Comcastic!

You may recall last October when I moved that I ran into some issues with Comcast. Basically, unbeknownst to me, instead of transferring the service, they canceled it and started a new account. So, for almost a full week, I was without Internet and without a clue as to what caused it. Friends who sent me e-mails reported them bouncing back. This came at a time I had sent out some resumes and writing samples and was also prepping for a corporate gig. Horrible timing. It sucked. It took going through their website and chatting with a techie to figure out what had happened. He quickly re-established my e-mail accounts. My biggest complaint was having a problem and not being able to get someone to tell me what was going on immediately. Then I got a huge bill for almost $400 filled with a lot of start-up costs. I spoke with a billing rep - the easiest way to talk to a human being on the phone at Comcast is when money is involved - and, you know what? They were great. They were personable, friendly, acknowledged the mistake, apologized and then knocked the size of the bill down farther than I expected.

That was last October. On Saturday evening, I had an incoming call from Philadelphia. If I don't recognize the number and am not expecting a call, I let it go to voice-mail. It was a vp from Comcast calling to apologize for my problem with Comcast and assured me someone locally would be contacting me about resolving it. After I listened to it, he called back and I picked up. He had realized that my complaint was from 2007. He was super nice and gave me his contact info and let me know if I ever had a problem with Comcast to give him a call.

Here's what's happening. Comcast now has people surfing the blogosphere looking for posts where people complain about the cable giant. They were a little late on my October complaints, but I have to give them credit. They realize there's a problem with people not getting the service they need and they are responding to it in a very personal way. As much as I want to paint huge corporations as evil necessities, they are, ultimately, made up of people. People who might actually care about their job and care about you.

This, of course, goes against my cynical nature and I really want to throw in a "that's what an evil corporation would want you to think" safety net for my ego. I'll refrain, for now. If only I could make them get rid of those annoying commercials where they dub in snippets of songs for dialogue.


FOREIGN POLICY INSTRUCTION MANUAL

Hillary Clinton says you should vote for her over Barack Obama because she won't need to consult an instruction manual when it comes to foreign policy. To me, that's not an asset. If there is a foreign policy manual in Washington, it, like many instruction manuals, is indecipherable and outdated. It needs to be thrown out. If she knows foreign policy so well its because she knows how its been done, not how it could be done. I think Obama will throw the instruction manual away and take the opportunity to write a new one.


ONE MESSAGE. LOUD AND CLEAR

"Impeach Bush Now" Google hits: 50,100 (up 500 from yesterday)

Tuesday, March 4th - get your voice heard by creating a worldwide Cyber Shout. Post on your blog, message boards, comment sections, wherever you can, "Impeach Bush Now!"

Heck, even Amazon.com has a community tagged "Impeach Bush Now."




THE BS NEWS QUIZ OF THE DAY

Yesterday, I asked...

"Neil Jorgensen was fired from the Riverside Casino in Iowa for repeatedly asking for what?"

33% said "A new uniform"
- Nope. His vest with casino-approved flair was in fine working order.

33% said "Free booze"
- More of a political cry, really. He was hoping to liberate alcohol from its bottles.

No one thought it was "A raise"
- It just caused some confusion at the poker tables, is all.

34% got it right with "A prostitute"

According to The Des Moines Register, at a benefits hearing, Neil Jorgensen, 62, who worked at the Riverside Casino south of Iowa City, said he should not have been fired for demanding that his co-workers provide him with prostitutes because the casino promotes Las Vegas-style gaming. He was fired after he was given a $100 Riverside gift certificate and a free night's stay at the casino hotel in recognition of a year's employment with the company. "I went to Ruthie's, the nice steakhouse within the casino, and I had a cosmopolitan or two and a bottle of wine and a really good dinner." He said he went to his hotel room about midnight and an hour later, he said, he called the managers "and asked for a hooker." After the managers refused to help procure a prostitute for him, Jorgensen called someone at the adjacent resort and made the same request. The casino's human resources director, Tim Donovan, testified that hotel workers were then sent to Jorgensen's room to insist that he stop calling for prostitutes. "When the hotel supervisor knocked on the door, Mr. Jorgensen answered the door in the nude," Donovan testified. Jorgensen was fired the next day.

Clearly, the problem isn't that he asked for a prostitute. It's that he blew his $100 gift certificate on cosmos, wine and steak and had nothing left over. He should have just skipped dinner and used his money on a $100 hand job from Gert in the employee cafeteria.