I am postponing a blog on how T Boone will save us all from oil to revisit customer service. The following is a copy of a letter in my mailbox waiting for the mailman to visit in the morning. A couple of quick notes:
1) Never buy a timeshare from a salesman. You can easily pick up deals for ten to twenty cents on the dollar and then exchange for last minute openings.
2) I have been extrememly happy with my travels with Wyndham and with RCI.
and now:
FairShare Plus by Wyndham
P.O. Box 98940
Las Vegas, NV 89193-8940
July 26, 2008
RE: XXXXXXXXXXX
Sirs,
Currently, I am prepaid through May of 2009. Since taking efforts to be a good customer and pay up front for services, I have been from time to time been blocked from using online applications due to my delinquent payment status and I have been notified three times by mail that I have a past due balance of over one thousand dollars. The most recent notice came today. Each time I have received this notice, I have contacted the billing office where the staff has consistently been polite.
The explanation I am generally given is that I have been double billed. I am told that the matter will be fixed immediately but that it will take two days for the online system to update so that I am cleared to check confirmations and make reservations.
When I called today, I was told that there was a notation that a “Jeremy” had filed the paperwork to correct this on (I believe) the sixteenth of this month but it had never been completed. I was told to call back Monday as nothing could be done on a Saturday which leaves me wondering why the phones are manned. Also in today’s mail was a reservation confirmation which was filed on the nineteenth.
I am very pleased with the product that Wyndham provides and have three vacations set up for the next year and enough points for several more. There is nothing that I could complain about except for the continuing frustration that I am having over being double billed. When rooms are released at resorts I wish to stay at, I may well find that I cannot book them due to this issue and will have the vacation I have planned and prepaid ruined.
A company which has grown and prospered the way Wyndham has, surely must have the operational discipline in its financial office to correct this matter. As my confirmation letter arrived, it appears that updating the online system, which I was told was the most difficult and time consuming aspect was completed again but correcting my record, which I was told could be done immediately, has still not been done despite numerous attempts. Please see that this is corrected and contact me in writing showing my payment status.
As a further aggravation, the collection letter which lists the consequences of being delinquent always states that it contains a return envelope for my convenience. It never does.
Thank you,
Jim Avery
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
East Nassau, NY 12062
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Sunday, July 20, 2008
080720 Tom Cruise Can Fly
As long time readers know, I enjoy taking in the matinee on Tuesdays and this summer has supplied a better than average collection of films. This past Tuesday, my lady friend and I went to see Hancock after seeing that the drive in had no plans on bringing it in. Now if there is one actor in Hollywood whose work I respect it’s Will Smith, but at the end of the movie when I saw that he had produced the movie, I got worried.
I do not want to spoil the plot for anyone out there who has yet to catch the picture but as the story unfolds, a case of amnesia causes Hancock to have no idea who he is or why he has the amazing powers that he does. He finally gets an explanation but, for me, the answer raises more questions than it resolves. It was not until the end credits that I had a theory. Hancock » Will Smith » Tom Cruise » Scientology.
I remembered reading that Tom Cruise had been trying to recruit Will Smith into Scientology.
There are people out there who insist that Scientology is not a religion. I am not one of them. I think Scientology has everything that all of the so called “real” religions have. I don’t mean to offend any believers out there. There is a long history of hard core believers tossing infidels into lion pits, or stretching them on the rack or waging jihads or, in the case of the Scientologists, sending out armies of lawyers.
Scientology seems specially made for Hollywood celebrities. It tells them that they are gods among men. Church doctrine states "that man is a spiritual being whose existence spans more than one life and who is endowed with abilities well beyond those which he normally considers he possesses." Much of the core beliefs of Scientology are kept secret or “confidential” and only revealed to practitioners as they advance through Operating Thetan levels and make financial donations. Special efforts are made to recruit celebrities and they advance through OT levels quickly by writing large checks.
At OT level III, members are allowed to learn the story of how Xenu became the alien ruler of the "Galactic Confederacy." In order to quell free-thinkers and remove any threat to his rule that kind and just people would create, Xenu brought billions of people to Earth seventy-five billion years ago. He transported them in spacecraft resembling Douglas DC-8 airliners, stacked them around volcanoes and blew them up with hydrogen bombs. Their souls then clustered together, stuck to the bodies of the living and continue to do this today. Hubbard called these clustered spirits "Body Thetans," and advanced-level Scientologists place considerable emphasis on isolating these alien souls and neutralizing their ill effects.
