Tues. Oct. 20, 2020: Die For Your Employer Day 153 — Evolving Process, Screw Your Customers, and Cats (not the musical)

image courtesy of Gerd Altmann via pixabay.com

Tuesday, October 20, 2020

Waxing Moon

Neptune, Uranus, Mars, Mercury Retrograde

Red-streaked clouds

Evolving Process

I keep feeling like I’m not getting anything done, but when I look back, I actually did a bunch of stuff. The emotional reality and reality don’t always coincide.

Friday was pretty much a lost day. I made raw apple muffins early in the morning, and puttered around some, but I couldn’t get focused on anything. There was nothing in the creative tank. It was as though I spent all my creative energy on the baking, when usually baking fuels creative energy for other work.

I read, I tried to write. I had a couple of stories percolating. One, I think, will be novel-length, or at least novella-length. The other will be a short story. Both are ways of exploring rage I feel at two different situations.

Friday night, I listened to the HAMILTON Broadway cast recording all the way through. There’s a lot of cleverness in it. I’d forgotten that Jonathan Groff, with whom I worked on SPRING AWAKENING, originated King George. He’s a delight, on and off stage. Terrific actor and even more terrific human being.

Awake way too early on Saturday. Wrote the first 1500 words on one of the new pieces, even though there’s other stuff I should be working on. I don’t have a title for it, but the protagonist is Nell Dunbar, so for now, I’m calling it “the Nell Dunbar piece.” It’s part literary fiction, with elements of suspense and romance in it. It was originally going to be straight-up romantic suspense, but it doesn’t want to be stuck in that genre box.

Not sure if it will go under the Devon Ellington byline or the Christy Garnet Miller byline or something completely different.

Once that was done, I felt like I could actually cope with the day. I changed the beds, did six loads of laundry, changed out some of the yoga blankets and batiks for fleece on chairs and sofas. Now I actually have some yoga blankets I can use for yoga over the winter. Vacuumed, mopped, tidied up, did some rearranging in the basement.

Vacuuming always causes Kitty Trauma, but at least there were enough catnip bananas to go around, and everyone calmed down pretty fast.

Spent too much time doomscrolling (and it WAS doomscrolling, not hopescrolling). I need to break myself of that habit.

Read a bit in Hal Prince’s memoir, and also started the book I have to read for review, which has way too much backstory/info dump that’s obscuring the spine of the piece.

A friend and I exchanged the short stories we each wrote and submitted to a contest that a third friend is blind judging (so we’ve been careful not to publicly talk about details, because that’s unfair to the friend who’s a judge). Anyway, each of us fell in love with the other’s story and prefer it to our own! I love the possibilities in hers, and how she turned tropes inside out for something fresh and clever that has legs. I love the simplicity, yet she doesn’t overexplain. She loves all the tiny descriptive details I researched and integrated. So we can cheer for each other to win even more loudly than for ourselves!

Received a check for the two articles I submitted last Monday, which was a lovely surprise. The editor had told me it would be “a few weeks” and I expected at least 30 days. To get it in 5 days was lovely.

Listened to the original Broadway company recording of COMPANY in the evening. I was never as enamored of the piece as many friends and colleagues, but it’s such a part of my theatre history (even though I’ve never worked on a production of it) that I wanted to refresh my ears on it.

Was exhausted and went to bed way too early, which meant, yup, on Sunday, I was up again way too early. Had all kinds of weird disturbing dreams that kept waking me up. Puttered around, letting stories percolate. The longer I do this writing life, the more use I find to sit and percolate before I write. I used to just spit out first drafts – and I can still write the first draft pretty quickly, once I have it set in my head. But I find myself percolating and writing in my head in much more detail now than when I used to. It makes the work more precise earlier when I finally write it down.

But that’s the beauty of process – it evolves as you gain experience and work on craft.

In writing classes, I always find the unpublished writers the ones least open to trying new techniques, claiming it interferes with “their process.” I believe you need to shake up your process regularly, and part of the beauty of taking a class is to learn new ways of doing things. That way, when your process fails and you get stuck (which WILL happen), you have other tools and techniques to pull on to get going again.

