In November the latest edition of the Call of Duty series was released. Black Ops was hailed as one of the finest online multiplayer first-person shooters ever. Video game critics heralded it as better than Modern Warfare 2, it’s predecessor, in every way, shape and form. And as soon as it was released 80% of my PS3 friends were playing it at any given time. In fact, even at the time of this writing I can expect 80% or more of my friends to be playing it when I get online.

So why did I buy it? The critics said I should and if I wanted to play against my friends online I needed to conform. Bye bye MW2.

At the time of my receiving the game (Christmas) I couldn’t wait to sink my teeth into it. It immediately lived up to all of my expectations.

Now that I’ve played it for a while, however, I yearn for the days of MW2 again.

Both games, while of the same series, were built by different companies, and new risks with security the PS3 network aside (I will footnote this for later reading), I wish I could find a way to get us all playing Modern Warfare 2 again.

Bugs in Black Ops

I have been victim to many of the bugs in Black Ops. Sound up if any of this sounds familiar to you.

After reaching level 40 in the game I caught myself on the “Waiting for other players” screen, waiting while I heard the game starting and progressing without me.

My game was frozen.

This was not uncommon. In fact, if I play enough rounds this happens almost every night. Randomly it freezes on the “Waiting for other players” screen.

The only solution I could find online was doing a restart of the system. A restart! Almost every night! It takes forever for the game to load back up again. How inconvenient

This particular time when I reached level 40 for the first time, the game froze and upon restart all of my stats were erased. Everything. The levels, the kills, the wins.

I found a few articles online of people having lost data in the game and the three best answers to why that I found were:

1. I downloaded a bad packet
2. I was flagged by a user as being offensive in the game, either swearing obscenities in the headset or selecting a vulgar Clag Tag
3. I was flagged as cheating

Neither of which are likely scenarios for me. I didn’t download anything recently and I haven’t been (too) vulgar or cheating. If I did get flagged and my stats got erased as a result then Treyarch or Activision (whoever handles stat resets) shouldn’t be resetting people’s accounts willy-nillily without proper investigation.

In any case, I’m back to my argument. I wish we could go back to MW2. So far Black of Ops has been fun (and it’s great to play new maps and use new weapons for a change), but the advantages to playing Black Ops seem to be outweighed by the problems that are being experienced in the game.

There have been rampant connection issues listed on forums all over the internet and best response I am hearing is that MY router is causing the problem and Treyarch will not be releasing any fixes.

If my router is the problem how can I play every other online game without issue, including MW2?

I’m not happy. But until friends start switching back to the old version, I too, despite my bickering, will continue to play Black Ops.

Thanks for nothing Treyarch.

Note: PS3 Network vulnerability – MW2 was developed with no inter-game network security. At the time of it’s creation most games were simply using PS3′s built-in authentication and security. The PS3 network has since fallen victim to hacks and one of the games most targeted by those hacks is MW2, because of it’s large user-base. COD: Black Ops has some of it’s own built-in security features to prevent hacking.

Service, Video Games Activision, Black Ops, Bugs, Call of Duty, Modern Warfare, Treyarch

As many have you read in my previous post Tractors on the Highway I had a windshield with two minor nicks and one real bad crack.

My father, who works in the glass industry, recommended Apple Auto Glass on Topsail Rd. Now I’m recommending them to you.

There service was great and they had my vehicle road-worthy in only a couple of hours.

To top it off, they left me with a nice little Apple air freshener for my car as well as an Apple notepad. Such a small gesture made me feel appreciated and like I came out on the winning side of that deal.

And the worksmenship was flawless. I couldn’t even tell it wasn’t my old windshield.

When I got to my car, however, there was a gift left on my windshield from some of my sea gull friends in the area. Not as new and pristine as I was hoping for, but I can hardly blame Apple for that.

Service Apple Auto Glass, Mount Pearl

Social media and blogging have made good customer service imperative in ways that many business owners still don’t understand.

I have not done near enough articles on customers service, good or bad, since starting my blog, but of the businesses I’ve covered check out how well my blog ranks on Google.

