Mr. Coffee Grinder IDS77

I purchased the Mr. Coffee Grinder, Model IDS77 after accidentally buying some coffee beans that I thought were coffee grounds. Since this grinder cost me less than $20, it seemed like a low risk purchase. Even if it only lasted long enough to grind the beans in the bag that I accidentally bought (because my eyesight is going bad), I felt it would be worth it.

I read some reviews of various coffee grinders that our semi-local stores should carry in order to make a somewhat educated purchase, and I read the horror stories about some of them not working right out of the box, while others wouldn't grind all the beans unless you shook them. Some were too loud, some too complicated.

It hit me this morning that we've been using our Mr. Coffee Grinder for a couple of months now without any problems whatsoever. That's a miracle! Somebody actually made a product that works as expected and is hassle-free. I've also learned that our home-ground coffee options are much better than pre-ground. Our coffee tastes better and we have a wider variety to choose from, because there are a lot of different coffee bean growers operating locally who prefer to bag their beans than to bag some grounds.

The only potential problem I can see with this model coffee grinder is that if someone does not read the instructions before trying to operate it, she might think it is broken. You see, there are three sections to the model IDS77. The base, which holds the motor, the cup which holds the blade, the beans and grounds, and the lid which operates as both the lid and the on switch. If the lid is not perfectly lined up with the cup, nothing will happen when you push the button. Worst case scenario for us has been that a few coffee grounds got stuck between the cup and the lid, so we had to wipe those off before the lid would turn all the way to line up with the cup. No big deal.

I recommend only twisting off the lid to pour in the beans, and when you are ready to pour the grounds into your coffee maker, twist the entire cup with lid off as one unit.  In addition to twisting, the lid also flips up like a tea kettle lid so that you can pour your grounds out without having to twist it off. That way your lid and cup can stay aligned without having to get coffee grounds stuck between them.

You can adjust whether you want your grounds to be fine, medium or coarse, and you can instruct it as to how many cups of coffee you plan to make in your coffee maker. I usually just push the button and wait for the sound pitch to change. Then I know I've got the right amount of grinding done for my purposes. It never takes more than a 5 to 20 seconds. I'd rate the noise level as being moderate. Sometimes I hesitate to grind beans if someone is sleeping, but the noise doesn't bother anyone who is awake.

Bureacracy

I have to go on a little rant about paperwork.  The amount of paperwork I have been required to fill out this year has prevented me from being able to live my life, and I'm angry about it.  The worst offender is our insurance company.  I am literally receiving forms to either fill out or file from my vehicle / home / business insurance company every single day. 

We used to work with a different insurance company, and that company sent us our new policy each year, only asking for us to fill out forms if anything has changed.  However, their rates got to be too expensive after our teenagers began driving, so I switched to a different insurance agency.  I have probably had to visit their office in person 6 times in the past year, have had to talk to someone on the phone 20 times, and have had to deal with paperwork almost every day.  And I haven't even had any claims to make yet.

This is all just about the insurance company being paranoid that I'm lying about something, so they keep asking me to give them the same information over and over in hopes of catching me in a contradiction, so that they can raise my insurance rates.  This is bullshit.  I shouldn't have to go outside and register the odometer readings on all my vehicles every few weeks!  Give me a break.

Also, any time that I get new equipment for my business, I have to call them to provide them with the serial number and value of the item, or they won't cover it in their policy.  Then, because I got one new item, they have to raise my rates and rewrite my entire policy.  That's ridiculous.  A business has to be fluid, but I find myself hesitating when it comes to buying supplies or equipment, because I think about all the work that will be involved and how much more paperwork I will have to suffer through.

They also want me to fill in paperwork explaining who drives what vehicle when for how many miles, etc.  Our schedules are not that predictable.  Plus, since I'm sitting at home all day filling in paperwork for this damn insurance company, I don't have time to drive anywhere anyway.  Sometimes I think that is their intention.  They want to keep people so busy that they keep them off the roads so that they can't get into accidents.  What a concept.

Then there's my husband's employer, which is a government agency.  They are constantly giving him personnel paperwork to fill in, which he doesn't have time to do, because he's busy doing the job he's paid to do.  So, he usually passes the paperwork on to me and asks me to fill it out.  One of these such forms was a beneficiary form for his retirement death benefit.  He told me how to fill it out, I did, he signed and dated it and turned it in, and for some reason that wasn't good enough.  His personnel department handed the same paperwork back to him for us to fill out all over again.  I guess they had a revised form or we missed the deadline to file for beneficiaries or something stupid like that.

I think by law people should allow to choose their beneficiaries at any time.  After all, we can die at any time, can't we?  We're turning into a world of people who mimic those in the movie Idiocracy.  We spend all this time thinking up ways to make life difficult for others.  Something's gotta give.

