The health-care debate that's going on in America right now is not a new debate. It is historic and most likely is a game changing decision that will come from the supreme court, that will change the face of the debate, politics, health care, legislation and presidential politics for a generation. This debate however has been going on since about the time that Social Security was created.
Essentially we are still wrestling with the same questions, we are still asking the same things, we are restating what has already been said thousands and thousands of times and we are going around in circles. This debate really is not about health care, not really. The argument is framed around health care, the discussion is centered on states rights versus constitutional federal authority, and at some level is about your grandchildren and your grandmother at the same time.
Depending upon two things you will have a different opinion of this than the person next to you. The two things are your age, and your politics. This is really a transparent debate that is about paying for service. No one is debating that health care costs are higher than they've ever been. No one is debating that the cost of health care is rising, is going to continue to rise and that we have to do something drastic and radical as a society to rein in the cost. No one is saying that expensive medical procedures should only be offered to those that can pay for it ,although that is insinuated heavily throughout the language of the law and in the appeals.
Essentially if you are younger and you lean toward the left a little you favor this law. The same holds true if you are older and you lean a little to the right you probably still favor this law. More than likely if you view yourself as a centrist and not as a liberal or a conservative in a strict sense on either side you probably favor this law. The people that do not favorite are the ones that have money, insurance, and jobs. That is a broad stroke generalization I understand. Asking who is not in favor of this law is sort of like saying who is in favor of letting old people starve? Of course no one is in favor of that.
Here is the problem. If you do not have a job, or you have a job that doesn't make much money or you work in an industry that does not offer insurance, or quite possibly you are young and healthy and have not considered the need for insurance to be a priority or any of a host of reasons for not having insurance, then when you are an eventual consumer of health care, then one of two things happens. One you are treated and are then saddled with a large medical bill or several large medical bills, and then you are paying on them the rest of your life. Or two, same thing happens you are saddled with a large bill and you just don't pay for it, or pay very little of the total cost. This is the sticking point. This is why people are not in favor of Obama care.
What do you mean Mike? The people that are not in favor of this law say that without regard to the ability of someone to pay, and without consideration of paying for people that cannot afford health care, that it should be universal. The people that are in favor of this law say why should my health care costs be larger because you did not look forward enough in your life to have the insurance necessary to help defray the costs. In other words it was your problem why do I have to pay for it?
This is what the so-called individual mandate attempts to correct. I think they went about it the wrong way and I think the Supreme Court will overturn this portion of the law, but what they were trying to do is level the playing field because eventually everyone is a consumer of health care, whether they are insured or not. Eventually every human being on this planet needs a doctor's care for something.
In some societies physician care is a socialized issue and everyone gets care, in other countries like America is a democratic society and you choose where and when to consume that care. In some societies the health care is substandard, in others is provided for free or doesn't exist. In the United States of America however we choose to treat health-care like grocery shopping. Pick your own plan, cafeteria style insurance, exist on the fringe and use the emergency room as your Dr., or ignore medical care altogether and do without. Up until now that has been perfectly acceptable policy to allow individuals to make health care decisions based on this model.
What the law attempts to do is similar to how many states regulate automobile insurance. the state doesn't tell you what kind of car you can drive, what time you can start driving, what time you have to stop, what road you can take or where you can go. The state however does say that if you're going to drive a vehicle in the state, that vehicle must absolutely be insured or you lose your licesne to drive.
Essentially (with much more structured language) that's what this law says about personal health. It says you can still make the choice about what Dr. go to, about whether you want to go to the doctor today or not, about whether or not you still want to use the same Dr. and whether or not you would rather use an intermediate care facility instead. All of those are still your choice according to this law. The only thing that is stipulated is to say that you have to have insurance, because eventually you will be a consumer of health care at some point, for some reason, and society should not have to pay for it. It makes the argument that everyone else should not have to pay for your health care and/or choice to not have insurance.
The problem is with all of its penalties and fines and mandates is it does not address the inequality in American life in any way. This law will never affect the millionaire, the big high-tech tycoon, the rich CEO. It will never affect the millions of people that are fortunate enough to have employment that provides insurance throughout their adult working life. Every professional athlete can safely ignore this law and all of its structure because it will not affect them .These people will only benefit from this law if and when other people are forced against their will to buy insurance or pay a fine because it will allegedly reduce health care costs overall by collecting revenue from everyone instead of only a portion of the cost from the consumers of health care. I'm very skeptical that even if this law was put in practice that my health-care costs will go down any. I think that even if 100% of the American public had healthcare insurance, because we allow the insurance companies to set up shop in such a disjointed fashion our healthcare costs continue to rise no matter what because it is built into the system for insurance companies to collect more revenue.
