It'd be nice if you were actually nice to the people who care about you...

I was checking out one of my friend's blogs, and she'd written that she'd gotten herself some things from Amazon as an early b-day present. And considering that she still hasn't gotten anything from my Amazon list for my Xmas or b-day, I was pretty pissed. I can understand that she wants to treat herself b/c she's had a rough time over the last few months...but it was trouble that she manufactured herself. Her own stupidity got herself into the mess, and after talking w/ her husb, apparently she's still pining over the guy that she should've never gotten involved w/. A guy that wants nothing to do w/ her now. So while she's wasting her energy over trying to make herself feel better about the sh!tpile that she laid, she's hurting those that are actually trying to help her. It just really pisses me off. ...Which is why I'm blogging when I should be sleeping.

Have a busy day tomorrow, even though it's my day off. Have to ship off my PS2. Apparently I have some groceries to pick up b/c the flyer not in recycling bin. Somewhat enjoying having a newspaper to read everyday (and eat over. Makes cleanup a lot easier). Unfortunately I'm starting to fall behind on the papers. Still reading Saturday. Hmmm, I dunno if I should go get sushi again. I don't really need anything else from that store... but the siren song of sushi beckons. Heh heh, Uta no Sushi.

Yet Another Fire Alarm

Cripes, why are there so many fire alarms?! This one happened right at 12:25-12:30, just when I was watching the end of the tag team title match btwn RKO vs. HBK & Cena. As usual, ran around to change and then grab stuff. This time I actually grabbed my insurance policy, visa statements, passport, SIN card, and money. Then I grabbed some of my plush toys and DS lite. What?! It's what keeps my spirit going. This time it was quite a false alarm b/c it started on the 6th fl, and there was a wierd smoke and smell going on. But it only lasted about 20 min and we headed back up.

My allergies aren't too bad, but I'm too wired to read the paper and watch TV. So I'm gathering what I'd need if there was an actual alarm. Which aside from essentials like policies, ID, clothes; are stuff that would be impossible/difficult to replace. Like all my character goods that I've had to import. Unfortunately I'd have to put my Beast and Legato statue back into their cases to transport, actually I have a lot of figures I'd need to put back into their cases. There's a lot of artbooks too. And we're not even going to mention my manga. Which only a few series fill out my suitcase. (Ranma 1/2, GTO, Rurouni Kenshin, and few others to fill out the remaining space) DVDs and comics are also outta the question. It's gotten to be a big pile, and so I'm trying to figure out what size of hockey bag I'd need to transport it all. There is one @ Sport Chek for $30 but it's very obviously a hockey bag b/c there's pockets in the shape of skates. It's huge, and not that easy to transport when fully loaded. There's another one for $60 which is smaller, less hockey-like and had lots of handles and set of wheels. It might also be used as a substitute for a suitcase. It's pretty hard to decide. Cheap, unwieldy and big or more expensive, smaller but more stylish and easier to manuever? *looks at pile* I think I'm going to have to go w/ the big one...although btwn my backpack, Sanzo bag and the smaller hockey bag, I might be able to fit everything. But today I'd filled my backpack and Sanzo bag, and it was a bit unwieldy. Not completely impossible to move b/c I hiked the 7 flights down and then back up once the alarm was over. But w/ a bag on both sides? Well I think I'd still be able to fit down the stairway. Argh, and I have so many little things too! *sob sob* And then there's computer files...I dunno if I'll get any sleep tonight.

But earlier today I went to a local bar w/ my co-workers to watch part of RAW. They were all guys, and they were really surprised that I liked wrestling and wanted to go w/ them. I actually get that comment a lot. I dunno what it is about me that seems that I wouldn't like wrestling. Just b/c I think Monster Trucks, NASCAR, rodeos suck.

Excellent Service

As detailed previously, I'd ordered a bunch of books from Akadot that was delivered by UPS. And they managed to kill the corner so my book's dented. Well I'd wrote to Akadot about the damage and they replied away and talked to UPS. And UPS told them that they were going to contact me b/c they wanted to examine the box. Good thing I usually keep things like useful sized boxes. A week passes by and no contact from UPS. So I email Akadot back, and next day I get a reply from them. Turns out that now UPS wants to talk to Akadot instead, so I just have to wait for Akadot to sort things out. Which I'm okay w/ so far b/c the customer service from Akadot's been really nice, friendly and prompt. I've dealt w/ UPS before (working in customer service for a huge wireless company that's constantly sending out phones), and I know that sometimes to get them to straighten things out is a mess. That's why I tend not to trust either UPS or Fedex.

