• Dell Customer Service

    30Jul
    Categories: Tech Comments: 6

    A friend of mine, Richard Miller, bought a Dell laptop in February. It was a fairly modest, economical laptop. In the process of hooking up a number of peripherals, he got shocked by a Microsoft Wireless keyboard. His own words on what happened next:

    A couple hours later I needed to print something so I plugged in the power to my printer, plugged the USB cord into my laptop, and handed the other end to my wife to plug into the printer.

    KERPOW!

    Sparks flew at the printer, something popped in my laptop, a wisp of smoke curled out of the back of my laptop, and everything went dead.

    Further investigation revealed that the laptop would not so much as power up. He contacted Dell Tech Support via Live Chat. He gave all his info to a rep. The rep told him to hold on several times. He was beginning to get concerned and then the phone rang. It was a supervisor from Dell! He asked if he was hurt and seemed very anxious to make sure he was OK. 4 days later he received the laptop via FedEx Next Day Air. It wasn’t anything close to the laptop that had been damaged. It was a very nicely upgraded one!

    Here are the highlights:
    CPU - from a Pentium M 2.0 Ghz to a Core Duo (Dual Core) 2.0 Ghz
    HD - From 80GB to 120GB
    Graphics - From 64mb integrated to an ATI 256mb X1400
    Software - From a free Corel word processor to Office 2003 Basic

    The probable reason of his white glove treatment was Dell’s recent PR disasters regarding electrical “malfunctions” regarding its laptops. A Dell laptop in Japan:

    Dell Laptop explodes in Japan

    Another Dell laptop also recently burst into flames.

  • Google Customer Service

    27Jul
    Categories: Tech Comments: 0

    Wow! Google has amazing customer service. A friend of mine complained in a recent blog post about problems with Google’s Checkout service. In response Google sent him a card apologizing along with pack of Google goodies including a Google USB thumbdrive, a Google USB hub, a Google USB light, a Google gum, a Google retractable USB mouse, a Google tshirt, a Google hat, a Google pens, a Google mug, and a Google tablet.

    Here’s the card:

    Dear Mr. Witmer,

    I do apologize for the trouble you experienced using the Google Checkout system. In an attempt to make it up to you, I have included some Google goodies.

    I hope you enjoy the gifts and have a great day!

    Sincerely, Libby Neville

    Kirb summed it up with these words: “I’m feeling lucky!”

    Yahoo can feel free to do the same for my previous post. =)

  • Yahoo Customer Service/Webmaster

    24Jul
    Categories: Tech Comments: 3

    Let’s just say that I am less than impressed.

    This is a portion of Yahoo’s front page:

    Notice the bottom right link. The one to the Kevin Sites report. It is a link for http://www.yahoo.com/s/354600. That url redirects to http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/ww/news/2006/07/24/0724hotzonethumb.jpg instead of the mentioned story. That url is just what it sounds like: a thumbnail.

    In other words, a very serious link problem that affects millions of people. So I took the time to write to Yahoo. I scoured their front page for a “Contact Us” link, but found none. So I did a Yahoo search for contact yahoo. I went to first result and then clicked on “Eeeks! A Bug! - if you’ve found a bug, please email us with the details.” I filled out the bug report form thus:

    On the front page under the “Featured” section, the link (http://www.yahoo.com/s/354600) for “Kevin Sites Reports: Destruction in Lebanon” (http://www.yahoo.com/s/354600) redirects to a thumbnail of Kevin Sites instead of the story.

    I got a generic reply (Ticket: KMM70561487V83948L0KM) from them at 4:33 PM. It is now 10:17 PM and the problem still isn’t fixed.

    Pathetic.

  • Yahoo! Music to offer unrestricted MP3s?

    18Jul
    Categories: Tech Comments: 10

    Everyone who has been following the tech scene knows that the first company to offer mainstream music in unrestricted MP3 format will see a huge spike in their business and may garner lasting dominance. There is widespread dissatisfaction with the draconian DRM that the mainstream online music providers (iTunes, Napster, Yahoo! Music, etc) have been imposing upon their customers. However, music and movie company execs seem not to realize that making the customer happy is what brings them increased business. Thus, they are trying to fight the losing game of putting cracked DRM protections on their products. This is utter foolishness that antagonizes their legitimate customers, but does nothing to stop piracy. The pirates are the pros at cracking DRM and have done so for some time. It is not difficult for them to extract unencrypted content from DRM’ed files. However, for the average Joe who wants to transfer his music to a CD or portable music player, or transfer a DVD to his laptop, it’s incredibly difficult. The serious pirates aren’t stopped, but those that simply want to engage in Fair Use of the product for which they paid are up a creek.

    I am a member of Yahoo! Music Unlimited To-Go. I received an email from them asking me to participate in a customer survey. I was delighted to see the two following questions in the survey:

    If Yahoo! Music offered an unrestricted MP3 file format for music downloads, how likely would you be to use it?

