Optimism

I have been thinking about this kind of shit a lot lately... About how fragile and lovely and surprising and annoyingly, amazingly uncertain life really is. About how old I'm getting. And about how cool the world actually is...

Yes, yes, there are far too many flag-waving reactionaries, and too much horrid commercialism, and the fact that genetically modified chickens with huge breasts actually exist... gah. Also, far too many kids go to bed hungry. (Why can't we give THOSE kids gigantic chicken breasts? Wait... dammit.)

But I'm hopeful. We are slowly evolving away from our superstitions, I *think*. I actually like our president, most of the time. We're beginning to realize that gay people are not the enemy; they are just people, and deserve our love and respect. And we are - at the moment, anyway - ending more wars than we're starting (though to be honest, if that weren't true I probably wouldn't know).

And tonight I discovered that cole slaw is really good in a spicy chicken burrito. This is news.

GoGo is a NoGo

So I did a bit of business travel on Virgin America in September, and I signed up for in-flight wi-fi from Gogo. I had a choice of $15 per day or $35 for the month, so I signed up for the month, knowing I'd be on a return flight two days later.

Thing is, the monthly service auto-renews, and (here's the part that bites) GoGo does not send monthly statements, via email or paper, when the recurring charges occur. Every other recurring service I use - Spotify, Amazon Prime, Flickr, DropBox - sends me a statement on each billing cycle. I DID receive an email confirmation when I first signed up, with a very poorly worded statement about automatic renewal in faint grey text. See for yourself...

Another co-worker who traveled with me was likewise misled / fooled, and we each ended up with $139.80 in charges for a service we only used two times, over two days, in September.

In late December, I received a notice that GoGo was raising my monthly rates. ("What monthly rates?") I contacted GoGo to cancel the service and requested a refund for all but the September charge. The CSR I spoke to said it would take 7-10 business days to process my request. When I checked back with them yesterday, they said they had refunded one month's service on Dec 31 (which doesn't yet show on my AMEX statement),  but they won't refund any other charges.

Too bad. Apparently, my $139.90 is worth more than their reputation. Live and learn. Two things I take away from this: Never buy anything from GoGo Internet, and review your monthly credit card statements religiously.

Update:

Two hours after posting this blog (and linking from Facebook and Twitter), I received the following response from GoGo:

01/03/2013 05:27 PM
Hello James, 

We chatted yesterday and I've been tracking your refund so I could give you some updates. Today, your two refunds were approved. You'll see two refunds of $34.95 on your statement in about 3 business days. 

If you have any further questions, we can be reached 24/7 at 877-350-XXXX. You can also contact us via Live Chat by clicking https://custhelp.gogoinflight.com while you're in the air or on the ground. 

Fly classy,
Your Friends at Gogo Customer Care

Coincidence? Probably. Still... I'm glad to see that now two of the four months are getting refunded, instead of just one. That seems fair.

It's too damn easy

I was on Scribd.

I saw this advertisement:

I Googled "UN Small Arms Treaty" which led me to this summary on Snopes.

I read the summary, which presents irrefutable evidence that the above advertisement is false and misleading.

All of the above took me less than five minutes.

So why are so many people incapable of, or unwilling to, do the same? Why do people accept such bullshit? Because... They want it to be true.

Never underestimate the power of self-delusion.

Make fewer promises... and then keep them

The simple point of this excellent commentary by Aaron Levie, CEO at Box, Inc. is that making promises is much easier than keeping them. A less politic way of putting it would be that expectations are like babies; easier to create than to maintain over the long term, but so very rewarding if done right. OK, that was clunky, but you get my point.

I think this idea of making few (maybe even just one) explicit promise to your customers, and then exceeding it, is a great model for success. Why doesn't In-N-Out sell hot dogs? Because they are laser-focused on nailing their existing limited menu, and providing unparalleled customer service.

Who will replace the replacements?

So everyone - even, now, the President, it seems - agrees that the NFL replacement officials are overmatched, out of their depth, not up to the task. Everyone is now calling for the return of the "real" referees. Fine. But they are in the midst of a labor dispute and are locked out by the league owners. You can't just order them back to work without settling the dispute, can you? There are real issues at stake. And these guys are not air traffic controllers. We can live without football.

I am watching the escalating behavior of players, coaches and the media with an increasing level of anger of my own. They are attacking, intimidating and belittling these replacement officials, on the field and in the media. And most people seem to think it's not only acceptable, but actually noble. Angry, indignant, even mournful tweets by 8-figure athletes are met with the ultimate approval statistic: massive re-tweeting.

My question is this: What would you have these replacement officials do? Quit? Get better overnight? Are there far superior replacement-replacement officials waiting in the wings? Will all this bullying and whining by million-dollar athletes and coaches end once they bring on the referees from the Lingerie Footbal League?

But I have a more serious beef with, well... everyone. Look: I am also a referee; an experienced, unpaid, youth soccer referee. I've been doing it for over a decade. And the amount of abuse I take at any given game is ridiculous. The fact that some coach or parent will turn up at their son or daughter's AYSO game, knowing less about the game then they'll ever admit, and proceed to abuse a volunteer referee for the duration of the game - it disgusts me. Go take a class, get yourself a whistle, and get out here and do it yourself.

With regards to the replacement NFL officials, please shut up, just a little. These guys might not be great. Some of them might be terrible. But what else would you have them do? You want them to quit, or be fired? OK fine. Just so long as you're willing to grab a whistle and get out there and do it yourself.