Also YTV's feed went out, and I called up the cable tech dept. The guy was really nice, and gave empathy, and nice reassurance. And it was about 1/2 later that the feed came back, just in time for FMA. Apparently I was the first person to call in about the missing feed. :( Of course w/ YTV's inability to start programs @ the right time, I'm not surprised people have been tuning out. It's really annoying when I have to set the VCR to record 5 min before the prog is supposed to start and 10 min after it supposedly ends just to make sure I catch all of it.

Will this inspire me to provide excellent customer service? Eh, maybe for while just b/c I know my TL's going to do a blitzkrieg of monitors on me. And of course it depends on the customer. If the customer's nice, I'll be nice. If you're going to be a jerk, it's strictly following policy.

Hmmm, who's the manager again?

So I finally got my PA delivered. Pile actually came to find me. Since he only had 2 more days before CNY. And it was delivered w/ my current SLR TL. Which I'll have to check w/ my peers to see if they got doubleteamed too. Anyways, he starts off by basically tossing it on the table and saying we're going to over the PA. Like duh. I can read and it's not like he has any other reason to talk to me. So I go to him, "So how late is it?" And he gets all defensive and blathers some crap about having to come up all the information and it takes time, and he doesn't have to explain why it's late. And I go to him, "This is my second PA that is months late. I'd like an explanation." And he makes some lame excuse w/ having to go thru the journals and consult the TLs and OMs we did work for. So I go to him, "well when were they due?" So he stammers that he was sick for some time, but they were actually due by end of December. He barely apologized for it being late.

So he just reads what it says. Well, aside from the fact that I can read a hell faster than he can talk, it's just all generic comments. Considering I got perfect attendance and perfect Quality, whether or not it's expected, is still damn better than the most of the centre, and slightly more interesting comments would be nice. But b/c my stats were 80 secs over I got a lower mark, and his scale for the target I was supposed to be in was completely wrong too, so I really should've pointed out that I did meet target instead. Hah hah. Damn, shoulda done that. Anyways, then there's the category for knowledge/teamwork and I just got average. Which is like bullsh!t b/c I'm on the Floor Support team so I know my stuff. But then he brings up the cr@p about me lipping off an OM (who was completely useless and is not OM anymore b/c she went to diff position in HR. Yes, HR, the bastion of the morally corrupt and useless). Yeah, so he's just throwing his attitude everywhere (which is like watching a Valley girl throwing a tantrum), so I just go "you know what, it's obvious that my questions aren't going to listened to so I won't bother," and start putting the papers into order. Well my current SLR TL had to more or less apologize for his behaviour b/c she said "well we don't want you to go away feeling that your concerns aren't going to be addressed. You can leave a comment on the PA if you'd like. " Leaving comments on PAs really amount to nothing, so I just go "No, it's fine" but of course implying "why bother? It's a waste of time" So then Pile goes "well I'm going to photocopy it," and takes off.

So I'm there alone w/ my current SLR TL, and I'm sure she's thinking "Oh crap." But I'm nice b/c the whole PA had nothing to do w/ her, and she's just there as the fall guy when she delivered my other late PA. So I just ask her about being changed to Floor Support, if I still attend the SLR meetings, and really asked her a whole bunch of questions that would make it easier for her and my Floor Support TL to coordinate b/c of my inbetween role. So Pile finally comes back, and I barely acknowledge him b/c I'm still talking w/ her. Although I did thank him when leaving ...after I thanked my current SLR TL, and it was more like an afterthought.

So for all the crap they give us about treating customers nice and respectfully, displaying ownership and following thru on commitments, and the company's own mission statement and code of conduct; it's obvious that it's doesn't apply when it comes to how managers treat their agents. It's really quite pathetic. The fact that Pile wouldn't take ownership and acted all defensive and lashing out at me is really unprofessional. And who's the one that's in managment? Actually it was really funny how he reacted. I told my Floor Support TL about getting my PA and how I'm sure that Pile wants to kill me now, and she's like "are you okay?" b/c I probably was looking pretty pissed. And actually I was okay and pissed. B/c I expected him to try and dodge everything and the fact that he did such a pathetic job of it made me giggle, and mad that he's getting paid for incompetancy. And so I bragged incessantly about how I got him to lose it. It's really hard for me to pretend to respect people when they don't give me any respect and screw me over. So I really don't try, and I know I have no poker face.

Anyways, time to get ready for bed. Heeeeeennn, it's been a day.

