Paul's "dot" on the web: Gripes

Best Buy - AVOID

Fri, 20 May 2005 03:01:22 GMT

So over the past few years I have gone back and forth about recommending Best Buy to others. After this latest event I have decided that they are not worthy of my business or anyone else’s.

About 18 months ago I decided I would tread into the plasma TV world. Ever since I saw the first commercial for them many years ago I wanted one. I decided that I would start at the lower end and eventually that TV would end up as my bedroom TV and then later I would buy a high-end one for the living room. Six months after buying this TV it died.

When I purchased the TV I also purchased an expensive extended warranty. Thinking that it would be no big deal to get it fixed I called them. They set a time to come out, I took time off work and they came out to fix it. Guess what. They didn't have the parts and would have to order them.

Two or three weeks later still no parts and I am getting mad. So I start crawling up the ladder of Best Buy trying to get someone to help me. No one would. So much for customer service. Finally I walked up the General Manager of the store I purchased it from and told him that I will be reporting his store to the Better Business Bureau and the Washington State Attorney Generals office for fraudulent sales of the extended warranty /service plan. That got his attention. He agreed to swap the TV out for a new one under the extended warrantee.

Taking his advice that the one I bought was really a poor quality TV I upgraded and spent more money to get a higher level model. However, I had to again buy the service agreement. Personally I think that the original should have transferred - but no. So I spent another $400.

Now we are less than a year later and this one died yesterday. Now I am not one who does not take care of electronics. I am a gadget junkie and they are well cared for. So once again I call for service. I tell the person that because of massive deadlines at work I can not take off work and that the service call would have to be in the afternoon. So I get a call this morning to book the time and they want to come at 10:00 in the morning. Told them that I am at work and can't do that time and I expressed that when I made the call. The repair person told me that he worked from 7 - 3:30 which are the hours that I need to be in the office.

How stupid is it for a company to have service call, especially on high-end items, at those early hours? People work to be able to pay for those things. They should expect that service would be wanted later in the day.

So I had to call them again today, and they said they could make the request, but could not guarantee that the appointment would happen in the afternoon. So I get to wait until Monday to see what time they propose this time.

Does this sound like customer service to you?

I say this not to brag, but to make a point. I have spent around $20,000 USD at Best Buy over the last 18 months. Isn't that they kind of customer a business wants to keep? Perhaps I have the wrong idea of what customer service is or how to keep customers loyal.

This is something that I have heard of from others as well. Now they seem to be able to deal with something that costs $100, but not something that costs $4,000.

My recommendation to you...the only thing I would purchase from Best Buy is there $5.99 DVDs. You can't go wrong there.

I know that they have lost a long time customer today.

What, if any, has your experience with Best Buy been? Personally I have experienced awful customer service.

Gas Prices (U.S.)

Sun, 17 Apr 2005 03:34:29 GMT

Anyone notice how gas is approaching $3.00 a gallon? At least here in Seattle. Funny - a few years a go as it approached (and just went over) $2.00 I heard everyone yelling about it, saw it all over the news. But now as we are approaching $3.00 people seem fairly quiet.

Have we just resolved ourselves to paying whatever price is posted?

Something isn't quite right here. There are many sources of crude oil in the world, perhaps the lack of commentary or action in the U.S. is because domestic oil and refinery is located in "red" states?

Use of the word "fag" or any variation

Wed, 23 Mar 2005 06:33:03 GMT

I want to make this perfectly clear to any one who reads this. The use of the word "fag" or ANY variation of that word regardless of the spelling, or context is offensive. Put it in the same class of a word that starts with N that is used in reference to Black people. There is no context in the US where the word "fag" is not derogatory. So if you use that word on my site, or on ANY MSN site, including your own, I will ask you nicely once to remove it. If you do not I will then not be so nice and probably look at filing criminal charges against you. In Washington state – particularly King County, sexual orientation is protected against any type of discrimination and the use of the word is offensive, derogatory, and yes, discriminatory. For those of you who do not know, MSN is a Microsoft property. Microsoft resides within King County Washington, therefore, the anti-discrimination and anti-hate laws are applicable regardless of where you live.

At a minimum I'll work to have your site and MSN account removed.

If you are a person who is so full of hate, first of all I feel extremely sorry for you as you must lead an awful life, but more importantly there are other ways to express your hate for something than to use language that is considered derogatory against ANY group of people.

Also, know that I will not limit it to this one word. I will extend it to any word that is offensive to any group of people. I mean seriously - what is the point when you have many other choices to express yourself.

There is enough hate and BS in this world without this kind of stuff. So instead of offending people why don’t you try and find a way to make the world a bit of a better place to live in?

If you have a Blog - Make it easy for people to contact you

Wed, 16 Mar 2005 05:49:44 GMT

Well not really a gripe - but sometime I like to just put things in a category!

So I don't get it - people create all these Blogs, the put up photos, music, etc, and never create a single Blog entry so you can leave comments about their sites.

It is really easy - even if your one entry just says hi! :)

Hate - Why??????

Thu, 10 Mar 2005 05:15:53 GMT

So I guess I have more to say today that uploading some photos and fluff. Can someone tell me why people hate - literally hate - those who look different from them, think different from them, have a different religion than them? Have we not evolved to some point of not living in caves?

