Bitchy McBitcherson's Blog

Tag: Customer Service

  • Selling Through Amazon Marketplace for Aggravation and Losses – Or, how to borrow stuff from idiots who sell through Amazon

    Amazon encourages you to sell your stuff through them.  “Have one to sell?” They ask, with a lovely button directing you to “Sell it on Amazon”. They make it nice and easy. Then they encourage buyers to borrow your stuff and make you pay for it.

    The smarter financial thing to do is not sell things on Amazon, but instead buy things from individuals on Amazon, and then screw them over. You can use Amazon to hurt people and make their lives shittier, all from the comfort of your living room, or church, as the case may be.

    It’s awesome, right?

    8/7/2011 A buyer ordered a new in box projector bulb from me.

    8/8/2011 I shipped the item in a timely matter.

    8/19/2011 The buyer messaged me through Amazon asking about a return policy, because it turned out there was something else wrong with the projector. Replacing the light bulb did not help.

    I agreed to accept the return and provide a refund minus the original shipping fee and minus a 15% restocking  fee (as allowed by Amazon’s marketplace rules), as the item was sold and shipped to them new in box, and was no longer new in box. Honestly, it is no longer a salable item at all, because it is a light bulb and nobody buys a used light bulb and I can’t really guarantee what the buyer did with it. The 15% restocking fee is just a you get to have a little bit of money and give the bulb away to avoid it going straight to a landfill. Still, I was willing to accept the return. I also sent them some troubleshooting tips in case they could figure out what was wrong with the projector. I asked them to email me when they returned the bulb, and provide me with tracking information, so I could keep an eye out for it.
    9/8/2011 The buyer messaged me through Amazon, a full month after I shipped a consumable good (light bulb) and acknowledged the terms of the return and said they were shipping it that day. Sure. Keep a light bulb for a month, possibly using it that whole time, and then return it. That seems totally fair and legitimate. Oh, wait, I am lying. It seems to me like it sucks. Whatever. They told me they would send me the tracking  information. They did not send me tracking information, but I kept an eye out for the shipment for the next week. It never arrived.

    10/18/2011 The buyer messaged me asking if I got the light bulb and told me it should have arrived by the 13th.  I told them I had not gotten the package. I assumed they meant it was supposed to have arrived on 9/13, so I was concerned and confused. I asked for tracking information and got no reply.

    12/9/2011 They messaged me again in December asking about their refund and provided me their phone number. I tried to call but didn’t  reach them. As it was a busy weekend, I did not have other chances to try to contact them.

    12/13/2011 They messaged again finally providing a tracking number and said UPS delivered it on October 6th dropped at the front door. They said the item was insured and they would contact UPS if I had not gotten it. UPS said the shipment didn’t exist.

    12/14/2011 I replied to let them know I had not gotten it and that the tracking number did not work. I asked them to please contact UPS.

    12/15/2011 They replied with a corrected UPS number and said they would file a claim with UPS. Instead they immediately filed a claim with Amazon stating that the item was “NOT AS DESCRIBED”.

    I responded to the claim with all that information.

    If they had provided the tracking information in a timely fashion, I could have contacted UPS to ask what was happening with a package that was marked as delivered, but which I didn’t have. This happens sometimes, and they call the driver and ask where it exactly the package is. Sometimes it is just hidden from view, other times it was dropped off at the wrong house by mistake and it is realized as soon as the layout of the front step is described. I have no idea what the driver could possibly be expected to remember 2 months later. Still, they could have filed with UPS and been told, hell no, you need to file sooner, and then contacted me, to see what we could work out. Instead, they lied and said they would contact UPS, and then they immediate falsely accused me of selling and shipping items that were not as described.

    12/21/2011 Without ever once contacting me for any further information, or to warn me that I’d better refund the amount minus shipping and minus the restocking fee that the the two of us had agreed to, back when it was being returned in a reasonable time and with proper tracking, Amazon just took all the money back from me, and gave it back to them. All of it. Including what I had to pay to ship it to them to start with.

    It cost me money to let them have a light bulb for 2 months, and then never get it back.

    Amazon has quite the nice setup for buyers.

