New info

So, this blog has been horribly neglected. My apologies but I'm working on it. The dearth of posts makes the following announcement somewhat awkward:

Come check out my NEW blog! macksdown.blogspot.com

The new blog will just be a place for me to post thoughts on stuff in general.

Family related info can still be found here (with newer stuff, eventually).

Thank you all for your continued patience and patronage!!

The celebration continues......

With Harrison's birthday being the day before a popular Utah state holiday, the partying can take a few days to complete. I was close to dubbing this past week the "Week of Harrison", although there was no eating of whole blocks of cheese and very little decompressing (for some of us).

Friday was capped off with a party for Harrison's friends.




Some musical chairs:


Fabulous prizes:


Shaan put a lot of work into planning this party so that everyone would have a good time. She really needed a better assistant but my rates are low so she went with me anyway. The good times rolled into Saturday with a small party for those family members who were in town.

The birthday boy:


Zac (Yes, ladies, he's single and gainfully employed!) and Grandma Bartschi:



"What, you can't blow out the candles??" Ha, haaaaaaaaa!!! Diabolical!!





Thanks to everyone for sharing in Harrison's special day(s)!

Baseball and fireworks

Grandpa Back was able to pick up tickets for the Salt Lake Bees game on the 24th. The Bees won, the fireworks were great and everyone had a good time (especially the proprietors of the Snowie stands whose profit margins have to be in excess of 5,000%).



Cool Shad:


Adorable Shad:


Cool Harrison:


Adorable (if slightly out of focus) Harrison:

Happy Birthday Harrison!!

The post is late but we celebrated Harrison's birthday on the correct date, July 23rd. Here is the card we gave him that morning before school:



A larger image of the card is here if you'd like to get a better look.

He got to spend some time with Dad on a surprise outing to McDonald's for lunch and bowling afterwards. Dad won the first game but Harrison scored a dramatic come-from-behind win in the second game with a strike on the final frame. I forgot the camera so there aren't any pictures but the competition was intense.

After all the fun he wanted to catch the last part of school. This wasn't a surprise as he likes being with his friends and all the things that go on in his class.

We all went to Training Table for dinner as a family to end the celebrations for that day. We can't believe how quickly he and Shad are growing up.

Talk about the 'spirit of service inaction'......

Many of us in the Intermountain West are beholden to the evil Qwest for many of our communication services. Fortunately, with technological advances, many are breaking the shackles of telecommunications serfdom. Unfortunately, I decided to go up to the castle to speak with Lord Qwest in order to secure broadband service for our new home.

Now, I went into this arrangement knowing full well that I'd have some kind of issue with Qwest. To their credit, they did not fail to disappoint. It only took the issuance of my second bill before I got the shaft!

I signed up for their broadband service at a promotional price. My first bill only had charges for the modem I purchased from them. My second bill had all the charges for the services (a partial month and then two full months), but at the regular full price. A $10 credit on this bill would bring down the total for one month down to where it was supposed to be but that left one whole month with me paying the full price.

I assumed this was just some system problem where the billing system can only add one credit per bill. I went into an online chat with a Qwest rep to ask for the additional $10 credit but it became a muddled battle of semantics rather quickly. The transcript is below for your reading pleasure:

[09:54:30] info: Thank you for using Qwest.com. A Qwest Sales and Service Consultant will be with you in just a moment.

[09:54:32] info: Thank you for contacting Qwest. My name is Donna M. (20244). How may I help you today?

[09:55:56] Mack Bartschi: Hello. My Broadband service is supposed to be at $39.99 (price for life). My current bill lists it at $49.99. There is a $10 discount on the bill but that still wouldn't take the total for the two whole months on my bill down to a $39.99 average. [

09:56:57] Mack Bartschi: My initial order number is _________ if that's needed.

[09:57:41] Donna M. (20244): I will be happy to assist you.

[09:57:42] Donna M. (20244): Prorated charges aren't discounted, but each standard month in advance will have the credit documented each month, the way you see it on this bill.

[09:59:42] Mack Bartschi: Then, shouldn't there be a $20 discount on this bill? 2 months at $49.99 minus a $10 discount doesn't equal $39.99/mo.

[10:01:56] Donna M. (20244): Mack, prorated charges are everything up to that first billing date. Your bill generated on July 7th and the first full month in advance is July 7th to August 6th. A credit was applied for that period. The other charges were for the service prior to that first bill generating, that's the prorated part of this statement.

