I am American mentally with Japanese tendencies/Parisian sensibilities so stay out of the vicinity – Lupe Fiasco
IMG_8454, originally uploaded by sygyzy.
I haven’t been to the Douglas Preserve since Brian and I took Sam, when she was still a baby, geocaching. It’s been years. Anyway, it was the perfect place for a night walk (as opposed to a hike). The area somehow was improved upon (it was good before) and they added a nice pedestrian bridge and lots of vegetation at the street level. Even then hill leading down was well groomed.
Something in my inbox caught my eye this morning. It seemed pretty personalized and was from a girl who’s name is common enough that I thought I might have known her. The email said:
Hello,
I just wanted to let you know that I work for OCZ Technology now which is a HUGE memory manufacturer, so if you need any memory deals please contact me! Also, OCZ just bought PC Power & Cooling power supplies in May, 2007, so we also have great pricing on power supplies as well. Please contact me by phone or email if you need any specific pricing. I can beat eWiz’s or the competitor’s pricing on ANY quantity orders. TRUST ME! =)
www.ocztechnology.com
www.pcpower.com
Best regards,
Christine Wong
OCZ Technology
Account Manager
Phone: (408) 733-8400 ext.152
Fax: (408) 733-5200
Email: cwong@ocztechnology.com
Website: www.ocztechnology.com
I didn’t put two and two together until I read a post on a message board. Turns out that Ms. Wong used to work for eWiz (that’s why she refers to it) and when she left, she took all of the customer information with her. I bought a few things from eWiz and I am disappointed to see that they don’t have any respect for customer privacy. I am also apalled at OCZ for allowing such sales tactics by their employees.
Update: 08/28/08 11:51A PST – I shot off emails to both eWiz and OCZ yesterday. The first gave a generic reply from Christy Yee. I know because I’ve seen the same one posted online.
Dear David,
eWiz is taking this matter seriously and our Legal Department is looking into this matter.
Thank You.
Weaksauce. The next one was much nicer from Alex Mei, the Executive VP & CMO of OCZ. He also CC’d plenty of specific OCZ people (as opposed to a whole department).
Hello David,
This comes as quite a surprise to me. Christine is a new employee, first day on the job yesterday. We pride ourselves on supporting our customers, and spamming is just something that isn’t acceptable. Especially to me on the marketing side, where we are very strict about communications with customers, media, and consumers. I do appreciate that you brought this directly to my attention, and you can rest assured that this will be dealt with, as this is not the OCZ way of doing business.
Best Regards,
Alex
Let’s see how this pans out.
Update: 08/30/08 1:23A PST – Well I got another update from Alex and he informed me that OCZ was instructing Christine to remove all her previous contacts and IT was working with her to expedite things. He also said they are working with eWiz on the matter. He said, again, that she was a new enthusiastic employee. I guess this is the excuse they are running with. I saw a post from an OCZ rep on Anandtech basically repeating the same thing, echoing the new employee line. Lastly, I got another email from eWiz but it was the same cut and paste template as before.
I have to give this round to OCZ. They handled themselves well and avoided a PR nightmare. Even though it’s not eWiz’s fault, per se, I think they could have acted like they cared more.
I should start off explaining that the flat tire is my worst nightmare. I’ve changed out tubes in the past and each time, it’s either taken me hours to get the beads of the tire over the edge of the wheel or I brought it to work or a friend’s house to have them do it. Yeah, it’s that bad. So much so, that I constantly live in fear of getting a flat on the road because I’d be faced with the decision of walking my bike home (flat tire, road shoes with cleats; not a pretty picture), spend two hours fixing the flat, or calling someone.
We canceled last Thursday’s ride because Josh had a garage flat and, of course, we couldn’t get the tire back on. So he said he’d take it to the LBS to get it fixed. Last night he returns my call and suggests we ride today at 8AM. On a Sunday. What the? I hesitated and he made it 9. The ride was great. Our second best time! Afterward, we went to get lunch with Jamie at Cody’s.
After the meal, I went to work to review a document and while I was there, Liz calls. She wants to go on a bike ride. Wowsers. Can’t pass that up. So she rides her bike over at 3:30. I am psyched to go riding again. I even put on my new jersey and a fresh pair of MTB shorts since the stuff from the first ride was in the hamper. We take a route I’ve never gone before – Los Carneros, past Turnpike and San Marcos. Did you know are were hills there? They are sick. After we went over the first one, we go to the bottom, turned around, and went up the hill again. Like masochists. It was smooth sailing from there.
Then it happened. A quarter block from the Los Carneros turnoff, I hear a loud pop! I look down and noticed I ran over some debris. No big deal, I’ve never had a flat on the road. “It’s your rear tire,” said Liz. Damn. I immediately apologize, telling her about how terrible I am at this. She confesses she has the same cycling fear I do! We sat down on the side of the road, in the grass, and got to work. I got the new tube in and tire back on in two minutes. Woohoo! Then I noticed something terrible. The reason my tube exploded is whatever I ran over slashed through my tire and tube. A pretty big chunk too.
As I am using my co2 inflater, I can see the black rubber tube pushing itself through the cut in the wheel. I let some pressure out so it would not be under so much stress. We went on our way and a few yards later, I realized I simply cannot ride with that little air. My back end was really wobbly so I stopped and pumped more air in and then my second tube exploded too! Liz volunteered to drive home (remember, she biked over). I told her to ride as fast as she could. I just sat on the side of the road. Soon after, I realized I was just a ninety-degree turn and an overpass from home. I didn’t want to start walking and have her return and not find me.
So, I stayed. Many motorists passed and a few bikers. All except one ignored me. The one that did say something was busy listening to his friend (who didn’t even notice me) tell a story. When they were pass me he asked if i have everything I need. I started explaining about my slashed tire and he looked forward again and kept riding. Liz came and I had my rear wheel off because I had decided to spend my time practicing using a patch kit (that was a disaster too). So rather than put the rear wheel back on, and taking the front off, we decided to load it into her car as is. We learned that was a big mistake twice. First when we ripped a hole in her car and again when it took us forever to unload the bike.
So now I have to go get an non-matching tire for my rear wheel. I thought I saved my previous wheels but I can’t find them. I also have grease all over my new red jersey, new gloves, and Brooks saddle. But at least I can change a flat now, huh?
There’s an excellent article this week addressing the staggering decline of hip-hop music sales, with a 33% drop in sales this year. It speaks about how the music’s largest customer base is suburban white kids who are attracted to the appearance of danger that hip-hop songs and artists portray. The difference is now people are getting tired of the profanity and scantily clad women. The true hip-hop veterans, the underground artists who have been trying their best to maintain some dignity and talent in the art simply don’t have the deep pockets that large record labels have to be influential. And the big labels? They’ve dug a hole so deep, they might not be able to climb out.
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