    I’m not a business that can absorb costs like this. I’m just a person, and Amazon customer myself, who got suckered into the idea that Amazon would be a better way to sell things I no longer need than using ebay, craigslist, or just having a garage sale. I’d have been better off just throwing the item away than using Amazon.

    To top it off, every message sent by this buyer (a church) had the signature “HE IS , HE WAS, And IS TO COME”. I got scammed AND proselytized to. Thanks Amazon.

    Shop Amazon Marketplace and screw over the sellers. They should have been advertising that heavier for the holidays. Still, plenty of people can take advantage of it in 2012. I’m working on a jingle for the commercials.

    Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, had a very shiny nose
    (like a light bulb that you use for two months then demand your money back)
    And if you ever saw it
    (but you can’t track it )
    You would even say it glowed
    (like a light bulb that you use for two months then demand your money back)
    All of the other reindeer
    (reindeer)
    Used to laugh and call him names
    (like “You fucking moron who sold through Amazon”)
    They never let poor Rudolph
    (Rudolph)
    Join in any reindeer games
    (like screwing people over because you’re a church, so you must be right and good)

  • The Experiment

    I bought a Sidekick II in early 2005. It was my first smart phone, and it changed my life. I’d had other phones with web access in the past, but it just wasn’t good enough to be anything more than a curiosity. The Sidekick II was very usable. I could get out and about while managing my business and helping my clients. I was no longer so tied to the computer.

    I’m on my 4th Sidekick now, the Sidekick LX 2009. The first one I bought at a discounted rate and signed a contract with T-Mobile, but all the subsequent ones I bought outright, so I’ve long since been out of contract.

    T-Mobile/Danger/Microsoft decided to shut down the Danger servers on May 31st 2011. Without the servers, my phone is a dumb phone, with an excellent keyboard.

    T-Mobile handled the transition in a piss poor fashion. I had to spend hours on the phone with them, I could detail it all out, but who really cares. It was hideous and offensive. No two people would tell me the same thing. At first I was told that even though I was off contract, I’d be given a discount on a new phone because of the inconvenience of my phone no longer having the features I bought it for. By the end I was told that no way would I get any discount at all, unless I would sign a contract, at which point I’d get exactly the same discount as anyone else buying a phone and signing a contract. Zero compensation for the inconvenience.

    I originally planned to leave T-Mobile and go to Virgin, where I could get a plan that suited me well (unlimted data and very limited talk (I hate to talk on the phone) for $25 per month. I’d have to buy a new phone outright, but I wouldn’t be under contract, and it was cheaper than what a new phone with similar features would cost me to stay on T-Mobile. Plus it was cheaper per month than T-Mobile. It, admittedly, has for less minutes, but I basically see the less minutes as a bonus.

    I cut back the T-Mobile plan, because we didn’t need two phones with data plans anymore. At that point I realized it only cost us $5 a month to just have a phone that shared the minutes.  $5 is less than $25.  Of course it is cheaper, it has no data, but…

    What if I just went without?

    I’ve been living with a smart phone for several years now, and I’m addicted to the damn thing.

    I think it is a useful device, but it is possible I am deluding myself over how useful it is. It might simply be a luxury item, or it could very well be a monkey on my back, ruining my ability to think properly, since I store half my brain functions in the cloud, and keeping me from really living in the moment, because I am too damn busy posting about the moment online from my phone.

    So, I didn’t replace my smart phone. I just have a dumb phone. I’m seeing what that means for my life.

    For one thing, I find I don’t reach for the damn phone immediately upon waking.

    Actually, I sometimes leave it in the car or another room for the whole day, and don’t pay any attention to it.

    It’s inconvenient to not have the internet on my phone, but my world hasn’t fallen apart, yet.

    We’ll see.

    Anyhow, that’s why I am a little less responsive than you might be used to.

  • Energy Suck

    When we bought our house, it came with a crappy old refrigerator that the old owners didn’t want to bother taking away. It made things cold, which is really all a refrigerator needs, but the door pieces were broken, so things could not really be kept in the door, drawers were cracked, etc. It was difficult to organize things inside, because some parts didn’t hold things well.

    We put it out in the garage and got a new refrigerator for inside, and it worked well as a second refrigerator. However, I often feel some stress over the poor energy efficiency of the old unit, so I finally decided to make use of the SCE rebate program to get rid of old refrigerators or freezers.