Google Search: Kilmory Resort

Google Search: Marble Zip Tours

Google Search: Jungle Jims George St.

Google Search: Vogue Optical

This shows the importance of offering good service. I am just one person. Imagine all the comments on Facebook and tweets on Twitter. And blogs posts that are buried through all these Google results.

So listen up businesses! Do a good job on customer service and your customers will advocate on your behalf.

Poor service is inevitable and I am sure most of your customers understand that, but how you manage that service once it has been reported will be the difference between a customer’s good experience and a customer’s bad experience.

And customers love to chat about bad experience.

Business, Service Good Service, Jungle Jims, Kilmory Resort, Marble Zip Tours, Poor service, Vogue Optical

Ever since I first needed glasses, which was only three years ago, I’ve gone to Vogue Optical.

They’ve always provided me excellent customer service. But recently they went above and beyond their usual call to great service.

I ordered some specialty glasses. Sporty prescription sunglasses. The lens would be difficult to craft, but I understood that.

I placed the order and they told me it would be a couple of weeks before they’d be ready.

Of course.

After a couple of weeks they called me and told me there was a problem with shaping the lens and they had to try again.

No problem.

They called back and begged my forgiveness, but there was still an issue.

To put things in perspective, this was all going on during the 7 days of not-rain in 70 days here in NL, so I wasn’t in a panic for my sunglasses. I assured them it was okay.

A couple weeks after I expected to receive my glasses and they called me excitedly and told me they were in. At that point I had only missed one sunny day waiting for my glasses, so I was perfectly happy. Not like I was going to wear them in the fog

I showed up and they begged my forgiveness again. It was fine I said. They gave me the glasses which came in a soft case and offered me a free hard case and free lens cleaner for all of my trouble.

There really wasn’t any trouble and I clearly did not express any discontent, but they were still eager to impress me with their service. And they did. I would have been a happy customer without the free stuff, but the fact that they felt the need to pamper me for a slight hiccup made me really feel loved.

I recommend this place every time I hear someone saying they need glasses now. I have always gone there and I will always go there.

The location I deal with is the Topsail Road shop.

Service Brand Love, Good Service, Vogue Optical

Upon hearing that there would a live action movie of Avatar, the Last Airbender, I convinced Riss that she would have to watch the show so that when the movie came out we would be ready for it.

We finished watching it together last night  and it was just as good the second time around as the first.

Of course, by now people have seen the movie and warned us about how terrible it is.

Being a man who likes to come to his own conclusions on movies (I liked Alice in Wonderland) I convinced Riss that we still had to go see the movie.

Well we did and now here is my unbiased objective review of it.

Directing: 0 / 10
I doubt the director was even on set

Screenplay: 0 / 10
Did anyone read this? Actors even?

Cast selection: 1 / 10
Surely there was somebody out there suited to one of the characters from Avatar. Aang could have been good if they played to his happy-go-lucky character, but they didn’t. 1 point for potentially finding a diamond in the rough.

Acting: 1 / 10
There must have been a competition between the actors to see who could stink the best. It was an all-way tie. Hat’s off to Yue for not competing in that challenge.

Characteristics of characters: 1 / 10
Iroh is seen drinking tea in one scene.

Special effects: 1 / 10
I have to give them 1 because they did a better job than I could do, with my lack of education or experience in the subject, but the ice couldn’t look more like clear plastic.

Sticking to the original storyline: 3 / 10
Any Holywood production is going to lose points here because you have to make a movie appeal to a wider audience and shrink the duration to make the movie withstandable to those stuck in the theatre chairs for a few hours. I’m not going to say it was great (they did manage to convert good dialog into rotten feces), but it was certainly the best part of this movie (next to the Fire Nation ships; those were badass).

Pronunciation of names:  2 / 10
Congratulations of pronouncing Katara, Appa, and Zuko right out of all of the characters from the show. By the way, their names are announciated clearly enough in the cartoon series that you can pick out what they are. Who the flip is “Uung” and “Aero”?

Everything else: 1 / 10
Just in case I didn’t cover anything.

