Scott Adams Says:
“AmazonKDP reverses their disapproval”
“I had trouble with AmazonKDP (where independent publishers upload their >books to Amazon) because they kept rejecting the versions of Win Bigly
(2nd edition) in softcover and Kindle. No reasons given, canned
messages, no way to reach a human.”
“So I lit them up on X.”
“Problem solved.”
“My suggestion for all of you having trouble with tech support is to
first get a million followers on X. I'm not aware of any other solution >path.”
That is not a good production model.
Paul S Person wrote:
On Thu, 3 Oct 2024 15:22:40 -0500, Lynn McGuire
<lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> wrote:
Scott Adams Says:
“AmazonKDP reverses their disapproval”
“I had trouble with AmazonKDP (where independent publishers upload their >>> books to Amazon) because they kept rejecting the versions of Win Bigly
(2nd edition) in softcover and Kindle. No reasons given, canned
messages, no way to reach a human.”
“So I lit them up on X.”
“Problem solved.”
“My suggestion for all of you having trouble with tech support is to
first get a million followers on X. I'm not aware of any other solution
path.”
That is not a good production model.
But pretty main-stream: my phone company not only has automated
screeners on both its help line and its chat sessions, both of which
are very good at not paying any attention at all to any problem they
were not programmed to recognize, but the phone system, the last time
I tried it, actually offered me the abilitiy to /text/ an assistor,
but not to /speak/ with one.
When the phone company installed a defective modem, I spent a total of
eleven hours over three days on chat with various human agents. They
passed my case from one to another, and all tried to repeat the failed >attempts of the previous agent. Whatever I said. Each night an
appointment was finally made for someone to drop by and look at the
modem. Three days in row, nobody showed up.
Finally someone arrived on the fourth day, and he happened to have the >required modem in his truck. Fixed the problem in 20 minutes.
I was offered two days off my bill. When I mentioned that I'd saved the
chat logs and was prepared to post them I was offered a lot more.
But at least it was capitalism! If that was a government operation,
surely I would have been shot and then sent to a concentration camp. Or
so I have been assured.
William Hyde
In article <vdpbq4$anou$1@dont-email.me>,
But at least it was capitalism! If that was a government operation,
surely I would have been shot and then sent to a concentration camp. Or
so I have been assured.
William Hyde
I recall an essay on corruption in Italy to the effect that yes, of course, >you had to pay a bribe to the state telephone company to get your phone >installed, but you *would* get your phone installed. In the US no govt >official would ever ask for a bribe, but conversely, your problem would
never be solved..
On 10/4/2024 2:53 PM, Ted Nolan <tednolan> wrote:
In article <vdpbq4$anou$1@dont-email.me>,
William Hyde <wthyde1953@gmail.com> wrote:
Paul S Person wrote:
On Thu, 3 Oct 2024 15:22:40 -0500, Lynn McGuire
<lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> wrote:
Scott Adams Says:
“AmazonKDP reverses their disapproval”
“I had trouble with AmazonKDP (where independent publishers upload their
books to Amazon) because they kept rejecting the versions of Win Bigly >>>>> (2nd edition) in softcover and Kindle. No reasons given, canned
messages, no way to reach a human.”
“So I lit them up on X.”
“Problem solved.”
“My suggestion for all of you having trouble with tech support is to >>>>> first get a million followers on X. I'm not aware of any other solution >>>>> path.”
That is not a good production model.
But pretty main-stream: my phone company not only has automated
screeners on both its help line and its chat sessions, both of which
are very good at not paying any attention at all to any problem they
were not programmed to recognize, but the phone system, the last time
I tried it, actually offered me the abilitiy to /text/ an assistor,
but not to /speak/ with one.
When the phone company installed a defective modem, I spent a total of
eleven hours over three days on chat with various human agents. They
passed my case from one to another, and all tried to repeat the failed
attempts of the previous agent. Whatever I said. Each night an
appointment was finally made for someone to drop by and look at the
modem. Three days in row, nobody showed up.
