Take Back the Beep
Aug 01, 2009 05:53 PM Filed in: Annoyances
I joined David Pogue’s Take Back the Beep army of frustrated cell phone customers trying to stop the wireless companies from stealing money through their useless instructions for using voice mail. Here’s the lame-ass response:
“Thank you for writing. The voice mail instructions are there to assist the many callers who may be unfamiliar with the correct prompts, including advanced options such as review or re-record message or mark urgent. However, there are steps you can take to control the length of your greeting and to speed callers through the voice mail greeting.
In a customized greeting, you can inform callers up front to skip the rest of the instructions by pressing *. (For example: “This is John. To skip the rest of this greeting and leave a message please press *).
· You can remove the last line of the instructions (“to leave a callback number, press 5” ) , by using Administrative Options in your voice mail menu.
· You can customize your greeting so it is shorter for callers.
· You can also use our automated language, inserting your name only to shorten your message.
· You can remove your voice mail feature by calling customer service.
Verizon Wireless is committed to satisfying our customers. We listen to our customers and appreciate any feedback on our services. Please visit verizonwireless.com http://support.vzw.com/how_to_use/basic_voice_mail.html to learn more about using our voice mail system and other Verizon Wireless features. Thank you for using Verizon Wireless.
I hope the information I have provided regarding voice mail message inquiry is helpful.
We appreciate your business and thank you for using Verizon Wireless products and services. Should you have additional questions or concerns, please reply to this e-mail.”
Let’s see:
Wake up and serve your customers, Verizon. You’ve just seriously embarrassed yourself.
“Thank you for writing. The voice mail instructions are there to assist the many callers who may be unfamiliar with the correct prompts, including advanced options such as review or re-record message or mark urgent. However, there are steps you can take to control the length of your greeting and to speed callers through the voice mail greeting.
In a customized greeting, you can inform callers up front to skip the rest of the instructions by pressing *. (For example: “This is John. To skip the rest of this greeting and leave a message please press *).
· You can remove the last line of the instructions (“to leave a callback number, press 5” ) , by using Administrative Options in your voice mail menu.
· You can customize your greeting so it is shorter for callers.
· You can also use our automated language, inserting your name only to shorten your message.
· You can remove your voice mail feature by calling customer service.
Verizon Wireless is committed to satisfying our customers. We listen to our customers and appreciate any feedback on our services. Please visit verizonwireless.com http://support.vzw.com/how_to_use/basic_voice_mail.html to learn more about using our voice mail system and other Verizon Wireless features. Thank you for using Verizon Wireless.
I hope the information I have provided regarding voice mail message inquiry is helpful.
We appreciate your business and thank you for using Verizon Wireless products and services. Should you have additional questions or concerns, please reply to this e-mail.”
Let’s see:
- Who on earth needs instructions on how to leave a message? How many people really need to know how to re-record or mark a message urgent? For the few who do, MAKE THE MESSAGE OPTIONAL. I can turn it off if I don’t care to use it.
- I can remove the last line of the instructions. FAIL. I want to remove them all!
- I don’t want to use your automated language to shorten my message. I want to have MY message say what I want. I pay for it. I don’t pay for your message.
- I can remove my voice mail feature? WTF?!!?!! What kind of solution is that? I guess it will save callers since they won’t use airtime to leave a message. What an incredibly stupid, self-centered, customer-hostile solution! MAJOR FAIL.
Wake up and serve your customers, Verizon. You’ve just seriously embarrassed yourself.
We Can Do Better
Jun 06, 2009 10:34 AM Filed in: Tolerance
This weekend, bloggers all over the world are coming together in the name of tolerance. Enough hatred, disrespect, name-calling, racism and killing.
We Can Do Better!
I can’t think of a more fitting day to do this than on the 65th anniversary of D-Day - when hundreds of thousands stood up to hatred across the world. 25 years ago, I visited the Normandy beaches and the memories of it follow me to this day. It is not just a reminder of the horrible things that happened during World War II. It’s also a reminder that we must continue to be vigilant against extreme views that - if left unchecked - gain the force to destroy many beautiful things and millions of people.
