I Never Cease To be Amazed

[Ken Massingale]

at big business.
We live in a communications Black Hole. Cable is available 500 yards away on the left and DSL is available 100 yards away on the right, but neither is available at our address.
Bellsouth has sold us DSL 4 times, twice they sent the modem and hardware, only to tell us that they goofed. At least they knew how to mail a UPS label for return shipping of the equipment.

Last week I checked availability on Charter.com for our address and they said it is available. I placed the order, thinking that this can't be true, Charter doesn't serve our area, but thought maybe they are expanding. The order said a modem would be shipped.
I then called Charter and confirmed that Charter online made an error. The nice lady assured me that no hardware would be shipped.
Wellll, a couple of days ago UPS left a package on the porch, you guessed it, from Charter.
I called Charter to ask for a return shipping label. They told me to take it to a Charter office, no way says I, that's a 40 mile round trip.
So I'll reduce the 50 minute call and 5 CS reps to a summary.
Charter doesn't know how to mail a UPS label for me to stick on the box they sent.
They are going to ship an empty box with the label attached, inside another box that is addressed to me. I can then put the box they sent in the empty box and call UPS to pick it up.
Amazing!

[Uncle Cracker]

The computer age has apparently taken away many peoples' ability to think for themselves. Just try to get your grocery cashier to count back your change sometime... I guess we have to take the bad with the good.

[GRDavid]

They are going to ship an empty box with the label attached, inside another box that is addressed to me. I can then put the box they sent in the empty box and call UPS to pick it up.

Check with Charter to see if calling for a pickup is part of the deal. Call tags are as implicit in their instructions and billing as is the original shipping methods. I'll guess they didn't include a scheduled pickup which is roughly $20.00 and therefore would be on your dime.
All facilities and drivers are obligated to take your package if properly labeled. Find out where your local driver eats lunch and ambush him with it.

[Richard in Smithville]

Amazing is right Ken. It's no longer possible to get people to work in the simplist of terms these days. I work in quality assurance and we are always fighting to keep people from making their work procedures too much to follow.
Not to differ from your original post Ken, but this is also way too true;

The computer age has apparently taken away many peoples' ability to think for themselves. Just try to get your grocery cashier to count back your change sometime... I guess we have to take the bad with the good.

Where loml works, there was great panic among the high school and college students when the tills started having trouble and they had to figure out how much change to give out.

[LinuxRandal]

The same moron's who don't know how to help, if it's not on a prepared script, or read an analog clock?

I had an oddball question recently and called a company's 800 number. If I would have got someone on the assembly line, they would have laughed and told me in 20 seconds. As was, the woman couldn't help me, without a item and model number, so she could look at the same diagram I was looking at. (this was for a pressure washer)

Now, it does really PO me, that these people are allowed to advertise in area's they don't service. I understand mass tv and radio ads (blanketing an area), but comeon, WTF are you MAILING ME? I oughta be able to charge a stupid tax. If I do something stupid, it costs me, AND I LEARN FROM IT.

Now, that I am done ranting, have you tried looking wirelessly, to see if anyone is running open? If they have the equipment and broadcast, you might be able to stike a deal with them for airtime.

[Mrs. Wallnut]

The computer age has apparently taken away many peoples' ability to think for themselves. Just try to get your grocery cashier to count back your change sometime... I guess we have to take the bad with the good.

This is so true. The place I work I have a lot of people tell me that they appreciate me counting the change back or being able to figure out their change if they give me a penny after the register is opened.

Ken I feel for ya. I have a friend who went through a lot of trouble for something like that.

[ragswl4]

I feel for you, Ken. Here's my story with Sears Customer Service. :


The threads for two bolts that hold the handle onto the fence stripped out. Steel bolts in aluminum threads (Duh!!). Saw is 3 months old so I suspect the threads were mostly stripped out when I got the saw. Purchased a two year extended warranty when I got the saw.

Called Sears on May 30 and they told me to bring the fence in for repair. I did. On June 11, I checked on the status and it was "returned without repair". I go to Sears and talk to the CS folks. They tell me the fence went from California to Texas (they wouldn't fix it) to Montana (they wouldn't fix it) and back to California. The reason for all this is that since I had an extended warranty the repair could only be done at my home! The CS folks don't know what to do so I tell them what they are going to do, "give me a new fence". Oh, no they say, goota call a supervisor.

Supervisor arrives so I ask why the kind folks who took my fence in the first place didn't tell me that. Well the supervisor says, "I'll have to train them on that". I ask her what she's going to do about the fence. She looks at my receipt, warranty, counts on her fingers and says, "you are within the 90 day return policy, do you want to return the saw and we'll get you a new one"? This I could not believe. I ask for a new fence, can't do it she says, but will schedule an "in home" repair if I would like. OK, says I.

Two days later a guy shows up, looks at the fence. Opens his laptop computer and orders two parts. The casting where the handle attaches (original problem) and the extruded aluminum bar for the fence that was damaged when Sears shipped the fence for repair the first time.

