So bite me and my time shifting ass.

Here that ABC, NBC, Fox, and CBS?   The old model is dead.

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

Dear Customer,

In response to your inquiry, we locked your previous enrollment after a year without any activity
for your security reasons, and we are unable to alter this policy again for security purposes.

To re-establish your online access, you will need to re-enroll on our Web site as your online
enrollment with username, menty666, has expired.  When you re-enroll, you will need to choose a
different username. You will encounter an error message if you select a username that has been
previously used on our site by any customer.  An unavailable username is a common reason an
enrollment is denied.  We also suggest you do not use an all-numeric username, your name or any
derivative of your name.  The only special characters allowed in the username are hyphen (?) and
underscore (_). Also, no spaces can be included in the username or password. There are no special
character restrictions for the password.

The following enrollment and login directions are provided for your convenience.

Click the Enroll link found on our home page, www.gmacmortgage.com, under View Your Mortgage
Account. The next page will ask for your first and last name, email address, account number and
Social Security number. You will also be asked to choose a username and password.

When the form is complete, click Continue. You will then be asked to select a trusted image and
phrase. You will also be asked to choose three challenge questions and create an answer for each
question. These steps are required to ensure the security of your account on our Web site.  Our Web
site does not accept any special characters in the trusted phrase or challenge questions. If you are
receiving an error message regarding technical difficulties, please ensure special characters are
removed from these fields.

You will also have the option to register your computer for online access. This feature allows you
to log into your account on the same computer without answering the challenge questions. Un-checking
the register box does not prevent you from completing the enrollment process; however, you will be
required to answer your challenge questions each time you log in on the same computer. We recommend
against registering public computers, such as those used in libraries or airports.

After you complete the second page of the enrollment process, click Continue. You will have the
option to modify your trusted image, phrase, challenge questions and answers. If you do not need to
make any changes, click on the Save and Login button.

Log into your account with your username and verify your trusted image. You will then be asked to
review and accept the conditions of our Electronic Disclosure Notice. After you have completed this
step, you will be able to access your account information.

If you are unable to re-enroll on our Web site, please reply to this email with the username,
account number, Social Security number and email address you are trying to use when enrolling. Also,
please provide any error messages received, as these may aid us in helping you re-enroll on our Web
site.

For your protection, we have removed your name from your original inquiry.  If you have any further
questions, please contact us through our Web site at www.gmacmortgage.com or call Customer Care at
1-800-766-4622 during the following hours:

Monday - Friday    6:00 AM – 10:00 PM CT
Saturday                9:00 AM – 1:00 PM CT

Customer Care
Loan Servicing

The information contained in this communication is confidential and privileged proprietary
information intended only for the personal and confidential use of the individual or entity to whom
it is addressed.  If you are not the addressee indicated in this message (or an agent responsible
for delivery of the message to such person), you are hereby notified that you have received this
communication in error and that any review, dissemination, copying or unauthorized use of this
message is strictly prohibited.  In such case, you should destroy this message and kindly notify the
sender by reply email.

Please advise immediately if you or your employer do not consent to Internet email for messages of
this kind.  Opinions, conclusions, and other information in this message that do not relate to the
official business of the Company shall be understood as neither given nor endorsed by it.  It is the
Company’s policy that emails are intended for and should be used for business purposes only.

I wonder how they’d respond if, when it was time to pay, I handed them a blank credit card and the number for Visa to call and find out what the account number is.

—– Original Message —-
From: GMAC Mortgage Online Services <Customer_Service@gmacm.com>
To: xxxxxxx@yahoo.com
Sent: Sat, February 20, 2010 2:57:58 AM
Subject: GMAC Mortgage Registration Expiration

Dear Valued GMAC Mortgage Customer,

It’s been over 12 months since your last visit to the GMAC Mortgage Web Site and your registration has expired. Because we are extremely cautious of all security issues that could affect our customers, we will lock out a specific User Name after inactivity of 360 days. This is due to the possibility of a customer having left their ISP server for another and their email address being re-used by their previous Internet provider.

Depending on your Internet Service Provider, you may not be able to receive active links or view and/or click on any of the links provided. Please go to our Web site and log into gmacmortgage.com. If you are able to view the link, but may not be able to click on it, you can cut and paste the link into the ‘address’ or ‘location’ field of your browser and press ‘enter’ or ‘go’.

*The privacy and security of our customer’s personal information is an issue GMAC Mortgage takes very seriously. For that reason, we have removed any indication of your name or other personal data from this message.

GMAC Mortgage
1-800-766-4622
HTTP://WWW.GMACMORTGAGE.COM

The information contained in this communication is confidential and privileged proprietary information intended only for the personal and confidential use of the individual or entity to whom it is addressed. If you are not the addressee indicated in this message (or an agent responsible for delivery of the message to such person), you are hereby notified that you have received this communication in error and that any review, dissemination, copying or unauthorized use of this message is strictly prohibited. In such case, you should destroy this message and kindly notify the sender by email.

Contact Us:
https://www.gmacmortgage.com/Utilities/Contact_Us/ContactUs.html

Please advise immediately if you or your employer do not consent to Internet email for messages of this kind. Opinions, conclusions and other information in this message that do not relate to the official business of the Company shall be understood as neither given nor endorsed by it. It is the Company’s policy that emails are intended for and should be used for business purposes only.

And my response:

Thank you for you recent unsolicited mailing despite being told to stop!

In return I’d like to invite you to visit http://munkinarts.artfire.com for all your glass needs and desires.  Whether its a marble for your collection, a hummingbird feeder for the backyard, or a naughty something special for that special person in your life, you’re bound to find what you’re looking for.

Thank you for you recent unsolicited mailing despite being told to stop!
In return I’d like to invite you to visit http://munkinarts.artfire.com for all your glass needs and desires.  Whether its a marble for your collection, a hummingbird feeder for the backyard, or a naughty something special for that special person in your life, you’re bound to find what you’re looking for.

Unfortunately now that also includes spam from them whether you want it or not.    I’ve been getting emails from them, so on the 9th I used the link in their email to unsubscribe and got a message back the same day saying it had been done.

Today, the 11th, I got another ad from them.   So, I’m helping to spread the word that these imbeciles won’t respect their customer’s wishes.  So if you want flowers, great, give them a try, though you’re better off supporting a local florist than a national company, but that’s for you to wrestle with.   Just keep in mind you might want to use a throwaway address that expires soon thereafter.

Here’s the message I wound up sending them:

Hi, I unsubscribed from your ‘KB_Pure_Pre’ list yet I’m still getting crap from you.   So to thank you, I’ll be calling your 800 number ever couple of days to market for a random business to say thanks.  Oh, and Advertising (above in your Topic drop down) only has 1 ‘N’.

I’ve also left them a nice tweet:

f you want to get spam from kabloom (#flowers) sign up with them. They’ll send it whether you subscribe or unsubscribe

Incidentally, their contact form triggers an email message but doesn’t actually go away afterwards.  Maybe once they learn to use spell check they can hire a web developer.

I’M VOTING FOR ANYONE BUT YOU.

Twit.

Hello! I noticed the your web site is in need of some tender loving care.
Need some one to design one and manage it for you for you?

It’s what we do!

Check out some of our previous work:

REMOVED TO PROTECT THE INNOCENT(ISH)

We can put together a system for you that you can update yourself with
news articles/photos etc so that you don’t need to rely on a webmaster
or we can run the whole thing for you if you’re not tech savvy.

Free quotes on any Graphical Design, Web Development work you need done.

Let us know!

Sasha Zivojinovic
REDACTED