Steel Kaleidoscopes

Vista Sucks

Is there a more annoying operating system than Vista?

Give me XP any day. Heck, give me Windows 95.

My issue with Vista isn't the usability. Yeah, it's kind of weird to get used to a different look. That's OK.

What is annoying is that you can't get onto the system quickly. Never before has control/alt/delete been more frustrating.

Hitting control/alt/delete is like playing a slot machine. It takes several times to bring up the log-in screen and when you have success, it's like seeing three 7's come up. Hey, I got in on my ninth try. It's going to be a good day.

An operating system should be to-the-touch prompt and consistent. This is 2009, not 1994.

We want to log on quickly and get to work. We want to be productive when we sit at our desks.

Can you imagine Jack Bauer using Vista? Terrorists would take over the world because he wouldn't be able to log on quickly enough. Explosions wouldn't be thwarted. Deadly toxic gases would be released in crowded subways. The world would end.

Microsoft, admit Vista is New Coke.

Let's move on.

And I'll be right with you, as soon as I can log on. 

MBTA Showing Bad Signs

Yeah it's cold, which has made recent rides on the perpetually late Fitchburg commuter rail bone-chilling.

But it's not the cold and tardiness that are the big issues. It's the so-called "digital updates" that are annoying.

One day last week as we stood in zero degree temps waiting for the early train, the rolling update on the sign read "the train is on or near schedule ... due to the weather, the train is 15-20 minutes late ... the train is on or near schedule ... due to the weather, the train is 15-20 minutes late."

Choose one. It's called editing.

The next day I arrive at North Station for the outbound train to see the conveniently posted sign above the entrance doors that declared my train was "boarding." I was pleased to see this as I had not intended to get the earlier train, which obviously was boarding a few minutes late.

So after doing my best George Costanza imitation of fleeing a burning kitchen, nearly knocking several people over as I bolted to Track 10, I arrive at the gate to find the train was long gone. Incredulous, I look up at the sign to see the train is "boarding."

Obviously, someone was playing solitaire.

A few days later, on a minus-6-degree morning, we waited for the train. And waited. And waited. The sign read "the train is on or near schedule," but it was now 20 minutes late. Once it arrived, the conductor made the announcement that there were "air pressure" issues that needed to be resolved.

But no update on the sign.

We could have gone back to our cars for a few minutes to warm up our frozen extremities if we had known the train on a minus-6-degree morning was going to be 20 minutes late.

Memo to the MBTA: If you're going to have signs, make sure they are updated.

We forgive you for being late (it's the culture). We understand stuff happens.

Just pay attention to the signs. We certainly do.

Starbucks' Achilles' Heel

I should probably leave them alone but I need to vent.

I love Starbucks coffee, but their system just isn't working. At least not at the School Street location in downtown Boston.

All I want is an iced coffee — black, unsweetened. I pay for it but watch in disappointment and frustration as my plastic cup is placed behind seven other cups.

Turns out I'm being held hostage by the designated drink maker, who thinks he's Tom Cruise in "Cocktail."

Instead of having the perky person I paid simply turn around and tilt the pitcher of iced coffee into my cup and send me on my way, I watch in horror as the designated drink maker fumbles with triple-shot caramel macchiatos with drizzled nutmeg and whip cream while my cup sits helplessly idle.

Because Starbucks is a friendly place, the designated drink maker chats up the customers, giving an occasional wink as he whips up a cinnamon dolce frappuccino with vanilla creme.

And Starbucks customers, if you want dessert, go to a pastry shop. Don't mask your weakness for gooey desserts by pretending you're ordering coffee.

Meanwhile my empty plastic cup sits idle, now in the middle of the line, four drinks away. It's like waiting to take off on the runway when the pilot cheerfully comes on the intercom to inform you that we're fourth in line for departure.

I just want my black iced coffee that I paid for 10 minutes ago.

Finally my coffee is poured and handed to me.

Will I go back? Of course.

I love Starbucks coffee.

It's the system that needs a jolt of caffeine.

Macy's: Retail Crooks

So I visit Macy's last December to buy some sweaters.

At checkout, the clerk asks me if I would like to register for a Macy's card and save 20 percent on the sweaters.

Considering the cost of the sweaters stacked on the counter, I decide it's worth the time to fill out the paperwork.

The first bill arrives in the mail and I pay a partial amount. Usually I would pay a credit card bill in full, but for some reason (maybe all of those post-Christmas bills coming in at once) I don't.

A few months go by and I don't receive another bill. Being busy, I make a mental note of it but don't react. A few more months go by. In fact, seven months go by and Macy's never sends a new bill.

Until I get a nasty letter and nasty phone calls from a credit services firm, basically telling me I have defaulted on my Macy's card and that my credit history is now tainted.

