“Technology got us into this; technology can get us out!”
As I spend the evening figuring out how to transfer my blog from here to Bluehost…no worries, nothing should change…here is a revisit of a post from January 2012…hope you enjoy it! Oh, and any bloggers who have completed this transfer, please let me know what you think! Thanks…
(Photo Credit: Hothardware.com)
We are all too distracted. Not only teens…it’s everyone. On a quick roadtrip this weekend we were almost hit…TWICE! Adults using cell phones are just as distracted as trying to fry an egg and shower at the same time. In fact, we should start a law. This option should become free and mandatory for EVERYONE!!
But in the meantime…sign me up! For $7.95 per month we can block all cell phone usage while driving? I’m in…
Here’s the article from USA Today:
Devices target distracted driving
Anxious parents worried about teens and distracted driving are tapping new technology to keep their young drivers from texting, surfing andeven talking behind the wheel.
“Absolutely, it gives me peace of mind,” says Jack Lavender, 50, a consultant in Berwyn, Pa., who uses a product called Cellcontrol, which parents can buy for $7.95 a month for up to six phones. It prevents his 21-year-old daughter and 18-year-old son from using their phones while driving. “They live so much on the phone, and they do so much of their communication using texting. I know how dangerousit is, so for me, it’s really reassuring to know that they’re not doing it.”
Parents say the technology makes the roads safer and provides reassurance at a time when nearly half of young drivers use their phones to surf the Internet and more than a third use them to access social-media networks.
Applications that prevent people from using phones while a vehicle is moving also are gaining popularity with corporate fleet managers. A new federal regulation penalizes commercial truckand bus drivers each time they’re caught reaching for or dialing a phone while driving.
“Driving while distracted is quickly becoming the new DUI/DWI,” says Daniel Maier, of Illume Software, which produces the iZup line of distracted-driving prevention products for Android and BlackBerry devices.
Jennifer Smith, 37, of Chicago says she plans to use iZup, which costs $20 annually, to block the cellphone of her daughter, Emani Lawrence, 16, while she is driving. “Technology got us into this;technology can get us out,” Smith says.
Some of the technology has been around about three years but has grown in popularity with the focus on distracted driving. Chuck Cox of Baton Rouge, La.-based Cellcontrol says about 15% of the company’s business is private users, mostly parents.
Types of technology:
- uSoftware that uses on-phone GPS or in-vehicle Blue-tooth systems to determinewhen the vehicle is moving.
- uDevices that connect with the vehicle’s onboard diagnostics port or integrate into vehicle electronics or infotainment platform, shutting off gadgets while the vehicle is moving. (They include Cellcontrol, Key2SafeDriving and Taser International’s Protector.)
- uDetection, jamming, monitoring and sensors. They include Trinity-Noble’s Guardian Angel, which locks the keys of a cellphone when a vehicle is going over a pre-set speed.
(Photo Credit: SamuelKee.com)
It’s a conspiracy I tell ya!!!
Ok, so those who visited yesterday know my computer gained a Trojan virus the other night, well here’s the rest of the story….
So, I got on the phone with Dell’s tech support hotline…six transfers and two hours later the tech guy informs me it’s a software issue and I can choose between $129 for a one time fix ( guaranteed for only 3 days) or $249 for a year’s worth of fixes. WTH????
Here are my issues with this scenario:
1.The computer is less than 6 months old.
2. When I bought the computer, I bought all the warranties available to me. Did anyone mention a software warranty?? Umm NO!
3. I bought 4 years worth of McAFee.
4. When I bought the McAfee program, do you think they eplained that it wouldn’t catch ALL viruses and that the normal 12 year old hacker is now writing the viruses based on what will slip through the McAfee’s wall?? Ummm NO!
5. One of the “technicians” within those 6 transfers got ticked at me because I couldn’t understand his accent!! So sorry Mr. Patel, but I don’t understand a word you’re saying and btw, your name is NOT Tom!!!!!
6. Excuse me people, but I thought I was your customer?? What happened to good ol’ fashioned customer service?
Sooo, as a self-claimed resourceful woman, what do you think I did? Yep…while I was on the phone with Bollywood #6, I emailed a techie guy I know and said, “I got $50 for you if you’ll fix this!” he said sure and I quickly hung up on Mr. Dell.
