AcilletaM, inc.

Hiatus

2006-11-16T01:32:00.000-06:00

Well, this is a fun little blog to rant on but it's time to move on. I have two other blogs to maintain and just signed on to contribute to a food themed blog network. Plus a real job. Plus all of life's other distractions. So something has to stop and it's this blog. This will be the last post for the time being. I am leaving it open, you know, in case I need to get something off my chest. But otherwise there won't be much in the way of updates.

If you found this blog because you googled 'Joanna', 'McRules', and 'fired', you want these posts:
McRules
McRules woman possibly fired

If you came here from a Gawker site because you thought one of my comments was funny/idiotic then go ahead and take a look around/fuck off.

Otherwise remember these things:

State Farm is not a good neighbor.
Starbucks does not make good coffee. The only thing that should have that much sugar in it is dessert and your fucking cup of coffee is not dessert. Saying Starbucks has the best coffee is like saying McDonald's makes the best hamburgers in the world.
Superman is metal
Utilities and fauxtilities without competition are bad. Comcast, AT&T, Time Warner, yeah, I'm referring to you.
This is the last post I can fucking curse in. Damn it all to hell!

My point is this: corporations don't have your best interest at heart. Ever. They are lying if they say otherwise. Quit believing everything you read and hear from them and research it yourself.

Thanks for your time.

Midwest Airlines makes good

2006-10-28T15:23:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I posted about my experience with Midwest Airlines and the trouble I was having. I sent an email telling them why they lost my sale. I am happy to report that they called me today and apologized. I also have a reservation for air travel at the promo code price! I am very happy this was resolved. I don't like the way I was treated but kudos to Midwest Airlines for making good on my complaint.

I have to admit I am surprised they called today, a Saturday. The website said it could take up to three business days so I wasn't expecting an acknowledgment email if anything until next week. Good on you Midwest Airlines!

Update: Turns out they sent an email too. Here it is:

From: bestcare
Date: Sat, Oct 28, 2006 at 1:28 PM
To: [--redacted--]
Subject
---------------------------------------------------------------
Midwest Airlines - Confirmation Code: [--redacted--]
---------------------------------------------------------------
Response (Midwest Airlines) - 10/28/2006 01:28 PM
Dear Mr. [--redacted--],

I sincerely apologize for the outcome of the transaction you describe below.

When reading your e-mail and reviewing the flight record, it is apparent to me that the first agent made an error when quoting you the fare available for November 24. Although it was not intentional on our part, we needed to see what could be done in order to rectify her mistake. I apologize for the subsequent service that only caused frustration and bad feelings.

I am pleased that you did not purchase a ticket on another airline before I had Marie call you today. When I am in the office on Monday, you can be assured that I will be taking this up with the agents involved. Again, I apologize for the inconvenience and confusion. Please know that we do value your business and are happy that you could take advantage of the promotion we sent you.

We are expecting your call later today to finalize your ticket purchase. Our number is 800-452-2022.

Enjoy your visit with your father on this special occasion honoring not only his birthday, but his service to our country.

Sincerely,

Loralee
Online Customer Service Supervisor
Midwest Airlines

Comcast - You can sink no lower

2006-10-28T02:18:00.000-05:00

UPDATE: It turns out it was not Comcast. It was some 3rd party call center. When I gave them my tracking number and city, they looked it up on their little chart, and gave me the spiel for Artesian Waters. Artesian Waters is a water purification company that wanted to give me a $50 gas card and a free test to tell me my water is bad and then sell me water purification equipment. I tried to look at their website but it was no longer available and only had a squatter type site linked to the domain name. Reputable, no? Also, I'm guessing Comcast may have used this 3rd party call center for their advertising so that may be how the number was associated with them. Comcast, I emailed what I found to the one person who looked at the site before this update so were all good. But you also never answered my question...

I was getting home from work the other night and I noticed a number of orange door hangers stuffed into the garage door seams (with even more on the ground). I figured it was some new pizza place or something and didn't think anything of it.

