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From: ted@loft.tnolan.com (Ted Nolan <tednolan>)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: For self publishing authors on AmazonKDP, Scott Adams Says
Date: 5 Oct 2024 02:49:36 GMT
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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


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