It will affect however hundreds of millions of people negatively from the moment that is made law. Rightly or wrongly it require every person that earns an income to have insurance. Rightly or wrongly it will require every person that earns an income to pay for insurance at some level. They will either pay for it out of every paycheck or will reduce the tax refund at the end of the year because they were fined for not having it. Or it may cost them the ability to work somewhere because the employer had to absorb that cost and did not hire that one more person that would've gave them a job where insurance was provided. There is a virtual world where this fallacy of universal health care exists. It doesn't exist anywhere in reality however. There is no model on the face of the planet were universal health care actually is practiced effectively.
Here is what is the coming perfect storm that no one is talking about.
The largest consumer ofsociety in the world (USA) with the largest number of soon-to-be retiring workers (baby boomers), are all going to be retiring in the next few years. At just about the same time as the Social Security system begins to have its largest payout ever, the Medicaid and Medicare systems will also start paying on a larger scale than ever before. Put into the mix of this, a health care law that creates a new confusing dynamic and regulates a market that hasn't even been created yet today as we speak, and millions of people that are aging and will be the largest by percentage consumers of health care, will also be the sickest the most in need of medical care. It's a health care Armageddon waiting to happen.
That's what the argument is about really. Who pays for your grandma and grandpa. if you're 30 years old I think the answer is you do based on this law. I think that's true because grandma and grandpa's is going to be living with you (or you moved in with them 10 years ago).
The last part of the argument is to ask the question why are we not hearing anything from the health insurance industry on this law.? the answer to that question is fairly easy to find. Just look directly at the reelection campaign signs of every liberal congressman and senator in the United States. Every one of them are taking hundreds of millions of dollars from opposition groups and healthcare organizations and drug companies and everything else that's associated with medical care in the United States. Almost every size insurance company is backing this law to become law, and to be fully implemented across the board. You know why that is?
Because it's about the money. See we allow our healthcare industry to operate in such a manner that it forces premium costs to rise because that's the way the system was built to operate. Every company is rated according to their employees ages and sexes and other factors and then each company is assigned a group number. Each group was then offered a series of choices for insurance that costs a certain amount of money to obtain. Inside the group you pay less outside the group you pay more. They also rate the companies by their size about how many people would be in their group, about how many of their employees would choose to pay for the insurance and several other factors like that. This system has been driving healthcare costs up since the 60s. This is really what is wrong with health care cost.
We rate individuals in their individual companies and assigned them payment structures based upon their group level. Then we talk about healthcare as one number $2.6 trillion or 15% of the annual gross domestic product like it is consumed at one level in every location. That's how the healthcare companies want you think about it, that's exactly what they want you to hear.
This means nobody ever asked the question,"why don't you just rate everybody in America as part of the same group and charge us all the same thing for what ever kind of insurance protection we desire?"
I guarantee you that the minute you do that two things would happen, and nothing would get accomplished.
1) The Conservatives would raise bloody hell. The reason why the conservatives would raise bloody hell is because that would sound like socialized medicine. Nothing could be further from the truth but that would matter. The truth doesn't get a plate at this dinner table.
2) The Liberals would raise bloody hell. the reason why the liberals would late raise bloody hell is because it would cut off their funds (their war chests) for reelection. No healthcare company/drug company nor any other healthcare related company would bother donating millions and millions and hundreds of millions of dollars to reelection campaigns if it wouldn't allow them to set the agenda and accomplish their own goals.
Would not do a single thing to help the American public, to help the uninsured, to help the struggling family, or make America a better place to live. It's the same thing as the reason why were paying too much for oil.
Greed in America corporate life and the crossover greed in American political life. It is essentially the same thing.
Thanks for reading my rant
– Big Mike
Welcome to the BIGMIKERANT , Comments are welcome (Keep it clean and I will publish it.) I fully support the 1st and 2nd amendments. Nasty comments and SPAM are deleted.
