you into giving a refund when they have also charged back the transaction to try and double dip against the company to get some “free money”
• Angry people – will try to bully or scare you into refunding everything ever charged because of how angry they are
• Bluffers – threaten legal action of every possible kind to get their $1.87 shipping fee back
• Selectively illiterate – they can’t read the important facts of what they are signing up for, but they sure can pull out that credit card and enter the number into the right boxes
• Imposters – will act like they are someone else, such as a bank manager, police officer, etc. to try and sound official to get you to refund fees for the “victim” they are helping
• Victims of a disaster – some major catastrophe in their lives has happened, so you must feel obligated to give them a refund on anything you ever charged them.
• Liars – fall into any of the above categories, but they can get even more creative when pressed for details.

The list can go on, and on, and on, and…you get the idea.

The Vocal Minority, Again

To temper the above description, I happen to know we hear from the lively, noisy with apparently the time on their hands to check their bank statement daily go to battle with customer service over a few bucks, but not enough sense to use that time to actually track the obligations they signed up for. We have thousands of clients, and the majority of them either a) cancel using one of our easy options, typically online or by email, during the trial period if they don’t want the product or b) use the product for as long as they want and then cancel when they are done. Who we hear from are those that simply do not want to take responsibility for their actions and want you to “make it right” by giving back the money rightfully charged to them because of their choice to buy something.

These people drive me, and our entire customer service department crazy, but they are 99% of the people they get to deal with. You may wonder why it bothers me, because I don’t work in customer service; my office is right next to them though, and I often overhear the conversations, or the summary they share with each other on the particularly ridiculous gems.

More to Share

So, one series of posts I’d like to start sharing are some of these “gems” as I call them. Where possible, I might even share some recordings of the really good ones, but we’ll see on that. Just the summary alone should be comical enough that you’ll enjoy reading them. Either that, or you’ll simply shake your head at the type of people we get to hear from.

How these people are ever given the ability to make financial transactions is beyond me.

Tags: customer service, Stupid People

It has been some time since I have written on What’s Gotta Go.  My lack of compositional volume is not for a lack of things to gripe about, trust me!  I thought I would write a little catch up and insight as to the status of things.

A bit over a year ago I started up WGG as an experiment on several levels. First, I wanted to try out WordPress as a blog software.  Second, I thought it would be interesting to see how well placed a blog like this could get ranked in Google, as a site and on various topics.  Third, I thought it would be fun to rant about some common things people (meaning most all of us) do that get on the nerves of others around of us.  These rants were intended to be in good humor, and often tongue firmly in cheek.

Over time I wrote, along with some guest posts, over 250 articles  Not to shabby for a non-writer as myself.  One of the things I most enjoyed was just attempting to get improve my writing skills; whether I accomplished that or not is of course a matter of opinion.  Rants have covered a wide variety of topics, some more popular than others.  I have steered away from truly controversial topics, though at times my rants were a little more serious than my original intention.

At this point I have accomplished many of the goals I set out to do, and the last few months have seen a hiatus from writing.  I considered at times taking down the site as I had lost interest in writing rants and instead have spent most of my time posting samples of my hobby and real interest photography.

So what has kept this site alive?  The daily readership.  I have been continually amazed at how certain topics continue to rank well in search engines, particularly Google.  My most trafficked articles continue to be on the topics of Saggin’ Pants and Chewing With Your Mouth Open which apparently rank high on people’s list of pet peeves.  These peeves must rank high if people are not only taking the time to search on Google to read about it, perhaps in search of a way to tactfully help the offending party, but many have taken the time to comment on their opinion as well.

Also popular are my articles about Mandatory Tipping and how Throwing Out Cigarette Butts IS Littering; again, two of my person favorites along with the two previously mentioned.

With this in mind, I have kept WGG alive for, if nothing else, the enjoyment of those that stop by.  Lately I have thought of writing an article every so often to as things cross my mind, but haven’t followed through on them.  I think perhaps I will try to act on the impulse a little more and get some content going again.  Not necessarily with any regularity, and definitely not daily, but more than lately.  Fair enough?

So keep that RSS feed subscription active, and as always, feel free to share this site with others and to suggest your ideas for rants!

