Clipper Card Reader Meltdowns: It's Not New KGO-TV, Akit Has Known for FOUR MONTHS

Today, I'm not going to roast Clipper and MTC, I'm going to deep fry them to a crisp.

On Thursday evening, KGO-TV did a "uFixIt" report asking why are the Clipper card readers continuously beeping like crazy. The MTC said they have a software patch that will solve the problem and promises to get all the card readers updated the next day (Friday).

Everyone thinks this is a new problem... NO IT'S NOT!

Four months ago (October 13, 2010), I posted a blog entry asking why are the Clipper card readers going on a beeping frenzy. Not long later, a Clipper representative explained why by leaving a comment and promised a fix in November. In December, I questioned why Clipper and the MTC failed to fix the problem because the card readers continue to go on a meltdown.

If you read this correctly, the Clipper folks said on my blog they'd have a resolution sometime in November 2010.

Now it's been four months since my first posting and did Clipper and MTC resolved it? Can someone please find me a dunce cap so I can put it on Clipper and MTC's heads?

It is so frustrating to hear that when KGO-TV reported this, the problem would be fixed in a mere 24-hours. Really? 24-hours? You promise a TV station that you'll get it fixed in 24 hours, but you don't listen to someone who has been providing feedback, asking tough questions, and doing helpful free P.R. for you for years?

I know Clipper and the MTC reads my blog, and I'm going to bet they knew a major ass whipping would be coming from this blog post today. It's humiliating to hear the problem can be fixed in just one day, while I've been told promises of a resolution back in October.

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There's also a second level of frustration. I wonder if KGO did their homework and realized that Akit has been reporting on this problem for a long time now, and even if they didn't mention about the Complaint Department, they could at least acknowledge that this issue has been known months ago and with no resolution. The way it was reported sounded like this was something relatively new.

It makes me wonder how much power a TV station has to change something with such fast turnaround time; but for a blogger, I don't have so much power to sway. I work hard on this blog to make changes, and I've had that moment of fame when the SF Examiner applauded me for my efforts for Muni to fill-in the gap of service for the 38L and 38-Geary bus lines.

It's discouraging that I write a lot about Clipper and I know a heck of a lot more than many of those customer service agents, but that doesn't stop me from doing a fun hobby. Just like Rocky, "Eye of the Tiger", I'll still be fighting no matter what.

Too Edited - National Bingo Night on ABC

I was interested in the program "National Bingo Night" when people at home had the chance to win some prizes for printing their cards at home, but there were some things that really annoyed me.

--If anyone watched the program, it is too heavily edited. You can easily tell that the host is doing voiceovers on certain segments. Another editing problem is that you know that the audience is applauding and they turn the camera to the host to say some reminder of the prize or to mark-off your card, you can see in the background that the audience is NOT applauding, but you can hear the sound of the audience applauding in the background sound.

--Can you stop reminding us to mark our cards off and registering our cards on the website? I already knew that the first time you said it Captain Jackass! I "won" a bingo prize of being in the raffle for the $50,000, but since the ABC website crashed, I was able to input my claim code, but it did not take-in my name and contact info. Then I tried again and the claim code and it said that it was already claimed. Yeah... whoopie, I guess I won't win anything.

--The "Bingo 500" is a blah! The guy says that the number is low, and the ball comes down the chute and it's a red ball (and this asshole thinks he aint gonna get it right). Well damn, I already know it's a low number because the red ball color signifies the "B" column!

--Too few numbers were called-out in this game and the game process went too slow. If you were in a bingo hall playing against people, the game would last a longer and more numbers would be called out if you played in certain patterns.

--Ya know, four corners is a legitimate bingo.

--Do we really need a host that looks like Howie Mandel? But just without the germ-a-phobe attitude?

--The referee is a real worthless figure in this game. Especially the accent. Sure, I support having South-Asians on television, but putting an accent really turns the fun around to make it seem like its some stereotype that people from India speak with a heavy accent in America. Think of it this way, do you know that Martin Yan of Yan Can Cook on PBS actually speaks normal English and speaks that pidgin English only on TV to play the stereotype of the perpetual foreigner?

--All the printed-out bingo cards say: "This Sweepstakes is a seeded instant win game; it is not a state-sanctioned bingo game..." This simply means that this "Bingo" (and I really put this in quotes) game has been pre-recorded and that the print-at-home bingo cards are simply pre-determined scratch-off tickets.

Think of it this way: This "National Bingo Night" was pre-taped and before they put it on TV and let people win prizes, people who print the tickets at home are actually already instant winners or instant losers. If someone like K-Mart is giving away $5 gift cards for their stores, K-Mart wants to only give out five million dollars for the promotion. So the "bingo cards" are already rigged to only distribute "winning" cards so that once 1,000,000 (5 million divided by $5 = 1 million) pre-determined bingo cards are distributed with the winning prize.

Let's summarize my rants:
National Bingo Night is full of shit
Print out as many cards you want, there's no limit. Maybe instead of winning nothing, I'll get back $50 worth of K-mart gift cards and I've already fried $100 in paper and ink to "play" this game.
Too much editing
Howie Mandel look-alike host
Stereotyped referee
Just another TV program on my hate list. Now on list: KRON, NBC11, and National Bingo Night!