i-tech, but do you listen??

I decided to splurge last week - I had wanted this new bit of tech and had put it off and put it off but finding myself with some extra cash [which wasn't really extra but that is another story] I decided I would buy it. So I found a cheap price - about $60 cheaper than anyone else and made the online transaction.

I choose to go and pick up the item rather than have it delivered.

The next day my payment was processed - I thought cool the call to pick up the item will come soon. On the next day I called them to see what was happening as their "order status page" just said wait 3 to 8 days and call them back if nothing has happened. Although not really within the time I thought that since they had taken the money they must have the goods ready - like all the other companies I have dealt with who usually charge and ship at the same time or charge later.

I called and asked a number times do they have the item cos I wanted to come and pick it up.
Eventually I was happy that the item was ready and i could come and get it.
The reality was that the person I spoke to had a very thick accent and that is why it took a while for me to be happy that the item was there. I asked a number of times very cleary - "so I can come down today and pick it up" yes was the answer.

Well first no was the answer - cos they had shipped it? I said where. They said, hmm there is no postal address here. I said no cos I was going to come and pick it up. So is the item there? Can I come and pick it up? Simple questions. Yes was the answer.

Not surprisingly after I drove from Fairfield into the city and found a park and went upstairs the item wasn't there.

Everyone denied talking to me - although it was obvious which of the two people who took phone calls was the one I spoke to that morning - one had very clear english the other was struggling with accented english. Anyway I spoke to their boss and he kept saying I should have waited to be called. I pointed out that I could read and would have waited but for the fact that they had taken my money already and I had rung first and had been told that the items were in stock and so I could come and get them. He tried to tell me that they took the money to confirm my card - which begged the question of why much larger and smaller companies manage to verify my card without taking money out of it.

I left my work address and told them to ship it for free when it came in.

The next week I called them up and asked for the status of my order.
The first person was the bad accent guy again and he had no idea what I was talking about.
Even with an invoice number he was no use at all.
He then passed me onto a girl who also struggled - although I had an invoice number she could tell me nothing.
Eventually I spoke with someone who had some idea.
He assured me that the item would be shipped that afternoon and would be there the next day.

I was tempted to demand an MMS photo of him and my order as he passed it to the courier.

Instead I wished him good day and the sincere hope I never had to speak to him or his company again.

So unless you like incompetent people who fail to listen avoid i-tech [an Australian company], they seem good at taking money out of your account but that is about all.

And you know what really sucks - although cheap they achieve that by charging the customer the 3% surcharge for Credit Card transactions.

The Call Back : Apple Reseller Next Byte Baulkham Hills #3

Like I said Apple Next Byte are the closest Apple Resellet and so when I decided to get my 15inch Powerbook G4 laptop I had no choice but to deal with them. Now, I knew that Apple had stopped production, a week before though no one knew why. Reports of white dots appearing on the screen and memory issues were all over the place, along with a design fault which meant the lid did not sit an even distance above the keyboard when closed. Everyone assumed that it was cos Apple had or was making a fix. The white dot problem had been referred to by an underling at a Canadian press event but nothing else was forth coming.

Anyway I placed my order expecting a delay - but not expecting the joke for customer service - after all I clearly explained that I knew apple was having trouble with them.

"not at all sir, a great product I would have one myself if I could afford it," came the Salesmans response.
"Yeah, well there are problems - white dots, memory and lids not shutting square."
"The memory issue was fixed a month ago we don't stock that memory any more - how did you learn about these."

I felt a bit strange, I mean this guy sells them, shouldn't he know about the product - more to the point, surely Next Byte know that Apple users are Fanatics and so you employ people who care and know about product.

"It's not hard - discussion forums - even Apples - unless they delete the posts. Just search in goggle, you know powerbook problems."
"Hmm. Well we haven't heard anything."
"Did you hear that Apple are not shipping any more of the 15 inch powerbooks?"
"No. We are due a shipment next week. I will call you when it comes in to let you know, but yours should be one of them"
"Great you will call me when the shipment comes in."
"Yep."

A week later no call back. I called. He said no powerbooks and didn't know why. Offered to find out but expected they would come in Thursday's shipment. I told him again that I had heard that Apple were not shipping. He said he was sure they would be in Thursday and he would call me.

I called them Friday morning.

