Monthly Archives: February 2009

Kauai

Poipu SunsetWe’re on the road again … well, more the plane again.

For the past week we’ve been vacationing in Hawaii … first stop: Kauai.

We’ve been to Kauai in the past … only for a short time, and it was kind of a screwed up vacation.   I got a sinus infection the first day.   On that trip Kauai had been kind of cool … even cold at night.

Well this trip is somewhat better … no sinus infection, but it wasn’t much warmer.   Mid 70’s during the day, low 60’s at night.

Although we’ve done some fun stuff this trip … I’m not sure I’m all that interested in returning.

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Convenience Checks Redux

In recent months the credit card companies (Chase & Discover, mostly) have ramped up their efforts to get me to use “Convenience Checks”.  Almost every statement includes a batch of them.

I’ve never liked the fact that they send them … first, and foremost, because I never use them.  Secondly, I consider them a serious security risk.  If someone rifles through my mailbox (which has no security) and grabs my statement, they could easily cash the checks.  Yes, I know I probably wouldn’t be liable for the amount … but it would be a major pain to figure out what was going on.

I finally got around to calling both Chase and Discover to request that my account be flagged so I never get Convenience Checks again.

In both cases, the customer service person I talked to understood my concerns … and updated my account appropriately.  I was warned that there might be one ore two more mailings sent out, as the convenience checks are setup in advance … but I can deal with that.

Hmmm … now that I think about it a bit … that doesn’t really make sense … at least in the case of Discover … because the checks are attached to my statement, which is clearly custom printed on demand at the end of my billing cycle.

Oh well, as long as they don’t send me more than 1 or 2 more batches, I’ll be happy.

Tivo Customer Service

Thursday, I had a very disturbing experience with Tivo customer service.

In the past, on the rare instances where I had to call Tivo’s customer service department, I’ve always had a very pleasent experience … my problem or question was cleared up right away with minimum of fuss & bother.

Last   Thursday, however, that trend was broken … not once, but twice.

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