Monday, May 28, 2007

Your last $1,000 doctor's visit

I was watching Fox the other day and this newsbabe is all hot because she bought an $800 purse off ebay and SHOCK it was fake. Are your eyes rolling?

Well this is the world most of these New York elites come from. The dame pays $800 for a freaking purse.

So why should I be surprised that some twit who is a US correspondent for the Financial Times of London writes this:

"At the moment, most of us know nothing about our genes, but within a decade, that will all change: we will be able to map them for as little as $1,000 (mere pocket change in a land where one visit to the doctor can cost that much)."

The woman who wrote this is just another vapid liberal dying for the U.S. to be bound and gagged by government health care.

In fact, if you search the Financial Times under her name, you'll find a parade of idiotic articles about the U.S., designed to pander to the prejudices of the Brits.

* Work is scary in the U.S.! You can get fired for looking at the Web!

* Government intervention is the answer to high real estate prices!

* If you have to get a virus surfing the Web, then the Web isn't worth it!

* The government has been SPYING ON INNOCENT AMERICANS! Egads! No one is SAFE. AND. IT. IS. ALL. GEORGE. BUSH'S. FAULT.

And similar claptrap.

When I emailed her about the $1,000 doctor's visit and told her she was either a really bad consumer of health care, or perhaps just a liar pandering to the Brits, she emailed me with an amazing threat of the pre-Internet days: I'll tell my boss about you calling me a liar!

Okay, I'm baffled. Why in the world would I care what her Brit boss thinks? Who thinks I give a shit? Can I see a show of hands?

Egads. I mean this rag and every other will be out of business in 10 years and all of them are already irrelevant. Dang, at least go tell some editor at a newspaper someone reads (if there are any left); I could use the publicity.

This incompetent can't find her way to a doctor that charges less than $1,000 an office visit, she works in a dying media, and she has to either exaggerate or outright lie to keep her job. Indeed, she is all atwitter these days because I read her article and have commented negatively on it.

Now she knows she lives. No doubt it is the only evidence.

Sunday, May 13, 2007

Gospel jam




We had a fun mother's day weekend, with Jeff (on the dobro) visiting from Memphis and Wendell (banjo) visiting from northern Indiana. Mark Wayne (on the guitar) had the week off. As you'll see in the video, they had a great time jamming, but they forgot the words!! STILL, the chorus was FABULOUS. Damn you guys are good. Plus, the guitar player is hot. Maggie May, at right, really loved the music. She was jammin'!

Thursday, May 10, 2007

Lane Bryant customer service sucks

Yesterday I wanted to find out what some charges were on my Lane Bryant credit card. The Internet has screwed up some companies but none more than Charming Shoppes, the owner of Lane Bryant and other fat chick stores.

This is a message I got from customer service at Lane Bryant, followed by my reply:

Dear *WOODS WALKER*

Thank you for taking the time to contact us.

Due to banking regulations and credit card security, our customer service representatives do not have access to credit account information.

Please contact Lane Bryant Cardholder Services directly at 800-888-4163 (TDD/TTY: 800-695-1788) for assistance with your credit account.


Sincerely,

Angela
lanebryant.com Customer Service
www.lanebryant.com


My reply:

Angela,

Now it is against the law for me to know what I bought from you. New law!

Lane Bryant Cardholder Services can't or won't tell me what I purchased on the credit card.

Indeed, they direct me to Lane Bryant Catalog.

Lane Bryant Catalog directs me to you, the Internet version of Lane Bryant.

You direct me to Lane Bryant Cardholder services.

Lane Bryant Cardholder services directs me to Lane Bryant Catalog.

Lane Bryant Catalog directs me to you.

You direct me to Land Bryant Cardholder services. etc.

I was on that merry go round for about 2 hours yesterday on the telephone. Each time I got different numbers, but no answers. I have never seen a bunch of companies so screwed up as this one and, frankly, it worries me.

Is ANYONE in charge there? Or is it against the law to tell me that?

By the way, even though you claim that it is against the law for me to know what I bought from you (new law!), I did get a customer service rep for the internet version of your company to tell me exactly that. Of course, she had no idea that I made a purchase in a store the day before. God only knows who I would have to call to find that info out.

Here is what I want you to do now:

1. I want you to forward this email to your supervisor. And if a supervisor gets this, I want him or her to forward it to someone who gives a shit ... if there is anyone like that in your entire screwed up trio of companies.

2. I want you to pay me $100 for the two hours it took me to get my question answered. You three companies can split the cost if you want because all three have abused my trust and wasted my time.

3. I want you to cancel that credit card since your company is too unreliable to deal with. But wait! I bet you can't cancel the card. I'll have to call someone else. But then, you'll owe me another freaking $100 for taking up two more hours of my time.

So, 4. The next time I speak or write to someone I want it to be the liaison between your three incompetent companies ... someone who can do something I want because only one of the 20 or so incompetents I've spoken to so far has been willing or able to do anything I want.

Most sincerely,