Next day I picked up one and read it. Nope, not a pizza chain. Hey, cool! I won a free gift. I can call to schedule that. Brain kicks boots up in 3..2..1..wait a minute, all the townhouses in this area won a free gift? What kind of deal is that? Look at the hanger some more. There's no company name at all. It's meant to look sorta like a missed delivery notice but UPS, FedEx, and USPS delivery notices have all kinds of check boxes and rules and are not door hangers. They are cards and sticky notes. Look at the small print here "Subject to company rules/No purchase necessary/For advertising purposes only". A mocked up missed delivery notice for advertising purposes only. OK, that's fucked up. That's pretty low for a company to do. That's Florian McCann level shit. What kind of fly-by-night outfit is trying to sell me vent cleaning?

So time to research. First, find the number online. Wait, why not just call the number you're asking (just pretend). I'll explain why in a second. Look up the number online. I get one hit on the phone number at a 800 number lookup site. It says its Comcast. Comcast!?! I already get enough direct mail from them, they can't be that desperate to resort to chicanery like this, can they? I call the number, but first I *67'd to block my caller id. The middle aged sounding woman tells me this company does not accept calls from private numbers. See, this is why I didn't want to call right away. They are doing everything they can to get you to call and give them more information about yourself. Check the net first, you may find an answer without having to risk your number.

Ok, back to verifying this could be Comcast. Search again for Comcast and door hangers. First article: Hanging on the Telephone from directmag.com. The article talks about Comcast doing a 280,000 piece campaign in Denver (man, Denver, you must have people putting things on your door everyday). They've done it in other places too. So there you go.

Comcast, answer this, do you want people using your VoIP solution so when the cable cuts out, they can't call you?

UPDATE: It turns out it was not Comcast. It was some 3rd party call center. When I gave them my tracking number and city, they looked it up on their little chart, and gave me the spiel for Artesian Waters. Artesian Waters is a water purification company that wanted to give me a $50 gas card and a free test to tell me my water is bad and then sell me water purification equipment. I tried to look at their website but it was no longer available and only had a squatter type site linked to the domain name. Reputable, no? Also, I'm guessing Comcast may have used this 3rd party call center for their advertising so that may be how the number was associated with them. Comcast, I emailed what I found to the one person who looked at the site before this update so were all good. But you also never answered my question...

Midwest Airlines - A study in how to blow a sale

2006-10-27T19:08:00.000-05:00

UPDATE: I heard from them today. They apologized and I have reservations for the time I wanted at the promo code price.

Below is a letter I sent to Midwest Airlines. I needed to fly to Orlando over Thanksgiving on short notice and wanted to fly them. Long story short, website acts screwy, first CSR helpful but screws up, second CSR prevents billing but can't do anything else, and then third CSR acts like a bitch in my opinion. I was willing to forgive the mistakes up until the last CSR. Way to capitalize on brand loyalty. Best care in the air, indeed.

I want to make you aware of how you lost a sale today. A few weeks ago I received the "Ever feel like you just need a cookie?" card in the mail with the offer for the $175 round-trip fare to any Midwest destination. I thought this was a very nice gesture but since I had no plans to fly anywhere before it expired at the end of the year, I set it aside just in case the need arised. Yesterday (10/25/2006) my sister and I determined that I really should come to Orlando for my dad's birthday. I originally planned to do something separate with him instead of going to Orlando because of the time and price involved but also because they were just planning on going to Disney and the Holy Land Experience. My sister in the meantime has arraigned for him to take part in a veteran's flag lowering ceremony at Disney but also researched his unit in Vietnam and found a bunch of information including contact addresses and email addresses, all of which she planned to give as a scrapbook for his birthday. So now his birthday is a big event and I should go which means I need to book a flight. Another complication, his birthday is the day after Thanksgiving, which as the last CSR I dealt with repeatedly emphasized to me is a very busy travel time.

