Fuck Mexicana Airlines... Update

Eleven days after Mexicana Airlines' thieving luggage rapists stole my property (see post below), the fuckholes in their "Customer Service" department continue to drag their feet and throw hurdles in our path to getting fair compensation for our stolen property. First, they tossed me around their corporate bureaucracy, referring me from one department to another, blaming each other for our loss. Then they claimed that electronics are not "standard luggage" and may not qualify for compensation. WTF!? Electronics are not standard luggage? What year is Mexico living in!? Now they want me to send them purchase receipts for everything we claim was stolen. Why, to make me prove that at some point in the past I owned this property? I'm not asking them to repay me for my stolen $10M Stradivarius violin, or for the Hope Diamond I was returning to the museum. I just want fair compensation for the $1140 of property that their employees pilfered from my luggage. I am still holding out hope that Mexicana will make this right, but at some point soon I may solicit the 2o2p Mob to join in the fight. In the meantime, here is my most recent email to my assigned Mexicana "investigator":

From:Sugartastic J
Sent: Wednesday, May 14, 2008 8:58 PM
To: Mexicana Airlines
Subject: RE: Mexicana Airlines case # 69545

Sr. Mesa,

First, as you requested, attached is a copy of the loss report that was provided to us at the baggage claim area at LAX. Please know that this report was provided to us before your LAX baggage services department investigated our loss and learned that our bags had been misdirected by Mexicana staff at Manzanillo. Also included is a copy of one of the tags that we found on our luggage; please observe that the flight information and passenger name is incorrect, and the claim number does not match the claim receipts that we received at Manzanillo.

Next, I don’t know that I can provide all of the receipts for our stolen property. Some of these items were purchased last year, and some were gifts, and I may not be able to get copies of all the receipts. I will try, but I don’t fully understand why you need copies of the purchase receipts for the items that were stolen from our bags. Are you trying to assess their value, or are you making us prove that we owned this property? It shouldn’t matter. Mexicana Airlines lost our luggage for two days, and the bags were delivered to us partly empty. We’re not asking for excessive compensation – if Mexicana were truly interested in customer service and making this right, you should expedite payment right away. I will look for the receipts and will send you whatever I can find. But let me say this… We will accept nothing less than the compensation we have asked for, which is the replacement cost of our stolen property. If Mexicana continues to put obstacles in our way, or fails to compensate us fully for our stolen property, we will instead seek compensation through more aggressive legal means. And I will seek compensation for more than the value of our stolen goods; I will also demand compensation for the time and effort we have put into this fiasco over the past 11 days, for the sadness this has caused my children, and for the distress this has caused me and my wife. Mexicana has an opportunity to resolve this right away and reimburse us for what your employees stole from us, or you can turn this into a long battle. I sincerely hope that you choose to do the right thing.

Thank you.

Sugar

Posted by SugartasticJ @ 2:14 am EDT | Permalink | 2 Comments

Fuck Mexicana Airlines

Last week I took the family to Isla Navidad, in the Mexican state of Jalisco, about 30 miles north of Manzanillo, or about 1500 miles south of the border.  Wonderful vacation at a beachside resort.  We decided to celebrate my son's birthday during our vacation, and secretly brought down a Wii for his present.  My two boys joyously played Lego Starwars while my wife and I drank Margaritas on the deck.  On Sunday we packed up the Wii and the rest of our luggage and headed home.

We arrived late Sunday night at LAX and watched the baggage carousel go 'round and 'round, but our luggage never came.  After two days of searching, Mexicana Airlines delivered our luggage to our doorstep tonight.  We opened our bags and discovered they had been raped somewhere along the way.  The Wii, my iPod portable stereo, my wife's makeup kit, and a bunch of clothes were missing.  In total, the Mexicana luggage rapists took $1140.00 worth of our stuff.  Mother fuckers, I want to kill them.

In case you're wondering why we checked the Wii instead of carrying it on board, Mexicana allows only one carry-on per person, and I also had my computer, three cameras, Iridium satellite phone, and other valuables in my backpack, so I had to stash the rest in my suitcases.

Never fly Mexicana Airlines.  The food is crap, their customer service sucks, and oh, they steal your shit.

No, I'm not dissing the Mexican people.  I love Mexico, and everyone else we dealt with on our trip were wonderful people.  Mexicana Airlines just hires thieves.  Next time, we'll pay more and fly Alaska Airlines.