Businesses are Determined to Sabotage Themselves, Aren’t They?

Contacted Crystal Bar Soaps for an update on the order I placed on September 26, and got a vague non-answer about how busy they are and how happy they are to have my order. Well, honey, then SHIP IT.  I responded that I hope I receive the order by Oct. 29, for my mother’s 96^th birthday, which is why I placed the order in the first place and ordered it on SEPTEMBER 26. For items that are supposedly in stock. I’m a big fan of their products, and I believe in supporting small business/independent artists. But the shipping delays have gotten out of control with this company. Using the pandemic as an excuse doesn’t work anymore, especially when you announce on social media that you’re hired more employees (which is great).

I’m re-thinking my plan to do holiday shopping with them, because even if I order the day the merchandise goes live, there’s no way to be sure I’ll get in time for the holidays. That’s additional stress on top of the whole trying-not-to-die and keep-a-roof-over-our-heads stress.  

I’m glad they’re doing well, and that their business had grown and not tanked during the pandemic. At the same time, I need to feel confident that my order will be processed in a reasonable amount of time. Because once it ships, then there’s the shipping time involved, which is about a week, except when it’s longer. They use USPS, which is far more reliable than either UPS or FedEx, but it’s voting season, and everything takes longer to get where it’s going. We’re into the fourth week now since the order and it hasn’t yet shipped.  I don’t find that reasonable for items that are in stock. If things were made-to-order, it would be understandable, but then give us a realistic time frame. This is either the third or fourth time I’ve had to chase down shipments, because I ordered – and paid – for something and then heard nothing until I contacted them to find out where it was. I’m tired of it. At least, previously, I got an actual answer on the status of the order, rather than this fluffy “happy” I ordered and maybe they’ll ship it “someday.”

I contacted them AGAIN this morning, asking for specific information on my order instead of platitudes and vagueness, and, once again, reminded them I ordered it back in September, and I need it by next week.

Yesterday, I risked ordering from a local restaurant. The only other time I did this, early in the stay-at-home – the entire household came down with food poisoning and the restaurant shrugged it off. So, I crossed them off my list.

So, yesterday, I ordered from a restaurant of whom I’ve been a regular customer for years, even before we moved to the Cape, and at least once a month, often more, pre-pandemic. I decided to go ahead and spend the money and order several meals’ worth of food. Cut down on my cooking this week, support a local business. All good, right?

I called in the order, REPEATED THE ORDER, had them REPEAT THE ORDER BACK, and set up a time for curbside pickup.

I get there, about five minutes after the agreed-upon time. They hadn’t even started preparing it yet. And it’s not because they were busy. There were three people in the restaurant, and the phone wasn’t ringing. But they greeted me by name as they always did, and said it would just be a few more minutes

Thirty-five minutes later, they bring out a big bag, thank me, tell me it’s good to see me, etc.  They KNOW me there.  I added a 50% tip on top of the order, because, you know, it’s a pandemic.

I had to stop at CVS to pick up a prescription for my mother and a couple of other necessities. There were register issues, but we went back and re-entered and did what we had to in order to process the order and the payment. It took five tries, and I felt so bad for the poor woman at the register. She was so apologetic, and I kept telling her it wasn’t a problem, and we’d just keep trying until it worked. And we did. Patience and persistence. I felt bad for the other people in line behind me, but CVS should have also put a second person on a register when the line got long.

Dropped off books at the library, picked up what was waiting.

Got home, unpacked things, decontaminated.

Find out the order from the restaurant is wrong. Not only is it WRONG, most of it is stuff I can’t eat, because I’m allergic. They KNOW I’m allergic to these things. I’ve been eating there for 15 years. I ordered one appetizer and two meals. That’s what I paid for, along with a 50% tip. I got three appetizers. One of which I can’t eat, because I’m allergic (and yes, I remind them of the allergy every time I place an order).

I call them. Just a “hey, I picked up my order, got it home, and instead of X & Y, you gave me C & D, some of which I’m allergic to, and the prices on these items are less than half of what I paid.” I didn’t mention the tip, because that’s tacky.