So understanding the task before me, I endeavored to find an affordable flight. That's when I remembered I had the $175 offer. I checked all the terms and conditions looking for that blackout dates small print we all expect but there was none. So it is good for any date. I did note term #3 stating the itineraries must be booked in "R" class and seats are limited and may not be available on all flights. I believe this is a way of not having to explicitly list blackout dates but I thought I would try anyway. I logged onto your website and tried booking the flight using the promo code. I tried various itineraries and several times the web page indicated the promo code would apply but when I clicked through it would then say the promo code did not apply. After many, many attempts at finding an itinerary that triggered the first web page to say the promo code did apply, I decided to call your customer service number.

So I placed my first call at 10:53PM. The CSR worked with me and scheduled me on two flights in the time window I wanted and I was able to use my promo code. She gave me the confirmation code [--redacted--] and gave me instructions on how to send in the card with my promo code. At 11:24PM she called me back to explain that she had applied the code wrong and that she could ticket me right away at the quoted price and I did not have to mail the card back. I gave her the go ahead to bill my credit card.

I waited a little while and again went to website to verify everything. I found the reservation but there was an issue. Instead of a round-trip flight from Milwaukee to Orlando and back to Milwaukee, she had booked me on two flights out of Milwaukee to Orlando, not round-trip, two separate one ways from the same location. Obviously this wouldn't work so at 12:32AM this morning (10/26/2006) I called your customer service again and spoke with another CSR and explained the issue. She told me she would take the credit card off so it wouldn't be billed and leave the reservation in the system but I needed to call back after 6AM to speak with a lead because only they have the authorization to get me on the flight I want. No problem, if they can resolve this I will call back.

Today at 10:26AM I called back and explained to the CSR what happened and that I was told to talk to a lead. She said she needed to read what the others had left as notes. She said to me "You are trying to use a welcome back promo and fly at Thanksgiving!?! Most of the welcome back promos are scheduled months in advance." I asked to speak to a lead. She told me there was nothing a lead could do because I was trying to travel around Thanksgiving. I asked what flights were available that I might be able to use this code with and she told me the earliest she had was Tuesday the 28th because I was trying to travel around Thanksgiving. I asked what was available without the code but what she quoted was significantly more. But at that point it didn't really matter, I had decided that I wasn't going to purchase a ticket from her. I declined the reservation completely and ended the call.

Here's why you lost my sale. I understand I'm trying to fly at a busy time but that's when I need to fly, I have no choice. I need to be there for a specific event. Someone constantly insinuating I'm being stupid for trying to travel at Thanksgiving on a promo code every other sentence isn't going to convince me to book another time with your airline. I had a promo code without stated blackout dates and I tried to use it. I understood that I may not be able to but the value would be worth the effort. In fact, I went to bed thinking I was able to use it after talking to two other CSR's so I don't think I was all that crazy for calling today. Also, while what the last CSR said about the promos being scheduled months in advance could be true, according to the terms and conditions I have roughly a three month window to use this promo code. The first two CSR's made no mention I was trying to fly Thanksgiving, they just tried to assist me as best they could. The third one couldn't stop talking about it. The phone service she provided is why you lost the sale.

A final note. I follow a website call The Consumerist (http://consumerist.com). It's a site that deals with CSR experiences, outstanding companies, service complaints, and other general consumer advocacy issues. In the past I had mentioned your airline as a good airline to deal with. However I feel I need to share this experience with them as well so I will be forwarding a copy of this email to them as well. The editors there may or may not post this and if they do it's probably going to have a headline like "Best care in the air...but not over the phone" or somesuch thing. That's the kind of site they are. Snarky. Not meant as a threat, just letting you know ahead of time so you're not surprised.

I have not heard anything from them.

UPDATE: I heard from them today. They apologized and I have reservations for the time I wanted at the promo code price.

