Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

[cheesy]

Lot's of drama on Tuesday and I wasn't involved at all. I would have been had I gone to Mexico, but I went camping in Wisconsin instead.

It seems this new Spendesk accounting system that was shoved down our throats isn't all it's cracked up to be. Short story is that we didn't get funded this month in a timely manner and ALL the field guys were caught out with credit cards that got declined. No airline flights, no hotels, no rental cars, and the big one, no entertaining customers. Not unless one used their personal credit card. That went over like an aromatic fart in church. I've been waiting almost 80 days for a $27.00 reimbursement, but that's another story.

To say the field guys were pissed was an understatement. The drama queens played the victim, the ones who were against Spendesk being our sole credit card were saying "I told you so", management tried to put a positive spin on it that crashed and burned. In the end, every field guy, myself included, is now getting back their AMEX cards for T & E and Spendesk is being relegated to day to day expenses. Pretty much what we had before.

[cheesy]

Man, this trip too Mexico was an absolute clusterfcuk. 12 hours a day outside in the heat and humidity, dealing with with a customer that’s never built a railroad before, but ‘knows what they’re doing’. And a sales rep with an ‘Enjinearring Degree’, a very deep narcissistic streak, along with a touch of assholery, and doesn’t have a clue how our equipment is supposed to work and I was done by Thursday.

Little jerk had the balls to tell me I didn’t know what I was doing and that I was to do what he told me to do. Long story short, “I am here as a favor to you, I don’t work for you, I don’t answer to you, and in the Corporate hierarchy of the company, you are a second lieutenant, I’m a major, and your ass is mine”. He went and called Al about me and just drove off.

Yeah, my very last thing I will do before I pull the plug on this post retirement gig is get his ass fired and I have the evidence to do it.

[cheesy]

Gossip from Beaufort in another vein. Some custom trucks were built for Canada. They failed their inspection on delivery. The folks at our Canadian branch refused to send them back to Beaufort and instead, insisted that those responsible for assembly and inspection get their asses up to Canada and do the corrections on site.

And they got their way.

Some of the fcukwits have been up there for two weeks. Looks like they are finding out, finally, that the field guys aren't bitching just to bitch. At least one of the guys has agreed that we have had legitimate gripes.

I'm hoping this runs for the rest of the year.

[cheesy]

I worked something like 68 hours last week. That includes travel, which means I'm getting paid to sit on my ass. Flight delay, still getting paid. Fcukwit five hours late picking me up at the airport, still getting paid. As I'm considered part time, I'm no longer salary, I'm hourly.

On the other side of the coin, the previous week I made enough to maybe cover dinner, drinks, and bowling with Mrs.C. This week is looking like dinner at McDonalds.

[minimac]

Isn't it great to be able to tell them "kiss my grits-I'm outta here" anytime you want? Again, at some point, the money just isn't worth it- so what if it's weinies and beanies after that?

[cheesy]

Originally Posted by minimac

Isn't it great to be able to tell them "kiss my grits-I'm outta here" anytime you want? Again, at some point, the money just isn't worth it- so what if it's weinies and beanies after that?

Sure do.

Mrs.C was pretty pissed about the Mexico trip...until she saw what I got paid. She was still a bit pissed but couldn't raise her usual speech of watching what we (me) spend.

Man, Bush's baked beans and Vienna hot dogs. Throw in a grilled cheese and there is a perfect meal.

[cheesy]

Well, not sure if I even care anymore. One of the new trucks sent up to Canada was delivered with zero oil in the high rail gear box. And ran until the box was destroyed. That was a $10K gear box. What really sucks is this wasn't the first time something like this has happened. I caught pump drives and swing gears without oil before they shipped and raised holy hell about it.

On top of all this, the Service Dept. got our collective pee pees slapped by corpulent for being way over budget. Corpulent got an earful from all of us, though mostly from me, using the above as just one example why we are over budget.

Another bitch from them is our travel expenses. Jeez, did you fcukwits ever look at a map? The continental US alone is a hell of a lot larger than the EU. Throw in AK, HI, PR, Canuckistan, and Mexico, it's no wonder we're over budget.

[TominMO]

Aaannndd you wouldn't have such high travel expenses if the production line did their jobs building the stuff in the first place.

And no Christmas bonuses for anyone on the production line. Group punishment oughtta get their attention. Fire the production manager and the guy who was supposed to put oil in the gearbox. Come to think of it, just send in a T-1000.

[Sport Rider]

Hmmmm....as a contractor, why do you care who they yell at? I can't imagine doing anything but smiling and walking away.

[cheesy]

Originally Posted by Sport Rider

Hmmmm....as a contractor, why do you care who they yell at? I can't imagine doing anything but smiling and walking away.