"Strange. I am not sure why we are not getting any powerbooks - we have like 12 orders now."
"Maybe it is cos Apple is not shipping anymore until they fix the problems I told you about"
"Hmm. I will call Apple and find out."
"Can you call me tomorrow and tell me what is happening?"
"Yeah sure."
"Really? cos this is twice I have called you when you wouldn't call me - and in the past I had to wait 15 days for a piece of software which I would still have been waiting for if I didn't call your store back even though they had said they would call me when it came in. So will you really call me?"
Once again he was a bit hurt.
"But twice now you haven't called me back," I interrupted, "if you are not going or able to call me i will call you - just do what ever you say you will do or I will go somewhere else." He offered to call me back.

He called me back and said that they expected a shipment next week. And he would call me whether the laptop came in our not. A week later he called me to say that the shipment had not come in. But that they expected them next week. At least I had the call back - though I was a bit sick and tired of the week by week stringing along.

In between I had called Apple Australia - and they too said they knew nothing about the halt to production - after a bit of ranting and raving I got someone who told me the truth - yes shipments had halted. No one knew when they would start again. No one would say why production was stopped.

And despite what you may think ranting and raving is not all I ever do or want to do, but the sad fact is that people don't seem to do anything unless you rant and rave enough to become enough of a pain to try and get rid of you to someone else. Asking nicely to speak to someone else just offends people - or so I have found - so rant and rave it is until they work out they want to pass me up the line to their supervisor.

"Apple US never tells us anything," she said, "so we can't tell you either. I am very sorry about the delay."
"That's ok. I now you don't make them. I just wanted to know what you know, all I wanted was the truth and not be strung along week by week. If you aren't given a shipping date then it is best not to give me one. You can't tell me what Apple US don't tell you."

Sadly Next Byte decided to tell me lies and string me out another week.

I explained that they probably won't be in next week and no one knew when they would come in and I doubted that he was certain they would be in next week either. I told him I called Apple and they said they had no idea when the next shipment would be in and so I was surprised that he could tell me next week. Finally he said that he did not know if there would be any in the next shipment.

"Just tell me the truth - don't keep stringing me out week after week - it is really annoying to have you tell me that and then every week I call and it still is not there. I guess Apple told you they did not know when some will ship - so tell me the same - all I want is honesty not to be given the run around. It's not like I have anyone else to buy from - and to be honest I look at the Dell ads on TV and think for the same price I can buy 3 dell computers and they will ship them to my door in 7 days. It's tempting. Just tell me the truth."

In the end we agreed that he would call me when the shipment arrived - he offered every week but I said there is no point if he promised to call me when they arrived I would leave him alone until they did.

It was a deal.

While I waited I harassed Apple about every other day to make myself feel better - my favourite was to ask for compensation for the delay - Apple's response was 1. other people waited longer - when I laughed at that one and said fine I don't want anything but I want something for those people, they would then move onto 2. it is not policy to offer compensation on shipping delays. I would respond that we did not want compensation we wanted customer service and goodwill. They would say again that they do not offer compensation I would repeat my goodwill line and say that Apple Customer Care clearly didn't and we would offer our goodbyes and end the call.

They really didn't like the fact that I said they didn't care - funny how I got that impression - maybe it was cos the people at Apple Customer Care were not allowed to care - they never told me why there was a delay and in fact most of them didn't know about it and said that the regular shipment was the following week and it would probably be on that one. Then they would move onto the line where they tired to make me feel selfish and then onto the no compensation.

39 days after I order my laptop I drove out to Next Byte to pick it up - by chance I had run Apple on day 37 to be told the shipments had arrived and orders would be filled as they were made - I went through the compensation line just once more for old times sake then hung up. My Next Byte guy called me the next day to tell me they had one in the store for me and it would be ready the next day to pick up.

I was very proud I had finally trained a shop to call me back when they promised.

The Call Back : Apple Reseller Next Byte Baulkham Hills #2

The next instance was when I ordered Norton's Anti-Virus at Education price - I don't get the theory but there it is, if you are a teacher you get things cheaper - anyway, it normally means a slight wait as they have to get the education version from the supplier - usually it just means a sticker and no doubt a different price for the store. That was fine and Next Byte said that they would call me when it came in.

After a week and a half had passed I called them - how long could software take?? - now you might wonder why I did not call back sooner - mainly it cos they said they would call but the other is cos I have things to do and since they were to call me I just filed it away as "don't worry about it they will call you".

You think I would have learnt by now.

It turned out that the software was at another store and had been sitting there for over a week.