Thank You for Smoking

2006-10-13T19:07:00.000-05:00

I watched Thank You for Smoking the other day. I thought it was a good movie. It had pretty good humor and I was entertained, which is all I ask from a movie. If I want to learn something, I'll watch a documentary. Like I said, it was a good movie. Aaron Eckhart plays a lobbyist named Nick Naylor perfectly. Smooth, you don't want to like him but you do, great acting. You follow Nick through a bit of his complicated life. He's defending Big Tobacco against, well, everybody while trying to teach his son about what he does for a living, the power of argument, and morality. William H. Macy is another stand-out in this film in a wonderful, albeit short, role as an anti-smoking senator from Vermont, Senator Ortolan K. Finistirre. Finistirre isn't really Naylor's nemesis in this movie but his a big part of everything Naylor has to go against.

Here is the trailer:

I highly recommend this film. But don't just take my word for it.

I did start thinking about the message of this movie though. I think the main theme of this movie is about morality. What would you do or not do to "just pay the mortgage" as they repeat in the movie. How much would you abandon or adhere to your morals. PR people, spin doctors, I've got no love for them but this movie does make you empathize with them. They may not be inherently evil people but then they've made the choices to do what they do so does that make them evil? The second thing I thought during the movie is people just don't think things through. PR people and spin doctors have jobs because spinning works. People fall for it, right or wrong. Think for yourselves. Don't believe something because a supposed expert tells you something. Ask that second question, don't just stop with the first. Spin doctors go away if the magic doesn't work.

Superman is Metal

2006-10-07T00:11:00.000-05:00

I've often wished they would use heavier, fast-tempo metal songs in movies during action sequences rather than the Aerosmith power ballad and somebody in YouTube land had the same idea. Check this out!

Plus Redneck from Lamb of God is at the top of my playlist right now.

1,137 Laptops!?!?

2006-09-22T00:33:00.000-05:00

This is absolutely amazing. Since 2001 the US Department of Commerce has lost 1,137 of the over 30,000 laptops it has used. The Census Bureau has the largest number of laptops missing or stolen with 672, 246 of those contained some personal data. The next closest organization within the Commerce Department to have missing laptops is the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration at 325 laptops. I suppose you can excuse a couple getting sucked into a tornado or something. Somewhere over the rainbow, way up high, munchkins are surfing for porn using US government equipment. But still, 325? Luckily, only 3 of the NOAA laptops contained personal data. Other bureaus like the US Patent and Trademark Office and the Bureau of Industry and Security were also missing computers but no where near the scale of the Census Bureau or NOAA and none of those laptops contained personal data.

Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez outlined a number of steps that the Department is going to implement to prevent further missing laptops or even worse, potential breaches of personal data. But there are two that stick out. Two that should have been implemented in the first place. First is making the employees more accountable for their laptops. Having one stolen is one thing but the number missing is just plain inexcusable. The second reform that stuck out was having one database of all departmental property. While this is all fine and dandy, even if each bureau and agency was tracking on their own, numbers like 672 and 325 should have stuck out. Hell, even a number like 42 from the International Trade Association should have thrown a red flag.

Maybe we'll get lucky and most of the computers will have batteries made by Sony.

Stories I've Dugg - Colorado pedophile paranoia site and its owner probed by The Consumerist

2006-09-15T01:26:00.000-05:00

This is something new I'm doing here. Any story I submit to Digg or really have more to add I'm also going to write about a little in this blog.

Here is the description from Digg:

Defendmystreet.com has been blanketing homes in the Denver area with flyers stating a sex offender has moved nearby and the site will tell them where. What this web page really does is collect email addresses from people and then it just redirects them to the official Colorado list. The owner is known for other shady business techniques as well.

read more digg story

This is a story at The Consumerist that I have been very actively participating in as a commenter (I have commenting privileges for all Gawker Media blogs). While I hate spammers and telemarketers and the guys who leave the flyers hanging on the doors, I especially hate how this guy appears to be gathering email addresses for a lawn care and general cleaning company. Scaring parents into giving up their email addresses is despicable. There are a number of posts already and I expect more in the coming days.

