Modern Life

Yesterday I suffered from more than my share of business technology foul ups.

Car Dealer - Premier Auto Group

I bought a new car for my wife Monday. There were a couple of bits of paperwork that needed to be taken care of, and they faxed them to me at work. Bud's name is on the cover sheet along with the message "call if you have any questions" and a phone number. We had a couple of questions, so I called, or tried to call. I called the number. A fax machine answered. I called the fax number, thinking maybe he got them switched. A realtor answers. I look through the papers and find that "Bud" writes his nines like fours. Thanks, "Bud". Call the number. Rings and rings and rings. No answer. Try again. Same result. Wait a bit. Call again. One of those annoying push-a-number recordings comes on. At least it is the correct business. Push one for sales. Rings six or seven times and stops. Stops. Nothing else. Try again. Same result. Wait a bit. Call again. Live operator answers. Ask for "Bud". Connects me to sales. Bud? Yeah, let me see if I can find him. On hold, in limbo, for some indeterminate time. Give up. Wait a bit. Call again. Same sequence, different person at the end. Put me through to Voice Mail? Yes, please, more ringing, same person again. Let me try Voice Mail again. No! Wait! Too late, more ringing, same person again. He takes a message, finally. "Bud" never calls back. Praise the lord! What the blankety blank blank kind of outfit is this?

Car Wash - Chevron, 217 & Canyon

After lunch I stop to fill my gas guzzling pickup truck with fuel. It needs a car wash, so I buy one. I get a number printed on the bottom on my receipt that I dutifully punch into the keypad by the entrance to the car wash. I have been here many times before, and this machine has always done it's job. The illuminated sign at the far end says drive forward, and I do. Getting close to car washing position now, sign flashes STOP!, then immediately changes to BACKUP and starts blaring its' horn at me. Have to back all the way out of the car wash before it stops honking and changes to FORWARD again. So I try again, slower this time. Same result. Try again. I am really creeping now. Same result. Screw this. Take the receipt back to the store. I tell them their car wash is on the fritz. Lady at the counter tells me you have to go really slow. I tell her I did, the machine is on the fritz. She gives me another number, good for a week, and tells one of her minions to check it out. Bah! Call the car wash guys, get them out there and get it fixed. Such BS.

Computer - HP Design Jet Plotter

We have a very nice, large plotter at work. We use it to print schematics and the occasional mechanical drawing. Most of the people I work with use A size (8.5" by 11") schematics, mostly, I suspect, because they can print them on the office laser printer. Most of our drawing are B or C size. Software allows them to be scaled down to print as A size, and the printer is accurate enough to print all the detail, or most of it, but I hate that kind of stuff. Print it large enough that I read it, and make no mistake about it. I do not want to have guess whether it is an 8 or a B, a 0 or an O. So I liked this plotter. Never mind that it has gotten to be a real pain to use. None of the software I have wants to cooperate. I cannot print directly from my old DOS based Orcad, I cannot convert the old Orcad format files to the new without buying something, for which we have no money, etc., etc. But I need to print some schematics yesterday, so I go through the machinations to send them to the plotter. Walk over to check, and the plotter is turned off, and not just turned off, disconnected. What the? So I wheel it over to my desk, plug it in, turn it on, install the drivers and try and print the files. Nada. No errors, no complaints, no printing. Guess I won't be printing those schematics after all.