Stupid Article About IKEA

I was reading this article about IKEA. Aside from the obviousness that, yes, they're trying to keep you in the store longer to buy more things, what really annoyed me about this article was this picture and the accompanying caption:

A-mazing: A route a customer took through a store. Professor Alan Penn said they are designed to stop customers leaving

Clearly this isn't a route a customer took through a store. It's the route FIVE customers took through a store. Furthermore, who's to say they didn't enjoy walking though the store? There's some neat stuff in there. Something drew these customers to the store in the first place. They weren't forced into a maze and told "now get to the exit!" That map, I'm sure, would look quite different.

And the whole premise of the article is wrong. IKEA doesn't stop customers from leaving, they just get the customers to walk by as much merchandise as possible. Grocery stores do it too. Department stores, as well. Why do you think the escalator is always in the worst place possible? Hell, all retail stores do it.

Multiple Truck Accidents in Mt. Airy

On Sunday, I-70 was closed in both directions because a propane truck overturned.

Tuesday morning, I-70 was closed again in both directions because another truck, this one carrying embalming fluid, overturned.

Both of these happened within just a couple miles of eachother!

Is Mount Airy angry or are truckers just particularly dangerous these days?

Southwest Has Ruined One of The Best Things About Them

Southwest Airlines has overhauled their frequent flyer program. It's so simple, it takes 3 YouTube videos to explain it.

Without writing something the length of a doctoral thesis on the details, let me see if I can explain it. In the old system,
   1 flight = 1 point. 8 round trips = 16 points = 1 free flight.
Done. That's it.

The new system is as convoluted as it is terrible. First of all everything's different for different fare tiers, of which there are three. For the cheapest fare:
  1 flight to Location A_x = x points
  20x points = 10 round trips = 1 free flight to Location A_x
  Now assume x > y.
  1 flight to Location B_y = y points
  1 free flight to Location A_x > 10y points

You would have to fly more times to Location B_y to get a free flight to Location A_x. And who knows if the flight back from Location A_x is the same as the flight there?

Oh, and mind you, x and y aren't low, simple numbers. They're in the thousands so they're harder for people to wrap their head around.

Now the numbers above are different for different fares, which I assume they did to get more people to fly business class (which just means you board earlier). Why not instead just make business class flights worth 3 points for round trips then and make the free flights cost more points if you want the higher fares?

The only plus side is that your points don't expire. That's good because if they did, they'd be gone by the time you figured out where the hell you can fly for free.

What's next? Baggage fees? I think this is the beginning of the end for Southwest.

My Battle With BargainCell

My lovely fiancée and I both recently got wonderful new phones. Since these phones have pretty impressive GPSs and using handheld cell phones while driving is now illegal, I decided a great present to us both would be cell phone holders. I got two of them for less than $2 each from an Amazon.com seller, BargainCell. I knew full well I'd be getting what I paid for, but I ended up having an email battle with their customer service after the holder proved to be worthless.

Here's part of my Amazon review:

This product basically can't do anything it's supposed to do. Before turning off my street, I hit a rather insignificant bump and my phone slipped right out. I replaced it by tightening it much more so it had a death grip on my device.

Seemingly overcoming the first hurdle, I ran promptly into Design Flaw #1. Yeah, a 6" pedestal shaft is all well and good, but when the car is moving, the shaft causes small vibrations the shake the phone to the point where there's no point in having it mounted anywhere, since you can't even look at it.

Just as I was getting fed up with it, I discovered Design Flaw #2: the suction cup isn't designed for a heavy phone held 6" away. It came right off the window. I have since attempted numerous places to reattach but the suction cup never remains fixed to the window.

So, yeah, it's a piece of crap, which didn't exactly surprise me.

Now here is my corrspondence with BargainCell:

Me: I purchased the Car Mount Cell Phone Holder ... recently. In the description, it says that you can clip it to the car's air vent. Is there some sort of vent clip that was supposed to be included? If so, I didn't receive one. If not, how exactly does one clip the holder to the vent? Thank you.

Them: Hi thanks for contacting us. Please try the following instructions:

1. Make sure the small switch near the suction cup is push down toward the suction cup.
2. Push the rubber suction cup against your windshield
3. While pushing the suction cup, lift the switch near the suction cup up.
4. The Car mount windshield should be secured now, if not please make sure your windshield and the suction cup are dust free, or clean with water. Then repeat the steps above.

Me: Thank you for carefully reading my email and responding quickly. I especially like the part where you answered my original questions, which I will provide again so you can see how apt your answer is: "In the description, it says that you can clip it to the car's air vent. Is there some sort of vent clip that was supposed to be included? If so, I didn't receive one. If not, how exactly does one clip the holder to the vent?"

Obviously no further correspondence is required.

Them: Hi thanks for contacting us. You can call us at (626)-593-5001 9AM-5PM Pacific Standard Time, Monday to Friday, to assist you with this matter.

Me: Obviously you have the time and personnel available to read my emails. I believe my questions were very clear. If the phone is the only way my questions will be answered, would you please call them, ask my questions, write down the answer, and email it back to me?

Thanks.

When they didn't respond, I took that to be a "no". So, I gave the seller a bad review. I asked them essentially 3 times a very simple question, which they ignored. Suddenly, after I gave them a 2-star review, they wrote:

Them: You recently left us negative feedback regarding the order you placed with Bargaincell on Amazon.com. You indicated that "I wrote an email to them asking a very specific question about the product and why it did not function as described. They waited days to write back & completely ignored my questions, obviously not having read my email. When I responded asking again for answers, they responded by telling me to call a #. No. I e-mailed them specifically because I didn't want to call. Questions still unaswered. ". We are sorry for this inconvenience. Please let us know if you would like a refund or replacement for this inconvenience. Thank you for your time and consideration, we look forward to hearing from you soon.

Me: All I want is for my questions to be answered, which I will paste here and ask a third time:

In the description, it says that you can clip it to the car's *air vent*. Is there some sort of *vent clip* that was supposed to be included? If so, I didn't receive one. If not, how exactly does one clip the holder to the *vent*?

Please do not respond with instructions on how to use the suction cup or what phone number to call.

Them: Hello Timmortal, we are very sorry for this late response to your question. This item does not come with the vent attachment. Since this item was listed incorrectly we will refund you in full for this item. We will also not ask for this item back. Please keep this as a courtesy for our mistake. Please let me know if we can do anything further for you. Happy New Year!

It's nice of them to eat the $4, but it shouldn't take me 3 or 4 tries to get a question answered.

What I listened to in 2010

Sure I'm 5 days late with this but...

Here are the top 15 bands I listened to in 2010:

15. HammerFall
14. Rhapsody of Fire
13. Iron Maiden
12. Therion
11. King Diamond
10. Ensiferum
9. Dream Theater
8. Sonata Arctica
7. Manowar
6. Jag Panzer
5. Symphony X
4. Týr
3. Opeth
2. Blind Guardian
1. Iced Earth

Honestly who could be surprised by this list?