Google.org - Don't be evil

2006-09-14T01:50:00.000-05:00

Google has expanded on one its more mysterious products Google.org. Google.org will work on the challenges of poverty, disease, and environmental issues. But this isn't a charity, Google.org is a for-profit entity. This means it can do things charities can't like lobby Congress and fund companies. It also will have to pay taxes. Google.org will have Dr. Larry Brilliant (yes, a wonderful name for someone in his position). In an interview, Dr. Brilliant stated that although they can make money, that isn't the goal. "The emphasis is on social returns, not economic returns.”

Google.org has a page up and running and it contains a list of initial commitments. They include the Acumen Fund, TechnoServe, water research in western Kenya, and PlanetRead.

It is an interesting experiment. Create a company whose charge is to make the world a better place. Taking it one step further, a company whose charge is to make a profit from making the world a better place. If this is successful, standard business practices and charitable organizations could see many changes in the future if this succeeds on any level.

Tool

2006-09-08T00:40:00.000-05:00

Fuck yeah, I'll be there!

Team meetings about the cell phone policy does not make me feel empowered

2006-09-01T02:17:00.000-05:00

Here's an idea that time has come: treat your employees like they have other things in their lives. A law firm in Auckland, Meredith Connell, received the "work-life balance" award from the New Zealand government's Equal Opportunities Trust. The firm won the award for simply offering flex time to its employees. The result? Staff turnover was down 5% and has staff members who still work over 50 hours a week - and get this - are happy doing it. No clock watching for lunch or quitting time, no loss in productivity due to outside influences, just happier employees who as a result don't leave and work harder. And you don't have to leave the country to get these kind of perks. Google is well known for its headquarters, Googleplex, and the benefits they offer. Does that company seem to be hurting? Plus, Google is a company who started very small and grew rapidly and profitably while having these policies. They didn't get to some point and decide they were big enough to afford it, they did it all along. It's called return on investment and its something to think about next time you penny-pinchers are trying to squeeze more work out of your most valuable asset. People like you are the reason the copper Lincoln is something even Booth can't kill.

Starbucks wants to remind you who your java-flavored overlords are

2006-08-30T01:56:00.000-05:00

Starbucks has announced that they will be having coffee tastings at its stores in North America and will be offering podcasts about its coffee at its website. Yes, you read that correctly, podcasts about coffee. Starbucks has be facing increasing competition from McDonald's and Dunkin' Donuts and this is part of its plan to regain market share. Jim Alling, head of Starbucks US business, says:

"We know that because of the level of care and passion we put into it that it translates to a better experience for our customers than our competitors can do."

Jim, um, I don't think this is translating down to the teenager behind the counter making my girlfriend's Banana Coconut Frappuccino, who has about as much passion about coffee as I do about cleaning the cat's litter box.

Also, Starbucks has announced recently that they are aggressively expanding the number of locations worldwide. They plan on adding up to 250 new locations in the Chicago area alone, with about a dozen of those in the Loop. The article did not mention if they would be located all on the same block or if they will spread them out a bit this time, say on two blocks.

Like a good neighbor - well no, not really

2006-08-26T01:27:00.000-05:00

I think I can accurately predict the words in the thought bubble above people's heads when they read this article about State Farm cheating Katrina victims. Here goes:

Hmm. An insurance company that didn't want to pay out? That couldn't possibly be true.

