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Check Your Receipts When You Exit Radio Shack
My Girlfriend's Call to Dell: 90 Minutes, 10 Customer Service Reps, Nothing Accomplished
Sometimes We Unintentionally Endorse Bad Companies, Like MacPadd
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Apple Aware of Snow Leopard User Account Bug
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MacBook Pro Shocking the Crap Out of This Poor Reader
ThinkPad's $100 a Year Warranty Service is Actually Pretty Good

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quayzar
11/26/09

In reply to Check Your Receipts When You Exit Radio Shack
Considering that the Radio Shack POS can at times be a POS I find it much more likely that the POS just cocked up than someone trying to pull a fast one. I remember one of our capture pads died daily needing to be reset while we moved the ticket to a different POS. It would crash during times that were the most inconvenient such as mobile activations during the signature capture stage. But regardless of that info could you imagine a Radio Shack employee saying; ha, I just made you donate money to a cancer charity. What kind of evil scheme is that? When I worked there last year we did the same thing. I made no extra money and there were no problems other than some people tapping the wrong button on the capture pad.
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nutbastard
11/25/09

In reply to Check Your Receipts When You Exit Radio Shack
what happened to the good old days where when someone dicked you over, society turned a blind eye to a well deserved pummeling?
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Lite: hates Illinois Nazis
11/25/09

In reply to Check Your Receipts When You Exit Radio Shack
I don't support Livestrong. I support Wriststrong.
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Norbs
11/25/09

@Lite: hates Illinois Nazis: Stephen Colbert suffered horribly from his major fall and we learned from him so it would not happen to us. We need to spread wrist injury awareness.
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met2art
11/25/09

In reply to Check Your Receipts When You Exit Radio Shack
Seems more likely these folks were just mindlessly pressing "Yes" on the customer terminal to rush through the purchase, without paying attention. Much in the same way many of us scroll through TOS screens without even a second glance...

The Livestrong bracelets are a SKU item, and as such, based on what I know of Radio Shack, don't factor into any employee commissions. Besides which, shouldn't a consumer who is seriously concerned about a $1 charge double check the total amount before consenting to the debit/credit purchase? Or even double check the receipt before exiting the store?
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GitEmSteveDave_DefinesTurgid
11/25/09

In reply to Check Your Receipts When You Exit Radio Shack
I still wonder if this is like PetsMart where you have to select "Yes" when it asks you to donate on the customer side POS terminal. I would think if this was so widespread/possible, some AG's would have looked into it by now. Wouldn't be the first time someone just kept clicking "yes", as many EULA, Virus, and Malware authors hope you will.
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bornonbord
11/25/09

In reply to Check Your Receipts When You Exit Radio Shack

I'm growing a moustache for Movember. If they want my money, they'll have to take it from my Movember donation page.

[us.movember.com]
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Noobs-R-Us
11/25/09

In reply to Check Your Receipts When You Exit Radio Shack
Yea, well FUCK Radio Shack for trying to cure cancer!

There, you happy now Mr. Chen?
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PN - gooapplesoft
11/25/09

@Noobs-R-Us: only a kid would think that way... I got into a 30 minute conversation with the redbox lady even though my 30 minutes was worth more then that 1 dollar. Its the ethics of the situation. Its the fact that they took a dollar away from you without telling you.
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92BuickLeSabre
11/25/09

@PN - gooapplesoft: One could argue that such black and white thinking (and failure to place cost benefit above pride) is equally immature.

Perhaps the most mature is to acknowledge it's not right, realize it's just a dollar and went to a good cause, maybe make one call as a civic duty, and move on with one's life.
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PN - gooapplesoft
11/25/09

@92BuickLeSabre: where would our country be if the founding fathers had the same ideology as you and just moved on with their lives and let the brits continue fucking them.

In my case:
-Cost: waste of 30 minutes that I would have wasted on something else either way
-Benefit: Taught a corporate douche about the ethics of charging people without giving goods or services

Letting things go is the worst thing you can do. I would get the money from the thieves at RS and send the money to St. Judes.
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92BuickLeSabre
11/25/09

@PN - gooapplesoft: Your apparent belief that the two things are analogous is pretty much my point in a nutshell.
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PN - gooapplesoft
11/25/09

@92BuickLeSabre: the fact that you think the two aren't analogous is ridiculous.
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92BuickLeSabre
11/25/09

@PN - gooapplesoft:

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, the pursuit of Happiness, and not letting some punk kid Donate a dollar to cancer research Without Permission.
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tex242
11/26/09

@92BuickLeSabre: You pay every speeding ticket that comes your way don't you?
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UnderLoK
11/13/09

In reply to My Girlfriend's Call to Dell: 90 Minutes, 10 Customer Service Reps, Nothing Accomplished
I was living down in Lauderdale at the time and my Mom didn’t want to bother me with a computer problem she was having so she took the initiative to call customer service at Dell.