Finally someone arrived on the fourth day, and he happened to have the
required modem in his truck. Fixed the problem in 20 minutes.
I was offered two days off my bill. When I mentioned that I'd saved the >>> chat logs and was prepared to post them I was offered a lot more.
But at least it was capitalism! If that was a government operation,
surely I would have been shot and then sent to a concentration camp. Or >>> so I have been assured.
William Hyde
I recall an essay on corruption in Italy to the effect that yes, of course, >> you had to pay a bribe to the state telephone company to get your phone
installed, but you *would* get your phone installed. In the US no govt
official would ever ask for a bribe, but conversely, your problem would
never be solved..
That's odd. This book
https://www.amazon.com/Ciao-America-Italian-Discovers-U-S-ebook/dp/B000RH0DU8
'Ciao America!" byu Beppe Severgnini (2002), written by an Italian
who spent a year in the US, has the exact opposite story - getting
a phone connected in Italy took month or years with the government
telco, while it blew him away that in the US, it was done in hours
by the non-government telephone company.
I grew up in Europe in the 60s and 70s. The sheer competency of the
Bell System was a wonder by comparison.
pt
I was offered two days off my bill. When I mentioned that I'd saved the
chat logs and was prepared to post them I was offered a lot more.
Paul S Person wrote:
But pretty main-stream: my phone company not only has automated
screeners on both its help line and its chat sessions, both of which
are very good at not paying any attention at all to any problem they
were not programmed to recognize, but the phone system, the last time
I tried it, actually offered me the abilitiy to /text/ an assistor,
but not to /speak/ with one.
When the phone company installed a defective modem, I spent a total of
eleven hours over three days on chat with various human agents. They
passed my case from one to another, and all tried to repeat the failed attempts of the previous agent. Whatever I said. Each night an
appointment was finally made for someone to drop by and look at the
modem. Three days in row, nobody showed up.
Finally someone arrived on the fourth day, and he happened to have the required modem in his truck. Fixed the problem in 20 minutes.
In article <vdq2r4$f307$1@dont-email.me>,
Cryptoengineer <petertrei@gmail.com> wrote:
On 10/4/2024 2:53 PM, Ted Nolan <tednolan> wrote:
'Ciao America!" byu Beppe Severgnini (2002), written by an Italian
who spent a year in the US, has the exact opposite story - getting
a phone connected in Italy took month or years with the government
telco, while it blew him away that in the US, it was done in hours
by the non-government telephone company.
I grew up in Europe in the 60s and 70s. The sheer competency of the
Bell System was a wonder by comparison.
pt
Actually I found the essay, and it turns out the guy was talking about
the UK (which I have no experience with):
https://www.city-journal.org/article/the-uses-of-corruption
ted@loft.tnolan.com (Ted Nolan <tednolan>) writes:
In article <vdpbq4$anou$1@dont-email.me>,
But at least it was capitalism! If that was a government operation, >>>surely I would have been shot and then sent to a concentration camp. Or >>>so I have been assured.
William Hyde
I recall an essay on corruption in Italy to the effect that yes, of course, >>you had to pay a bribe to the state telephone company to get your phone >>installed, but you *would* get your phone installed. In the US no govt >>official would ever ask for a bribe, but conversely, your problem would >>never be solved..
With the most recent supreme court ruling, bribes are on their
way back....
https://www.scotusblog.com/2024/06/supreme-court-limits-scope-of-anti-bribery-law/
Paul S Person wrote:
On Thu, 3 Oct 2024 15:22:40 -0500, Lynn McGuire
<lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> wrote:
Scott Adams Says:
“AmazonKDP reverses their disapproval”
“I had trouble with AmazonKDP (where independent publishers upload their >>> books to Amazon) because they kept rejecting the versions of Win Bigly
(2nd edition) in softcover and Kindle. No reasons given, canned
messages, no way to reach a human.”