Yes, everybody becomes sarcastic when they read this, even the people who believe they don't have a sarcastic bone in their body. At least they should, more on that later. Kerry and Cori Rigsby told ABC that they saw widespread fraud in some of the State Farm offices in Mississippi. The two sisters say that State Farm supervisors applied pressure to outside engineers to get reports stating that damage was caused by water, not wind. Water damage is not covered by State Farm, you need federal flood insurance for that. The State Farm offices where this was occurring according to the Rigsbys was in the cities of Biloxi and Gulfport. This just adds to the issues State Farm and other insurers are having in the aftermath of Katrina. State Farm has issued a statement which says the ABC story mischaracterizes the claims handling process at State Farm. They say they shred all kinds of documents, all the time as part of a records management program. They also say they paid out on some of the claims with engineering reports. Missing from the statement? A categorical denial of cheating Katrina victims.

OK, so here's the reason I'm posting this. It always surprises me when somebody can't believe an insurance company didn't cover a claim or a bill. It's like they think because they paid X amount then Y amount is just sitting there for them to use. That is not how it works. Insurance companies make money by charging premiums and then not having to pay out. It's like protection money from the mob except the insurance companies won't even do what you request on their daughters' wedding day. When you hear how an insurance company made a hefty profit in the 3rd quarter on the evening news, it's because they charged people more than they handed out. Pure and simple. These companies aren't manufacturing farm equipment and selling it. So next time you think the insurance company stock is a good buy, think about why it's making money. You're making money off of not covering all of a single mother's physical therapy costs after she was rearended in her mini-van. You're making money off of not allowing a grandfather a chance to have the better test to check for cancer. You're making money off of Katrina victims.

Venti half-caf soy iced caramel macchiato Albom

2006-08-23T23:41:00.000-05:00

Starbucks is furthering its venture out of the world of overpriced beverages and into the publishing world. The company announced that it will begin distributing Mitch Albom's new book For One More Day in October. Mitch Albom also wrote Tuesdays With Morrie and The Five People You Meet in Heaven. This is a surprise because Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz told the New York Times "I want to bring books to the marketplace that perhaps can't be found." But then again he used The Kite Runner as an example of a book that cannot be found so I guess selling the book of somebody who has sold ten million copies of his previous books fits that example. It should be noted that Starbucks is also the people who exposed you such unknown musicians as Ray Charles, Coldplay, and Bob Dylan. They also promoted the movie "Akeelah and the Bee" but you're probably asking "Wait, there was a movie called 'Akeelah and the Bee'?" and for my purposes here I'm just going to say "Yes, it was. Move on." The price will be the cover price of $21.95 so that differs from Starbucks standard model of charging you way more for something you can get cheap most anywhere. Which in this case is the same place. Yes, Starbucks will be selling books at its stores within Barnes & Noble. The kickoff will include a tour of eight Starbucks by Albom but there is no word if they are the eight in your small town or spread across the country.

On a side note, Albom's new book For One More Day is about a man who has one additional day with his mother after she dies. Yep, a third book dealing with death. It's hard to imagine what is going on in this guy's mind. Haven't a clue. Three books on the same subject an obsession it does not make. Finally, though unannounced by his publisher, all three books will be available in the future as a special boxed set called Reconciliations of Death: I'm Obsessed with Dying. It will make a great gift for the folks.

UPDATE: The bigger blogs in the world are starting to notice what Starbucks is doing, like BOING BOING.

AOL violates the privacy of three more people by releasing internal memo

2006-08-22T00:26:00.000-05:00

According to a story from Reuters, the chief technology officer for AOL Maureen Govern, a researcher in the technology research center, and that employee's supervisor are no longer with AOL. The ironic part of this story is the source for this story was a leaked internal memo. Reuters also got a copy of another memo from Jonathan Miller, AOL's Chief Executive, which talked about having to gain people's trust with everything they do. AOL says that they will be creating a task force headed by Ted Leonsis and General Counsel Randy Boe to address the issues AOL has been having in recent months. I'm sorry but what? A task force? If you want earn people's trust you need to do more than that. Many of us who have worked in the corporate world understand that "task force" is code for a bunch of meetings that people suddenly have to go to, people who don't want to be there and who still have to do their regular job too. The remedy I see this task force coming up with is sending everyone who had personal data released or who had issues with the retention department will get a CD with the latest AOL software on it, free of charge.

