Home of Today's Common Sense

Published Brownsville Herald Jan 4, 2009

The Holiday Season is behind us now the strains of Christmas music are fading and that warmth and optimism that only this season can engender seem to be fading. The realities of the New Year portending the weakening economy and the daily grind are becoming stronger. Still to come is the New Year’s celebration and the look back at what has gone into the past and the resolutions to improve ourselves for 2009.

The War in Iraq seems to be slowing and reaching a tentative solution but the War in Afghanistan is becoming more tentative and touchy. The pressures in the area are creating stability problems in Pakistan which has overflowed into India. The fact that both countries have nuclear weapons, and also have social and religious passions that make the concept of mutual destruction an effective deterrent, much less valid. The likelihood that Iran may also join the nuclear club as well makes “the end of days” even more possible.

Closer to our daily lives the optimism and confidence we normally have in the future has led to a weakening of the economy of the world. We are seeing the firstly in the lack of confidence the banks have in future business which has shown itself in the retreating from extending credit except to only the solid gold that do not need it. The result is that business that depends on credit such as larger valued transactions like houses, cars and appliances to decline.

Businesses now must compete harder for the business that are there taking every opportunity to do more to satisfy the customer. The product must be more useful and the service must be better.

With the Christmas shopping behind us, I am sure that each one of us can think of a ales person that could have been more considerate and gotten the sale that we look elsewhere.

We can look forward to more difficult times and I expect that others will be watching their money just as our family will to assure we get good value for the fewer resources we have.

Not long ago we purchased a new car and within months a panel underneath the engine compartment came loose and fell off while driving from a scheduled dealer checkup. We notified the dealer who advised that the situation was indeed a recall and would be repaired at no cost when they received one. They repaired it as promised several weeks later but it again fell off. This is not just a case of poor dealer service but also caused us to loose confidence in that make of vehicle for a future purchase.

On another occasion we had purchased a used GM car from a new car dealer only to find that the battery went dead a few weeks later and resulted in engine lights too turn on which only the dealer could satisfy at a charge of $100. We also found that an extra ignition key would cost $70. These surprises were indeed unpleasant and even though valid because of the security involved caused us to remove that dealer from consideration when the next purchase comes along.

I know over the years I have continued to support those providers that have been courteous and considerate even though more expensive.

Probably the biggest problem is when the company gets too large that they forget to provide the service that supported their growth. The most common of these are telephone and cable services.

Some years ago my South Western Bell phone service developed a terrible static that affected my service every time it rained. After repeated attempts to correct the situation over the period of a year the company determined that it was in the house and not their problem. I shortly thereafter secured service with Time Warner who was just beginning to provide those services. I liked the quality so much I soon purchased the internet and television services as well. The static problem went away and as Time Warner had local technical support, the eventual problems were quickly and courteously corrected.

Time has passed and I have found that technical support for this area is now in El Paso. The problems now often require a thirty minute wait to talk to someone who cannot help and refers you to a higher level of support. On several occasions I have reached level 3 with fifteen to thirty minute waits in between.

As you might guess the eventual horror story came about. Just prior to Christmas I thought I might give myself the present of a faster internet connection. I called and inquired only to be told that in order to receive the benefit my bundling of services would have to be changed which could result in spending more than the additional price of the product desired. The sales person said that because I have been a customer of long standing that it would be worked out however. I was also informed that if the product was not as I expected I could cancel within two months. Within one day I found that the increased speed did not justify the change so I called and cancelled. I was again told that the further re-bundeling of my services would be required and would be more expensive than previous. I acquiesced and services were restored or so I thought. I soon found that in the process my phone service had been terminated and restored resulting in a change in my phone number. I was not informed until a relative advised me that from the caller ID he did not recognize the number from Friday until Monday I called the different levels of technical support with the extensive wait times in between. I was told different descriptions of what happened at every call from different people. I finally reached a young lady support person at the El Paso center that despite previous information that it was not possible to retrieve my former phone number, advised me that the number would be restored in four days. On subsequent call the technical people advised that the number would be restored on Dec 31 and on the latest call I was advised that I would have my number restored on January 8. Lastly, we were promised a phone credit for the month. As of press time there has been no resolution with the phone issue for 16 days.

I was very tempted to change services because of the deteriorating service but because I am physically incapacitated and need the services badly, I chose not to change. We will see if the services are restored properly this time and whether there has been an increase in charges on December 30. How nice it would have been to have explained the problem only once and to have the support person actually support the service.

How similar to politics this is becoming where those that is supposed to help us just become too important to do it.

I saw a terrific movie lately that described the problem and the solution. “Meet John Doe” – a1941 movie starring a bashful Gary Cooper with the famous unassuming attitude, and Barbara Stanwyck.

Infuriated at being laid off from her job as a newspaper columnist from The New Bulletin, Ann Mitchell prints a fake letter from the unemployed “John Doe,” threatening suicide in protest of society’s ills. When the note causes a sensation, the newspaper is forced to rehire Mitchell. After reviewing a number of derelicts who have shown up at the paper claiming to have penned the original suicide letter, Ann and Henry Connell decide to hire John Willoughby (Gary Cooper), a former baseball player and tramp who is in need of money to repair his injured arm, to play John Doe.

The Doe philosophy spreads across the country, developing into a political movement, with financial support from the newspaper’s publisher, D.B. Norton (Edward Arnold), who plans to channel the support for Doe into support for his own political ambitions.

This movie focuses on the idea that most people are decent idealists who actually want to help the neighbor, but don’t want to admit it. They want to appear cool with whatever the popular thoughts are being advanced by their friends not what they have thought for themselves.

The bottom line was that we “the folks” are the powerful and are the only ones who know what is good for us John Does.

When we get tired of being mis-used by those that are supposed to work for us we will start electing competent representatives to government and avoid wars and other crises. We need to start in the local elections as we already have too many less than greats there now.