She couldn’t get on the internet, that was it, and while my Mom couldn’t convey exactly what had happened I found out when I came back up for a friends wedding. I went down to my Mom’s office at the house and on the desk I saw a Dell XP CD… I almost shit and asked her where it came from and she said that Dell said she needed it and charged her $40 for it. $40 for a cd that came with her computer… Ok well whatever, so I said "you didn’t put this in the computer did you?" and she went on to tell me that Dell had her put it in while the computer was off, turn it on, and go through some stuff. I freaking flipped out because I knew they just wiped out my Mom’s computer when the router was just flaked out.

I immediately called, was transferred to a manager and I let them have it. They credited her for the CD and offered to give her 2 more years of support for free. I’m sure you know what I told them to do with their support…

I had shown my Mom how to backup her stuff, she worked as a secretary (exec assistant I guess they call them now days) so she wasn’t a fool and for a long time she was great about backing up her stuff, but long story short she hadn’t in a very long time (and I wasn’t around to check up on it).

She told me she had a word doc with over 500 recipes in it that she had created herself (her own work not from cook books), I literally thought I was going to throw up. Luckily I was able to get piece a copy back together for her, but almost all of the other stuff was gone, no biggie that file was the only real important thing.

I couldn’t believe some MORON had my Mom (r.i.p.) format and reinstall her computer because it wouldn’t get on the forking internet… They got theirs we didn’t renew our lease with them at work because that was the last straw. I enjoyed that conversation with our sales rep.

After that my Mom wasn’t even upset. She was like "Oh it’s ok, I have it all on papers scattered around I’ll just re-enter it all", but her tone changed while I was trying to restore her stuff because she couldn’t find half of the papers. Oh and the best part? The idiots at Dell still didn’t get her internet working nor did they give her the drivers to load so her printer didn’t work, it was at 256 colors, and I forget what else. After doing all this with Dell she called me and didn’t tell me about all of this, I just talked her through getting the internet working (2 minute conversation) and I saw the aftermath when I came up shortly after.

Dell support is full of straight up morons, but that is what you get when you pay people minimum wage, even if they do know what they are doing, they don’t give a crap.
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Edited by UnderLoK at 11/13/09 9:46 AM UnderLoK was starred UnderLoK was unstarred

infmom
11/13/09

@UnderLoK: "Not being able to get on the internet" is a problem for every freakin' tech support person one might have to call.

Especially the low level drones who answer the phone at your ISP.

Me to Charter: Our internet connection is out.
Charter to me: How many little icons are in that bar at the bottom of your screen? They might be using too much memory.

I would not have believed that response if I hadn't heard it myself. #dellcustomerservicesucks
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Odin
11/13/09

In reply to My Girlfriend's Call to Dell: 90 Minutes, 10 Customer Service Reps, Nothing Accomplished
Bonuses by commission has a huge set of problems associated with it. It does give motivation to sell products and rewards the employee for it. Unfortunately it comes with the caveat that all the employee wants to do is get the customer to buy anything rather than give them the service they need. It's especially bad when you combine commission bonuses in with support staff. Rather than telling you what you actually need to do they're more likely to force you into buying something you don't actually need just so they can get a bit more money.

On the other hand if you don't get commissions you're more likely to be honest and up front with the customer. Often at the detriment of your employer though. #dellcustomerservicesucks
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valkilmerisawful
11/12/09

In reply to My Girlfriend's Call to Dell: 90 Minutes, 10 Customer Service Reps, Nothing Accomplished
Sorry, only good luck for me... My left mouse button stopped working, so they sent someone to my house the next day that replaced it in 20 minutes. In and out. Synaptic's track pads still work terribly (e.g., wandering cursor syndrome, mostly when running flash). I agree with most that my next computer will not be a Dell, and I built my desktop, but for a laptop, they did just fine and I still like it a lot. Alternatively, my warranty is up, so I won't be dealing with Dell ever again. #dellcustomerservicesucks
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Software_Goddess
11/12/09

In reply to My Girlfriend's Call to Dell: 90 Minutes, 10 Customer Service Reps, Nothing Accomplished
I’ve been telling my friends for years that Dell is for beginners. No one that knows better would ever buy one. If you start off with one, your second computer will be ANYTHING but a Dell. #dellcustomerservicesucks
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Shamoononon: I shave my legs.
11/12/09

@Software_Goddess: Welllllll...

