Macy's Madness

After years and years of being a Macy's credit card customer, I finally hit a wall. I couldn't understand why my last 2 payments were returned undeliverable (creating havoc with my account), until customer service informed me that there are actually 2 credit cards with different numbers and from different issuers connected to my account. Huh??

When my last Macy's charge card reached expiration, they replaced it with a Macy's American Express card. Fine. Except it turns out they never actually cancelled the original card account. So both cards are active, even though I no longer actually have a Macy's charge card. Huh??

Even more confusing, when I dialed the automated phone system to find out my balance (since I can't seem to get a payment properly delivered), the system reported that my balance is zero! Do they not need my two returned payments? Hence, my call to a real live representative to find out what's up, where I discover the maddening truth. There is a $0 balance on my Macy's Amex (why, I have no idea, since this is the card I have been using since they issued it to me), but there is a large balance on my Macy's card (which I didn't know I had and which I have not used since receiving the Macy's Amex card).  Huh??

And we're trying to solve world peace? We can't even solve socks. 

Y -O- Y, X Factor?

I'm devastated. Rachel Crow, the best little act on competitive talent TV, was voted off of X Factor tonight by the judges' inability to do their job. I hate to point fingers, but Nicole Scherzinger was in the hot seat and she totally blew it by abdicating her responsibility as a judge. She just couldn't take the heat of being the deciding vote, and copped out by deliberately voting for Marcus in order to force to a tie. That meant last night's call-in votes became the tie-breaker, and that sent Rachel home.

What's patently unfair about this is that last night's votes had nothing to do with tonight's performances. Those votes already determined who would be in the bottom two tonight and would sing for their lives. It was up to the judges to decide which of those two would move on the semi-finals next week and who would be sent home. By failing to vote on the merits, Nicole corrupted the system and in the process sent home the true shining star of the entire competition.

Not that Marcus didn't perform well - he did.  But his star factor is nil compared to Rachel's. Delivering a great performance isn't enough. X Factor is about discovering an act that can sell records, and eventually concert tickets, merchandise and even movies. Even if Marcus is capable of achieving this, which I doubt, he will never have the natural gift for it that Rachel does. She simply radiates with it.

Rachel has been victimized by a poorly conceived judging process. None of the judges should be able to manipulate the system to avoid responsibility for voting. Hello, that's their job.

That the judging system is able to be manipulated is an inherent flaw that must rectified. The current system puts too much pressure on the last judge, who often ends up in the position of casting the deciding vote alone and in full view of everyone. To rectify this, the judges' votes should be cast anonymously using a display system that shows the results without attributing the votes to any one of the judges. This might be similar to the judging system on America's Got Talent -- but without the attribution. This would alleviate the extreme pressure on any one judge to cast the final, fateful vote.

But even that won't help Rachel Crow, whose moment in the X Factor sun has come and gone. I am disgusted. I can only hope that she gets a multi-million dollar recording contract that makes X Factor look like the amateur hour that it is.

Don't cry, Rachel. You're going to look back on this one day really soon and realize that you were destined for much bigger things than Simon Cowell and his merry band of wimps.

Old Fogey?

Maybe it's a sign I'm getting old, but I prefer my dinner without club music. Especially at an upscale restaurant with upscale prices. City Cellar in Westbury was always a place we reserved for special occasions or when we felt like a little self-indulgement. But somewhere along the way, the soundtrack changed, and the atmosphere has morphed from subdued to pulsing. It's really a shame, because it's virtually impossible to relax and enjoy your meal.

Worst Buy

...but they're clueless about customer service.

I had the worst customer service experience of my life at Best Buy this week. I'm still hyperventilating. Five separate trips, a cumulative total of 2 hours on line, over 1 month of no computer use, and the manager and I end up in a screaming match that provides the day's entertainment for all the other people on the Geek Squad line. (Sidebar: someone I know casually from business made the mistake of saying a cheery "hi!" to me in the middle of this scene. Wrong decision).