Problem is, Macy's never sent another bill. To me, that's out of sight, out of mind.

Aren't credit card bills supposed to arrive in the mail each month if they're not paid in full?

So now I have to pay the bill with seven months accumulated interest or live with a bad credit report.

As someone who has never had a black mark on a credit report, this bothers me.

Macy's bothers me.

Macy's should accept the fact that they never followed up with billing and give me the opportunity to pay what is owed, without interest.

But since Macy's didn't bother to contact me before handing my account over to a credit agency, I have to pay off the card with interest.

So much for the 20 percent savings.

Raymond Babbitt had it wrong.

Macy's sucks.

Dunkin' Donuts Saga

So I pull up to the Dunkin' Donuts drive-thru the other morning to buy some donuts, muffins and bagels for my family, who was visiting for the weekend (there is no walk-in option).

Here's the exchange:

Me: "I'd like to order four muffins. What kind do you have?"

DD employee: "Blueberry, corn and chocolate chip."

Me: "OK, I'll have three blueberry and one corn."

DD employee: "Would you like any coffee?"

Me: "No, but I'll also have..."

DD employee: "Please drive up."

Me: "I'm still ordering."

DD employee: "Go ahead."

Me: "I'll have five bagels and a dozen donuts. Just give me a mix on the donuts."

So I drive up, pay for my muffins, bagels and donuts and pull over to the side, just to check to see if they got it right. I open the box of donuts and find that there are 12 variations of chocolate donuts —  double chocolate, Boston cream, chocolate frosted and chocolate sprinkled.

Me, cutting off a few cars to get back to the window: "Um, I asked for a mix and I got a box of chocolates."

DD employee, turning to someone in the back room: "Hmm. Lester, he asked for a mix."

Lester (apparently, the guy who selected my donut mix): "I gave him a mix."

DD employee: "See, these look like mostly chocolate."

Lester: "Well I was just trying to get rid of the donuts we have a lot of."

Finally, I get a mix (jelly and plain, what a concept) and drive away.

Nut jobs.

Comcast: Crooks and Thugs

So the greenish-blue form letter arrived in our mailbox yesterday from Comcast.

After months of trying to straighten out a $220 error on our bill for services we never received, Comcast is basically holding a gun to our head demanding we pay or be shut down.

For full disclosure, this is not the first, second or even third issue we've had with Comcast. And because of this, shame on us. But when you have your cable and Internet connections invested in one service, you tend to avoid switching costs.

Who has the time?

So after three phone calls that totaled nearly two hours of dialogue with various customer service reps, each of whom agreed that Comcast has made an error and we are being unjustly charged, we're giving up.

In sum, we converted to the triple-play package (cable, phone, Internet) after sales rep Katy Linahan in Comcast's Chelmsford, Mass., office convinced us to switch from our long-distance AT&T service for a monthly savings of more than $40.

While talking with the presale-affable Katy Linahan, we also asked that a Comcast technician take a look at two dead phone lines in the house. Katy Linahan assured us that the technician could do this, and if he couldn't resolve the problem, we would not be charged for his time.

Wrong.

The Comcast technician told us we needed an electrician, and that he couldn't solve the problem.

When our first bill arrived, we were not only charged for the Comcast technician's time, but we were wrongly billed for the triple-play package.

All three customer service reps acknowledged the error, and said the correct bill would be sent.

Wrong.

Each time, the bill was larger and larger, that $220 fee tacked onto the regular service.

Because I couldn't dedicate any more phone time to Comcast's clueless customer service reps (Maria, Doris and someone whose name I forgot), we simply mailed the correct amount with a letter stating while we're not paying the full amount posted on the bill.

After two "partial" payments, the greenish-blue form letter arrived.

We pay Comcast more than $200 a month, and we always pay on time. You would think we would get better treatment than this.

But Comcast just doesn't get it.

And we don't have any more fight left in us. Not for this.

Comcast, you're no different than a thug on the street stealing $220 out of my wallet.

But my daughter needs to be able to watch Dora and I need a broadband connection.

Comcast somehow has a monopoly on legalized robbery.

The MBTA

We apologize for the inconvenience.

The MBTA, or the Misguided Bureau of Transit Anarchy, is the laughingstock of public transportation systems.

We apologize for the inconvenience.

While it's true that the sports teams are at the top of their game in Boston, the transportation system is one of the worst in the country.

We apologize for the inconvenience.

The 6:21 inbound train arrives for departure at 6:45 due to a switching problem.

We apologize for the inconvenience.

The 6:20 outbound train is ready for departure at 6:47 due to NA. Once it departs, there's a half-hour stop for a disabled vehicle on the tracks. And because the schedule is off, there's a 20-minute delay to let the inbound train get by. Your dinner is at 9.

We apologize for the inconvenience.