They think it’s funny.

No interest in making it right. They deliver, so they could have sent out a corrected order. No interest in refunding even a portion of the order.

The only option was to go back and BUY IT AGAIN.

I can’t go back. It means going out AGAIN (in a pandemic, assholes), after I’ve already decontaminated and put everything into the wash. And why would I go back, since they aren’t interested in giving me a corrected order unless I BUY it again? So I’m now supposed to pay double because THEY screwed up? When I already gave them a tip of 50% of the price of what I already paid for that I can’t even eat or use?  I’m supposed to blow next week’s food budget, too – and I GUARANTEE you they would put in the wrong order AGAIN.

That’s what I get for supporting a local business and giving a big tip.

Screwed.

There’s the food budget for the week gone.  It’s actually more than I would have spent for the week, because it was supposed to be 3 days’ worth of dinners, at a much higher cost than if I bought groceries and cooked the same thing. I’m a freelancer. A fellow small business.  It’s not like I have so much extra cash lying around IN A PANDEMIC. I won’t starve – I’ll live off the stockpile I’ve been putting aside for the next shutdown. But I blew my food budget for the week to support a local business who couldn’t be bothered to fill my order or fix their mistake.

I’m upset. I’m frustrated. I feel betrayed, that this company with whom I’ve done good business with for 15 years thinks it’s funny and okay to screw me.

I don’t want to hear ONE WORD more from the restaurant industry about how they’re struggling when this is how they treat their customers. I talked about this on social media and was surprised how many DMs I got about people telling me stories about how the restaurants can’t be bothered with the customers trying to support them.

As a consumer, I’m frustrated. Businesses are crying that they’re suffering, but they treat their customers like crap and then want them to spend even more? No.

Give us what we paid for in a timely fashion OR communicate that you can’t clearly and why and set a new timeline. OR, when there’s a screwup, work WITH us for a mutually beneficial solution.

Because I am NOT going to continue to give money to businesses – be they large corporations or solopreneurs – who treat me like shit.

Don’t tell me to “support local business” when they won’t fulfill their part of the transaction.

As a consumer, I’m frustrated.

As a marketing person, I am appalled that these businesses think they can keep getting away with screwing their customers.

Maybe, just maybe, some of the businesses that are going under are doing so because they’ve betrayed their customers often enough that the customers have walked away.

It goes with what I talked about for months pre-pandemic. This area has a non-reciprocal economy. I’m a small business, and a skilled worker. But I’m supposed to take a job that’s not in my profession for a fraction of my rate because “we don’t pay for that” meaning my profession.  But when I go further afield to clients who appreciate my skills and pay me for the value I bring to my work, I am told I’m not “supporting the local economy.”

Even though my very presence puts money into the local economy by paying taxes, shopping for necessities, shopping for gifts and whatever non-essentials I can afford at any given time, etc. I put money into the economy regularly, but I am not supposed to receive money for my skills. The only reason I CAN put money into the local economy is because I have clients who live FAR AWAY who pay me for my skills. If I was only earning minimum wage in one of the local shit jobs that aren’t in my profession, I’d have even less to spend locally.

And why shouldn’t it be a two-way street? It’s not like my skills aren’t needed. But they don’t want to pay for them. Yet I’m supposed to pay and pay and pay but not BE PAID.

That’s not a sustainable model.

It’s one of the reasons the local economy was a mess even before the pandemic.

Cats and Stuff

Yesterday, Willa stole Charlotte’s catnip banana, so then Charlotte ran upstairs and stole Tessa’s catnip banana, and then Tessa ran into the other room and stole Willa’s banana. Everyone still had a catnip banana, but it was the WRONG catnip banana, so there was hissing and yowling involved until we got them all switched back.

So much for peace by catnip banana.

Tessa has decided she really likes my grandmother’s rocking chair (which is by the window and the heater in my bedroom).  She has decided she will now reign from there.

