1 post tagged “coffee”
This morning, while having an early lunch at Starbucks, I was randomly chosen with my payment to participate in a survey rating the service I had received. So, since I had some spare time since my visit to the allergist proved silly (long, boring story), I decided to take the survey for “fun.” I sat down and opened my computer and noticed that I had to log on to the internet via T-Mobile “hot spot” service, which I no longer have. Why don’t I have it? you may be asking yourself. Well, I’ll tell you.
When we recently moved from one side of Atlanta to the other, suddenly our phone service with T-Mobile for no apparent reason started to suck. I mean really suck. I dropped calls multiple times in multiple places in my 20 minute drive home from “work.” My husband’s service went away completely in his office. Our phones sometimes did not work in our house. What the heck? So, after many exasperating conversations with T-Mobile—one in which they actually suggested we BUY NEW BLACKBERRIES to see if that would fix the problem: REALLY? Spend $400 to fix their issue?—we are now happy customers of AT&T Wireless. But I digress. Seriously, where did I start?
Oh, yeah: the Starbucks survey. Ok, so I sat down with my MacBook (I’m all about shamelessly plugging Apple because I love them.) ready to participate, and discovered I couldn’t get on line. Suddenly, I was transported through the TV time/space continuum to Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update with Amy Poher and Seth what’s-his-name and their silly little bit called, “Really??” Starbucks: pay $3.50 for a cup of fancy-pants coffee and then pay $9.99 for 24 hours of internet connection through T-Mobile. Really? You don’t charge enough for you products to offer free wi-fi? Really? Did you know that Caribou and lots of much cooler local coffee joints offer FREE INTERNET ACCESS??? Really?
Why did I begin this rant?
Oh yeah, the survey. That’s really what I set out to write about—this funny little quirk at the end of the survey that renewed my hope that computers are not, in fact, flawless. At the end, I had the chance to enter a drawing for $1,000, so I took it. I will not win, but hey—what’s the harm in entering? (Except for phone calls about products and customer service that I might not want to answer, which is why I gave my cell number and not my home number as they requested.) I have to admit, for all of you who know me and for other rule followers out there, I hesitated for like 5 seconds when it said “Enter your home number,” and I entered my cell number. Will they know? Will I get in trouble for not giving the number they asked for?
Anyway, there were instructions as to how to enter the number because every site is different. This one said enter it like this: 555-666-7777. So, I did: xxx-xxx-xxxx. Would you believe that the next page was an error report (how dare they?) saying I had entered the number incorrectly? A slight blip, I told myself, and entered it again: xxx-xxx-xxxx. Error screen. What?? I am following the directions! What is up? So, I decide to not follow the directions and enter xxxxxxxxxx. Guess what? “Thanks for participating! Bye!”
What does this say to us rule and instruction followers? Are all those rules and directions out there all for naught? Have we been deceived into believing that we should be following a bunch of rules that have no meaning and don’t even work???
I think I need some more coffee.
When we recently moved from one side of Atlanta to the other, suddenly our phone service with T-Mobile for no apparent reason started to suck. I mean really suck. I dropped calls multiple times in multiple places in my 20 minute drive home from “work.” My husband’s service went away completely in his office. Our phones sometimes did not work in our house. What the heck? So, after many exasperating conversations with T-Mobile—one in which they actually suggested we BUY NEW BLACKBERRIES to see if that would fix the problem: REALLY? Spend $400 to fix their issue?—we are now happy customers of AT&T Wireless. But I digress. Seriously, where did I start?
Oh, yeah: the Starbucks survey. Ok, so I sat down with my MacBook (I’m all about shamelessly plugging Apple because I love them.) ready to participate, and discovered I couldn’t get on line. Suddenly, I was transported through the TV time/space continuum to Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update with Amy Poher and Seth what’s-his-name and their silly little bit called, “Really??” Starbucks: pay $3.50 for a cup of fancy-pants coffee and then pay $9.99 for 24 hours of internet connection through T-Mobile. Really? You don’t charge enough for you products to offer free wi-fi? Really? Did you know that Caribou and lots of much cooler local coffee joints offer FREE INTERNET ACCESS??? Really?
Why did I begin this rant?
Oh yeah, the survey. That’s really what I set out to write about—this funny little quirk at the end of the survey that renewed my hope that computers are not, in fact, flawless. At the end, I had the chance to enter a drawing for $1,000, so I took it. I will not win, but hey—what’s the harm in entering? (Except for phone calls about products and customer service that I might not want to answer, which is why I gave my cell number and not my home number as they requested.) I have to admit, for all of you who know me and for other rule followers out there, I hesitated for like 5 seconds when it said “Enter your home number,” and I entered my cell number. Will they know? Will I get in trouble for not giving the number they asked for?
Anyway, there were instructions as to how to enter the number because every site is different. This one said enter it like this: 555-666-7777. So, I did: xxx-xxx-xxxx. Would you believe that the next page was an error report (how dare they?) saying I had entered the number incorrectly? A slight blip, I told myself, and entered it again: xxx-xxx-xxxx. Error screen. What?? I am following the directions! What is up? So, I decide to not follow the directions and enter xxxxxxxxxx. Guess what? “Thanks for participating! Bye!”
What does this say to us rule and instruction followers? Are all those rules and directions out there all for naught? Have we been deceived into believing that we should be following a bunch of rules that have no meaning and don’t even work???
I think I need some more coffee.
