Satisfaction Surveys

I wrote about our new set of wheels a few posts back. It’s my little bride’s car1; I’d have chosen something different for me, but she seems tickled, and that’s all right. I have no complaints about price, terms, or payments. And it is a fine looking rig.

Today at work, I got a call on my office phone. The perky caller explained that she was calling to get my reaction to the sales experience at Saturn of Sterling. I told her I was incredibly busy, and this wasn’t a good time. She said she’d try back later.

Fifteen minutes later, my cell phone rang. and yet another equally perky caller said she was calling to get my reaction to the sales experience. Muttering, I thought I may as well bite the bullet and get this obligatory ritual over with.

Five rankings, rated on a scale of 1-10, on how happy I was. By now thoroughly steamed that a lackluster, frustrating workday had been interrupted, I walked outside to have a smoke, and tell this person what I thought. The highest score SoS got on any of the questions was 4. When asked about the service department, I gave it a 1. I had to recap the story of how SoS “service” failed to notice two brake lights out on a service visit, which led to my getting rear-ended on the Fairfax County Parkway a year or so back. And then their lame excuse when asked Isn’t checking brake lights included in service?, which was Well, duh, if you ask; we get kinda busy. It was at this point that I mentioned it would be a cold day someplace before I’d go back to the service department with the older car.

And then, about the delivery process; I noted the lateness of the hour that the car was delivered, and said that we came back the next day to finish some details. No big deal. I then pointed out SoS’s tragic inattention to detail; e.g.:

  • The window sticker said floor mats are standard; we’re still without floormats.
  • We received no instructions on how to activate the On-Star service.
  • We didn’t get an ID for the XM radio, so we can add that to our existing XM plan, if we so desire.

Based on our experience, would I recommend SoS to friends/family/acquaintances? Answer: 2.

They didn’t ask me how I felt about having my workday interrupted twice. They may as well have asked, “What’s the smallest negative integer?”.

-k-
Technorati Tags: ,


1 At least as far as the driving thereof is concerned.

Two Hours from Freedom

I’ll be at work then, handing off the stinking on-call pager to the next sad sack sysadmin professional in the barrel rotation.

I think our work group is overstaffed by a huge margin; the silver lining is that there are more candidates for the stinking on-call pager, which limits my exposure.

That’s a Good ThingTM.

-k-

RIP, Jim McKay

The nation’s first sports journalist, Jim McKay, has passed away at age 86. I grew up watching Wide World of Sports on teevee; I have seen countless Olympic Games.

Jim McKay was in all of them. Not doing play-by-play, but bringing an obvious passion and a deep understanding of the sport to the television audience. In short, being a journalist. Without doubt, he was an inspiration to all the sports talking heads we have today.

It’s a shame that the majority of today’s sports talking heads aren’t fit to pour Jim McKay a cup of coffee.

-k-
Technorati Tags:

Still Love ya’, Brownie

It wasn’t Big Brown’s day today at the Belmont. In spite of the acumen of jockey Kent Desormeaux, who judiciously steered Big Brown to the outside early on, and who appeared to be content to let Big hold in third down the backstretch, there was “just no horse” 1 left coming off turn 4.

Desormeaux never went to the whip; he knew that on this day, the horse didn’t have it in him. So, he eased him up, and Big Brown ran dead last. Last. But not dead. And not hurt. Even in defeat, the man/horse team showed up well.

In the spirit of monetary gains, the following payoff for the winner, Da’ Tara:

79.00 28.00 14.80

I’d be proud to have handicapped the race, and chosen Da’ Tara to win. I’d also gladly shred the winning ticket to have a Triple Crown winner.

Maybe next year.

-k-

Technorati Tags: ,


1 Desormeaux’ words.

New Fedora Project Member

I’ve done something about getting involved in the Fedora Project. Step one was to create an account, and sign the legalese otherwise known as the Contributor License Agreement(CLA).

I’ve also registered a nick with IRC, generated all the ssh and gpg keys necessary, and uploaded them to my Fedora account.

Now, there’s tons of reading to do, mailing lists to join. I want to get off to a smooth but quick start; if I don’t, I could read wikis and mailing lists until I’m slap happy, all the while planning, polishing the plan for perfect contributions, and never get anything done.

Screw that. I’ll read enough to get familiar with how to be a good Fedoran, bring the knowledge I have to the party, and learn what I don’t know already.

I think I’ll sign on to the Fedora Documentation effort, and branch from there to Fedora Packaging.

-k-
Technorati Tags: ,

Hoping for a Triple Crown

Tomorrow, the running of the Belmont Stakes, the third jewel of the Triple Crown. Having been an admirer, if not a good judge of horseflesh for a long time, I’ll just say Go Big Brown. Even if $2.00 gets me $2.10 for the win.

It’s been a long time since we’ve had a Triple Crown winner; I’m ready for one.

-k-