Gradin.com » frustration

Equifax Customer Service is Just Lip Service

Olaf — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 17:41:31 +0000

In an attempt to make some mid-year resolutions, I am trying to be more diligent about managing finances and monitoring things like my credit report. I wasn’t the victim of an identity theft crime, but then again, how would I know? I just decided that I should take an active interest in things like…er…interest. Finances in general have never been a strong-point for me. I make money, spend money; my financial management program is akin to most people’s attention to filling up their gas tank. When the car turns on its light saying, “here’s the thing, I’m nearly out of gas and we’re in the middle of nowhere. This isn’t just your problem now, it’s mine as well,” I start thinking about when and where I’m going to get more gas. I believe they call this “living paycheck to paycheck.” I don’t know what percentage of the population out there does this, but I would make a guess – based upon the percentage of individuals using credit – that the number is pretty high. I’m not doing so well on the general financial management aspect of things. The notion of a budget is quite advanced for me. It seems to take a considerable amount of time to construct, monitor, and adjust it consistently. On the credit report detail, against my earnest efforts to do this right, I’m being thwarted.

I have just about written off Equifax completely. If it weren’t for their industry reputation and reliance, I would drop them altogether. As it is, I feel like I have to live with the service problems because Equifax is the behemoth and I’m the peon.

Screw that! They pissed me off today for the last time – hence this negative post. I even made up a new word for my discontentment. Flog (fart log). It’s a blog (web log) a la Monty Python. Equifax, I flog in your general direction!

I ordered the Equifax Score Watch (TM) monthly subscription to give myself a way to watch my score as it changes month-to-month and access free and discounted credit reports when it’s appropriate. The ordering process seemed professional enough until the end. It was unable to process my credit card to pay for the service. I thought it a fluke at first and even gave it another card to try. I became concerned that perhaps I was being taken for a ride – giving up credit information to evil hackers at the very place I thought I was safe. I did some digging and couldn’t find any signs of tampering. It seemed that Equifax was just unable to process credit cards. Having returned to place the order in the next day or so, I was met with success – confidence restored – and the order was handled promptly and correctly. The goods were delivered instantly and I was able to enjoy my Score Watch product immediately. After just a short while of playing around with the account features, I started getting pages that indicated that Equifax was having some application problems at the business logic layer. The interface worked perfectly, but most of the account-related functions were no longer working. Frustration. I go away and come back the next day to meet the same type of problems. I discover that I can work around the problem by navigating back into the details from the order summary link. It’s a minor issue to me, but a frustration nonetheless. I assume it’s just related to some heavy-use patterns that Equifax is experiencing.

Then I find a real case for contacting support. The credit report (provided by Score Power within Score Watch) gives you very granular details about your credit history. There’s a summary that effectively tells you what positive and negative factors there are that creditors may use. I try to look into a negative factor and I can’t find it in the details. Maybe it’s there and I’m unable to figure it out, or maybe there’s a problem in the correlation between Score Power and my credit report. That’s what I want to find out. I contact support via email (my preferred avenue to begin things) to ask about the problem. It takes through a form in which it asks some personal information such as your social security number for account verification and such. It seems logical, though I would prefer if it just linked my account number to the contact form. I get an email the next day stating that they can’t find my account and that they need additional information from me. That infuriates me. I’m supposed to be dealing with a professional company. Why am I using a half-assed application unable to facilitate the management of its customers? I give them what they need anyway. How else will my problem ever be solved? Now, five days later they reply with what surely is an automated form response to my inquiry:

Dear Mr. Gradin, …

Our records indicate that you ordered the Equifax Score Watch (TM) monthly subscription. This
subscription includes two free Score Power (TM) reports, one at enrollment and one to be used at
any time during your subscription, and discounts on additional Score Power(R) reports.

Please note, as the Credit Report is a snapshot of your file as of the date you purchased, it will
not be updated during the time is viewable. In order to view your updated credit report, please follow the instructions
listed below

Please visit our website, www.Equifax.com

Click on Customer login.

Enter the User ID and Password and then click “LOGIN”.

Under the heading “Equifax Member Center”, click on “Equifax ScoreWatch (TM)”, your FICO (R) Score is already visible.

Click on ” Score Power (R)” on the menu at the left side of the page

From this point you are able to view your Credit Report or to pull a new Score Power (R) at the
discounted price…

If you need further assistance, please contact us…

Seriously?!? Do you think I would have contacted support to ask about a problem within the application if I couldn’t figure out how to access it? Do you think I would have contacted support to ask how I might purchase additional products? Plan B is to call Equifax support to work through the problem. I’m sure I can get to the bottom of this…eventually, but if you’re a company offering email support, staff it with support personnel.

I replied to the email with an inappropriate remark on the service representative’s ineptitude. I’m reminded of Despair’s apt words of wisdom on motiviation.

4-Wheel Disc Brakes

Olaf — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 03:29:58 +0000

If you’re about to do your first set of 4-wheel disc brakes, read this first! I’ll save you some frustration and a sore hand.