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Monday, March 19, 2012
Telephones are more important than pacemakers
It's getting to the point where I don't think that society could function anymore without telephones or some other kind of electronic device. Everywhere you look and everybody you look at has got a phone plastered to their ear or a Nook or a Kindle or a tablet and their heads down there looking at their feet while they diddle with the electronic gizmo. If the phone isn't up to their ear, they are texting, looking at a web page, shopping, or all the above usually while doing something else. That something else is usually something insignificant like driving. I really don't get it. There isn't that much to say. There isn't that much to do on one of those things, unless you make your living on it. That I can understand, sort of .
I have a cell phone. I have a home phone. I have an office phone. Everybody in my family has a cell phone. Everybody I know has cell phone. The problem I have is that none them of really have anything important to say when they call, except for the people you want talk to and then they don't answer the phone. Standing in a line somewhere waiting to be waited on, the personal cell phone of the clerk will ring, the clerk will look right at you and say "Excuse me, I have to take this." Or you're standing in a line somewhere 2-3 people back in the line and the place is pretty busy. The telephone of the business rings, the clerk will answer the line, put the customer that he was working with on hold and take care of the customer on the phone. I saw that happen Saturday.
I was tempted to whip out my cell phone, call the business and just have the clerk take care my business over the phone. It would've been more efficient, had it not been so stupid to begin with. I was really tempted to be a jerk but I didn't. I merely said "Should I have called instead of coming up here, because it seems as if when someone calls their call is more important to you?"
On the other hand there's nothing more annoying to either be in a business or be the person calling a business and listening to the business phone of the place where you're at ring off the hook. there has to be a middle ground somewhere, for Christ sake.
Everybody you look at on the roadway has a telephone up to their ear. Just almost every car you pass has someone in it talking on the telephone or texting. It is really an amazing phenomenon that is truly an indicator of the time we live in. I know one of my friends will read this and know say "Hey big Mike, you are one of first guys I saw with one of those Blue tooth stupid headsets". I would have to say guilty as charged. I don't text and drive, and I don't really talk on the phone a lot when driving but I do use the phone to conduct a lot of business. I try to be polite and correct about it though.
I don't know maybe I'm weird, but if there's two people in line and the phone rings I answer the telephone and tell the person on the phone that there are two people in front of them and I'll be right back as soon as a take care of the other two people. The next question is would you like to hold?
if I forget my phone or leave it at home accidentally it doesn't really bother me. I actually feel a little bit of relief. Oh well I'll answer when I get back. Not my children. They won't leave the house without their phone. They will drive back to the house from 20 miles away to get their telephone, in case somebody calls. Call waiting what is that?, voice-mail what is that?, I'll call you back later when I'm not busy what is that,? someone will actually call my house and no one will answer, then they will call my office telephone line and no one will answer, then they will call my cell phone and no one will answer, then they will send me a text and say call me when you get a second I need to talk to you. So I call them back and they say "what are you doing?" Are you serious? it just makes me want to hit the end call button and walk away.
I know, I know I'm a jerk.
My brother said to me why do people feel like they have to answer the phone just because it rings? I understand the desire to stay in contact and and I also understand the desire to answer the phone. I have to tell you however if you call me at 3 AM, and you expect me to answer the phone, you are probably going to be disappointed. My house phone doesn't even have a ringer in my bedroom. I could actually care less if anybody calls or not, I hate the telephone, although I use it, I tolerate it and I actually do call a lot of people. Full disclosure here, I'm on the phone a lot, I make a ton of phone calls. in terms of using the telephone to conduct business talking to customers or clients family or friends I would have to say that I am on the phone a lot. I make a lot of small single digit minute phone calls, and maybe two or three per week that go over 10 min. if you use the telephone in the conduct of your personal life and your business it's kind of sort of unavoidable that you're going to be on the telephone a lot. I get that.
You are bored and you call home just to find out what somebody's doing, or you call someplace with no real purpose behind the telephone call that I just cannot understand. Somebody calls me and says what's up I say what do you want? My wife says it's rude. I say well I'm annoyed what do you expect? Geez Louise !
It's annoying when the phone just won't stop ringing, it gets in the way and I don't get anything done when the phone's ringing. On the other hand when one of my friends calls I answer and I'll talk for an hour and a half. My opinion on this is one that is split as I am a divergent dichotomy (person of two brains with two separate opinions).
If you're one of those nut jobs that text me and says what's up and you never get an answer from me, well there's your answer. There's probably 10 people on the planet that when they communicate with me it's always more important than whatever I'm doing and I pick up the phone immediately or will text right back. if I didn't get right back in touch with you it is entirely possible and probable that I was either asleep or I was busy with something else more important. That happens.
