The Ottermanempire.com » Family

End of the year Mini Bash or how to lose a sale by pissing off a customer.

Haltse — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 00:23:22 +0000

Dear Mini,

I’m following up on an incident we had with our Mini Cooper S this month and the manner in which it was handled.

While you have the records in the customer service system I will briefly go over the issue. My wife left her key atop a gas pump and drove off. The car gave no warning and 20 miles later it was unable to start ,finally realizing that it didn’t have a key.

The manual states that it will not start without the key being inside it. The dealer, the phone line and the manager this was eventually escalated too all accept that the car starts with the key outside the car. The Mini helpline email address was not helpful (incident 1-1641681520) and referred us to the dealer. The dealer had referred us to Mini so I called.

The first helpline operator I spoke with suggested I read the manual. I did, again, and it says, in unambiguous terms ,that this shouldn’t happen.

He didn’t meet my expectations of customer service ,having run helplines of this nature I’m pretty critical, then again being made to feel like it’s my fault for not knowing how the car operates does that to me. Maybe you can pull the tape and listen?

I called back, had a productive E.G., the antithesis of my first contact and I was passed onto Anthony. I relayed my concerns that what is apparently a commonly known fact at Mini wasn’t passed on to the owners. The car starts with the transponder several feet away contrary to the manual. He correctly asked what I wanted from this process. I wanted Mini to consider replacing the key or providing it at cost due to what I consider a serious flaw in the implementation of the comfort access feature. The car gave no audible or visual warning that the key wasn’t within range as she drove off.

Anthony got back to us within a couple of days to tell us that Mini would not consider a free key or any consideration re this incident. I thanked him for trying and noted that it seemed very strange and puzzling that a good faith offer from Mini allowing me to buy a key at cost was unavailable to me. To be turned from advocate to adversary over what I see as your product failing to work as described is frustrating. Yes my wife made a mistake but it’s one that should not have been possible had the car functioned per the manual. This was during the day thankfully but it could have been so much worse than losing the $300 for the new key.

I thought that maybe Mini semi-believed it’s motoring family shtick but came away feeling very much chastened by Mini N Scottsdale and the initial phone call to the mini hotline for daring to have a problem with the car. Tack on your poor email response and I have to say that I’ve been underwhelmed by your public facing service.

How does it harm Mini to help us? I know that we liked the Mini so much I sold a great car I really liked to get it. I planned on selling our second one when the Countryman was released but now that’s very unlikely to occur. I’d still like to talk about this because I am curious as to why a key safety feature of your vehicle would deviate so far from the manual’s description.

Regards

No related posts.

Bits from my recent trip to Scotland

Haltse — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 18:49:48 +0000

Cash or Credit.

Since I left it appears that most debit / credit transactions occur with a chip embedded in the card. This means that the US cards don’t work unless the operator is smart enough to swipe it. Even when told to we had a huge failure rate with various store staff looking bewildered and more than one calling their supervisor. This is a colossal pain in the ass and I usually used cash whenever possible ( Saves on the stupid conversion rates too, seriously banks you should be dead, act like it. )

BAGS

If you need to do grocery shopping there are many “”bag free” towns, sadly that doesn’t apply to the women;), and you have to purchase each bag. That’s fair enough except some people take it as an affront that you haven’t had the foresight to know just when you would be going shopping and how many you would need. The religion of environmentalism allows the masses to spot the sinners and then stone them with glances.

SERVICE

Service, is lame. Slow, and I don’t mean respectfully slow. The drinks always go dry, the check isn’t often an automatic consequence of

SODA

These people have soda coolers, sorry they appearance of soda coolers as they chill the contents to about 3 degrees below the ambient room temperature.

IKEA

This is weird but in a prior post I identified Ikea’s customers as being the rudest, least respectful of children and possessing abominable car parking manners. E.G, When they have any event on to get a free breakfast,cheap pan or the like it’s knock the kid out the way time.( that’s why they wont let you carry guns I bet;) )

Ikea in Scotland. Same fucking behavior what in the name of flat-packed hell is going on here? Interestingly they have vodka for sale and I was able to have a pear cider with my tray meal.

Was I yelping or just going ouch? Change of lifestyle notification.

Haltse — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 17:13:11 +0000

A phrase my father uses, a lot, in connection with me is “you’d start a row in an empty house”. Lately it seems that I require slightly more people, tables ,drink and a kitchen but ,alas, the propensity to argue is still there. I prefer not to complain at the point of service ,unless it’s something that could be easily rectified at the time, because it really bugs the wife. Either I don’t go far enough ,or more likely I am not exactly pleasant when I start complaining. Try serving my kid shitty food you will get shitty attitude. Once an eatery gets comfortable with being able to send out undercooked, salty,incorrect or hazardous food it’s too late to take it up with the onsite management that allow these things to happen.

