Thursday, October 22, 2009
In Remembrance...
3
comments
My heart goes out to the wife and children of Ben Hill, the UVU flight instructor who was killed when his plane crashed yesterday at the Provo airport. Please send your prayers and good vibes to those he left behind.
Posted by
Jiles The Great
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Some People Suck
5
comments
So...I don't typically like to use my blog to complain about work, because that's no fun to read. But every once in a while something will happen that I can't resist talking about. This is one of those things that makes me question the goodness of humanity. Ok, not really, but it was pretty sickening to me.
As you all know, since I'm the night supervisor at work, I get to take a lot of escalated calls. A good chunk of these involve customers wanting to cancel before the term of their contract is over--there's a pretty steep early termination fee which our sales reps never disclose (although it is on the contract...in the fine print) and people get really pissed about it.
Anyway, the other night I took an escalated call from a gentleman wanting to cancel. He had been speaking to another agent, and eventually got heated enough that he dropped the f-bomb. Now, company policy states if the customer is using profanity we can terminate the call, and that's exactly what the agent did. Once he was transferred to me, I explained the policy to him, and he understood but said he was also angry because he had told her he needed to cancel due to the fact that he and his wife would be serving an LDS mission and couldn't afford to keep the system while they were out...and when he dropped the f-bomb, the agent made a comment about how he's planning on serving a mission and talking like that and he felt judged. Ok, I guess I get that...although you'd think people preparing for a mission wouldn't speak like that.
However, as he continued to complain I read the notes on his account--apparently he'd been trying to cancel for quite a while and his story had changed a lot. First he said his contract was supposed to be for just one year, then two, then three (it was actually for five)...he had sent in a copy of the confirmation of installation document (NOT the contract, where the length is clearly listed in 2 places) on which he had clearly written in the contract length and forged the initials of our tech in an attempt to show he had documentation of his supposed contract length. He continued complaining, and I thought to myself, "Typically couple missionaries are older, and this guy does not sound elderly at all..." I didn't have the pleasure of hearing any curse words from him, but he certainly was not happy when I told him his situation had already been researched by our dispute resolution dept and they had determined he was properly informed of the terms of his contract and we would be holding him to it. At that point, he made a few more rude comments and then hung up on me.
I sent another e-mail to our dispute resolution department because in the course of his ranting, he threatened to call Get Gephardt (a common threat from our Utah customers) and whenever a customer threatens going to an outside agency to complain we're supposed to notify that department. The next day, the girl from dispute resolutions came to me and said to keep the situation from escalating they had decided to lower the contract length so the customer would be able to cancel before their mission...BUT, when she called the customer to discuss it, he had no idea what she was talking about. He said he thought our company had gone under and that we had been purchased by another alarm company. Red flags popping up, she pulled the call from the night before when I had supposedly talked to him, and the voice was not the same. So she typed in the phone # the guy had called from into our archives database. As it turns out, obviously the guy I was speaking with was not the customer--it was actually a sales rep from another company trying to steal our customer. And this wasn't the only account he had called in about--there were several others, including one on which he pretended to be the customer's son and said he needed to cancel the account because his mother had died. Yeah, she's alive and well.
I cannot believe someone would actually take that much time and effort to create elaborate lies in order to get a bigger paycheck. I bet if this jerk would have spent all the time he wasted verbally assaulting us actually out knocking doors selling instead, he probably would have made more commission than he would have had we not caught him. KILLS me. I guess it shows what money will motivate some people to do...and that's really sad.
As you all know, since I'm the night supervisor at work, I get to take a lot of escalated calls. A good chunk of these involve customers wanting to cancel before the term of their contract is over--there's a pretty steep early termination fee which our sales reps never disclose (although it is on the contract...in the fine print) and people get really pissed about it.
Anyway, the other night I took an escalated call from a gentleman wanting to cancel. He had been speaking to another agent, and eventually got heated enough that he dropped the f-bomb. Now, company policy states if the customer is using profanity we can terminate the call, and that's exactly what the agent did. Once he was transferred to me, I explained the policy to him, and he understood but said he was also angry because he had told her he needed to cancel due to the fact that he and his wife would be serving an LDS mission and couldn't afford to keep the system while they were out...and when he dropped the f-bomb, the agent made a comment about how he's planning on serving a mission and talking like that and he felt judged. Ok, I guess I get that...although you'd think people preparing for a mission wouldn't speak like that.
