Friday, August 15, 2014

Sharks, Cellos and the Dreaded Customer Service

I still hate customer service. The A-Holes finally phoned me back from my "we'll call you back after three hours" at 9:10 am yesterday morning (21 hours after my original call), and promptly put me on hold again. At 9:49 am, I hung up on them. I took my lunch around 2:00 pm and decided to try phoning them again, but tried a different extension number for a different type of complaint. I actually reached a person! She was a delight, explained that they had done a system upgrade just about the time my problems began, and that I was far from the only one having problems. She found out my old and new account numbers and transferred me to billing to make sure that my payments were up-to-date.


I really hate non-responsive customer service. If they were
having a problem, you think they would have let their customers
know and added extra staff ... but NO! 


Then things went downhill again, quickly. Trying to double-check that the credit card on record (remember, I'm talking to the billing department here) is the current and correct one, "Ryan" was unable to help with that and transferred me to talk to a Customer Care Representative. Right back to the "leave your number and we'll phone you back after three hours" or hold and our anticipated wait time is "more than three hours". Frustrated, I wrote a long email to customer support detailing the past 48 hours and that's where it's at now. GRRRRRR!


My cousin Miki and her wife, Regina. They make a
great, loving couple. White Light to you both! 


In the middle of all of this I got a Facebook message from my cousin. Some of you may remember my joy when she and her long-time partner finally married in New York last year. Although her marriage isn't recognized by her own state of residence, it was a huge step and a time of great happiness. But now things aren't so wonderful. Her wife has been diagnosed with cancer and her first chemo was yesterday. They only married last November and have been deeply in love and in a committed relationship for many years now. They are both strong women and they'll push through this. But if any of you could spare some White Light or a prayer on their behalf, I would appreciate it.


Of course they play a variety of different
cellos. Here they have the traditional wooden style. 


The Luis and Clark cellos that they play are carbon cellos that feature
a totally rounded body, a flatter profile, and a much sturdier
construction. Unfortunately, at $7139.00, I don't think one of these will
be showing up under my Solstice tree. 


They also play these bad boys, and I'm totally in love
with these cellos. These are Yamaha SVC110 electric
cellos. They run on AA batteries and can be played
with headsets as totally silent instruments - perfect
for early morning or late night practice sessions.
I want me one of these bad boys. These run
about $2500. Still too expensive, but better than $8000. 


Last night DH and I settled down and watched a public TV special - 2Cellos (click on the link for a YouTube video and here for an interesting article on how they were discovered and promoted by Elton John). Of course I immediately thought of my friend Ellynn who is also from Croatia, and then, after thinking of her, I started looking at their instruments and totally fell in love. They started the concert on traditional cellos - lovely warm wood in a standard style. But then, as they started to play edgier, more electric music, they switched to different cellos. These were modern, sleek, beautiful, and barely there. So amazing. DH wanted more info about them, so I started searching on my phone as we finished the show. Now to see what a Yamaha SVC110 cello actually costs....


I might fall in love with the Yamaha SVC50 cello. Although
not as sleek as the SVC110 or SVC210, it is a bit more
affordable, coming in at just under $1800, and the
knee rest is removable for compact storage. Lovely instrument. 


We ended the night by catching an episode of Discover Channel's "Shark Week" that DH wanted me to see. This one concentrated on the deep water sharks from the Indian Trench on the east side of southern Africa. Some of these sharks were phenomenal! I especially liked the Goblin Shark with it's retractable jaw. The researcher is a graduate student and by the end of this 2-month voyage (and one previous one) he had been individually responsible for discovering 3% of all known shark species. That's a HUGE number for a very young and enthusiastic man. Bravo Paul!



The Goblin shark is a deep dweller. It normally swims
around with its jaw retracted like this - just a long nose to
sense electrical impulses of prey, the normal black eyes
of a shark, and those wonderful teeth. But when it senses prey, it
changes like this ...



The jaw of the goblin shark actually pull out of the body and extend
almost to the end of the snout to capture prey that thought it was
safely distant from it. It's so amazing! 


It's Friday, and I'm treating myself to a real breakfast today with a 20% off coupon. Such luxury! I could get spoiled. LOL. Have a wonderful day and bring some smiles to the faces of others.



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