[10:06:18] Mack Bartschi: Thank you, I understanding the prorating of May 29 to Jun 06. However, for Jun 07 to Jul 06 and Jul 07 to Aug 06, I am being charged $49.99 for both of those periods when I am supposed to be receiving the service at $39.99/mo. With only a $10 discount on the Jul 07 bill, that means I'm being charged $49.99 for one of the full months on this bill.

[10:07:47] Donna M. (20244): Maybe I should explain it this way: This promotion gives you a $10.00 credit each time your bill generates.

[10:07:54] Donna M. (20244): Prorated does not mean "partial month".

[10:08:13] Donna M. (20244): Prorated means, the billing prior to that first standard month of charges for the upcoming month.

[10:08:33] Donna M. (20244): I understand you have two $49.99 charges on this bill. I am looking at your statement as we talk here.

[10:09:00] Donna M. (20244): However, the credit applies when your bill generates for the upcoming month only.

[10:09:21] Donna M. (20244): This is the only bill you'll receive with prorated charges, unless you make changes to your service in the future.

[10:09:42] Donna M. (20244): So, from here on out, you'll get one month of standard billing in advance, with the credit applied each month.

[10:10:04] Mack Bartschi: I see. Then I guess I just need another $10 credit applied to my account in order to receive the $39.99 monthly charge I agreed to.

[10:10:09] Donna M. (20244): This bill happens to have charges for service used prior to the billing date. As such, they are prorated charges, and are not eligible for the discount.

[10:12:36] Mack Bartschi: I signed up for service with the explicit understanding that my service would cost $39.99 per month (plus applicable fees and taxes) for the duration of my contract (price for life). At no point did anyone say anything about prorated bills where you would be charged over $39.99 because of nuances with billing cycles.

[10:13:01] Donna M. (20244): The confirmation and disclosures advise that prorated charges are not discounted.

[10:13:20] Donna M. (20244): I'm sorry for any misunderstanding.

[10:13:50] Mack Bartschi: How difficult would it be to just charge me the $39.99 and have it reflected that way on my bill?

[10:16:00] Donna M. (20244): The discounts are reflected in monthly credits; our system automatically tracks the standard rate for each product, and credits reduce those standard rates on each regular statement of charges in advance. Again, Mack, I understand your concern and am doing my best to explain the billing to clear this up.

[10:16:15] Donna M. (20244): Each bill you get from here on out will have one month of charges and one credit.

[10:17:59] Mack Bartschi: I appreciate your patience in explaining this and I understand that each bill will have the credit. What I am saying is that for one month of service, I am being charged above the amount I agreed to because of issues with Qwest's billing schedule.

[10:18:24] Donna M. (20244): I have credited $10.00 to your account.

[10:18:28] Donna M. (20244): Is there anything else that I can help you with today?

[10:19:41] Donna M. (20244): Since I have not heard from you for several minutes, I am going to assume you have everything you need. Please do not hesitate to click on the chat button again if you need further assistance. Thank you for visiting Qwest.com.

[10:19:51] Mack Bartschi: No, you've been very helpful. I'm sorry that I've ended up using more than $10 of Qwest's resources than I would have if they would adjust some billing methods.

'The List' : Origins and future

Like many of you, dear readers, I am just so sick of receiving poor service from anyone that I have to pay. It's been that way for a long time but it's now starting to drive me crazy. I must now be officially 'old' and you will soon hear me saying things like, "Kids these days..." and "I remember when _________". Your patience during this time of transition is very much appreciated.

So, for a number of years I've gradually been blacklisting businesses whenever I felt I received poor service and adding them to a 'list'. Unfortunately, the extent of my efforts to document these real and/or perceived slights consisted pretty much of me telling Shaan, "Well, looks like (fill in offending business name here) is getting added to my/our list" as we'd drive out of the parking lot.

Obviously, trying to rely on my occassionally keen memory to recall all the details of these occurences was the one glaring weakness of an otherwise fabulous idea. The lack of consistent documentation made it difficult to enforce these mini-boycotts as well. The circumstances of my previous post got me so bent out of shape that I was finally moved to action in terms of preserving these interactions.

Finally, a friend told me that I should put the list on our blog. It could be cathartic and maybe it might (big hint) motivate me to provide more timely updates. This was such a fabulous idea, and I was so distraught that I hadn't thought of it myself, that I considered taking full credit for it, but for a variety of reasons, I won't (Thanks, Masha!).

So, you'll find 'The List' on the sidebar above the blog archive. I'm going to try to keep it to more recent things that I can document in order to be fair, but if I can remember the details well enough, a poor experience from the distant past may show up.

Feel free to refer to it often as a public service as a thanks for your readership.

Under Construction

Adding a new feature and will be uploading new items shortly (by Tuesday, hopefully).