My 2005 Mazda3 was up for new brakes and that’s the kind of work I will do myself. What I didn’t realize was that rear wheel disc brakes involve some fanciness to allow for a parking brake. They have some sort of protection to keep your car from slipping down a hill when pressure is applied back to the piston within the brake caliper. This mechanism, therefore, can’t simply be pushed in with a hand clamp like your front brakes. Despite the tons per square inch of force I insisted my hand to deliver unto said clamp, I managed only to introduce a slight bend in the clamps bar. After some mental cursing and Google.com searching, I finally came across autoblog.com. It was here that I learned the little piece of information I needed to make the job so much easier. I *know* it’s always about having the right tool for the job, but this time it really was that easy. Theoretically, anyway. I got the screw-type clamp designed specifically for pushing and rotating the rear piston into place at AutoZone as recommended (less than $40.00 refundable rental charge), but of all the parts in the kit, none fit my Mazda3 properly. The width of the pegs for insertion into the piston were a millimeter too wide and the diameter of these pegs were another ½-1mm too large. Ridiculous! I was able to make it work with some persistence, but my hand was already in some pain from my clamping experience. Everything said and done, I have four new pairs of pads installed and a wealth of new wisdom under my belt – just in time for my 30th birthday!

How to Kill a Kiln

Olaf — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 03:10:35 +0000

This evening marked the time of the week in which I get together with some friends (sometimes strangers) and play hand drums. If we can put together an decent collection of people, we’ll call it a drum circle. It was getting cold out tonight, so we took the noise inside the Main Street Market where we often meet. Only an hour into our fun, we were put to silence by a high-pitched stream of air being emitted from somewhere in the market. After listening for a moment, we decided that we should go and check it out. About that time, the fire alarms went off in full effect and our pulses quickened a step. As I got near the back of the building I realized with some horror what it was. There’s a 2000° F kiln in the back and it fires pottery all night long. Now that I was nearer, the sound had shaped an image in my mind of the kiln bursting with electrical arcs onto the surrounding hallway. I could also smell and taste and acrid smoke…and humidity? Yeah. The air had been transformed into a wet sauna and the floor had a good puddle forming. The strange spitting and hissing noises were actually resulting from an overhead sprinkler pouring onto the hot kiln. Water was being vaporized as fast as it was coming down onto the vented oven system. Adrenaline now pumping, I shot for the electrical panels to shut the thing off before it became and electrical nightmare. There’s a club, The Boiler Room, in the basement. Shortly after I began shutting off power to the whole building, they noticed something was up. I started by popping off the joined circuits across all the panels I could find. It didn’t shut the kiln off, so I hit a massive 400 amp circuit that said “1st Floor.” That didn’t do it either, which made me wonder exactly what I had shut off. I ran downstairs again and found another set of panels nearer to the kiln than I actually wanted to be. I turned off all the joined circuits in that panel too, which finally shut the kiln down. It would still require hours before it would be cool enough to safely open or move. A brief time after this the fire department showed up and was able to turn off the sprinklers before more damage could occur. The water was everywhere by now. It had seeped down into the club downstairs. Fortunately, it looked like it was contained mostly on the bar floor and not on the carpeted areas.

Aside from the obvious frustrations of this type of mess, there is also a back story on this event. Not one that I’ll get into a great deal, but understand that a tennent owns that kiln and may or may not take full liability for its use. On the other hand, someone else in authority must have approved the use and location of the kiln in the first place. It wasn’t in an incredibly safe place, though the most notable error in judgments were the lack of a proper ventilation hood (firing glazes and pottery can emit toxic gases) and the fact that it was placed directly beneath a sprinkler head and thermostat for the fire system. At 180°, the thermostat popped and as much water as could be dumped gushed down upon a 2000° furnace. Kilns aren’t especially dangerous by themselves – considering their imense heat – but coupled with a narrow hallway, wood floors, and cold water, you’ve got the potential for a serious problem.

It may not seem like it, but The Mainstreet Market avoided a bigger disaster tonight because the building was occupied by all the right people to act as fast as humanly possible on the event. Everybody did their job and I think they’ll recooperate. I can’t say as much for the kiln. I’m betting we’ve seen the last of it within the confines of the building. Hopefully the Fire Marshall will go easy on the owners.

Frustration

Olaf — Wed, 12 Jul 2006 04:51:13 +0000

For a week now I’ve longed to create something of a magnificent scale. Not something great to men, but great to me. Of particular interest, and one that strikes me from time to time, is music. I really want to create music and I want it to be beautiful. While I am able to pluck around on a guitar, or strike some keys of the piano, or even slap the skin of a drum, I am unable to quench a thirst for something better. So my inability frustrates me. On an uplifting note, the frustration does keep me practicing daily during these bouts.

