rants
- One-year service plan beginning as soon as the manufacturer’s labor warranty expires
- Coverage on parts and labor
- Renewable and transferable coverage
- Power surge protection
- Replacement program for all products under $400
- Repair program–products over $400 will be repaired by an authorized service provider
Protecting your purchase is a worry-free way to enjoy your electronics for just pennies a day.
Electronics MaxAssurance benefits also include:
- No deductible–no unexpected future costs
- Toll-free, 24-hour product helpline–referrals to qualified service providers
- Normal wear and tear coverage is included
- “No-Lemon” Policy–if your product requires more than three repairs, it will be replaced
Best Service With the MaxAssurance Plan, a nationwide network of service providers, as well as dedicated customer service representatives, are at your service. Product experts are ready to provide instant troubleshooting, information and reliable service when you need it most.
Billboards from God
On my way home from work every day I pass a billboard that frustrates me. It’s a simple message, white text on a black background. It’s designed to look like a written note. The words:
One nation under Me.
--God
Undoubtedly this billboard was purchased by some well-meaning evangelical wanting to make a point about their beliefs that American was a Christian country, should continue to be a Christian country, etc, and remind us about the battle over the Pledge of Allegiance. I don’t want to debate those points at all. Not that I necessarily agree with them exactly, but there are people in my congregation that would wholeheartedly agree with them, and I don’t have time to write a full, thoughtful response to the ideas; nor do I want to offend them by giving a less than thoughtful answer. So let’s leave that particular question alone.
These signs with ‘messages from God’ aren’t something new - they’ve been a staple on billboards for the past several years, and on church signs for many years before that. Even the Life Magazine that came in today’s newspaper had a collection of photos of church signs, including the ever-popular “let’s meet at my house today before the game – God” sign. (As an interesting aside, one church is now using a reverse strategy: messages from Satan.) In general, my attitude is iffy-but-OK with this type of message. Many times they just come across as cheesy (such as the church sign example above), but sometimes they can manage to be thought-provoking instead.
But this particular billboard really bothers me. Why? Because, first of all, it’s not something God ever said. The “One nation, under God” phrase was added to our Pledge of Allegiance by Congress, back in the fifties. I guess it’s become all too common today to put our words in God’s mouth, but this seems pretty flagrant. Second, I’m not sure it’s a message that God would endorse. I don’t think God is worried too much about America becoming a “Christian nation” again. God is much more concerned with people, individuals, coming to Him and being a part of His kingdom. God’s focus is the Church, not the political system or national structure.
My call is that we set our priorities by His priorities. Sure, that’s easy to say, harder to work out. But there are some places where it can be pretty clear. Let’s put our focus on forwarding Christ’s kingdom, not in trying to restore a “Christian nation”. If God wills, our country will come around. If not, well, God knows what He’s doing. My guess it you’re not going to find out about it, though, from a billboard.
Tuesday Riff on CCM
So I don’t listen to Christian radio any more, but Becky had it on in the van over the weekend, and on Sunday morning when I started the van to head to church, this song came on, and it’s driving me crazy. I’ve been frustrated with shallow and trite lyrics before, but I think this song takes the cake. To be fair, I’ll quote the whole song:
Some people tell me that I look kind of funny
My nose is red and the braces didn’t work at all
They say the clothes I wear are all out of fashion
I don’t fit in and should be shopping at a different mall
I studied classical piano when I could’ve been playing guitar
I used to drive an El Camino and I’m not even sure it’s a car
(chorus)
I’m not cool but that’s okay
My God loves me anyway
I’m not cool but that’s alright
I’m still precious in His sight
I’m not cool but I don’t care
How I’m supposed to do my hair
I’m not cool but that’s okay
My God loves me anyway
It doesn’t matter if I know all the lingo
He doesn’t mind if I’m not hanging with a certain crowd
Some people still believe in building image
≥ But I am fine and that’s a worry I can do without
I used to wish I was athletic but football was never my game
I met some friends in mathematics but no one can spell my last name
chorus
He says that I am one of a kind
And I don’t have to try to be somebody else
He believes in me and says I’m free to be myself
I can be myself
(I’m Not Cool - Scott Krippayne)
Becky has warned me that ripping on this song will just make me come across as a music snob. I’m probably guilty as charged… but I’ve gotta say something. In no particular order:
First thought: This could be the theme song for all of Christian Radio these days. The music they play is so out-of-date and repetitive… don’t get me started. It’s the same stuff I was hearing on Christian radio when I listened to it back in high school. And I graduated high school in 1995.
