Our meeting with Glendale Water and Power was a unique experience. Half awake, Ostrich boot wearing, cowboy belt buckle, New York haircut wannabe actor types should not be allowed on the premises of any self respecting utility company. Aside from that, the meeting went fine. Our amateur actor friend reminded us that he "..came in on his day off..", we wouldn't have minded if he stayed home. People need perspective and our hero definitely delivered, it's good to know how many different ways an appointment can go sideways. The most astounding thing about him was the complete void of human emotion of our "Marketing Manager". Mr Manager let us know with great certainty that "..he had the job that everyone else had the sense to pass on.." , which inspired pure confidence on our part. I was verbally put in my place when I asked if he was involved with Member Services. From then on, I let a colleague handle the rest of the appointment. My associate, Josh, was glad when it was over, so glad he needed a beer afterwards.By the end of our meeting, we noticed a stirring of humanity in LA rodeo boy. He was gracious enough to agree that our energy monitoring solution was unique although it was a direct challenge to his prior ineffective and costly attempts at home energy management. Yes, we were calling him out and saying, "Look cowpuke, you're an idiot, you've spent money foolishly looking for something that doesn't work and you don't give a damn because you're chasing a Chippendales LA fantasy that involves ostrich boots and a bad haircut". Have a nice day.
The meeting with the City of Pasadena utility dept. fared no better although it was more challenging and downright bizarre. Engineers are typically well versed in technical issues, these guys were not. Their main concern was RF , (radio frequency),poisoning from in home energy monitoring devices. Never mind the fact that it would take 3,000 years of smart meter RF to equate to 10 minutes of cell phone usage.. that didn't matter. And never mind the daily bathing of RF all throughout the City of Pasadena, that didn't matter either. These misguided technocrats deserved an extra slathering of RF targeted at every granola crunching, lettuce smoking ear ring wearing freak in LA! After hearing of their genuine, heart felt concern for their customers, they went on to say that "...eventually we will have to control all of their, (utility customers), power consumption. How kind of them. An associate of mine commented that we could all just go back to candles and they looked as though they actually considered it. The engineering team continued babbling their perception of their customers. They mentioned that if they so much as touched a breaker panel in a home, a class action lawsuit against the utility company would begin and require a complete upgrade of every breaker panel. They went on to say that the City of Pasadena in 2010 has a 50% internet usage rate in the community. A blatant lie. Their main concern was in measuring water. that being the case, maybe a tsunami would help alleviate their water concerns once and for all.
The swirling vortex of insecurity, despair and downright ignorance should be marked with a road sign at the city limits of Glendale and Pasadena that says "Turn back now or sink into an inescapable nightmare of idiocy and despotism from which you will not return." these people deserve home energy mis-management. All appliances should be left in the 'on' position. All light, toaster, hairdryers, X-boxes, vacuum cleaners , left on -purposely. This will cause the system to overload, create a massive implosion and blackouts within the city coverage areas. This would then cause them to start over, with a clean slate! A return to sanity for the utility company and all of their customers! Our company however will never have anything to do with them. They are permanently etched in our history as a place to stay away from, a land of Nod, if you will, a vanishing point, just over the event horizon that no sane individual ever dare go...
LA, engineering problems, engineers, utility company backlash, utility company, Pasadena business , City of Glendale Water and Power, sales meetings, bad haircut, wannabe actors, back to candles, RF, RF poisoning, Frequency, RF pollution
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Active Non Engagement
In a results oriented world where everyone is trying to get something done, be on time and meet objectives, it’s sometimes better to just do nothing – nothing at all.
You are not required to respond to anyone for anything – ever. Think about it. You don’t have to say “hello”, “good morning”, “have a nice day” or anything of the like. In fact, you’ll feel better if you don’t. You are not required to participate in meaningless conversation of co-workers, you don’t need to call anyone back if you don’t want to and you certainly are not required to explain yourself to anyone unless legally required to do so. Someone is calling you that you don’t want to speak to – don’t answer it, they’ll leave a message, if not, it wasn’t worth calling you in the first place. You will truly see the meaningless drivel we all participate in each and every day when you empower yourself through Active Non Engagement.
It begins with the little things you don’t even notice. Like thinking you have to recognize someone else’s presence in a room. You don’t have to and you’ll feel better when you don’t. They are grown adults, they can deal with it. Be polite however do not engage. Simple stare straight ahead and watch them squirm . A funny thing will now happen. Most people cannot stand silence and can’t deal with not talking incessantly about absolutely nothing. That’s their problem, not yours. Enjoy the silence, most people don’t need to be running their mouths anyway. You will save your energy and feel an inner joy when you realize the power of silence.
Practicing Active Non Engagement in the public space requires more effort and planning. When dealing with bank tellers, simply stare at them and fill out the required documentation. They will try to break your will with “..how are you today sir?’ don’t respond, just nod and hand them the forms. You avoided falling onto their trap of fake empathy and shallow repeated phrases. You have been actively non engaged! They will think twice and wonder why you are not a zombie like them. Not verbalizing things that don’t need to be verbalized is a truly liberating experience! Use this technique at the Post Office, the grocery store or any other service provider you come into contact with.
If you must speak during the day, do it with as few words as possible. One or two word answers spoken clearly in an elevated tone will suffice. NEVER repeat yourself. 99.99% of the time when people say “What..” or Huh?” or what’d you say” – they heard you the first time., they are just trapped in the ‘I repeat myself like a retarded moron all day long’, mindset. Don’t repeat it. Let their idiotic babbling hang in the air. Their slow minds will recall what you said – don’t worry, they heard you the first time. Not repeating yourself will elevate your consciousness to new heights. You have not expended extra energy to repeat something you have already did – for someone else! Think about it – they are demanding that you repeat yourself. They are telling you what to do and how to do it. No, don’t let them. You will gain more respect and let people know that you don’t chew that shit twice – listen up dumb ass!