Are you tired of receiving those annoying sales calls that seem to interrupt you every evening? Do you continually ask the question to the open air “I thought this was illegal now, why am I getting these calls?” We all hate getting the annoying calls, but before you curse and yank the phone from the way, ask yourself a few questions:

• Did you recently agree to be contacted about something?
• Did you sign up for a drawing of any kind, whether online or through a drop box at a shopping center or movie theater?
• Have you purchased something online in recent weeks or months. If you answered yes, did you read the privacy policy to be sure they did not include verbiage notifying you that your information may be shared with other “trusted partners.”

The list can continue, but hopefully you get the idea. Since the “Do Not Call” laws and lists were established a few years back, many people naively figured this would put all telemarketing out of business and all calls would cease. There were exclusions written into this law that allowed for calls to be made under certain circumstances.

Exemptions

First, political and non-profit organizations along with survey groups were all exempt. Personally I find these some of the most annoying of the bunch, but there you have it; they can call you. Second, if you have conducted business with a group in which you provided your phone number, they have a designated period of time in which they can legally contact you, even for advertising purposes. Third, and this is the kicker, if you have in the course of your transaction provided consent to be contacted by an organization or to share your information with other companies to be contacted then they may do so. This is where you often get caught.

Online transactions are the most notorious for including consent, either by checking a box or by a statement saying you agree to the terms and conditions of this offer/site by completing this transaction. This is a legally binding contract, so if you want to avoid further contact, read carefully before completing that transaction. This is part of how they stay in business, continuing to offer you additional products and services. Realize if you consent to be called, getting a call is not inherently an evil act on the company’s part; they are simply acting in the hopes that you really are interesting in their services as you indicated by your previous actions.

What You Can Do About It

If you are receiving calls and simply tired of it, whether it is your “fault” or not, there are steps you can take to get rid of those calls. It may take a little time and effort for a few months, but it will work. I have done it and seen the results.

First, get on the federally managed Do Not Call List (donotcall.gov). This is a simple step you complete online, with a valid email address required to validate you are not simply entering a bunch of phone numbers. There is a phone number to call to get on the list as well, but if you are reading this you obviously have the capacity to be online. If you haven’t done this step yet, then you simply are not serious about stopping the calls. Once you are on the list you do have to allow one month (31 days) for call centers to receive the updated list and then most calls should cease.

Now, and this really shouldn’t be a huge surprise, but not all call centers operate within the laws. I can hear the virtual guffaws already! Those that are sloppy about sticking to the mandated do not call laws give the rest of the business a bad name, but it catches up to them only if some people are willing to make some noise about it. Then again, refer back to the list above and realize that if annoying calls are a result of your actions, making noise will get you nowhere.

Use an Anti-Telemarketing Script

The folks over at JunkBusters.com have published what is really an effective script if you are willing to take the few moments it takes to run through it. While you frustrated with getting a call it may be difficult to remember to calmly ask these questions, so I recommend you print out a copy to have available by your phone(s).

Every time you get a call you consider junk, just ask the questions in this script. If they answer no, you may be able to sue them. Be sure to put your phone number on the National Do-Not-Call registry by visiting http://donotcall.gov or by calling 1-888-382-1222.

1. “Are you calling to sell something?” (or “is this a telemarketing call?”)
2. “Could you tell me your full name please?”
3. “And a phone number, area code first?”
4. “What’s the name of the organization you’re calling for?”
5. “Does that organization keep a list of numbers it’s been asked not to call?”
6. “I would like my number(s) put on that list. Can you take care of that now?”
7. “And does the company you work for also make telemarketing calls for any other organizations?” (If they answer no, skip the next question.)
8. (If yes) “Can you make sure your company won’t call me for any other organization?”

Visit their site for the full version of the script that includes some follow up questions and comments as well. Though what I have described here should not be considered legal advice, and the same is mentioned at Junk Busters, but they even point out some of their “money questions” that if answered incorrectly and documented can give you grounds to take them to small claims court to be compensated for their illegal actions.

Just Doing Something Makes a Difference

I have found that by simply entering on the do not call list was the most effective action for the bulk of the calls. We still get the occasional outfit that will call us and I am fairly good at remembering to ask to be placed on their do not call list, which most companies will honor. I’ll typically give a company the benefit of the doubt and leave it at that. When I get repeated calls from an outfit, though, I step it up a notch with some of the ideas above.

Really, this is all it takes to get most telemarketing out of your life. I still get the political pollers and occasional survey and non-profit calls, but even those, for the most part, are limited due to my actions above. I am guessing hoping I have made my way to some blacklist that indicates calling my home just isn’t worth the time.