Second thought: There’s a fine line between saying “it’s OK if I’m not cool” and saying “I don’t need to be culturally relevant”. I understand what Krippayne is trying to say with the song. It’s supposed to be an encouragement to that poor socially-inept person who feels “uncool” and rejected by their peers. OK, great. But it’s a very short trip from that to saying “it doesn’t matter whether I’m in touch culturally or not”, which is a much shakier proposition. It seems to me that we do need to be culturally relevant; we’re not doing the Gospel any favors by intimating that only geeks and losers believe. Yeah, there’s a balance to be struck, but this song takes me way out past the edge of where I’m comfortable balancing.
Third thought: If it’s really OK to be uncool, why are the words and music written in a style that is attempting to be contemporary? Why not write it as a Gregorian chant or as Uzbekistani folk music or as hideous 70’s disco? Apparently it’s OK to be uncool unless you’re a CCM musician. Then you’ve gotta try to be, but the odds are you’ll fail miserably.
I can’t deny that the basic message of the song (“God loves me just as I am”) is true; it’s really the insipidity that kills me. Let me share, in closing, a song that does a far better job at eloquently sharing the wonder of God’s love for us. Brother Scott, you might take a lesson or two from Andrew Peterson.
What’s that on the ground?
It’s what’s left of my heart
Somebody named Jesus
Broke it to pieces
And planted the shards
And they’re coming up green
They’re coming in bloom
I can hardly believe
This is all coming true
Just as I am and just as I was
Just as I will be He loves me, He does
He showed me the day that He shed His own blood
He loves me, oh, He loves me, He does
All of my life I’ve held on to this fear
Its thistles and vines
Ensnare and entwine
What flowers appeared
It’s the fear that I’ll fall
One too many times
It’s the fear that His love
Is no better than mine
It’s time now to harvest
What little that grew
This man they call Jesus
Who planted the seeds
Has come for the fruit
And the best that I’ve got
Isn’t nearly enough
He’s glad for the crop
But it’s me that He loves
Just as I am and just as I was
Just as I will be He loves me, He does
The same as the day that He shed His own blood
He loves me, oh, He loves me, He does
(Just As I Am - Andrew Peterson)
US Cellular outage in Eastern Iowa
I woke up this morning to find that I had very limited, analog cellular service. US Cellular has usually been reliable, so I was a bit suprised. I checked with a few coworkers and found that they had the same problem.
Digital service was restored around 10:30 this morning, but I still didn’t have any luck calling out. I walked past a US Cellular office on my way to lunch around noon, and they reported that they had some electrical problems and that most of the towers in eastern Iowa were problematic. As of that hour, apparently inbound service was working, but outbound was still disabled.
As of a few minutes ago (1:20 PM) outbound calling appears to be working again. Specialized calling (for instance, #BAL to get your minutes balance) was still kicking you off to the analog network. Hopefully they’ll have it up again soon.
too many rebates
I’ve probably sent in more rebate forms in the last two months than I had in my entire previous 28 years of life. It’s starting to drive me nuts.
It starts out innocently enough - a $10 rebate on a spindle of blank CDs. Then all of a sudden it goes nuts on you. $30 on a wireless router. $20 on a wireless network adapter. $60 on Adobe Photoshop Elements. $80 on a new hard drive for the Tivo. $60 on contact lenses. It seems like it’ll never stop.
Then we bought a new washing machine. I have 3 forms just for it! One to rebate the $50 delivery cost. One for $100 back from Alliant Energy since it’s an Energy Star washer. And then one for a $75 gift card from Home Depot for some promotion they were running. What a pain.
I understand why manufacturers offer rebates; they give an incentive to the shopper (“I pay $100 now, but it’s only $40 after the rebates!") while at the same time they’re betting that a many folks won’t file the rebates on time or correctly (or at all), thus sticking the buyer with the full price. I’ve even fallen for it before; when I bought my Dell laptop back in the fall, it had a $100 Dell rebate that had to be filed within 28 days after the computer was shipped. I remembered it on day 29. There was much unhappiness that day.
Rebates do offer a few rays of sunshine, though; months from now when I’ve totally forgotten about the $80 hard drive rebate and my budget has absorbed the full cost, I’ll get an unexpected check in the mail. That’s always fun… and a good excuse to go out for dinner or something. See, maybe these rebates don’t save me any money at all…
OLN Hockey Blackout
Yesterday night I sat down in front of the TV, looking forward to watching a hockey game. The Dallas Stars were playing the Phoenix Coyotes, and according to the TV schedule, it was slated to be broadcast on OLN (cable channel 69 in our area) at 7:30 PM central time. I was bewildered to find that rather than the NHL, OLN was showing some cheesy show about the “25 scariest animals” or the “10 worst jobs” or something like that. Where was my hockey?
