Category: Service

One Headache Too Many

So if you read my previous blog entry, you are aware of a recent situation we had regarding our Dodge Durango having more electrical problems.  As an update to that post, the salesman that called me after the service was completed (to sell me a new car) has never called me back regarding my request to find an Aspen.  A week or so ago, Linda decided to head out to the car lots and see what we could find.  This turned out to be a very interesting event.  First off, we went to some lots in Peoria and came to the conclusion that most of these dealerships had very little on their lots and what they did have were either vans or crap looking boxes on wheels.  Now it was a quest so we took off to Morton to check out their lots.  Same situation on the Dodge lot, little inventory or was so ugly they were not even worth getting out of the vehicle to look at and definitely nothing in the SUV category.  We then headed over to the Ford lot.  They actually had a couple of Explorers on the backside of the lot so we stopped and got out to take a look.  In a first for this trip, a salesman came out to help us who promptly told us they did not have any new Explorers left due to being wiped out by the Cash for Clunkers program.  Does this seem odd to you?  Apparently everyone was turning in their clunkers for gas guzzling SUVs which seems contrary to the supposed intent of that program.  When we asked when more would be arriving we were told possibly in 6-8 weeks while he handed us his business card and walked away.  So here we sit wanting to purchase a vehicle and a) there are no vehicles to actually buy and b) the salesman doesn’t even seem interested enough to ask us our name so he can contact us when they do arrive.  We are no longer surprised why this industry is in the toilet.  Unwilling to give up, we headed to Pekin to check out the Dodge dealer there.  As we entered the now common empty lot, we spied a Dodge Aspen (the Durango replacement) and what seemed to good to be true it had a reduced sign on it.  Jumping out of the car we quickly located a salesman to inquire about the vehicle.  Turns out, it was a 2 wheel V6.  I can’t imagine that this configuration appealed to anyone in the market for this type of vehicle.  We also learned that the Aspen was not being made anymore and Chrysler decided to completely exit the SUV market.  This was the final straw and we decided it was time to check out the imports.

A mile or so down the street, there was a Toyota dealer and as it turns out, I actually knew the owner of that dealership (we met at my neighbor’s redneck Wednesday events which consists of everyone bringing over their firearms for target practice – our constitutional right to bear arms and don’t ever try to legislate it away).  Sure enough, this lot had a number of vehicles on it and a couple of Sequoias that were right up our alley.  A helpful salesman came out, we got all our questions answered, took a test drive, negotiated a price (helps if you know the right people) and signed on the bottom line.  We are now the proud owners of a new Toyota SUV and very happy with the decision.  Oh, and before we get the flood of comments trying to criminalize large vehicles, we live in the country in the Midwest (I chuckle every time I pass a stuck Prius in the snow), raise agility dogs that require traveling to competition and still looking for verifiable FACTS on the Global Warming myth (especially ones that justify the record lows we are currently experiencing).

I thought I would give a quick comparison of Toyota experiences with our previous Durango (hit the jump to see)

Continue reading One Headache Too Many

Another Fine Example of American Car Quality

I have stopped speculating as to why American car company quality is considered inferior to the imports.  The reason for this is now I know why by example.  When I did break from tradition and purchase a foreign car last year, I received an owner’s manual that was at least 3 inches thick.  It was frankly quite a shock, but there is not a question you could think of that is not answered in that manual.  Let’s compare that to a recent experience we had with our Dodge Durango.  For what seems like the 20th time we had an electrical issue with this SUV.   These issues have ranged from an all out dashboard power failure, a strange conflict that caused the blowers to go out when a random combination of radio and lights were on to the recent issue where the interior lights would not turn off even when all the doors were closed.  Linda takes this SUV to various dog shows and uses the light wheel to shut off the interior lights so she can keep the tailgate open for the pups.  All of a sudden, that switch would not work and the lights in the tailgate would not shut off even when all the doors were closed.  Frustrated with the poor electrical systems, I headed out to see if I could remedy the problem, but as in the previous cases, no luck.   Assuming another inconvenient trip to the dealer the next day, I decided to at least pull the fuse to save the battery.

