Communication

Why is it that people make things difficult on purpose? I think we've all played the game of telephone sometime in our life. If not, its that game where you whisper something into someone's ear, and then they say something twisted and fucked up to the person next to them as if you told them to say it. You smile innocently, and then she'll never talk to you again. Its great. Anyway, we all know the game, and it can be super fun, but no matter how hard you try and how specific you are, the message is always different once it gets past 3 or 4 people. We know this; it is no secret. Why then, if people have this knowledge of  this very important game of telephone, do they still prefer to take the round about way of communicating? Its like they want the message to get twisted and confused; perhaps they don't even want you to receive a message at all, or at the very least know that it came from them. 

Lost? Okay, you're lost. So my phone didn't turn on the other week. I know, right? My fucking phone. That little thing that stores our entire lives in the form of pictures, videos, some texts, definitely no voicemail, and Clash of Clans. Clash of Clans!! And I was in the middle of a war and hadn't made my attacks yet! Yeah, it was a bit frustrating. So I took steps. I made an appointment at my wonderful cell carrier (Sprint) for them to take a look. Do I have insurance? No, why the fuck would I have insurance? I thought you were going to sell me a product that works. Since the phone won't turn on, they can't diagnose anything. They offered me a refurbished phone of the same model, an LG G3, for 75 bones. Not a terrible deal, but not exactly a great deal. Mind you this phone was something like $600 and so I've been paying it off interest free for the last 18 months; which means I have 6 months of $25 payments to go til its mine. Too bad it doesn't work anymore I guess. Short insert here; what if I did have insurance? Well then they would replace the phone for free. Great deal, right? Insurance is 8 bucks a month, and I've had the phone for 18 months. Eight times eighteen is 144. So the 'free' replacement phone woulda just cost me $144. So not exactly a great deal. But lets not dilly dally here, the real culprit is LG. I've babied their product for the past year and a half and it repays me by up and leaving without so much as a note. No signs, no nothing. Worked great up until the moment it never turned on again. So here's where this communication game comes in. I go to LGs website and submit a request for assistance. They respond in a timely manner with some suggestions; all of the suggestions of course presume the phone can turn on, which I specifically noted is not possible in my initial request. The response was timely, but unhelpful.

This is one of those emails that you can't respond to, and they didn't give me any ticket info or anything to reference, so I have to submit another request. I printed the initial email to pdf and attached it in my second request, so they for sure know now that I need a repair. I also included the recommended phone info as well, and all my contact info. They respond in timely fashion once again, and again no info about what to do for a repair.

Round three. At this point I find out there is a separate email request form specifically for repairs. SO it was my fault for not finding that first, and not their fault for just forwarding my request and/or telling me about their own services. Anywho, so I submit that request, and their response takes a bit longer this time. I presume they took the extra time to formulate a more helpful response. Nope. Helpful response is not an option with LG. Apparently I have to call for an answer. 

Its not that I don't love calling in for support on products, especially to massive corporations, but if that was the only option to get this done then why do you even have other much more readily available options? I'm making an assumption here, but it must be to guarantee that you're upset when you call in for support. You know, make sure those customer representatives are really on their game that day. I'm gonna leave this little story as a part one of two, but just so as to not leave you hanging too much, I called into LG, got a repair ticket number, and then sent my phone in. They were specific that I had to write the irrational hexadecimal 18 digit ticket numeral down both on the package and in the package so that they can verify its me. Apparently my name and address on the package isn't enough. Oh, and they can't email or otherwise send me this ridiculously long and cryptic sequence of numbers and letters because then it wouldn't be secure. Nope, they can only tell it to me over the phone a single time, and have me repeat it back to them to verify. If I somehow write it down wrong then or in the future, then its gone forever and I have to start over. How on earth did this process get approved? And does this actually work?

So yeah, communication is fun. I actually work in tech support answering calls and emails for much of the day and it really just boggles my mind how poorly some companies have this set up. Anyway, lets talk about something more fun, cuz its the weekend. I saw Zootopia this past Saturday, and there is definitely reason to why people are going crazy for this movie. Its absolutely hilarious, the story is original and fun, its smart for kids and adults, and Jason Bateman is a miracle as Nick the fox. I started laughing at the beginning, and there was almost no reason to stop for the entire film. The animation is obviously well done, but the different city areas for the animals and the way characters interact really took some creative minds. The kids in the theater are just having fun and laughing at what dazzles their eyes, and the script is so smart that adults are laughing right along with their kids, yet for usually completely different reasons. The way they use the very obvious differences and stereotypes among animals to show discrimination really demonstrates how silly discrimination is, especially among a single species like homo sapiens. It also shows how real discrimination is; you may be able to describe someone as tall, smart, fast, white, black, orange, weak, or hairy, but to think that description defines them, that you can now label them and make assumptions about the characteristics you may not be able to see or perceive, well now you've just crossed over. I'm not going to go on about discrimination and how its a bad thing (hopefully you already know that), but I will say that this movie is great for showing it to us in very simple and approachable manner. Just because someone is small does not make them weak. Just because someone is big doesn't mean they're not cuddly. Just because you're born with one leg doesn't mean you can't be a track star. If you have the desire, then many things are possible. So when your 7 year old nephew or 27 year old cousin ask you why they shouldn't judge X because of Y, you can say 'because a fucking bunny can become a cop, that's why'. Seriously though, its a great movie and a great story that can be learned from many times over. For its great story, excellent characters, non stop laughs, and possible Vehicross clone cop car I give this cinematic feature 7 out of 7 fox tails.

In other news, I saw London has Fallen. It gets 5/7 fox tails for being exactly what its supposed to be, but by passing on an obvious decapitation opportunity during a chase scene. You still rock Gerry.

And for those following along on my biggest loser campaign, I weighed in at 194.2 lbs this past Wednesday, which is a 5.3lb and 2.65% loss. I also was able to get out last Friday to do Cindy, and knocked out 15 rounds with an additional 15 reps (5 pullups and 10 pushups) in the allotted 20 minutes. I also attempted a max number of standard pullups this week, and reached 10 in a row. Now get out there and enjoy the weather. Take 'er easy.