A quick check of the OLN website confirmed that they were showing the NHL. They even have a cool graphic that says “NHL on OLN: We believe in hockey.” I double-checked the TV listings at Excite. Yep, it was supposed to be on. I checked nhl.com. Yep, they agreed that the game was supposed to be on OLN, and even gave an in-progress score. So what the heck was going on?
Next I did a Google search, and I found this article from Newsday. It ends up that OLN is in a wrestling match with several major cable companies, apparently including my local provider, Mediacom. They want OLN to be a first-tier channel, i.e. have it included in the “standard” cable package that the company offers, rather than have it as part of a second-tier, pay-extra package. And so they are using blackouts of NHL games to try to blackmail the cable companies into switching around their cable packages.
The end result of all this: a whole bunch of really mad fans. Check out the OLN forum, for one. The funny part (OK, it’s not so funny, maybe ironic?) is that the people that paid extra to get that second-tier so they could watch hockey are the exact ones that are getting screwed. No hockey for you! If I were Gary Bettman, I’d be getting pretty upset with OLN - why, after already almost killing your league with a cancelled season, would you want to further alienate your fan base by blacking out TV coverage and not explaining why?
I will be contacting all three parties to express my frustration. I doubt it’ll accomplish anything, though. I should check… does some other network have TV rights for the Stanley Cup playoffs? If not, I may miss another whole season. Arrrrgh.
OfficeMax Replacement Watch, Day 26
I received my OfficeMax gift card yesterday in the mail. It was accompanied by a cheesy little letter telling me how sorry they were that my PDA broke, and praising me for my foresight in purchasing a replacement plan, and expressing their hope that I would buy a replacement plan again for my new PDA. Heh. So, last night I went to OfficeMax and purchased a new Palm Tungsten E2.
It’s going to work out OK. I had to put an extra $50 out of pocket, but it has a $50 rebate coming back from Palm, and it came with a nifty leather cover as a bonus. The one thing I’m a bit disappointed about is that they changed the sync cable interface… the old Tunsten E had a mini-USB connector, which was great since I already had a couple of those cables. My guess is that Palm realized they weren’t making enough money on extra cables and such, so they went back to some proprietary connector. Arrrgh. Now I need to decide what to get so I can sync it at home, too… I’m thinking maybe a cradle for here at work…
So now I’ll have to find other subjects to keep up my consistent blogging. Maybe it’ll be good for me to prove that I can consistently write even when it’s not about something that’s making me mad. :-)
OfficeMax Replacement Watch, Day 25
Still counting. Maybe I’ll get my gift card before the holiday weekend… but that may be too much to hope for.
I sent an inquiry last week via the OfficeMax website, requesting some contact information. I wrote:
Could you please send me the name of the store manager for the Cedar Rapids, IA Collins Road store, and also the name and mailing address of the district manager who has oversight over that store? I would like to contact them regarding my recent store experience. Thanks!
This morning I finally received a response, but it was not very helpful…
Thank you for your interest in OfficeMax.com. I don’t have the name of the store manager. The district manager is [name deleted]. I have forwarded your email to his email address. I do apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused. If there was anything else we can help you with please feel free to contact us. Once again thank you for you interest in OfficeMax.com.
Sincerely,
Unique
Customer Service Representative
First of all, “Unique”?!? I hope that’s not somebody’s real name… secondly, they totally ignored my request for a mailing address. Maybe he’ll respond via e-mail, but I doubt it. Grrrrr……
Take heart, though, my entire life isn’t this frustrating… I guess those parts are just the easy ones to blog about.
OfficeMax Replacement Watch, Day 24
Today I missed my first event due to not having a PDA to beep at me… I was supposed to meet a friend for breakfast at 6:30 and I totally spaced it. Sitting at work about 8:15 it finally dawned on me that I was supposed to meet him… Arrrgh.
OfficeMax Replacement Watch, Day 23
Still nothin'.
On another warranty replacement topic, I remembered this morning that the Countryman E6 microphone that broke on me has been in for warranty repair for nearly two months now, with no response from Countryman. Guess I’d better get back on their case about it.
OfficeMax Replacement Watch, Day 22
Date I started the process: August 6. Days since I called to start the process: 22. Days since I sent the dead PDA in: 11.
Assuming a 4-day USPS trip from Cedar Rapids to Dallas.
Projected days until they send the gift card: 3 to 8.
Assuming a 3-day USPS trip for the gift card.
Projected days until I get the gift card: 6 to 11.
Projected total cycle time: 28 to 33 days. (For an “immediate” replacement!)
Projected date I get the new PDA: Sept 6 - 10.
