It was a hurricane, right?

Actually, it wasn't a hurricane.

http://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2011/08/when-did-irene-stop-being-hurricane.html

Unclear who the definition benefitted with the exception of The Weather Channel and Mass Media.  Seems like Bloomberg, who prides himself on making political and governmental decisions that look like business decisions, would have stuck to the facts on this one.  I guess he is still smarting from his ass-whooping over the SnowPlowGeddon of winter 2010 / 2011.

OPEN LETTER TO VERIZON, TOMMY HILFIGER & HONDA

[as submitted by littleloser@angryloser.com]

To the visionaries who turned Madness's Our House into Jingle Bells for Verizon's winter campaign, I ask you: what's with the jingle singers' poncey British accents? I hate you so much more for that.

Keeping with the theme, Tommy Hilfiger and Honda, how about negotiating some exclusivity when selecting a reasonably hip band's uber-commercial, non-denominational, feel-good anthem for your ads? Vampire Weekend now makes me feel like plastic, and I can't separate buying a Honda Civic from fashionably Interracial brand-whoring yuppiness. Moreover, Tommy, your Wes Anderson-esque coloring and costuming confuse me.

As for you, Honda, your ad was more or less forgettable. Though I recall thinking it might have been for Blue Navy, and that I didn't want to hear the Holiday song anymore. Sort of lose-lose.

MY NEW WHIRLPOOL REFRIDGERATOR

Customer Service,

When I placed order #0147216948, I was signing up for the automatic water filter subscription service, not ordering a water filter.  Please do not ship me a water filter at this time.  Please ship my first water filter in 12 months per my reoccurence settings, and then every 12 months after that.  Please do not charge my credit card until right before you ship me the first filter.  Please confirm the two action items in this paragraph will be performed.

Additionally, you should make signup to this service less confusing.  The point of a water filter subscription service is to allow the customer to not have to remember to order the filter.  You've included marketing material (part #INSTR7079 0507) on this program with all of your new refridgerator purchases.  You should be trying to capture all of your customers upon purchase.  If I have to wait until I need my first new filter to remember to purchase one, you've forced me to have to remember to replace it, destroyed all the value in the program, and failed to capture me upon purchase.

Finally, like many major corporations with customer service operations, you are using an IVR system to cut down on the number of customer service representatives you need to employ and to shorten the length of each customer service transaction by capturing information from the customer prior to connection to an employee.  This system makes a lot of financial sense.  However, if a customer is calling from an area with a lot of background noise, the system fails and makes it impossible to proceed through the system.  In my case, my son was speaking in the background which caused the IVR system to fail on every prompt.  I repeatedly pressed '0' to skip the IVR, but this did not allow me to proceed without at least some IVR collected responses.  Additionally, once I suffered through this process, I was told that the customer service department was closed.  If you are closed, you should advise customers upfront, so they don't suffer through the IVR if what they need to do absolutely requires a human interaction.

Thanks.

THIS REALLY HITS MY ANGER SPOT

These other guys really nailed this perfectly, so I'll say no more.

www.unhappyhipsters.com

MORE TIME WARNER BULLSH*T

Who in their right mind would voluntarily purchase any good or service from Time Warner Cable.  TWC is the poster child for a company who is abusing their monopoly power.  Paying $150+ per month for 980 channels of television that no one wants and 20 channels that some people do is old thinking.  The content purchasing market power that they wield to deny other providers the chance to distribute good media is not good in any way for the customer.  This behaviour will surely lead to their demise.

And the language is maddening.  "Up to 5x faster than 3G."  This slippery statement rings true even if their service is 5x SLOWER than 3G.  And who would buy a mobile internet solution from a company that doesn't own or operate any cellular services?