    I filled out the form online, and picked June 3rd as the pick-up date. It was the first available date. When selecting the date, it says “We will call you prior to the date you choose below to confirm your appointment and you will be given a four hour time slot. We will call you within a half hour of our arrival on the day of your pickup.” Then they called and reiterate this information (yes, somebody called to tell me that somebody would call). Then they sent snail mail, to let me know that they would call me the day before pick-up to give me a window, and would call me just prior to pick-up, and that if I did not answer, they would reschedule me.

    June 2nd rolled around and I got no call or message letting me know what my 4 hour window would be. I called and left them voice mail asking if the pick-up was still happening on the third, and if so, what the 4 hour window would be.

    On June 3rd, the doorbell rang at 7 AM and woke me up. They wanted my refrigerator.

    At 9:30 AM they called to reply to my voice mail, wanting to provide me with a 4 hour time window for pick-up.

  • Trash Talk

    One of the major WTF?s when I moved to Minnesota was the fact I needed to choose a garbage collection company. Everyplace I’ve ever lived before, there was just one company (or the city directly) that serviced any particular area. Some places we got a bill, other places it was included in our taxes, but there was no choice involved.

    Here, you choose a company. There are several different companies that service our neighborhood, and on trash day there are a stream of trucks from various companies that wander our streets. Sometimes people from other companies knock on the door and make special offers for switching companies. It is annoying and I don’t think it is very efficient, but hey, competition does keep prices down, and if you are willing to switch often, you can probably get really good deals because of the X amount free offers.

    We use Suburban Waste Services. This week, Monday was President’s Day. When there is a holiday before your trash pick-up day, everything shifts by one day. So, we (and many neighbors) put out our trash one day later than usual. Our trash did not get picked up. At that point I went to look at their website (yes, I should have done it BEFORE) and discovered that President’s Day was not one of their holidays this year. I had missed trash day. From what happened with neighbors, it seems like some companies servicing our area shifted, and some didn’t.

    This was totally my fault. They send out a schedule at the start of the year. I had multiple ways to verify when our trash day was, and I failed. It super sucked though, because we had A LOT of trash. Like, 5 person household, instead of our normal three, all the puppy related trash. Our trash can was overflowing, and overflowing with things that did not smell excellent.

    We sent Suburban Waste Services an email explaining that we had messed up and put trash out on the wrong day, was it possible to arrange for a pick up still?

    “We can get you picked up today, just leave it out and I will send a truck over.  No problem, have a great weekend!”

    Awesome. That is why I don’t switch to get free X when people knock on the door with offers. Suburban Waste Services has always responded quickly to our email queries, and they’ve always been helpful about any requests we’ve had.

    They showed up so quickly to handle the missed trash pick-up, that I didn’t even have time to take out yet another bag of puppy gross. That will have to wait for our normal pick-up day next week, which we’ll be sure to get right.

  • la fleur de Not Sonic

    On Friday, I was at Lakewinds. I stumbled exhausted around the store and gathered a few items so that I could cook something for dinner.

    I’ve been having a lot of headaches lately. Some migraines, some sinus pressure headaches. I went through a stretch many years ago, where I had a headache which lasted well over a year. This is not THAT bad, at all, but still, it hasn’t been fun.

    Anyhow, on Friday, I’d been having a particularly crappy day. I haven’t been getting a lot of sleep since the puppies came, and the weather has been up and down, which would be fine, if it didn’t bother my sinuses so much. That day in particular, I’d been battling a migraine, and I wasn’t really in the mood to cook, but I certainly wasn’t in the mood to go out, particularly on a Friday night. So, while I wanted to crawl into bed and be left alone, what I needed to do was shop for things I could use to prepare a nutritious and reasonably tasty dinner.

    I got into line with my selections, and the person who was doing the bagging asked how I was.