Bah, Valentine's Day

I suppose only really for those who aren't in a relationship. Such as myself. One of my work friends goes to me "Will you be my Valentine?" b/c he didn't have anyone for the first time in a couple years. So I go "What do I have to do?" He's like "well nothing really, and another friend chimed in that he'll get me flowers. But Jon knows me so he's says "you're not really a flower girl, are you?" And I go "Nope, you can get me a game instead. I'd like Trauma Center and Cooking Mama..." Yeah, flowers are pretty and all but they've been bred so much for appearance, there's no smell to them anymore. So might as well just get fake ones.

Anyways, yeah bah Valentines. I got my friend some non-slave labour chocolate (I don't remember the PC term for things like that), and I was going to do a card too...but that would be too wierd considering I didn't do anything else for my other friends. Hurm.

I gotta clean my desk. It has to be done before Chinese New Year, and that's fast approaching. Well I'll try. Been too tired lately to do much of anything w/o getting easily distracted.

And I still haven't recieved my PA. How interesting. We'll see if the ancestors curse him for his irresponsibility. I certainly hope so.

Another Fire Alarm

And I really need to get a hockey bag for all the stuff I need to grab. It was late at night, and I missed Colbert Report because of it. As usual I completely panicked, managed to pull on jeans and shirt, and ran out, realized at 12th fl that I should probably take some things w/ me, hiked 5 floors back up, and grabbed my Visa stuff(my only proof that I bought stuff) and some sentimental things. Totally forgot to grab my insurance policy(bad!) and well, way too many things that would've been impossible to replace b/c of their importance to me. So I need to get a large bag of some sort in case this happens again. I'd been looking at hockey bags for a while, but they were pretty expensive so I was waiting for a sale.

Also I've become completely allergic to cats. Never touched a single one, but w/ 4 cats w/in 10 feet of me, I was hacking, sneezing and sniffling. Guess I'll never get a cat unless I want to be constantly drugged up. Had a anti-histamine once I got back into my apt and now I'm completely woozy. Typing's a real chore.

Slept most of the day. Actually the day before I left work early b/c I had a massive migraine. Well actually it wasn't completely massive. My skull didn't hurt like before, but considering I'd been having nothing but migraines for the last week, I just didn't want to take it. But instead of staying home, I decided to get groceries, which I desperately needed. Which of course allowed me to sleep in.

Yeah so today I cleaned again. Vacuumed and washed the kitchen floor, cleaned under the sink too. I so do not want D to come back anytime soon. It's nice having a clean apt. And I can leave my room door open so the vaporizer can go into my room and the rest of apt. I can't put it just in my room b/c I have too much electronics and books around. Humidity bad for those. Unfortunately, despite running it for 24 hrs didn't really help decrease static electricity.

I think that'll do for now

Yeah, so I went w/ the 3rd image b/c it looked the coolest. However the 2nd image was very nice too, and very close behind. I liked the concept of the 4th one, but it was too light. And the 1st of the set was bleh.

Anyways, again, couldn't see my neices. Well I guess that's not entirely true. She wasn't feeling well so couldn't go out. But I could go over to their house. Since I had the sniffles too, and might want to get my thyroid checked, I opted out. Apparently S & J made me something for my bday. Well, if we're doing anything for CNY, I might be able to see them. Yeah, my folks aren't sure if they're doing anything. Yeah cultural legacy.

Finally got my PUK from my provider. Regular customer service was closed so I just hung on for "Emergency customer service". So when I tell her that I need my PUK, first thing she asks was if my phone was locked. So I'm like no, but I'll need it to SIM lock my phone. Then she's like well I can only give it to you if you locked your phone and I'll have to call back. So I pointed out the ridiculousness of that since she had access to my PUK, and that I could've technically lied and said I locked my phone. Then she's said"well you told me you didn't." So I go "well I could lock up my phone and then it'd be true, so can I have it already?" So she's arguing w/ me here, and I'm thinking screw it and ask for a supervisor. And she gives me the crap story that there's no supervisor around b/c it's emergency hours, and I'm tell her "No, I know there's at least 1 supervisor at your centre. And since you're not resolving my issue, I want to speak to a supervisor." So she puts me on hold and 30 sec later comes back and tells me that for this one time she'll give me my PUK. So then I ask her for the PUK2 also and she's like, there's only 1 PUK for your account. Actually I think I threw her off when I asked for the PUK2. Heh heh, never argue w/ someone who does the same job and actually knows more.

And I just realized...she never verified me. She didn't ask me for the number I was calling from or my name. I could've been anyone, and b/c I was messing around w/ a phone I picked up I could've locked it up. Ohmigod. Dialing 611 seems to be pretty universal for cellphone companies in NA, so anyone would know to dial 611 to get to customer service. That is sooooo lame. Man, might be definitely time to change carriers.

Sorta Getting There

The border image looks a lot lighter than it did as just a tile, so I'm u/l more to see which is better. Oh what fun!