The rest of you leave me a message I will get back with you eventually, maybe. Unless you annoy me, and that's with the delete key is made for.
Thanks for reading my rant,
– Big Mike
I have a cell phone. I have a home phone. I have an office phone. Everybody in my family has a cell phone. Everybody I know has cell phone. The problem I have is that none them of really have anything important to say when they call, except for the people you want talk to and then they don't answer the phone. Standing in a line somewhere waiting to be waited on, the personal cell phone of the clerk will ring, the clerk will look right at you and say "Excuse me, I have to take this." Or you're standing in a line somewhere 2-3 people back in the line and the place is pretty busy. The telephone of the business rings, the clerk will answer the line, put the customer that he was working with on hold and take care of the customer on the phone. I saw that happen Saturday.
I was tempted to whip out my cell phone, call the business and just have the clerk take care my business over the phone. It would've been more efficient, had it not been so stupid to begin with. I was really tempted to be a jerk but I didn't. I merely said "Should I have called instead of coming up here, because it seems as if when someone calls their call is more important to you?"
On the other hand there's nothing more annoying to either be in a business or be the person calling a business and listening to the business phone of the place where you're at ring off the hook. there has to be a middle ground somewhere, for Christ sake.
Everybody you look at on the roadway has a telephone up to their ear. Just almost every car you pass has someone in it talking on the telephone or texting. It is really an amazing phenomenon that is truly an indicator of the time we live in. I know one of my friends will read this and know say "Hey big Mike, you are one of first guys I saw with one of those Blue tooth stupid headsets". I would have to say guilty as charged. I don't text and drive, and I don't really talk on the phone a lot when driving but I do use the phone to conduct a lot of business. I try to be polite and correct about it though.
I don't know maybe I'm weird, but if there's two people in line and the phone rings I answer the telephone and tell the person on the phone that there are two people in front of them and I'll be right back as soon as a take care of the other two people. The next question is would you like to hold?
if I forget my phone or leave it at home accidentally it doesn't really bother me. I actually feel a little bit of relief. Oh well I'll answer when I get back. Not my children. They won't leave the house without their phone. They will drive back to the house from 20 miles away to get their telephone, in case somebody calls. Call waiting what is that?, voice-mail what is that?, I'll call you back later when I'm not busy what is that,? someone will actually call my house and no one will answer, then they will call my office telephone line and no one will answer, then they will call my cell phone and no one will answer, then they will send me a text and say call me when you get a second I need to talk to you. So I call them back and they say "what are you doing?" Are you serious? it just makes me want to hit the end call button and walk away.
I know, I know I'm a jerk.
My brother said to me why do people feel like they have to answer the phone just because it rings? I understand the desire to stay in contact and and I also understand the desire to answer the phone. I have to tell you however if you call me at 3 AM, and you expect me to answer the phone, you are probably going to be disappointed. My house phone doesn't even have a ringer in my bedroom. I could actually care less if anybody calls or not, I hate the telephone, although I use it, I tolerate it and I actually do call a lot of people. Full disclosure here, I'm on the phone a lot, I make a ton of phone calls. in terms of using the telephone to conduct business talking to customers or clients family or friends I would have to say that I am on the phone a lot. I make a lot of small single digit minute phone calls, and maybe two or three per week that go over 10 min. if you use the telephone in the conduct of your personal life and your business it's kind of sort of unavoidable that you're going to be on the telephone a lot. I get that.
You are bored and you call home just to find out what somebody's doing, or you call someplace with no real purpose behind the telephone call that I just cannot understand. Somebody calls me and says what's up I say what do you want? My wife says it's rude. I say well I'm annoyed what do you expect? Geez Louise !
It's annoying when the phone just won't stop ringing, it gets in the way and I don't get anything done when the phone's ringing. On the other hand when one of my friends calls I answer and I'll talk for an hour and a half. My opinion on this is one that is split as I am a divergent dichotomy (person of two brains with two separate opinions).
If you're one of those nut jobs that text me and says what's up and you never get an answer from me, well there's your answer. There's probably 10 people on the planet that when they communicate with me it's always more important than whatever I'm doing and I pick up the phone immediately or will text right back. if I didn't get right back in touch with you it is entirely possible and probable that I was either asleep or I was busy with something else more important. That happens.
The rest of you leave me a message I will get back with you eventually, maybe. Unless you annoy me, and that's with the delete key is made for.