On this anniversary that reminds us of heroism and the horrors of war, think about how much has changed and yet how much has not.
We Can Do Better
Even the smallest of things can count. Show respect to others wherever you can. You may think it’s just a matter of not discriminating or pre-judging others. But, did you ever think how disrespectful it is to cut someone off on the highway? Do you think America is better and more just than the rest of the world, yet you jaywalk and run stop signs?
It makes you think, doesn’t it?
Live your life better, treat others better and we can do better.
Peace, love, joy and jelly beans!
We Can Do Better!
I can’t think of a more fitting day to do this than on the 65th anniversary of D-Day - when hundreds of thousands stood up to hatred across the world. 25 years ago, I visited the Normandy beaches and the memories of it follow me to this day. It is not just a reminder of the horrible things that happened during World War II. It’s also a reminder that we must continue to be vigilant against extreme views that - if left unchecked - gain the force to destroy many beautiful things and millions of people.
On this anniversary that reminds us of heroism and the horrors of war, think about how much has changed and yet how much has not.
- We have more women and minorities in high government and industry positions (not to mention our first African American president).
- We have openly gay politicians and businesspeople.
- We have some tremendously integrated schools and neighborhoods.
- We have hate crimes against Muslims, Jews, gays and lesbians, African Americans ... basically - every minority and
‘non-mainstream’(update: make that EVERY) religion or belief. - We have bullying.
- We have whole classes of citizens whose rights are not just denied, but are taken away.
- We have lies, distortions and hate speech - not just on the new wild west of the internet, but on mainstream airwaves (I’m talking to you FOX News) and from our politicians.
We Can Do Better
Even the smallest of things can count. Show respect to others wherever you can. You may think it’s just a matter of not discriminating or pre-judging others. But, did you ever think how disrespectful it is to cut someone off on the highway? Do you think America is better and more just than the rest of the world, yet you jaywalk and run stop signs?
It makes you think, doesn’t it?
Live your life better, treat others better and we can do better.
Peace, love, joy and jelly beans!
Congress Must Pass Hate Crimes Bill
Apr 25, 2009 07:01 AM Filed in: Gay
Did you know that hate crimes against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people are on the rise?
I just watched a really powerful video that I think you should see – Judy Shepard's story of losing her son to hate violence and fighting for a federal hate crimes bill to give LGBT Americans the protections they need and deserve and to honor his memory. I hope you'll watch it and then send a message to your lawmakers to pass that bill, which is up for a vote in the coming days.
I just watched a really powerful video that I think you should see – Judy Shepard's story of losing her son to hate violence and fighting for a federal hate crimes bill to give LGBT Americans the protections they need and deserve and to honor his memory. I hope you'll watch it and then send a message to your lawmakers to pass that bill, which is up for a vote in the coming days.
Congress is taking action on the bill now – but right-wing lawmakers are trying to derail it. There's no time to waste. We can't let the forces of discrimination prevail on this one.
Judy Shepard speaks with strength and eloquence. I hope her words will move you to send a strong message to your representative. Click the link to watch and then take action.
My Struggles with Comments
So, ever since Realmac Software updated RapidWeaver to work better with JS-Kit comments, I’ve been trying to add a comments feature to my blog. However, every time I tried to configure the widget, it did odd things with the blog entries, adding lots of extra space. I finally decided to play around with different themes and discovered that Realmac had tweaked their themes to work with JS-Kit. Of course, I wasn’t using one of the Realmac themes, so I still had the problem. After playing around with the style sheets for quite a while (I know very little about CSS), I found a section in the style sheet called JS-Kit Override. Hmm ... seems a bit too obvious, but I’ve exhausted all other options, so I copied the section into the style sheet of the theme I was using and - voila - it works. Now, I’ll have to play around a bit to make sure I’ve set up permalinks correctly, then maybe I’ll add some other widgets. Of course, that means I’ll have to post to my blog more often so there is something to comment on!