Archive for the 'Rants' Category

Hey… That’s our personal info!

Published on January 12, 2009 in Rants. Closed

We got a letter from our credit union in November saying,

“A laptop computer was stolen that may have contained member account data…”

Huh? Why is sensitive customer data even being put on laptops — which can easily be stolen or misplaced?

Two months earlier, in September, we got a letter from our mortgage company stating:

“…an employee (now former) may have sold personal information about you to a third party.”

They assured us that this employee had been terminated and they were working with law enforcement to pursue other actions. They said they deeply regretted it, apologized, and set us up with a free 2-year membership in the Experian® Triple Advantage Credit Monitoring service, which I thought was a good response. They monitor it on a daily basis and will notify us if anything suspicious is going on.

So far no more funny business… but I really wouldn’t be surprised if I got another letter,

“Dear Mr. Comfort, We are writing to inform you that we recently have become aware…”

I really hope my Bimart card doesn’t get hacked!

Traffic woes and dumb signs

Published on August 22, 2008 in Dundee Traffic and Rants. 1 Comment

The anonymous DundeeParkingLot people are being counter-productive.

This week the back-up from Newberg to Dundee has been bad as usual, but I observed several times already that the slowness is partly a result of those dumb “DROP DEAD” signs that the DPL people have put up. You see, there seems to be a spat going on between them and the Newberg Graphic Newspaper (which I won’t go into now!) but the signs are getting lots of press.

While I agree with them that a regional bypass is the best solution (connect McKay Road to McDougal Corner), I think they’re going about it in completely the wrong way. Making the traffic slower is not a good way to make friends and get people on your side.

Today traffic crawled along at about walking speed for the mile-and-a-half drive. As soon as I passed the DPL signs, it sped up to 25, and I cruised on into my little village! People are slowing down to read, and it is making the back-up even worse.

For more on why the little town of Dundee has it’s own big-city traffic problem, check out the map I posted here late last year.

There, I vented.

Verizon Rant

Published on April 16, 2008 in Rants and Technology. Closed

A few days ago I received a letter from Verizon, our internet service provider…

Thank you, Mr. Comfort, for being such a good customer. Effective next month we are raising your monthly DSL rate. It will be 47% higher than it is now. We really appreciate your business!”

Right after I read that letter (a few minutes), I got a phone call…from Verizon!

Hello, Mr. Comfort. Did you know that Verizon Fios is available in your area, and it is way better blah blah blah five times faster blah blah…”

I’m not interested. Thanks.

May I ask why, Mr. Comfort, when Fios is blah blah way better blah blah…?”

Yes. It costs more than I am paying now.

But, did you know that Fios uses less electricity than DSL? blah blah blah save the planet blah blah…”

I don’t care.

[Actually I do care about the earth, but I just wanted to get off the phone!  I react negatively to people or companies using environmental guilt as a marketing tool to sell things, especially when it is such a HUGE stretch as this! Now I wish I would have quizzed him a bit more on his claim...]

Well, Mr. Comfort, if you change your mind, you can (speed reading, he rattled off an unintelligible 800 number and web address)…”

OK! [click.]

Now I know why they’re raising their rate for the cheap DSL plan. They’re having trouble stealing customers from themselves.