Wednesday, September 14, 2005
At work, I spent much of the day summarizing my notes about how orientation and new student matriculation has gone from my perspective. There have been a few good things that worked well but mostly it's problems because: people didn't communicate, people have too many tasks to do, departments are understaffed, and so forth. Compiling the list of issues was really quite draining. I also chatted with Kirk H today—another good chat with him. I also checked in with some students about whether they wanted their preferred names in their e-mail addresses or not. I chatted with Cindy about some of the orientation issues and about her idea box plan. I also helped Chris reinstall wireless drivers because he was getting BSODs in one wireless driver file, but I also broke wireless—couldn't get it to work after I reinstalled. Will fix later and he says that's okay with him. Helped Joel realize that the preprinted Post-It notes which I designed for him and which we received recently were printed incorrectly. He nervously checked the proof sheet he had signed and faxed back to the printer, and...it was correct! The proof sheet did not look like the Post-Its we received. This is good—we'll likely be able to get the order redone at no cost. I think perhaps the frustrating problems at work have made me less tolerant with services I have been using lately. Feedback I sent to rei.com today: "The order confirmation I received on 9/10/05 for order # ******** says that my order will be shipped to zip code 94143-0150. However, the shipping status I received on 9/14/05 says that my order will be shipped to zip code 94143-2205. This 2205 zip code is incorrect and my package is likely to arrive at the wrong location because your programmers made a presumption that was incorrect for my zip code. What can you offer to restore my confidence in ordering from the web again?" Feedback I sent to Hawaiian Airlines today: "Hi Kim, as I have already attempted to reach a human to help me with this request and Hawaiian Airlines failed to make this easy for me the first time around, and since I now no longer have confidence that I can reach a human at Hawaiian Airlines by picking up the telephone, and since you already know what I want—my e-mail address (and for that matter, all contact information) removed from your mailing list so that I don't receive any unsolicited messages which are unrelated to my current travel plans *and* all contact information not to be shared with any other party except as required by law—would you mind calling Web Support at 1-866-442-2778 to resolve this problem for me, then please notify me accordingly? Thank you!" I was surprised to see that rei.com responded within an hour as I write this at 9:28 PM Pacific time. Although speedy, Heather's reply was confusing to me (to restore my confidence in ordering from the web again, she says I can phone my order in next time), so I'm in a wait-and-see mode especially since delivery is expected to be completed tomorrow. Kudos to REI for that fast response, though I do wonder if it's really someone named something like Lakshmi working somewhere in or near Mumbia and she's just pretending to call herself Heather. (It would be about 11:00 AM her time now.) Hey! While I'm still writing this, Hawaiian Airlines returned my inquiry as well! It was only a handful of years ago when 2 business days was the industry standard turnaround time for e-mail customer support responses. (Or was it 3?) How times have changed! This time, it's Brad responding instead of Kim, but, as you might have suspected, he did not place that call I wanted him to place for me. "For security purposes, the HawaiianMiles Service Center must speak with you during normal hours of operation in order to remove your e-mail address." As though someone pretending to be me might contact them to ask that they remove my e-mail address from their mailing list? The REI problem with the zip code actually happens a fair amount. My packages will end up at the Mission Bay campus which is about 30 minutes away by shuttle. Of course, I'd never bother to take the shuttle there just to pick up a misdelivered package—that's easily an hour of my time—not worth it. Dinner at Panda Express by myself: the usual: chow mein, cow and broccoli, orange chicken except eat-in not to go. My fortune: You will be awarded some great honor. I learn today that if you submit a request for help on the Hawaiian Airlines website an account is created for you at hawaiianair.custhelp.com with a default password of (none set). Seriously! The password I tried didn't work, so I clicked the button which said it would send me my password in e-mail, and it told me: "Your login is:: ******@***********.com, Your password is: (none set)" and I have no idea why they had a double colon in there. So I try what it says: putting my e-mail address and I left the password field blank and it let me in! custhelp.com is obviously the company to which Hawaiian Airlines has outsourced at least their web support, and I suspect there's likely no blank password business going on at hawaiianair.com. Since this account seems to be tied only to support, it seems a rather low security risk. Those people who are pretending to be me and calling Hawaiian Airlines to remove my contact info from their mailing list are the same people who are going to be breaking in to accounts on custhelp.com and creating fake support requests, I'm sure. However, if there's someone you know who has traveled on Hawaiian Airlines and you know their e-mail address, I'm sure you could plug that in with a blank password and see what you get. Is Paris Hilton's e-mail address public knowledge? It's not how I'd run a website, but what do I care? I already changed my password.