Important Information Regarding a Change to Your 411 Service

Recently I received this email from my otherwise fabulous home phone service, Vonage:

Dear BRIAN MEGILLIGAN,

We'd like to share with you some important information regarding our 411 Directory Assistance service. We're expanding our 411 service to include 411 Direct Connect. With 411 Direct Connect, when you dial 411 from your Vonage phone you'll be directly connected to the residential or business listing you've requested at the new rate of $1.49, effective August 17, 2009.

Not sure of the name or business you're trying to reach? Vonage 411 Direct Connect will allow you to search by category or keyword to find listings even when you don't have a name and address.

Remember, Vonage 411 is not just about phone numbers. You can also continue dialing 411 from your Vonage phone to access movie listings, airline flight times, ATM locations and more...all for $1.49 per 411 call!

We strive to provide an excellent customer experience and want to be sure you're getting the best value from your Vonage phone service. If you have any questions, please call us at 1-VONAGE-HELP (1-866-243-4357). We operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week. One of our Customer Care representatives will be happy to assist you.

Best regards,

Vonage

Did you catch that? They would be happy to charge me just $1.49 a call to connect me when I dial their information service. Seriously?

I couldn't resist. Here was my reply:

Hello,

Have you ever heard of Google?

Google is this great online search engine. You can type things you're looking for into it and it will bring back results.

Google has this service kind of like yours. What you do is you call 800 GOOG 411 and tell them the city/state and what you're looking for and it returns the results pretty well.

And just like you, it connects you right to that business you're looking for. Pretty cool eh?

Oh, but unlike you, they connect you for FREE.

So as I consider which directory I'll call out of convenience knowing that I can be hooked directly to it when found, I'll weigh carefully weather I will call through the service that is gonna charge me or the service that is going to let me connect at no cost. It will be a hard decision.

Brian

So surprised I haven't heard back from them.

[sic]

We rarely eat Chinese food. In fact, I would say most of the time, Chinese is something that always sounds like a great idea until you're in the middle of eating it--then you wonder why you thought it was such a great idea.

Anyway, I was struck by the wisdom that came my way via the "fortune" cookie at the end of the meal. It read "Only talent people get help from others."

It may be that they're trying to see if we've been paying attention to the "Learn Chinese" found on the opposite side of the "fortune." Unfortunately "chun juan" (Egg roll) isn't going to help me with this quote.

I have been pondering the meaning. Could it really be saying that only "talented" people get help from others? But then why would that be the case? If they're so talented, they should be able to help themselves. Should it be "tolerant" people? Can someone please help me with this?

The Airplane's Destiny: Mass Destruction

Tomorrow Austin's reading will be from this book about the Wright Brothers. As I flipped through it tonight to determine how much to read tomorrow, I skimmed this paragraph:

"Although Wilbur died before the airplane's full potential was realized, Orville lived to see airplanes used to transport deadly atomic bombs in World War II and to commercially transport hundreds of thousands of people all over the world."

Good to know. I'm sure Orville is very pleased with the destructive legacy this author feels is so important to mention over commercial flight. In a kid's book, no less.

From the office of redundancy office

We had an interesting portion of the afternoon today getting the kids' pictures taken. The photographer was great, the kids were great and they actually seemed to be having fun getting in the various poses and laughing at the photographer's corny jokes.

As we stood around waiting for the pictures to "upload," so that we could choose the prints we wanted (the result of which yielded a customer service experience I don't even want to get into now as a colossal rant would ensue, raging against bad training, under-empowered employees, presumption that the consumers are technology idiots, and frankly a deliberately executed formula to undermine any integrity), I spotted this sign at the desk stating the hours of operation. I couldn't resist and snapped a picture of it with my phone.

Tell me if I'm missing something. Wouldn't it have been easier to just indicate the hours as Monday-Saturday?