Frugal Intuition

I love blogging.  I enjoy sharing my views and opinions and suggestions with others.  This is but one of many, many blogs I maintain, and it’s a cause that’s close to my heart.  But as this new year begins, I am working 3 jobs in addition to all my blogging, and I simply find myself over-extended.  I don’t want to turn out crappy posts or bad information because your time is worth more than that.  So it is with regret that I inform you that I have decided to cut this one loose.  I can still be found over at Pots & Plots , my cooking blog, and my writing blog Murder & Magnolias .  Thanks for reading.

I have to offer my apologies for being MIA.  The holidays have been zoolike around here, and I am on a major deadline trying to get a class written from scratch for next semester (it begins January 7th).  All my time has been taken up with the composition of lectures, syllabus, tests, etc.  I promise I haven’t forgotten about you, and I will be back on January 1st, ready to begin the new year and help you all meet your goals of becoming more frugal (that is going to be one of your resolutions, right?).  I’m going to be setting up a posting schedule for 2009, and as soon as I figure out what that is, I’ll let you all know so that you don’t check back here needlessly when there isn’t anything new up.  For those of you who have been coming back during my posting hiatus, many thanks, and check back on January 1 (or 2nd, if you’re still recovering from New Year’s Eve).

Pardon my absence this week, folks.  I’m out of town visiting family.  While I’ve been here, my news-loving relatives have had on CNN nearly non-stop.  Mostly I try to shield myself from all the negativity (and I’m often criticized for being ill-informed, but happy people live longer and they never tell good news), but last night I couldn’t help but look up as the announcer began talking about Dell.

In response to a myriad of customer complaints that they were unable to understand a word spoken by the customer service representatives, Dell is now offering a service at a charge of $12.95 a month or $99 a year to guarantee customer service from an American.  Yes, we now have to pay extra to speak to someone who actually speaks our native language.  This is one of the most apalling and ridiculous things I have ever heard.  I usually know more about computers than the people at customer service do anyway, and I’m expected to pay extra?  I don’t think so.

This is the kind of thing that makes me appreciate companies who do provide customer service to Americans BY Americans.  Companies like Atmos Gas and whoever it is that puts out the Endnote software.  Nice, polite, incredibly helpful.  They’re the people I don’t mind calling with a problem.  I know there are other companies out there who fall into this category, and I charge all of you to let customer service people know when you’re happy with them.  They hear it litle enough in what is usually a thankless job.