    Would you consider paying $1.09 for a single, unrestricted MP3 download that would have absolutely no limitations on its use and could be transferred to any portable audio player or computer?

    Wow! I am excited! It seems that Yahoo is much more tied into the pulse of the internet and knows what its customers want; this is not the first time that Yahoo revolutionized the online music business. Let’s hope it’s not the last and that this feeler blossoms into a service!

    Update: A few months ago:

    Yahoo Music chief Dave Goldberg raised eyebrows Thursday [2-23-2006] at the Music 2.0 conference in Los Angeles with a proposal rarely heard from executives at large digital music services: Record labels should try selling music online without copy protection.

    Enjoyed this post? Digg it! Vote for it on Netscape and ShoutWire!

  • Infiniti Q45 Donuts

    18Jul
    Categories: General, Personal Comments: 5

    One afternoon, we headed out to a remote off-road strip where we wouldn’t bother anyone and made sure that we got every last penny worth of money out my cousin’s tires that he was preparing to replace:

    Where the rubber peels off the tire and meets the road.


    Just getting warmed up…


    Into the first rotation; really starting leave a mark and spew some smoke now…


    Still in the first rotation, the car is almost obscured by the smoke…


    Coming out of the first rotation’s cloud of smoke and peeled rubber; heads back in for a second donut.


    The second rotation…


    A proud steed!


    The second set of donuts that included the reverse…


    Infiniti was here.

    Videos:

    Double donut (DivX, 1.66 MB - very low quality, XviD, 20 MB - high quality, AVI, 74.7 MB - very high quality, YouTube)

    Donut, reverse, then double donut (DivX, 1.19 MB - very low quality, XviD, 13.7 MB - high quality, AVI, 54.4 MB - very high quality, YouTube)

    If you have trouble playing the above video files, try installing the K-Lite codec pack.

  • Coworker: Customer Stories

    13Jul
    Categories: Humor, Work Comments: 1

    One of my coworkers posted some hilarious customer stories on his Xanga:

    1. I pick up the phone with my traditional opening line: “Golden Rule Travel, this is Patrick.” And I here a redneck voice on the other end say “Howdy.” Thats it. Total silence. What exactly am I supposed to say? Can I help you with something today sir, or would you prefer to have me spend my precious time sitting in silence with you while you contemplate what to say?

    2. I sell a women a train ticket to Denver, Colorado. After purchasing, she asks, “Now is there a train station in Denver?” -No, ma’am. You gotta jump. Out the front.

    3. I sell a guy a plane ticket. He says he is paying with credit card. Ok, just give me the cc number sir. He asks, “So, uh, ya need the number off the front? I reply, “Yes, sir.” Several seconds later I hear beep, beep, beep. Total of sixteen digits. He was dialing his credit card number to me via phone. I’m sorry, sir. Last time I checked my ears were NOT hypersonic, and I didn’t catch that number. After putting him on mute while rolling with laughter, I asked him if he could just read me his number. Very good.

    4. This is the best. A guy comes into the office with his wife. He ends up at my desk. Turns out his wife had bought a ticket the day before, and wasn’t going to be able to fly, so she wanted me to void out her ticket. While I am working on this situation, this woman’s husband decides to occupy himself by cutting up the papers on my desk. Papers I needed. Very nice, sir. Thank-you. Here have some more. Happy cutting over there. I finally looked at him, and he was like, “Oh.” Oh? You chop my papers to bits, and all you can say is oh? Maybe I’ll come over to your house sometime for a cutting party. I’ll supply the paper and scissors, and you, sir, can cut to your heart’s desire. Won’t that be nice?

    The life of a travel agent. Whew……So, until next time…Tata

  • Bus Rides in China

    02Jul
    Categories: General, Humor Comments: 0

    Here’s an excerpt of an email from a friend of mine, Maria P. (SE Asia posts: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5), who just got back from China:

    looking for a thrill-ride?
    try a bus ride
    in China
    with a drunk driver
    (i guess you could call him drunk… he only had 8 bottles)
    on a bumpy road (that was a gross understatement).
    as you’re flying around the curves, don’t stick your head out too far on the right.
    you may hit the mountain!
    look out a window on the left, sure, you can see the road… 1′ of it.
    and then you see the river.

    waaaaaaaaaay

    down

    there.

    you begin to talk seriously about “going down in history.”
    you wonder who will ever find you in that river!
    then you stand (or at least attempt to) in the isle and sing “Father Abraham”.
    after all, you’ve got to find some way to keep your sanity!

    distance to travel: 25 miles.
    it may take 3 hours.
    it may take 6 hours.
    that all depends on how many times the driver wants to stop for beer… or another game of pool.

    oh, the joys of asian transportation!!
    let’s just say, i’m happy to be home - alive!! : )

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