ChrisKnight – Page 50 – The Wacky World of Chris Knight

2008/01/032008/07/22

Fun with Mazda Customer Service

A few weeks ago I called Mazda Customer Support to get the procedure for a Lemon Law Return on my crappy 2007 RX-8 GT. The call went like this:

Me: Hi, I’d like to inquire about the procedure for returning my car under the Lemon Law.

Him: Let me get your name, VIN, and the dealership where your car is.

Me: [supply information]

Him: OK, let’s see if there is anything we can do to get this repaired for you.

Me: I’m sorry, you seem to have misundersood; I wish to return my vehicle. I am tired of having Mazda try to fix it. You’ve had more than three attempts, and my car has spend more than 30 days in the shop. Under California law my car qualifies as a lemon.

Him: Well, I guess we’ll see what your letter says.

Me: Letter?

Him: Yes, your letter.

Me: What letter?

Him: Since you are not interested in fixing your car you need to file your complaint in writing.

Me: You could have just said that from the beginning. I specifically called to ask what the procedure is, and then you can’t just tell me?

Him: I’m sorry, there is nothing more I can do until I see your letter.

Me: You can’t even talk to me now?

Him: No.

And this is how my interactions started with them. Instead of just telling me what the procedure is, he has to cryptically mention ‘the letter’ instead of flat out saying I need to write one. He didn’t even have the courtesy to spell out what I needed to put in the letter.

It hasn’t gotten any better…

[ad#adsense-horizontal]

2007/12/282008/07/22

Perverted Police Want to See Your Penis

This is complete and utter entrapment bullshit. Here is an excerpt from the story, and you can follow the link if you want to see how contemptuous today’s police officers are of your rights.

ABC News: Topless Woman Lured Perverts for Police
Robin Garrison, an off-duty 42-year-old firefighter, was walking in Berliner Park in Columbus, Ohio, in May when he saw a woman sunbathing topless under a tree.

He approached her and they started talking and getting comfortable, the woman smiling and resting her foot on his shoulder at one point.

Eventually, she asked to see Garrison’s penis; he unzipped his pants and complied.

Seconds later, undercover police officers pulled up in a van and arrested Garrison; he was later charged with public indecency, a misdemeanor, based on video footage taken by cops who were targeting men having sex or masturbating in the park. While topless sunbathing is legal in the city’s parks, exposing more than that is against the law.

When a stranger walks up to you and flashes their genitalia, they are a pervert.

When you’ve been chatting someone up for a while, resting your foot on their shoulder, and you ask to see their genitalia, it’s called ‘a date’.

Robin Garrison is guilty of poor judgment, since he should have asked her to buy him a drink first. Obviously, he should have suggested a club that allows such behavior. Still, it wasn’t his idea to expose himself, and if that isn’t the definition of entrapment I don’t know what is.

-Chris

[ad#adsense-horizontal]

2007/12/282008/07/22

Government work – the American dole

I experienced a new low in the failures of our educational system, and the hiring practices of the state, while at the California DMV today. Today I reverted my legal name back to my birth name. After my court appearance I went to the DMV to get my license updated. My previous name was Christopher Michael Knight, and my new (yet, old) name is Christopher Lee O’Halloran. After reading and re-reading my court forms, the DMV worker says to me “We don’t use the hyphen.” “Umm, what hyphen?” I ask. “This thing right here, we don’t use that.” “You mean the apostrophe?” I ask. Her response was “Whatever it is called, we don’t use it.”

It would be bad enough if a grown adult, employed in a position that requires paperwork processing, doesn’t know the functional difference between a hyphen and an apostrophe; but to not even know the names and differences in the written characters was a bit surprising.

Given that it apparently doesn’t require a fifth grade understanding of English to get a DMV job, and they say that once you have a government job you are employed for life, then government work is the US version of ‘the dole’.

[ad#adsense-horizontal]