Things I Wish People Said When They Screwed Up

Rick and I were talking this morning about the Ani DiFranco episode, among other things. I love this sendup of her response here. It links to Ani’s response.

What I really wish people would say when they screwed up things like this?

“Hi. I’m human. I don’t know everything. I missed something important here, and I’m sorry. I will try to do a better job of not missing important things in the future, but I will still, unfortunately, be human.”

And not, you know, flounce (or all the other stuff Ani did in her super-long post).

Originally published at deirdre.net. You can comment here or there.

Coming Soon: Coffee & Canopy

I’ve been busy as a bee, and hope to have an outline posted for So You Want to Travel the World before we leave for Really Remote Places. But, there’s another free perk for everyone who’s contributed $10 or more: an ebook I’m writing about our recent trip to Costa Rica and Nicaragua. It’s called Coffee & Canopy.

Wanna see the cover? Of course you do.

The book will be free for everyone who contributes (or who already has contributed) $10 or more to the Indiegogo campaign for So You Want to Travel the World. Otherwise, it’ll be $2.99 all by its lonesome through the usual outlets. I’m almost done. Can’t wait.

Every book should feature unexpected venomous sea snakes, right?

The cover photo is one I took in Nicaragua at the Masaya volcano crater rim. The stairs leading up to the cross in the upper right have dissolved enough through years of corrosive volcanic emissions that they are now off-limits due to structural damage.

I’ll let everyone know when it’s available through the usual venues.

Originally published at deirdre.net. You can comment here or there.

T-Mobile International Data Roaming: Didn’t (and Apparently Can’t)

Exercise for the reader

1. Buy an iPad (or pretend to have) for T-Mobile’s network.
2. Try to sign up for a plan on T-Mobile’s site that is a Simple Choice plan without buying another device. Hint: start here.
3. With this non-existent opportunity, you will get free international global data roaming. Isn’t that special?

Exercise 2 for the reader

1. Buy an iPad configured for T-Mobile from Apple.
2. Wait extra fucking weeks to get the damn thing because T-Mobile.
3. Activate your 200MB free data. Woohoo!
4. Oh. You want to travel. Add a paid plan.

Guess what? Your international plan, even though it costs the same amount of money, will not get you international data, and that is not disclosed.

Leave the country. Visit a capital city of another country. Note that you do not have data roaming. Contact T-Mobile support.

Hello Deirdre, I reviewed your account and I do see it set up correctly with no restrictions. Unfortunately we are not always able to guarantee full functionality while overseas.

Even. Though. The. People. With. T-Mobile. Voice. Plans. Are. Having. No. Issues.

Come home. Contact T-Mobile support before your new trip.

Get the following e-mail.

Our apologies but for Pay in Advance accounts (including your prepaid data plan), international data roaming is not available at this time. We do hope to see this change in the future, but for now, you would be unable to use your iPad internationally on a Pay in Advance plan.

Even. Though. It. Costs. The Same. Amount. Of. Money. As. The. Other. Plan.

This from a company that doesn’t even believe in plans.

And, from another e-mail.

In order to use the tablet while internationally roaming, we would need to have this attached to a postpaid voice line [...].

Which — it does not say on the page I linked to, does it. Maybe that’s the way to “patch” the current non-functional plan I have, but, if I bought my device directly from T-Mobile, I’d be able to have, for the same amount of money as the plan I did purchase, a plan that covered international data.

Because the thing I really want to do when I’ve been jerked around by a company is give them more of my business, right?

There’s nothing polite I can possibly say here.

Originally published at deirdre.net. You can comment here or there.