“So I lit them up on X.”
“Problem solved.”
“My suggestion for all of you having trouble with tech support is to
first get a million followers on X. I'm not aware of any other solution
path.”
That is not a good production model.
But pretty main-stream: my phone company not only has automated
screeners on both its help line and its chat sessions, both of which
are very good at not paying any attention at all to any problem they
were not programmed to recognize, but the phone system, the last time
I tried it, actually offered me the abilitiy to /text/ an assistor,
but not to /speak/ with one.
When the phone company installed a defective modem, I spent a total of >eleven hours over three days on chat with various human agents. They >passed my case from one to another, and all tried to repeat the failed >attempts of the previous agent. Whatever I said. Each night an >appointment was finally made for someone to drop by and look at the
modem. Three days in row, nobody showed up.
Finally someone arrived on the fourth day, and he happened to have the >required modem in his truck. Fixed the problem in 20 minutes.
In article <vdpbq4$anou$1@dont-email.me>,
William Hyde <wthyde1953@gmail.com> wrote:
Paul S Person wrote:
(snip of somebody else's Amazon publishing problem)
But pretty main-stream: my phone company not only has automated
screeners on both its help line and its chat sessions, both of which
are very good at not paying any attention at all to any problem they
were not programmed to recognize, but the phone system, the last time
I tried it, actually offered me the abilitiy to /text/ an assistor,
but not to /speak/ with one.
When the phone company installed a defective modem, I spent a total of
eleven hours over three days on chat with various human agents. They
passed my case from one to another, and all tried to repeat the failed
attempts of the previous agent. Whatever I said. Each night an
appointment was finally made for someone to drop by and look at the
modem. Three days in row, nobody showed up.
Several years ago, my cable modem lost its connection (BTW, the outlet
that my TV was connected to was still working). It didn't take me that
long for the Cable company to promise a technician (but not the next
day, for the day after that).
Finally someone arrived on the fourth day, and he happened to have the
required modem in his truck. Fixed the problem in 20 minutes.
Who showed up on time and, after a bit of investigation (maybe 30
minutes total), was able to isolate the problem and fixed it (I live in
a townhouse complex, my unit is in a building with 4 units - somebody
else in the building had activated their cable connection and the
installer disconnected one of my outlets, I think to get access to the
other unit's wiring, and didn't reconnect).
I recall an essay on corruption in Italy to the effect that yes, of course, >you had to pay a bribe to the state telephone company to get your phone >installed, but you *would* get your phone installed. In the US no govt >official would ever ask for a bribe, but conversely, your problem would
never be solved..
On Fri, 04 Oct 2024 21:59:55 -0700, Robert Woodward
<robertaw@drizzle.com> wrote:
In article <vdpbq4$anou$1@dont-email.me>,
William Hyde <wthyde1953@gmail.com> wrote:
Paul S Person wrote:
(snip of somebody else's Amazon publishing problem)
But pretty main-stream: my phone company not only has automated
screeners on both its help line and its chat sessions, both of which
are very good at not paying any attention at all to any problem they
were not programmed to recognize, but the phone system, the last time
I tried it, actually offered me the abilitiy to /text/ an assistor,
but not to /speak/ with one.
When the phone company installed a defective modem, I spent a total of
eleven hours over three days on chat with various human agents. They
passed my case from one to another, and all tried to repeat the failed
attempts of the previous agent. Whatever I said. Each night an
appointment was finally made for someone to drop by and look at the
modem. Three days in row, nobody showed up.
Several years ago, my cable modem lost its connection (BTW, the outlet
that my TV was connected to was still working). It didn't take me that
long for the Cable company to promise a technician (but not the next
day, for the day after that).
Finally someone arrived on the fourth day, and he happened to have the
required modem in his truck. Fixed the problem in 20 minutes.