Here are two of our most recent outings

Lone Star Steak house visit

The Yard house visit ( I gave away the gift cert)

I don’t enjoy paying for this feeling but it’s nowhere near as the frustration that comes from “ we’re sorry you didn’t like” or “we’re sorry you feel that way” there’s rarely anyone that is sorry that we served you fuzzy food. No harm, no foul. Just our time, our moods and good will.You know nothing of value.

The change

No more chain meals when we’re in the home town. Breakfast is exempt.
Buying a new table for the kitchen and a couple of items to make food production easier.
Using the money saved to eat at better locations less frequently.

A parable from the Principia Discordia follows after the cut that could explain how we let ourselves fall into traps like this.

Narrator: One day Mal-2 asked the messenger spirit Saint Gulik to approach the Goddess and request Her presence for some desperate advice. Shortly afterwards the radio came on by itself, and an ethereal female Voice said

Eris: YES?

Mal: O! Eris! Blessed Mother of Man! Queen of Chaos! Daughter of Discord! Concubine of Confusion! O! Exquisite Lady, I beseech You to lift a heavy burden from my heart!

Eris: WHAT BOTHERS YOU, MAL? YOU DON’T SOUND WELL.

Mal: I am filled with fear and tormented with terrible visions of pain. Everywhere people are hurting one another, the planet is rampant with injustices, whole societies plunder groups of their own people, mothers imprison sons, children perish while brothers war. O, woe.

Eris: WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH THAT, IF IT IS WHAT YOU WANT TO DO?

Mal: But nobody wants it! Everybody hates it.

Eris: OH. WELL, THEN STOP.

Narrator: At which moment She turned herself into an aspirin commercial and left The Polyfather stranded alone with his species.

No related posts.

Honda Certified used cars. They don’t actually have to be certifiable at time of sale. Superstition Springs Honda and the paranormal.

Haltse — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 20:25:58 +0000

I believe I have a candidate for James Randi’s million dollar prize. The prize awarded

“to anyone who can show, under proper observing conditions, evidence of any paranormal, supernatural, or occult power or event.”

could be won in Arizona.The unlikely candidate is Honda of Superstition Springs , after all the name fits nicely, for claiming that a car certified as having passed Honda’s 150 point test managed to be incapable of passing it at the time I purchased it. During the time the car sat on the lot it lost these abilities with no human intervention.

rear high level brake light. Absent and wiring hanging lose (88. Brake lights)
rear speakers that didn’t work. (103. Audio system—radio/CD/cassette, speaker operation)
Fuel release cap that didn’t work. (127. Fuel door release)
and an interior bulb that was out. (123. Interior lights—switch/door operation)

Which doesn’t reconcile well with.

“We’ve taken the headache out of used car research by doing the homework for you. So when you choose a Honda Certified Used Vehicle, rest easy knowing it passes more than just a 150-point inspection. It passes our strict standards as well.”

Honda’s strict standards are letting the dealer certify it and in case of a dispute passing on what the dealer would be willing to do. They seem to have little purpose other than to be a heat sink. Throughout the process the weasel apologies of “we’re sorry you feel that way” began to grate. In short as long as the car is fixed afterwards they are happy.

Not sorry it happens, not sorry they can’t do anything about it but just sorry that someone actually fell for their line of BS.

After certification the car sat on the lot over 100 days and during that time the above items are meant to have changed condition. This is why they should be going after that million dollar prize because I’ve yet to see a tail light, wiring and fixture separate themselves from a housing and then hide.

The speakers are unlikely to have failed but Chris ,general manager, said the didn’t at the time check those just the main function not per speaker. I had pointed out the poor wiring and asked them to check it prior to purchase, they said they had. So even if they missed it on the first occasion there’s little excuse for the second.

The light bulb certainly could have blown any time and the fuel release? It’s doubtful as they filled the gas prior to the delivery and it had to be self evident that people were needed to open it up.

Morris @ Honda USA is unconcerned with this state of affairs and doesn’t see any incongruity between the quoted paragraph above from the Honda site and my experience.

The remedy took 8 hours of waiting,as they didn’t, actually wouldn’t, give me a loan car and it was claimed it would only take two hours on the first occasion. In the end two 60 mile round trips were needed.