You are not required to entertain people. You are not a cruise director or a day care manager. Let them find someone else to do tricks for them. You are not a barking seal entertaining children and paying adults, let them go to Sea World for that.
Enjoy the practice of active non engagement. Notice how some people cannot stand gaps in conversation. They are always running their mouths. Let them, just stare straight ahead and wonder when they are going to shut up. When they do, say nothing. Observe how uncomfortable they become. Now you are playing by your set of rules, not theirs. You have now stemmed the tide of stupidity and noise pollution and have made the world a better place to live. You are a liberator of the mind and an escapee from the mental asylum of endless diatribe and ceaseless blathering – you have raised the bar for human interaction and left the rabble perplexed at their insanity.
talks too much, shut up, idiots, moronic babbling, chanting, stupid people, nothing to say, mindless, diatribe, dialogue, talker, talkers who talk, active non engagement, texting, facebook,myspace, social media
talks too much, shut up, idiots, moronic babbling, chanting, stupid people, nothing to say, mindless, diatribe, dialogue, talker, talkers who talk, active non engagement, texting, facebook,myspace, social media
Mr Magazine Man
I was in between jobs and looking for a way to pay the rent and catch up on the phone bill. My options at the time were limited and I was barely surviving with a courier job delivering small packages throughout the city of Jacksonville, Fl. I heard through a friend about a job in the 'publishing' and magazine business. I began to think of the high profile world of publishing and writing for magazines, traveling the world and meeting important people - this couldn't of been further from the truth.
I met John, the owner of the company in a telephone interview and he assured me that the Jacksonville market was 'wide open' and all needed was someone to 'take the ball and run with it', to help his magazine business grow. We set up a time to meet and discuss opening the Jacksonville market. John was the typ of guy who liked to throw money around and try to impress people - this was evident at our first meeting where we ate at a five star restaurant at Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fl. After dinner we went back to his suite to talk about how to approach the Jacksonville market. Upon entering the room, John began to talk about titles his company offered and the legitimacy of his publishing business. Then came the truth. He opened a briefcase and out spilled several pornographic magazines. "this", he said "is what we sell the most of..." although we carry all the major titles like Sports Illustrated, Cosmo, Field and Stream, etc. All right, I thought, how bad can it be? I sell and distribute all the major magazine titles and some 'other' titles as well, I needed the job. John explained that I would have a van for delivery and store maintenance and that he had two stores to start with. The two stores were owned by Syrians and their family network of store ownership extended to over 50 locations in Duval County. The potential was there for a quick start and a possible distributorship of my own.
We arranged to have the magazines drop shipped to my house as the new titles dropped. I separated them and organized bins with each stores delivery in it. The first six months were the most difficult. The language barrier and the Syrians' distrust of me seemed impossible to overcome at the time. I felt that these people truly hated me for some reason. They were very foreign and extremely weird. The store owners had makeshift efficiency apartments behind the counters in their stores. they slept on the floor, covered in brightly colored blankets, they sipped yerba mate tea through a device that looked like a hash pipe. Their eyes would glaze over when they drank that shit I swear they were getting high off of it. My foreign comrades smoked incessantly and they always thought they were being ripped off..Middle Eastern music was played in the background. I felt like I was in Marakesh! The Syrians always kept loaded weapons behind the counter in obtuse places. I once reached into a magazine rack and pulled out a loaded .45. I once asked one of the store owners how he liked owning a business in the Untied States, his attitude was best summed up in the following quote "... both countries fuck you, at least over here they give you a kiss while they're doing it!" I was able to gradually warm up to the Syrians and slowly acquire more of their business as they saw me week after week. Every now and then I would hear them say "..you call my cousin he have three store on Westside..." or "...I open new store at beach, you go there next week and talk to Sam.." Over eighty percent of these guys were named Sam, John or Saieed, pronounced 'Sod' or 'Si-eed'. A sa lama laka! I was learning their language, Shukrahn! All of my accounts were independently run convenience stores, none were corporately owned. None were the same however they all sold the same endless stream of completely useless items. Anything they put on the counter would sell and rack and counter space was always being fought for. Every square inch of the counter was covered with keychains, roses in small tubes, lighters -just about anything they could fit in there. You could barely walk through some of the stores, they were so crowded. I remarked to one of them that you could probable take a dump in a box, out a $1.00 sticker on it - and someone would buy it.
After about a year or so I had 75 stores on my route. I was regularly stopping at every store each week as new titles came out. The mainstream magazines like Sports Illustrated, Cosmopolitan barely sold. They were just a front for the real business - porno mags. I put them out then picked them up. the publisher would give a credit to the company if the magazine was returned when the new edition came out. Hustller, Penthouse, Playboy, etc accounted for 99% of the business. Selling these magazines in a pre internet environment was like selling drugs to junkies. It was like a feeding frenzy. Every month, people would wait for the new editions to arrive. I had no idea of the appetite for this type of material. It was sick and these people needed help. I regularly carried an additional 5 - 10 bundles, (50 in a bundle) of Hustler, Penthouse and Playboy - and regularly sold every single one of them, I could never keep enough in the van. "Hey Mr Magazine Man" become my calling card and the mantra of the store owners. Not every store was able to sell them though. The really poor stores in the worst areas of town couldn't sell them. When I asked the owner of the Blue Front store on Moncreif Blvd, his response was "...Steve...why would they pay $5 for the magazine when the hit of crack is $2 and the girl is $2,,, why Steve, why they pay for that?" That was a defining moment and we laughed about it for weeks.
