Randomness XVIII: Ex-Vee-Triple-Eye

[ShadowRaven]

2 hours ago, Pegazus said:

Just found out the hard way that our chimney is clogged up. 

the "smoke" way I hope, not the "chimney is on fire" way

Had an odd experience today, was out running errands with my brother, and we went for lunch at this place that makes really good home made bread and sandwiches and stuff. This is normal. Eat there plenty. Today though was different, in the month or so I've been away, a new change has come upon the place. There was a counter in the back corner, next to a Warhammer paint and box rack, and opposite it was some other miniatures, including what looked like a set of Reaper's Pathfinder licenced figures, and a few Bones USA and such.

The odd thing is this is in a tiny little town, off the beaten path, and I would have not been surprised to find I was the only person involved in this hobby for miles in any direction. 

[Chaoswolf]

Well, at least that makes for a pleasant surprise.

[Thoramel]

Had a field day scheduled for today and all the folks I'd be meeting on site cancelled due to the weather. I don't understand why no one wants to get outside and do some hiking today. It's a full two degrees above freezing and the ice/rain/snow combo falling from the sky is barely noticeable. Wonderful weather for standing around in a flooded swamp dominated by two meter high vegetation and one meter deep pools. I was all excited to break in some new cold weather gear. Bunch of cry babies, I tell you. 

[Pegazus]

Had a surprise inch of snow this morning. Wasn’t expected.

 

Thus, ya know, the “surprise”.

 

As for the chimney, no fire up the chimney. Just a room full of smoke. It’s a stove insert and the smoke was pouring out through closed vents. Not a good sign. Did consider that maybe it was just a mass of cold air that drove down the pipe causing a reversed air flow. But Occam says plugged pipe. 

[TGP]

35 minutes ago, Pegazus said:

Did consider that maybe it was just a mass of cold air that drove down the pipe causing a reversed air flow. But Occam says plugged pipe. 

Could the inch of snow have somehow accumulated in the chimney pipe?

[Pegazus]

47 minutes ago, TGP said:

Could the inch of snow have somehow accumulated in the chimney pipe?

Nah. This happened before the snow. And the chimney has a roof over the opening.

[kristof65]

Sep 2018
Customer: How much does X feature cost?

Sales: quote sent

Dec 2019

Customer: Let's go ahead and order X feature from the quote

Sales: Parts sent. 

 

<note the nearly 3 year gap>

August 2022:

OEM Partner: Site says they've got the X feature hardware installed. What's the config info I need:

Me: Hmm, I have no info for this site. I do see that they were quoted for X feature back in 2018, and it was shipped in 2019.  It does not appear to have been installed or configured yet. Please have site contact me to discuss installation and configuration. 

Customer: Sends pictures to sales "proving" that hardware is installed. 

No one contacts me. 

 

This week:

OEM Partner: Site says they've got the X feature hardware installed. What's the config info I need?

Me: Hmm, haven't heard from site since you last asked. Still doesn't look like anything has been installed or configured. Have the site contact me. 
Customer: <in aggressively worded email>: Attached are the pictures I sent to Sales showing the equipment is installed. I never heard back from him.
(I have no idea why Sales dropped the ball, don't care). 
Me: Umm, those pictures are not the hardware for X feature. Similar, but not the right parts. Here's what you're looking for (sends pictures, and shipment info for the Dec 2019 shipment)
Customer: We've looked everywhere for those parts, we can't find them. Please provide proof of delivery. 
Me (after consulting with shipping and service manager): I'm sorry, but UPS doesn't hold proof of delivery that long. I do show in our system that the hardware was shipped along with a chips for a firmware upgrade for the Y module, and that we have a service ticket 10 days after that shipment that shows that our tech helped your tech install the Y module upgrade.  That is good enough proof for us that the parts were shipped & received - as per the packing list, all shortages must be reported within 48 hours of receipt.   If you cannot find the parts, you will need to order the replacements before we can proceed. Attached is a quote for the replacement parts. 

Waiting to see if this makes the guy explode or not. 

 

[Serenity]

RTB Pro-Tips! SKU#30091 Reapercon 2022 Mousling 11-15-22.  Started at 11:34 AM.

