Words of Truth

My son’s phone came with a $15 per month Best Buy Geek Squad protection plan when we bought it June 15th. This initial $15 was to cover his phone in case anything happened to it before he got his OtterBox case. He got his case the first week of July, but I forgot to call Best Buy to cancel the service. On July 15th we were charged $15 so I called and asked them to cancel the service, and refund my $15 because we would not be using the service for the coverage period of July 15th through August 14th. The Indian woman told me she would cancel it but they could not give me a refund.

I asked to speak to a supervisor. She told me that their supervisor was very busy and could not talk to me just then. I told her I would wait. I waited about fifteen minutes on hold, and then was transferred to a man who claimed to be a supervisor, but, for some strange reason, he could not hear me at all. He stated, “If you are still there, please call us back if you have any further concerns.” I was understandably upset, and I figured that they would just use the same tactics if I called back, so I didn’t call back. I figured that I would not get my $15 back no matter what I did.

Fast forward to today. August 15th. Guess what? I got charged $15 again. So I get to make another phone call to Mumbai (or wherever). I called and got “Randy” (why do I doubt that this is his real name?). Randy was semi-intelligible to my American ears. After giving him my information, and explaining my situation he stated, “I canceled it right now, but about the refund it’s possible you can get this refund. I’m going to send you an email and you could get your refund in 5-7 business days.” That isn’t exactly what he said, because I had to keep asking him to slow down, speak more clearly, and repeat different words. I was this close to asking to speak to someone else, but I finally understood what he was saying about the email, and decided that it wasn’t worth it. I verified with him that he did indeed permanently cancel the insurance effective today.

My question to you, the reader, is this: what do you think my confidence level is that I am going to get my refund of $15, and that I won’t be charged again on September 15th for the insurance? If you answered “pretty low” then you’re a winner!

I try my hardest not to be the “Ugly American” when talking with people from different cultures and languages, but I feel that I, as an American consumer, should not have to learn Hindi in order to cancel the $15 insurance on my son’s phone. I’m not in THEIR country, THEY are getting paid by an American business to help Americans with American problems. When people call customer service, they are already upset about something (otherwise they wouldn’t be calling). The best policy is to solve the problem as quickly as possible. Introducing a language barrier doesn’t seem to be good customer service. But that is the world in which we live.

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Update:  I never got an email, but I DID get my $15 back, quietly and without question.  Now all that remains is for me to see if I get charged next month. I have hope.

From http://xkcd.com/386/

I love truth. I am bothered when I hear someone saying something that isn’t true. This has led to late nights on the computer as I try to convince people of the truth. This has also led me to the place where some people think I have the attitude that I am always right. I have covered this in a previous post, but suffice it to say that I don’t think I am always right, but I always strive to be as correct as possible. When I find out that I am wrong, I change, but then I will defend what I know to be the truth with everything I have.

This is why I get frustrated with a certain proclivity that I have noticed in the past few decades, but it has gotten worse with the advent of the internet. Here it is:

People read a quote, a story, a funny song or something else that they really like. I don’t know exactly what happens next, but in MY mind the conversation goes something like this, “Wow, that was an inspirational story/funny saying/great quote. I think it would be funnier if someone famous had said it. Nobody has heard of this person who actually said it. I’m going to send this on, but I’m going to say that someone famous said it, because that makes it better!”

One example of this is the “Some Rules Kids Won’t Learn in School.” This is a wonderful piece with lots of good advice for graduating seniors as they start their adult lives. It was written in 2007 by Charles Sykes. The problem is that some people decided it sounded better if Bill Gates had said it. Others thought that it seemed like Kurt Vonnegut should have said it. The Atlanta Journal and Constitution newspaper stated it was written by “Duluth State Rep. Brooks Coleman.”

Examples of this abound. Morgan Freeman, Bill Gates, George Carlin, and Bill Cosby are just a few of the people who have had things attributed to them that they never said or wrote.

Reading one of these stories is like eating a wonderful meal, and then finding out that the meat was dog food. It leaves a bad taste in your mouth.If I had written one of these stories or said something as pithy or wise as some of these quotes, and then I read later that evidently Harrison Ford was the one that said it, I would be upset.

I love the truth, but truth watered down with a lie is not more palatable, it is less so.

Years ago I purchased a Coleman air pump to inflate our air mattresses. It is the kind that runs on battery power only.  You plug it into the wall to charge it, but it doesn’t run off wall power. If the battery is dead, it won’t work, even if it’s plugged in.

Recalcitrant Battery

Last time we tried to use it, the power was reduced from gale force all the way down to three-pack-a-day emphysema. When I turn it on, it used to make a mighty noise, and now it just sits there and whines.

My old Air Pump.

I noticed that it has a lead acid battery, and I watched a Youtube video where a guy filled his lead acid battery with water, and he was able to recharge it. I figured I’d give it a shot, so I disassembled the pump and removed the battery. The battery didn’t take much water, but that’s neither here nor there. My father-in-law brought us a new model of the same pump, so the immediate problem is solved (how do we fill up our air mattresses at camp without giving ourselves an aneurysm?).

But I’m sitting here staring at the insides of this pump and I’m starting to wonder, what would it take to convert this thing to run off AC power? I think it’s a DC motor in there, but I’m not an electrician. Anybody know what it would take to make this conversion so I don’t have to use a battery? Is this even possible?  Here are pictures showing what the inside of this thing looks like after I removed the battery:

Thoughts?

There is a philosophy I have heard a lot recently. Today someone on Facebook stated it like this,

“Jesus hung out with tax collectors, outcasts, prostitutes and lepers. If you are truly aspiring to be Christlike, you don’t judge, you love thy neighbor. Modern “Christians” seem to have forgotten Jesus’ actual teachings.”

According to these people, living a life of sin is acceptable because Jesus “hung out with” people living a life of sin.

I have also heard people say, “The Bible says you aren’t supposed to judge other people.” That’s a whole ‘nother topic, but it kind of relates, because it espouses the belief that we aren’t allowed to comment on other peoples’ life choices.

To those who believe the above philosophy, I can tell you that your stand is not biblical. Let’s read the entire passage in Luke 5:29-32:

Then Levi gave Him a great feast in his own house. And there were a great number of tax collectors and others who sat down with them. And their scribes and the Pharisees complained against His disciples, saying, “Why do You eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”
Jesus answered and said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”

He was indeed “hanging out with” sinners. But He stated His purpose in doing so: to call them to repentance. Jesus wasn’t saying that it was acceptable to God for them to continue their life of sin, he was calling them to give up their sinful practices.

These people who state that God is ok with homosexuality, prostitution, or whatever simply because “Jesus hung out with sinners” are making the same error as the Pharisees: they assume that because He did not shun them He condoned their behavior. This is the exact opposite of what he was saying.

Jesus said to the adulterous woman in John 8, “Neither do I condemn you. Go, and sin no more.” He wasn’t saying that adultery was acceptable, He was saying that He forgave her, but that she needed to change.

Romans 6:1 asks ” Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?”  The answer is in the next verse:  “may it never be!”  This means “NO!”  Once you find out God doesn’t want you to do something, you should STOP doing it!

Back to the original passage: yes, Jesus hung out with sinners.  But He compared Himself to a doctor.  Doctors hang out with sick people, not because they think being sick is a great thing.  They hang out with sick people so that the sick people won’t be sick anymore! The doctor attempts to heal the sick person so they can be “not-sick.”  In the same way, Jesus “hangs out with” us sinners so that we can trust in Him for salvation, accept His forgiveness and live for Him instead of for ourselves.  Not so we can pat ourselves on the back and live however we want.