No wonder John was able to throw around money like he did, he was a direct arm of organized crime in the pornography business. As a result, my business continued to grow and I saw more and more of the seedy downside of life. Stores got robbed. A crackhead was shot and killed in one of my stores, thankfully I wasn't there at the time. One of the Syrians shot him on the way out the door of an attempted robbery on the Westside. A store owner near my house was stabbed in the throat after being followed home and robbed. He died at the seen, left behind a wife and two kids. Another one lost his six year old son to an accidental shooting after the kid and the kids cousin found one of their loaded weapons and it accidentally went off. Add all of this to the fact that most of the stores were located in bad parts of town and it was a cash business. It was nothing for me to regularly collect over $10K a week, more than half of it in cash. I rented a small warehouse and the magazines were coming in upwards of 5 pallets a week.The business was starting to get big. John would fly me to Atlanta for the weekend to go to his cabin on the lake and ride jet skis and party with the other employees. He had all the toys - new cars, ATV's, jet ski's - he was living the life - of a porno pushing gangster. I got raises every year and continued to expand the business, all the while feeling nauseous about the whole ordeal. I really didn't like what I was doing and wanted to get out.
My income continued to grow as we expanded into video sales. The law in Duval County at the time stated that any display of pornographic material could be deemed offensive and the offending party could be arrested for it. In other words, selective enforcement. This was ramped up considerably during city and county elections. The local authorities began to focus on my venue of video sales. Luckily I was never caught up in one of their dragnets however I dealt with store owners that were. I was too quick for them. I was in and out of those store in a flash, typically in the morning so I was never caught. The store owners however were sitting ducks for selective enforcement. One of them was ticketed and fined, another hauled off to jail. The guy called screaming at me that we owed him bail money. I told him to take it up with the local authorities, they are the perpetrators here, not me. I was shouted at and threatened however I continued to sell them, the money was too easy. The wholesale cost of a typical video was $2. I got them for $5 and sold them for $20. the store owners then sold them for $25 - $30. I sold what we called 'Tear off's' or 'rips'. for $2 each. These were back dated issues with the cover torn off. As long as the publisher got the cover back, the business got credited for the magazine. I would routinely make an extra $2-300 per week from the tear off's and more from the video sales.The money was getting better however I still wanted out.
The end came right after I secured a deal with the largest newsstand in the county. They had five outlets throughout the city and would generate over $10K in revenue. This would put gross weekly sales somewhere near $25K per week. If I kept 1/10th of that, I would make over $100 grand per year! I was literally praying to God to get me out of this awful business and at the same time thinking of the money I could make being a porno gangster. I thought about running my own warehouse, buying a computer system, hiring employees - and I even hired one! Gave him a van and set him up in Ocala and Gainesville, Fl. After getting a tacit agreement with the newsstand outlet to carry our product, one of the supervisors came down to ride with me for the day. After lunch, he informed me that I was being fired. My prayers were answered! I was angry initially however that faded. I had no job and no vehicle yet I felt better than I had in a long time. At least I was away from the daily sale of a bad habit to a weak public. The company never got the newsstand account and the rest of their business dried up except for a few stores that were drop shipped each month. I think the mob got to John for something, to this day I can find no reference of him or his company. It's just as it should be - like it never existed.
Magazine sales, porno sales, bad habit, route sales, convenience stores, magazines, mr magazine man, syrian store owners, syrians
I met John, the owner of the company in a telephone interview and he assured me that the Jacksonville market was 'wide open' and all needed was someone to 'take the ball and run with it', to help his magazine business grow. We set up a time to meet and discuss opening the Jacksonville market. John was the typ of guy who liked to throw money around and try to impress people - this was evident at our first meeting where we ate at a five star restaurant at Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fl. After dinner we went back to his suite to talk about how to approach the Jacksonville market. Upon entering the room, John began to talk about titles his company offered and the legitimacy of his publishing business. Then came the truth. He opened a briefcase and out spilled several pornographic magazines. "this", he said "is what we sell the most of..." although we carry all the major titles like Sports Illustrated, Cosmo, Field and Stream, etc. All right, I thought, how bad can it be? I sell and distribute all the major magazine titles and some 'other' titles as well, I needed the job. John explained that I would have a van for delivery and store maintenance and that he had two stores to start with. The two stores were owned by Syrians and their family network of store ownership extended to over 50 locations in Duval County. The potential was there for a quick start and a possible distributorship of my own.
We arranged to have the magazines drop shipped to my house as the new titles dropped. I separated them and organized bins with each stores delivery in it. The first six months were the most difficult. The language barrier and the Syrians' distrust of me seemed impossible to overcome at the time. I felt that these people truly hated me for some reason. They were very foreign and extremely weird. The store owners had makeshift efficiency apartments behind the counters in their stores. they slept on the floor, covered in brightly colored blankets, they sipped yerba mate tea through a device that looked like a hash pipe. Their eyes would glaze over when they drank that shit I swear they were getting high off of it. My foreign comrades smoked incessantly and they always thought they were being ripped off..Middle Eastern music was played in the background. I felt like I was in Marakesh! The Syrians always kept loaded weapons behind the counter in obtuse places. I once reached into a magazine rack and pulled out a loaded .45. I once asked one of the store owners how he liked owning a business in the Untied States, his attitude was best summed up in the following quote "... both countries fuck you, at least over here they give you a kiss while they're doing it!" I was able to gradually warm up to the Syrians and slowly acquire more of their business as they saw me week after week. Every now and then I would hear them say "..you call my cousin he have three store on Westside..." or "...I open new store at beach, you go there next week and talk to Sam.." Over eighty percent of these guys were named Sam, John or Saieed, pronounced 'Sod' or 'Si-eed'. A sa lama laka! I was learning their language, Shukrahn! All of my accounts were independently run convenience stores, none were corporately owned. None were the same however they all sold the same endless stream of completely useless items. Anything they put on the counter would sell and rack and counter space was always being fought for. Every square inch of the counter was covered with keychains, roses in small tubes, lighters -just about anything they could fit in there. You could barely walk through some of the stores, they were so crowded. I remarked to one of them that you could probable take a dump in a box, out a $1.00 sticker on it - and someone would buy it.