    Now, I actually HATE that question. It is pretty much my least favorite question. I know, I know, how terribly unfriendly of me. I grasp that it is standard in this society. Two people interact, and one person makes a “HOWAREYOU?” noise with their mouth, and the other person is supposed to make a “FINE” noise with their mouth. It’s like two dogs meeting and sniffing butts. It’s just saying, “Yes, I am a human and not an alien (or Replicant) and I know how to do the human things.” The problem is, I am an alien. I hear the “HOWAREYOU?” noise, and I think about what the words actually mean. I can’t not think about it.  I hear it, and I find myself considering, Self? How are you? Whatever it is that I am trying to get done is interrupted for a bit of self reflection and overview of my day to determine the answer to the question, which is being asked 99% of the time by a random person who doesn’t care how I am in the slightest. Then, I must throw away what I’ve thought of, and force myself to make the “FINE” noise, even though it is a lie. I hate being pushed into lying. So, yeah, I am not a fan of this societal nicety in any way, shape, nor form.

    He asked, and while I resent the question, and society in general for making it a common question, I don’t resent the asker, they are just doing as they’ve been taught. However, I didn’t feel good enough to bother with lying and I replied, “Horrible,” because I felt horrible.

    He blinked.

    The cashier rung me up. He bagged my stuff. I paid. He gave me my bag.

    Then, the cashier said, “Are you in a hurry?”

    Now, this was not a phrase I was used to as part of the end of a transaction, so even though I heard the words, I did not understand.

    “Excuse me?” I inquired.

    “Are you in a hurry?” and when I stills stared at her beautiful face blankly, she tried again, “Do you have a minute?”

    “Yes?”

    “Okay, hold on just a minute,” and she ran off.

    I waited, putting pressure on my head trying to keep the comparably low grade, but still very noticeable, migraine pain from making something pop.

    Soon she ran back with a bouquet of flowers and handed them to me, “You said you were having a horrible day, so I wanted you to have these.  I got them for my sister.  I was supposed to see her tonight, but I just found out my plans changed, so I’d like you to have them instead.”

    That is how I came home from my trip to the grocery store with groceries, flowers, and a story to tell my family.

    Now, this was an act by an individual. It isn’t a Lakewinds company policy. Yet, it is still customer service. I was a customer and an employee was interacting with me. A company chooses who to employ. Those choices reflect upon the company.

    It was a surprising and spontaneous gesture, and it really put a different spin on my totally not looked forward to outing to pick up some dinner groceries.

    It is in very stark contrast to a pleasant outing gone wrong due to the personal interaction of the sort of person that Sonic Drive-In chooses to employ. More on that thought another day.

     

  • Sonic Drive-In – Tiresome Useless “Apology”

    District Manager Joe called and left me a message. He would like me to call back.  I don’t know that I will, because I really have nothing to gain from calling back.

    He sort of apologized. He said the words “I apologize,” however the content of the apology was basically a non-apology.

    He agrees they were incorrect to not give me the deal, but basically still thinks I was wrong to expect it.

    Now, admittedly this is from a message and perhaps if I spoke to him directly and poked at the nature of what he is saying, we’d get to a different place, but really?  Should I have to work that hard to get a genuine apology for daring to expect them to honor the sale that the sign said they had?

    Manager Tim lied to Joe.  Now, I am not saying he deliberately lied in order to cover something up.  Maybe he did, maybe he didn’t.  However, assuming that what DM Joe said is true, the manager did tell him something that was not the truth.

    The manager told the district manager that they’ve given me this deal before.  So their feeling is, they had already told me that it wasn’t a valid deal, so I was in the wrong for asking for it again.

    This is NOT TRUE, plain and simple.  I’ve never had any sort of argument with them over this deal in the past, and I’ve never been granted an exception to the deal, nor anything else of the sort.  Even if I had, THEY HAD A SIGN UP!  If somebody who looked like me told them about the sign in the past, wouldn’t they have taken it down then?!

    But no, they still seem to think it has nothing to do with the sign, and they don’t need to honor posted signs.

    They think it is a Happy Hour issue.

    Sonic Drive-In offers a Happy Hour special during the dead time between lunch and dinner, much like many other restaurants.  Sonic’s special is all drinks are half price during Happy Hour, but NO ICE CREAM drinks are included.  It says this on the sign that advertises Happy Hour.  I know this.  I have never ordered an ice cream based drink during Happy Hour expecting half price on it, because ice cream drinks are not included.  So, no, I have never ordered one in the past by mistake, and then argued with them to give me the drink at half price.  I can read.  I can read the signs and see that ice cream drinks are not included, and if I wanted an ice cream drink (and if I do want an ice cream drink, I get the Chiller, not the Cream Slush), I would expect to pay full price for it, because it is not part of Happy Hour.