I pulled off the fuse panel to see what I was in for:

The very first thing I notice is there is NOT A FUSE PULLER in the compartment.  What does it take to verify that a .5 cent plastic tool is included as it rolls of the assembly line?  Let’s just call that quality defect #1.  My next task was to locate which fuse to remove (with my own tool!).  The most obvious place to me would be on the fuse box panel – maybe a quick two word summary of what each fuse is for like interior lights or headlights or radio.

This was a big strike out, since all the cover had was 3 extra fuses (at least those were there) and although you cannot read it from the picture, it appeared to just have the fuse numbers on it – that of course is something I can obtain from the fuse itself and therefore completely useless to me (if it says something else, please enlighten me).  For the meantime,  I am naming it defect #2.  No worries I thought, I’ll break down and get the user manual… all .25 inch of it and use the schematic in there to selectively pull the appropriate fuse. Wait for it… wait for it… (hit the page jump)

Continue reading Another Fine Example of American Car Quality

Slob or Pure Genius

A few weeks ago Linda and I were picking up some dinner at the KFC out on Allen Rd.  For the second (and last) time, my experience was less than satisfying.  This time I had to question the cashier whether I could get the new grilled chicken in a sandwich (couldn’t find it on the menu) and basically had to beg for an explanation of what comes on it.  I ended up getting the sandwich plain.  Well plain was the request, when I got back in the car  on our way home, I pulled it out in order to finish eating so I could run when we got home.  Turns out this sandwich is about 2.5 bites big and sure enough had a giant tomato on it which I HATE.

But I digress from my original intent of this post.  As I was standing there waiting for my disappointing dinner, a young Generation Xbox kid comes waddling up to the buffet counter.  He then proceeded to badger the cashier as to whether there was dessert on the food trough.  She ended up telling him there was bread pudding available and he was satisfied.  Grabbing his plate, he quickly turned to go past me in order to get to the dessert.   Two observations hit me within a split second of each other.  The first is he had his shirt inside out.  I remember when this was the fashion trend, but generally it was on sweatshirts and not so much just plain t-shirts.  I quickly decided it he was a trend setter and just might give it that tipping point moment.  The other visual oddity that caught my eye was the fact he had spilled food all over the front of said t-shirt.  Now at the trough, the kid was visually upset because he was having difficulty locating the pudding which means he did not understand the “bread” part of her response since he was standing right in front of it.  Then my powers of reasoning kicked in and it occurred to me I could take this experience in two ways.

  1. The kid was a slob and the strong thumbs from the video controllers were now so disproportional to the fingers that the act of shoveling food into the mouth had become a challenge …. or….
  2. This kid is a total genius and was so aware of his potential to spill food that he purposely turned his t-shirt inside out allowing him to flip it right side out to hiding the  dirty deed.

I badly wanted to stay and get resolution to this quandary, but I had to get the running shoes on before the sun started setting.  I will never know for sure, but it has made me add a micro step in my observation methodology to see if other kids are now wearing their shirts inside out or if fat kids are making the trip to the bathroom for the switch before they order.  I will keep you posted on what I learn, but free to provide your own assessments or observations for discussion.

By the way, I just noticed I used this same guy in another post… can you locate it?

Errata – Or Rather Time To Man-Up

This does not look good.  It is the 16th and this is the first post I have made this month.  At least I have line of site to 3 posts (including this one), but I better start seeing some weird things soon or my quota will again be in jeopardy – I know, broken record but it is August and I am on goal and within tolerance of my New Year’s resolution – before you comment, how well are you doing on your resolutions to this point? 8^).  In this post, there is good news and bad news.  The good news first, my wife finally took the time to actually read my blog which requires me to use my second hand to count the number of readers so far.  So my readership is increasing, but this one came at a small price.  Having been with me to experience a number of the blog topics, she was in a position to correct some errors in my post.  I always want to be as accurate as possible, so I am taking the time to correct a few of the mistakes she found and follow up on another post.

Starting off, I would like to apologize to Applebee’s for incorrectly identifying their fine establishment as the one causing us hardships with the gift card.  You can read the post here if you are curious.  Linda reminded it was not at Applebees, but rather:

Chedduhs

That’s right, the episode with the gift card happened at Ched’duh’s in Springfield.  Please go out of your way enjoy Applebee’s fine cuisine and make your own choice about going to the other.

