RTA

(An episode where Peter screams out loud at stupidity in the Japanese service industry…)

I’m a businessman, and businessmen (Or businesswomen, businesspeople, drunken monkeys, or lobotomized fleas for that matter…) will tell you that in order to win or keep business, you do things to make your customers’ lives easier. Japan is reknowned the world over for its service industry’s fine attention to detail, its uncompromising quality control, and the pedestal upon which it places the consumer.That is, of course, unless you are a Japanese bank.

Case in point: Our main bank here in Japan is SMBC, or the Sumitomo-Mitsui Banking Corporation. Now I owe SMBC a lot — Without them Jan and I would have been up natto creek without any soy sauce (More on that in another post at some point.), but today I was stopped in my tracks — I actually cringed, and you know that knot you get in your chest when you feel helpless rage? Well, it grew to the point that I thought I would explode all over my LCD screen. Why?

The SMBC website only allows one to access information on their mortgage during the period between 9am and 9pm, Monday through Friday, excluding holidays.

UFF DA!

Why is it that in the United States one sometimes still cannot get a WiFi link at an airline lounge? It’s bad enough that we have to pay for them most of the time (Admitedly this is also true in Europe. There are also enlightened airlines, such as Continental, that make the service free.), but to not even have anything available at all? It costs what, a few dollars a day in service fees to maintain an ADSL line into a WiFi router? I know that United is in trouble, but this is exactly the type of service that makes a lounge more useful than slumping over to your gate and waiting there. I ended up walking 10 minutes over to the Continental Lounge and leeched a weak signal from outside in the hallway where I huddled down protecting the lone wall outlet providing me power from several others doing the same. LAX doesn’t even offer paid WiFi in the general airport areas!

Uff da!

It is fine to have the electrical outlet at one’s house or work under the desk, yet I think that all of us who move notebook computers around would agree that having one on the desk surface or on the wall above the desk makes it easier to connect and disconnect when necessary.

It is poor design to have the electrical outlet in a hotel room be under a desk. It is ridiculous to actually have to move the flippin’ desk in order to get to the outlet. Yet one could assume that the person will likely be in the room for several days and that the initial inconvenience is not so bad.

It is unbelievably stupid to have the electrical outlet be under the desk in the business area of an airline lounge. The average time a person spends at the desk is likely less than an hour, and yet there we are in suits or business skirts hunched over trying not to swear while we fumble around in the darkness under the desk trying to get juice. Why? The wall unit and desk are made of the same material, so they were installed together. I guess the architects and interior designers still use rulers, a compass, and slide rules in order to get their work done. Someone really ought to introduce them to the concept of a computer.

This is the first of what I have unambiguously called “Ridiculous Things.” It will be a blathering (As opposed to blistering…) attack on all things ridiculous that one finds in the course of living one’s life. An entry could range from the prosaic (It’s ridiculous that the plastic bags in cereal boxes are so damn hard to open properly.) to the sublime (It’s ridiculous that the US Government has spent approximately USD1.2B on travel and associated expenses over the past two years for government employees to attend conferences and seminars in far-flung areas of the world.). Of course, it’s equally ridiculous to think that my input will have any affect on the situation(s) mentioned, but I’ll enjoy less stress and live longer.