While TurboTax may have a good product, and good customer service representatives, they don’t have good customer service.

Last fall I bought TurboTax for the first time. I had gone to the end of the line with extensions, and was filing in October. They offer a service whereby you can order the next year’s software in advance. I did so. The software never arrived.

In an on-line chat (for which I waited about 2 minutes, not the 2 hours advertised), I was told that if you sign up for automatic updates after October 1, you get the following year’s software. In other words, when they asked me to sign up for automatic updates while I was buying 2004 software, I was actually buying a 2006 update, not the 2005 software.

So then I buy the 2005 software. I go through the dialogs and click “buy” or whatever. The same screen returns. I don’t click “buy” again just our of caution, but there is no evidence, no e-mail, no nothing, that my order was received. From another tab, I looked up the order and it was in a pending status. I then spent 15 minutes on hold to get to the call center (India, I think) where I was very quickly provided the means to download the software.

So in each case, flaws in the software led to me using an expensive on-line resource. If the damn thing had worked reasonably in the first instance and correctly in the second, I would have saved 30 minutes of time and Intuit would have saved two, no doubt expensive, customer contacts. Addressing the symptom, not solving the problem.

We bought a new bike for Danielle today. The gentleman at Bikecology was quite helpful, just as he was when I bought my bike a couple of months ago. Bike technology has really improved. They are comfortable, easier to shift, and you get an awful lot for the money. Part of that is the manufacturing in China, but I tend to agree that free trade is good for all involved.

Danielle got a comfort-style mountain bike. It has shocks in the front forks and under the seat. We took a short ride from the house, down Ballona Creek to the Marina and back. Danielle reports that it is much easier and more comfortable riding this bike than her Nishiki (which is also a nice bike).

The challenge will be finding time for all of us to ride together more often. But now that we have the equipment, it is more likely.

This is a test for comparison with Blogger. Is it control or free hosting? No one knows for sure (yet).

It sure looks like blogger may make putting images in much easier. Lets see how it works.

Update: It works by coding the exact URL of the exact photo I think. But I’ll try a full size and see what it does.

OK, so the style somehow resizes the picture, but does not create a link to the full size image.

’nuff said.

Update: The new style does not resize the picture. Hmmmmm.

We went to the California Science Center today to see the IMAX film Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon in 3-D. It was a decent film with a good use of clips. They did some fairly good reenactments, mimicking the environment on the Moon. The reenactments, while realistic, did not look completely real. The sun light was mottled, not the solid blast that the actual pictures showed. And they didn’t get as dirty as the real astronauts did. But it was fun.

Being at the California Science Center reminded us at how it really needs a makeover. This summer, we visited the Science Museum in downtown St. Paul, Minnesota. It is a fantastic museum. Great content. They had a wave similator that let you change the ocean bottom configruation and see how that affects the waves hitting the beach. Kids could “pan” for gemstones. There is a minature golf course designed to teach about river flow. It makes the California Science Center look quite weak.

Not only that, but St. Paul has the Nile River IMAX film. When are we going to get it?

On Sunday I finally got up to Malibu Creek State Park to ride from the main parking lot out to the M*A*S*H set. Parking is up to $8, but what the heck, we are supporting the State Parks.

The ride started off as I remember the hike. A mile or so to a good hill, then down by Century Lake. After crossing Malibu Creek, what I recall as a road became barely a trail. I guess the studio did a fair amount of maintenance because I remember in the 1980s this was a nice dirt road. Now it is barely a track. I had to walk the bike often and am glad I didn’t buy a hard tail bike. Given the extra effort to get through, I didn’t try the Boney Ridge trail. Perhaps if I come in from the Malibu Lake side…