Another day went by at the Moscone center, with more handshaking and smiling. As our reward:

Tadich Grill. I found it on Zagat actually, as P sounded like he really wanted seafood and I love shrimp. This place has been around for over 168 years, according to their menu, and their servers look like they’ve been around for at least three quarters of that time:

Our server was great fun, so full of personality, probably hidden in his hair. He gave off that feeling of being somebody’s feisty uncle. It probably helped that the food was delicious (or the other way around – maybe the awesome service sparked something in our brains that made the food taste better). I had the seafood cioppino that was on special (see photo above). Some places just inspire good conversation, no matter who you’re with.

Not saying that the people I was with weren’t cool, sales people are generally fun to be around.

I don’t know if anybody is really made for this type of lifestyle of standing 8 hours a day, going for huge meals with optional side of alcohol, then going back “home” to your hotel. It did help me appreciate having a regular office job a bit, but now that I’m back in the office for the 2nd day already, I’m getting a bit frustrated again. The snow really isn’t helping much either right now and the long commute is a pain, especially with angry drivers all over the road.

Start rant.

Today, a well put together Caucasian male with white hair driving a red Audi sedan, possibly a coupe, rolled down his window to yell at me, as I tried to get into the southbound lanes first and then try to quickly change into the other lane that would take me to the north bound lane. He angrily requested that I stay in the “real” merge lane, instead of making my own. Frankly, I “made my own lane” to clear up space for him to get back to his big house in the south sooner, because I was trying to head north, and if he didn’t keep his head stuck in his self entitlement, he would have seen that. I rolled my window down to reply him that I was trying to get into the far lane, and I could hear him crawling back into that hole… Those who rage first are rarely in the right. Stop embarrassing yourself. I’m sure there are moments when I’ve honked for no reason, or when I’ve been honked at for good reason. However, there’s no reason to get out of your car or roll down your window to shout.

End rant. TLDR: rich man road raged at me because his time is precious.

It cracked already, barely a week old. Didn’t have a major fall, didn’t tumble it down anywhere. Note 7 has the worst glass. Do not get it if you’re into durability and reliability, or get a REALLY good case for it. Samsung customer service also highly disappointed me.

1. I went to the Richmond Centre store on Tuesday, and the sales rep there advised me to call their general customer service line. The agent on the line advised me that if I brought the phone back to the original store that I purchased it at, they would be able to switch out the phone for me. The original store was the Metrotown store, which is not along my usual route to and from work (very out of the way actually), but he guaranteed that if I went it would be switched for me.

2. I went in to the Metrotown store, and the sales reps there told me that they would have to send the phone out to get it checked, 2-3 week turnaround, and I might get a quote. That’s not what I was promised. I called the Samsung number back, and was connected with one of the rudest customer service reps I’ve ever talked to. He kept calling me “ma’am” and telling me he couldn’t hear me, so I went out of the store to find an area with better reception. Then…

Me – Can you hear me now?
Samsung Customer Service Rep (SCSR) – Yes, I can hear you better now.
Me – OK, here’s the file # from yesterday… 2…1…
SCSR – No, NO, hold on MA'AM, can you tell me what this file is regarding?
Me – *Explains the story of how I called yesterday and the Sales Reps at the store telling me a different story*
SCSR – ONE, I can’t hear you. TWO, if you cracked your screen, it’s considered physical damage and that’s not covered, so you have to send it in.
Me – ONE, you clearly can hear me if you heard that I cracked my phone. TWO, I already explained the story. Your 1st rep clearly lied to me and misled me. I wasted my time coming to the Metrotown store. SCSR – I can’t hear you, MA’AM. I can’t hear you!
Me – *Speaks louder and clearer* *Line cuts out* Hello?

RUDE. Insensitive. You should get another job, because you really suck at doing what you’re doing now.

3. I call back, and reach a much friendlier SCSR. He listens to me, realizes that I’ve been lied to and that the phone isn’t doing what I expected it to, in terms of the glass being way too weak and not gorilla-like. Eventually, he transfers me to an Executive Customer Service Agent (ECSA).