6:20 is really 6:53.  And 7:35 is really 8:03. And, by the way, 5:20 is really 5:46.

We apologize for the inconvenience.

And as our noses and ears take on the texture of stale bread while waiting for the 6:20 that has become the 6:31, we find that one of the four cars does not have heat. Be courteous and let a fellow passenger sit on your lap.

We apologize for the inconvenience.

If I ran my business this way, I'd be out of business.

But this is the MBTA, the Misguided Bureau of Transit Anarchy. Your choices are limited.

We apologize for the inconvenience.

The Green Line

If you work or play in Boston, you've undoubtedly taken the Green Line, the subway line that cuts through the center of the city.

You can hit many of the main attractions on the Green Line, including Fenway Park, Boston Garden and the Museum of Fine Arts.

During rush hour, the trains can get crowded.

Here's my rant: Instead of strategically figure out how to handle the overflow, the MBTA (Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority) just throws more cars at the problem. They're pounding their chests this morning, touting the 10 new cars they'll be adding over the next few months.

This is not the answer.

As it is, there are too many Green Line cars in service. More often than not, the Green Line cars practically stack up upon one another, creating rush-hour gridlock beneath the ground. It would be one thing if the cars were full, but they're not.

A better answer is to strategically space out the cars based on destination (there are B, C, D and E cars with specific routes) and ensure that outbound cars have a good mix of final destinations (Government Center, North Station and Lechmere).

The Green Line is going to be crowded. Volume is a reality, like vehicle traffic going in and out of the city. But the MBTA should focus on refining the mix rather than adding cars.

Maybe if someone calling the shots at the MBTA sat in Green Line gridlock on a half-empty car or waited 20 minutes for an outbound Lechmere car at Park Street while five half-empty Government Center cars in a row pass through they would understand.

Bugaboo Creek's Boo-Boo

When you're a parent, you need restaurants that get your kids excited.

Bugaboo Creek does that for my toddler.

It's too bad poor customer service will put a large window of time between us before we return.

There's a Bugaboo Creek in Framingham, Mass., that has been a treat for us. The food is pretty good but most important, there's a talking moose, wooden ducks that turn their heads and a fish that flips its fins on the wall.

When you're with a 2-year-old, it doesn't get much better than this.

Unless you have no wait service.

After beating the Sunday lunch crowd and getting seated, we look over the menu and make our decisions. Macaroni and cheese for Chloe and the chicken platter for me. I break out the coloring book (if you want to eat in a restaurant with a toddler, an activity bag is essential).

We wait. Chloe talks about the talking moose. We watch the lunch throng come in. A few couples are seated. A large group of a dozen is seated near us, the wait staff scurrying to pull tables together.

We continue to wait.

A waitress approaches the table of 12 and starts taking their orders.

For us, we've now been seated for 15 minutes and haven't even had a waitress glance at our table. When you're with a 2-year-old, it's important to order quickly as every minute could be the difference between lunch as usual or an emotional meltdown.

Finally, I get up and ask a waitress if we can get a waitress. She says she'll check, then disappears.

After a few more minutes, we put the coloring book and crayons away and get up to leave. The waitress comes over and says "Manuel will be right over to take your order."

It's too late.

When I go to a restaurant, I expect good service. I don't appreciate being forgotten. Especially with a 2-year-old.

We leave and head across the street to Papa Gino's, where we're eating our lunch within a few minutes.

There's no talking moose, but at least we're wiping tomato sauce off our chins.

One More Comcast Rant

So over the holidays I assure my mother-in-law that I can figure out why she can't tap into the Comcast wireless feed into her house.

Turns out that Comcast, which provides her with broadband access, initially set up her wireless but neglected to give her a network key (or the correct one).

No biggie.

I call Comcast and after explaining the situation, the snooty woman on the other end tells me it's a Dell problem, and that I need to contact Dell.

Um, OK.

So I call Dell and as the polite rep walks me through all of our settings, doing his best to trouble-shoot with me. Turns out the issue is that we need to reset the modem/router (Comcast supplies a hybrid). Because we're unable to do this without Comcast's assistance, I'll need to call Comcast.

Ugh, I'm thinking.

After going through all of the correct phone prompts to access a wireless representative, I get a woman who after listening to my situation says:

"Are you referring to all of that Internet stuff?"

"Um, yeah," I say.

"Well you've reached billing in Louisiana."

"But I followed all the prompts to discuss my wireless issue."

"Well they get very busy and when they do, the calls usually come here."

Great. So instead of putting the customer in the queue to speak with someone who may be able to help, Comcast sends the customer to billing in Louisiana.

Unbelievable.

The next day we switched to Verizon and we're fully wireless.

Comcast should stick to cable TV and leave Internet and telephone to people who have a clue.