Home Warranty Insurance

We protect the appliances in our home with American Home Shield.  Our annual contract runs out in a week.  I wasn't planning on renewing since nothing had broken down in our house for a few years, and we had all new appliances in our remodeled kitchen.  However, a month before the contract ran out, our brand new microwave stopped heating.  I called AHS to get a repairman out, but had to wait 3 weeks.

When the day came for the repairman to show up between 8 AM and 12 PM, I received a robo-call informing me that he was running late and would be out between 1 PM and 5 PM instead.  I did have some errands I needed to run in addition to an appointment that afternoon, but cancelled my plans since I had been waiting so long for the microwave to be repaired.

The repairman showed up at 2:00 PM and stayed about an hour.  I saw him spending a lot of time on his computer in my kitchen and very little time looking at my microwave.  It turned out that he was in a computer conference helping another customer with his broken appliance.  He only spent about 10 minutes looking at my microwave.  He then called AHS and reported his findings.  The repairman told me that AHS was going to buy me a new microwave, and that they would call me to make arrangements.  He then collected his $60 service fee and left.

I waited several days for AHS to call, and no one ever did.  So, I called, but before I could get any of my questions answered, I was forced to answer a dozen questions from them in order to identify exactly who I was and what address I resided at and what my contract number was, etc.  When all was said and done, the customer support rep transferred me to the Purchasing Department, which answered with a recording telling me they were closed.

I called back an hour later and a new customer service rep wanted to ask me twenty questions before transferring me to the Purchasing Department.  I did ask if I could skip the questions since I just answered all of them an hour before, but no.  I had to repeat the whole process just because the Purchasing Department was out to lunch.  I was then put on hold for 25 minutes listening to piped music and a female voice saying, "Please stay on the line.  Your call is important to us and the first available representative will help you shortly."

Just when I said out loud, "This is ridiculous!" and went to press the END button because my battery was dying on my mobile phone, and rep picked up.  She said that they did not agree to pay for a new microwave.  My options were to repair the old microwave, order a new microwave through them, but arrange for my own delivery and installation and only get reimbursed for the amount of the parts that were broken in the original microwave, or buy a new microwave locally and send them a receipt and evidence of purchase of a one-year warranty, and then they will pay me for the parts that were broken in the first microwave. 

Sigh.  Well, the parts were about $220 and the microwave would cost us about $400 to purchase it locally.  Then we'd have to find someone to help install it.  We are old farts who are weak and always in pain, so we can't install it ourselves.  In my mind, I thought it would be simpler to repair the old microwave since it is already installed and is very new. 

The AHS rep called the repairman to set up an appointment, and came back on the line with two pieces of bad news.  #1:  Their scheduling computer was down, so I would have to wait to set up an appointment.  #2:  The repairman didn't bother to take down the parts numbers when he was here before, so he needs two appointments now:  One to take down the parts numbers and one to repair the microwave once the parts come in. 

Suddenly, the repair route started turning out to be more complicated and time consuming than the purchase route.  Ultimately, considering all the time wasted from the beginning of this process, I'm thinking we would have been better off to not have a contract with AHS, but to just buy a new one at a local store and have them remove the old one and install the new one.  At least in that case we would have save the $500 a year in insurance, which could have gone toward the new microwave, and we'd be up and running (or cooking) within a few days of the old microwave breaking down.  Instead, it's looking like we we be short one  microwave for a couple of months.

Because this is such a long, drawn out process, I suspect that when the microwave finally gets repaired, AHS will probably refuse to pay for it, because our contract will have expired.  I'm hoping they go by the date you report the original problem and not the date in with the repair actually takes place.  Ultimately, if your time is important to you, just set some money aside to deal with appliance breakdowns yourself.  The insurance route is just too thick and sticky.

Loser List

I really hate to keep adding businesses and companies to my Loser List, but the lack of competency I find in the workplace really angers me.  Customer service leaves so much to be desired.  Some of the mistakes I see employed people making on a regular basis are ridiculous.  Here I am, a perfectly intelligent, well educated, unemployed person with a strong work ethic who can't get a job, who could easily work ten years without making the types of mistakes that other people make, and I have to suffer the consequences of the mistakes of those who are employed.  I have to repeatedly spend my valuable time mopping up their messes.  Is that fair?

Here's the deal:  People make mistakes.  I understand that.  However, when the same person makes the same mistake or the same company makes the same mistake repeatedly, that is what is so difficult to understand.  I mean, when I call someone and tell them about their mistake, and tell them how to correct it, are they actually correcting it while we speak or are they playing with themselves?  I have to wonder.