Who showed up on time and, after a bit of investigation (maybe 30
minutes total), was able to isolate the problem and fixed it (I live in
a townhouse complex, my unit is in a building with 4 units - somebody
else in the building had activated their cable connection and the
installer disconnected one of my outlets, I think to get access to the >>other unit's wiring, and didn't reconnect).
After my optic fiber was installed, Windows would occasionally, when
the Troubleshooter was run, tell me to check the LAN cable. I was
focused at that time on the WiFi problems, so I ignored it.
But eventually I decided to check the LAN cable. There was only one:
the one the installer installed between the modem and the gateway. I
found it was /loose at both ends/. Pushing both ends in until they
were secure did help a bit but, as I noted at the time (some years
ago) the actual solution to my problems lay elsewhere.
Professional installers who didn't know how to install a LAN cable.
They did, however, know how to configure the modem to connect me to my
ISP, which was, of course, the point of the exercise.
--
My previous company, Rogers, had excellent repair personnel who showed
up when they said they would, and fixed things. But Rogers's equipment broke down with amazing frequency,
In article <jvq2gjp2f0m8n11uh5kbbkd9oo2omhgvp7@4ax.com>,
Paul S Person <psperson@old.netcom.invalid> wrote:
On Fri, 04 Oct 2024 21:59:55 -0700, Robert Woodward
<robertaw@drizzle.com> wrote:
In article <vdpbq4$anou$1@dont-email.me>,
William Hyde <wthyde1953@gmail.com> wrote:
Paul S Person wrote:
(snip of somebody else's Amazon publishing problem)
But pretty main-stream: my phone company not only has automated
screeners on both its help line and its chat sessions, both of which >>>> > are very good at not paying any attention at all to any problem they >>>> > were not programmed to recognize, but the phone system, the last time >>>> > I tried it, actually offered me the abilitiy to /text/ an assistor,
but not to /speak/ with one.
When the phone company installed a defective modem, I spent a total of >>>> eleven hours over three days on chat with various human agents. They >>>> passed my case from one to another, and all tried to repeat the failed >>>> attempts of the previous agent. Whatever I said. Each night an
appointment was finally made for someone to drop by and look at the
modem. Three days in row, nobody showed up.
Several years ago, my cable modem lost its connection (BTW, the outlet >>>that my TV was connected to was still working). It didn't take me that >>>long for the Cable company to promise a technician (but not the next >>>day, for the day after that).
Finally someone arrived on the fourth day, and he happened to have the >>>> required modem in his truck. Fixed the problem in 20 minutes.
Who showed up on time and, after a bit of investigation (maybe 30 >>>minutes total), was able to isolate the problem and fixed it (I live in >>>a townhouse complex, my unit is in a building with 4 units - somebody >>>else in the building had activated their cable connection and the >>>installer disconnected one of my outlets, I think to get access to the >>>other unit's wiring, and didn't reconnect).
After my optic fiber was installed, Windows would occasionally, when
the Troubleshooter was run, tell me to check the LAN cable. I was
focused at that time on the WiFi problems, so I ignored it.
But eventually I decided to check the LAN cable. There was only one:
the one the installer installed between the modem and the gateway. I
found it was /loose at both ends/. Pushing both ends in until they
were secure did help a bit but, as I noted at the time (some years
ago) the actual solution to my problems lay elsewhere.
Professional installers who didn't know how to install a LAN cable.
They did, however, know how to configure the modem to connect me to my
ISP, which was, of course, the point of the exercise.
--
When I was first trying to install internet at our beach house, the only >option (without involving 6 other people) was Verizon. The first time
I tried I put in our number on the web page and was assured it was good
for DSL and they sent me the kit and it turned out, oops no, we were
beyond the distance from whatever limit.