"Would you have ever done anything about it - like notice the open order and wonder why it hadn't been picked up - or maybe called me like you said you would to tell me that the order had arrived at the other store. Like you did say you would call me. It would have sat there until I called wouldn't it?"
"Seems that way."
"Mail it to me. You have my address. Tell them to mail it now and call me when they have posted it, please."
"Guess that is the least I can do - sorry."

I got the call and the package soon after.

The Call Back : Apple Reseller Next Byte Baulkham Hills #1

I referred to the call back in my last post about Strathfield Car Radios - this post it is about my "local" Apple Reseller - Next Byte Baulkham Hills.

Being an Apple Addict I sometimes just have to go to the store and look and see and touch and dream. You may love cars in the same way. Apple has a small market share and so finding a store is not an easy thing - Next Byte Baulkham Hills are the closest and so they have to do.

Sadly they have a problem with "The Call Back" - in fact they just have problems - I remember my first Mac I got from them, Graphy. She was a Graphite iMac DV which was supposed to come with 10.1 as a free upgrade. When I got home I found that not only was the upgrade CD not there, I could not check to see if 10.1 was on it anyway cos there was no power cable in the box. When I called I said I had a cable I could use temporarily until they posted me 10.1 [which was not on the computer] and the cable. They said ok - we'll post it Monday. By Saturday still no cable, no 10.1, no call, no happiness. So I called them.

"Oh. Umm. Yeah. There is a note about this," came the stumbling reply.
"Well, was it sent".
"No."
"I see, so when will it be sent?"
"You could come and pick it up now"
"But I was told last Saturday that it would be sent to me - you know, the things that should have come in the box anyway."
"Well we are open until 1pm today, if you"
"No. You guys were going to post it - if I wanted to pick it up I would have driven back to the store right after I got home and found no power cable or 10.1 upgrade. I need it today."
"Well I guess someone got drop it by on the way home."
"Thank you - let's check my address and I will see someone this afternoon"

And someone did come out - which was the least they could do - I didn't mind so much that I had to drive out to get it - what I minded was that they said one thing and then didn't do it and didn't call me to tell me.

A very small victory.

Strathfield Car Radios

I have installed a few car stereos in my time but a few years ago I was having a lot of trouble getting a particular stereo into my car at the time [sorry can not remember which one it was] and deciding that I had the money I would take it down to Strathfield Car Radios and get them to do the installation. I went to the one in Parramatta which is about 10 minutes walk from the main shopping center of Parramatta.

The plan was to leave the car and if it was going to take over an hour walk down to the main shopping center [Westfields] and hang out there for a bit, do lunch and then walk back. So when I left the car I explained I had been having a bit of trouble and that they looked busy and asked how long they thought it would take - they said one hour - I said are you sure and explained how I was going to walk to Westfields - they looked at me with a look of how hard can it be and said yeah one hour .

I said ok and went to westfields - once the hour was up I left Westfields and started back to the store. Half way back I thought I should call and check. Sure enough they said that they were having some troubles and it would take another hour. i said ok, definately only another hour and they said yes for sure.

I wandered back to Westfields and hung out for another hour. This time I called the store before I left.

"Still not finished," the voice said.
"Still! But it's been two hours. Oh well I told you it might be tricky so how much longer do you need?" I asked.
"Another hour, come back then and it will be done"
"Is that a real hour or like the last two times?"
"There is no need to be like that!" came the hurt reply.
"Why not this is the second time I called and it will have taken you three hours to do a job you said would take one hour."
"yeah, well, give us an hour"
"Definately"
"I said so didn't I?"
"Ok"

I went back after an hour and they were still working it - took only another 10 minutes.

What I never really understand with these things is that people seem to think that I am happier to be put off with the "another hour" answer instead of acknowledging that things are busy and either offering to call back when they are done [although I have noticed that businesses never do that, rather expecting me to nag them until the job is done and even when the job is done not bothering to call you back even if you have asked them and they have said they will] or saying "well call us in an hour and I will let you know how much longer we will need." I would have been even more annoyed to have walked all the way back down the first time and then had to wait another two hours til they had finished.

Just be honest with me - that's all I ask.
If you don't know then tell me and suggest a reasonable time for me to call back and see how the progress is, but "The Call Back" is a whole post of it's own ...

our refurbishment #1

Let's be honest, the main reason we become frustrated with organisations is when they make us feel powerless - the school I work at is just now coming to the end of two years of refurbishment - during that time a few interesting yet frustrating events transpired. This is one such story....