Secondly, the location of the Moose encounter  was not at Yellowstone National Park as indicated in my blog entry.  The moose was actually seen as we were exiting the Rocky Mountain National Park.  I sure hope he does not find out and decide to pay me a visit.

I also thought I would take the time to follow up on the post regarding Sunny D. You know, the one where they purposely labeled their container to deceive the consumer.  Anyway, as mentioned in the post I did take the time to comment on their website and thought I would simply provide the details of their response:

This was my submission to their corporate website:

Content: I want to comment on what I consider intentional and truly deceptive marketing practices by your company. I was recently at Sams and decided to go with your orange juice offering over your competitors based on your label indicating 100% Vitamin C. Unfortunately, I purchased a case of your product under false pretenses. Once home I eventually checked the nutrition facts and noticed that a single bottle of your product only provides 80 percent of the DV. Sure enough when I turned the bottle over I found the small print of per 8 oz serving. Now I ask you, does a company with integrity put this deceptive label on a 6.75 floz container?… or maybe you think the consumer would be more than willing to op en another bottle and try to guesstimate 1.25 floz to conform to the label. I’ll accept the fact I failed due diligence on the purchase, but as a result of being deceived I will be hard pressed to consider any of your products in the future. I hope the loss of company integrity was worth not increasing your unit size or changing your label appropriately.

This was the ONLY response I received from taking the time to comment on their website regarding what I think is a serious example of deception:

Subject: RE: [BULK] Message from Sunny D

 

Good Morning,

 

Thank you for contacting SunnyD and sharing your thoughts with us. I will certainly share your feedback with the rest of the team. Thank you again for writing. Have a wonderful day!

Sincerely,

Sunny Delight Beverages Co
Consumer Relations Department

Contact Center hours are M-F 8am-7pm

Wow, I am truly a satisfied customer and looking forward to my wonderful day.  I especially liked the [BULK] portion of their subject line so I am fully aware that the entry was never seen by anyone and the automated response had a built in delete submission line in the CGI.  My lifelong ban list would like to welcome Sunny D to their pages.

I will contrast this to a recent corporate dialog with a company called RoadID.  I always wear their product whenever I run to give both myself and my wife a bit of comfort knowing there is a possibility I could be saved after keeling over on a long hot run.  Unfortunately, the strap came apart on it so I looked up their customer support email address from their company website and literally emailed their company president (yes, that is the address they gave out) and sent them short email telling them how much I liked their product and if there was a way I could purchase a replacement strap.  Almost immediately, a support representative contacted me and told me how to purchase another one, but they were going to send me one right away and waive the fee.  Hats off to Christy for going way above and beyond to satisfy a customer.  I’ll recommend RoadID to anyone who wants some security while away from home.

That’s all I have for now, time to start planning the remaining minimum 5 posts for this month

AppleDees – Corrected – Ched’duh’s

  Update: 8/16/09 (original post 7/12/09) – Please see the corresponding Errata Page for a correction on the location this event occurred at – note, it was NOT AppleDees but rather Chedduhs. – My apologies for this incorrect identification.

AppleDees

My family recently lost a relative (Father’s brother).  Strangely, this side of the family does not keep in touch that frequently and it is actually somewhat rare when we are in the same place .  Unfortunately, visitations and funerals are one of these times when relatives gather.  Although I expected more, I did get to catch up with some of them and find out what has been happening in their world as of late.  After the visitation was over some of my family went out for dinner.  There were eight of us to be exact and after some discussion came to the consensus to head over to Applebees.  After some navigation problems (I will not go into that to spare the guilty), we arrived at the restaurant and were seated pretty quick.  Our orders were taken by a waiter who was desperately trying to revolutionize the use of the word “absolutely”.  I swear that was every other word out of the kids mouth to the point everyone was responding to his questions with the same word.  Shockingly, he did not seem to catch on to that little tidbit.  After what seemed a very long time, the food arrived and based on the comments around the table everyone was pleased with their orders.