The issue was my failure to advise the Geek Squad that I needed MS Office reinstalled when they rebuilt my son's laptop. As opposed to not having it reinstalled, of course. Because we only bought the software and had it installed by the Geek Squad in the first place, and Worst Buy naturally had no record of this in their system and didn't think it was worth the effort to read the original receipt I brought in with the service contract on visit #1 -- or even, God forbid, think to ask if we needed MS Office installed. It's only (probably) the most important program for your average personal computer. Instead, they relied on me, Notorius Computer Expert, to advise them about what the laptop needed and let me get all the way to visit #5 before discovering that the laptop didn't have Word. (And for the record, I found out by accident, by taking the laptop for a quick spin around the block before packing it up to leave).

AAARRRGGGHHH!

It was a stand-off with no resolution. So after busting a gut, I took my laptop and my future business with me and left. No matter to Worst Buy that we have purchased several computers, cameras and TVs at their store over the years, along with extended service contracts. They let us walk right out the door.

Buh-bye, Worst Buy.

Dead Trees

I love shopping online. But I can't stand it when my purchase arrives in packaging easily twice as large as the item inside. The cardboard container, the inner packing and the original wrapping all add up to more dead trees than anyone can possibly justify (except UPS or Fed Ex, which both charge accordingly).

What's even worse is the pile of phone books that arrive on my doorstep unbidden. In duplicate! When's the last time you or anyone you know looked anything up in a phone book? At this stage in the millenium, these tomes are little more than monuments to history -- and to photosynthesis gone by. Even my office didn't need them - duplicate sets had been delivered there as well.

You would think that a company in the cellular phone and internet service business would realize the folly of printing telephone directories. And you would expect that online retailers would recognize the economic advantages of sleeker shipping containers. At least I would. Silly me. I never learn.

If You Sprinkle...

The ladies room is my home away from home. I am a connoisseur. Not so much because I am passionate about tile and rolled paper, but because nature calls on me more often than most. I don't ask much when it comes to public restrooms. Clean toilets, plenty of TP, and hand towels or hot air driers that actually dry. It's really not so much to ask, especially from one of the highest end shopping malls on the continent, namely Roosevelt Field Mall in Garden City.


Simon Malls, the owner/manager of Roosevelt Field, should be ashamed of the condition of its ladies rooms. All of them.

They are filthy, sodden and ill-equipped. 

Sad-but-true, the disgusting shape of Roosevelt Field Mall restrooms can be blamed equally on ill-mannered patrons and poor management.The shoppers at Roosevelt Field apparently have not been properly potty trained. The paper goes in the toilet. The toilet gets flushed after you use it. The seat gets dried, if needed. The counter gets wiped down.


Oops! That last one's a toughie, since ladies rooms no longer have paper towels.Of course, I do love those Dyson hand driers. But I really could have used some paper towels today to dry off my purse after it got soaked on the sink countertop.

What is truly needed, however, is a restroom attendant. That's where Simon can make good on the Roosevelt Field brand experience.They can't be held accountable for the slovenly, unsanitary behavior of their customers, but they can certainly acknowledge and address it by staffing the operation with someone to clean up after them.

Potty training  may not be Simon's business, but keeping customers happy is.

Red Light, Green Light

Frank Saladino is my new hero. Frank successfully challenged a red light camera ticket, which he got for making a legal right-on-red in New Hyde Park. I myself received just such a ticket for the same type of turn on Stewart Blvd. over the summer, and it cost me $65!!

No less than Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano took up Frank's case with the Dept'mt of Public Works, and as a result, the dept. is now installing a sign at the offending intersection alerting drivers that a full stop is required before a right-on-red. Presumably, similiar signs will be required at other locations if drivers are to be held accountable.

Too bad Frank didn't come along before I got tagged. I just didn't have the time or energy to be anybody's hero that day, not even my own.

Unbelievable.

Uncar. Unbig. Unsafe.