I have, and have always had, problems with preventable stupidity.

[minimac]

How many times have you told them.....I guess it's true. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink!
You didn't really think things would change, did you?

[cheesy]

Originally Posted by cheesy

Well, not sure if I even care anymore. One of the new trucks sent up to Canada was delivered with zero oil in the high rail gear box. And ran until the box was destroyed. That was a $10K gear box. What really sucks is this wasn't the first time something like this has happened. I caught pump drives and swing gears without oil before they shipped and raised holy hell about it.

On top of all this, the Service Dept. got our collective pee pees slapped by corpulent for being way over budget. Corpulent got an earful from all of us, though mostly from me, using the above as just one example why we are over budget.

Another bitch from them is our travel expenses. Jeez, did you fcukwits ever look at a map? The continental US alone is a hell of a lot larger than the EU. Throw in AK, HI, PR, Canuckistan, and Mexico, it's no wonder we're over budget.

So, I had a heated discussion with Harold yesterday regarding the above. The new guy is in Canada with the POS truck. He is texting pics back to us, as a group, of the piss poor build quality. Jason is in Hawaii with his headache, so he's probably still asleep. Junior is in a CSX welding class. Dean and Harold are strangely quiet. I'm the only one responding and I have zero to do with the
truck. It's embarrassing as hell to see what he's sending.

I had called Harold about something else and he started on the new guys' complaints. I listened until he said we can't send the truck back because a decal was placed on top of a bolt. Then I went apeshit because Harold goes from being the Field Service Manager to a Sales Manager when stuff like this happens. The decal on the bolt was just the tip of the iceberg. Hydraulic leaks everywhere, no oil in the gear box, clearance issues with electrical boxes when the frame rotates. The decal is just proof, that from management on down, no one seems to care.

Before the truck shipped, the kid did a multi page report with about 200 pics as to why the truck was not ready to go. The report was ignored and here we are. I brought up Monday's Team meeting with Harold, told him he was part of the problem, and that maybe it was time for him and Al to consider riding into the sunset. He was pretty subdued when I was done and told me I was probably right. Then hung up. He hangs up on you when he's on the losing end.

It remains to be seen if we will do the right thing. IMO, the Field Service guys should just stop bailing out Beaufort and let the chips fall where they may.

Oh yeah, the production staff that were supposed to be sent up there to fix their shit. Only two were allowed across the border because the rest had past DUI or possession convictions. Of the two that did get up there, one was sent back after two days for just being an asshole. The other stayed for the two weeks he was supposed to be there, but treated it like a vacation.

[TominMO]

I will closely monitor this situation as being symptomatic of the fall of western civilization. I refer to it as "The cheesy Effect".

[cheesy]

I am getting reported to our VP by a customer more effed up than we are. boo effing hoo.
Actually by the customers' PA, who seems to be cut from the same cloth as our PA, aka, a moron.

This outfit buys used 360s, fixes them up to rent or sell outright. They do pretty good work most of the time. Once in a while, they will buy a unit that was assembled in Canada. The guys at our Canadian shop have a different options list than we have on this side of the border. Some of it isn't approved by US railroads, such as the Dynaset magnet systems, based in Canada. Their customer service was somewhat lacking, as in non-existent. We dumped them 20 years ago and went with Sieb Systems in Indiana. We still use Sieb.

So, moron calls one of the mouth breathers in Beaufort. Mouth breather sends a blanket email to the Service dept., asking for part numbers of what he is looking for. I see the list and ignore it, because I'm sitting at DCA waiting for my Airbus ride home from Maine. Harold sends me an email to call the guy. Way to go, Harold.

I look at the list and it's vague descriptions at best. I call the guy and ask if the machine is out of Canada. He says yes. I ask what magnet is on the machine, he doesn't know. Are the lights you need LED or incandescent. He doesn't know. What engine is in the machine. You guessed it, he doesn't know. I tell him I'm gonna need pictures of what you need because the Canucks did stuff differently than we did here.

He got huffy and said that he was going to have his boss call our president because he knows him and have me fired because I'm of little help. I laughed. I told him to say hi to George(his boss)for me. Then I told him what was going to happen. One, can't fire someone who's retired. Two, George would call Al and talk golf. Al will call Harold. Harold will call me. I'll call George. George will have you send me the pictures. I'll call you and tell you it is out of Canada and I can't help if it's a Dynaset, but I can give a list of suppliers for the generic stuff you need because we won't have it in stock and it will have 14 week lead time because we're also too stupid to buy the stuff locally.

Jeez.

[TominMO]

Epic fcukwittery!