All they had to do, take car, get me to work/ back and return it in the condition they advertised it as . Annoying, yes but livable. Sadly that wasn’t the case.

I believe the cars price was influenced by the certified program and that inherent in that offer was the reasonable expectation that all of the items on the provided list were functioning at time of purchase. Seemingly that’s not the case and Honda appears to value the delivery condition as being valueless but backed up by their valuable warranty.

The dealer believes that no breach of the contract was evident which is a matter I disagree on. Had the car worked as advertised I would not be out 10 hours of time. Apart from offering a paint warranty which I didn’t want ( retail about$400 but practically free to them) and a future loan car they consider the matter closed.

The take away from this is that you should not expect a car from a Honda certified used program to be in the condition advertised and why should you? Apparently Honda and at least one dealership believes as long as it’s fixed you should be grateful.

No related posts.

The poop: The last two days

Haltse — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 02:59:51 +0000

Beavis and Butthead are often underestimated in terms of being a fountain wisdom but since the subject of this post involves, poops,pukes and other toilet related humor their inclusion is quite appropriate.

How else will most of you have heard about the god that I angered and the terrible revenge suffered at his hands? I’m talking about Sterculious the god of manure , or as you city folks like to call it. Shit. Back to Thursday. I ate lunch at work and about 20 minutes later felt the need to lie down under the desk, not the most useful job saving strategy I know but it’s better than redecorating 3 monitors. After that wave passed wandered to bathroom where part 1 of the hurling started. Left for home. Got in door and then for the next hew hours the curious dance of not knowing which end should be pointed at the toilet began. It’s at this point I think I pissed off Sterculious. The day prior Dobhran had decided that flushing the middle of the toilet roll holder would be a hoot. I decided to let it go that night and see what would happen.

Shit happens.

The next days load totally jammed up the works, so now I am ill, violently on both ends and the once source of happiness is taken out from under me. Had to fix it in my weakened state the last thing one needs is to revisit day old , steeped and happily fermenting, puke. Could not remove the obstruction it’s totally stuck , inaccessible from the top, and on the bottom it can’t make it round the last bend. Toilet was not cheap and I will be trying to save it later. So I pulled a spare toilet from the garage, what doesn’t everyone have one? and we’re back to being functional but ugly.

It’s Erin and my anniversary today too which kinda went down the drain.

No related posts.

Not a lot here? Try the veal it’s delicious.

Haltse — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 04:12:08 +0000

Well I’m doing a few things. These are awaiting the site re design but it’s on the back burner as Creddy adds on more customers. I’m thoroughly fed up with mainstream media which is nothing in relation to the disdain I have for the new media that feeds entirely on the former’s output. Politically, meh, given that the “Libertarian party” has turned into the worst kind of political opportunists with their enabling of Bob Barr as a candidate for freedom so I can’t really use them as something that approaches the idea that you can vote yourself a better future. ( you can’t but hey it’s little baby steps) Basically people like being looked after while maintaining the illusion that they aren’t.

Instead been Reviewing on Yelp , far more interesting interaction with people that leads to real world benefits. Yep my thoughts on how to organize society are completely irrelevant to most people. Been racking up time with Scrabble, reading books , Bonk being the most interesting

The most I can be trusted with is reviewing wings and Irish bars:)

No related posts.

A political camp and A poor experience at the gun shop

Haltse — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 15:38:31 +0000

I have realized that a good exercise for any political philosophy would be to see how well it works on the camping scale. I’ve just been through that this weekend with Creddy.

Simple Idea. People say in advance what they are going to do , what they will bring.

We had the Sat AM breakfast which meant that Friday night we’d not have to do anything other than eat. I wish. You see just because someone makes an offer to do a meal you shouldn’t expect them to have the pots, pans and ,er , oh the goddamn stove available to do it. Luckily we brought two, why? let’s just say we have a pretty good handle on this kind of thing and spent more money on a stove and gas to accommodate a shortfall that came up earlier. I doubt it will be repeated unless we’re doing all the food / cooking since buying at the last minute is way too costly on a few people.

Additionally we ended up doing extra cooking that negated the entire point of organizing it. E.g we rest on the meals we’re not doing, ha!

Next.

A disappointing trip to J G guns in Prescott. We used to love driving up there for food at one of the local eateries, buy ye olde gun, come back happy.

Over the last year though it ceased being fun and the counter on a Saturday seemed to be more competition than commerce.

