Swimmin!

Just a quick note to pat myself on the back. I arrived in town (NH) this past Monday to do some training for work. Because I'm going to the same location for work every day this week, I decided to just stay at the same hotel for the whole period.

The hotel has a pool.

Well, most of the hotels I stay at do. I make it a point, but now I'm getting sidetracked.

I've been meaning to start a swimming regiment to get myself into some kind of shape. Driving all day every day - much like sitting in a cubical every day - isn't doing my body any good.

After a chit chat with xtingu, who was good enough to call me on my bullshit, I finally got my butt in gear.

Oh, and I should be clear up front - this is NOT an Olympic size pool. Quite the contrary. I paced it out, and I'm guestimating that it's in the ballpark of 40 feet long. Still, this has been the breakdown so far:

Monday Night: 70 laps.
Tuesday Morning: 50 laps
Tuesday Night: 30 laps (ran out of time)
Wednesday Morning: screwed up - didn't have time to swim
Wednesday Night (just now): 100 laps

It's only been three days, but I'm pretty proud of those numbers. That said, I'm intentionally NOT figuring out the calories burned etc because I'm afraid I will be discouraged. Instead, my goal is to just keep increasing those numbers over time.

First though, I have to keep it up enough to make it my regular routine.

It's all about making it part of the routine.

Dell Support

I received an email addressed to Nathan Lichtenwalner from Dell Support. They were kind enough to let me know that my laptop was being serviced and would be finished soon.

Problem is, my name isn't Nathan. My last name IS Lichtenwalner, but yeah. This made me think that the email was probably legit, but before I replied to let them know that it had been misdirected, I wanted to confirm that the email did actually originate from Dell. (I'm paranoid about spam/fishing emails.)

So here's the conversation that transpired between myself and representatives from Dell Support via Twitter:

mrlich Jul 23, 1:09pm

@DellCares - received an email from REDACTED - is that legitimately from you guys?

DellCares Jul 23, 1:44p

Hi, thanks for reaching out. Please let me know the info that you have got from the email. ^RS 1

To: DellCares 8:31am

it was an update on computer repairs, but for a Nathan Lichtenwalner. Before replying I wanted to confirm legitimacy.

DellCares 9:18am

Is there a dispatch num or a service tag in the mail? This way, we will be able to check about the authenticity. ^RH 2

To: DellCares 3:36pm

DELL Status on your Computer Repair, Service Tag: REDACTED, Dell dispatch # REDACTED

DellCares 4:09pm

The email is a valid one. Its send to provide you with a reference # for the Depot call. The system is being serviced now . ^RS 3

To: DellCares 3:37pm

I really just wanted to let you guys know that I'm not Nathan (last name IS correct though) so - just wanted to confirm...

To: DellCares 3:37pm

the address was valid. This seems like it was quite a process for me to just try to help out.

To: DellCares 4:17pm

this was sent to me because I have the same last name. I'm just trying to help you guys get it to the right person.

DellCares 4:24pm

Thank you very much. Kindly confirm your email ID so that we can remove it. ^RS 4

To: DellCares 5:57pm

my email address is REDACTED. I'm assuming that the person who SHOULD be getting the emails is...

1 - I'm immediately annoyed by the fact that they didn't just answer the question: is that a valid email address for Dell Support? The entire conversation could have ended there.

2 - Further annoyed. After I passive-agressively reiterated that I just wanted to know if the email address was valid, I'm being asked to dig up information for them. Of course, I'm the ass hole who does.

3 - Hey! There's the information I'm looking for! Of course it would have been smart of me to stop there. However, I'm looking to actually be helpful (that IS what started all this). As I know this WOULD be the end of their correspondence (and the email would get dropped) I pursue...

4 - So I'm clearly dealing with multiple people and they're not paying attention to the entire conversation. This person just thinks I want the emails to stop. Please just read the last line I sent prior to your post pal.

In the end, I realize that I'm over thinking this one. I recognize that I'm jumping down their throats for (essentially) not dropping everything and making me (someone who isn't even a customer) the center of their universe.

But here's the thing: I'm trying to help them provide good customer service.

Please people make it easy for me!

Also? Guess what just became a new tag for me.

tl;dr version:
Instead of just deleting or marking a random email from Dell as Spam and moving on with my life, I instead tried to help them (and the proper recipient of the email) out by attempting to correct the misdirect. That will teach me.