If one thing is for sure, they sure have made their way into overcrowded server rooms and cubicles around the world. #dellcustomerservicesucks
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Software_Goddess
11/12/09

@Shamoononon: I wax my xxx.: Oh Sham, I feel so sorry for you. At least you are not the one that has to fix them when they get sick. #dellcustomerservicesucks
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Shamoononon: I shave my legs.
11/12/09

@Software_Goddess: Yeah, I was a little hurt there for a minute. I have two of them in my cubicle alone and we have a lot of Dell servers.

But heck, I don't own them. #dellcustomerservicesucks
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DH405
11/12/09

@Software_Goddess: I have a few pieces of Dell hardware. Had a Dell laptop for years and never had a problem. My clients very often have Dell hardware. I'd say that, in my experience, their failure rate is impressive. Why are you hating on Dell so much? Want to follow the In crowd? #dellcustomerservicesucks
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Software_Goddess
11/12/09

@DH405: I’m not a follower, I’m a leader. I’m also a Technician and I’ve seen the little buggers inside and out. I don’t recommend them to any of my clients, though like you, I have many clients who do own them. They are inferior and their customer service is a joke. #dellcustomerservicesucks
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DH405
11/13/09

@Software_Goddess: Once again another Dell-bash post... with NO facts or data. I've seen them inside and out as well, and I've had no problems with them. #dellcustomerservicesucks
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nutbastard
11/12/09

In reply to My Girlfriend's Call to Dell: 90 Minutes, 10 Customer Service Reps, Nothing Accomplished
ouch, you get the one-two punch on BB and Giz when you piss off the BLam fam. #dellcustomerservicesucks
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Nick
11/12/09

In reply to My Girlfriend's Call to Dell: 90 Minutes, 10 Customer Service Reps, Nothing Accomplished
if Brian Lam's GF can't get good service then what hope do the rest of us have?
ps
you didn't just have an extra battery lyin' about? #dellcustomerservicesucks
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weatherman
11/12/09

In reply to My Girlfriend's Call to Dell: 90 Minutes, 10 Customer Service Reps, Nothing Accomplished
It was a boring story when I saw it on BB this morning, and it's a boring story again here. It's too bad that poor Lisa didn't get the white glove treatment and that the customer support rep she talked to first, who was trying to be helpful, didn't have the right answer, but I hardly think it's worth making a fuss over. This is yet another example of a blog (two in this case) making a big issue out of a personal issue, which does not constitute news, does not shed light on a pattern or practice, and does not even bother to entertain. And it's an example of how sites like boingboing and gizmodo can go from being good blogs to becoming bad personal diaries. #dellcustomerservicesucks
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wheatieboy
11/12/09

@weatherman: Are you kidding? Two hours on Customer "Service", with no resolution and I'd be screaming from the rooftops. Why is this any less important than the guy with Red Ring of Death issues on his Xbox360? His issues were reported here.

Quit yer whingeing. #dellcustomerservicesucks
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Student.Driver
11/12/09

@weatherman: Amen. This will now show up in all kinds of search responses, and nobody will read all the good responses, like how I got both sticks of RAM overnighted for a BSOD issue. Whatever. #dellcustomerservicesucks
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max11221
11/12/09

@wheatieboy: Not exactly sure what exact "resolution" was expected. A product was PURCHASED with a particular configuration. So the purchaser wants to CHANGE the configuration and people try to help but they couldn't. Purchaser keeps COMPLAINING for two hours about something I doubt many if ANY companies would do.

So they were supposed to open up the package...take out the 6 cell and then put in a 3 cell? What would they do with the 6 cell now? Put it in the 3 cell box and sell it to someone else??? Open box it?

Sorry non-issue...someone purchased a product at a NON CUSTOM price and apparently wanted to "customize" it.

Sorry companies just don't open up boxes and switch parts out...nor should they expect to.

Oh and I hate DELL....but this is not even 1% their problem. #dellcustomerservicesucks
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cgchandra3001
11/13/09

@weatherman: well said.
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weatherman
11/13/09

@wheatieboy: I'm not the one whingeing [sic]. #dellcustomerservicesucks
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Kaiser-Machead
11/12/09

In reply to My Girlfriend's Call to Dell: 90 Minutes, 10 Customer Service Reps, Nothing Accomplished
It doesn't often pay to be an extremely pushy demanding asshole to get what you want, but in the case of Dell, I've decided to make an exception. #dellcustomerservicesucks
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