Creddy has a full post over here and while we thought that she was being ignored at the show in Phoenix a year back this one was far more obvious. I can’t think of a single person with a passing interest in guns that we’ve not told about the store, e.g it being worth the drive, but those days have come to an end.

I don’t know a lot about the older 9mm Smith / Wesson autos so her asking what differences in the model numbers they had was perfectly valid since, er that’s their job to know. DA? DAO? Mag disconnect? Sorry but you only get to pull off a “superior” we know more about guns than you attitude when you back it up with something.Anyway see her post for the rest of this it’s quite annoying.

next Up Wanted!

No related posts.

Wendy’s : The bitch wants her change back too? Toddler copies it.

Haltse — Thu, 22 May 2008 02:38:54 +0000

We must go looking for this treatment. I think our expectations on how one should be treated at a fast food drive in has been spoiled by the two local McD’s staff there seem happier than BK and Wendies and the night shifts at Jack in the Box are downright scary Yet until tonight no one had called Erin, least to her face, a bitch. Her crime? Expecting that her order and change would be correct.

Here’s the run down

Wendy’s

W GREENWAY-PHOENIX
3450 W GREENWAY
PHOENIX, AZ 85023 US
(602) 548-1966

1745
Order kids meal , cheeseburger nothing on it, They have no choc milk, no orange juice for option for
kids and didn’t understand the concept of root beer thinking Mr Pibb qualifies as such.

paid 1st window, asked for receipt
said do it next window
wrong order with receipt for chicken nuggets.
Had to wait for them to recognise she was still at window
came back with order correct, waited another 45 secs while they realised she’s waiting.
Erin asked , where’s the change for correct order.
They then said you paid for nuggets , not a burger, eg, not recognizing that was the point.
woman heard through window, never saw her said “the bitch wants her change too”
our toddler heard this, and said bitch after it.

Called JMJ the franchise owners, closed. SO called 1800 829 3639 Corp relayed story.

There you have it. They fuck up an order, argue about it, don’t follow their own guidelines on receipts and then call you a bitch. I am so looking forward to my chat with their franchise owner:)

No related posts.

Emergency Room 2.0 … Post coming soon.

Haltse — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 07:14:29 +0000

While sitting in ER for oh say; six hours I have come up with several ways to improve the process and nearly all of it is to do with data. and one to do with the kind of service that makes me want to put people in ER , sadly they are already there.

In a nutshell.; If you have to have a sign up saying; that your company cares it’s already too late for you.

Erin was carted from the workplace today  after chest pain; with all the accompanying symptoms that suggest something is having a hearty old attack on the main pump. She’s stable and hopefully resting after a long time to get from waiting room to a waiting room to a bed  in the corridor to one in the ward to having the room usurped

Early indications are that nothing immediately serious is present but  we’ll know more in the morning.

No related posts.

Another bitty post. Mlk day and Hockey

Haltse — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 07:12:53 +0000

This was a long weekend due to MLK day. I’d love to pick up that hot potato but frankly you can pick your own version of the man. I’m just convinced that we should not be so happy as to call this equality by any stretch of the imagination. This country is so far away from treating people by the content of their character but instead attempts to treat them based on atavistic ass hattery, having the right combination of chromosomes , which invisible friend they have and a myriad of seemingly hardwired behaviors that have people acting as a walk on part in their own life. ( Notice we often talk about the lessons we need to learn? )

Here’s a view that may seem over simplistic but seems to fit most of my experiences with groups .Welcome to the monkey sphere.

Onto something happy. Today was a matinée ice hockey game. Dobh was in attendance and was being wickedly cute, and while a bit difficult he took a three hour trip pretty well. He howls along to each score for the home team. He had a lot of opportunity today This is the first time in over a decade I’ve made a point of watching a sport that wasn’t a national event such as Wimbledon or the Super bowl. The fan attire fits me nicely, there’s a level of skill immediately apparent that I can’t discern in baseball and I don’t even want to get into professional football. I live in Phoenix for fucks sake Even though I never had a sporting background. I still had to play rugby, soccer and hockey at school , I lived in the country with one non driving parent. It wasn’t that big a deal we could only afford one car.( you tell the kid’s that today and they won’t believe you
so it wasn’t really an option.

Next post:
Boy do the American’s know how to put on a show,

Phoenix Coyotes – The Official Web Site

No related posts.

It used to be called childhood. Now it’s a movement:) Introduce some controlled danger to your young ones.

Haltse — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 05:23:40 +0000

That these items are considered dangerous is a sad indictment of the USA. I grew up on a farm.with guns, chainsaws, poison, tractors and animals that can take out a five year old, That’s before you consider Scottish winters and food. Anyway it’s entertaining and hopefully it inspires a family to build a potato gun this weekend:)

No related posts.

