I realize the answer is “because its so cheap to try, its virtually free” but why don’t comment spammers just knock it off. Sheesh
That said, I have to wonder what keywords my Dead 60’s bashing post hits. Its by far the most popular one for comment spam.
Oh yeah, the new banner image is from a picture I took in Hamburg, Germany.
It would seem that before you go somewhere you haven’t recently, you should call ahead to check hours, and maybe if they’re still in business.
It turns out that the indoor karting track that was located at I-70 & Colorado Blvd. in Denver no longer exists (a.k.a. SpeedWorld GP, Denver Indoor Kart Racing, and a few other names). That place was pretty nice simply due to the indoor aspect. Sure it largely dictated the course layout, but it was still plenty fun.. and heated/cooled with reasonably quick karts.
Anyhow, anyone know of another indoor karting track in the Denver area? I know of one good outdoor track (IMI Motorsports in Erie), and a couple mediocre ones (Boondocks, Hyland Hills, etc).
Just when I was starting to forget how much I disliked Volkswagen’s customer service, I was reminded again.
In all honesty, I have yet to have a positive experience with Volkswagen’s service departments. It would be easy to write it off as being a single dealer, except that I’ve tried a four different dealers. These bad experiences have ranged from being lied to, being accused of lying, unwillingness to sell me a part, ignoring my questions, to the latest, ignoring safety issues.
The latest experience of mine was to get the hazard light switch recall performed. I also inquired about a prior safety recall for the brake light switch that had been performed in May of 2004. I noticed that the exact circumstances that the recall described occurred on my car the day before I took it in.
Specifically, the brake light switch recall states:
ON CERTAIN PASSENGER VEHICLES, A BRAKE LIGHT SWITCH ON THESE VEHICLES MAY MALFUNCTION. IF THIS HAPPENS, THE BRAKE LIGHTS COULD BECOME INOPERATIVE, OR COME ON AND STAY ON, EVEN THOUGH THE VEHICLE IS PARKED.
I don’t know about anyone else, but I consider brake lights that either stay on or don’t operate at all a dire safety issue. It would seem that one of the service advisers at my local VW dealer didn’t agree.
VW’s policy toward recalls is that they provide a 1 year/12,000 mile warranty on all recalls. I admit, this is a completely reasonable policy for non-safety issues. Its not like I was in there complaining about defective stickers on a do-it-yourself child seat anchor labelling recall or something equally trite, it was a clear cut safety problem.
If a part is deemed defective such that a recall is warranted, and that part sacrifices the safety of the vehicle, it should be a “fix it until its fixed” scenario.
Anyhow, after raising my concern about the part and expressing that it should be covered by the prior recall, due to it failing exactly as the prior recall had mentioned, he suggested that I just “not worry about it.” He even went so far as to suggest that “since it isn’t failing right now, it wouldn’t be worth the cost of a new switch and the labor to install it.”
Thats an interesting take on safety.
After I got home I called up the national “Customer Care” number and relayed my story to them. Long story short, she called back today to let me know that they wouldn’t cover the cost of the brake light switch replacement, or the switch itself. That is, unless I took the car back in, paid their diagnostic fee, then possibly had the switch replaced by them.
By this point I had already paid for the $14.00 switch and replaced it myself.
I don’t know what customer satisfaction and safety are actually worth to Volkswagen. But it is clear to me that it is more than $14 and 10 minutes of labor.
While I’m wont to whine about the Web-two-point-oh-is-our-savior folks just as much as the next jaded Internet old-timer, Jeffrey Zeldman has put together a “step back and listen to yourselves” article regarding the Web 2.0 pundits.
As far as I can tell, so long as you follow these rules you’re participating in ‘Web 2.0′:
Never mind that JavaScript was considered the bane of web developers for years; now its the golden child that actually makes this stuff work.
The ‘Web 2.0′ moniker is stupid. Nobody I’ve come across can really sum up what it is or means. Just loose bullet points that describe most webapps today. Web 2.0, and the buzzword cloud surrounding it, ring hallow.
All of that aside, the intent behind the technology is good. Namely, making web apps that work better is a good thing (for some definition of better). I don’t know of anyone who likes slow, clunky apps with obscure interfaces. Saying your app is the next big thing and disruptive to the marketplace because you don’t do full page loads is silly.
Since I’ve been a slacker and haven’t posted anything lately here’s a quickie wrap-up for my reader (yes, singular).
Tiff is doing well with the baby. We have our next doctor’s appointment on Monday and another ultrasound in early February. The baby’s room is starting to fill up with clothes, toys, and everything else. I’m pretty sure she has more clothes than I do at this point.
In other news, I’m still waiting for Qwest to release my phone number so Speakeasy (referral link) can port it to their VoIP system. Thus far Qwest isn’t in a hurry…
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) wasn’t amused by the lackluster Netflix settlement offer. Here’s a quick chunk of their commentary:
In addition, even if the terms of the negative option plan were fully and clearly disclosed to class members before they chose to accept the benefit, the use of negative option features poses special problems in class action settlements. In the instant case, the Commission believes that the negative option aspect of the proposed settlement appears dangerously close to being a promotional gimmick. Specifically, the value of the benefit offered each class member is very low, both because those members who accept the benefit receive very little of value and because it is reasonably foreseeable that many class members will forgo any benefit altogether to avoid the negative option. This apparently small benefit to class members, however, provides a larger benefit to Netflix if members inadvertently either continue service at higher prices or re-enroll in the plan and continue beyond the free month based on the negative option. While the Commission has no knowledge of the strength of plaintiff’s case, it nonetheless questions whether any settlement in which a defendant benefits potentially at consumers’ expense would be appropriate.
A judge has approved the Sony BMG settlement over the XCP “copy protection” mess. A number of state lawsuits are still pending. This settlement allows people who purchased an XCP protected CD a cash refund and some free music downloads. Never mind that Sony BMG still hasn’t released a reasonable tool to fully remove the copy protection code.
Bruce Schneier wrote an excellent response to an “anonymity on the Internet will destroy it” rant by Kevin Kelly.
Despite intentions otherwise, I didn’t do a post-a-day during my trip. I wasn’t able to get my phone to work this trip, let alone data service. The same phone worked flawlessly last year.. hrmph.
Anyhow, here’s a quick rundown on what we did:
My name is indeed on the “No Fly” list, fortunately it isn’t me on the list. They had to run my name, birthday, and passport number at check-in each time though. I have to wonder how long it’ll last.