Thanks for reading my rant,
– Big Mike
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Why is it so hard? I don't get it and can't understand
It seems like in the last few weeks no matter where I go the conundrum I run into is not that there is a lack of availability of product to buy. Nor is there a lack of places to buy the product. No the issue is usually that either the people that are supplying the product have such poor attitudes that I can't shop there or the people are asked to do too much with too little support. Secondary to the issue of not enough folks on the premises in order to take care of the business, is the one where some brilliant strategist gets the absolutely great idea to try and replace people with machines and then have those machines wait on people. It never works.
In the first case it looks like somebody is at the controls of an airliner and they're purposely trying to fly that airliner in the ground and managing the business into a slow painful excruciating decline. In the second case it seems sort of pointless because it's never any faster, it's never more accurate, and it aggravates the hell out of the customers. My problem is that I am watching these people that supposedly know how to run businesses manage theirs into the ground, by making poor choices about capitalization expenses, the utilization of labor, hiring decisions (which is different than the selection of staff), and day-to-day operations.
I see it everywhere I look. And trust me it's not hearkening back to the good old days where there were 62 people waitingto take my two dollars. Trust me I'm not naive, I've been in business a long time. Either as an employee of someone else's business or as an owner of my own I understand how hard it is to make a dollar. I understand sometimes it is more about what you don't do that about what you do.
Go into any big-name big brand box store. Almost all of them have tried this. Some people will tell you they actually enjoy it. At the front of the store there will be 15 or so checkout lines, maybe more, in the space where 2 or 3 of them used to be is now the automatic check out yourself cash register. At the end of the self service cash registers will usually be one person overseeing the operation of the registers (If you are lucky). During the peak of the day this person looks like they are managing an insane asylum and are running back and forth pulling their hair out trying to keep up with all the crap generated by self checkouts. Authorization problems, errors, pricing mismatches, entry errors, you name it they have to run back and forth and swipe their card and fix whatever. Every once in a while one person will walk up with a pack of batteries scam them and pay for them and walk out the door happy as a clam. Usually though, the customer looks more harassed than the employee, and by the time they leave you can see almost exactly what they're thinking on their lips. It's almost as if the business wanted them to say "I'm never coming back here again."
Go into any restaurant, it doesn't make any difference whether it is fast food or sit down you will see the same things.
In a fast food restaurant where they do not seat you, you will stand in line during the peak time longer than if you had cooked the food yourself. When you finally make it to the register to order, the person taking your order doesn't know the menu, doesn't have a clue, can't answer basic questions, has the math skills of a turtle, and is about as fast as one.
In a full-service restaurant where you do wait to be seated, the person at the front door who is your hostess, is also probably a 16 or 17-year-old very pretty young girl, who because she cannot get an alcohol serving license, is the poorest trained person in the building. Somebody told her her job was to triple seat the server (who is a table hog) that scares her the most. Secondary to that she thinks her job is to get your cardiovascular exercise in for the day by running to the other end of the restaurant, waving the menus to get your attention, showing you where the table is with a downward point , all the while throwing the menus down on the table and passing you on the way back to the front door, telling you to "enjoyyourlunchKatieisyourservershe'llberightwithyou." Zoom, zoom .
Harassed servers with that deer in the headlights panicked look on their faces, not a busboy in sight, management that you couldn't find if you had an electron microscope, and then when you go to pay your bill and either you pay the harassed server or the person at the register has to find a manager because he doesn't know what to do with the seven cents you just handed them. Yep, I'll be coming back here.
Keep cutting labor costs though, because that is exactly the answer to the problem.
Does anybody else see this lack of service that I see? It is pathetic and ridiculous.
I called my cable provider yesterday and asked where the application was that allowed you to reset your cable box. Then I spent two hours searching for it online. I'm hardheaded, I should've just said "Please reset my cable boxes they are displaying the wrong time", but no not me, I have to do it myself. So I go where the lady sent me. It's not there. I call them back "You guys said the DVR reset application was at whateveritwas.com and it is not there". She actually says to me "That's where it is at on my computer!". If I had not been so aggravated and pissed off to begin with, I probably would've laughed. Instead I said "Obviously you don't know if the difference between the Internet and an intranet. Please put a supervisor on the phone". after another 10 min. of hold and getting to the supervisor I find out that I'm right ,they are wrong, they reset my boxes and they work now. And it's my fault. I am so stupid.