After about a year or so I had 75 stores on my route. I was regularly stopping at every store each week as new titles came out. The mainstream magazines like Sports Illustrated, Cosmopolitan barely sold. They were just a front for the real business - porno mags. I put them out then picked them up. the publisher would give a credit to the company if the magazine was returned when the new edition came out. Hustller, Penthouse, Playboy, etc accounted for 99% of the business. Selling these magazines in a pre internet environment was like selling drugs to junkies. It was like a feeding frenzy. Every month, people would wait for the new editions to arrive. I had no idea of the appetite for this type of material. It was sick and these people needed help. I regularly carried an additional 5 - 10 bundles, (50 in a bundle) of Hustler, Penthouse and Playboy - and regularly sold every single one of them, I could never keep enough in the van. "Hey Mr Magazine Man" become my calling card and the mantra of the store owners. Not every store was able to sell them though. The really poor stores in the worst areas of town couldn't sell them. When I asked the owner of the Blue Front store on Moncreif Blvd, his response was "...Steve...why would they pay $5 for the magazine when the hit of crack is $2 and the girl is $2,,, why Steve, why they pay for that?" That was a defining moment and we laughed about it for weeks.
No wonder John was able to throw around money like he did, he was a direct arm of organized crime in the pornography business. As a result, my business continued to grow and I saw more and more of the seedy downside of life. Stores got robbed. A crackhead was shot and killed in one of my stores, thankfully I wasn't there at the time. One of the Syrians shot him on the way out the door of an attempted robbery on the Westside. A store owner near my house was stabbed in the throat after being followed home and robbed. He died at the seen, left behind a wife and two kids. Another one lost his six year old son to an accidental shooting after the kid and the kids cousin found one of their loaded weapons and it accidentally went off. Add all of this to the fact that most of the stores were located in bad parts of town and it was a cash business. It was nothing for me to regularly collect over $10K a week, more than half of it in cash. I rented a small warehouse and the magazines were coming in upwards of 5 pallets a week.The business was starting to get big. John would fly me to Atlanta for the weekend to go to his cabin on the lake and ride jet skis and party with the other employees. He had all the toys - new cars, ATV's, jet ski's - he was living the life - of a porno pushing gangster. I got raises every year and continued to expand the business, all the while feeling nauseous about the whole ordeal. I really didn't like what I was doing and wanted to get out.
My income continued to grow as we expanded into video sales. The law in Duval County at the time stated that any display of pornographic material could be deemed offensive and the offending party could be arrested for it. In other words, selective enforcement. This was ramped up considerably during city and county elections. The local authorities began to focus on my venue of video sales. Luckily I was never caught up in one of their dragnets however I dealt with store owners that were. I was too quick for them. I was in and out of those store in a flash, typically in the morning so I was never caught. The store owners however were sitting ducks for selective enforcement. One of them was ticketed and fined, another hauled off to jail. The guy called screaming at me that we owed him bail money. I told him to take it up with the local authorities, they are the perpetrators here, not me. I was shouted at and threatened however I continued to sell them, the money was too easy. The wholesale cost of a typical video was $2. I got them for $5 and sold them for $20. the store owners then sold them for $25 - $30. I sold what we called 'Tear off's' or 'rips'. for $2 each. These were back dated issues with the cover torn off. As long as the publisher got the cover back, the business got credited for the magazine. I would routinely make an extra $2-300 per week from the tear off's and more from the video sales.The money was getting better however I still wanted out.
The end came right after I secured a deal with the largest newsstand in the county. They had five outlets throughout the city and would generate over $10K in revenue. This would put gross weekly sales somewhere near $25K per week. If I kept 1/10th of that, I would make over $100 grand per year! I was literally praying to God to get me out of this awful business and at the same time thinking of the money I could make being a porno gangster. I thought about running my own warehouse, buying a computer system, hiring employees - and I even hired one! Gave him a van and set him up in Ocala and Gainesville, Fl. After getting a tacit agreement with the newsstand outlet to carry our product, one of the supervisors came down to ride with me for the day. After lunch, he informed me that I was being fired. My prayers were answered! I was angry initially however that faded. I had no job and no vehicle yet I felt better than I had in a long time. At least I was away from the daily sale of a bad habit to a weak public. The company never got the newsstand account and the rest of their business dried up except for a few stores that were drop shipped each month. I think the mob got to John for something, to this day I can find no reference of him or his company. It's just as it should be - like it never existed.
Magazine sales, porno sales, bad habit, route sales, convenience stores, magazines, mr magazine man, syrian store owners, syrians
Monday, July 4, 2011
The Leader That Wasn't
How is a leader judged? What inherent qualities must a leader have to successfully lead people to a desired outcome? Is past success in a different time and place any indication of present ability?
All of these questions come to mind when taking a look at the most recent events that have transpired in a strange corporate reality of uninformed decisions, misplaced priorities and just plain bad actions.
Money is the fuel to make a business run and when someone siphons fuel in the middle of the night or by proxy, the business eventually grinds to a halt. The recipe for disaster is complete when a struggling start up is funded for a year and a new CEO is hired and is paid over double what the prior CEO made. The situation gets worse when Mr. Spendhappy hires, travels, prints and otherwise burns through cash like there is no tomorrow, comes up empty after four months and has grand dreams of acquiring investment capital with 10 days left to a board meeting. Is a leader judged by the amount of cash he burns through in the shortest period of time? Is the justification of outrageous budget expenditures an inherent quality of genuine leadership? Since our hero has raised large capital in different industries decades ago, does this means it’s reproduceable in this day and age? The answer is a resounding No.
