Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Las Vegas Multicultural, Las Vegas Black and Tan, Las Vegas Computer Woes.

Please click on images to enlarge. Bass and Guiness together make a great "Black and Tan."
Las Vegas is multicultural-here we have Tai, Chinese, and Hispanic ads.
POLL:
As expected most respondents believe second opinions are necessary when dealing with many of these folks.
Today's poll is to find your preference for spelling the plural of "bus" [omnibus].
Here in Las Vegas (as in California) signs use the spelling "Busses." Webster's concludes that "Buses" is also acceptable. L.E. finds the appearance of the "ss" spelling to be cumbersome and finds it just does not "look right."

GASOLINE:

L.E. was horrified to pay $3.87 per gallon yesterday.

www.automotive.com/gas-prices

DIGITAL MAX AND FRIENDS AGAIN CONFIRM THAT THEY ARE NOT L.E. FANT’S FRIENDS IN THE DIGITAL AGE AS THEY WOULD LEAD US TO BELIEVE!! [L.E. BELIEVES THE LAS VEGAS CABLE MONOPOLY HAS OVERSTEPPED THE BOUNDS OF REASONABLE DEALINGS WITH ITS CUSTOMERS VIA ITS CORPORATE POLICIES]

Readers may remember L.E.’s last skirmish with the Las Vegas cable monopoly where its installer ruined a ceiling of L.E.’s residence during an installation AND ATTEMPTED TO USE AN UNLICENSED CONTRACTOR TO MAKE REPAIRS.
L.E. has used its cable service for over 4 years now. He has consistently paid the monthly bill on time (actually in advance) and the amount outstanding according to the online account system (this is easily verifiable by Digital Max and his friends).
Last month L.E. went online and paid the amount outstanding according to the web page of his account (the amount was approximately $24 less than the earlier paper bill received by L.E.). L.E. believed that as he had received some credits for the failed cable Internet service and had removed HBO (could not find even one movie that L.E. or wife desired to watch!) there was a later (than the paper bill) adjustment. When paying L.E. had a premonition that a problem may arise and he attempted to make a copy of the computer screen, but failed).
L.E. a week or so later received his regular paper bill which included a late amount outstanding of $24 and a late fee of $6. L.E. noted that he must call Max or his friends to discuss this problem.
Then the computer nightmare commenced and L.E. put off the call for a few days.
Yesterday another letter from the cable monopoly which was headed “NOTICE OF SUSPENSION AND DISCONNECTION” and went on to demand immediate payment of $98.93 to avoid further fees of $15, $6 and $15, together with threats of even more deposit, additional deposit, reconnection fee and first month service amounts to be due to these avaricious monopolistic vultures.
Please bear in mind that one is usually in credit (by prepayment) with Max and friends as one prepays by one month (same as for our trash services). L.E. cannot come to terms with how we allow these corporations to charge us late fees for amounts which are only late because they treat the amount as due to be prepaid.
The first phone call was to a less than receptive friend of Max (I use “Max” as L.E.’s previous pillorying of C*x resulted in them getting ads on his page). This gentleman essentially said pay the bill as stated or be disconnected. L.E. asked that person to review L.E.’s payment history and perhaps at least consider that it is unlikely that L.E. would choose to underpay his account and that more likely Max or friends had erred causing L.E.’s current predicament.
Sadly reason had no place is the conversation and L.E. demanded to speak with another before becoming apoplectic.
L.E.’s stomach turned when the next person came on the phone. She was nearly unintelligible to L.E. as she was possibly eating and her diction was not that of a person who should be on a phone bank. After asking that she turn up the volume and or make attempt to speak more clearly the conversation began with her asking L.E. how he wished to pay-Visa or MC?
L.E. responded neither of those as he disputes the bill. Back and forth ensued, L.E., in effort to retain some of his sanity, offered to pay the $24 amount but no fees whatsoever. This offer was accepted with reservation. Apparently Max and friends are trained by their corporate monopoly taskmasters to be condescending to customers and always assume the customer to be wrong.
L.E. was informed that the waiver of fee(s) was a one time courtesy granted because L.E. “misunderstood” his bill. L.E. informed the representative that he most definitely did not misunderstand his bill, Max had erred and he will demand correction as a matter of right not as a courtesy from those who have erred in their accounting such as her cohorts.
L.E. is now seriously considering satellite service (at least two to choose from) to replace the so-called “service” provided by the cable monopoly in Las Vegas as he finds its
corporate attitude of condescension and self righteousness unacceptable.


L.E's Computer woes continue!!
It seems that computer troubles are in threes.
Yesterday L.E.’s computer and his laptop demanded that he update them with Windows XP Service Pack 3. He did so and all was well.
His wife attempted to update her computer by using the same method. This resulted in her computer failing to re-establish Windows OS. In panic she reverted to a previous system which lost access to many programs.
This morning L.E. again downloaded the update and again the system failed to open to Windows unless one uses “safe mode.” L.E. has emailed Microsoft and hopes to resolve this frustration soon, yet believes that unlikely.


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