Tags: do not call, telemarketing

Unless you are completely avoiding news coverage of politics lately, for which I can’t completely blame you, you are aware of Gov. Mitt Romney’s speech last night. The coverage is front page material and having comparisons drawn to the famous speech given by John Kennedy years ago under similar circumstances.

As I checked out the various news sites for their coverage of the speech, as is typical I was disappointed in the bias shown by the placement and content included excerpt leading to the article.

First thing that bothers me is the headline of the “related” article directly beneath the front page feature.  This related article spot is not always present, but often.  Look at the content, “Equality talk often lip service.”  If you read the article, overall it is an interesting dialog on some issues at hand in our society, but including this summary headline with the negative slant directly beneath the Romney coverage creates a slant by association.  In now way be fooled into thinking this is not an intentional, calculated placement.

Second, though I find the title of the article creative and applicable, there is one statement that bothers me.  The summary “…explained how his faith would affect his presidency…” is again misleading; the point of the speech was to say his religion would not influence his presidency.  Of course he did cover the essence of what value his having a strong religious belief contributes to his morals, ethics and a backbone that should be considered an asset to a presidential candidate, but the theme was to instead point out that religious affiliation should not be a consideration or criteria when considering a candidate.

It is subtle and often not-so-subtle things like this that irritate me in all news coverage.  Being a major news organization, I always hope to see bias relegated to the opinion section, but in truth it is nearly impossible not to include your own viewpoint when writing.  I wish when it came to politics we could see the straight story rather than being fed what we should take out of the facts.

Tags: cnn, Politics, romney

I gave up on Black Friday a long time ago. There, I said it. I have come out of the shopping closet and showed my true colors. There really is nothing I find appealing about Black Friday, and the deals these days simply are just not worth it. I would love for someone to convince me otherwise, but I just don’t care any more.

That said, my wife this year braved the crowds, and very cold weather, to stand in a line to get our kids a Wii game console. We have avoided any sort of gaming device for our kids for years, but this one has won us over from the active play standpoint of their games. At least it requires them to get off of the couch and be involved in the game. Trouble has been, though, finding any in stock. The Wii’s popularity has far outpaced the production capacity, so finding one has been trouble. Fortunately my wife’s choice of store and diligence paid off and we have a box under the tree that the kids are going to be ecstatic about.

Me, I was ready to pay the premium graft on eBay to get a console without having to deal with finding one in the stores. I wasn’t happy about it, but it was better than the alternative I guess.

So what is it I hate so much about Black Friday? Here is a fun little list for you.

1. People

Yes, I hate people. Not really; that is too broad and makes me sound really bad. What I hate is people in that mode. The vast majority of people out on Black Friday morning are out for a bargain and will do anything to get it. Proof positive as they join the line at 3 am or even the night before in the hopes of saving a few bucks on something might actually want. These people will drop all previous ethos they might live by and take on a new Mr. (or Mrs.) Hyde while they hone in on their anticipated purchase.

I have witnessed the acts of these types, and it has driven me away from the “fun” experience of the shopping moment.

The front of lines bulge with new people joining just before opening where their supposed place was saved in line. Outright cutting in line is sure to happen. The running of the bulls has nothing on these people as they stampede through narrow entrances and rush to the bargain points they have planned out in their SWAT-esque meetings the night before. Voices are raised and new levels of cursing emit from the mouths of the most unexpected sources.

2. “Limited Quantities”

This phrase is true, yet the most deceiving of the advertising for the blessed events. Limited could otherwise be defined as “the bar minimum quantity we have to have at this price to avoid regulatory involvement and pentalties for false advertising.” That amazing laptop deal for half the typical retail price? Don’t plan on seeing more than a handful per store. It is expected and we all know the chances of getting any are slim to none, yet there are hundreds in line with hopes similar to winning the lottery brimming with anticipation.

3. Do You Really Want It Anyway?

Is it just me or have the “deals” they offer in recent years fall well short of motivating a shopping expedition? There have been a few little items here and there that get me to say “well, I guess that is a bit of a savings” but otherwise I am left clearly wanting. Not only do I not really want most of what is listed as their doorbusters, the rest of the items listed feel like the discount offered just really isn’t a deal. The price off of retail they are offering is no better than what I could find somewhere online anyway. Sure I have to pay shipping, but usually that is a wash with the tax I would pay locally along with the time invested in getting my lazy butt to the store in the first place. Don’t get me started on the cost of gas factored in as well.

