jofo.com

In September, I bought an awesome Pansonic shaver. It was so good I bought one for my dad, for his birthday. A few months later, however, the outer foil ripped making it unusable. I have not been able to find one in store, but they are readily available online from Panasonic direct and from resellers like Amazon. This is a picture of what I think I need:

OK cool, but that looks like a little piece, and the corresponding piece on my unit is really connected to the big casing that comes off the body of the shaver.

So from what I can tell, I can buy a part that I need, but won’t be able to replace it. So I make a couple calls to Panasonic trying to figure out what the deal is. I explain that the little meshy part is ripped, and I see I can buy that part online, but it’s part of a bigger piece that I can’t seem to separate. They tell me that part is the one I need, and I hang up unconvinced. Finally I go back to Amazon’s page for that part, and use their neat zooming feature to zoom in on the product box. Lo and behold, I can now clearly that this box contains the whole top part: the little foil and the casing it’s in.

Admittedly, I was pretty complacent because I could just use my old shaver and it was good enough, so I didn’t rush the issue, but I think that Panasonic could have done the following:

• More clearly explained what this part entails. I was obviously confused by the picture and should have been explicitly corrected about what I was seeing.
• Used slightly different product packaging: different color scheme for contrast, or oriented the piece to face “up” instead of toward the viewer. For some reason, I saw the greyish white around the area as sort of a blank background to highlight the part

i was watching a show by streaming it from ABC Family’s web site. There were no commercials except for a promo of a new show coming to the network. What was annoying was that it was the same exact promo for the same show each time.

1) They should have shown another show’s promo. I’m now aware of that show from the first break, no need to show it again.
2) They could have at least shown a different promo than the first. It was the same dialog and scenes that I wasn’t interested in the first time.
3) They could have shown me a real ad and gotten some revenue out of it.

Went to the gym this morning. I’m steamed and it’s not just from the cardio. In order to lighten my load while walking to and while in the gym, I only carried my keys, my phone/streaming radio and $1.25 to buy a bottle of water. I go through my strength training then go down to the cardio and vending machines (I much prefer the vending machine). I look at the bottom of row where the Poland Spring usually sits. All empty. The entire bottom row is devoted to Poland Spring and it was totally empty.

Alright, no biggie. There’s actually a Poland Spring machine right next to it…fantastic..oh crap…OUT OF ORDER!! (Fuck! Even in the present, nothing works!). So my eyes meander back to the spice-of-life drink machine and see that everything else is $1.75 or more (and the pickins’ were slim there too).

So, I go to the front desk, even though previous attempts at obtaining currency have been fruitless. I ask if anyone’s got any quarters. They don’t, and the cash register is empty. It’s always empty. What good is a cash register with no cash? They should take it to a pawn shop and sell it. Ironically, they would finally have some cash, which could benefit the patrons.

I realize it’s not really their job to provide change and cash like a video arcade attendant, but I do think it’s the club’s job to keep its patrons as comfortable as possible, when possible, since most of the time is spent being uncomfortable. You would think they would also have measures in place to ensure that their source of supplemental income is able to continue generating it.

Michael over at Ineptitude.com posted a story about an airline refusing to stop mailings to his address that were destined for another person, citing that it would be against their privacy policy.

I wrote to my bank with a suggestion:

I would like to request that e-mail notifications of large withdrawals (or whatever it may be) include either the exact balance or the description of the transaction.

Chances are good that the transaction is expected, and doesn’t require a trip to the web site to determine if that’s the case. If I don’t recognize the amount or description from the email, only then would I need to visit the site.

The response I got was instructions for creating an alert. Fantastic. They’ve given me steps for doing something I CLEARLY already know how to do.

UPDATE: I wrote back in an annoyed tone and got a response:

I’m glad you sent us another message and regret any inconvenience this situation may have caused you. Providing excellent service is an important part of our business and I’m sorry that our initial response did not meet your expectations. I hope you find this response reflects that commitment to service.

I appreciate you taking time to share your suggestions with us. We are continuously working to improve your experience on [the site] so I’ve made sure your comments were forwarded appropriately.