Giant egos from past successes are probably an unavoidable fact of life however when Sir Egomania speaks incessantly of his decades old accomplishments, it makes one cringe as it scorches your hearing for the umpteenth time. Enough already! My God man, even the office manager has heard enough of your “I am Gods gift to the universe” speeches! Please, I am begging you to shut the fuck up about yourself! Along with giant egos comes a haughty eyed disgust for the “little people” as he calls them. The snarky comments are tiresome and loathing especially when they are untrue. Our fearless leader can’t even distinguish between bandwith and a fiber connection and has to make shallow, stammering remarks in regards to it. The only people that act like that are men that have never been in a fight and people you don’t trust because you cant have a beer with them. Must all leaders have giant insatiable egos and does their past behavior beget more abuse for future underlings, the ‘little people’? The answer is a thunderous No.
Teamwork and departmental communication are stalwarts of business success and must be ever present in a business environment. Apparently no one has informed Our Dear Leader of this. His method runs contrary to this universal principle. Captain Chaos chooses to hide away from engineering, (the creators of our product) and is more comfortable asking other employees about “..what is going on back there..?” He has been here for four months and has had one meeting with the entire staff. This meeting was heavily prefaced with “…We might not continue on as a business… We will definitely run out of money and we’re looking for outside investment… and – (my favorite) – “ ..don’t worry, all of you are very talented, I’m sure you will all find your passion in a new place to work, you don’t need to go jumping out of buildings or anything…– direct quote” Thank you Superman, for setting us all straight . Maybe you can take your jumping out of buildings advice and show us how its done! Do effective leaders hide away from the critical tasks at hand?
Do successful leaders have insular and elitist attitudes towards the people they are trying to lead? Has this game of hide and seek and debasing commentary worked for leaders in the past? I dare say No, not now nor ever.
Science fiction, fantasy and pipe dreams have their place in the world of literature however not in the world of business. Unfortunately, our Alpha Team Hero lives in this realm. Maybe Mr. President has a hearing problem because when engineers and inventors of the product scream to him that the product is not ready, he replies with “…why do you wanna rain on my parade..?” Let’s ship it! It works!. No sir, it doesn’t. And by the way, thank you for making me look like a horses ass for the fifth time by telling potential clients we are shipping and the product works – and the fact is, we are not shipping (again) and the product doesn’t work. Don’t worry dear reader, it gets worse! The actions listed above were used to create revenue schedules and yearly numbers! Out of thin air. To compound this atrocity, Mr. Revenue Man was dead sure that we would get another $1.15 million from the primary investor, one month ago. Oh he had his reasons, his false justifications and his phony projections. He really believed this heaping pile of manure and honestly thought it would go over without a hitch. He could not have been more wrong. Needless to say, the primary investor was enraged and told him absolutely no. Do leadership qualities include sociopathic tendencies and an abject denial of reality? Are these acceptable leadership traits that have been applied in the past? A most resounding and vociferous No is the answer here.
Hidden agendas, ulterior motives and duplicitous actions should have no place in a successful business. To the contrary, our Dishonest Abe doesn’t think so. When a meeting is set to speak about the product we are working on and the conversation is diverted half way through the meeting to speak about something entirely different and beneficial only to the Head Corporate Spy, the definition of ulterior motive is achieved. As usual, I asked our leader, “how do you want to handle this meeting, who will speak, when and what about,” his response was ,“ I can handle it”. Handle it he did – he completely shanked our intended presentation, then went headlong into his “solution” that has nothing to do with why we were there in the first place. He asked me to “close my ears”, with a snarky, haughty eyed smirk and proceeded with his hidden agenda. It got stranger after we left when he practically teared up as we passed the hotel he lived in for a while when he moved to Mobile, Alabama. Thank God he didn’t drive me by the Azaleas he so happily proclaimed as a necessary viewing… Are all good leaders duplicitous in their actions? Are hidden agendas and ulterior motives a necessary requisite for leadership? God, I hope not.
Our brief examination of leadership has more so defined what a leader is not and should not become. The kingship of the above mentioned individual is coming to a bad end. We will run out of money, he will not secure new investment and our future is a question mark. It is a sad state of affairs and could have been avoided if our anti- hero was not ensconced with extraordinary spending power. I know this to be true because he told me that after next week, he will be “working from home”. Yeah, right – translation – looking for the next blood bag to attach himself to and drain in the middle of the night.
(Update: Our Dear Leader was fired, for cause – conflict of interest- universal laws do exist!)
leadership, bad leadership, incompetent leadership, corporate fraud, corporate graft, abuse, conflict of interest, fired CEO's, fired
Friday, July 1, 2011
Bill back the Collectors with Bilco
How much is your time worth? Can you assign a dollar amount to your daily time on an hourly basis, if so what would it be worth? Concerns such as these are the driving force for Bilco, a company that takes a proactive stance for the consumer for recapturing lost revenue due to inefficient professional services, government agencies and anyone trying to separate you from your cash.
When services in any industry are rendered a bill, invoice or statement of services is generated from the service provider. The invoice typically includes a description of the services rendered and a cost justification based on standard industry practices. When a doctors' office sets an appointment for 9:00am, you typically arrive on time , if not early. Ninety percent of my experience with this industry has led me to the conclusion that 9 am typically means 10:00 or 10:30. This is where Bilco comes in. If you evaluate your time to be worth $32.00 per hour, Bilco will submit the necessary documentation to recapture your losses due to unnecessary delays that were not agreed to. This is known as our 're-billing process'. The re-billing process will begin after a 20 minute overage from the original time agreed to. By signing in at the reception window and noting the original time of the appointment, you have entered into an agreement for service which has now been violated. Breach of this agreement will result in legal action brought forth on your behalf through Bilco. When you , the 'patient' do not show up for an agreed to appointment, the doctors office will bill you for that lost time, a 'no show' appointment. Bilco believes they should be treated the same.
In regards to the legal industry, lawyers are recognized as competent professionals in our society. They serve a necessary role in defense from criminal and civil matters and our constitutional rights in this great experiment we call America.