    I ordered the Cream Slush, not because it was Happy Hour and with no connection to Happy Hour.  When I drove into the lot, the first thing I saw was a sign that said “1/2 Price Cream Slush Treats All Day Real Ice Cream Real Fruit”.  It did not say, “All Day Except Happy Hour”.  It said nothing about Happy Hour. I ordered the Cream Slush because when I saw that sign, I thought, “Oh, that sounds interesting.  I’ll try that.”  I’ve never ordered the Cream Slush before at all.  My daughter has once, and she didn’t even like it, which is why even with the special, she didn’t order one.  I ordered it only because their sign advertising the special put the idea into my head.

    Anyhow, Joe would like me to call back, and he’ll give me a coupon for a free Cream Slush.  I don’t want a free Cream Slush.  Why would I trust any drink from the Sonic at 2101 American Blvd W, Minneapolis, MN?  The manager there clearly has a grudge against people who look like me.  If I was more paranoid, I’d think that it might be against people who are not white enough, but I’m instead going to assume there really is some other person running around who looks just like me and argues with them about their clearly defined Happy Hour offering.

    I guess it wasn’t about honoring or not honoring their posted advertisement for Tim.  The reason it felt like he was calling me a liar for saying that I saw it on a sign, was because he had already decided I was pulling a scam.

    But you know what?  Let’s pretend I am incapable of reading (not true).  Let’s pretend I had made a mistaken order in the past, and then wouldn’t back down when they showed me the spot on the Happy Hour sign that says “no ice cream drinks” (not true, at all, I would have been embarrassed and agreed it was my mistake).  Let’s pretend I got them to make a one time only exception to the Happy Hour special in the past to give me an ice cream drink at half price (never happened).  Even if all that happened, I’d still be absolutely right to think that seeing a sign that said “1/2 Price Cream Slush Treats All Day Real Ice Cream Real Fruit” meant that Cream Slush Treats were 1/2 Price that day.

    BTW, if you are local, the nearby Culver’s does offer a Happy Hour special on their ice cream treat – Concrete Mixer 2 for 1, or at least they did that day.  Also, most of the Dairy Queens around here seem to offer all drinks, including ice cream ones, for 1/2 price during Happy Hour.  Not that this issue was about Happy Hour at all, but since Sonic thinks it is, I might as well help you find some alternatives to their Happy Hour.

    Personally, I’d rather happy hour with a nice cocktail.  Here are some options for that too.

  • Sonic Sign

    Somebody asked for a better view of the sign.

     

  • Sonic Drive-In – False Advertising with Bad Customer Service on the Side

    Today my daughter asked to go to Sonic Drive-In to get one of their drinks.  I don’t eat a lot of fast food, but I do admit to really enjoying Sonic’s drinks. Most places, even if they do offer some kind of lemon or lime flavored treat, it is horribly sweet.  Sonic gets it right, and the lime slush as a real pucker factor to it.
    We’d been having a nice day, and it seemed like a treat like that might be nice.  The closest Sonic isn’t super convenient.  There are certainly plenty of other places closer, but we drove the 10 miles to Sonic Drive In.

    As we pulled into the lot, we saw a sign that said “1/2 Price Cream Slush Treats All Day Real Ice Cream Real Fruit”.  Bonus!  We think that sounds great.   Tempted by the sale, two of us decide to order those.

    We pull up to the drive-thru speaker, and order a medium Lemon Berry Slush, a small Lime Cream Slush, and a small Lemon Berry Cream Slush.  I see the orders coming up on the information screen (how great is the info screen in drive-thrus?) and the Cream Slush drinks are listed as the normal price, so I ask,

    Me: Aren’t the Cream Slushes supposed to be half price?

    Speaker: No, those aren’t part of the special.

    Me: But there is a sign that says they are half price all day.

    Speaker: It says nothing with ice cream.

    Me: No, it says the Cream Slush specifically, with ice cream.

    Speaker: Hold on.

    The speaker clicks off and we wait.  Finally…

    Speaker: Okay. So, that was a medium Lemon Berry Slush, a small Lime Cream Slush, and what was the other one?

    Me: A small Lemon Berry Cream Slush.