Next I call my wireless phone provider. I discovered on my bill that they charged me for something I should not have been charged for, and I have a double charge on one phone. I explained to the woman very politely what the problem is, and she promptly tells me I am wrong and Oh by the way I'm an idiot,like every other customer that calls in to speak with "Customer Service Representatives" well not in so many words, however her condescending tone, her superior knowledge and attitude, and the audible sigh that she could put into her answer made me understand just how stupid I was.
Then, as we got into the details of the bill I discovered that I'm not so stupid after all. After $20 in removed charges and $80 in adjustments later, She actually says to me, "is there anything else I can do for you today, have I answered all your questions?". I said "yes ma'am, there's something you can do for me and for every other customer you talk to for the rest of your employment with this company. I said "You can go attend every customer service training class that your company offers because you don't have any skills, and you made my face red and my blood pressure go up by treating me like an idiot."
I don't think anybody had ever told her the truth before, I'm not so sure she understood what I said or why I said it. Oh well.
Then the poorest choice of the day comes next. I really am an idiot for subjecting myself to this crap again. I went to Walmart. The largest company on the planet with the largest number of locations, I'm not sure but probably the most employees, the biggest buildings you've ever seen, staffed by some pretty nice people who just don't have a clue. So I was led to believe that it had become a quieter less aggravating place. All my family and friends said "Oh you should try it, its quieter, they remodeled it, the people are friendly etc, etc, :::::: Ha ha ha - I call Bullsh## !! Same old overhead mic every 5 minutes, same old unfriendly staff, same old stupid crap waiting forever on a 15 minute thing. No way I'm gonna do this ever again.
I am pasting a note that I sent to Walmart on their website yesterday. the upshot of this story is that 3 tires, 1 tire moved from the front of the car to the back of the car, 2 windshield wipers took 3 and 1/2 hours to complete. I know it probably won't do any good, and that any response I get if any will be some canned were so sorry letter, will try to do better in the future, our management has been apprised of your complaint, and then somebody can get bitched at because I complained. Not the way they should go about it but that's what'll happen. Next Saturday they will probably be busy too, and guess what ? I will wait until Monday and buy my tires for my other car at a local tire shop. Obviously they don't need the money.
Here's the text of my note to Walmart:
I had not been the Walmart in my town (in NW Georgia) for a couple of years. It is so aggravating to shop there with the constant loud overhead microphones and the lack of staffing . Today was the first time I have made a decision to go back here to make a major purchase. I just spent3 to 3 1/2 hours or so in the auto section purchasing $401.29 worth of tires and assorted items.
Most of that time I spent waiting. Waiting in line to tell you I wanted to spend money, waiting in line outside at a fence line to tell the service technician what I wanted done to my car and then waiting and waiting and waiting some more while I had 3 new tires balanced and rotated and had 1 tire moved to the rear end of the car.
Didn't you guys know that on Saturday in the springtime at 12 o'clock noon you were going to be busy in the auto Garage ? If you did know that you're going to be busy, then how come there was not enough staff there to handle the business? It was and is ridiculous.
See here's the thing. No matter what the reason is for how long it took, it is irrational and unreasonable for you to expect the customer to understand it. Should it take 2 hours let alone 3 to 3 1/2 hours to get 3 new tires? How long should it take? What should happen when it takes longer?
I did speak to a couple of your folks. A supervisor named Sheila and I spoke to manager named I think Edem. They were very apologetic and listened and responded appropriately and sincerely with great empathy. In my view she was good and he was perfect. I also spoke to one of your associates whom I think was named Brandon, as well as one of your technicians in the shop. All of your folks were great. They were nice pleasant people trying to do too much with too little. Your manager instructed the cashier to take money off my bill as an apology for the wait or service. I didn't want that and it wasn't the point of my complaint, and I didn't allow the cashier to do it.
I understand that labor hours must be watched very closely because it is one of your largest expenses. For whatever it's worth whoever is paying attention there doesn't understand. If the point of cutting back all the people in that section is to save money, I think you're looking at it wrong. If I could have found someone when I was very aggravated I would have got my keys back and left, and followed the other three or four people who left rather than purchase tires because they did not want to wait. they left and didn't spend somewhere between 300 and $1000. Save two or three man hours or sell $1000 worth of tires, on Saturday at noon in the springtime? Which one do you think is a better way to look at it?
