Business | Piss and Moan

Forced charity

Charity is great, but when it is forced charity, well, that Pisses me off. Then it isn’t charity, it’s just big business charging you a fee (read that as “tax”) to cover the cost of doing their business. So, I am going to Moan really loudly about this.

Cascade Natural Gas in Washington has asked the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission for a fee that will basically recoup the cost of it’s service to people who can’t afford it. Rather than covering that cost themselves and using it as a write-down on their taxes (I am sure they will do this too – as in, double dip), they are going to charge all their customers an extra fee on top of all the other fees to pay for a program most people don’t even care about.

There is no option to opt out. There is no option to opt in. It’s just, “Let me reach into your pocket once again and take your money without consent.”

I say without consent because the WUTC is an unelected, oversight board that is filled with people appointed by our governor (Democrat) and approved by the state senate (Democrat). Essentially, there is no recourse for customers because these things get hard stamped approval because – liberals.

I shouldn’t be forced to pay for something someone else can’t pay for. That’s robbery. That’s a tax. That’s coercion at it’s worst.

And, once again, it’s government approved.

Budget belt

Posted on June 29 by backuphill

Washington state has a new, dubious title – “Most expensive gas in the nation.” This is NOT a good thing, considering our population pales in comparison to that of bigger states. What it does do is punish everyone, including low-income people/families, for simply trying to get to work. This title, is one that will hurt our state’s economy for a long time because there is no relief in sight. Seasonal fluctuations have always played a role, but this new carbon tax is actually going to kill growth and the economy.

Budgets have to tight a lot more when fuel prices go up. Between high fuel, higher electricity, higher natural gas and propane, and inflation, there is little room for extras in most people’s budgets. Summer spending and, more definitely holiday spending, will take a hit as the price of everything continues to increase.

Anyone who argues that the new carbon tax isn’t harming the economy or causing fuel prices to increase is either delusional, a Democrat, or just plain stupid.

One such power hungry Democrat who’s agenda is done more harm to any state is the governor.

And, sorry, but our governor has always been the dude that passes the buck and never takes responsibility for anything. Once again, he blames everything but his policy. And, quite frankly, everyone knows his BS is flat out lies.

Lies, lies, lies. It’s almost comical that he believes a rational person would believe him.

I certainly don’t. I know better.

But, I will be tightening the belt (and that isn’t to keep my pants up) and spending much less.

Egg shells

Posted on June 9 by backuphill

Are you tired of walking on egg shells? Tired of looking over your shoulder at work, in the grocery store, at the ballpark, at your kids’ school? Are you one of the many many Americans that is tired of the cancel culture and tired of not expressing your opinion simply because you want to keep your job?

I came across an ad the other day that sort of struck a chord with me. It struck that cord because I work in education, which apparently is the center of hype-wokeness and also seemingly has no room for a variety of voices despite claiming the desire to be inclusive of all (if you agree with those who squawk the loudest).

Are you part of the “silent majority” that just wishes diversity and inclusion actually meant that, and that tolerance actually means being intolerant of ideas and thoughts that you disagree with?

I don’t work for this company. I don’t work for any company that uses this service….but I kinda wish I did, because then egg shells wouldn’t be what I walk on most days.

What do you think? Is there something to this movement? Are you a person who would like to get back to some common sense employment, employees, work?

Opinions?

Influencer tendencies

Posted on May 31 by backuphill

I am not totally sure how the whole “influencer” thing start or how you achieve “influencer” status. Is it something you aspire to or do you just fall into it by having something go viral? I guess it doesn’t matter as I haven’t much desire to be an influencer, though having money for seemingly doing nothing would be nice.

A couple things that I have noticed about influencers:

Female influencers tend to
- Post a lot of clothing “fit check” photos
- Post videos of their makeup/skincare/hair routines
- Show more skin to get more clicks/looks/views/likes/shares
- Share a lot of food videos/pictures
- Shopping “haul” videos
- Product reviews…solicited and unsolicited
Male influencers tend to
- Post a lot of car videos photos
- Post a lot of prank videos
- Post “fit check” photos
- Share food and alcohol videos/photos
- Generally are way shallow in content

Did I miss anything? Is this how you get to be an influencer?

Anyway, I don’t know why I wrote about this today. I guess it was just on my mind and was wondering what others thought about the trend of “influencers.” Do you foresee a future with this trend continuing or do you think it will eventually tire itself out?