Here's a clue:  When a customer is inconvenienced by a mistake that someone in your company made, even if it wasn't you're mistake, always apologize on behalf of the company.  Apologies go a long way in assuring the customer that the problem is being handled by someone who actually cares.  Yet I am astounded by the number of people who will not apologize.  It's a common courtesy.

Here's a lesson I've learned:  Customer service is much better when you are a new customer opening an account than it is when you are an old customer trying to close an account.  I am continually amazed at how many companies fail to properly close my accounts


So, topping my Loser List today is Culligan.  Culligan is a company of franchises that provide water softening tanks to homes.  I called them in August to discontinue the service at my mother's house.  They sent me a bill for the months of August and September.  I called them and asked how I can be billed for those two full months when I discontinued the service at the beginning of August.

The lady explained some mumbo jumbo about how they calculate the final bill.  I said, "Yes, but this bill is showing that the house received a soft water tank in the month of September when it didn't, because someone picked up the tank in August when I closed the account."

She took a closer look, and by golly, I was right.  Wow!  What a concept!  The customer was right.  Seriously, who do you think would most likely know more about whether a bill is correct?  The one person who receives the bill and knows what the heck is going on with their service, or a company that has an automated billing system that serves hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of customers?

So, the lady calculated out what my bill should have been, and told me to just pay that amount.  I still thought it was a little high, but I just wanted to pay the final bill and get it over with, because I'm trying to settle my mother's estate so that I can distribute funds from the Trust, and I cannot do that until all her debts are paid off.

So, today I received another bill for the portion I previously did not pay, plus a late fee.  Say what?  I called their billing department again and explained the situation.  I explained it in as many ways as I could conjure up, hoping the confused woman on the other end of the line might be able to understand just one of those translations.  She said, "So I should credit you for the amount of this latest bill?"

"Yes, that is correct.  And I should not receive any other bills.  I don't want to hear from you guys again."

We'll see.  I won't know if my phone call was effective until this time next month, but believe me, if I have to put them on the Loser List again, I will have to create a Super Duper Loser List for repeat offenders and contact their corporate headquarters.  The only other company that has made this many blunders was Charter Cable.

Neilson Ratings

I have participated in the Neilson Ratings in the past, and I saw TV clearly change in the direction of unique television shows that I enjoyed at the time.  More and more shows like the ones I watched came on the air until viewers were over-satiated with the genre and it died from a terrible disease called "predictability".  So, when we received a card in the mail notifying us that some time within the next few days we would be receiving a phone call from the Neilson Ratings to discuss our participation in the program, I knew I would comply.

However, when I received a phone call at 8:30 PM after I had taken my sleeping pill and was starting to fall asleep, I wasn't happy.  Call me old fashioned, but I still believe it is rude to call people before 10:00 AM and after 8:00 PM.  For me, even 8:00 PM is pushing it, because that's when all the good television shows start.  I don't like receiving phone calls after 7:30 PM.

So, when the Neilson Ratings rep called at 8:30 PM and asked me what I was doing, I said, "I'm getting ready for bed."  I tried to say, "Could you call back tomorrow at a decent hour?" but she cut me off and said, "I just have a few quick questions for you and then I'll let you go."

The problem is that her "few quick questions" turned into a lengthy conversation because she kept apologizing repeatedly for keeping me from my sleep, and then she kept asking personal questions that had nothing to do with her survey, trying to establish a rapport with a very tired and irritable woman.  With each question, she was waking me up more, basically sabotaging all the work I did of taking a sleeping pill, drinking SleepyTime tea, taking an antihistamine, and reading a book to try to get myself sleepy.  I had a hard day and needed to end it.  After moving 120 pound hay bales around, I was sore and exhausted.

She wanted to clarify that I live in Nevada.  Then she told me she was calling from Florida, as if to say, "If I can stay up this late, you can too because it's not even that late where you are."

What pushed me over the edge was that she started talking about her weather in Florida and asking me about mine.  That's when I got really crabby.  This had nothing to do with her survey, and it was almost as if she was enjoying trying to keep me awake.  I snapped at her and told her the weather here sucks because it rained all day and ruined my brand new bales of hay before I could cover them.  She quickly changed the subject.

I supposed living in Florida in the southeast is somewhat like living in California in the west.  It's a completely different lifestyle from the rest of the country consisting of beach cities and parties, while the rest of us are waking up at the crack of dawn to do farm chores, chucking hay bales during the day, and going to bed just after sunset to do it all over again.  I can't expect them to understand what it is like to have to go to bed early.

I agreed to participate in the Neilson Ratings again, but when the rep told me she'd be calling me to check on my progress, I said, "Please don't."

Not only do I not need to be babysat, but I don't want her reversing all my work to fight another night of insomnia.