I'll tell you one thing, from the look on your managers and associates faces from having to deal with people like me and other angry frustrated customers I would not want to work for you under these circumstances. I'm surprised you can even keep the staff you have. I would've quit long ago.
In I could've went on and on and on but you get my point.
You guys have a good day. Thankx for reading my rant !!
- Big Mike
In the first case it looks like somebody is at the controls of an airliner and they're purposely trying to fly that airliner in the ground and managing the business into a slow painful excruciating decline. In the second case it seems sort of pointless because it's never any faster, it's never more accurate, and it aggravates the hell out of the customers. My problem is that I am watching these people that supposedly know how to run businesses manage theirs into the ground, by making poor choices about capitalization expenses, the utilization of labor, hiring decisions (which is different than the selection of staff), and day-to-day operations.
I see it everywhere I look. And trust me it's not hearkening back to the good old days where there were 62 people waitingto take my two dollars. Trust me I'm not naive, I've been in business a long time. Either as an employee of someone else's business or as an owner of my own I understand how hard it is to make a dollar. I understand sometimes it is more about what you don't do that about what you do.
Go into any big-name big brand box store. Almost all of them have tried this. Some people will tell you they actually enjoy it. At the front of the store there will be 15 or so checkout lines, maybe more, in the space where 2 or 3 of them used to be is now the automatic check out yourself cash register. At the end of the self service cash registers will usually be one person overseeing the operation of the registers (If you are lucky). During the peak of the day this person looks like they are managing an insane asylum and are running back and forth pulling their hair out trying to keep up with all the crap generated by self checkouts. Authorization problems, errors, pricing mismatches, entry errors, you name it they have to run back and forth and swipe their card and fix whatever. Every once in a while one person will walk up with a pack of batteries scam them and pay for them and walk out the door happy as a clam. Usually though, the customer looks more harassed than the employee, and by the time they leave you can see almost exactly what they're thinking on their lips. It's almost as if the business wanted them to say "I'm never coming back here again."
Go into any restaurant, it doesn't make any difference whether it is fast food or sit down you will see the same things.
In a fast food restaurant where they do not seat you, you will stand in line during the peak time longer than if you had cooked the food yourself. When you finally make it to the register to order, the person taking your order doesn't know the menu, doesn't have a clue, can't answer basic questions, has the math skills of a turtle, and is about as fast as one.
In a full-service restaurant where you do wait to be seated, the person at the front door who is your hostess, is also probably a 16 or 17-year-old very pretty young girl, who because she cannot get an alcohol serving license, is the poorest trained person in the building. Somebody told her her job was to triple seat the server (who is a table hog) that scares her the most. Secondary to that she thinks her job is to get your cardiovascular exercise in for the day by running to the other end of the restaurant, waving the menus to get your attention, showing you where the table is with a downward point , all the while throwing the menus down on the table and passing you on the way back to the front door, telling you to "enjoyyourlunchKatieisyourservershe'llberightwithyou." Zoom, zoom .
Harassed servers with that deer in the headlights panicked look on their faces, not a busboy in sight, management that you couldn't find if you had an electron microscope, and then when you go to pay your bill and either you pay the harassed server or the person at the register has to find a manager because he doesn't know what to do with the seven cents you just handed them. Yep, I'll be coming back here.
Keep cutting labor costs though, because that is exactly the answer to the problem.
Does anybody else see this lack of service that I see? It is pathetic and ridiculous.
I called my cable provider yesterday and asked where the application was that allowed you to reset your cable box. Then I spent two hours searching for it online. I'm hardheaded, I should've just said "Please reset my cable boxes they are displaying the wrong time", but no not me, I have to do it myself. So I go where the lady sent me. It's not there. I call them back "You guys said the DVR reset application was at whateveritwas.com and it is not there". She actually says to me "That's where it is at on my computer!". If I had not been so aggravated and pissed off to begin with, I probably would've laughed. Instead I said "Obviously you don't know if the difference between the Internet and an intranet. Please put a supervisor on the phone". after another 10 min. of hold and getting to the supervisor I find out that I'm right ,they are wrong, they reset my boxes and they work now. And it's my fault. I am so stupid.
Next I call my wireless phone provider. I discovered on my bill that they charged me for something I should not have been charged for, and I have a double charge on one phone. I explained to the woman very politely what the problem is, and she promptly tells me I am wrong and Oh by the way I'm an idiot,like every other customer that calls in to speak with "Customer Service Representatives" well not in so many words, however her condescending tone, her superior knowledge and attitude, and the audible sigh that she could put into her answer made me understand just how stupid I was.