Watited a year or so and tried again, this time they sent me the kit
and the modem installer was not a web page on the modem but a Windows >installation CD. I had no Windows PC so I loaded a laptop when I got
home and brougt that the next time I went to the beach. Oops, the installer >wanted more ram than I had! I diddled something in the system to make
it report more ram figuring OK, it will be slow, but so what. I then
spent the next 3 days tring to run the installation process to completion, >and it just wouldn't go, and had clearly been writen by idiots. Finally
I got to a point where an error message had a phone number, so I called
and said: Look, I'm not trying to do anything complex here. I don't care >about free virus scanning, or your portal or whatever, I'm just trying to >setup wifi so we & our renters can get online, and I've been working at
it three days!. The guy said: Yep, the installer is trash, really all it
is good for is getting you my number. He did some things on his side,
and 20 minutes later, I was good to go. (Mind you we were still *almost*
at the distance limit, so it was slow as molasses, but it was up & reliable).
Robert Woodward wrote:
In article <vdpbq4$anou$1@dont-email.me>,
William Hyde <wthyde1953@gmail.com> wrote:
Paul S Person wrote:
(snip of somebody else's Amazon publishing problem)
But pretty main-stream: my phone company not only has automated
screeners on both its help line and its chat sessions, both of which
are very good at not paying any attention at all to any problem they
were not programmed to recognize, but the phone system, the last time
I tried it, actually offered me the abilitiy to /text/ an assistor,
but not to /speak/ with one.
When the phone company installed a defective modem, I spent a total of
eleven hours over three days on chat with various human agents. They
passed my case from one to another, and all tried to repeat the failed
attempts of the previous agent. Whatever I said. Each night an
appointment was finally made for someone to drop by and look at the
modem. Three days in row, nobody showed up.
Several years ago, my cable modem lost its connection (BTW, the outlet
that my TV was connected to was still working). It didn't take me that
long for the Cable company to promise a technician (but not the next
day, for the day after that).
Finally someone arrived on the fourth day, and he happened to have the
required modem in his truck. Fixed the problem in 20 minutes.
Who showed up on time and, after a bit of investigation (maybe 30
minutes total), was able to isolate the problem and fixed it (I live in
a townhouse complex, my unit is in a building with 4 units - somebody
else in the building had activated their cable connection and the
installer disconnected one of my outlets, I think to get access to the
other unit's wiring, and didn't reconnect).
There are two major TV/phone/internet companies around here.
My previous company, Rogers, had excellent repair personnel who showed
up when they said they would, and fixed things. But Rogers's equipment >broke down with amazing frequency,
I switched to Bell, whose equipment has given me no trouble since that >installation, but whose repair people don't show up when they should.
I'm not big on corporate mergers, but if the resulting entity combined
he best of both ... but more likely it would use Bell's technical
support with Rogers' equipment.
What they both have in common is that they staff their help desks with >people trained to fix the top five likely problems (i.e. "is your box >plugged in?") and nothing else. If they face any other problem they
keep reiterating the five solutions they know, as they cannot consult a >superior given that they are mostly alone working from home.
But I should note that once in a while I actually contacted someone who
had read beyond the five problems, and could help. I learned that I had
to call Rogers three times on average to get such a person, and to cut
the others off rapidly because they *would* try all the things that
didn't work. Eagerly, in fact.
On 05/10/2024 03:49, Ted Nolan <tednolan> wrote:
In article <vdq2r4$f307$1@dont-email.me>,
Cryptoengineer <petertrei@gmail.com> wrote:
On 10/4/2024 2:53 PM, Ted Nolan <tednolan> wrote:
In article <vdpbq4$anou$1@dont-email.me>,
William Hyde <wthyde1953@gmail.com> wrote:
Paul S Person wrote:
On Thu, 3 Oct 2024 15:22:40 -0500, Lynn McGuire
<lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> wrote:
Scott Adams Says:
“AmazonKDP reverses their disapproval”
“I had trouble with AmazonKDP (where independent publishers upload their
books to Amazon) because they kept rejecting the versions of Win Bigly >>>>>>> (2nd edition) in softcover and Kindle. No reasons given, canned
messages, no way to reach a human.”