    Speaker: Okay, pull forward to the window.

    The info screen still showed full price, but I assumed they’d handle it at the window, especially since they hadn’t given a total.  We wait through a couple of other cars getting their orders, and then pull up to the window.  Tim is at the window.  Well, maybe it isn’t Tim, but that is what his name tag asys.

    Tim: Okay, a Lemon Berry Slush, a Lime Cream Slush and a Lemon Berry, wait, no, that’s right, a Lemon Berry Slush, that will be $5.16

    Me: The Cream Slushes should be half price.

    Tim: No they aren’t.

    Me: There is a sign that says the Cream Slush is half price all day.

    Tim: No, there isn’t.

    Me: Yes, there is.  That’s why we ordered them.

    Tim: No, there isn’t. Where is the sign?

    Me: Right at the front, where we drove in.  Do you want me to go take a picture of it to show to you?

    Tim: No, I’ll meet you there.

    I drive over in front of the sign and wait, and Tim exits the Sonic and comes over and looks at the sign.

    Tim: Oh, no.  That’s a mistake.  I’ll take it down.

    Me: But, you’ll give me the advertised price on the drinks?

    Tim: No, I can’t honor that price.

    Me: But, the sign says it is half price.

    Tim: I already said I’ll take it down.

    Me: But, it was up when I ordered.

    Tim: I can’t give you that price.  That special ended two months ago!  I’ll take the sign down.

    I asked him for the corporate headquarters phone number, and he gave me the phone number of Joe, who he said was the district manager.  Joe did not answer his phone.  He took the sign down and threw it in the garbage can.  I called 1-866-OK-SONIC, which is the number listed on their menus.  They said that they don’t help resolve problems, so there was nothing they could do but file a complaint and have it sent to store management.

    I was sitting at Sonic, unable to get the drinks I ordered at the advertised price, even though I proved that I wasn’t lying after Tim told me I was.  Somehow it was my problem that they left the wrong sign up at the entrance to their lot for two months, and rather than give me the discount being advertised on their own sign, they would prefer to alienate a customer.

    We left and went to Culver’s.  They honored the special showing on their sign, without any discussion at all. Apparently they are better at keeping their signs up to date, and sticking to what they advertise.

    So, just be careful when you go to Sonic.  Never trust that they will honor anything they are advertising. Double check what you are paying.  Or better yet, skip it.  It isn’t like it is health food.

    I took a photo of Tim and the sign.  Well, not Tim’s face, but of his name tag.  I only had a cell phone camera that doesn’t take the greatest photos, so it is a little difficult to read the sign.  That’s why I grabbed the sign out of the garbage can too.  It very clearly states that the drinks I ordered were supposed to be half price.  Now it can hang on my daughter’s wall as a reminder of why we don’t go to Sonic anymore.  I don’t care how good their drinks taste on a hot day.

    Tim Hates Me
    Sonic customer service expert, Tim, refusing to honor the sign posted behind him

  • Lenovo Sucks

    On May 23rd I ordered a new laptop from Lenovo.com, while I had been planning to get something cheaper, a good sale on the Ideapad Y550 was available, and Lenovo had a good reputation and reviews and I decided to go ahead and spend a bit more to get this system instead of a lower end laptop I was looking at elsewhere, that was cheaper, but not as powerful.

    The computer shipped far earlier than estimated when I ordered it. Three days instead of two weeks. Had I known it would ship so much earlier than estimated I would have waited to order it until the end of the sale. The new timing was very inconvenient as I was out of town. A shipping estimate is only an estimate, and I get that, but the difference between 3 days and two weeks pretty much speaks of them not really bothering with estimates, and they are simply supplying random information which they think is least likely to make customers angry with them.

    At first the timing only seemed annoying. It meant that nobody was home to get the delivery, so my husband was forced to leave work and chase a FedEx truck around while on the phone with the FedEx dispatcher in order to try to meet up with them. It took over an hour out of his day, but he got the computer and it sat at home waiting for me.

    When I returned from out of town and was able to check out the new computer, it would not work properly. The DVD burner was unable to burn. I spent a great MANY HOURS troubleshooting the problem, not that I should have to troubleshoot a brand new computer, but I did, because I’d rather fix it myself then deal with support. Eventually it became clear that it was a hardware problem and I looked to submit a trouble ticket. I was horribly disappointed to discover you do not offer online tech support. I tried posting in the forum to no response. After a week, I gave up, and had to resort to calling tech support.