However, as he continued to complain I read the notes on his account--apparently he'd been trying to cancel for quite a while and his story had changed a lot. First he said his contract was supposed to be for just one year, then two, then three (it was actually for five)...he had sent in a copy of the confirmation of installation document (NOT the contract, where the length is clearly listed in 2 places) on which he had clearly written in the contract length and forged the initials of our tech in an attempt to show he had documentation of his supposed contract length. He continued complaining, and I thought to myself, "Typically couple missionaries are older, and this guy does not sound elderly at all..." I didn't have the pleasure of hearing any curse words from him, but he certainly was not happy when I told him his situation had already been researched by our dispute resolution dept and they had determined he was properly informed of the terms of his contract and we would be holding him to it. At that point, he made a few more rude comments and then hung up on me.
I sent another e-mail to our dispute resolution department because in the course of his ranting, he threatened to call Get Gephardt (a common threat from our Utah customers) and whenever a customer threatens going to an outside agency to complain we're supposed to notify that department. The next day, the girl from dispute resolutions came to me and said to keep the situation from escalating they had decided to lower the contract length so the customer would be able to cancel before their mission...BUT, when she called the customer to discuss it, he had no idea what she was talking about. He said he thought our company had gone under and that we had been purchased by another alarm company. Red flags popping up, she pulled the call from the night before when I had supposedly talked to him, and the voice was not the same. So she typed in the phone # the guy had called from into our archives database. As it turns out, obviously the guy I was speaking with was not the customer--it was actually a sales rep from another company trying to steal our customer. And this wasn't the only account he had called in about--there were several others, including one on which he pretended to be the customer's son and said he needed to cancel the account because his mother had died. Yeah, she's alive and well.
I cannot believe someone would actually take that much time and effort to create elaborate lies in order to get a bigger paycheck. I bet if this jerk would have spent all the time he wasted verbally assaulting us actually out knocking doors selling instead, he probably would have made more commission than he would have had we not caught him. KILLS me. I guess it shows what money will motivate some people to do...and that's really sad.
Posted by
Jiles The Great
Friday, October 16, 2009
A Look Into the Paranormal
1 comments
So...as you've all seen from my last blog post, I am excited to report that I have found a scary movie that's actually scary. Honestly, I haven't been that scared since the first time I saw The Ring (say what you will about that one, but right after I saw it I went to visit my grandparents, whose guest bedroom has a TV right in front of the bed...yeah, I barely got any sleep).
SPOILER ALERT: I will do my best not to reveal too much about it for you other crazy kids who will actually want to see it, but I make no promises.
Anyway, there are a couple of factors that make Paranormal Activity particularly scary...
#1-You don't necessarily have to believe in God, but you have to believe in the existence of the devil (although in my opinion the two go hand in hand). So you atheists might have a bit of a hard time getting sucked in.
At first, the movie looks like a ghost story. It's not.
#2-You need to understand the rules of dealing with this kind of stuff so you will recognize when they are broken, which they are...several times.
Now, most of you know I claim to have lived in a haunted house...to this day I'm still 100% convinced that what I felt and saw was evidence of life after death. After living there, I wanted to learn all I could about ghosts and the paranormal...so I read up on it. I currently have an entire bookshelf full of books on the subject. Now before you all go thinking I'm messing with things I shouldn't be, let me say I'm not into paganism or wicca--I don't have any books on performing spells or communicating with ghosts or any of that...I simply enjoy reading accounts of other people's encounters w/the paranormal and how they dealt with it, should I ever encounter it again.
In reading these things, I quickly learned the do's and don'ts of it all. When dealing with a malevolent entity in particular, the numero uno rule that should NEVER be broken...EVER...is using a ouija board. That is the one thing paranormal experts agree on--don't use them, you're inviting stuff in. Another rule is not to taunt the entity or attempt to play games with it because you're going to further aggravate it, which is a really bad idea. Lasty, it's important to remember that malevolent entities feed off of negative energy...so if you're bringing that into the home, it can potentially strengthen whatever's there.