That was the day that was.

Haltse — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 07:20:08 +0000

Today was my second real day back at work after the new year. It was to last oh about 2 hours before I had to head out to meet Erin at the ER. Dobhran had began shaking in distress and was having considerable pain issues while running a fever. Looks like he had very early pneumonia and was taking an adverse reaction , drugs, breathing treatment and some antibiotics to take home. He sacked out, letting me get some work done.

Which is great since I couldn’t get up the “important” story about Facebook taking action against screen scraping and could have spent all day shouting at the screen. Really on days like this it’s hard to get the Golgafrincham B Ark out of my head.

No related posts.

Oh noes, I can’t stop myself from perpetuating a meme

Haltse — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 06:19:31 +0000

Oddly enough this is my first submission to a site and I know there’s a better caption there but I am not able to reach it presently.

moar funny pictures

No related posts.

childhood screams. The good kind. Finally a use for a leaf blower that makes sense.

Haltse — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 00:43:56 +0000

Dobhran, aka “pork chop” , “dosbin”, “Dobie” and on special occasions little lord farfanoogan will be having a nicely manufactured Christmas this year. Many licenced, plastic and on the whole worth their weight in lead toys are awaiting his rapt and often violent attention. Next year though? Erin’s been out in the woodshop between hobbling ( it’s like PT for her bunghole, er leg ) between a new play cube and my delightful ( so far) bike which has gotten us talking about making more of Dobhran’s toys. I found this jet on my web travels and have to say I’m impressed by it, though not the price of the plans. I think I want to build the wee one some form of gentle motion simulator but he’s really into bikes and cars. How the hell we make him a mini “hang on” that he won’t fall off is another matter.. maybe I’ll stick to cars for the time being.

Build the AQUAPLANE kids backyard fun ride!

No related posts.

That round up thing ( Parent’s vacation) A trip into Fear and Loathing at the checkout.

Haltse — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 03:45:01 +0000

Over the last couple of weeks my parents have been in town. Since I have a massive amount of vacation time , and Erin’s recovering from her bike 2.0 mashup, I took all of it off +1 day to get Erin to an appointment tomorrow morning. On the whole we had a sedate type of vacation with much of the usual touristy stuff bypassed in favour of the practical nature of finding another vehicle, making sure kids trip to ER was the only one ( he’s taken a real shine to climbing and falling) and working our way through casual diner attitudes. I’ve barely touched computers, read only a few deserving blogs and kept my email to under 5 pieces and don’t feel the worse for it.

Purely anecdotal but since the last visit it seems like wait staff, retail clerks and most service industries we interacted with are staffed by humorless, cookie cutter clones that seem to have totally bought into their commerce cog role.Anything that’s not in the line of being an expert at detecting false currency or fake id’s is usually not going to interest them. Why am I being asked if I could find everything?

Will someone go get me one? put it on back order and call me when it gets here? ( I’m old enough to remember that being a possibility @36) no I didn’t think so. I’d rather we dropped the pretense offer of a service that will never be rendered.

While we’re talking about crappy CS let’s go a car shopping.

Special shout outs to the car dealers that failed to secure our business.

Bell Road Scion

Aziz you truly suck as a salesman for anybody that gives a rats ass about what their wife thinks.Your insulting manner, refusal to acknowledge what we wanted to buy over what you wanted to sell and general ineptitude with the truth has done your franchise proud.

Bell Road Ford

Josh, It doesn’t matter that your bosses want you to call up and keep reminding us about their great offers. If you don’t have the car we want , an Escape Hybrid, we’re not going to buy it. Tell those assholes that you’re losing ANY future chance that we’ll ever buy from their dealership.

Bill Luke Dodge

Ah Heather really so SO very close. We’d agreed on a price after the usual bullshit of having our direct requests ignored in favour of their usual dog and pony show where they try to sell you $800 car alarms that costs me $140 online (OEM)it’s plug and play and really easy to install. How hard is it? Patriot, any color, minimal trim and an Auto Tranny?

I said I would arrange financing privately and get back with you. Get a call from her before 9am asking were I was at. Thankfully this convinced me that I didn’t want to deal with ANY new car dealer and redoubled our efforts to get a second hand one. There’s a second hand Isuzu Rodeo outside. I own it, no payment , fuck them all.