 

Posted by SugartasticJ @ 12:58 am EDT | Permalink | 6 Comments

No TV Week... Weak

So, we're supposed to turn off our TVs this week for our kids. The point is, they say, to get our kids off the couch and outside to exercise. Great! If you're not already doing this everyday, then use this week to start doing it. I'm a big believer in getting outside for some fun. But if we're already doing this, do I need a Hallmark week to be totally TV-abstinent? No! But my wife says yes. My two boys - 4 and 6 years old - have less body fat than Karen Carpenter. If they're watching TV, I'm barking at them to stop wrestling and bouncing on the sofa at the same time - lack of exercise is not a problem for them.

I don't watch much TV. Actually, neither does anyone in my family. Maybe a Family Guy or Simpsons episode, or a little CNN, from time to time, but our household is not sculpted around our TV. I'm pleased that my kids rarely ask to turn on the TV. But it is a nice filler occasionally to keep them distracted or occupied when necessary. But we can go a week without the TV babysitter. No big deal. Bring it on...

But tonight, as I'm checking my friends list on xboxlive.com, I notice my closest group of RL friends playing co-operative R6V2, beckoning for help with hunting terrorists in Vegas Junkyard. They NEED me. I can't let my team down. "I'm going in," I say to my wife, "to support my brothers in arms."

We sat down and read a book.

 

Posted by SugartasticJ @ 12:43 am EDT | Permalink | 2 Comments

A Perfect Moment...

As I write this, I'm on my way to Catalina Island for the weekend. It's about a 4 hour cruise (on my slow boat) from our home port of Dana Point in Orange County. We're still about an hour out of Avalon, Catalina; my wife and two boys are asleep and I'm alone at the helm listening to some of my favorite Ben Harper tunes just enjoying the passing seas and a beautiful sunset. As the sun touched the horizon and the clouds lit up in various shades of fire, I realized these are the moments life is all about and I was perfectly satisfied.

Here's my view about 30 minutes ago.

Posted by SugartasticJ @ 8:43 pm EDT | Permalink | 5 Comments

Fretting the Holidays

"Fretting,"as in:

• Fret : transitive verb; inflected Form(s): fretted, fretting; Date: 1602 - to press (the strings of a stringed instrument) against the fret.

 

So, for my birthday (which was the 22nd) I got a guitar. A Fender dreadnought acoustic guitar to be exact. It's a great beginner's guitar, and exactly what I wanted. I've been wanting to learn to play for years, but the clincher was earlier this year when we bought our boat. While the boat was undergoing commissioning at the manufacturer's docks, a guy on a boat in a nearby slip spent his days playing guitar on his deck. He was good - so good, actually, that kayakers would paddle up with beers or bottles of wine and just float and listen. I have my boat, I have my guitar, now I need to learn to play.

I've never undertaken a hobby that I was so utterly inexperienced with. I've always felt musical, but I've never played a musical instrument. I can't read music, and I don't even know the basic terminology (what the hell is a "chord"?). So with my Guitar for Dummies book and the Fender instructional DVD that came with my guitar, I dove in during the Christmas break from work. In three days, I've worn my fretting (left hand) fingers raw, I've learned the basic terminology (frets, chords, keys, etc.), learned how to read guitar tablatures, and even plucked my way through Jingle Bells and Joy to the World. I didn't expect this to be easy, and I know it will take years to get any good, but I've come far enough in three days to hook me. I'm still learning chords and how to place my fretting fingers against the strings without touching the adjacent strings - I don't have fat fingers, but I'm having a hell of a time squeezing three fingers between the first and second fret for the A chord without buzzing the D string - how did Andrés Segovia do it with his chub digits!?

Anway, I could use some advice. I'm sure there are some fine guitarist on this site. I could use a few pointers. Once I get past the insecurity of knowing almost nothing about my guitar, I'll hire an instructor for some routine lessons.

It's also been fun to see my kids' interest in my new guitar. My six year old was immediately fascinated. In fact, he's already strumming better than me. Maybe I have a prodigy on my hands. Here he is last night - check out his form - holding the pick and forming his left hand!

So, tomorrow I'm taking the wife and kids on our boat to Catalina (a small island off the coast of Southern California) for a few days. I'll sit on the deck strumming my guitar, though instead of kayakers coming up to the boat, I expect to scare away any other nearby boaters. Give me time...

Props to a little-known inspiring guitarist... We went to Disneyland a few days ago, and just outside the park gates in Downtown Disney, outside one of the restaurants, a guy named David Wayne was playing with a percussion accompaniment. I had more fun watching them for ten minutes than I did in five hours at Disneyland. I've never heard of him, and judging by the venue he was playing, neither have most people. Check him out: http://davidwaynemusic.com/

Happy Holdays!

 

Sugar

 

Posted by SugartasticJ @ 12:34 pm EDT | Permalink | 3 Comments