Of course, when science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard first created the basic doctrines of Scientology in 1952, he termed Scientology as a “study of knowledge”. It was not until 1960 that he termed it “a religion by its basic tenets, practice, historical background and by the definition of the word 'religion' itself.”
So what was the meaning of Hancock? Does Will Smith see himself as a superhuman placed on the planet by an alien force? Did Tom Cruise get to him?
I do not follow celebrity “news” closely enough be in the know if Will Smith makes a statement about this.
I also find that I need to worry that the infection may have spread to Jason Bateman. If the “Arrested Development” movie comes with anyone other than Tobias Funke joining the church, I will be suspicious.
I do not want to spoil the plot for anyone out there who has yet to catch the picture but as the story unfolds, a case of amnesia causes Hancock to have no idea who he is or why he has the amazing powers that he does. He finally gets an explanation but, for me, the answer raises more questions than it resolves. It was not until the end credits that I had a theory. Hancock » Will Smith » Tom Cruise » Scientology.
I remembered reading that Tom Cruise had been trying to recruit Will Smith into Scientology.
There are people out there who insist that Scientology is not a religion. I am not one of them. I think Scientology has everything that all of the so called “real” religions have. I don’t mean to offend any believers out there. There is a long history of hard core believers tossing infidels into lion pits, or stretching them on the rack or waging jihads or, in the case of the Scientologists, sending out armies of lawyers.
Scientology seems specially made for Hollywood celebrities. It tells them that they are gods among men. Church doctrine states "that man is a spiritual being whose existence spans more than one life and who is endowed with abilities well beyond those which he normally considers he possesses." Much of the core beliefs of Scientology are kept secret or “confidential” and only revealed to practitioners as they advance through Operating Thetan levels and make financial donations. Special efforts are made to recruit celebrities and they advance through OT levels quickly by writing large checks.
At OT level III, members are allowed to learn the story of how Xenu became the alien ruler of the "Galactic Confederacy." In order to quell free-thinkers and remove any threat to his rule that kind and just people would create, Xenu brought billions of people to Earth seventy-five billion years ago. He transported them in spacecraft resembling Douglas DC-8 airliners, stacked them around volcanoes and blew them up with hydrogen bombs. Their souls then clustered together, stuck to the bodies of the living and continue to do this today. Hubbard called these clustered spirits "Body Thetans," and advanced-level Scientologists place considerable emphasis on isolating these alien souls and neutralizing their ill effects.
Of course, when science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard first created the basic doctrines of Scientology in 1952, he termed Scientology as a “study of knowledge”. It was not until 1960 that he termed it “a religion by its basic tenets, practice, historical background and by the definition of the word 'religion' itself.”
So what was the meaning of Hancock? Does Will Smith see himself as a superhuman placed on the planet by an alien force? Did Tom Cruise get to him?
I do not follow celebrity “news” closely enough be in the know if Will Smith makes a statement about this.
I also find that I need to worry that the infection may have spread to Jason Bateman. If the “Arrested Development” movie comes with anyone other than Tobias Funke joining the church, I will be suspicious.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
080713 Cocktails, Anyone?
What could be better during the hot, sticky months of summer than reaching for an ice cold bottle of water? It is hard for most people to comprehend that something so simple and filled with common sense could be so bad for both them and for the environment. However, changing just a couple of habits can make grabbing that refreshing bottle of water as healthy as it would appear.
First, ask yourself where that water comes from. No matter how serene the spring pictured on the packaging, the majority of bottled water comes from the municipal water system. This means that any living organisms in the water should have been removed but not other chemical by products. Many people do not realize just how many chemicals are involved. This spring the major news agencies picked up the story of just one category of contaminant – pharmaceuticals. To get enough of our medicines through our systems to have their desired effects, the doses run high. Most of it goes right through our systems to pass out through our urine and back into the closed system of the municipal system. Public water systems have been found to contain unnatural levels of estrogen, Viagra, epilepsy medicine, anti-depressants, and steroids along with other compounds too numerous to mention here. The only effective way to remove these substances is through reverse osmosis filtering which is considered too expensive to implement on a city size system. Each bottle of water you purchase has a better than even chance of containing a cocktail of medications, plus fertilizers, pesticides, chlorines and some much, much more.
Next, you have to consider how the bottle got to you. Somewhere a plastics factory which required light and heat and land had to take petroleum out of the energy supply to make and shape the bottle. Trucks burning hydrocarbons and emitting exhaust then shipped the bottles to the point where the water was pulled from the city water system. The water got bottled in a plant which also had to be lit and heated and have workers driving in and out. Then the water got trucked to a store where it crowds out space from local food producers filling a spot that needs light and so on. A lot of energy and greenhouse gases went into getting that bottle to you.
