The Otto Conundrum

For those of you that did not read my previous blog post, please take a minute and read it (along with the comments) before reading this post... otherwise you will probably be more than a little bit confused.

Now that you're all caught up, let me explain my predicament because I am truly torn. It seems relatively clear to me that Otto is a conscientious Snapfish employee that was doing his best to handle what he perceived as "a difficult customer". The part of me that strives to be a good person and a good role model for my daughter knows that it is probably wrong to pick on Otto for essentially trying to do his job well.

The other part of me simply can't help thinking that this is some really funny shit.

Otto's post raises several interesting points that don't really make sense to me:

1) How in hell did Otto find my blog in the first place?? When I had my online conversation with Subhash, I never gave him my full name and my full name does not appear anywhere on my blog. As far as I can tell, there are only two viable scenarios. Either Snapfish has so much cash that they can afford to have people randomly searching the internet for bad publicity (Please see #2 for additional thoughts on this), or Otto has way too much time on his hands and decided to troll the internet in case some of his "difficult customers" just happen to have blogs.

2) Otto suggests that Subhash went out of his way to offer me 30 free credits and Sara went out of her way to offer to personally hand write a note for me. Well, let's take it slow and really examine how far out of their way each employee actually went. A 4x6 print costs $0.09 on Snapfish. So, when Subhash offered me 30 free prints, he basically offered me $2.70. Now, if Snapfish is so well off that they can really afford to have people searching the internet for bad publicity, $2.70 seems like a pretty shitty offer. I think we can all agree that the notion of not allowing a customer to attach a gift card to a gift is complete and utter lunacy for an online retailer, so I'm sorry Otto, but I don't think that $2.70 scratches the surface. I personally think that a sushi dinner was warranted. What incredible customer service! They would have bought a dedicated customer for life. Oh well. As for Sara, let's be honest about that too, shall we? She didn't "offer" to do anything; she accepted my offer to hand write the note. It was my suggestion! And, when I suggested that beginning the note with "Dear so and so" was not as cordial as actually using my friend's name... she terminated the conversation. I would have to disagree with Otto that she went out of her way at all.

3) How many times can a man use a wink face in an email to another man before it starts to get a little creepy? If you look at Otto's post, he winks at me two different times. There are people that I've known for years that I wouldn't feel comfortable winking at in an email, much less posting in a comment on their blog. But, even though Otto and I are only friends through Subhash, he felt at ease enough with me to wink at me twice. Creepy or endearing? You decide.

4) Given that Otto seemed to have been doing some checking on me, I thought it only appropriate that I do some checking on Otto. I clicked on Otto's blogspot profile and found that he keeps two blogs of his own! They are entitled "My Private Blog" and "Debauchery SF". Unfortunately, since I originally checked out the content of these blogs, Otto has decided to make them private. Let me simply tell you that Otto has some very interesting personal tastes and he couldn't possibly be offended by my usage of the word "Fuck" as the subject of my last blog entry. Shame Otto, shame.

As I said initially, I think Otto was honestly trying to do his job. He perceived me as "a difficult customer", which I may very well have been. However, it is equally likely that I was justified in being pissed off at Snapfish and that I don't feel like they helped at all. Throwing $2.70 at an unhappy customer is a joke. Accepting an offer to hand write a note and then ending the conversation during the drafting portion of the note writing is rude and insulting.

As for me taking the opportunity to pick on Otto a little bit... don't feel bad Otto. You fell victim to one of the classic blunders:

1) Never fight a land war in Asia.
2) Never go up against a Sicilian when death is on the line. (Only slightly less well known)
3) Never post a serious comment on someone's blog, when the whole purpose of the blog is to make fun of stuff.