4. Insufficient Checkout Capacity

Once you have made it inside and chosen the loot you acquiesce to take home with you, then you have to brave the long lines to fork over your money. Depending on your store of choice, the number of checkout counters offered is meant to handle average traffic in the store; there is just no way it is going to deal with the influx of 10x the buyers all at once pushing their way forward in hopes of jumping over to the next store before all those great deals are gone too.

I know these checkout people are dreading the day as well, and hopefully they are being compensated to put up with tired and unruly group that patronizes the retail mania that is Black Friday. I do wonder though if they bring on their “best” checkers in these situations, because in years past there hasn’t seemed to be any rush to get people checked out and out the door. Checkers paid by hour don’t have any motivation, so why move it along? I am sure some enterprising store manager could have the bright idea to research how to really move along the process for days like this. Staff up, get extra people involved, and maybe even figure out how to speed this process along and you might get people back the next year simply because you are the store that didn’t waste their time on this day of glut.

5. Just Not Worth My Time

This last point is likely more a commentary on my attitude more than anything else. The savings offered, even if on an item I want, is just not worth my time. The hours required to put in, aside from the discomfort and inconvenience, simply are not worth it. I would rather put in some extra time working on a project and earning the extra money than waste my time doing nothing more than standing in line with the outside hope of getting the bargain.

I like a bargain as much and perhaps more than the next person, but I measure the return on my time very carefully these days and have found it just plain is not getting me out to the big day.

Cyber Monday is more my style these days, and even then I had most of my online shopping done several weeks in advance of the big weekend. So much for the hoopla.

Tags: black friday, sales, shopping

If you have ever had the opportunity to do a house project that involved digging deep in the ground than you have likely (or should have) called blue stakes.  You know them, the guys that come out and mark where underground utilities are so you don’t make a major snafu and cut into your power or other utilities.

The service is great, and you’d have to be a moron not to call them because a) they are free, and b) the possible fallout of cutting into their lines is just not worth it.

The only part that really bothers me is the paint they use.  I’m not sure if there is some requirement of the grade of paint they use, or if it is a matter of cost or ease of use, but it stays f-o-r-e-v-e-r!  There is temporary paint out there, really.  It exists.  Just like hair dye there are different grades too, some that last until it gets wet and some that will last through a few washings.

Rather than use something that will be gone in a month or so we end up with nice symbols and lines all over our sidewalk, driveway and even landscaped curbing in the yard.  That last one was what really got me.  Was it necessary to paint on my decorative curbing with the bright yellow and orange paint?

It has been awhile since the last time my yard and driveway was painted up, but I thought of it this morning because there is some major utility work still underway in our little town.  One of the streets I travel down was painted up last week for about a mile stretch of asphalt.  I stopped and took a photo of this city condoned urban street graffiti to display what will likely be there for months to come, until the elements finally wear away at it until they are just ghosted reminders of their current bright selves.

I really think this is just a case of using what is easiest for the job at hand.  Just like typical sub-contracted companies, they only care about what their immediate needs and tasks are, let someone else wonder about the clean up and long term ramifications.  I assume their is a reason and explanation for why this is the way it is, but I’ll rant about it nonetheless.

Perhaps they could do a little artistic training for the crew manning the paint stick?  Teach them to do some pleasing artwork with their markings?  How about  mixing the colors a bit and giving us something more appealing than just the one?  More than anything, though, really can we just use some paint that is a bit more temporary?

Tags: city services, graffiti

I am trying to decided whether this post should be in WGS or here.  Well….all things considered, WGG felt the more appropriate place for this rant.  Now on with my Merry Christmas Rant!!!!

My hubby and I don’t buy gifts anymore. We don’t do it for Christmas, Birthday’s, Anniversaries, or even Valentines Day.  We have decided as a couple that we won’t tourcher ourselves with these decisions throughout the year.   We have decided to let our kids pick out the gifts we give to each other.  They are more creative than we have ever attempted to be…like when the kids swing off their closet door and end up in a heap with said doors on top of them we look at each other and say “Happy Anniversary”. When we are picking out the new dryer that isn’t covered (inside and out) with red crayon we look at each other and say “Happy Birthday”, when we pick out the dinning room set that miraculously doesn’t have white paint all over the chairs and legs we say “Merry Christmas.” Yep DH and I don’t “Do” gifts, nah, we let the kids pick out our gifts!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!