The landlord came to look at the newly installed furnace. Now he’s telling me the bank from whom he got the loan wants copies of my utility bills. I think that’s inappropriate. I’m not the one who applied for the loan. On top of that, I had months where I had to give up work to have various “estimates” come in from different companies, and we were supposed to get new insulation, a new fridge, and a new washer as part of this furnace upgrade deal — NONE OF WHICH IS HAPPENING. I’m not giving my financial information to a bank with whom I don’t do business. They’ll get copies of the bill — with my name and information and account number blanked out. They can see the final amount, but not personal details.

Today, I have client work and article work and LOIs to focus on. Let’s hope it’s a productive and creative day. I’m just exhausted physically and emotionally and sick of everyone. I got my check from Llewellyn for the 2021 annual, which was a nice lift to my day.

Normally, in a Mercury Retrograde, these purchases would be easy-peasey. But with the Mars retrograde layered over it, everything is a conflict and a problem. Add the Neptune retrograde (creativity slowed down, especially for Pisces) and Uranus retrograde (the need for economic and political change), and this period of time sucks.

I’d rather just make like a Victorian and take to my bed today, but that is not an option.

Hope you have a good one, friends.

Wed. Aug. 2, 2017: Website Woes and the Cost of Choosing an Unreliable Host

Wednesday, August 2, 2017
Waxing Moon
Saturn Retrograde
Neptune Retrograde
Sunny and humid

Yesterday wound up being an up-and-down day. The “up” parts were the rituals, morning and evening, for Lammas.

The “down” was, of course, the webhost failing me yet again on cover release day. 1&1.com simply does not provide the services for which they charge. It’s not that I don’t know HOW to code or use the tools; it’s that they too often don’t work. They were the wrong choice for me, and I’ve paid a high, high price, both financially and otherwise. When I sat down and figured the fiscal losses caused by their unreliability, I was shocked. With Mercury Retrograde coming up this month, I can’t change yet, but, since they are not interested in providing the services for which I pay, I will HAVE to change before the end of the year. With major book releases coming in October, November, and January, this has to be addressed, and timed so the website isn’t down at crucial times.

Of course, today, the website is just as bad as yesterday. This time, it let me make SOME of the changes on the page, but it doesn’t show up when I load, or refresh. So I had to try to re-submit the changes – which had vanished, even though they were saved. And this time, the coding wouldn’t take AT ALL.

List of woes:

–Webhost is unreliable. At least a third of the time (often more) I try to get in to either the website to update or to any of the emails to check mail, et al, the website is down and can’t be used. Since I have short windows when I can do this work, I need to be able to access the website and the email when I need to, not when they happen to feel like allowing it. I’m paying for access 24/7, not for once a week between allocated hours that they don’t reveal. When I ask what’s going on, virtual shrugging and saying, “Yeah, we were down; too bad” is not okay. You’re paid enough by enough people to be up more than you’re down.

–Tools don’t work. I can change the coding or use the tools until I’m ready to scream, and the page sits there, unchanged. Once in awhile, a tool will work for MAYBE 5 minutes. Then I have to save, log out, go to a different browser, log back in, and maybe the tool will work for another five minutes, or maybe that’s it for the day. The longest I’ve been able to do any work on a website without the site going into complete failure is 15 minutes. That is NOT okay. I should be able to do whatever work I need to do on the site for however long it takes me to do it. Doesn’t matter which browser is used, and it’s not my computer. I’ve used a variety of computers to check, a variety of browsers, and it’s always the same problem. I don’t have this issue when I do client work for anyone who has ANY other host.  1&1 claims this is for “security.”  Um, no.  It’s a lack of your platform working.