    The person at tech support was very polite, which is lovely, but I do not want to have to make phone calls. I purchase online so that I can deal with things online. The first thing she wanted to do was to take control of the computer using showmypc.com. Because I had never used the computer, I went ahead and agreed to this, but if it was a computer I had already put into service, this would not have been acceptable to me, especially not as a first step. While polite and helpful, she was not overly knowledgeable. For instance, she typed in ‘rededit’ and then when surprise surprise that did not work, she needed me to hold on while she looked up the command she needed to type. I didn’t bother to tell her the command and waited for her to figure it out herself. She found the right word and then found that it did her no good. She put me on hold to ask somebody else what to do and was then able reach the same conclusion I had. She said that the part could be sent to me, or I could send the machine in for repairs. She went to look up the part information, and determined that the DVD drive was unfortunately not in stock and not customer replaceable on this model, and while I could send it in for repairs, this was a brand new computer that I had never even used, so I decided to return it instead. She then was forced by policy to make a sales pitch for an extended warranty. It was embarrassing.

    She gave me the case number from support to use when calling sales to return it and told me what number to call, but I wasn’t able to call until Monday, because they were closed on the weekend.

    Unfortunately the return center cannot actually look up case numbers. I am then stuck waiting while the return center CALLS technical support to ask them about the case number, and apparently they don’t have any better of a connection to technical support than customers do, because they were put on hold for a long time before they could get through.

    Then customer support came back on the line to ask me what was wrong with the computer. I asked, doesn’t tech support have it in their notes? Yes, but they need to verify.

    Now they are making me talk to tech support yet again, because apparently you hire tech support that your other tech support doesn’t trust.

    Now I am having to jump through those hoops again.

    All I want at this point is to return this defective machine. Which is what I called to do. Even if I should choose to give Lenovo a second chance and have it replaced, this excessive handling as I try to manage it, is making it less and less appealing by the minute. In the literally dozens of laptop purchases that I’ve made in the past, not even beginning to count all of the desktop purchases, really, this is the most unhappy with a computer purchase that I’ve ever been.

    So, tech support guy number 2 says, oh, it is totally customer replaceable “you just need to remove one screw”, and we have it in stock. The thing is, because of the shipping early while I was out of town, I am now on the final day of being allowed to return it. I point this out, as at this point we are only assuming that the DVD drive is the only problem with the unit, I haven’t actually worked with it further.

    Both sales and tech support say that I will be able to return it beyond the normal return time, if I will accept the option of trying to replace the part. I agree to it because I believe American Express will back me on the matter should it come to that.

    Tech support tells me the drive will arrive in two days.

    It doesn’t.

    I call back to ask about the drive and am told it isn’t in stock. I am told it should be in within a week, and I agree to give it a little more time, because other things in my life were becoming very complicated and I didn’t have enough energy to fight with them about it right then. He verified my email address (which was wrong, STILL – I had actually already been through the email address thing 3 times before, and every time I corrected them, and they said they would fix it, but it was still wrong in the exact same way it was the first time the read it back to me. “So, your email is F – O – R – E -M…” “No! It’s FAMILY F – A – M – I – L – Y the word, ‘family’” “Okay, I’ll change that”.) and said he would send me shipping confirmation.

    A week went by and no sign of the drive or the shipping notification arrived. I called again and was told it was still out of stock and to give it two more weeks. I refused and told them that it needed to be returned. I was told that somebody would call me back to start that within 72 hours, but hopefully sooner. Yeah. Hopefully sooner.

    The next day, the drive appeared on my doorstep.

    It is nice to know how organized and on top of things they are. Obviously, not at all.

    I was able to install the replacement drive, but it was not just “one screw”. I’ve done a lot of repairs and replacements on laptops and am comfortable mucking about with the hardware on a laptop. I’d have to say that for the average consumer, that was probably not really a consumer replaceable part.

