I mean, really … it’s not that difficult to provide the most basic customer service, is it?

Dumb question.

So here’s the thing: I’m looking to get a new battery for my Galaxy S that I purchased at a T-Mobile store.

Except T-Mobile stores evidently don’t carry batteries for the phones they sell. At least not the ones I tried in Manhattan and here in the suburbs north of Philly.

“Sorry, we don’t carry batteries” has to be in the top five most absurd things any cell phone retail store worker says.

The T-Mobile retail stores are beautiful. They’re stylish, bright and roomy. There’s plenty of room as far as I can tell for some sort of free-standing carousel of batteries. But hey, if it’s gonna mess up your feng shui, just keep ’em behind the counter or in the back somewhere.

But do you really have to put a customer looking for a battery through such a wringer? Instead of aggravating someone by sending them from store to store to face negative response after negative response, why not just stock the damn things? You’re looking for new revenue streams all the time, aren’t you? Why not service desperate phone customers who need a battery now, not when some online retailer can ship it to them.

Oh, and by the way: Your 611 service sucks even harder. I tried calling to register a complaint, and the voice prompt delivers nothing but absolute and total frustration. You’re better off shutting this “customer service” channel down entirely: The absence of creating anger among your customers has to be viewed as a net plus against any miniscule satisfaction collectively gained by telling customers who dial 611 how much they owe and then giving us a series of barely useful voice prompts.

It’s always good to know that there are other people out there who care about this sort of thing. For the record, I’m with you: one space, not two.

Where’s Pat Paulsen when we need him?

One way to understand the global impact Steve Jobs had is to take a look at this infographic that tracks memorial tweets by language.

Jack Kirby is the undisputed king of comics. Back in the mid-1970s, he created a comic book version of 2001: A Space Odyssey for Marvel. What happens when you blend images from Kirby’s 2001 work with Deodato’s unlikely hit version of “Also Sprach Zarathustra”? The result is the 2:12 pop culture mashup you see here. Please to enjoy.