A

The spider that tried to eat me...

Love this tree!

Leah (sp?) Kim's dog...

Paul Went WHERE!??!?!?

OK, So I went WAAY West. As some of you knew, Kim Binsted asked me to go to Hawaii to work on her new town home. I of course said yes, and, well here I am!

Because it is impossible to tell this story in words, I am starting to use my camera phone to take pictures of things here. As I often do with these things, I will take a crapload at fist, and then I may slow down. I may not. We will see...

Wow, A palm branch just fell in front of me...

This is cool...

NEVER BOOK WITH EXPEDIA! NEVER! Never fly "Jet Airways" either.

I just had a most horrid experience. I had to change a flight for a friend.

There was a mistake made in booking. (I still contend it's the websites fault.) and a flight was 24 hours late. So, she followed their instructions and e-mailed them. Time passes, no reply.

Then, the next day, she calls them, Spends four hours in various stages of being on hold or being cut off. Then she asks me to help. I call, spend 20 minutes on hold, get cut off. Call back. Then guess what?

I SPEND THREE AND A HALF HOURS ON HOLD!!!

I am not joking, three and a half hours. And during that wait time, (I know because I checked early in the time, looking to just cancel the ticket I was so pissed off at these people.) guess what?

Yup THE FARE WENT UP! Over $90!

And to make matters even worse, Jet Airways (An Indian company) doesn't charge the usual $100 change fee, no, they charge $200! (I think change fee's are unconscionable, but I'm not an airline.)

So, now they were telling me that it was going to cost over $320 more with extra taxes, fees, etc.

Needless to say I was NOT happy, I complain, there were ”outdoor” voices used. (On both sides of the phone. This is funny, because I was just complimented on my ability to curtail my temper!) Now I am told that that is just the way it is. I refuse to accept that, especially since between the two of us, we had spent something around 8 hours on hold!

I demand to speak to the higher level. (There is always a higher level...) I am told the best that could happen is this manager would contact “Customer Service” and they would get a hold of me in 24-48 hours. It was also suggested several times in these conversations that I contact Jet Airways. I tell the manager to have customer service contact me and we hang up.

Then I call Jet Airways. Their US number is closed, BUT there is an Indian number. I call them.

(Funny note, Turns out they both go to the same place,. So, why would they close the number, because the call center was open?)

Basically I hear three human recorded messages, (Three different people reading the exact same script) and they are all saying that because of the very cheap fare and low grade of ticket that Expedia.ca booked, Only Expedia can fix it.

I realize this is a .25 a minute waste of time, so I wait until the next day to call the other number and see what I can do.

And I get a manager who repeats the same message, but he tells me to call back on Monday, and he'll check. I call back on Monday and he is working a different shift. I call back during his shift, and he's not available. And he's not available, And he's on a different shift again.

Forget it.

I call Expedia on Tuesday. Another 60 minutes before I get to someone who can actually do something about it, and what do they do? Say “Well, Sorry, we are having a lot of calls, and this is our busy time, and you really should have looked.”

Right, that's great customer service. First off, if it's their busy season, HIRE MORE PEOPLE! And perhaps I should have looked, but their website was so convoluted for a trip of this complexity, that mistakes can occur. I agree to pay the change fare, if they will pay the fare difference, because obviously that was their fault that we had to wait so unacceptably long for them. Knowing that he had us nailed down, (Because we really had no choice, $1400 is too much to throw away.) he just says “No, You have to pay it all. That's just the way it is.”

Nice customer service.

So, I end up paying it all.

And I will never fly with JetAirways again, Nor will I ever book a flight with Expedia again, and I can not tell you how strongly I suggest you never do either.

I would have been much cheaper to book it with the Travel agent, (the one I like so much.) and she would have solved this problem. And I never would have to waste what amounts to two working days on the problem.

Oops and Privacy.

As some of you might know, there was some kind of special book release this last weekend. For some unknown reason a great number of people were excited about it. I guess I need to try to find out who this "Harry Potter" is, and why he is so important. (I know, I know, unnecessary use of a search term...) The publishers were apparently trying to keep it all very secret. - And someone decided that they wanted to share. This was a bad thing for many reasons, but very bad for them because apparently they shared a bit too much.

Now, in this case that's probably a good thing, because these people did wrong, BUT it makes you think about others kinds of traces and fingerprints you might be leaving.

Just something to think about. I'll let you draw whatever conclusion you want.

Sorry, It's been too long...

Long story short, There has been some real shit here, and I really can't write about it yet, but I might soon.

In the mean time, my FMARS travel agent recently asked me what it was like. Someone else (Mel) who saw my answer really liked it and said that I should post it here. So, This was my answer. (She is really good, BTW, and if you are thinking you need someone, she's worth a call.

Maria Spiers
Accent Travel/American Express
512-338-2835
800-444-5634
512-338-2813-Fax
www.accent-travel.com )

Amazing. The 24Hr daylight was wild, I have video of things you would not believe ("Snow Devils" hovering over the road, Adiabatic winds moving snow almost organically, And then there is the hab.) They [the inuk] are a whole different people with a very no nonsense way of looking at things. Either you survive or you don't, and that is a real worry there. A special kind of art and a beauty that only exists there, and is difficult to describe. A people used to having nothing, and using every scrap of it. A hard people used to real hardships, and yet, they are still a happy people willing to extend a hand in friendship or in aid...
Of course, I was there to work, and work I did. not having a darkness, We would sometimes work very late, forgetting the time, only to wake up early the next morning to do it again.

We got a great deal done, and had a great time doing it...

[Of course there is much more to it, But I'll save that for later. Ask me in person if you really want to know.]

In the footsteps of another friend, Here are a couple things I read recently that I thought were interesting.

http://www.space.com/spacewatch/070720_ns_eclipse.html
Just before the Mars Society conference? Coincidence? I think not...

Perhaps one of the more insidious degradations of our privacy from an unsuspected source.


And just plain funny, Even if it's not supposed to be a secured system, Who is taking care of this crap?

I'm trying out for this, We'll see how it goes...

Hopefully more later.