So, having said all that...here's my review of the film itself: while we can all take comfort in the fact that this movie is a mockumentary and the people in it are just actors who are living safe and sound in their own homes, it is still a realistic illustration of what could happen (if you believe in this kind of stuff). I have read several accounts of paranormal manifestations, and the movie definitely follows the pattern of documented hauntings. It is fast-paced enough that it's not boring...you don't have to wait long before you start seeing the creepy stuff. And yet it's patient enough to have a balance between scary and non scary...which is a really great way to build the suspense leading up to the climax. If you believe and allow yourself to be sucked in, by the second half of the movie you will be bracing yourself whenever the sun goes down and the unfortunate people go to bed. And I guarantee that by the end your heart will be pounding and you will be on the edge of your seat.
While I'd like to say that the movie is without flaw...I am disappointed to report that at the very last second, it reverts to one of the worst horror cliches ever. Think Liv Tyler waking up and screaming at the end of The Strangers. You know it's going to happen, and it's a total climax kill when it does. There is an alternate ending which is slightly better, but still not amazing. The dumb thing is all they had to do was take out the very last second and leave the rest as it was and it would have been perfect. But I suppose the temptation to try to get one more jump out of the audience was just too great.
Anyway, to conclude, Paranormal Activity is scary, and I highly recommend it to horror fans. If you want to see it though, you should probably hurry up...it's only playing at a couple theaters in Utah (that I know of) and I doubt it will be there long. 
SPOILER ALERT: I will do my best not to reveal too much about it for you other crazy kids who will actually want to see it, but I make no promises.
Anyway, there are a couple of factors that make Paranormal Activity particularly scary...
#1-You don't necessarily have to believe in God, but you have to believe in the existence of the devil (although in my opinion the two go hand in hand). So you atheists might have a bit of a hard time getting sucked in.
At first, the movie looks like a ghost story. It's not.
#2-You need to understand the rules of dealing with this kind of stuff so you will recognize when they are broken, which they are...several times.
Now, most of you know I claim to have lived in a haunted house...to this day I'm still 100% convinced that what I felt and saw was evidence of life after death. After living there, I wanted to learn all I could about ghosts and the paranormal...so I read up on it. I currently have an entire bookshelf full of books on the subject. Now before you all go thinking I'm messing with things I shouldn't be, let me say I'm not into paganism or wicca--I don't have any books on performing spells or communicating with ghosts or any of that...I simply enjoy reading accounts of other people's encounters w/the paranormal and how they dealt with it, should I ever encounter it again.
In reading these things, I quickly learned the do's and don'ts of it all. When dealing with a malevolent entity in particular, the numero uno rule that should NEVER be broken...EVER...is using a ouija board. That is the one thing paranormal experts agree on--don't use them, you're inviting stuff in. Another rule is not to taunt the entity or attempt to play games with it because you're going to further aggravate it, which is a really bad idea. Lasty, it's important to remember that malevolent entities feed off of negative energy...so if you're bringing that into the home, it can potentially strengthen whatever's there.
So, having said all that...here's my review of the film itself: while we can all take comfort in the fact that this movie is a mockumentary and the people in it are just actors who are living safe and sound in their own homes, it is still a realistic illustration of what could happen (if you believe in this kind of stuff). I have read several accounts of paranormal manifestations, and the movie definitely follows the pattern of documented hauntings. It is fast-paced enough that it's not boring...you don't have to wait long before you start seeing the creepy stuff. And yet it's patient enough to have a balance between scary and non scary...which is a really great way to build the suspense leading up to the climax. If you believe and allow yourself to be sucked in, by the second half of the movie you will be bracing yourself whenever the sun goes down and the unfortunate people go to bed. And I guarantee that by the end your heart will be pounding and you will be on the edge of your seat.
While I'd like to say that the movie is without flaw...I am disappointed to report that at the very last second, it reverts to one of the worst horror cliches ever. Think Liv Tyler waking up and screaming at the end of The Strangers. You know it's going to happen, and it's a total climax kill when it does. There is an alternate ending which is slightly better, but still not amazing. The dumb thing is all they had to do was take out the very last second and leave the rest as it was and it would have been perfect. But I suppose the temptation to try to get one more jump out of the audience was just too great.