Ted has not commented on this development on his blog. His last statement about the data leak is a short apology from a couple of weeks ago. Noted staffer Jason Calacanis' last statement regarding this affair is one of seething anger, also a couple of weeks old.

AOL has been under attack from a number of sources lately. This largely due to growing exposure of horrible business practices. I cannot believe they decided and yes, they did decide, to create a retention system that tried everything short of not taking the cancellation calls to allowing what seems to be large scale abuses of that system by its employees. It is hard to believe that a high profile company didn't think that this would catch up to them. But now it is. Justifiably so too.

Is AT&T preparing its fight for the COPE Act?

2006-08-21T23:22:00.000-05:00

On August 15th, 2006, the City Council in the Chicago suburb of Naperville voted to approve a contract with AT&T to allow the telecom giant to provide the city with its Project Lightspeed service. In doing so, the Council believed it was choosing the responsible option, the one that provided the service to all of its constituents. However, the Council chose the option AT&T says it cannot accept. AT&T contends that any build-out option would not be conducive to competition. The build-out option required AT&T to provide the Project Lightspeed service to all of Naperville’s residents

From the story in the Chicago Tribune:

"Burchard surmised in a statement released Wednesday that AT&T's strategy was to demonstrate the difficulty the company is having in hammering out local franchise agreements."

AT&T needs to demonstrate that local franchising is barrier to preceding with its business goals. AT&T favors national franchising, which is now being debated in Congress as part of the COPE bill. The COPE bill is the legislation that also includes Net Neutrality clauses and is the bill Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) was referring to when he described the Internet as "a series of tubes."

The Daily Herald’s article expands further on the AT&T’s COPE strategy with statements from council members. The article also noted that there was a court reporter at the meeting, provided by AT&T.

As a parting note, it would be wise for companies not to upset the leaders of local government. Councilman James Boyajian had the following warning for other cities in the same Daily Herald article:

“I’m very sorry I wasted my time meeting with AT&T. I have not dealt with many companies that showed less integrity than AT&T on this thing and if this is the way they are going to do business, other municipalities better watch out.”

Indeed they should.

McRules woman possibly fired

2006-08-18T03:10:00.000-05:00

One of the problems with the always on, instant media of the Internet is the constant desire for the next thing. This progression from story to story sometimes means we do not always get the full picture, even if the news blurb we see on a news site or a blog entry we read on someone's personal website sparks a wave of editorials and rebuttals on other sites. Statistically speaking though, the collective hive mind has moved on after 36 hours. The issue is in the offline world things can move very slowly. The effect, or more specifically the reporting of the effect, can follow the cause more than 36 hours later. So often there is no follow-up to things we read or see online. Well, I like knowing what the effect was. I want to know what the ending is. So I've been searching online periodically to see if anything happened to the woman who posted the McRules online. Frankly I wasn't finding anything and was just about to give up and move on. Then I found this.

Nick and Drew are the night show guys on a station in Shreveport, LA. Amongst all the zaniness you would expect from local radio DJ's, are links to a supposed interview with Joanna. Now I used the word supposed and I emphasized it for a reason. I have no reason to believe that this is not her. The interview seems very straight forward and doesn't include anyone yelling 'baba booey' at the end. They do interchange the names Joanna and Samantha, which was strange because I don't recall a direct reference to the name Samantha. With all that said, the source is still two local radio DJ's interviewing somebody with knowledge of what was written.

So what did happen? "Ahh, they got a anonymous email from someone from the internet and they posted all my MySpace page out n' all the rules and they fired me on the spot." She was fired by the restaurant itself, corporate was not involved. They told her it was because they couldn't have anybody messing around with food. She flatly denies ever doing that.

The questions from Nick and Drew expanded on the list and her customer experiences. "My favorite rule? Don't talk shit as you leave the first window cuz I can still catch ya at the next window." That is rule number 43 on her list.

