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MCI Customer Service sucks
So after writing my last post, I got a phone call from MCI customer service trying to explain to me that they pay the Federal Excise Tax directly to the government. The guy with a heavy, heavy accent was reading directly from some piece of paper and didn't really understand what he was talking about. I could barely understand him and it is a good thing that I don't have to deal with MCI all that often otherwise I'd pull my hair out. I tried to explain to him that the tax had been repealed (OK, not repealed, but no longer collected). He didn't seem to get this and I just hung up out of frustration. It is completely unacceptable to have customer service representatives that you can't understand. They need to get a clue and realize that if people can't effectively communicate with their customers, they're going to lose their customers.
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MCI is living under a rock
I received my Sprint PCS bill today and was pleased to see the slight decrease in the bill (about $6) due to the federal government no longer imposing the federal excise tax on most telecommunications. For those that don't know, the federal excise tax was enacted in 1898 to help fund the Spanish American War. I also got my MCI bill (local and long distance) and I asked them when they would stop collecting the tax (they're required to stop collecting it on August 1). Their response was laughable:
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I'd only buy the software if...
This is a common line I read all the time in reference to software products I see on the web; most recently with Parallels. I'm not sure if consumers really understand that software developers aren't catering to one person (in most cases). I fell into this trap with my NotifyMail program where I implemented every feature request that came in. This was counter productive for a number of reasons. Mostly, the people that wanted the features had already bought it and it wasn't going to get them to buy more and the more obscure features I added, the harder it was to maintain and document. In the case of Parallels, people seem to say that if XYZ USB device doesn't work, they're not going to buy it. While USB support is important, the product does so much else that it is easy to justify the $40 (pre-order price). These people that are buying Parallels have easily spent $1500 on a system and are complaining about a $40 product that doesn't do everything. While I like to see lots of my pet features in products, it won't prevent me from buying the software. I purchase a few products a month and send in features requests on occasion. There will always be features that I want that aren't in a product, but it doesn't mean that everyone else wants the same feature.
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New marathon pictures!
The image CD I ordered from the marathon showed up today. I've put up the pictures for all to enjoy (OK, maybe just me). These images are for personal use only and as such, Action Sports International has granted me permission to put them up here. They have done an amazing job with the pictures and the number of pictures they were able to capture. (There are more pictures, just click on one below to see the rest.)