This being said, attorneys are far from perfect in their billing practices. When an attorney does not show up for a hearing or sends an incompetent substitute, he is negligent in his duty and recompense from the retainer fee is necessary. no matter how mundane or trivial the court date appears to be, the attorney is in breach of contract when he is not present for all matters pertaining to your case. Once again, your cost per hour, including driving times, lost time work and vehicle expense will be compiled and analyzed by Bilco and a proper re-billing summation will be submitted to the offending practitioner. When a case is not brought to a timely conclusion based on your prior negotiation with the attorney and noted in a Bilco pre-contract signatory, the attorney will be found negligent and recompense will be calculated and submitted to the offending law firm.
Bilco maintains a document compilation within our vast database that applies to every situation one can face that would waste one's time and money. All societal institutions that could possible waste your time and money due to their inefficiency are represented. Physiscians practices, attorneys, school boards, creditors, service industries, government agencies, (by type) , are all money wasters and will be effectively re-billed for services not rendered in the agreed upon fashion.
Creditors are a notoriously unfair and unyielding industry that needs to be reigned in. When a creditor raises your interest rate from .18 to .23 or higher because of purchases made under the available credit limit they are in violation of fair billing practices and re-billing is necessary. The time required to call and negotiate about this unfair practice can exceed 1-2 hours per day. The time, the mental anguish and the corresponding increase in blood pressure and rage are all items that need recompense. Bilco will analyze the true cost of unnecessary stress in a persons already hectic and time crunched life and will create a formal re-billing strategy. We will go deep into the file and look at check clearing dates for late fee imposition and illegal interest rate increases. I have personally reduced two $35 fees using these methods.
Bilco believes in "Not Taking it Lying Down" (NTLD) and will do everything within the realm of the law to eliminate the financial vampires from your life. If permitted, Bilco will use your personal medical and legal information to look further into the true cost of service providers not doing business with you in the agreed to manner. We are not a litigious organization however if necessary we will appear in court on your behalf to properly assign and re-bill the financial offenders in your life. Fees paid to Bilco will be based on a percentage of revenue collected. We see this as a small price to pay for the piece of mind obtained in fighting back the entrenched attitudes and policies of monolithic corporations and
uncaring service providers.
Traffic is an unfortunate reality of modern life. This does't mean that you should not be compensated for it. The average American spends 2-4 weeks per year sitting in needless traffic delays. That's a vacations worth of time each year! the Department of Transportation is a voracious and uncaring beast to the general public.In light of this, they need to pay for their ineptitude. By using Bilco's proprietary software, you can now bill back your portion of road, fuel and vehicle taxes to offset the inefficient, poorly maintained and downright dangerous highways bridges and other forms of egress. YOU paid the taxes on the fuel and the roads, why shouldn't you get what you paid for? Factors such as lost fuel economy, wheel alignments due to pot holes and canyons in the road surface, delays and general driver anguish all factor into the equation. Freedom of mobility and freedom from unnecessary taxation are God given rights in America and Bilco will fight to keep it that way.
The last and by far most egregious example of pseudo imprisonment and frustration is the airlines. Missing a flight due to weather or poor management has left people sleeping in airports and stuck on tarmac for immeasurable amounts of time. The lack of concern and uncaring attitude exhibited by the airlines is only exceeded in outrageousness by the waste of time that must be endured in a public space. Airline employees consider their human cargo to be just that - baggage to be herded onto a plane. These people need to be confronted with the hard reality of beign re-billed for your time and inconvenience. Bilco has a unique and straightforward method to deal with their impersonal lack of civility. Since airlines keep accuracte records of take-off's and landings, we simlply use that information against them to begin the re-billing process. We know exactly how long you had to wait. We take into account the persnal as well as the financial setbacks heaped upon you by these uncaring corporate plebes. Bilco then presents the airline with a highly detailed formal invoice indicating meal expenses, hotels, lost time at cost per hour, the opportunity cost of business and work that could of happened and the price of just not being somewhere you need to be. It is only through persistent and detailed effort that we can began to recapture the lost time and money the consumer is shackled with that we can successfully take on the behemoths of the sky.
In closing we implore you to let Bilco handle the intrusions and arrogant greed wrongly imposed on you by the big brothers of the world to steal you and your family's hard earned money and time. We will restore the dignity and rights of the American consumer in a world of increasing thievery and injustice. We stand firm in NTLD and our resolution to not let anyone or any organization take advantage or your precious resources by wrongly billing you in an unjust manner. We do not want you to waste your time chasing the moneychangers out of the temple. That is our job and our commitment to you- the American consumer.
credit fraud, unfair billing practices, credit collections, foreclosure, doctors, attorneys, government agencies, not taking it lying down,lost time, payback, fair credit reporting act
When services in any industry are rendered a bill, invoice or statement of services is generated from the service provider. The invoice typically includes a description of the services rendered and a cost justification based on standard industry practices. When a doctors' office sets an appointment for 9:00am, you typically arrive on time , if not early. Ninety percent of my experience with this industry has led me to the conclusion that 9 am typically means 10:00 or 10:30. This is where Bilco comes in. If you evaluate your time to be worth $32.00 per hour, Bilco will submit the necessary documentation to recapture your losses due to unnecessary delays that were not agreed to. This is known as our 're-billing process'. The re-billing process will begin after a 20 minute overage from the original time agreed to. By signing in at the reception window and noting the original time of the appointment, you have entered into an agreement for service which has now been violated. Breach of this agreement will result in legal action brought forth on your behalf through Bilco. When you , the 'patient' do not show up for an agreed to appointment, the doctors office will bill you for that lost time, a 'no show' appointment. Bilco believes they should be treated the same.
In regards to the legal industry, lawyers are recognized as competent professionals in our society. They serve a necessary role in defense from criminal and civil matters and our constitutional rights in this great experiment we call America.