Overall: 1 / 10
This may be a tie with Hally Berry’s Catwoman. I only give it a 1 because they went through so much effort to entertain us. As bad as it was, they tried. (I could only really give them a 0 if they did not finish the movie really… Actually, I might have given them a 2 if they had not finished the movie. Too bad they did).

RE: The Last Airbender showing in your theatres

Dear Empire Theatres,

You are supposed to be a business. As a business, are you not concerned about people losing faith in the quality of your product? Have you not read reviews or seen the movie for yourselves? Or heard your costumers complain about?

You may think I’m speaking in jest, but I want my money back. As well as compensation for the time wasted in this movie.

By that way, that was not a jest.

I understand that not everyone is going to enjoy every movie as everyone has their own opinion. Unfortunately this movie is the exception since how much it sucks is grounded in fact, not opinion.

Please stop showing this movie immediately and send me a cheque for the money I am owed. You can make the cheque out to: Gregory Pike.

Thank you. I am sure you will not slip up like this again.

GregPike.ca

RE: The floating turd you recorded from your toilet

Dear M. Night Shyamalan,

I do not understand how you could hate such a great show so much to go through such lengths to make a mockery of it. I mean, you could have written a blog post or tweeted or even just punched a pillow. There really was no need to disrespect such a great franchise.

Please eat a turtle shell and choke.

Sincerely,

GregPike.ca

PS: Book 1 was a great spot to end off. In fact, the first scene was a great place to end off. Unfortunately you let the whole first book unfold into your vision.

Editors Note: Just found some more fire power.

“If any movie ever warranted a class-action lawsuit against the filmmakers, it’s The Last Airbender.”—Keith Phipps, AVClub.com, June 30, 2010

“The Last Airbender is an agonizing experience in every category I can think of and others still waiting to be invented.”—Roger Ebert, June 30, 2010

“Once ‘A film by M. Night Shyamalan’ promised suspense and power, but that was 11 years ago. We must stop enabling him and not pay to see this garbage.”—Matt Pais, Chicago Now, June 30, 2010

“He hasn’t mastered the craft yet, but M. Night Shyamalan may be on to something with this action-movie thing.”—David Bowles, USA Today, July 3, 2010

“[S]ome unsolicited advice for Mr. Shyamalan: Stop writing. Direct, but let others write. Don’t produce. Don’t adapt. Don’t polish someone else’s screenplay. And last thing: drop the over-the-title credit. Besides being another sign of hubris, it’s no longer deserved.”—Mel Valentin, Cinematical, July 4, 2010

“But Shyamalan’s strengths as a director are formidable, and unlike other auteurs we’ve written off, we’re genuinely hoping he can get his groove back.”—Bilge Ebiri, New York magazine, in “Don’t Give Up On M. Might Shyamalan,” July 7, 2010

“If you describe someone as ‘a filmmaker of rare talent and creativity,’ as I did, and then they follow your vote of confidence by releasing Lady, The Happening, and now The Last Airbender (currently the worst-reviewed movie of the summer, below Furry Vengeance and Sex in the City 2) on an unsuspecting public … well, let’s just say I wouldn’t blame anyone who cited Shyamalan as exhibit A in the case against my critical acumen.”—Ross Douthat, NY Times, July 7, 2010

“The current national priorities should be as follows: reduce carbon emissions and stop funding the films of M. Night Shyamalan.”—Cliff Doerksen, Chicago Reader, August 5, 2010

These quotes are from Blastr: 40 kindest and cruelest things ever said about M. Night Shyamalan

Interest, Rants, Service Avatar, Empire Theatres, M Night Shyamalan, Review, The Last Airbender

Wild.

If I could use one word to describe Marble Zip Tours that would be it.

Their tours are wild, in ever sense of the word.

Zip Lining

Riss and I booked a zip-lining tour while we were staying in Humber Valley. We came to Humber Valley mostly for the scenary, but decided to do something fun while in the area.

While doing a search online I came across Marble Zip Tours.

Boy was I glad I did.