Dealership sittin

Posted on April 20, 2023 by backuphill

When you are buying a car, assuming it isn’t a private sale, do you consider the service department? I have purchased a couple cars in the last five years and one thing I have become aware of, that I should have thought about when I bought them, is the service department.

Sure, buying a car is “fun” as you shop for the look, style, options, etc. that you want. You get to decide on the color and all that jazz. They promise oil changes for life and tire warranties and other “incentives” to get you to buy the car. But what they don’t sell you on is their service department.

After sitting in two different service departments and going through the trouble of trying to schedule said service, I am going to offer some tips you may want to consider when buying a car from a dealership.

Check the hours that the service department actually works. If they don’t work or have weekend appointments, you are in big trouble! Why? Because that means they only work during the hours you likely work, meaning you are going to likely have to take time off to make service appointments happen (whether it is just for dropping the car off or to pick it up afterwards). The other thing about only weekdays is that there are a limited number of service appointments. As such, you will be competing against other people to try to schedule for those appointments. Sure, you would have to do that on a Saturday too but if you have a little forethought in your scheduling you can easily get it done.
Is it easy to schedule an appointment? Do they have an ample number of service advisors or are you going to sit on hold on the phone for seemingly endless hours? Can you schedule online or on an app? Again, it is important to know because it takes your time and it is valuable.
Do they have a shuttle service? Better yet, do they have a considerable number of service loaners? Shuttles are great, but relying on someone else transporting you is a pain in the rear. Loaners are better because then you can go about your day as usual and not have to worry about trying to schedule things around the service appointment.
Department amenities. If you have to sit and wait at the dealership, what amenities do they have? Does it look and feel comfortable or does it look like someone threw some furniture together? Does it have good wi-fi? Do they have complimentary food and basic drinks (coffee, soda, water)? All of these aren’t really that big of a deal, but if you have to spend time there you should be able to do so without feeling like there isn’t a way for you to relax a little.

I am currently sitting in a service waiting room for a 60K mile service. It’s a longer service, so I had to take the day off to make this appointment happen. It took three phone calls to finally connect with someone to schedule it. There is a popcorn machine that isn’t on and hasn’t been run. There are two vending machines, both with sighs that say they are out of order. There is coffee, but it’s terrible. The chairs and couches are showing signs of being worn out. There is wi-fi, so I can type this blog entry.

All this to say, don’t just get caught up in the shiny new car. Ask questions. Check out the service area because it should be part of your buying decision.

Anything else you would add from your buying and ownership experience?

Into the groove

Posted on April 18, 2023 by backuphill

Post vacation observation: Getting back into the groove is difficult.

I am sure you have noticed for yourself that this is true.

You are away from the job, on vacation and enjoying yourself (for the most part) and then you have the reality that you have to go back to work when you return. This realization gets more difficult (for me) the longer the time is spent away from that responsiblity.

I have returned from a near two week vacation and the groove just isn’t happening. I find my mind wandering and thinking of other things I’d rather be doing, going, or not doing. LOL It seems making myself work and focus on tasks at work is a job in and of itself. I just don’t want to. It’s a groove I’d rather not have to get back into, quite frankly.

Raise your hand if you’re with me? Have you noticed this as a problem for yourself?

Day before

Posted on April 3, 2023 by backuphill

Alright, I am sure I am probably preaching to the chior here, but is it really necessary to go to work and actually do work the day before a vacation? Asking for a friend.

So, I am going on vacation to AZ tomorrow. I know, I know, I’ve said I wasn’t going to take vacations to see family and more and I really just wanna go play some place but it is what it is. Beside, I am taking my disc golf bag so I am hoping to get in a few rounds down there (that might make a little happier about not doing something I want to do).

Anyway, the question still stands. Is it a requirement to do work today?

I mean, everyone knows that people don’t actually work on the day before their vacation. Yes, they show up, they go through the motions but are they really doing anything of value?

I think from henceforth, the day before vacation should just be an automatic day off to prepare for vacation. Let’s be real. Our co-workers know we aren’t doing anything. The boss knows you aren’t doing anything. Heck, they don’t do anything when it’s their turn to take vacation. So, why do we all pretend we are doing something when we aren’t?

The day before vacation should also be an automatic vacation day, but not technically a vacation day (cuz we don’t want it to count against our actual vacation day allotment).

Make it so.