–Their customer service is non-existent. I don’t care where their technicians are located. I DO care that they refuse to explain anything properly. Their “customer service” and “technicians” are not as bad as those who work for Dell. My only experience with Dell’s customer service personnel is that they are sexist, misogynist pigs who make demeaning comments to me as a woman and about women. Dell’s response to any request for help was met with “women in my country don’t make demands” and “I decide whether or not you get help. Not you.” Honey, you’re working for an AMERICAN company who charges AMERICAN dollars. You treat women like people or you should be fired. As a customer paying for a service, it is the customer service representative’s job to treat me with respect and fulfill my needs. I’m not asking for anything out of bounds; I am asking that I get the services for which I pay, and to be treated with respect. To be fair, though, Dell had the worst and most abusive technicians and “customer service” personnel with which I’ve ever dealt. One of the reasons I no longer do business with them. That and the fact that their products fail the day after the warranty runs out.

–Supposedly, I can have “unlimited” subdomains. Yet if I want to actually build any more of them, I have to pay an additional monthly fee.

–Supposedly, again, I can build all the additional projects I want by uploading ftp files. Only they won’t give me the access code so I can upload them.

—-Supposedly, they support WordPress platforms. Supposedly, that is part of my package. Yet, if I actually want to use said platforms, you guessed it — an additional monthly fee.

–Supposedly, I have a “business” package which allows me to use marketing tools and to have things like a “Buy Now” button for Paypal. Only if I try to add such buttons or use the tools, I am suddenly charged an additional monthly fee. That monthly fee, to put a “Buy Now” button on my site, is double the quarterly fee for all the sites combined.

–My fees regularly go up, and the package terms change from week-to-week. Hosting contracts normally run for a year, unless you sign on for a multi-year agreement, and then are renewed every year. The agreement I made was that each contract would run for a year, paid quarterly. Now, they are changing the terms week-to-week, and charging me a higher fee every month. This is in addition to telling me there is an extra monthly charge every time I want to use a tool that is supposedly part of my package. Those are NOT the terms to which I agreed. I like paying quarterly. I’d like it even better if I actually got the services for which I paid.

–I have approached customer disservice multiple times about these issues. In return, I get flippant, demeaning, and inappropriate replies. Not acceptable. It’s time for me to hunt down the executive office’s contact information (I believe it’s in Germany), and to also get the Attorney General and the FCC involved. Not that I think there will be much support from the FCC, with its current governance.

Certain parts of my package are held hostage, and I can’t figure out how to release them. Otherwise, I would have left ages ago.

I’m more tech savvy now than I was before. I’ve found a way to enjoy technology, and, let’s face it, every profession has to evolve, or it dies. I still can’t get at everything I want, but I’m getting better. And, once I’ve done a technology upgrade on some of my home equipment, the research I’m doing on new webhosts will pay off, and I’ll move EVERYTHING. Probably slowly, one site at a time. The Devon Ellington site will be the most difficult, because it is the most complex, with the most subdomains. But it’s necessary.

What I need in a new webhost:

–Reliability. I need to be able to access what I need to access WHEN I need to access it.

–Customer Service. When I ask a question and say I need the steps laid out in writing, do it. Don’t argue. Don’t make rude comments about the fact I’m a woman. Don’t tell me that I have to do things YOUR way. I am the PAYING customer, and YOU are supposed to serve the customer. Period.

–Wordpress platforms. I am the most comfortable working on WordPress. While I appreciate the simpler website builders, and while, with enough time and no interruptions, I CAN code from scratch now (thanks to tutelage of wonderful people like Colin Galbraith, et al), WordPress is my comfort zone.

–A reasonable price that is stable for at least a year, and doesn’t double or triple the following year. I’m not a rich corporate client. I am a freelancer. I believe in paying for service. I shop around, and have to choose the package that gives me what I need for the price I can afford. But once I do that, I expect to get the service for which I pay.

I don’t think that’s unreasonable. I pay X fee for the services listed; I thereby get those services for which I paid.

If you have any suggestions for reliable, reasonably priced webhosts with good customer service, I’d love suggestions. I’ve heard good things about Bluehost. I’m also looking at Fat Cow and Host Gator. GoDaddy is NOT an option. Can’t stand them. I’m putting together a list of what I need, and I’m sending it to the hosts that seem to offer those types of packages, so that I get a response IN WRITING that, if I switch to them, they commit to providing what is promised. We’ll see how that works.

On to other things:

I’m working on August’s To Do list, but it’s not ready yet.