Walmart:

Bought a fresh turkey, the bag broke on the treadmill covering some produce. Not only did I have to clean it up but I had to buy the unusable produce. Supervisor refused to engage Erin on this and wandered off. Their fucking packaging broke , took out yet to be paid for items which she made us pay for. We’ll see what their reply is on this one.

No related posts.

Safety like vacation. Trying not to get lost, trapped or otherwise inconvenienced

Haltse — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 04:49:28 +0000

Finally bought a GPS , Finally bought a seatbelt cutting knife that doesn’t say “weapon” as much as my m16fd does, least that’s what paranoid idiots hear…

We changed the brakes on the Aerio and on the bike. Oh and saw a cop throw a guy to the ground and draw on him for , what looked like rather non threatening behavior but hey you can’t believe your own lying eyes so I’m sure it was entirely reasonable. Oddly 3 of the party saw this, my mother from the UK totally oblivious interesting:)

Product: 911 First Response Knife

Widely considered a highly effective emergency tool, this knife features a 1/8″” thick high-carbon stainless steel serrated blade with screwdriver tip, easy-grip handle, solid tungsten carbide striker-punch and spring loaded trigger for high impact. Blade easily cuts thick seat belts. Includes a nylon carrying case with belt loop and clip. Length: 8″” open, 4.5″” closed. One of our most popular items! Designed by Blackie Collins. Made in USA.

No related posts.

Another “ethical” fish sign business breaks the law to serve it’s material goals. Morals? Religion? HAHAHa www.renewyourlandscaping.com

Haltse — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 21:43:45 +0000

Yet another plastic bag with crap thrown on my driveway by a company that thinks that breaking the law is good practice. The receptionist said it works, it’s their only form of advertising.

It’s gratifying that they offer clean up services for yards but a little ironic that the method chosen to advertise that fact by tossing plastic bags of gravel attached to paper onto my yard is the way they are going about it. At which point did they decide they had a right to place garbage on my property in a bid to further their material wealth?

Even if question wasn’t asked try this. Why have they ignored the no solicitation signs ? Why have they a fish on the bottom of their leaflet suggesting that somehow their ethical foundation is a selling point? Seemingly when I called them the most they can do is to remove me from their tossing shit on my yard list. Lovely.

Sec. 3-5. Prohibiting distribution of handbills at private premises where properly posted.(a) No person shall throw, deposit or distribute any commercial or noncommercial handbill upon any private premises if requested by anyone thereon not to do so, or if there is placed on said premises in a conspicuous position near the entrance thereof, a sign bearing the words “No Trespassing,” “No Advertisement,” “No Unsolicited Newspapers,” or any similar notice, indicating the manner in which the occupants of said premises do not desire to be molested or have their right of privacy disturbed, or to have any such handbills left upon such premises.(b) Subject to the conditions set forth above, the deposit or distribution of any commercial or noncommercial handbill on private premises shall be done in such a reasonable manner as to prevent their being carried or deposited by the elements upon any adjoining premises, street or sidewalk or other public place, or upon other private property.(c) The provisions of this section shall not apply to the distribution of mail by the United States.(Ord. No. G-717, § 1)

RENEW YOUR LANDSCAPING – Homepage -

Seemingly I wasn’t the only person having issues.

No related posts.

Shocking news.. Used car dealer’s suck! How we failed to buy from Front line Trucks on Camelback Road

Haltse — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 00:07:15 +0000

Here’s another tale of going beyond the call of duty to elevate a poor customer experience into something gloriously awful.

For those of you keeping track Erin’s recovering from a motorcycle accident which has made it difficult to walk/stand around. In the short term we’re going to get an SUV with auto transmission that she can get in and out off until she’s able to get back on a bike. Friday: We went to Frontline Trucks on Camelback road and saw a suitable vehicle but it’s stuck way in the middle and would require quite a bit of effort to get it out. Erin was already sore and we couldn’t wait for that eventuality. Called them back today to arrange a test drive , set a time.. got there.

By now you know they hadn’t moved the truck, didn’t seem to fussed that they’d wasted our time or start to provide any resolution on perhaps maybe moving the fucking thing. So the impression of a dealer that won’t even move a vehicle to let you test it when it’s in there interest to do so suggests staying far far away.

4610 W Camelback Rd, Glendale, Maricopa, Arizona 85301, United States – Google Maps

Next up:Glendale Pontiac

Salesman told our max price… comes back with a figure nearly double it .. lovely. Just say hey sorry you’re not spending enough ,you’re not providing us a means to rip you on a trade in and with no finance frankly It’s not worth my time talking with you rather than insulting us.