This being said, attorneys are far from perfect in their billing practices. When an attorney does not show up for a hearing or sends an incompetent substitute, he is negligent in his duty and recompense from the retainer fee is necessary. no matter how mundane or trivial the court date appears to be, the attorney is in breach of contract when he is not present for all matters pertaining to your case. Once again, your cost per hour, including driving times, lost time work and vehicle expense will be compiled and analyzed by Bilco and a proper re-billing summation will be submitted to the offending practitioner. When a case is not brought to a timely conclusion based on your prior negotiation with the attorney and noted in a Bilco pre-contract signatory, the attorney will be found negligent and recompense will be calculated and submitted to the offending law firm.
Bilco maintains a document compilation within our vast database that applies to every situation one can face that would waste one's time and money. All societal institutions that could possible waste your time and money due to their inefficiency are represented. Physiscians practices, attorneys, school boards, creditors, service industries, government agencies, (by type) , are all money wasters and will be effectively re-billed for services not rendered in the agreed upon fashion.
Creditors are a notoriously unfair and unyielding industry that needs to be reigned in. When a creditor raises your interest rate from .18 to .23 or higher because of purchases made under the available credit limit they are in violation of fair billing practices and re-billing is necessary. The time required to call and negotiate about this unfair practice can exceed 1-2 hours per day. The time, the mental anguish and the corresponding increase in blood pressure and rage are all items that need recompense. Bilco will analyze the true cost of unnecessary stress in a persons already hectic and time crunched life and will create a formal re-billing strategy. We will go deep into the file and look at check clearing dates for late fee imposition and illegal interest rate increases. I have personally reduced two $35 fees using these methods.
Bilco believes in "Not Taking it Lying Down" (NTLD) and will do everything within the realm of the law to eliminate the financial vampires from your life. If permitted, Bilco will use your personal medical and legal information to look further into the true cost of service providers not doing business with you in the agreed to manner. We are not a litigious organization however if necessary we will appear in court on your behalf to properly assign and re-bill the financial offenders in your life. Fees paid to Bilco will be based on a percentage of revenue collected. We see this as a small price to pay for the piece of mind obtained in fighting back the entrenched attitudes and policies of monolithic corporations and
uncaring service providers.
Traffic is an unfortunate reality of modern life. This does't mean that you should not be compensated for it. The average American spends 2-4 weeks per year sitting in needless traffic delays. That's a vacations worth of time each year! the Department of Transportation is a voracious and uncaring beast to the general public.In light of this, they need to pay for their ineptitude. By using Bilco's proprietary software, you can now bill back your portion of road, fuel and vehicle taxes to offset the inefficient, poorly maintained and downright dangerous highways bridges and other forms of egress. YOU paid the taxes on the fuel and the roads, why shouldn't you get what you paid for? Factors such as lost fuel economy, wheel alignments due to pot holes and canyons in the road surface, delays and general driver anguish all factor into the equation. Freedom of mobility and freedom from unnecessary taxation are God given rights in America and Bilco will fight to keep it that way.
The last and by far most egregious example of pseudo imprisonment and frustration is the airlines. Missing a flight due to weather or poor management has left people sleeping in airports and stuck on tarmac for immeasurable amounts of time. The lack of concern and uncaring attitude exhibited by the airlines is only exceeded in outrageousness by the waste of time that must be endured in a public space. Airline employees consider their human cargo to be just that - baggage to be herded onto a plane. These people need to be confronted with the hard reality of beign re-billed for your time and inconvenience. Bilco has a unique and straightforward method to deal with their impersonal lack of civility. Since airlines keep accuracte records of take-off's and landings, we simlply use that information against them to begin the re-billing process. We know exactly how long you had to wait. We take into account the persnal as well as the financial setbacks heaped upon you by these uncaring corporate plebes. Bilco then presents the airline with a highly detailed formal invoice indicating meal expenses, hotels, lost time at cost per hour, the opportunity cost of business and work that could of happened and the price of just not being somewhere you need to be. It is only through persistent and detailed effort that we can began to recapture the lost time and money the consumer is shackled with that we can successfully take on the behemoths of the sky.
In closing we implore you to let Bilco handle the intrusions and arrogant greed wrongly imposed on you by the big brothers of the world to steal you and your family's hard earned money and time. We will restore the dignity and rights of the American consumer in a world of increasing thievery and injustice. We stand firm in NTLD and our resolution to not let anyone or any organization take advantage or your precious resources by wrongly billing you in an unjust manner. We do not want you to waste your time chasing the moneychangers out of the temple. That is our job and our commitment to you- the American consumer.
credit fraud, unfair billing practices, credit collections, foreclosure, doctors, attorneys, government agencies, not taking it lying down,lost time, payback, fair credit reporting act
Idiot Mechanics
Everyone gets a sinking feeling in their gut when their mechanic hesitates before answering your question of "..what is the problem with my vehicle?" You already have a good indication of what the problem is, you're just not sure of exactly what it takes to fix it.
I have seen repair estimates skyrocket from initial estimates from $450 to final work of over $1200. They know they can get it from you and they will if you let them. When visiting the alleged professional, notice his 'busy-ness', always to busy to speak with you directly. If you are granted this privilege, it's always a rushed, hurried conversation and he's off to the next victim. My favorite version of the mechanically challenged are the foreigners who portray a limted vocabulary in English. You know damn well these impostors have a full handle on English however try asking them a question and all you get is a blank stare and having to repeat yourself. "Where do you get your parts?" ans. - "She go to Daytona", What the hell does that mean" Is 'Daytona' an auto parts warehouse?