OfficeMax Replacement Watch, Day 19
Almost three weeks now and still nothin'. Geof suggests I should skip the Tungsten and go for a Treo. I suppose that’s an option, although if the Treo ever breaks then that means not only have I lost my PDA but I’ve lost my cellphone, too…
The other thing that irks me about Palm (not OfficeMax) is that none of the PDAs come with cradles any more. They all have a mini-USB port for syncing and a separate power cord. Dang it, I like the cradle. It gives me a place to keep my PDA charged and visible while I’m at my desk. They sell one, but it’s an extra $40. They used to include it with the PDA. Arrrgh.
As an addition: I just found this fun clause in the OfficeMax MaxAssurance fine print:
Meaningful service will be initiated within 48 hours of Your request and will be completed as soon as reasonably possible. If no meaningful service is initiated within such time limits and You have reasonably been available within such time limits, You may engage Your own servicer at Our expense.
Such great nebulous terms. “meaningful service”. What if I don’t think it’s meaningful? “As soon as reasonably possible.” I’ve got to think that three weeks (and counting) is waaaaaay longer than “reasonably possible.” I think it’s time to write a nasty letter to the store and regional managers…
OfficeMax Replacement Watch, Day 16
Nothing to report. I have meetings all morning this morning and would love to have the PDA for note-taking and boredom-reduction. Oh well…
On the other hand, I did get a new car stereo last night which is getting installed on Friday. And tomorrow they should be turning on the DSL at the house… woohoo for broadband internet! Now if I could only get my home network functioning…
OfficeMax Replacement Watch, Day 15
Yes, it’s been over two weeks now since I first took my dead PDA in to get it replaced. If their estimates hold up, sometime around Labor Day I should be receiving my gift card so I can purchase a replacement.
Arrrrrrrgh.
OfficeMax Replacement Watch, Day 12
No events to report today.
It is starting to drive me crazy not having my PDA. I didn’t realize how much I rely on it for calendar and note-taking (not to mention game-playing) until I’ve been without it for the better part of two weeks. If I had any other big purchases planned, I’d just go buy one from somewhere today and then use the OfficeMax gift card later for that purchase… but I don’t know what it might be.
OfficeMax MaxAssurance Replacement Watch, Day 11
Sent the package off yesterday afternoon… it’s headed to Dallas. I’m guessing the good ol' US Postal Service should have it there no later than Saturday.
On the other hand, we got the new laptop yesterday so now I have a lot of fun setup tasks in front of me, including the wireless network. I really do enjoy setup tasks.
OfficeMax MaxAssurance Replacement Watch, Day 10
My prepaid mailing label came in the mail yesterday, so last night after softball I went to get everything boxed up. Needing to send along a copy of my original purchase receipt, I went down to my scanner to make a copy… and the scanner apparently has died. Great.
So, it didn’t get packaged last night. I’ll make a copy this morning, and then box it and take it to the post office this afternoon after work. If their original schedule is accurate, then I should be receiving my replacement gift card in, oh, about 3 weeks… :-(
OfficeMax MaxAssurance Replacement Watch, Day 9 (part 2)
My dear wife informs me that the mailing label came today.
You can bet I’ll be shipping that puppy out tomorrow; don’t want to be the cause of any slowness here.
OfficeMax MaxAssurance Replacement Watch, Day 9
Note from Chris: I’m not usually this bitter… but I’m taking no small pleasure in the fact that this blog is the first Google hit on the search for “OfficeMax Replacement Plan”. Don’t know that my complaints will result in anything, but I’m going to document the arduous process.
Today is the ninth day since I started the process rolling to try to get my dead Palm Tungsten E replaced under the “MaxAssurance” plan I purchased from OfficeMax. Still no pre-paid mailing label. How long can it take to send a mailing label? If this is indicative of the way the whole process will go, I fully expect to be without my PDA for about 6 weeks, which to me is just unacceptable for a “replacement plan”.
A few choice quotes from the OfficeMax website:
Electronics MaxAssurance Extended Warranty
With the Electronics MaxAssurance Plan brought to you by OfficeMax, you can enhance the manufacturer’s warranty on your purchases of electronics.
Electronics MaxAssurance features include:
The parts that crack me up the most are “No deductible–no unexpected future costs” and “Product experts are ready to provide instant troubleshooting, information and reliable service when you need it most.”
Yeah, if “no unexpected future costs” means “you’ll have to put out at least another $50 to get a replacement” and “product experts” are call-center workers working from a really short script…
Side note: I’ve seen the return process done really well; when I got a bad item from musiciansfriend.com, I called and they asked for my e-mail address; they sent me a link to get a pre-paid UPS label online, and I had it that same evening and shipped the stuff the next day. That’s how it should be done.