The guy has a small printer attached to the computer, hits the print button and gives me a receipt for the parts and labor that is to be charged to Sears. Grand total: $206. Gotta be more than the cost of a new fence. Just unbelieveable. Sears net income from this 22114 saw is now $323 as I paid $529 when on sale. Oh yeah, when the parts come in they are returning to install them. Minimum charge to Sears for a warranty house call is $100. How do they stay in business?

I could have fixed the problem with a couple of heili-coils in about an hour, in fact I will and save the new parts.

[Anna]

And that's why I love Amazon.com's and Apple's customer service. I rarely send anything back to Amazon, but when I do, it's never a problem. I just print out the shipping label off the 'net and UPS comes to pick it up (as arranged by Amazon, not me).

With Apple, my recent experience had me calling them on Tuesday because of "missing RAM" in my system profile. I have 1 GB of RAM, but system profile only shows 512 MB. We thought it might be a bad RAM, still under warranty. By Wednesday morning, a box arrived from Apple with the new RAM.

After repeated tests, it turned out to be a bad RAM slot after all (long story). Called Apple back that day and we concluded that I have to send my computer in. Thursday morning, the shipping box for the Powerbook had arrived. All I have to do is put the Powerbook in, seal the box, and DHL will pick it up.

Painless, seamless, and really fast.

As for Sears, I'm not buying a single thing from that POS company ever again.

[Jeffrey Schronce]

I second Amazon experience.

I had an issue with the backlight on my brand new HP computer. HP did the exact same thing. FedEx empty, padded box with return overnight label. I was back in business in no time.

[Hellrazor]

As for Sears, I'm not buying a single thing from that POS company ever again.

I always tell people "Friends don't let friends buy craftsmans power tools"

I wouldn't buy anything electric or gas powered from them again.

[Uncle Cracker]

I always tell people "Friends don't let friends buy craftsmans power tools"

I wouldn't buy anything electric or gas powered from them again.

I actually have had good service from those few Craftsman power tools I have, but I realize I'm probably in the minority, and I will say that my tools are all several years old, back when there was some pride left at Sears. Lest we all forget, they're K-Mart now...

[cabinetman]

Ken, the box thing and label thing is a real mystery. My wife is always ordering stuff online and it varies from company to company who does the label thing and who does the box thing. I'm thinking it may be whatever policy is established for the particular company.

But dealing with the human factor is something else. Maybe on employment applications they should have a line that asks "Do you pay attention?"

For an example, Friday I had to call a medical diagnostic center to arrange for a CT scan. So I dial the number, get the menu, select #3 for an appointment. Go on proverbial hold and listen to some awful noise I assumed was music. About every 2 minutes get a message about how great the facility is and to stay on the line to hold my place. Well, eventually a voice comes on and I say "I would like to make an appointment for a CT scan". The reply was "Do you mean an X-ray?".

[LinuxRandal]

Thanks for the chuckles.

I had one issue with Amazon, that while resolved, wasn't really to my satisfaction. When I ordered the Drill Dr. from them (after seeing it in the bargin alerts), I noticed, listed in the accessories, was the left handed chuck. I clicked on it, read it, and ordered it. It arrived in the same box as the Drill Dr. But I found out, it was for the old 750 model, not the 750X.
I sent in a reply and request for the RMA (if I am remembering right, as the shipping label has a return, that I believe required the RMA.
I informed them that while this is old stock, and they still had some stock of the old unit, this would NOT work with the new one.

Guess what chuck has still shown up on that page, and what they still sell?

As for Sears, their hand tools are decent (some better then others), their lawn mowers ok (just like most mowers, I get them abused, and fix normally), but I WON'T go as far to say ALL THEIR power tools suck, because they don't.
They had a Bosch router (since my dad had all the jigs/guides, etc, from the OLD Sears days), and a couple of tablesaw's over the years, including now, that is fairly well liked.
I am still learning that lot's of places sell JUNK, and what the sign's are, by the employee's actions/reactions.

[mater]

I can believe that about Charter. Their CS sucks most of the time. At times I have had to hang up and call back before I could get someone that could help me.

[mn95616]

I was a comcast DSL customer for almost 5 years - paying the full price of $59ish. Never got a free modem or anything. Then I saw them running a special for new customer for $19.99 for 6 months. Called them to see if I can get the special for 6 months. They said no. I said I will cancel and get SBC Yahoo DSL because it's cheaper ($27 at the time). They still wouldn't give me the special for 6 months even though I paid full price for 5 years. So I cancelled and ordered SBC. Two days after I got SBC, they call me up and offer me the $19.99 for 6 months deal if I would reactivate. Too late, I already have SBC.

At work, one of my Dell computer had a burned out powersupply. Called Dell's tech support. Told them that I run a IT shop, and that we have determined that the power supply was dead and please ship us out a replacement part. Tech Support was very insistant that we turn on the machine to run some diagnostic tests. HELLO!!!! THE POWER SUPPLY WAS DEAD! Had to call another tech support staff to finally get the PS replaced.