A BlogMad... "Hic-Cup". . .

Verizon UPDATE: I went to the Verizon store, and fortunately for me, Erwin was there. First, he offered me a 'loaner' phone until my renewal date, then, he went one step further and reviewed my account. Once he'd done that he said, you can upgrade whenever you're ready... It turns out the 26th was the day I got my last phone, so I could have upgraded two months ago!!

Once again, when I actually got to talk to the right person, I find my faith in customer service restored. So now I have a loaner phone, and we'll go in and revamp our accounts later this week.

Now here's the original post.

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That's what they're calling it... this 'corruption' that ate my Blogmad account...

Yep, that's right, the user name, password and the account, blog statistics etc... all gone, or so they claim. According to the front page of the site they have backups from ‘about’ 20 days ago... 20 days!!! WTF is up with that? Even my piddly web sites are backed up daily as part of the fees my hosting service charges... they do backups at Blogmad once a month??

I've emailed them, but I'm expecting no good news... if they've lost the info... they've probably lost me as well... too much time and effort 'building up' my internal 'BlogRank' to have carelessness wipe it all out...

Of course this is but a ‘part’ of, one of those weeks....

Just when you thought…

Everything was finally running along as smooth as silk, a little drama gets inserted, just to keep things ‘interesting’.

My cell phone died at some point on Monday night… as I was driving to work on Tuesday morning I realized I’d forgotten to tell my wife something and tried to call… nothing… Nada… zilch… then I notice the phone is ‘searching’ and has dropped ‘off the network’…

I thought, no big deal, it’s done this before, usually it’s an ‘upgrade’ issue of some sort… so I dropped my wife an email when I got to work, and asked her to call Verizon for me.

The tech folks at Verizon confirmed my belief that it was an upgrade issue and gave us instructions…. They also said, “…if that doesn’t get you connected, you’ll have to stop in to one of the Verizon centers” to get it resolved”… The instructions to fix it, didn’t, she took the phone to the store, I called last night, their verdict… the phone is DOA.

Ok, not all bad… I’m using my wife’s cell in the meantime… so I ask if I can get my “New in Two” upgrade credit now, instead of in 8 days… the answer,

Her: “No, let me give you the tech support number…”
Me: I’ve already called them, it was tech support who suggested I bring the phone to the store.

Her: Sir they would not have said that.
Me: So, you’re saying I made it up?

Her: Let me give you their number.
Me: I have it (read it back to her from the call list) and I’ve already talked to them

Her: well they can send you out a replacement if the phone is still under warranty
Me: I’m 8 days from the end of the contract, how could it still be under warranty

Her: Oh, then it wouldn’t be

Me: So… why don’t I just ‘renew’ my contract a few days early
Her: We can do that, but you can’t have the $100 off

This cycle repeated with slight variations about 4 times… until I said:

Me: “I’ve been a Verizon customer since Verizon started!... It’s only 8 days… do you really want me to go elsewhere to get a new phone and service provider?”

Her: “I’m sorry sir, we can’t do that… and Sir, no other carrier will give you $100 off on a phone…”

Me: “Really… you wouldn’t want to place a real money wager on that, would you? “

I ended the call… and I’m headed over there shortly… but I find myself wondering…

What happened to:

“If you have a problem, call us and we’ll make it our problem”

… or …

“You’ll have the power of the Network behind you” ???

Then, If that wasn’t enough there’s the “Oh shit” factor of the week…

What am I talking about?. . . More drama… Work this time… No... not personal drama, but a little professional drama. Nothing like something that could interfere with your ability to pay the bills to keep life interesting!

There’s been an executive decision, at the company I’m under contract to, to get out of one particular aspect of their business. Not an unusual business decision, as this type of thing is done every day in companies all over the world.

This particular decision though, leaves a number of the developers, systems and business analysts and some managers with jobs that will no longer exist once the exit is complete.

Kudos to the company, in that their primary focus is on reassigning existing employees into other jobs throughout the company. The first on the ‘gone’ list will, of course, be the contractors. This is, in my mind anyway, how it should be.

Despite the fact that I think the company should be commended for looking for ways to retain all full time employees first, and that it is the right thing to do, that decision still leaves me feeling very vulnerable to the “Thanks but” meeting.

I’ve mentioned in many posts how I believe this is an extremely well run company, this is just one more example of their commitment to their people, their belief that it’s the employees that make everything ‘work’.

If I fall under the axe, I know I’ll be disappointed. This has been one of, if not the, best contract I’ve ever worked. I’ve learned a ton about an industry I knew little or nothing about a year ago, and along the way I've built some interesting and useful applications.

Above all though, I’ve actually felt appreciated. Those of you who stop by here and are contractors know, it’s pretty unusual for a company to make a contractor ‘feel’ appreciated. I’ve gotten several letter (emails) of commendation, from my manager, as well as from the folks she reports to.

I know that these same folks are doing what they can to see that I’m still there when the dust settles, but, the stone reality is, they can only do so much.

I’m thinking I need to have a chat with my ‘contract house’, let them know what’s going on and see what they might have in the works, just in case.

It’s been a very interesting week so far… and this is only about half of it…

Anyone have a cell phone carrier they really like? I may just switch regardless of the final result at Verizon… At least I can make that decision for myself!!

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