On today’s agenda, however, is work on the essay, work on the back matter for PLAYING THE ANGLES, planning the social media posts between now and then for the release, and working on “Labor Intensive.”

So I better get to it, now that I’ve got my litany of complaints against my webhost up! 😉

Friday, December 10, 2010

Friday, December 10, 2010
Waxing Moon
Neptune Retrograde
Mercury Retrograde
Sunny and cold

We’re supposed to get snow today.

Yesterday was Hell Day, pure and simple. And not because of the DMV (called RMV here). They were actually lovely and helpful, and how often can you say that? Okay, so I look like a serial killer in my driver’s license photo, but it was better than the first one, where I looked like a drug addict. I have to say this is THE worst driver’s license photo of my life.

It was because of ALLSTATE INSURANCE. Now, our family has been with Allstate for more than 30 years. When we lost the Ford in the flood, they were absolutely lovely.

No more. They did the wrong paperwork when I called their “relocation specialist” a few days before the move, which means I have the wrong paperwork, and I couldn’t get new plates or re-register the car in MA. I need a form called the RMV-1, which, according to the RMV, I can download from the Allstate site with an electronic signature, easy peasy, go down to the public library at the corner and come right back.

Of course, the form doesn’t exist on their site. And when I call, freezing from the parking lot of the library in weather in the teens, I get an outsourced male idiot who doesn’t know what I’m talking about and makes inappropriate comments pertaining to my gender. I go back home, get on the phone, and try to sort it out with someone who’s actually based in the US and gives a fuck. The insurance policy is fully paid up until March, the car passed inspection, it’s properly registered, the title is clear, this should not be a problem. They don’t know what an RMV-1 is, they don’t care to find out, they think MA is “weird” with its regulations, and they won’t send me the form until I give them proof that I’ve sent back my NY license plates. I can’t do that until I get MA plates — I can’t drive around without plates — and I can’t get the MA plates without the RMV-1. But ALLSTATE doesn’t care. Not only will they not give me the form I need to get the MA plates, they’ve told the DMV in NY to start fining me DAILY until they receive the plates.

So, basically, ALLSTATE fucked me up the ass (and do not pardon the language), taking my money, not giving me service. I shouldn’t be surprised, but after 30+ years dealing with an individual agent who was very helpful, it was a shock. They don’t even HAVE an agent anywhere around so I can go into an office and get it sorted out. They say they wrote me a “new” policy based on MA regulations, but won’t give me the policy number — which I need to keep in my glove compartment in case something happens should there be an accident or a stop between now and the time they deign to send me my new insurance card — if they ever do.

Totally unacceptable. I checked with the office of the Commissioner of Insurance in MA, and they are breaking laws six ways from Sunday. I’m going to call the corporate headquarters this morning to see if they will deign to do something, and then file a complaint with the state because the company is not following the law.

That still doesn’t get me my insurance form or my new plates or get rid of the fines, which I think should be picked up by ALLSTATE because they created the situation unnecessarily.

Not to mention the fact that, when they get tired of talking to you, they tell you they can’t get through to the person who has to make the authorization and will call back. Which, of course, they NEVER do. I’m still waiting for a call back on the renter’s insurance they promised me a month ago.

And then, the chick I spoke to had the GALL to say, “I hope you recommend us to all your friends.” Are you freaking KIDDING me? Why would I want someone I like to go through this?

In other words, today will totally suck, too. I was supposed to go to the Osterville Holiday Stroll tonight, but I’m not feeling festive. I can’t not drive — supposedly the “new” policy, the one they refused to give me the number on, kicked in at midnight, so, even without paperwork, I’m covered. But I have to pick up my mom’s pills and a few other things. And I’m uncomfortable driving without the appropriate paperwork in the car. “Oh, they have to give you time to transfer,” little chicklet chirps, which, of course, we all know is a BIG FAT LIE, because if you don’t have the right paperwork, you’re screwed.

And Mercury is retrograde, so I’m supposed to stay low, stay quiet, and go shopping.

I am NOT a happy camper.

Devon