Posts on effinrant

A wicked bad time.

Thu, 21 Nov 2024 00:40:18 +0000

In a world where convenience reigns supreme, you’d think that buying movie tickets would be as easy as clicking a button. But alas, welcome to the modern movie theater experience, where the irony of “withholding products from consumers” is the new business model. Let me take you on a little journey through my recent attempt to snag some tickets for the Wicked movie—a tale filled with frustration, irony, and a sprinkle of sarcasm.

Amazon Sales and ACoS (Advertising Cost of Sale) data

Wed, 04 May 2022 15:01:00 +0000

Is it just me or is Amazon going to be the most powerful company in the world (if they aren’t already)?

Mind you, Amazon literally started as an online BOOK market… They have sold books from the inception of the company. They should be pretty good at it, right?

This post is tailored for those more familiar with Amazon’s advertising “scheme”…. Admittedly, my limited knowledge is more on the self-publishing (KDP) side…

In several cities in the United States, Amazon can deliver products in 1 hour or less. In most of the US they can (and do on a regular basis) deliver products in less than 24 hours.

Facebook is bad, but not as bad as…

Tue, 27 Mar 2018 14:59:00 +0000

An open letter to Mark Zuckerberg:
Hey Mark, not sure if you need any help at your upcoming congressional hearing but I don’t think you have anything to worry about.

Equifax negligently leaked the highly sensitive personal and financial details about consumers including names, birthdates, street addresses, credit card numbers, drivers license numbers and Social Security numbers of over 145 million Americans.

Facebook “exposed raw data” of 50 million users.

Name your own inventory problem…?

Wed, 11 May 2011 14:56:00 +0000

Dear Priceline.com…
To whom it may concern:

I attempted to bid on a hotel room and received the following notification:

Sorry – Due to constantly changing inventory we couldn’t complete your hotel purchase. Your credit card has not been charged.

I was not informed that my bid was accepted or declined and was under the impression that this was some sort of technical glitch preventing my request from properly being submitted. I made a second attempt at “naming my own price” only to be told “Please change at least one part of your original request. Sorry – Due to constantly changing inventory we couldn’t complete your hotel purchase. Your credit card has not been charged.”. Following the instructions presented to me I changed part of my original request by increasing my bid amount and resubmitted my request only to be presented with the same screen as if my original bid had been rejected. I do understand how priceline.com “name your own price” works and have had bids rejected before and had to select additional areas or additional star levels or check-in or check-out dates. But I wasn’t informed that my bid was rejected and I was not explicitly instructed as to what I needed to change from my original bid so I changed “part” of my original request but to no avail, I got the same screen over and over again. If I decide to utilize your service again in the future I would hope this issue is resolved and I am provided specific instructions as to the minimum requirements of changing my bid just as if my bid had been rejected.
I would also like to understand how Priceline.com’s inventory constantly changing resulted in my bid for a hotel room not to complete and although not officially rejected my bid was somehow invalidated?
I am really not concerned about your inventory and if my bid cannot be completed because of some inventory problem on your end, I fail to see why I would attempt to utilize your service. I am certain your competitors would appreciate the opportunity to complete a bid for a hotel room for me.
Thank you for your time.

best guy unlike best buy

Thu, 28 Apr 2011 14:52:00 +0000

A friend contacted me asking if I could recover all the pictures from her laptop that she had sent in to Best Buy for repair.

To make a long story as short as possible…. The laptop stopped working, she took it to Best Buy where she had purchased the laptop and the extended warranty. The following is her account of what happened next:

They sent it to their Geek Squad when it wouldn’t boot up for them. I received

LivingSocial …? and responsible

Sat, 20 Nov 2010 14:50:00 +0000

I thought I’d put in a “positive” rant… “’tis the season” I guess

I recently received the following note from LivingSocial

Thank you for purchasing the LivingSocial deal for four movie tickets from Weekly Cinema. Unfortunately, Weekly Cinema has unexpectedly gone out of business and the deal is no longer valid. We are extremely sorry about this.

Weekly Cinema’s records show that you were able to redeem two of your four movie tickets. We have issued you a refund of $10 for the remaining two tickets to your card ending in #### . Please note: It may take a few business days for the transaction to process. In addition, we have deposited five deal bucks into your account for you to apply toward your next purchase.

Media–con

Tue, 19 May 2009 14:48:00 +0000

So a friend of mine recently returned from military service in Iraq. Wanting high speed internet, high definition television and TiVo service (not DVR service but real TiVo) the only solution was to have mediacom install a cable card(s) at the residence. For ease of billing they were also the default choice for broadband service.

I’m the ‘technical assistant’ tasked with making arrangements of a technical nature so even though it was late on a Saturday, I called and was surprised to find they made an appointment for the following Monday. Since the account was not in my name the customer rep. had to speak with the owner of the home to verify some information, etc.. Next thing I know the conversation was over and phone connection terminated.

Media com

Mon, 02 Mar 2009 14:39:00 +0000

This is a story of how I lost my patience, and was liberated from my cable provider…

I arrived home on a Friday evening after work to find I was unable to access the internet. I found that odd because my service had been pretty reliable. I called customer service and was on hold for about 7 minutes before being connected to level 1 support staff. I explained the problem and he checked for any area outages, but was unable to find anything wrong on his end. He put me on hold for a few minutes then came back and transferred me to level 2 support. Once again I was on hold for a few minutes before someone answered. It only took them about 5 minutes to discover the problem was something that they could not assist me with. They had to transfer me to another department for this specific problem. Once again I was on hold for a few minutes before someone came on the line. I explained the problem that my internet was not working, as well as being transferred around the support department for awhile now. He verified some information from me and then told me that Mediacom had blocked my access to the internet intentionally due to the second notice they received indicating that I had engaged in copyright infringement. He had no details on the material or the reporting agency but that the letter that was sent to me would have those details. It would also have an acknowledgment letter that I needed to sign and return to them to have my internet access reinstated.