You finally get your water; refresh yourself and stand there looking at the empty bottle. You could separate it out into the recycle bin and feel good that you did your part. However, an awful lot of communities are like mine; they take all of the separated goods and dump them together in the landfill. Here at the Red Lodge, if I want to recycle plastics I pile them up until I head into a nearby city where I own two apartment buildings and pay a city recycling fee. The city professes that it recycles and I am looking forward to touring the facility later this year. If your community recycles, you should be aware that leaving the cap on the bottle may well cause it to be tossed back in the trash and sent to the landfill. While the bottle is recyclable, the cap is not and having someone uncapping all of the plastic bottles costs more than the finished recyclables are worth.
There are two schools of thought about all of this here at the Red Lodge. I have purchased an e-Spring water treatment system from Amway which runs my water through a compressed carbon filter and a reverse osmosis filter and hits the water which an ultraviolet light. With that I know my water is totally locally sourced and safer than what is sold in stores. I keep an e-Spring pitcher in the fridge and always have reusable e-Spring bottles chilled. My lady friend who likes buying organic food in the store but is afraid of the eggs the free range chickens across the street lay, turns up her nose at my water and goes to the store for bottles filled from the Latham Municipal Water System.
She does not want to hear it. Of course she is always running out of water, running through cash and feels out of sorts quite often. And I get to dispose of her bottles.
Oh, and when we were kids, we drank from the garden hose all summer.
First, ask yourself where that water comes from. No matter how serene the spring pictured on the packaging, the majority of bottled water comes from the municipal water system. This means that any living organisms in the water should have been removed but not other chemical by products. Many people do not realize just how many chemicals are involved. This spring the major news agencies picked up the story of just one category of contaminant – pharmaceuticals. To get enough of our medicines through our systems to have their desired effects, the doses run high. Most of it goes right through our systems to pass out through our urine and back into the closed system of the municipal system. Public water systems have been found to contain unnatural levels of estrogen, Viagra, epilepsy medicine, anti-depressants, and steroids along with other compounds too numerous to mention here. The only effective way to remove these substances is through reverse osmosis filtering which is considered too expensive to implement on a city size system. Each bottle of water you purchase has a better than even chance of containing a cocktail of medications, plus fertilizers, pesticides, chlorines and some much, much more.
Next, you have to consider how the bottle got to you. Somewhere a plastics factory which required light and heat and land had to take petroleum out of the energy supply to make and shape the bottle. Trucks burning hydrocarbons and emitting exhaust then shipped the bottles to the point where the water was pulled from the city water system. The water got bottled in a plant which also had to be lit and heated and have workers driving in and out. Then the water got trucked to a store where it crowds out space from local food producers filling a spot that needs light and so on. A lot of energy and greenhouse gases went into getting that bottle to you.
You finally get your water; refresh yourself and stand there looking at the empty bottle. You could separate it out into the recycle bin and feel good that you did your part. However, an awful lot of communities are like mine; they take all of the separated goods and dump them together in the landfill. Here at the Red Lodge, if I want to recycle plastics I pile them up until I head into a nearby city where I own two apartment buildings and pay a city recycling fee. The city professes that it recycles and I am looking forward to touring the facility later this year. If your community recycles, you should be aware that leaving the cap on the bottle may well cause it to be tossed back in the trash and sent to the landfill. While the bottle is recyclable, the cap is not and having someone uncapping all of the plastic bottles costs more than the finished recyclables are worth.
There are two schools of thought about all of this here at the Red Lodge. I have purchased an e-Spring water treatment system from Amway which runs my water through a compressed carbon filter and a reverse osmosis filter and hits the water which an ultraviolet light. With that I know my water is totally locally sourced and safer than what is sold in stores. I keep an e-Spring pitcher in the fridge and always have reusable e-Spring bottles chilled. My lady friend who likes buying organic food in the store but is afraid of the eggs the free range chickens across the street lay, turns up her nose at my water and goes to the store for bottles filled from the Latham Municipal Water System.
She does not want to hear it. Of course she is always running out of water, running through cash and feels out of sorts quite often. And I get to dispose of her bottles.
Oh, and when we were kids, we drank from the garden hose all summer.
Sunday, July 13, 2008
080621 Cruisin'
I am not a cruise person. That is not to say that I did not enjoy my recent cruise. I really did have a very good time. I just am in no hurry to run back out on another one. There are people out there who could gladly move from cruise to cruise. That is just not me.