The other issue is when you click on the older posts, it brings up the template I've worked off of, instead of the current one. Strange. And no, I still haven't moved over to the Google-Blog. I was catching up on my email, and when they first went out of Beta(yes, email from Nov-Dec), they had a lot of issues and the support wasn't really there. So I'm still waiting.

Revamping the Blog

So I'm trying to make it look nicer. Previous one was okay, but had some issues w/ the colours. And my HTML is...very shaky. It's been ages since I've attempted it. I still remember the theory somewhat but lordy don't ask me to create a webpage. Have enough trouble trying to change the colours on the template.

I'm not telling you what to do but...

I'm letting you know it's not working. I was on Floor Support again today, for the newbies and I had to sit w/ a rep for over an hour on 1 account b/c she didn't understand the bill, how the account was set up or how to use any of the systems. What the hell do they teach them in class?!? And I had to help her w/ calculations too, so her math skills were pretty shaky. And she's middle aged too. Which means she has a great work ethic and tries really hard but sometimes isn't the quickest to grasp things. So after going over the bill and making sure she understands it and basically preparing her for the callback that she needed to make, her supervisor comes by and basically tells her to get back to taking calls. So I'm try to summarize everything for her, and make sure she's okay and go to help another rep.

A while later I see her again, and she tells me that her other supervisor pulled her aside to ask why she was off the phones for so long and to have her sign a form b/c she released a call before she was supposed to. And b/c of her work ethic, she's really upset about the form b/c she thought it was disciplinary and that her TL was accusing her of doing really bad, and she's all frustrated b/c she's getting grief for her call time and after call work being long. So as someone who's been a supervisor for a couple months and coached reps to self-confidance, it was really killing me not to coach her to ignore those things b/c she's new and that they really don't matter that much. I'm not in a position where I can state those things anymore, especially to a rep that's not on my team, and I don't want to contradict whatever their supervisor's telling them. So after I tell her that I'll talk to her supervisor, I go over and tell them what we were doing and why it was taking so long. So the supervisor like "uh huh, okay." Then when I told her that the agent thought the form was disciplinary (I knew what form was likely handed to her), the supervisor's goes "but I told her 5 times that it wasn't." So I'm like "well you might wanna tell her again, b/c she feels differently." S'funny how I can sit w/ a rep for an hour and know them better than their supervisor. Mind you, I bet their supervisor only met w/ them for maybe 1/2 hr in the 4 days since she's hit the floor, but it's still kinda funny.

I did feel a bit better today b/c we had a team meeting and then a meeting w/ our supervisor's manager. Which meant we could vent all we wanted. One of the biggest issues is that some supervisors won't take escalations and we either have to babysit them during one or they'll just cave and give the customer whatever they want. Which is sooo wrong. So I throw my hand up and s'funny how I would phrase my question w/ a context first on why I'm asking it, and then offer the solution in the form of a question. So I said, "since we're having problems w/ supervisors taking escalations, why don't we have them go back to spending a few hours on the phones taking regular calls like before?" Boy, the amount of agreement in the room from the team was hilarious. And it was funny that for our team meeting I was introduced as being new to the team, but I'd actually been on the Floor Support team before. And since I already knew all the people on the Floor Support team (sometimes helps being there for 4 yrs and in so many diff positions) I gave a cheery hello whereas the other new person gave this weak wave. And none of the new people asked any questions in the big complaint meeting. *sigh* I guess I'm actually pretty happy being back on Floor Support and doing something b/c I'm actually pretty bubbly lately. And also the rep I sat w/ said that she was actually able to understand everything b/c I explained it so well that I should be a trainer, which of course led me to explaining that I was a supervisor but would never want to be a trainer b/c I'd be telling everyone to shut up and listen, but I'm better at one-on-one. Which I am. I've coached agents for an hour to make sure that they understand systems and policies, and boy do I nail them if they mess up on the same thing. But it rarely happens.

So I guess technically it might be construed that I was overstepping my bounds as Floor Support and tell a supervisor that their coaching is making the rep think of quitting, but then again I was thinking of retaining reps and reps will tell us stuff that they'll hold back from their supervisors. And I did bite my tongue on saying how I would've handled their coaching session so the rep wouldn't be so frustrated. *sigh* so funny and sad at the same time.

On a followup to the UPS fiasco, they finally delivered the pkg to my Dad's house. So I can finally get my books and my chibi Iruka patch. I'm gonna put him on my Sanzo bag. Maybe I should start looking for patches for all the other chars that Seki Toshihiko has played? That'd be cool. Then it'd be my Seki-dono bag, instead of just my Sanzo-dono bag.