Now I’ve got to thinking about this situation and here’s my take on it…right or wrong, perception is reality!
1. They don’t mention a software warranty because they are waiting for something to go wrong and you’ll be so disparate to fix it you’ll pay whatever ridiculous fee they feel like imposing.
2. They do this because 90% of the issues are software related.
3. Dell has partnered with McAfee. They are in cahoots!!
4. There is a brilliant teenage cousin of a Dell CEO somewhere writing these viruses.
5. He issues the virus, which by the way doesn’t harm the hard drive AT AL, but manages to circumvent the McAfee system.
6. Dell charges some innocent schmuck (like me) $129 for the one time fix fee.
7. Dell fixes the computer remotely and plants another bug to activate in 6 weeks to punish you for not purchasing the year protection.
8. The brilliant teen gets his/her cut of $40 (cash, of course) and McAfee gets their cut of $25 (also cash) for sharing their software specs and Dell keeps the remaining amount.
So yes, even though this HAS to be illegal, I do believe there is some sort of conspiracy going on to rip us all off. The only way to avoid it is to keep our techie friends happy so they’ll help us out every now and then!
What say you Dell?????
What say you McAfee???
What do y’all think? I say we start a media war against this ridiculous fee! A one year warranty on software too harsh?? A one year warranty for anything that can be fixed remotely too much to ask? (Of course, they’ll just send out a zillion technicians because NOTHING will get done remotely after that!) But, we should NOT have to pay for services for the first year!!!! For any reason that’s NOT directly the fault of the consumer (like dropped laptop or keyboard full of coffee)…
Otherwise, Dell has lost one more customer and it looks like this particular blogger will be looking at a Mac in the near future!!
Autocorrect…need I say more?
So, there I was last night…trying diligently to attack my accounting homework (that means sailor vocabulary, pulling hair, throwing pencils…the usual happy environment during current, cash debt coverage, and inventory turnover ratios. I got my Associate’s Degree in Accounting, then changed my major. Doesn’t that give the school a tiny hint that I hate it? Did they mention the mandatory Accounting 561 course was in the MBA program? NO. Would I have changed my mind about higher education? Maybe.) …minding my own business…when I receive a text from my college daughter that said, “My opposum thanked me today for buying an App. Something you want to tell me woman?”
First of all, the apple doesn’t sound anything like the tree, right? Lol. She is my girl and it shows. I may need to apologize to her later for having that effect, but for now, I couldn’t be more proud of this kid. She is just one awesome…human.
Second of all, she was the first in the house to begin the iTunes account many years ago, therefore the email address on file is hers. We share her username and password so we can all share the same materials. No sense in buying the same song five times, right?
Third, if anyone goes into the account and changes the credit card on file to their own to purchase something and doesn’t change it back to mine…well, my next few purchases are on you and I certainly appreciate it! (Actually, it amounts to doing bank transfers to pay them back, so it’s really not as fun as it sounds.)
So, back to the text. I wrote her back, “Opossum???” She responds with, “OMG, Mom…I wrote Ipod and it autocorrected to Opossum!”
I fell apart.
That is one of the FUNNIEST autocorrects I’ve been personally involved with…and I couldn’t stop laughing. We’ve had a couple good ones, but nothing like this where she was thanked by an opposum. And all I kept thinking was don’t you have to have used that word in your texting experiences for it to autocorrect to that? Why in the world would she have the word Opossum in her history file and not Ipod?? Maybe I don’t wanna know!
It went on for hours. She talked about my visit in a few weeks, and I told her “yes, I am still coming down so move your opossum over and make room for me”…she’s twenty years old…we can talk like that now and it’s so much fun, however she did call me a bad name after that last text. Think I should ground her? Actually, I wish she’d ground me.
But the whole incident reminded me so much of the “Damn You Autocorrect” examples that have floated around emails and is posted all over the internet, so I thought I’d share my tear filled laughter with all of you and repost some here…. it is FRIDAY after all!
Here are some of the funnier ones (GRANDMA AND MOM, IF YOU’RE READING THIS, NOW WOULD BE THE TIME TO STOP! RATED- R MATERIAL AHEAD):
Thanks DamnYou AutoCorrect!!!!