Corporate Musical Chairs

Olaf — Thu, 21 Jul 2005 04:11:37 +0000

Last week, Carlos told me a story that was potentially blog-worthy. I didn’t blog about it because I felt that it needed to have personal frustration associated with it, rather than just his. What he didn’t tell me was that I would undergo the same treatment a few days later.

Today, I got my first designated space at CheckFree. I’ve been there a little over a year and I’ve moved now more times than I can recall. Let me see…tomorrow marks my sixth move. I moved myself all but one of those times and that one came with its own penalty – I wasn’t informed about the move until I returned from vacation to see that my shared office space had been demolished, literally. All of my previous spots were temporary and, as such, shared with my fellow group members. Now that I’m under new management and within a new group, I finally got the opportunity to have a few cubic feet to call my own. To begin with, Carlos and I had planned for several weeks that I would come over to his building and take his spot when he moved out into an office being made available for him. He’s my manager, so this seemed like a faultless plan. When the move orders finally came out, they were in discrepancy with our plans. I would be moved to the opposite end of the building in another’s spot – also a window seat. It was a really good window seat because it actually touched the window and was dark. Carlos’ spot was sort of a window seat, though the window was obstructed by a large pilon at the entrance of the cube. So I took the new orders in stride and appreciated the upgrade. On move day (today), there was a minor scuffle for the good window seat and my move orders were changed to put me in Carlos’ old spot instead. No problem – that’s what I wanted anyway. So now I’m moved in and nicely situated. I even hung up a .NET poster and some *finished* documentation. You know, all those nice cube-finishing touches. After I leave for the day, I get a voicemail message from the office space manager apologizing for the confusion. She let me know that my seat was for more senior people and that she went ahead and had my phone moved back to my temporary spot – now apparently a permanent position. This is the same lady that put me in Carlos’ spot before! Asinine. It’s also a ridiculous notion that any kind of favor was granted when they moved my phone back for me. Hell, I unpacked my plastic crate for the first time in several moves for this. The least they could have done was move my 21″ monitor and computer back for me. But no. I’ll be spending tomorrow morning moving back, dejected, into my previous spot. Maybe there will be an office moving Olympics in the Winter that I can try out for. I think I’d kill any of the competition. Literally, probably. Maybe cube rights are a petty thing to get peeved over – it does feel a little remote as I write this from my home, which I own. But it still hits impacts my morale. Why does their mistake have to be my problem?!?

So this related to Carlos’ experience last week too. Since he became a manager, he was given access to an office. Some amount of time transpired and an office was found for him to move into. Again, the office manager gave him the requisite move order. No sooner had Carlos become acquainted with his new digs did someone have a problem with it. Turns out that his office has a window. As such, they’re designated for more senior management staff than himself. Carlos eventually won his battle because there just weren’t any other offices in that building for him to move into. Why must we be taunted with glamorous quarters only to be demeaned later when attempting to actually use them. I’ll have to remember to avert my eyes when approaching anyone near a window. Their greatness vastly out-shines mere mortals.

SMS 2003 Health Check Results (Techie)

Olaf — Fri, 25 Mar 2005 20:13:31 +0000

The health check was more or less a complete success. We didn’t actually have any real problems in our environment, though we were given some performance tuning options to resolve any that *may* arrive later. That said, the single most important piece of information regarding an SMS 2003 engineering task has been this:

“The SPN cannot be assigned to the computer container unless the computer that is running SQL Server starts with local system. There must be one and only one SPN, and it must be assigned to the appropriate container.”

This blog post references the Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 811889 in which one learns to “troubleshoot the ‘cannot generate SSPI context’ error message.” We’ve banged our head for several hours now attempting to get a remote SMS Reporting Point working against our SMS 2003/SQL 2000 server. There are all sorts of conditions required to make this article applicable, but if you should come across this message – look no further than 811889. A big *sigh* of relief may be heard throughout CheckFree as I release a great deal of rage and frustration. It’s gratifying to resolve an issue that has tormented you, but it sucks when the resolution is really easy and under your nose the entire time. Ironically, both Brett F. and I discovered this article at exactly the same time – on separate computers no less!

Commuter Blues

Olaf — Wed, 08 Sep 2004 03:21:58 +0000

For those of you who commute, this is an all too familiar problem to you. It took me slightly more than two hours to get to work this morning. This is ridiculous, perhaps not to some, but to me. It’s only thirty-seven miles from my doorstep to my chair, and it takes between one and two hours to get there. This has particularly been emphasized since school is back in session. That doesn’t make any sense to me, as my commute schedule is not synchronized to the school bells. As a result of this frustration, my commuter-buddy and I are looking for the right window to conduct our driving. As it is now, we’re spending about three hours a day driving to and from work. We’ve tried the later track, but that’s still bad. I’m not too interested in pulling in around 10:00am or 11:00am, so now we’re going to try the early route. Tomorrow I’m going to attempt to arrive at work by 6:00am. That will give us plenty of time to work-out and still get into the office by 8:00am or before. Now if I can just get to bed by 10:00pm, this may just work. Drat! I’ve already missed my bedtime tonight!