4. ECSA tells me repeatedly that physical damage is not covered under the warranty. He does not understand or listen to me at all, that their rep first lied to me. I ask to speak to someone higher up, and he says:

“I’M AN EXECUTIVE CUSTOMER SERVICE AGENT. THERE’S NOBODY ELSE YOU CAN SPEAK TO.”

I guess he’s the owner of Samsung or something. I spent at least 10 minutes arguing with him, and everytime I made a point, he would just repeat the same thing about the warranty, and end his paragraph by asking me if I had any further questions. I don’t feel like Samsung provides executive service at all, more like a service for sending you on a guilt trip, and they should really be more empathetic if they are charging regular customers $1000+ for a handheld device. Robots reading from a script, that’s all they are. It’s almost a conspiracy – if I want to make any complaints about any of them, who do I contact? The 1800SAMSUNG number and speak wo their ECSA’s, who all work together to make their customers feel worthless and like it’s completely my fault that their product uses weak glass. Samsung, if this is the message that you’d like your customers to receive, then, I’m not sure I like what your company represents.

5. I go back to the store to get it shipped in for repairs… The original Sales Rep I was working with is helping another customer, so I speak to another person, who then tries to help me wipe my phone. I ask if there’s an extra phone that I can use as backup, and he says he’ll check. Comes back empty handed. Well, that’s enough, I just left, didn’t want to fix it anymore. I don’t have time (or money) to waste, and by this time, it was an hour gone with nothing to show.  I was so tired of this bad service. I work in the customer service industry too – it’s really not that difficult to do a good job – be empathetic and listen. That’s all, but maybe I expect too much from the rest of the world. Am I unreasonable at all in all of this? Let me know what you think.

Otherwise, I’m happy with this phone. It’s smooth, everything works great, except the outer glass. If I had known, I would’ve bought a case right away, just to keep together the pieces of glass that the phone would become.

But yeah, otherwise, I’m a happy hiker.

I’ve had a pizza craving for a few days:

Still got the craving because frozen pizzas just don’t do the job. The lettuce was fresh picked from my dad’s garden and we mixed it up with the potato salad (from… Costco?).

Good thing I’ve been biking a ton. Today was super productive – work, bike, yoga, washed my Veloster and a boat (my mom has a Camry). Where’s a good place to take my car to get it detailed?

STARRRRVING when I got home. It’s time to start planning Iceland… but maybe after Rachel Nguyen’s vlogs from last Christmas:

She’s a pretty cool girl from LA who worked very hard to get where she is now. Some people don't actually work - they just depend on the system to take them where they want to go. And parents of course.

Did I mention what happened on Sunday at Lansdown?

We locked our bikes against a fence that we shouldn't have (I do admit we were wrong there), and the security guards locked them up with their own lock. We called them using the phone number that was on the notice they left behind. One shorter fellow in a regular grey shirt and a taller fellow in a Garda security uniform came storming out, and the shorter fellow started accusing us of breaking the fence! He was like a chihuahua, barking loudly, but really no bite (his arguments were quite illogical). Fence was already broken before we got there, they wouldn't have any proof to show that we did, so they can't hold us responsible for the charges. Anyways, long story short, the short one admitted he knew that we didn't break the fence, but wanted to just scare us and teach us a lesson, so that we wouldn't park our bikes illegally any more. His name is Nahid Islam, and he was extremely rude - he even said that if we were older, he would've just let us off, but because we're younger and we could afford "nice" bikes, we should've known better and he wanted to send us a strong message.

They should put up a sign to make it official.

I always wonder how people get hired for what they're doing... Garda World, why you hire people like this to perpetuate stereotypes about security guards?

Announcement of the Facebook VR rig using our cameras came out recently, and we're all pretty proud of this. I got my laptop dock, so I’ve switched over to it, and fiddling with it/getting used to it has wasted a bit of time. Brought work home for the past few days. I could feel myself crashing before lunch today… This week has been busy, and the answer to motivating your employees is GOOD FOOD.

Probably not enough coffee today too. NO PROBLEM! Fixed it with a batch of chocolate dipped butter cookies that our kitchen staff brought out after teriyaki chicken lunch. Here’s a few other desserts we’ve had in the past for Friday Birthday Lunch:

CRACK BROWNIES.

