As a veteran of commission sales and lawless moonlighting in the computer industry, I know how to screw people over and how to look after my best interests regardless of ethics. There are other reasons but because I don’t believe in the mythical “statue of limitations”, you are free to speculate.
I wouldn’t be much of an American if I wasn’t well versed in the dark side. But I just don’t want to do that. It’s not the kind of world I want to live in. It’s not the kind of world I want my eventual offspring living in. I have to live the life that I think the world should be. It’s tough. Especially in my freefall of the less couple years since graduating from UF. But nothing is permanent and being a jackass isn’t going to accelerate anything.
As mentioned in the previous entry, my mooncruiser was in the shop less than a month ago for wheelchair lift repairs. They kept it for three days. I was charged $140 for 2.5 hours of labor and no replaced parts. Also, no explanation. It worked. I don’t have time to bleed. I paid. But I also made the mental note that something was amiss and it would probably break down again soon. In that case, I’d prepare to rip them a new asshole.
When it did break, I was firm in pointing out that I was there for repairs less than a month ago. The gentleman on the line said I had nothing to worry about. In my book, that means “no charge for labor.”
Making a long story short, they made the repairs in a half hour. They also tried to bill me for labor. I said no. I’ll pay for the part but not the labor. Record checks on my claim resulted in a new invoice without labor.
Someone who should have known better said essentially that I was a fool for agreeing to pay for the part. A grand total of $58.
There are a few ways to look at this. I’m careful about viewing life as a computer program. It’s a dangerous analogy because life is nowhere near as predictable or reliable as even badly written code. But the variable analogies are pretty safe.
What we had here was a bad labor execution. If they cared about what they were doing, they would have spotted the problem the first time. In the alternate reality where they get it right the first time, I pay an additional $58. Maybe an hour less in labor but this is where the computer analogy breaks down.
While it was less than a month, they still could have made a good argument that something else did it and they would charge me for the whole debacle. They are the only game in town. I’ve been dealing with this company for almost 20 years and I’ll probably be dealing with them for 20 more. I look like an idiot if I mix the labor issue with the parts issue.
The parts didn’t slack off, the labor did. The parts won’t learn anything from not being paid for but the labor will. These people know I’m extremely annoyed with being there twice in a month. They know I want to spend a few hundred on new front tires for my wheelchair and possibly a thousand or so on a voice command system for the mooncruiser but they keep delaying that with each fuck-up.
I achieved what I declared as the optimal outcome before I left. Only a fool leaves his opponents with no exit and no way to save face. That’s from my first religion: Sun-Tzu’s Art of War. My view of human interaction is much more subtle and much deeper than the jackass that decides to call me a fool. Point one finger at me and you are pointing 3 at yourself.
This “screw thy neighbor” ethical system that Americans have needs to stop. We’re seeing the worst of it with industry reactions to P2P file sharing, software piracy, product returns, customer service and just about everything under the sun. Everyone is socialized to win at all cost, right or wrong and then everybody wonders why nobody wins.
Life is not a program and life is not a game. Life is life. If you don’t recognize the limitations of viewing life as anything other than what it is, you will inevitably find disappointment. There are alternatives to surrendering your ethics. The generated good karma might even help you out exactly when you need it. That’s the point of generating good karma. Not luck but making sure you live life in such a way that good things want to happen to you. Stealing isn’t going to cut it. Neither is lying or being uncompromising.
A lack of ethics gives the system a right to fuck you anywhere at any time.
If making a choice to do the right thing makes me perceived as a sucker, that’s not my problem. If you honestly believe that reason rules everything and there’s no real consequences to our choices then I wish you the best of luck. You will need it.