What is she going to do now? “Get over it.” She says it wasn't a serious job for her; she was just saving up for a car. "It was a dead end job." She also mentions a possible lawsuit over pictures which were also on her MySpace site that she and her friends took after work.

What does her future have in store for her? She states that the Burger King right next door to the McDonald’s is interested. “Burger King seen my list. Burger King thinks it's funny. Burger King has humor."

So there, in the spirit of Paul Harvey, is the rest of the story. Maybe one day we will be seeing a list of things we shouldn’t do at Burger King. After all, Burger King has humor.

Fast Food Nation

2006-08-09T23:09:00.000-05:00

While watching the events with the McRules unfold, I was reminded of a book I read a couple years ago. The title is Fast Food Nation and it is by Eric Schlosser. Before I read this book I was a frequent customer of the fast food chains. In fact the majority of my meals in a week came from these spots. I found this book about the same time I decided I needed to change my eating habits. This book is one of the key sources I used to develop not only my principles of food and eating, but also my principles of consumerism.

Fast Food Nation is not a direct attack on McDonald's. Its focus is on how the rise of franchised fast food restaurants not only changed how we eat but how we shop, how we work, and even how we live. Applying the assembly line approach to food and to restaurants changed everything around it. Franchising became a key doctrine in business, giving rise to big box stores, strip malls, and suburban sprawl. Increased demand for agricultural products changed family farms and ranches were replaced by businesses and the mega-farms. Flavors and "products" are developed not in a kitchen, but laboratories using chemistry and not cookbooks. Companies relationships with its employees are also explored. Read this book and it will make the argument that maybe the McRules should apply to the corporations and not its customers.

Fast Food Nation is well written and well documented. It includes a bibliography and an index but more importantly, it includes notes on Eric's sources to document what he says in the book. However this book is not a textbook and does not read like one. Each chapter follows people specific to the subject of the chapter (ranchers, meat cutters, etc.) while still giving relevant facts. This easy-to-read book should be read by any person who cares what they eat and how they spend their money.

McRules

2006-08-09T21:07:00.000-05:00

Websites like The Consumerist and Fast Food News have a story about a woman from Louisiana who developed a set of "rules" for customers to follow when they stop at her McDonald's. As you would expect most are specific gripes about customer behavior and courtesy. While it may seem like no big thing to us, multiplied by a large flow of customers one could understand how it would get annoying. However her rules take a tone of self-importance and while this may have been done for comedic effect, she included things that you just don't go on public record (in this case the Internet) and state. People have always been aware of the stories that happen in restaurant kitchens. Some stories are true, some not. Many ex-restaurant employees are intimately aware of what goes on where the customers can't see. Still we eat at these places, purposely forgetting or maintaining an illusion that it won't happening to us. Posting a list with references to doing unspeakable things to food reminds us that it can happen to us. Believing these rules were a good thing to post is just asinine.

This Rock's for you

2006-08-08T00:06:00.000-05:00

Sigh. I could live with Rolling Rock being part of Anheuser-Busch. I drink Michelob Ultra when water isn't available. I drank Busch Light Draft plenty in college...high school? Both? OK, either way I've knocked back a few. So what? They have new owners, what could they possibly do to hurt the brand they wanted to buy? I mean c'mon, Rolling Rock has a pledge right on the bottle:

"Rolling Rock From the glass lined tanks of Old Latrobe, we tender this premium beer for your enjoyment as a tribute to your good taste. It comes from the mountain springs to you."

What? They are going to brew it in Newark? There's mountain springs in Newark? No? Crap. The new tanks are lined in glass though right? No. What the fuck? Should we be expecting commercials with three frogs croaking "Rol! Ling! Rock!"?

Looks like one of my options has been eliminated. I guess I will be sticking to beers like Gray's Honey Ale and Leinenkugel's.