To put last week in reference, I had an opportunity to purchase tickets for my lady friend and myself to take a four day cruise to Canada at what I think was a great price. I won’t mention the price here because I do not want readers writing in to tell me that I paid too much. Neither of us had ever been on an oceanic cruise before. A three hour Hudson River cruise was pretty much the high end of our experience curve. Four days and four nights at sea from New York City to Saint John Canada and back seemed like a good opportunity to learn how much we like cruising. We sailed Tuesday evening, spent Wednesday at sea, explored Saint John on Thursday, were at sea all day Friday and made port Saturday morning.
When you are at sea you can go swimming, lie in the sun, eat to excess and gamble in the casino. As I learned from my trip to Atlantic City last year, I don’t really enjoy casinos or gambling and I can swim, sun and eat until I am sick in my own house. It is nice to do it on a cruise ship but after the novelty wears off you might as well go home.
I have to wonder what kind of person is a cruise person after stopping to relieve myself. Next to every toilet on the ship was a plaque asking me to please not flush towels. Now did someone in charge gaze thoughtfully toward the horizon and receive the divine inspiration that he needed to make sure no one ever tried to flush a towel? Or did some genius ask himself what he should do with all of the damp towels and get it into his head that all he had to do was flush them. It has never occurred to me that I should flush I towel, but after reading that plaque the first time all I could think of was flushing towels. I never did of course.
In fact, I behaved so well that I only needed to be spoken to by staff once on the entire cruise. Apparently elegant dining night extended to the dining room I had entered and shorts did not cut it. I am very proud to say that the only time I needed to be spoken to on the cruise was when I was told to leave the dining room.
I was afraid I would not even make it onto the ship. When I climbed up to the second floor of the pier and saw the line snaking back and forth across the platform and then security running luggage though a metal detector, the was the possibility that I might be accused of breaking the rules. My luggage contained a bottle of Long Island Iced Tea. The Carnival Cruise Lines takes a dim view of any alcohol which does not come from one of their many bars. The only exception to this is wine which is brought on board and turned over to the crew who will provide it in the dining room for a corking fee of ten dollars.
Luckily there was no x-ray to go with the metal detector and I made it onto the cruise ship safely. Unexpectedly, disposing of the empty bottle was harder than bringing the bottle on board. The cruise was actually a good time but I don’t know how soon I would want to go out on another.
To put last week in reference, I had an opportunity to purchase tickets for my lady friend and myself to take a four day cruise to Canada at what I think was a great price. I won’t mention the price here because I do not want readers writing in to tell me that I paid too much. Neither of us had ever been on an oceanic cruise before. A three hour Hudson River cruise was pretty much the high end of our experience curve. Four days and four nights at sea from New York City to Saint John Canada and back seemed like a good opportunity to learn how much we like cruising. We sailed Tuesday evening, spent Wednesday at sea, explored Saint John on Thursday, were at sea all day Friday and made port Saturday morning.
When you are at sea you can go swimming, lie in the sun, eat to excess and gamble in the casino. As I learned from my trip to Atlantic City last year, I don’t really enjoy casinos or gambling and I can swim, sun and eat until I am sick in my own house. It is nice to do it on a cruise ship but after the novelty wears off you might as well go home.
I have to wonder what kind of person is a cruise person after stopping to relieve myself. Next to every toilet on the ship was a plaque asking me to please not flush towels. Now did someone in charge gaze thoughtfully toward the horizon and receive the divine inspiration that he needed to make sure no one ever tried to flush a towel? Or did some genius ask himself what he should do with all of the damp towels and get it into his head that all he had to do was flush them. It has never occurred to me that I should flush I towel, but after reading that plaque the first time all I could think of was flushing towels. I never did of course.
In fact, I behaved so well that I only needed to be spoken to by staff once on the entire cruise. Apparently elegant dining night extended to the dining room I had entered and shorts did not cut it. I am very proud to say that the only time I needed to be spoken to on the cruise was when I was told to leave the dining room.
I was afraid I would not even make it onto the ship. When I climbed up to the second floor of the pier and saw the line snaking back and forth across the platform and then security running luggage though a metal detector, the was the possibility that I might be accused of breaking the rules. My luggage contained a bottle of Long Island Iced Tea. The Carnival Cruise Lines takes a dim view of any alcohol which does not come from one of their many bars. The only exception to this is wine which is brought on board and turned over to the crew who will provide it in the dining room for a corking fee of ten dollars.
Luckily there was no x-ray to go with the metal detector and I made it onto the cruise ship safely. Unexpectedly, disposing of the empty bottle was harder than bringing the bottle on board. The cruise was actually a good time but I don’t know how soon I would want to go out on another.
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