Another fee

Posted on March 30, 2023 by backuphill

Accessing health care in the US is problematic, at best. The overall debate on whether it should be free to all (via government funds and a huge increase in taxes) or whether it should be something each individual should be responsible for is one I am not going to talk about today.

However, we all know that the cost of health care in the US keeps many people from accessing the care they need. People have to think about how it will impact their overall finances and whether or not they can afford to see a doctor. Obviously when you don’t think you can afford to get care you don’t go.

Yesterday, at a doctor’s appointment that is an hour away from home, I noticed the large facility that the appointment have been at for almost a year had new signage up in their parking garage and in the elevator areas. The signage basically said that “Parking is on us until we get the technical difficulties figured out.”

SAY WHAT?

So what has been free for at least the last year is now going to have a fee? I imagine at some point (based on construction and existing facilities) that there was parking for a fee previously. Not sure why it has been free up to the point of the visits.

But, it raises a larger question about yet ANOTHER FEE to access health care.

Should you really have to pay a fee just to park so that you can access health care?

It seems almost unfair for people who may already be struggling to access health care to add yet another fee.

I know of at least one other health care facility in the Seattle area that charges parking at it isn’t cheap – almost $10 an hour.

Something feels really slimy when thinking about people getting charged just to access their health care. They are already being gouged when paying for the care they need, but to add insult to injury they are now going to be charged to even access the building.

Imagine if you had to pay for parking at a grocery store so you could go inside and buy food (maybe this already happens in big big cities, I don’t know)…awkward right?

Gives me a really icky feeling. I am all for making money in places that make sense, but to punish the public to access something so vital almost seems underhanded – especially since they become a pretty captive audience one they’re in the parking garage.

How do you feel about these “hidden access fees”?

Make work

Posted on March 28, 2023 by backuphill

My job as a software analyst sometimes can be a real pain. Software is designed to do certain things and do them well. But, there are times where a client will want the software to do something it wasn’t designed to do.

I have a school district that is trying to do parent-teacher conferences next month. The software has the ability to create time slots and then allow the parents to schedule their conferences with the teacher. But, the software has some limitiations and the way one of the schools has done conferences in the past doesn’t fit the way the software is designed (yet). This was a huge issue for them last fall, as they were unwilling to rethink the way they do the conferences when they were told it wouldn’t work the way they would like them to (after many hours of investigation and problem-solving).

So, now it is spring and they are still insistent on doing it the same way as always, even though it didn’t work for them in the fall and it nothing in the software has changed to allow for the way they would like to do it. There is one caviate to that statement though. There are some rather inconvenient and labor intensive work-arounds that can be done to make the software kind of work for what they want. In essence, someone at the district figured out a way to trick the software and kinda sorta make it work for their needs.

Here’s where my problem comes in…in doing their work around, it doesn’t work well and there are issues with how the software functions. It doesn’t know you are doing a work-around, it just functions as it should. So, issues arise that are a direct result of the work-around. The district then calls me (after telling them, again, that it won’t work) to try to solve their work-around problems. I wasn’t fully involved in their work-around setup. I haven’t tested their work-around since it was advised they not use it. But, they want me to solve the issues when it doesn’t work like they would like it to.

I am being asked to “make it work” for something that isn’t supposed to work that way in the first place.

I am not sure how many times I can tell them it isn’t advisable and won’t work like you really want it to. If they are patient, and adjust the way they do conferences in the interim, it might actually work like they want in the future as we have been told it is being worked on (we are Tier 1 support so we have no control).

Anyway, that is my rant today. I don’t want to even try with this people.

Customer chat

Posted on March 27, 2023 by backuphill

Photo by Miguel u00c1. Padriu00f1u00e1n on Pexels.com

Don’t ya just love it when a major company won’t let you cancel a service without contacting them first? I fully expected to have to contact someone since I didn’t really want to cancel, but that is how you get movement. BUT, I found that when I tried to cancel online that their website magically had issues and you were forced to contact them.

The kicker here is that in the past you were able to go directly to a chat with a customer representative. This is apparently no longer a thing since there was nowhere on their website to access this help without getting the magical broken link.

When you get tot he information page for “additional help” there is a section that gives details about their chat feature and a button. Guess what? Button is greyed out (meaning not active) and unusable, even though the stated business hours are in full effect.

So, they actually force you to call them.

I was able to get what I want, but the fact that I have to go through this every year is stupid.

But, play the game I will.