No related posts.

Quiet eh…How I wish that were the case.

Haltse — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 21:56:59 +0000

I’ve been a little underwritten lately which is odd as there’s a lot to say and I’m puzzled that one of my posts has gone missing.

Since getting back from CA, the Aerio was vandalised, shot rear window. The Phoenix council will pay for people to do weed complaints and notice items like doors under repair being publicly viewable ( naughty) and send nasty grams and then a follow up. The car gets shot at, the street lights are shot at and the prior car that was vandalized? Nothing no cops, in fact they had “lost” the first report too. My rates went up 15% for the house this year which is odd given the market value is NOT indicative of the services received by the occupant. Seemingly I now must pay this fee or the same police that aren’t interested in people firing guns at our house( maybe only a BB but the kid’s room is pointing to the street) will arrest me eventually for failure to pay for their protection. I am looking forward to engaging the elected official for this district soon.

Secondly, Saw my first NHL game which will get another post.

Lastly .. there’s the write up of the New Media Expo I attended last weekend. Stay tuned.

No related posts.

Aerio SX rear brake shoe replacement ( Aerio 1 Haltse 0)

Haltse — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 19:20:49 +0000

Well this weekend is turning into a phase that hits me every few months “modern life is rubbish”. While it’s a ridiculous notion I’m frustrated by the annoying manner in which cars are “hacked” together to make even basic servicing difficult. E.g The Suzuki Aerio’s rear brakes.

This is the first car I’ve owned where I couldn’t maintain, repair or replace the braking system for example we just replaced the trucks master cylinder and servo( and it still stops) so a consumable part wasn’t going to give me too much hassle?

Firstly if the brakes were a revelation in extreme stoppiness and the handbrake didn’t need constant adjustment I’d be less likely to whine but… these are basic drums yet with more springs,pins and clips holding them together than I’ve ever encountered on a small car.Given that we only have the one car presently ( legal to drive one anyway) I gave up and since the wear was about 50% have deferred that for another 20k miles.

Mime legend Marcel Marceau dies – CNN.com
Marcel
Marceau, who revived the art of mime and brought poetry to silence, has
died, his former assistant said Sunday. He was 84

The moment of silence could take a bit of hashing out but we’ll bring you updates ..really.

No related posts.

Food on the coast and thereabouts ( San Diego trip part 2)

Haltse — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 05:07:37 +0000

Okay onto the eating. Firstly, please let me make clear that the presence of the toddler seriously affects where you dine. Here’s a hint, if there are crayons and a placemat. You’re not in a fine dining establishment I would insert a joke about the south and going to Applebee’s for special events but that wouldn’t be fair. One could easily level the same criticism at people in Scottsdale, visiting the cheesecake factory, oops I just did:)

It’s behind a cut since it’s pretty DRY sorry , just too tired

First up is the Star of India in the gas lamp district. One of the worst things about moving to America was the quality of Indian food not been remotely close to that I had become accustomed to, within the UK. I got over that, eventually finding good Indian food with America. Sadly, never within traveling distance for lunch, dinner or within a three hour radius by car. Such was the case with the Star of India while not 100% traditional, they claim to make healthful recipes which to be honest is not the forte of Indian food to begin with, the service and food were excellent. My chicken vindaloo actually had some life to it while Erin’s healthful tikka masala still had depth and texture. Unusually, we decided to sit on the street. So I’m not going to complain about how cramped that choice was but as I said. Toddlers do affect your choice of dining location and a pissed off baby on the street annoys far less people. ( sadly no one is that considerate of us when eating) while the entrées themselves were fair value the pakora and naan bread headed off in the other direction.While it’s certainly worth going back to there are many more eateries of an Indian persuasion within walking distance that could make a while till we return. The staff were pretty attentive and amused Dobhran (or vice versa)

A lesser dining experiences was had at the Elephant and Castle which is a British themed pub overlooking the sea front in San Diego underneath the Holiday inn . Oddly enough about good luck with British food, a bold statement indeed, when eaten within view of the Pacific ocean my favorite bar being such a place overlooking Monterey Harbor threw this one into sharp relief.

Firstly, we had to send the calamari back which is a shame because they made a really good job of the batter and the seasonings and then totally fucked it up by leaving it in so long that had we required a plate of lemon tinged O-rings have been 100% happy.

