Transmission Destroyed By Python 871xp

Looking for insurance information (its too late to call anyone tonight) I found this and thought you might enjoy it:

http://www.epinions.com/content_4170031236

In here, it says their insurance company is Travelers, which does sound familiar.  You may try giving them a call, but I should be able to find out more information tomorrow.

Perhaps coincidental (cf. Circuit City asserts that my transmission damage immediately following their installation is unrelated), but I received one of the heaviest “spam” attacks in years this morning (and they’re still coming in). I have multiple layers of protection, including two different domain servers and measures incorporated into my individual computers, but 343 “messages” containing around 14 MB managed to penetrate my external spam filters and about half actually reached my “in-box.” These e-mails were directed to my domain name that hosts the Circuit City web page describing this incident. They are technically not spam, but rather, e-mails containing viruses that spoof my return e-mail address as the sender. I receive the bounced mail which is probably less than 1% of the actual volume of e-mails sent. (This is a common practice to 'bring down' website through what is commonly called a "denial of service" attack. The volume is way below threshold for having an impact on my servers.)

Although perhaps just a coincidence, the fact that some pumples at Circuit City might have instigated this suggests that I may have emerged as a blimp on their radar – and that would be good! I’m currently employing some additional electronic counter-measures (and of course, developing the case against Circuit City for pending litigation), but I’ll post replies to some of the recent comments as time permits.

www.AddictionScience.net/CircuitCity.htm

“Just because you’re not paranoid doesn’t mean people aren’t out to get you.”

OK, thats going a little far to actually hint that Circuit City (as a corporation) might be behind your flooded inbox!

If anything, I would guess that a Circuit City EMPLOYEE came across this thread and didn't like the bad publicity.  There is a BIG difference between a Corporate attack and an attack from a person who works for a company.

Have you contacted their insurance company yet?

Absolutely! If you follow this type of thing, you probably know that some over zealous employee most often takes it upon themselves to act. This made the headlines recently for one of the presidential candidates, but it occurs quite frequently in corporate America. (The ‘mob’ is also reputed to work this way, seldom tracing a direct command for a "hit" from senior leaders.) Also as an interesting coincidence, the web page (at www.AddictionScience.net/CircuitCity.htm) disappeared from the search engines this morning. Hum, very interesting. Yesterday a Google search for “Circuit City transmission damage” and several related key words found the web page immediately. Today, it has vanished. Another interesting coincidence?

Thanks for the link to the article, Kevin. I enjoyed it. Please don’t spend your time searching for their insurance company information. I made a “reasonable attempt” to obtain this information yesterday from their operations manager, and I’ve now progressed beyond that level.

“Live free or die trying .”

I made a few phone calls and found that both local sales and installation managers didn't make the 'cut' a few weeks ago.  That sucks, they were both good guys that had been with CC for years.  I'm not sure how a company thinks they can conitnue by firing all their experianced managers.

It's been a few years since I worked at CC, maybe things have changed that much since I was there.

I talked to a CC installer whom I haven't ever met today and he was fairly clueless on the SIL stuff (self insured loss).  I have one buddy left that still works for CC, but he won't be in until Saturday.

Before this discussion takes an unintended detour, let me make it clear that I am not suggesting some sort of conspiracy theory – I’m simply reporting observations. As a scientist I have spent much of my lifetime collecting data and looking for patterns. I frequently see patterns that others have missed. I develop hypotheses and alternative hypotheses that are evaluated against the empirical evidence. (And yes, I use statistical analysis for this process.) Sometimes the conclusions are surprising.

With this background, let me introduce a “second point” in the ongoing discussion from yesterday’s events. (I still intend to reply to comments regarding the first point, but it seems somewhat appropriate to introduce another observation here.)

Point #2: I was informed from an independent source that the “service manager was told he needs to pay attention to the discussion on the12volt.” (The source had never heard of this web site before.) Interesting observation. People here are trying to help the ‘kid’ cover his butt. He will obviously be using whatever information he can from this discussion to cover himself while supporting his company’s denial of responsibility. That’s fine . . . I’m placing my money on truth and justice.

Closely related is the “third point” --

Point #3: While I was waiting for the operations manager at Circuit City, the Roadshop service manager slipped into AAMCO unannounced to examine the wiring. In about one minute he concluded it was OK. (The shock sensor mysteriously reattached itself when I returned to AAMCO, but the pin switch for the remote start cut-out didn’t have enough time to install itself.)

FYI: My university server is undergoing an e-mail attack as I write this. Most likely this event is widely spread across the Internet. The high volume of spoofed return mail I received today IS most likely just a coincidence. I’m still trying to develop a viable alternative explanation as to why the Circuit City web page disappeared from the search engines’ data bases.

I’m very sorry to hear about the “good guys” being cut at Circuit City. This is most likely part of the problem – the good people are being terminated and the bad people are rising to fill the vacancies along with new, unqualified employees. I had done some background on Circuit City and they apparently have been firing their experienced personnel for some time and replacing them with lower-paid, less-qualified employees. The stock has been in trouble for a while. Their CEO didn’t even exercise his stock options last year, making him one of the few CEO’s in corporate America receiving less than a million dollar in annual compensation. (Of course, when he does exercise the stock options his compensation will be well above the million dollar mark.) And as noted on other discussions, their parking lot looks like a ghost town. A few more hits and they will be out of business. Personally, I would sell any investment in CC stock.

My experience at Circuit City is that their sales people are generally not very knowledgeable (with a few notable exceptions) – that’s OK, I shopped there for their low prices. But I did expect experienced, knowledgeable service people! This is an area where they can’t afford to cut the payroll (some other areas are more debatable, although I do appreciate a knowledgeable salesperson too).