“So I lit them up on X.”
“Problem solved.”
“My suggestion for all of you having trouble with tech support is to >>>>>>> first get a million followers on X. I'm not aware of any other solution >>>>>>> path.”
That is not a good production model.
But pretty main-stream: my phone company not only has automated
screeners on both its help line and its chat sessions, both of which >>>>>> are very good at not paying any attention at all to any problem they >>>>>> were not programmed to recognize, but the phone system, the last time >>>>>> I tried it, actually offered me the abilitiy to /text/ an assistor, >>>>>> but not to /speak/ with one.
When the phone company installed a defective modem, I spent a total of >>>>> eleven hours over three days on chat with various human agents. They >>>>> passed my case from one to another, and all tried to repeat the failed >>>>> attempts of the previous agent. Whatever I said. Each night an
appointment was finally made for someone to drop by and look at the
modem. Three days in row, nobody showed up.
Finally someone arrived on the fourth day, and he happened to have the >>>>> required modem in his truck. Fixed the problem in 20 minutes.
I was offered two days off my bill. When I mentioned that I'd saved the >>>>> chat logs and was prepared to post them I was offered a lot more.
But at least it was capitalism! If that was a government operation, >>>>> surely I would have been shot and then sent to a concentration camp. Or >>>>> so I have been assured.
William Hyde
I recall an essay on corruption in Italy to the effect that yes, of course,
you had to pay a bribe to the state telephone company to get your phone >>>> installed, but you *would* get your phone installed. In the US no govt >>>> official would ever ask for a bribe, but conversely, your problem would >>>> never be solved..
That's odd. This book
https://www.amazon.com/Ciao-America-Italian-Discovers-U-S-ebook/dp/B000RH0DU8
'Ciao America!" byu Beppe Severgnini (2002), written by an Italian
who spent a year in the US, has the exact opposite story - getting
a phone connected in Italy took month or years with the government
telco, while it blew him away that in the US, it was done in hours
by the non-government telephone company.
I grew up in Europe in the 60s and 70s. The sheer competency of the
Bell System was a wonder by comparison.
pt
Actually I found the essay, and it turns out the guy was talking about
the UK (which I have no experience with):
https://www.city-journal.org/article/the-uses-of-corruption
I see the article is from 2001, when telephones
and most other services in the UK except for
medicine were purely private by then.
In 2024, private public drains are somehow
removing great quantities of money from us,
and what they are supposed to remove, not
so much.
On the other hand, it's also plausible that
someone's meter is illegally wired to one or
even all of the apartments in a building, or
even one or more adjacent buildings. I suppose
that if the someone isn't paying their own bill,
then they are more likely to be targeted,
as being not concerned about it.
Paul S Person wrote:
On Sat, 12 Oct 2024 11:56:32 +0100, Robert Carnegie
<rja.carnegie@gmail.com> wrote:
On 05/10/2024 03:49, Ted Nolan <tednolan> wrote:
In article <vdq2r4$f307$1@dont-email.me>,
Cryptoengineer <petertrei@gmail.com> wrote:
On 10/4/2024 2:53 PM, Ted Nolan <tednolan> wrote:
In article <vdpbq4$anou$1@dont-email.me>,
William Hyde <wthyde1953@gmail.com> wrote:
Paul S Person wrote:
On Thu, 3 Oct 2024 15:22:40 -0500, Lynn McGuire
<lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> wrote:
Scott Adams Says:
“AmazonKDP reverses their disapproval”
“I had trouble with AmazonKDP (where independent publishers upload their
books to Amazon) because they kept rejecting the versions of Win Bigly
(2nd edition) in softcover and Kindle. No reasons given, canned >>>>>>>>> messages, no way to reach a human.”
“So I lit them up on X.”
“Problem solved.”
