See, my view is that if I don’t send it back, and they have to send out a person, that’s a job created.  This is 1 on 1, the government actively helping out a citizen in a bad economy, so that’s good.  Much better than paying for life support of companies that then turn around and mug the very people that helped them *cough*Bank of America*cough*.  While the folks running the budget for the census might disagree, if everyone didn’t send in the forms, think how many jobs would be created.

So here’s my question that I sent in along with the reference number.   I’ll let you know what they say.

If I don’t send in the census form will a census employee instead be dispatched to get the answers?  I’m happy to answer the questions, but since not sending in the form helps create a job in a poor economy, I’m happier to have an employee dispatched.   In fact, if everyone did that, it would make a wonderful grass roots jobs stimulus program.

Reference number:

100309-000621

So I find it irritating that this one lady from Mary Kay Cosmetics keeps calling my cell phone.   My wife worked my table for one show last season and this lady chatted her up at some point during the day, and snagged my business card.   My cell phone number is on my card, mostly so I can deduct the line (though I never do; the bulk of the calls I make are to order pizza).    This lady, who’s number is 315-247-2685 should you want to call and order, or just market to her in kind, has called no less than 5 times since December asking for my wife.   No less than 5 times has that call gone unreturned.   You’d think she’d take a hint or something and stop calling, because at this point she’s just coming off as sad and pathetic, and frankly desperate.  It makes me wonder what they put in the punch at those meetings to make people so irritatingly aggressive.

But more about me.  I’ve eschewed such things as mailing lists and newsletters.   Maybe I should try them, but honestly again it goes back to the golden rule, and for the most part I hate getting stuff that’s not much more than marketing junk.   Art Jewelry magazine does that.  I was hoping to get something marginally interesting via their newsletter (I’m a subscriber to their magazine…well worth the money) but most of their emails are just “buy this new interesting tool we love oh so very much”.  Um, no thanks.

Go easy on your customers, or at least use a 3:1 ratio of useful, non-marketing info to sales content to avoid turning them off.

Have fun out there!

But that doesn’t mean that they have to be asses.

I took my oldest in for a dental cleaning this morning, it went well as a 4 year old’s dental cleaning can be expected and the I booked him another appointment.

Given he’s in pre-school in the mornings now and I a) find that vastly more important than his dental visit and b) am paying actual money to have him in those pre-school classes, I’m hesitant to pull him out of them early for other activities.   The school’s dedicated time to teach him, we committed to time for him to be there, screw you third party.

So I was a bit taken aback when the pinched face blonde behind the counter gave me “well they usually prefer to do the younger patients in the morning” line and pushed me into an early morning appointment instead of the afternoon one I requested.

Irritated, several hours later I called back and instead asked for an afternoon appointment.  Worse comes to worse I could get him a morning appointment on a morning he doesn’t have school, but he’ll be 4 day in the fall, so I’d rather just get it in the afternoon.

Again, I get “well Dr. ____ usually prefers to do the younger patients in the morning but…”   and I got an early afternoon appointment.

Let me share a secret with you, Mr. Dentist man.

Ready?  Move closer….

IT’S NOT ABOUT YOU.

See that right there?  Simple truth.  You’re treating a human being, I’m sorry if I’m impeding your tee time or your drug rep time.  But my son’s a human being, and as his father I’m charged with setting priorities that help HIM, not you.

I put his education before other things, and if you don’t like it, there’s a whole phone book full of other dentists trying to pay off their student loans.

OK, off my soap box for a little while.

Riddle me this, Bankerman,
I recently received notice that you’ve destroyed my online account based on some silly policy about not visiting the site for 12 months.  I guess the 12 bytes of storage my username and password took up was bankrupting GMAC:M.
If that’s the case, how is it I’m still receiving notifications to check my statement at my (now non-existent) online account?
If I were to indeed follow the links below I suspect that I would find that “My Account” is no more causing me to create yet another storage nightmare for GMAC’s IT team.  Haven’t they worked hard enough?!?!?
Tom

Right now, in many cases USPS Priority Mail delivery and UPS Ground delivery are within about 2.00 of each other.  The chief reason I’d pick USPS over UPS is if I think there’s a chance that the package might arrive on a Saturday rather than a weekday.

However, if that’s no longer the case, I’m simply going to go with whomever is cheapest.

Oh, and did I mention the postal service is looking at rate hikes?

I guess it’s time to start getting my bills electronically or they won’t arrive at all.

