Snow tires and annoying people

On Wednesday, I got my winter tires installed on my car. It was an odd day.

I didn't get my usual service advisor. He was there. There were tons of customers, likely all getting winter tires installed.

I got a new advisor. I didn't like how he insisted that I was wrong. Well, I had to ask him to look up my records. If you don't believe me, check the facts that you have in your database.

This theme carried on to my incompetent colleague, who accused me of telling another colleague something incorrect. She wasn't even in my conversation. I had a text conversation with her other team lead. I copied and pasted it. I had proof.

I then told her to have facts before making ridiculous, nonsensical statements. She said that she was "merely asking a question." A question doesn't go into false accusations.

She's an idiot. Sadly, I have to put up with her.

Do normal colleagues exist?

It was a busy Monday at work. My colleague who joined my team almost two months ago showed odd signs of incompetence.

She has been with the company for a good three years. She completely messed up a procedure and insisted that "everyone" updates these pages the same way as she. I actually had to disprove her. Even my manager got into the conversation.

Weird. I sometimes have to wonder whether there is something different about the way that she is wired. Luckily, I get a break from seeing her for a couple of days. I am working from home. It's a distraction to have her approach me a couple of times an hour when I am in the office.

I miss having normal colleagues.

Hacked information in the wrong hands and my cell phone reported lost by someone

Here's a follow-up to my post on how a few personal details can get into the wrong hands and how worried the guy is about his actions.

A few months ago, my Starbucks account was compromised. I was at the car dealership, waiting for my car to be done with servicing. I logged into my Starbucks app and noticed two transactions that were foreign to me. One happened in Miami. The other in New York within five minutes. There was no way that I was in two states in that period, especially when I was still in Canada.

I called Starbucks support and the woman was helpful. I didn't like when she asked which card it had come from. I have Starbucks cards in both the United States and Canada. Sure enough, it came from a U.S. card. The balance wasn't huge. The person purchased a drink and some food. Nevertheless, Starbucks reimbursed the funds and cancelled that card for me.

My Starbucks account had my phone number there. If this guy logged on and used that card, he likely got my cell phone number. I have since removed my cell phone number from the account, as it's far from being mandatory.

As for tracking me with check-ins on Yelp and Twitter, he has too much time on his hands. It was a good wakeup call for me. I stopped the Twitter check-in from Yelp. I tried it out on Saturday and all was good.

I don't go down without a fight. I'm interesting that way, as I like to gain a bit of information about this person.

On my Twitter account, which was still public, I replied to my own tweet. I addressed the guy who stalked me. I said that he has been reported. He was messing with the wrong person. I have both voice recordings with his swearing and threats thanks to an app that I have. I recommended that he back off, as he was messing with the wrong person.

It is all true. I lucked out and bought an app that tells you whether phone numbers are safe to pick up. You can also report numbers that are considered nuisances. It also records all calls for protection and potential evidence down the road.

He got scared. This part of the story is still speculation, though.

On early Monday morning, just after I had posted my last post, I got an e-mail alert acknowledging that I had reported my phone lost. Really? It wasn't me.

I got that issue resolved online. As a security measure, I have a PIN associated with my cell phone provider on my account. This person reported my phone lost through the phone, which the person at my provider confirmed.

The woman with my service provider said that it is likely that the person entered his phone number incorrectly when reporting his phone stolen over the phone. Part of me hopes so. The other part of me thinks that this guy panicked and thinks that reporting my phone lost will help slow things down. Revenge? Perhaps. It's dumb, though.

The other thing is that my phone number, if you searched for the first seven digits, comes out being with a different cell phone provider. He would have to do a ton of digging to figure out that it's with my current provider. So, it leads me to believe that my number was reported by accident. I can't prove anything here, though.

Ah, the joys of having information in the wrong hands in a digital age.

Currently, my Twitter account is private. We'll see if that helps, too. I have learned so much this episode. Hopefully, we have reached its end.