When it came time to pay is when things became interesting.  My father insisted on paying for everyone (wish he would not do that, it’s our turn to take them out for all they have done for us).  Turns out, they had a $25 gift card which they handed to the waiter along with their credit card.  A little while longer, the waiter returned claiming the gift card was empty and had scanned it twice trying to get it to go through.  This was questioned and he indicated the manager was going to come out and discuss the problem.  In the meantime, my niece used her cell phone to call the validation number on the back of the card.  In less than 2 minutes she had confirmed through the Applebee’s hotline that the card was indeed valid and had a $25 credit on it (exactly as stated to the waiter).  The manager comes out, we explain the problem again and he proceeds to leave with the card to check it again.  10 Minutes later, he returns and states “I have good news and bad news”.  My interest peaked.  “I’ll start with the bad news, our systems are down and we cannot check the card” was the next line.  This is odd since we did it on our own at the table without any problems at all.  Surely, they had a working phone in the place if not an employee cell phone.  Then the kicker comes “but I am going to accept the $25 and try somehow to get the money back later”  Back the bus up.  Did I just hear that correctly.  Is that the way you would have handled the situation given a table of 8, well dressed people who are simply trying to use a valid gift card?  My translation, you are trying to screw us but I’ll do your lying cheats a favor and take the money off your bill.  The more we discussed this, the more angered I became.  Since the parents were taking care of the bill and the outcome was the same we let this go.  I seriously doubt this Applebees will be getting any of my hard earned cash in the future – there are likely many other restaurants that would appreciate the revenue.  At this point in time, the consensus is Applebees gets a grade of ‘D’ for this outing.

Some day I might comment on a pretty funny (if not surreal) episode that happened with a bouquet of flowers at the visitation.  Like the wedding topic previously, this one is staying between the family for now.

Marketing Deceived

Nothing, and I mean nothing gets my blood boiling more than when I am deceived by weenies in marketing.  Unfortunately, this recently happened to me thanks to Sunny D.  I was in Sam’s picking up a few items when I noticed they had a case of little SunnyD bottles.  I noticed the 100% Vitamin C on the label and thought this would be a quick way to get my C intake – this is my tried and true way to keep the sick days down since my coworkers have a tendency to bring every mutant flu strain there is into my office.  I’ll go to 1000mg when I feel the germs trying to take hold.

Sunny D Label

See it up there in the upper right hand corner.  Out there in the prominent front of the label and and easily visible.  Convincing myself to spend the money, I hauled the case into the cart and made my way to the registers and paid for my items.  This of course only means I have to go through the completely ridiculous, asinine, inconvenient, irksome, infuriating and idiotic integrity check at the door.  First off, there is absolutely no way they can actually verify my receipt with a quick scan of the cart and secondly, how the hell am I going to actually steel a box of 400 ding dongs?  … tuck it under my armpit and hope nobody notices.. not!  But I digress, this rant is about marketing deception, not failed business processes.

Later in the day, I had a thirst and decided to enjoy one of my new juice bottles.  Apparently bored, I started reading the nutrition facts.  I usually do this at the store, but in my haste I forgot to give it a good viewing.

Sunny D Label

Wow, I did not expect the calorie count on such a little bottle, but that isn’t what stuck out.  Check out the Vitamin C entry – 80% of my daily value.   Wait a minute, that didn’t align with my pre-purchase analysis.  Turning the bottle back to the front, I notice the issue.  Maybe you noticed it by now, but that fine print I glossed over says “per 8 oz serving”.  A quick scan down to the left corner to reveal the deception.  The bottle only contains 6.75 oz.  This is absolute deception in my book.  Even if I opened two bottles I wouldn’t know how to estimate 1.25 ounces to get my DV not to mention the new “true” calorie content.  Unbelievable.  Yes, I was fooled and in essence it comes down to my fault, but I would love this company to explain this labeling practice.  In fact, I have already made my comments regarding their company’s integrity on their corporate website and will gladly update this with any weasel reasoning they try to respond with.

As of now, there will never be another Sunny D purchase made by me again.   Fool me once shame on you … never give them a chance to fool you again.. kudos to me

Would You Like Some “Screw You” On That?