 

https://www.twitch.tv/reaperminiatures

[Cranky Dog]

UPS hates me. It's one of those weeks where I somehow offended the courier gods again.

 

Client is sending me a new company laptop to replace the older one I have. It gets shipped on Friday. It's in town at 5:47am Monday, 10 km from my office. Next update I get at 2:16pm is that it's now 738km away in completely different city *AND* is reported as damaged.

 

[Guindyloo]

No Crow's Nest stream tonight 🖤

[kristof65]

42 minutes ago, Cranky Dog said:

It's in town at 5:47am Monday, 10 km from my office. Next update I get at 2:16pm is that it's now 738km away in completely different city *AND* is reported as damaged.

 

Some random UPS driver: Hey, let's see how far this package can travel riding on the front bumper of my truck!

[Green Eyed Monsty]

39 minutes ago, kristof65 said:

Some random UPS driver: Hey, let's see how far this package can travel riding on the front bumper of my truck!

Either that or it gets left on the back step bumper.

When the warehouse guys get involved the opportunities for stuff to "get wrecked" go up exponentially.  Starting with the "top load only" packages that get used as a firm base for the pile of machine parts and heavy truck brake drums that always seem to land on the top of the pile because "we've got room for more boxes on top".

GEM

[kristof65]

Well crud. 

About a month and a half ago while helping a long time existing customer install and fire up a new site, I discovered that big credit card merchant services platform First Data/Fiserv will no longer allow new setups on the module we use for processing.  This effectively means that any merchant services provider who uses Fiserv as their backend platform is no longer available to our customers. 

Because I was onsite at the time, and was overwhelmingly busy when I got back to my office, I forgot to follow up on this.  So about a week ago, new owner contacts me wanting to get his credit cards set up using the same provider as the previous owner - who was using a company using Fiserv. Remembered to tell him, no, sorry, you can't use that company anymore. Here's a list of providers I know we can work with, and here's what you need to ask if you want to use someone else not on this list. 

Forgot that one of my recommended providers uses Fiserv, and was still on the list. 

Wanna guess which one this guy chose?   Yep, the Fiserv guy. 

So I just had to have very awkward conversations with the rep and the new owner.    

To the owner: Sorry, I screwed up and should have removed that guy's name from the list before I sent it to you.

 

Worse was to the rep: Yeah, Bob, I know we've had a great working relationship this last decade or so, but I can't refer people to you any more because of what Fiserv did. I don't know when or if we're going to get this fixed. 

[haldir]

https://youtu.be/HJIIGpuuuYQ

 

Mentallica "Land Down One-der

 

 🤘 

[Green Eyed Monsty]

2 hours ago, kristof65 said:

Well crud. 

About a month and a half ago while helping a long time existing customer install and fire up a new site, I discovered that big credit card merchant services platform First Data/Fiserv will no longer allow new setups on the module we use for processing.  This effectively means that any merchant services provider who uses Fiserv as their backend platform is no longer available to our customers. 

Because I was onsite at the time, and was overwhelmingly busy when I got back to my office, I forgot to follow up on this.  So about a week ago, new owner contacts me wanting to get his credit cards set up using the same provider as the previous owner - who was using a company using Fiserv. Remembered to tell him, no, sorry, you can't use that company anymore. Here's a list of providers I know we can work with, and here's what you need to ask if you want to use someone else not on this list. 

Forgot that one of my recommended providers uses Fiserv, and was still on the list. 

Wanna guess which one this guy chose?   Yep, the Fiserv guy. 

So I just had to have very awkward conversations with the rep and the new owner.    

To the owner: Sorry, I screwed up and should have removed that guy's name from the list before I sent it to you.

 

Worse was to the rep: Yeah, Bob, I know we've had a great working relationship this last decade or so, but I can't refer people to you any more because of what Fiserv did. I don't know when or if we're going to get this fixed. 

Don't be too hard on yourself for not having an up-to-the-minute list.

The rate at which companies are making changes that end up either breaking stuff or changing policies that require complete rework of business operations is so rapid now days, it's a wonder anything works as well as it does.

GEM