“My suggestion for all of you having trouble with tech support is to >>>>>>>>> first get a million followers on X. I'm not aware of any other solution
path.”
That is not a good production model.
But pretty main-stream: my phone company not only has automated >>>>>>>> screeners on both its help line and its chat sessions, both of which >>>>>>>> are very good at not paying any attention at all to any problem they >>>>>>>> were not programmed to recognize, but the phone system, the last time >>>>>>>> I tried it, actually offered me the abilitiy to /text/ an assistor, >>>>>>>> but not to /speak/ with one.
When the phone company installed a defective modem, I spent a total of >>>>>>> eleven hours over three days on chat with various human agents. They >>>>>>> passed my case from one to another, and all tried to repeat the failed >>>>>>> attempts of the previous agent. Whatever I said. Each night an >>>>>>> appointment was finally made for someone to drop by and look at the >>>>>>> modem. Three days in row, nobody showed up.
Finally someone arrived on the fourth day, and he happened to have the >>>>>>> required modem in his truck. Fixed the problem in 20 minutes.
I was offered two days off my bill. When I mentioned that I'd saved the
chat logs and was prepared to post them I was offered a lot more. >>>>>>>
But at least it was capitalism! If that was a government operation, >>>>>>> surely I would have been shot and then sent to a concentration camp. Or
so I have been assured.
William Hyde
I recall an essay on corruption in Italy to the effect that yes, of course,
you had to pay a bribe to the state telephone company to get your phone >>>>>> installed, but you *would* get your phone installed. In the US no govt >>>>>> official would ever ask for a bribe, but conversely, your problem would >>>>>> never be solved..
That's odd. This book
https://www.amazon.com/Ciao-America-Italian-Discovers-U-S-ebook/dp/B000RH0DU8
'Ciao America!" byu Beppe Severgnini (2002), written by an Italian
who spent a year in the US, has the exact opposite story - getting
a phone connected in Italy took month or years with the government
telco, while it blew him away that in the US, it was done in hours
by the non-government telephone company.
I grew up in Europe in the 60s and 70s. The sheer competency of the
Bell System was a wonder by comparison.
pt
Actually I found the essay, and it turns out the guy was talking about >>>> the UK (which I have no experience with):
https://www.city-journal.org/article/the-uses-of-corruption
I see the article is from 2001, when telephones
and most other services in the UK except for
medicine were purely private by then.
In 2024, private public drains are somehow
removing great quantities of money from us,
and what they are supposed to remove, not
so much.
Perhaps an investigation of who's cousin got the contract would be in
order.
The great investor Peter Lynch, who ran the Magellan fund for over a
decade with a 22% average annual return, had a saying:
"If the Queen's selling, I'm buying".
The public assets sold under Thatcher were vastly under-priced. Most of
the water company stocks doubled in a year, far too short a time for >"efficient" private sector management to increase value to such a degree.
Thus the companies tended to attract those keen on share appreciation,
which is not always the same thing as running the company well.
"Financial Engineering" can damage a company while temporarily inflating
the stock price. Dividends are a wonderful thing, if paid responsibly,
if not they can bring disaster as happened, for example, to Tuscon
electric power circa 1990 or Sears Canada more recently.
"Thames Water", one of the companies Robert is referring to above, was
debt free when it went private. It is now one of the most indebted >companies in the UK, and is asking for a 40% price increase to remain >solvent.
The company maintains that this debt was acquired in the process of >upgrading services, but the paper trail argues otherwise.
And my contacts in Thames Valley's area of service are unanimous in
saying they haven't seen any improvements in the company's performance, >rather the reverse.
| Sysop: | Keyop |
|---|---|
| Location: | Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, UK |
| Users: | 546 |
| Nodes: | 16 (2 / 14) |
| Uptime: | 07:34:28 |
| Calls: | 10,386 |
| Calls today: | 1 |
| Files: | 14,058 |
| Messages: | 6,416,644 |