Burger Money

First off, go check out the latest posts at the Dead Reckonings Forum for some fascinating discussion on the impact metal had on naval navigation.  When you are done you can come back here and read my stupid rant on McDonalds.

Back so soon? … or were you captivated by my less than stellar graphic?  Anyway, on to my rant.  My wife and I were on our way to a dog show in Caseyville, IL when we stopped off at a Mickey D’s in Bartonville.  As a note, there were other places we could have stopped to that point including Subway, Hardees and KFC, but I had a taste for some yellow arches.  As we walked up to the counter I noticed a sign had been added to the menu detailing their new policy involving an ADDITIONAL charge for any condiments added to an item that doesn’t normally come on it.  I then immediately recalled that my wife had come home griping about this policy when she went to one in Peoria.

I decided to read it slowly again in order to understand all the nuances, but it basically just resulted in more questions.  The clerk finished ringing up my wife’s order and then prompted me for my selection.  I decided to lead with “so if I get my sandwich plain, do I get it for less?”  This resulted in an answer explaining how the meal is a few cents cheaper than ordering everything together. Apparently, this request went sailing over her head.  I restated the question and emphasized the plain “sandwich” part.  This got a strange look so I tried again and referenced the fact the sign above her stated that adding a condiment increased the priced so removing the standard available condiment should be less.  “No, we don’t do that” was the response … as in not discounting the sandwich.  I decided continuing this discussion was going to get me nowhere, so I ordered by plain sandwich and made a personal decision to contact McDonalds and talk to a graduate of their fine McDonald’s University.  I am still awaiting a response (no, not holding my breadth), but the way I see it, I am obviously paying the cost of a fully condimented (is that a word?) sandwich.  This mean I have been increasing their profit margin every time I order there.  This makes me sick and from this point on I will choose one of the other establishments and get the sandwich the way I want it.

By the way, my wife ended up answering my second question as to whether removing something off the sandwich from the standard condiment list would allow me to get option added for free.  That answer is a big NOPE! – kudos for my wife for actually getting an answer to that scenario.

The good thing about a bad economy (thank you money lending criminals) is I have many many choices to spend my money and you would therefore think establishments would be a little more customer friendly and not jeopardize future sales for the price of a condiment.

Oh well, was that a Quiznos over there?

The Yang and the Um Day

EyeFirst off, I have to admit I am currently on a major sugar high.  My wife and I tried out the new ice cream establishment in Peoria Heights – the previous home of delicious Spotted Cow.  Unfortunately, I cannot remember the name of the establishment (two uncommon names), but apparently it is a small ice cream boutique chain out of Boston.  We both decided to splurge and get the dipped waffle cones.  Linda chose the nestle crunch with cake batter ice cream and I went with the dark chocolate cone with seriously chocolate ice cream flavor.  Wow, that was tasty.  Needless to say, my sugar level is through the roof, but it was totally worth it.  A tad expensive, but we both agreed it was far better than our previous favorite Cold Stone.

On to the topic of the day.  Yesterday morning I had my one year check up on my LASIK surgery.  Nothing like an 8:25am appointment on a cold, snowy and windy Saturday morning to get the day started.  Being that early, I figured there would only be few people there and I’d be in and out quickly.  I was totally shocked when I entered the building and there was a line of people waiting to get checked in.  Faster than expected, I made it up to the counter and noticed once again a large number of flowers behind the desk.  Every single time I have had an appointment, there have been a large number of wrapped up flowers with various names on it.  First thought was there must be a large number of birthdays or possibly births or the doctors were extremely appreciative of their helpers.  After validating all my insurance information, I proceeded to the waiting area where about 30 people were sitting.  Somewhat stunned, I took a seat in the socially acceptable location – translated, maximized distance from existing customers, much like the bathroom principle with the exception you are still allowed to talk to people and make eye contact.  Pondering the situation, it clicked that Fridays were a primary LASIK surgery day and they always had a followup the day after.  This gave and explanation to the large number of people.  My name was eventually called and the nurse began verifying my vision.  She started asking me if I was taking my steroid and anti-inflammatory drops and how everything was going.  This was not processing correctly so mentioned that I stopped taking the drops over a year ago which resulted in a strange look.  Remembering the deduction in the waiting room, I mentioned that I was in for my 1 year checkup.  With that cleared up, she took down all my powers (dual eye 20/15) and moved me to another room to get checked out by my doctor.  Good News!  Everything is fine and the eye healed up perfectly.  Definitely one of the best decisions I’ve made in a long time.