I am sure this will make a lot of people angry but the one that makes me most angry is the hate between religions. I will admit that I am not an expert on religion, but do people realize that more people have been killed, maimed, hurt, made homeless, forced in to poverty and slavery in the name of religion than all other reasons.

What I don't understand is why can't various religions just get along? I know that sounds simple. But each person should be able to have their own beliefs, I don't believe those beliefs should be forced upon others, and we all should accept people for who they are.

A key thing I don't understand so someone of a particular "group" (for lack of a better word) who claims that people hate them, but then turn around and teat others hatefully. What right do they have to complain when they are just as hateful?

Do you remember (if you are old enough) in the 60's and 70"s when everyone was so concerned about over population of the world? Well those people need no longer to worry if we keep going as we are going. Quite simple we are killing enough people worldwide at a pace that the number of births soon will be less that those that are killed.

If you are reading this please take a moment to think about hate. Are you full of hate for those who are different from you, or are you a person who embraces the differences between people? Also, what can you do to educate someone else about hate? We are tearing ourselves apart. When does it stop? Why are people so angry?

Also stop and think - what examples are we showing our children and young adults? And think about the kids that suffer because of their parents prejudices. There is more danger in today's schools than there are is most major city alleyways in the middle of the night.

When I was young the one thing I dreamed of was that during my lifetime I would see a huge decline in violence, hate, war, and prejudice. Sadly as each year passes it seems that this is one dream that won’t come true.

UPS

Tue, 22 Feb 2005 03:57:51 GMT

As today was a typical day at work (yes it is a U.S. holiday but not for me) I was wondering what I would write about. And then an unusual situation arose that answered the question. UPS - you probably know them - Brown that delivers packages to your home or business?

When I came home today I found a notice on my door today from UPS and one from FedEx as they came by while I was working and not home to receive the deliveries. Now shortly after I got home today as I am usually home sometime around 3:30 the FedEx truck shows up comes walking up to my door package in hand as that was not a package that could be delivered without my signature. Given the contents I understand. But note....the driver made the decision on his own to come by a 2nd time to see if someone was home to sign for the package as all the FedEx drivers in this area have taken the time to know my general work schedule (gives you an idea of the number of deliveries I get) - they have taken the time to get to know their customer - and yes while I'm not the one doing the shipping - I pay shipping fee to the company shipping the product to me, thus making me the actual customer! – not the shipper.

Let's get to UPS. As I mentioned before there was also a notice from UPS. All the notice said was that they attempted to deliver a package would try again tomorrow. I've lived in this house for 4.5 years. I get deliveries nearly every day as I am a huge .com customer. This package did not require anyone to sign for it. It was perfectly ok for the driver to leave on the front porch as is done almost every day for the past 4.5 years without issue.

Wondering what could be coming that would require a signature I spend quite sometime digging through orders, email, etc., and finally found what was due to arrive today. In calling UPS they said based upon the company that the package came from the driver must have decided that it needed a signature. In trying to explain that I order from this company all the time and there are no items in these orders that mandate a signature. The UPS representation told me that she did not call to argue about this (please note that I am cutting out part of the conversation). I let her know that I have no desire to argue but need to know why I have having to call UPS and she is needing to call me back nearly every week. What has changed in the past 6 months? Orders are left at the wrong addresses, the driver leaves an notice on my mailbox and doesn't bother knocking my door when it clear I'm home...its dark and you can see light in the windows, the driver attempts deliver a package to the basement door - again dark outside light on the main level.

Notice a huge difference between UPS and FedEx. FedEx goes out of their way literally to deliver packages. UPS goes out of their way to make home deliver difficult. Could this be based upon the starting of these to companies? If you look at their start-up they both are extremely different. Fred Smith the found of FedEx had to learn that they only way his business was going to make was by customer service. They went public on the stock market very early in the company's life. UPS on the other hand went public very late in the company's life and only offered (if I remember correctly) 10% of the company and got billions of $$ which probably weren't really need in the first place. Or is UPS striving to become as efficient as a governmental agency? At this point I have more confidence in the United States Postal Service that UPS.

Net companies - I encourage you to give your customer the option of choosing the carrier they would like to have their purchases delivered. I know at this point a factor in whether I purchase from you or not will be the carrier you use. You may be providing the best customer service in the world, but if the carrier you choose to use doesn't it will reflect directly on you - unfortunately because you choose the carrier. I am convinced that through negotiation you will be able to get the same shipping rate between the various carriers that offer shipping methods that meet your unique needs. It is a highly competitive market.

UPS - should you some how come across this - know that I will exercise my freedom of speech and tell these stories until such time as you realize that the receiver of your deliveries are your actual customer as we ultimately pay the bill. But also know that I won't limit it to negative stories. When I have a story where someone from UPS has gone out of their way to ensure that I get my delivery. I will gladly write that story. For it will be a first.

FedEx - you have the right idea about customer service. Please keep these values within your company. The fact alone that if I miss a delivery and often can call before 2:00 and your personnel will do what they can to contact the driver to see if they are still in the area to make a second attempt astonishes me. And I sincerely thank you for this value added service. Should your quality decline I will unfortunately write about that as well.

Both companies please know that I hate to write negative things. I am an extremely positive person. But living my whole live in the shadow of Nordstrom Customer Service - I expect a high level of customer service and will not accept anything else particularly when I pay for it.

The names of the companies mentioned in this entry the Trademarks of the respective owners.