At first I was thinking, “well gee, fine..I’ll register my car to my business and just drive without a license, nyah.”*

In reality they left out some important information, such as what services this actually applies to.  If you take the time to wander over to the RMV’s site and find the notification on their News page, you’ll see it’s not as bad as it sounds.

Basically the transactions this extra fee covers actually can be handled quite easily and quickly online, and should be.  Everyone gripes about long lines and surly employees at the Registry, well this is an added reason to avoid them.   Take a look, you’ll see that the forced in person visit for an eye test and new picture isn’t included, nor is the new license trip popular with the kids these days.

Let this serve as another example to not take everything you see on the news as gospel.  Particularly if it’s presented as news by their head wonk.

*Just kidding nice state police officer heading to my house.   But you have to admit it’s a likely scenario.

There’s sort of a philosophy behind them really.    At least with a Staunton-esque type set the pawns are fairly easy since they’re pretty utilitarian and generic.   Once you figure out the colors you want to use and get the shape down, there’s a zen like state when you bang out 8 of them.

The king and queen are fairly simple as well.   They’re simply a lazy and vaguely grand reflection of the rest of the set.  Given monarchs are so far above the rest of their subjects, aside from the color scheme they barely even have to match the rest of the set.

Bishops are their own little bastions of thought and sort of run on their own design wise, again, mainly staying within the color scheme, much like the way religion and government stay apart in today’s society (…in theory).

But the rooks and knights…..those require some thought.

Think about it.  The pawns are expendable, the monarchs are merely protectorates of the others, and the bishops, while mobile, really protect only themselves.   But the rooks and knights are offense and defense, side by side, and all over the board.

So the rook and knight get special attention when I work.  They sort of have to be right, and often they’re the hardest pieces to make.   Horse heads can be tough to do on their own, but the pieces need to balance vertically so the piece stays upright, and the rooks need to be simple but sturdy in their design.

The design of the pieces is only half of the problem.   There’s a lot of thought and experimentation that goes into the color choices.  The colors have to be compatible with each other, but they should be complimentary as well.

Once you have that sorted, you need to figure out how to apply the color.  Will all the pieces use the color in the same way or will the pawns differ from the rear pieces?  If you go that route, it becomes more difficult because the color becomes used for accents on the rear pieces, adding complexity to your design.

Ahh, so for this collborative set….what to do, what to do, what to do?

Tune in next time, and don’t burn yourself.

Hello Tom Kies,

Thank you for writing to us at Benefit Cosmetics.

We’re very sorry for the trouble you have had unsubscribing from our newsletter.  I am more than happy to submit your information again to my supervisor so that we can work with our corporate office to unsubscribe you.  I just want to confirm that we have any and all e-mail addresses you may have used to place orders or subscribe with us.  Please use the link below to send us these e-mail addresses.

http://www.benefitcosmetics.com/contact-us

Also, we apologize for any frustration regarding our e-mail system.  We will forward your comments on to the appropriate department. You can always reach us directly by using the contact form at the above link.

Thank you again for letting us know that the service you received was not up to our standards.

Angelica G.
Benefit Cosmetics Customer Service

—- Original message: —-

E-mail:menty666@yahoo.com
First Name:Tom
Last Name:Kies
Order Number:
Comments:Since you don’t use an actual reply address in your correspondence you can find my reply here for all the world to see: http://munkinarts.com/blog/2010/02/24/benefit-cosmetics-suck-it/

If one of their employees happens by, I’ve tried:

The unsubscribe link..it didn’t work

I tried politely asking…that didn’t work despite assurances someone would take care of it.

I tried changing the address on my account so it would email somewhere else, that didn’t work and now I can’t access the account because I don’t remember what benefit cosmetics newsletter address I used for the address.

And now their “customer service” people write back using a no-reply address.  My wife loves their products.  If *she* wants to buy more let her, but they won’t be seeing anymore of my money getting her the stuff as gifts.

Hello Tom Kies,

Thank you for writing to us at Benefit Cosmetics.

We value you as our customer and do not want to send you unwanted promotional e-mails.

If you wish to be excluded from any future promotional notices, please follow the unsubscribe link at the bottom of any promotional e-mail you receive from us.

Thank you for shopping with Benefit Cosmetics.

Kristie Black
Benefit Cosmetics Customer Service

—- Original message: —-

E-mail:menty666@yahoo.com
First Name:Tom
Last Name:Kies
Order Number:
Comments:Stop emailing me, I don’t give a shit about your rash inducing creams.

This email is regarding the Our Products.

Thanks
Tom

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