Path: ...!weretis.net!feeder8.news.weretis.net!eternal-september.org!feeder3.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail
From: Cryptoengineer <petertrei@gmail.com>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: For self publishing authors on AmazonKDP, Scott Adams Says
Date: Fri, 4 Oct 2024 20:56:04 -0400
Organization: A noiseless patient Spider
Lines: 75
Message-ID: <vdq2r4$f307$1@dont-email.me>
References: <vdmueg$3s32s$2@dont-email.me>
 <5830gjlee4t35pld5hkmr7e5lcrd9dsiv6@4ax.com> <vdpbq4$anou$1@dont-email.me>
 <lmartdF4ftqU2@mid.individual.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
Injection-Date: Sat, 05 Oct 2024 02:56:04 +0200 (CEST)
Injection-Info: dont-email.me; posting-host="816998f337f25ce6757d497579b40388";
	logging-data="494599"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org";	posting-account="U2FsdGVkX1/3Y85PU6Whs4gE9EMwazUxFU1sbZU/JNI="
User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird
Cancel-Lock: sha1:G3BprAiIKkkqV6BNMykVXAq2AvE=
In-Reply-To: <lmartdF4ftqU2@mid.individual.net>
Content-Language: en-US
Bytes: 4300

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