I love working here. There are a few things that could make it better, like not being in the middle of nowhere in Richmond. They could hire a few more people, maybe an assistant just for me to do all my expenses and data entry and screen some phone calls. Along that note, they could hire an in house Japanese chef to cook for all of us, because we ALL love Japanese food. I think I get the recognition I deserve and my opinions are listened to. The job’s not too stressful, and any job that involves working with the public will have its own quirky aspects (customer’s always right?), which I find hilariously entertaining.

Just blast my music and motivate myself to type faster – Tritonal – Blackout (Madison Mars Remix):


It’s you and me, you and me, against the world. Don’t you worry baby, there’s a fire for us. No we’re not going down in a blackout…

Anybody looking for a job? Pay attention to this: www.ptgrey.com/careers

It’s so hard to focus when the phone keeps ringing, the dude next to make is hacking up a lung (good on him for showing up to work though and not loading more work on us), and shit keeps going down. Everytime an interruption occurs, it takes a few minutes to collect all your previous thoughts and get back to what you were doing. I started talking really fast towards the end of the day to save time. Sorry, customers.



H says that he got the 5gb data plan in HK just for me. (Sure, sure.)
I’m too tired to write anything useful, but we did go to Miss Saigon Vietnamese Bistro on Kingsway today. I stuffed my face.

And that’s all I’m going to say for now.

To go with the animal theme, THIS IS LILY.

I am obsessed with loft and studio tour videos on YouTube. I was brought up with very traditional, cautious parents, who didn’t want me going to my friends’ homes or even leaving the house without them. My mom was watching one of these videos with me, and she was pretty shocked at how open people were with inviting the people of the Internet into their homes. I would do it. I can understand how some of these videos just rake in the views! They satisfy our curiosity about how other people live, and inspire us to live just a little better, dream a lot bigger (as big as an NYC studio?).

Here are a few I particularly enjoyed…

Who can afford an apartment like this nowadays, unless it's butt fuck nowhere? Evelina’s:


Poor NY student/artist:


Moving into a downtown loft:


I can’t wait to get my own place. There are a few presales I will be going to check out, and I promise to share my home hunting adventure. I probably won’t be able to afford them on my own, but one can dream. Oh, Vancouver real estate. It might turn into more of a nightmare than a dream.

It's been a week! Only 10 days left. 

Does Jessie J. write her own songs?

I still fall on my face sometimes, and I can’t colour inside the lines,

Cuz I’m perfectly incomplete, I’m still working on my masterpiece

And I wanna hang with the greats, got a way to go but it’s worth the wait

You haven’t seen the best of me, I’m still working on my masterpiece

 

Today’s Horoscope:

You can sense that something good is going to happen but there is no need to hurry it along. Venus, planet of harmony, in your fellow Earth sign of Taurus means the right opportunity will arrive at just the right time, so be patient.

WELL DUH. When things hit rock bottom, it can only go up. I’m not saying I’ve hit rock bottom, the bottom is pretty hard to reach. Murphy’s law though.

What is wrong with me this week? I must have done something to get bad karma.

The people I want to talk to aren't around.

My bike's front tire tube had to be replaced because the pin snapped while I was trying to pump it after work.

I haven't had a sip of alcohol since last weekend!!!!

I decided to stay in tonight because I just didn't want to make it worse by having a bad night out. And I know not will be bad. At least the week is over. Next week will improve!

We found an ant infestation in our basement kitchen on Sunday, and it has grown since so that I'm actually worried I'll squish a few of the little buggers when I walk across the kitchen floor without looking.  I set up ant traps around the kitchen, being extra careful to put them in places where my cat wouldn't be interested in sticking his nose, 'cause those things are toxic.  What does my dad do last night?

He goes and sprays the entire kitchen with Raid or some other brand of pesticide, then locks my cat in the basement with the fumes and chemicals.  WHY?! He could have at least let him come upstairs, but NO, that's not allowed because the rest of the people in the house do not like it when the cat jumps on them in the middle of the night.  He just wants to cuddle... Where is the love?

Pesticides are a last resort weapon, in my opinion.  They're just ants, they're not going to kill you, and there's no rush getting them out of the house.  Geez, Dad.  Thanks for thinking of my cat's health, the rest of the family's health, and the state of the world.  I'm just thinking of all the chemicals that are now drifting out from our basement...

Great way to start the morning.