What has happened to good ol’ Customer Service??
As a teenager in the 80’s I did what most high school kids did, to include working in a fast food restaurant. For two years I slung french fries, grilled burgers, and counted back change. Yep. I know it’s hard to believe, but we didn’t enter the exact dollar amount given so the register could tell us how much to give back. We did the math in our heads. OMG! Nowadays if you ask most teenagers to tell you what $20 minus $6.73 equals they break out their phone to use the calculator.
And I did all this…brace yourself…for minimum wage!
I’ve asked people recently what happened to customer service? The responses I received varied from “they’re only paid minimum wage, what do you expect?” to “technology has taken away the need to think”. What? I’m no expert on technology, but I’m betting the great minds of invention weren’t aimed at preserving brain cells.
Setting aside the issues with technology and salaries, where is the common courtesy that used to be the focus in customer service? I’m not an advocate for the old adage that the customer is always right, I just believe employees in a public relation position should at least have a “let the customer believe he’s always right” philosophy. After all, doesn’t the customer pay their salary? We aren’t responsible for the hourly rate, but we do provide the few dollars that get funneled to them.
Here are a couple examples of the poor customer service I’ve encountered lately:
Drive thru employee goes to hand me a drink with sticky sweet tea overflowing from the top and running down the sides…without any napkins.
I say: Um, I’m sorry but can you wipe that off?
She says: What? (sigh…eye roll…tsk popping gum…seriously, totally true story)
I say: Can you please either hand me napkins or clean the cup?
She says: Well, actually she didn’t say anything. She slammed the window shut and turned her back on me. With the motion of her head circling and jutting side to side, it was clear she was not happy with me and was explaining to her coworkers the trauma I was putting her through.
She did something with the drink and came back to the window. Slammed it open and with a face of clear disgust shoved the drink towards my open window.
I’m now more than a bit irritated.
I say: Thank you.
She says: Are WE having a bad day? (Swear to God, she said that. WE?? The nerve, if I wasn’t so ticked I’d probably have admired her chutzpah!)
I say: I’m not, but apparently YOU are.
Not sure if she heard that last part. I didn’t realize the question was rhetorical until she slammed that stupid window shut again. Dumb window. Who can win an argument when a window is involved like this?
Here’s another example:
As I walk into a very well-known clothing store, a young lady (read teenager) comes rushing up to me and asks, “Hi, how are you today?”
So far I’m impressed. Wow, she cares about how my day is going? How sweet. I politely return “fine thank you, and yours?” Well, good grief! Remind me never to do that again. She replies, “awful” and proceeds to give me a ten minute breakdown of how rough her little life is and exactly where everyone else has done her wrong. I kept looking around for the hidden cameras and was hopeful I had landed on punk’d!
When Ashton still hadn’t appeared, I started fidgeting waiting for her to take a breath so I could interrupt. Don’t people read body language anymore?
When my opportunity finally happened, I quickly said, “Well…wow, I’m sorry” and in order to make sure I didn’t reciprocate the interrupting breath moment, I went on to say very quickly, “I’mactuallylookingforascarf”! Funny, she understood that perfectly. Maybe I should have texted her during her monologue. (Work smarter, not harder.)
So she asks me what kind of scarf and I explain I am looking for a scarf that has both pink and brown in it, but could also have other colors. She stands there without glancing to any shelves or racks and says, “Oh, we don’t have that”. Now, this is not a small store in any capacity. In fact, just to give you a little hint the name of the store rhymes with Billard’s. You can see my dilemma.
I stutter a little bit and ask her, “Are you sure? You normally have an awful lot of scarves”. The whole time I’m thinking I didn’t ask her for something weird like half striped, half polka dotted, and bright green with purple apples on it.
Then I would understand the immediate negative reply.
I thanked her, walked away, and within five minutes found the scarf. Yes, I was still in Billard’s. Too easy. But my point is that she didn’t even try to look and even if they didn’t have a scarf with those colors, could she have looked on her computer to see if they…just maybe…could order one? The attempt would have gone a long way in making me believe customer service mattered. It doesn’t.
So, my question for you loyal, smart, and trusty readers is what do we do about it? I’ve talked with managers and reported some really bad service, but as a community, generation, or Nation…how do we FIX customer service??