Then, as we got into the details of the bill I discovered that I'm not so stupid after all. After $20 in removed charges and $80 in adjustments later, She actually says to me, "is there anything else I can do for you today, have I answered all your questions?". I said "yes ma'am, there's something you can do for me and for every other customer you talk to for the rest of your employment with this company. I said "You can go attend every customer service training class that your company offers because you don't have any skills, and you made my face red and my blood pressure go up by treating me like an idiot."
I don't think anybody had ever told her the truth before, I'm not so sure she understood what I said or why I said it. Oh well.
Then the poorest choice of the day comes next. I really am an idiot for subjecting myself to this crap again. I went to Walmart. The largest company on the planet with the largest number of locations, I'm not sure but probably the most employees, the biggest buildings you've ever seen, staffed by some pretty nice people who just don't have a clue. So I was led to believe that it had become a quieter less aggravating place. All my family and friends said "Oh you should try it, its quieter, they remodeled it, the people are friendly etc, etc, :::::: Ha ha ha - I call Bullsh## !! Same old overhead mic every 5 minutes, same old unfriendly staff, same old stupid crap waiting forever on a 15 minute thing. No way I'm gonna do this ever again.
I am pasting a note that I sent to Walmart on their website yesterday. the upshot of this story is that 3 tires, 1 tire moved from the front of the car to the back of the car, 2 windshield wipers took 3 and 1/2 hours to complete. I know it probably won't do any good, and that any response I get if any will be some canned were so sorry letter, will try to do better in the future, our management has been apprised of your complaint, and then somebody can get bitched at because I complained. Not the way they should go about it but that's what'll happen. Next Saturday they will probably be busy too, and guess what ? I will wait until Monday and buy my tires for my other car at a local tire shop. Obviously they don't need the money.
Here's the text of my note to Walmart:
I had not been the Walmart in my town (in NW Georgia) for a couple of years. It is so aggravating to shop there with the constant loud overhead microphones and the lack of staffing . Today was the first time I have made a decision to go back here to make a major purchase. I just spent3 to 3 1/2 hours or so in the auto section purchasing $401.29 worth of tires and assorted items.
Most of that time I spent waiting. Waiting in line to tell you I wanted to spend money, waiting in line outside at a fence line to tell the service technician what I wanted done to my car and then waiting and waiting and waiting some more while I had 3 new tires balanced and rotated and had 1 tire moved to the rear end of the car.
Didn't you guys know that on Saturday in the springtime at 12 o'clock noon you were going to be busy in the auto Garage ? If you did know that you're going to be busy, then how come there was not enough staff there to handle the business? It was and is ridiculous.
See here's the thing. No matter what the reason is for how long it took, it is irrational and unreasonable for you to expect the customer to understand it. Should it take 2 hours let alone 3 to 3 1/2 hours to get 3 new tires? How long should it take? What should happen when it takes longer?
I did speak to a couple of your folks. A supervisor named Sheila and I spoke to manager named I think Edem. They were very apologetic and listened and responded appropriately and sincerely with great empathy. In my view she was good and he was perfect. I also spoke to one of your associates whom I think was named Brandon, as well as one of your technicians in the shop. All of your folks were great. They were nice pleasant people trying to do too much with too little. Your manager instructed the cashier to take money off my bill as an apology for the wait or service. I didn't want that and it wasn't the point of my complaint, and I didn't allow the cashier to do it.
I understand that labor hours must be watched very closely because it is one of your largest expenses. For whatever it's worth whoever is paying attention there doesn't understand. If the point of cutting back all the people in that section is to save money, I think you're looking at it wrong. If I could have found someone when I was very aggravated I would have got my keys back and left, and followed the other three or four people who left rather than purchase tires because they did not want to wait. they left and didn't spend somewhere between 300 and $1000. Save two or three man hours or sell $1000 worth of tires, on Saturday at noon in the springtime? Which one do you think is a better way to look at it?
I'll tell you one thing, from the look on your managers and associates faces from having to deal with people like me and other angry frustrated customers I would not want to work for you under these circumstances. I'm surprised you can even keep the staff you have. I would've quit long ago.
In I could've went on and on and on but you get my point.
You guys have a good day. Thankx for reading my rant !!
- Big Mike
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