Another quandary was resolved at the checkout desk.  An older lady was completing her exit papers ahead of me and trying to plan her next followup a few days later.  Guessing with the fact she was not wearing any glasses and needed such a quick followup, the assumption was she just had cataract surgery (too old for LASIK) and was in for her post-surgery followup.  As she was getting ready to go, the receptionist handed her one of the flowers (with her name on it) and said it was a gift from her doctor.  That made a lot more sense than my original thought.  What a nice thing to do, it is relatively cheap compared to the cost of the surgery and it sure made the lady very happy.  Kudos to the doctor for a very nice touch.

But life is based on the Yang and the Um (for the non-Koreans, the Ying and the Yang).  The dualism of life; the good and the bad, sweet and the sour, life and death.  It is this constant opposition that keeps us grounded (morality) and leads to our character definition.  I came home from the appointment elated that my surgery was a complete success.  Later that day, there was a large crack against our great room window.  Typically this indicates a bird had just realized the concept of glass.  I didn’t think much of it since this tends to happen 2 or 3 times a week usually leaving the bird somewhat stunned, but able to fly off once the webs clear.  About an hour later I happened to look out the window and saw a beautiful cardinal sitting under our porch furniture below our large picture windows.  He looked alert, but was just sitting there opening and closing his beak.  It was still pretty cold out and the wind was gusting causing him to continually adjust his balance.  I pondered the situation for a few minutes while observing the bird.  Typically, if the birds don’t initially break their necks, they are able to recover and fly off.  Rarely do their wings get seriously injured since the impact is typically on the beak/head.  But this bird was alert, but wasn’t really moving that much other than adjusting to keep from being blown over.  It didn’t appear any sound was coming out of his beak movements but it was a steady opening and closing motion.  I could try to shield him from the wind or possibly get a box and move him to the basement until he recovered, but eventually decided to let it be hoping he would pull through.  If he was seriously injured, there was nothing I could anyway.  I also didn’t know what the laws were pertaining to a state bird (other than I think they are protected in some manner).  Going on with my daily tasks, eventually the situation left my thoughts.  I checked to see if the bird was still there later in the night and I am sorry to report, the little guy didn’t make it.  He had succumbed to the cold so he must have badly injured himself.  Yes, it was just a bird, but it did trigger memories from the teachings in the dojo.  The happiness of clarified sight in the morning paired with the reality of death in the evening.  The good news is one of the local farm cats will find a special treat when the show up to get out of the cold.

Life is a circle (see the pupil)

Physical Therapy Causes a Pain in the Rear

Back in May of 2008, I was playing third in my softball league when a high fly ball headed to my right.  I spent a lot of energy to chase the foul ball down and had finally made it to the down trajectory when the umpire called it out of play (past the benches).  Frustrated at having spent a significant amount of energy for nothing, I simply took my left arm and swiped it underhand across my body and snatched it out of the air as the ball came down in front of me.  What I was not expecting was the loud pop that came from my left shoulder.  Although it sounded bad, it did not seem to impair my motion at the time so I continued playing the rest of the game.  In the weeks that followed, my shoulder started to flare up every time I raised my arm past shoulder height or extended my forearm greater than 10 degrees from my side.  Having had my right shoulder rebuilt already I was familiar with rotator cuff tears, but it did not feel the same.  I continued to give it time to heal and finally gave up last January and went to a local sports injury/medicine center.  Unfortunately, I’ve been there several times for my other shoulder, both my inside knee medials, multiple hand fractures and a broken elbow – yes, all sports injuries .. sigh.  After my MRI it was decided I did not have a tear, but rather an impingement.  This resulted in my first Cortisone shot (NEVER EVER AGAIN!) and a series of therapy appointments to strengthen the area around the rotator cuff.