The entres were better, thankfully, with Erin’s fish and chips being very well executed. Sadly, the meal I wanted was no longer on the menu and my backup choice while acceptable wasn’t exactly worth writing home about, and trust me, if there is any country that needs letters sent home to tell them how to fucking cook it’s the United Kingdom. And what of dessert? Well let’s just say that the pastry chef in the patio area smoking put us off. I shit you not chef’s whites in a chair within the patio dining area smoking. Didn’t bother to bring it up that it can happen is a pretty good indication they don’t give a flying fuck how they appear.

Always said that if there was Indian fast food or a mall. I’d happily eat it, that it would not need to be perfect but just relatively close in taste , texture and smell them well I got my chance to try this out. On the whole, the food was average any specialness having been absorbed into the sheer fact of the location. i.e in the middle of the food court amongst the usual crap with sticks,dogs and cinnamon.The sad thing is that most lunch buffets in Phoenix fare no better and end up costing more. One surprise was the absence of pakora which is so suited to being fast food, for Christ’s sake is fried, made from really cheap ingredients and has a variety of sauces that take forever to make and are often unique to the place you’re eating.. One day I’ll start a Pakora hut… just you watch:)

No related posts.

San Diego getaway: Sea World ( concentration park) immigration check points and other wonderful things by the sea shore

Haltse — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 05:22:11 +0000

Random jumble of thoughts from the weekend.

Erin and myself spent the last few days in San Diego, California. While ostensibly for my birthday, which was in August, it was a family vacation. Our aim was to take our progeny Dobhran to meet the Pacific Ocean as well as take in the Sea world park. The journey to California was mostly uneventful and relatively close to the posted speed limit. One thing that was annoying, an immigration checkpoint, an internal border checkpoint the kind much beloved in every other country that’s not the USA ( if you’ve watched the movies from the ww2 and cold war era a point that was made quite clear) Had the same on the way back though this time with drug sniffing dogs.. thanks I like my family being treated like suspects it reminds me of the visit to Sea World, Search the backpacks and then make you go through a scanner and provide a biometric from your fingerprint , er WTF we just gave them over $100 for the privilege of entering their park and this is how they treat their guests.

Usual libertarian excuse follows.

They are perfectly within their rights to do so just as we are to not attend. Sadly that would have required a degree of respect from their side showing this to be the case prior to taking the money.

I did write Sea world asking them how long they retained the information from the scans and what was stored with them alongside the general question of why they feel the need to do this. It will be interesting to see if I even get a reply.

I also think the sea world has quite literally jumped the shark in terms of being anything other than an entertainment than educational establishment. It seems that the trend in aquariums and zoos in general is to tell you fairly little about the animal themselves and provide explicit detail on how man is fucking up the planet I’m not sure that’s the correct way to go about this. Honestly, if people have a better understanding of ecology and to quote to Dirk gently. “The fundamental interconnectedness of all things” we wouldn’t need a bully pulpit to tell us about our failings. When we could be concentrating on the animal’s success in getting this far.

Hotels and parking

Erin found a hotel using Priceline which got us a good deal for the class of establishment. We were staying in one major failing, however Priceline fails to take into account the ancillary charges, such as parking, which was billed at over $16 a day. Paying for parking in San Diego sucks, oh wait I’m assuming you found some to park in, but we did find a nice little loophole. By parking at the mall, close to a Ben & Jerry’s store, we could go eat in the gas light district and then return for the car several hours later and validate our parking by buying something from Ben & Jerry’s. Technically this is getting free parking, but that is not as cool as getting free ice cream.

Next up.

The Food and the sea.

No related posts.

B-day blog. It Posts, random fluff..

Haltse — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 06:23:32 +0000

Today the meanie, myself and Erin ( you didn’t think I called her the former did you?) took the bike’s out for bagels and brooming down to South Mountain to navigate some single lane roads with delightful drop offs. The fat ass ( the bike, not me ) acquitted itself well and the speedo seems to be stuck at 80 for some reason. I still am not sure if this is the bike for me. I have this love hate relationship with it that’s partly based on how happy the bike’s appearance makes others feel. Seriously there’s something weird about the image that the Meanie projects versus it’s capabilities of my other bike,an SV65O which can rape it’s ass in everything apart from shit eating grin factor, that non riders get.

Dobhie is so cute that he’s bordering on illegal.

It’s my birthday, no don’t worry few others cared either, and we had a nice lunch thanks to Erin’s parents at Pappadeaux’s where I can get my boudin on , a rare event in Cajun eateries in Phoenix which are rare in themselves , and to be fair most are crap. Food and service was as usual slower than advertised but generally excellent. And then settle down to have a nice game of C and C 3. Kane better win this time:)

No related posts.