We were both very excited about going, we really didn’t know what to expect. Personally I thought it was just going to be a straight zip line shooting down Marble Mountain next to the ski lifts.

We were pleasantly surprised to find that the zip lines actually shoot back and forth over Steady Brook Falls, a gorgeous waterway that falls many hundreds of feet down Marble Mountain. Gorgeous.

Hanging over the canyon is completely exhilarating. Not only are you zipping at speeds of 45 km/hr (up to 80km/hr according to their website) but you are suspended over one of the many splendors of Humber Valley. You have a view of so much.

It’s more than a ride.

One of the lines at Marble is the highest in Canada and two of them are the longest zip lines in Canada. To top it off they are adding two even longer zip lines in July.

If you were considering zip lining anywhere in Canada, book with Marble Zip Tours.

Our guides were Greg and Richard and not only did they make us feel safe but they were quite a fun duo with their routine. You can tell that these guys not only know their job but they love it and it really adds to the experience.

They were a blast.

Caving

Before we started zipping we asked about cool things to do in Humber Valley. They recommended caving, which they offer as a tour.

First thing we thought was we weren’t looking for a sales pitch. They were persistent that it was a tour well-suited to us.

We really didn’t want to spend any more money on tours, but we also didn’t want to pass up any unique opportunities while we were on the west coast.

We opted to go if Richard or Greg guided us (cause they were awesome), but were warned we could get wet and dirty and that there were associated risks with the tour.

Having no context for what caving is like, I assumed the adventure would be us walking through a giant cave with flashlights like they do in movies and walking back out.

That’s not the kind of cave experience they have in Humber Valley.

Well allow me to preface my caving adventure story by saying this tour was easily one of the most extreme and dangerous and exhilarating things I have ever done in my life.

The caves intersect in a number of different places forming a figure eight. There were a number of times when the tour guides, Richard and Yvan, would point to a small hole and say “That’s where we will come out.”

Each time the hole was smaller and more rugged and each time I said “You’re tripping.” The photo above is the exit to the caves where were first told we would come out. It’s hard to tell from the photo, but the hole is about thigh-height. This was one of the easiest of the exits.

I figured once we got to a spot like the cave exit in above photo we would just turn around and go back.

Remember, even up until this point I was expecting to walk through a giant cave.

Look at us with our clothes all clean and still in one piece. This was about as roomy as the cave got for the most part. This was the entrance. Still no idea what to expect.

There were some parts of the cave that were like venturing through snow tunnels you would dig in your yard as a kid. Here is an example. In this photo are our tour guides, Richards and Yvan.

The scenery in these caves was absolutely stunning. The rocks were beautiful and the top of the cave was covered in drops of dew that shimmered in our light.

We also experience “true darkness” once we got far enough in and switched off our lights.

Throughout the tour there was a lot of head-bumping on the stalactites above and crawling hands-and-knees along the jagged rocks below. At one point I said “I don’t know what I treasure more, my helmet or my kneepads.”

There were rivers running in a few of the tunnels. In some cases we had to tightly boulder along smooth walls like this to get through without walking through the water (which you can’t see well in this photo but is that blackness Riss and Richard are avoiding).

Other times we had to find innovative ways to cross without getting wet.

This is more of the cave we had to traverse. I wish we had more photos from within the cave. It was hard to get a lot of shots because we spent most of our time hanging on for dear life or crawling around.

There were points when we had to slide 15 feet down smooth rockbeds with little more than a foot or two of space between the rock we were sliding on and the rock above us.

There were points when we have to stretch across the river supporting our body weights on our hands with the stalactites above.

There were points where we have to climb steep 15 foot smooth walls with nothing more than a rope to pull ourselves up.

It was hard work.

The tour was a real adventure and I will absolutely do this again when I get the chance.

As you can see from our filthy sweaters and our ripped splash pants we didn’t make it out without sacrificing some clothes, but we did make it through pretty much every cavern without injury.

We were very proud to have completed the full tour.

It is not very often that I will say that an event has really made me feel alive, but this journey has definitely done just that for me.