Due to work, my sessions were at 7:00am.  On the second to last day I was looking for something in my truck and noticed my insurance card was just thrown in the glove compartment so I took the time to put it in my standard place in case I needed to retrieve it someday.  As I pulled into the patient parking lot, I noticed it was again completely empty, but a beer bottle was sitting in my preferred parking place.  Preferred representing the calculated parking location based on variables such as A=distance between other cars, B=devoid of sharp objects to puncture the tires, C=entry effort and D=exit effort.  Preferred then represents maxA + maxB +minC + minD = max in range[driver’s ed parking lot to outdoor waterpark parking in Winter].  Quickly doing the math, I picked a spot on the side of the building in order to compensate for appointments that came after mine.

2/3rds of the way through my session, my shoulder was starting to feel the burn.  It is amazing how little weight it takes to fatigue an isolated rotator cuff.  In the middle of a rowing set, an individual comes up and asks if I drive a black truck.  Immediately, I surmised I was not going to be pleased with what followed.  Sure enough, he was delivering something to the building and backed into the rear of my truck.  Unbelievable — suddenly the pain drained out of my shoulder and headed right for my butt.  I finished my therapy and headed out to see the damage.

Truck Dent

It ended up not being that bad.  He somehow missed my side panels and the bumper successfully performed its role.

Truck Bumper

He provided me all of his insurance information and to his credit, took responsibility for the mistake offering apologies.  I called up his agent, AllState, submitted my claim and scheduled an appointment to have the damage assessed.  I was somewhat annoyed I had to flex some time at work to get the truck to the assessor, but made it there at the set time.  Expecting a lengthy discussion regarding what they were and were not going to do, I patiently waited as the assessor looked over the damage.  10 minutes later, he returned, asked me where I wanted it fixed at, called up the service manager there, verified that a new bumper was available, confirmed the charge and cut me a check for over $540 to cover the replacement.   Wow, kudos to AllState for making things right.  I thought I would share this story since often times I rail against bad service encountered in almost a daily frequency.  There are definitely some bright spots out there and they should be recognized for their efforts.

As a note, this is the last time I test fate and touch my insurance card in the morning.

Freezing in the Devil’s Playground

Predator enjoying some powder

Last weekend I had the opportunity to ride some powder at Devil’s Head Ski  Board Resort in Wisconsin.  Unfortunately, my wife was unable to go due to illness, but some of my friends were able to make the trek up there with me.  We actually headed up Thursday night in order to beat some of the weekend crowds on Friday.  A mere 4 hours from our house makes this a very bearable trip.

Slopes

Although it was pretty cold out, the real danger was the weaponry that was being deployed.

Back Country Warning

…. what?  I get the sense you are not buying this.  Fine, I’ll come clean, the previous pictures were not from Devil’s Head.  I didn’t take the camera with me so I went ahead and threw in some pics from our Colorado trips a few years back.  What gave it away, the fact that Devil’s Head is in the Midwest (think flat) or there would actually be a back country there?  Anyway, we had a great time.  The first day (Friday) temperature was not too bad during the day session (~24 deg), but the wind was cranking through in the 13-15 mph range making the exits off the lift rather blistering.  In fact, we could put our arms out and the wind would blow us uphill to the start of the adjacent runs.  The temperature started dropping pretty quick after noon and was darn cold for the night session.  Luckily we know to keep our board edges razor sharp in the Midwest in order to cut through the ice – nothing like transferring edges and noticing that yellow hue signifying solid ice (no, not THAT kind of yellow snow).  I had fallen pretty hard on a mogul run earlier in the day due to being all ice in between the mounds.  Everyone with me fell on that run as well, but only I ended up with the third knee – translated… a huge swollen welt on the left side of my left knee.  It didn’t seem to affect the motion I needed to board so I brushed it off.  This injury coupled with my shoulder that had a cortisone injection a few days before forced me to curtail my rail activities.  Linda cautioned me to take it easy this time because she couldn’t drive me home like she usually has to.  So very little of this:

Grinding the rail

A little more therapy on the shoulder and some ice on the knee should have me back on the rails next time we go.

My observations from the week follow the jump

Continue reading Freezing in the Devil’s Playground