After the initial jerk around and the holier than thou attitude comes what I call the hand off. This is where our learn-ed hero 'hands off' the work to an even less qualified moron than himself. "My son take care of you" or "Jimmy be right back". Now you start to feel uncomfortable. You negotiated the work with one guy and another is doing it. To make matters worse, they ALWAYS double the time they say it will take to get the job done. Three hours means six, If you're lucky. The standard response is "I need an extra day or two for the parts to arrive." They will tell you what they think it will cost and it will always be more. The only way around this is to double check the price of every part, get several labor estimates and let them know you did. Only then will the garage tinkerer come down on their price. The alleged mechanic will never stand his ground, this makes you think even less of him.
I have had bolts fly off of water pumps on the interstate, tires not properly balanced and reduced to shreds, ac compressors replaced three times and still not work properly. I have had mechanics tell me that prior mechanics have mis-disgnosed perfectly good evaporators, try to sell me a new evaporator for $350 and not see the real problem of a leaking ac hose. The same mechanic then told me that the third compressor in my vehicle was faulty and I needed a new one for $585. As I drove away from his shop, the compressor worked fine. I later found out that a compressor, condenser and all items needed to replace an ac system on my vehicle was only $275 from Advance Auto. Of course, the monkey wrench stooge won't use these parts - he labels them as inferior. I was shocked at his grasp of four syllable words. His next uttering was "I can't guarantee my work with those parts". This was the same guy to whom I just gave over $2000 to repair our other vehicle. After speaking to a local car rental company of my plight, they said "...oh yeah, that guy always charges at least $1000 for everything he does. You can't get out of their for less than $1000". This was coming from total strangers who have had the same experiences with this grifter.
I now know that my compressor is OK. I told the first mechanic to find my original compressor because I will be back to exchange it for the second one he put in, to get a refund. After telling me that he is not sure where he put it and might have thrown it away, he said he would have it for me the following week. The compressor has a 30 warranty on it. When he calls me back, wondering why I haven't been back to pick up the compressor, I am going to tell him to hold it - between his knees, for a couple more weeks! When the two weeks are up, I will then tell him to remove it from between his knees and stick it up his ass, to see if it fits - you whore son of a bitch! Next, I will get the new ac hose installed from a third mechanic practitioner . Finally, I will re-visit each of the two sham car fixers and have a frank and open discussion about their attempted rape upon my wallet. This should be interesting because I will total my cost and compare it to their bogus estimates and wrong headed claims. I will then invoice each of the ethically challenged grease monkeys for my time and aggravation. At last, I will look each of them straight in the eye and ask "..how do want to handle this - cash or credit?"
Idiot mechanics, ripoff mechanics, vehicle problems, ac issues, unqualified mechanics, used cars, mechanics, chop shop, consumer complaints
I have seen repair estimates skyrocket from initial estimates from $450 to final work of over $1200. They know they can get it from you and they will if you let them. When visiting the alleged professional, notice his 'busy-ness', always to busy to speak with you directly. If you are granted this privilege, it's always a rushed, hurried conversation and he's off to the next victim. My favorite version of the mechanically challenged are the foreigners who portray a limted vocabulary in English. You know damn well these impostors have a full handle on English however try asking them a question and all you get is a blank stare and having to repeat yourself. "Where do you get your parts?" ans. - "She go to Daytona", What the hell does that mean" Is 'Daytona' an auto parts warehouse?
After the initial jerk around and the holier than thou attitude comes what I call the hand off. This is where our learn-ed hero 'hands off' the work to an even less qualified moron than himself. "My son take care of you" or "Jimmy be right back". Now you start to feel uncomfortable. You negotiated the work with one guy and another is doing it. To make matters worse, they ALWAYS double the time they say it will take to get the job done. Three hours means six, If you're lucky. The standard response is "I need an extra day or two for the parts to arrive." They will tell you what they think it will cost and it will always be more. The only way around this is to double check the price of every part, get several labor estimates and let them know you did. Only then will the garage tinkerer come down on their price. The alleged mechanic will never stand his ground, this makes you think even less of him.
I have had bolts fly off of water pumps on the interstate, tires not properly balanced and reduced to shreds, ac compressors replaced three times and still not work properly. I have had mechanics tell me that prior mechanics have mis-disgnosed perfectly good evaporators, try to sell me a new evaporator for $350 and not see the real problem of a leaking ac hose. The same mechanic then told me that the third compressor in my vehicle was faulty and I needed a new one for $585. As I drove away from his shop, the compressor worked fine. I later found out that a compressor, condenser and all items needed to replace an ac system on my vehicle was only $275 from Advance Auto. Of course, the monkey wrench stooge won't use these parts - he labels them as inferior. I was shocked at his grasp of four syllable words. His next uttering was "I can't guarantee my work with those parts". This was the same guy to whom I just gave over $2000 to repair our other vehicle. After speaking to a local car rental company of my plight, they said "...oh yeah, that guy always charges at least $1000 for everything he does. You can't get out of their for less than $1000". This was coming from total strangers who have had the same experiences with this grifter.
I now know that my compressor is OK. I told the first mechanic to find my original compressor because I will be back to exchange it for the second one he put in, to get a refund. After telling me that he is not sure where he put it and might have thrown it away, he said he would have it for me the following week. The compressor has a 30 warranty on it. When he calls me back, wondering why I haven't been back to pick up the compressor, I am going to tell him to hold it - between his knees, for a couple more weeks! When the two weeks are up, I will then tell him to remove it from between his knees and stick it up his ass, to see if it fits - you whore son of a bitch! Next, I will get the new ac hose installed from a third mechanic practitioner . Finally, I will re-visit each of the two sham car fixers and have a frank and open discussion about their attempted rape upon my wallet. This should be interesting because I will total my cost and compare it to their bogus estimates and wrong headed claims. I will then invoice each of the ethically challenged grease monkeys for my time and aggravation. At last, I will look each of them straight in the eye and ask "..how do want to handle this - cash or credit?"
Idiot mechanics, ripoff mechanics, vehicle problems, ac issues, unqualified mechanics, used cars, mechanics, chop shop, consumer complaints
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)