    I got it put back together and it didn’t work properly AT ALL. I fought and fought and fought with the system, and eventually after much fighting with drivers and updates I was able to get it working. The brand of the replacement they sent was different than the one I pulled out, although according to online research the core manufacturer was the same. Lenovo really should be shipping with all drivers and software installed that is needed to make the basic functionality of the product WORK. After all, the first thing THEY recommend that you do is burn recovery discs, so…

    Yeah.

    Well, that is more or less my tale of Lenovo woe.

    I am not a fan.

  • Northwest Airlines/Delta

    MSP is a major hub for NWA, so we use them more than we have for a long time. Many years ago, I liked them fairly well, but not so much these days.

    Now, I do prefer them to Sun Country, which is a locally based airline. In a world where I hate to fly, and I think customer service has plummeted in general, airlines have taken a really spectacular nose dive in my book.

    Actually, I guess it has been a long time since I flew actual NWA, because NWA is in the process of being assimilated by Delta (it grows and grows with each passing flight) and I have NEVER liked Delta.

    I hate flying, and could go on and on about it, but I have other things to do today, so I will try to stay focused.

    NWA (like many of the others) is all about nickle and diming you to death now. The price for the ticket is not the price for the ticket as it used to be to travel. I know many of the others are charging for food and for checked luggage now, so I will leave that for another ranty post. One of the things that has really been bugging me about NWA is that they are holding so many of their seats aside now as preferred seats, so it is almost impossible to choose a seat when you book unless you are willing to pay extra. They hold them back until the last minute, and then seemingly randomly assign them to passengers.

    The Boston flight, the number of people who were traveling together, who were not assigned seats with each other was just shocking. There we all are on the plane, making trades with people, so they we could sit with traveling companions. Bad enough to be in such cramped quarters, I’d really prefer to be pressed uncomfortably close to somebody I know, instead of a stranger. It is like in the seat lottery they are not even taking tickets purchased together on one reservation into account.

    On the flight to California, the seat in front of me was completely fucked up. It was leaning to the right, and slightly back. One of the support bars was broken. A second one appeared to be missing. It was held partially back together with a zip tie. Seriously, I took a crappy cell phone photo. That zip tie was what was keeping the tray sort of vaguely… less broken. The tray was unusable. It was completely crooked because the seat it was attached to was crooked, and then further broken because the support bolt was gone. It was straining at the latch and bowed out badly. I had to keep adjust the latch to keep it from popping open because of flight vibration. I did try to open it to put water on it and work on a Sudoku puzzle, but it wasn’t usable, and then I had a horrible time getting it closed, totally pissing off the person in front of me.

    At my destination, my suitcase (which I paid extra to be able to travel with) was broken. Just a big gaping separation along one seam, and from the placement it seemed pretty obvious that they had caused it by picking it up by the rolling handle inset, instead of by one of the two actual suitcase handles.

    I reported it to somebody, who tried to convince me not to file a claim.

    “Well, you know, it takes like 12 weeks.”

    “Umm, okay.”

    “I mean, they try to repair it for you. You don’t even get any money unless they can’t repair it for you.”

    “Okay.”

    “I mean, is it even… I mean, how old is it?”

    “Less than a year.”

    “Well, how much did it cost?”

    “$150”

    “Is it even worth the trouble for you?”

    “Umm… yes.”

    “Well, you have to fill out a form.”

    “Okay. Then what? You keep my bag?”

    “Yes. We send it off, it will be gone about 12 weeks.”

    “How do I get my stuff home?”

    “You have 24 hours to turn it in. You fill out the form, and then empty your stuff and bring it back within 24 hours.”

    “But, this isn’t home. I don’t go home for two weeks. How am I supposed to get my stuff home?”

    Delta lady calls somebody to ask about this problem. How can this be an unusual problem? Am I actually the first person ever who has persisted in filing a complaint who actually had the problem on the front end of their trip?

    Eventually she determines that I can turn it in within 24 hours of my return flight. They have no solution as to how I get my stuff safely home in a broken suitcase.

    Then we go to fill out the form. It turns out I have very little to do. She must type a whole lot to fill it out. I don’t write a thing, or sign a thing. I mostly just stand there and tell her some addresses and phone numbers. It takes a long time.

    When I opened it last night, several little things inside were broken. Like my plastic pill minder was broken and pills were all over the inside of my suitcase. It was aggravating. They obviously treated it fairly roughly.

    Bah.