If you go, be prepared to get dirty, ruin your clothes, and get wet (despite them saying they will try to keep you from getting wet). It sounds bad but trust me, when you’re in those caves and the adrenaline is kicking in you don’t even notice what you are doing to yourself until you get out.

So much fun.

If you go to Marble Zip Tours tell them you were referred by GregPike.ca. You won’t get a discount, but it will be funny since their lead guide is Greg Pike.

Service, Trips Caving, Humber Valley, Marble Mountain, Marble Zip Tours, Steady Brook, Zip Lines

I have not been posting lately. My bad. I have been away at a conference and I am still catching up on stuff.

Anyways while I was in Toronto I was shown this video which I can still barely believe.

Amended: Apparently this is a regular problem. Weird Al Yankovic found a place that sells Waffles and Pancakes for 0.25 cents each. That means 400 for a dollar!
Thanks for the find @Mrmurraybrown.

Service Math, Verizon

I think it says a lot when three of the top four worst companies in America are back in contention for this years Consumerist Worst Company in America contest.

Bank of America, Ticketmaster, and Comcast are no strangers to this competition, and I think that speaks very poorly of their customer service.

Cash4Gold made a surprising first round elimination of the incumbent AIG, who was awarded the title last year. I think that also says a lot.

There were some companies that came out punching, but managed to get eliminated in the later rounds. The big shockers in my opinion were Apple and PayPal.

Not that I’ve ever had particularly great service from PayPal, but their service for me has always been good or fair.

And I can only presume Apple did so well in this competition because of growing pains and the launch of the poorly received iPad.

I know most of my readership is Canadian, but who is your pick for worst company of the year?

From Consumerist: Meet Your Worst Company In America 2010 Final Four!

Rants, Service AIG, Bank of America, Cash4Gold, Consumerist, Ticketmaster

A few years ago my friend Joe Coffey and I sat down to eat some fries from the Ziggies van in Churchill Square and a mountain of ketchup packets.

When we were applying the ketchup we exchanged our annoyances with the design of standard ketchup packets.

Firstly, the packets never contains the right amount of ketchup. You always find yourself opening multiple packets.

Second, they always make a mess. You have to squeeze the ketchup through the rip in the corner. It’s hard not to get ketchup on your fingers.

We thought surely there must be a better design.

The biggest problem is affordability. Restaurants are not going to pay extra for a ketchup packet that is larger and cleaner. The current design is very efficient.

Joe and I thought of many options but narrowed it down to one perfect design. We shared it with a few people in the industry and it garnered a little excitement.

Unfortunately it ended there. We didn’t persue it any further.

Recently Heinz released a new ketchup packet design. It’s more or less the same design Joe and I created with some minor differences. Here is their new design:

To read more, check out Heinz Ketchup Packet Makeover

GregPike.ca, Rants, Service Heinz, Ketchup Packets

On January 4th St. John’s began issuing snowclearing tickets as promised. They advertised on the radio and on television. I rarely pay attention to either, but even I was aware of the snowclearing date.

All the same, 300 motorists found themselves with hefty $45 snowclearing tickets the next morning.

Needless to say,  many were not happy.

You leave your vehicle on the road overnight when snowclearing is in effect and you deserve a ticket. I agree with this. Otherwise we have messy streets in the morning because plows were unable to maneuver properly through them.

But 300 tickets on a clear night? City Council is just going out looking for people to ticket needlessly. Random sweeps are fine. The odd ticket for a violator will prevent people from parking on the road overnight. Obviously if it snows, nail them with a ticket. Otherwise, frig off.

There is no need to ticket so many people on a night where there was no snowclearing and the weather forecast indicated no chance of snow.

But if the city must ticket absolutely everyone with a tire on the road, then why not put the money they make to snowclearing?

In one night of ticketing they raised $13,500.00. Take out the expenses for ticketing those violators and you have a significant profit from one night’s work. Surely this kind of cashflow could be put towards improving the city’s dismal snowclearing efforts.

If St. John’s put as much effort into actually cleaning the streets as they do ticketing parked vehicles we’d have wonderfully clean streets.

Local News, Rants, Service St. John's, Street Cleaning