Anyway, to conclude, Paranormal Activity is scary, and I highly recommend it to horror fans. If you want to see it though, you should probably hurry up...it's only playing at a couple theaters in Utah (that I know of) and I doubt it will be there long.
Posted by
Jiles The Great
Monday, October 12, 2009
Wow.
5
comments
More coming on this later--but I wanted to post the trailer for the movie Jacob and I saw yesterday. You know how I'm always on the quest to find a horror film that's actually scary? Well, mission accomplished...
I can't find a video that's low def enough to fit all the way on blogger, but you can still get the idea.
I can't find a video that's low def enough to fit all the way on blogger, but you can still get the idea.
Posted by
Jiles The Great
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Reasons I Love Jacob (in no particular order)
3
comments
So even though it's just past midnight, it is technically my anniversary. 6 years...we're definitely not newlyweds any more huh? Anyway, this year I decided to honor another year of marriage by listing (as you can see in the title) some of the reasons why I love my hubby. Here goes...
1. He's HOT (not the most important thing, but definitely one of the best perks!)
2. I can tell him anything
3. He likes movies, especially horror films
4. We make a great team
5. The man can BBQ
6. He takes care of me when I'm sick
7. He likes to keep a clean house
8. He's manly but never a tool
9. He knows when to joke and when to be sensitive
10. He always knows how to cheer me up when I'm having a bad day
11. He's been SUPER supportive during this whole infertility mess
12. He's totally driven and does what he needs to in order to achieve his goals
13. He doesn't laugh at me when I'm singing my guts out in the car
14. He sings in the shower
15. He's really smart
16. He accepts me for who I am, insanity and all
17. He's not afraid to try new things
18. He motivates me to be a better person
19. He reminds me that even when life is hard, you can still have fun
20. He hates dogs (sorry dog lovers, but we will be cat people till the day we die)
21. He knows when to just listen and when to give advice
22. He's really good with kids
23. He goes to the library and tries to find books for me to read since I'm too impatient to do it myself
24. He takes me away for the weekend when things get too stressful
25. He is passionate about the things he does, especially flying
26. His solution every time we get into an argument is to hug, and it works
27. He has the best laugh
28. When I'm away on a business trip and I call him b/c I had a nightmare, he sings to me to calm me down
29. He brings me doughnuts on Valentine's Day in addition to flowers
30. He works the graveyard shift to help w/the bills even though he's in school
...and I could go on. But, I actually gotta wake the poor guy up so he can go to work.
Happy Anniversary Jacob, I love you!!!!!
1. He's HOT (not the most important thing, but definitely one of the best perks!)
2. I can tell him anything
3. He likes movies, especially horror films
4. We make a great team
5. The man can BBQ
6. He takes care of me when I'm sick
7. He likes to keep a clean house
8. He's manly but never a tool
9. He knows when to joke and when to be sensitive
10. He always knows how to cheer me up when I'm having a bad day
11. He's been SUPER supportive during this whole infertility mess
12. He's totally driven and does what he needs to in order to achieve his goals
13. He doesn't laugh at me when I'm singing my guts out in the car
14. He sings in the shower
15. He's really smart
16. He accepts me for who I am, insanity and all
17. He's not afraid to try new things
18. He motivates me to be a better person
19. He reminds me that even when life is hard, you can still have fun
20. He hates dogs (sorry dog lovers, but we will be cat people till the day we die)
21. He knows when to just listen and when to give advice
22. He's really good with kids
23. He goes to the library and tries to find books for me to read since I'm too impatient to do it myself
24. He takes me away for the weekend when things get too stressful
25. He is passionate about the things he does, especially flying
26. His solution every time we get into an argument is to hug, and it works
27. He has the best laugh
28. When I'm away on a business trip and I call him b/c I had a nightmare, he sings to me to calm me down
29. He brings me doughnuts on Valentine's Day in addition to flowers
30. He works the graveyard shift to help w/the bills even though he's in school
...and I could go on. But, I actually gotta wake the poor guy up so he can go to work.
Happy Anniversary Jacob, I love you!!!!!
Posted by
Jiles The Great
Thursday, October 8, 2009
It's the little things...
3
comments
...in life that bring me so much joy. :-) Such as this video, and I'd daresay it has brought a lot of others joy too, seeing as how it has almost 70 million views on YouTube.
Posted by
Jiles The Great
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