One of the many time people came out to school and dragged me out of class to take them on a tour to show them our current network and to be "consulted" on our needs saw me asking a few questions - amongst their claims of a major upgrade and denigrating comments about our network I started to try and pin them down on what they meant and what we would actually get.

"So what do you mean by major? I am not the front office, you can tell me technically what we are getting," I asked, trying find a bit of common ground.

"Well gigabit everywhere for a start," he said as he waved dismissively at the switch at the head of our network. Which was 10/100 on the ports had two copper gigabit included and a fibre gigabit link as well.

"What? to every outlet in all the buildings," I asked getting excited - that would be a major upgrade.

"No," he said like I was stupid, "just between the buildings, and it will be fully switched too."

I returned the favour, "That's not major - we are already fully switched anyway - so we get an incremental upgrade - that's nice."

"And we will give you proper comms cabinets, too"

"Hmm, that's nice too, how deep?"

"How deep? Well the standard size."

"How deep is that"

"600 [60 centimetres], the standard size"

"600. Well, that is not quite deep enough really," I said, thinking of how we already had one old switch that was 650 and how we were planning to go to a rack mounted server when we next went for an upgrade - and well let's be honest 600 is not really all that deep, we a big school and so some of the stuff we would have to get might be the larger capacity and longer gear.

I explained all that to the guy, "and the rack mount server is 900 deep - I know the DET does not spell Mac all that well, but the Mac rack mounted servers are 900 deep and won't fit - and being a big school we will justify that size server"

"Hmm, you could just take the door off and stick it out the front"

I laughed, "come on, that's no good, this is supposed to be new gear, a major upgrade."

"Well, I will see what I can do, but it is the standard."

Two months later I happened to come across the guy again at work when he was out doing something else - we traded stories about how crazy the NSW Department of Education is before I asked him about the cabinet.

"Well, I asked them about it"

"Yes, that the 600 is too shallow"

"Yeah, I got you a bigger cabinet"

"Fantastic, that is great"

"Yeah, 800"

My face fell, "800?"

"Yeah, it's great isn't it"

"The rack mounted server is 900"

"Well, you can always take the door off and poke it out the front ...."

Integral

When I lived on Toongabbie road it was in the front of a row of semi-detacheds. The rent was a bit lower cos of the road noise and so on. We also had the power box for the whole set of semis in our yard - although no one had told us that. The yard was out the front and had a very large fence and a padlock on it. The Front door was in the yard too - behind the locked gate.

For security reasons we kept the gate locked most the time otherwise people could just walk in and be doing anything in the yard without any one seeing a thing.

Things were going fine when one day we got notice that Integral energy was threatening to cut off our neighbours power cos for 3 months we had denied them access to the meters. We said - well we didn't know that those meters were for everyone and if they had just asked us we would have let them in long ago. Anyway we told them to get Integral Energy to call us.

A week later the neighbour was back saying that Integral had tried again and couldn't get in and so had booked someone to come out in the next week to cut them off - we asked if they had passed on our phone number - and yes they had. We said that we had not been contacted and no one had left a message. Being good neighbours we offered to contact integral and explain the situation and stop the cut off.

We called and got a barrage of threats and accusations and demands about how they had to have access to the premises and it was our responsibility to supply such access and on and on - once they had calmed down I asked about putting a lock on the outside of the gate with an E Key set up - just like we have at work. Stating calmly and reasonably that the gate must be locked as it is a security issue and that I doubt Integral Energy would want to be held liable for anything that happens when the gate is open.

So the bloke from Integral was happy with that and said if we got the bolt put on he would arrange for the lock and keys to be installed - I said that was fine and he nominated a date.

That morning I left the gate unlocked as I went to work. When I came home no work had been carried out. I locked the gate and called and left a message and asked to be called back with the next date and that the gate would locked in the meantime.

Next day I got called at work from the Integral guy saying that the meter man could not access the meters and that he would be arranging for the power to be disconnected. I pointed out that they had not fitted the lock and that I would be not leaving the gate unlocked and so on. Once again I got the we must have access lecture and I gave him the I will not leave the gate unlocked lecture and that they were supposed to have fitted the lock yesterday but no one had come.

He said oh and gave me the access lecture again - I explained again how we had made a deal and they hadn't kept it and I couldn't quite see how that was our fault - he threatened to disconnect the power - I asked him how they would do that when the gate was locked.

After a bit more of him telling me how I had to do this and that - I butted in and said let's try and do what we had originally planned and either get the meter read the same day or tell the meter guy NOT to come out UNTIL the gate/lock issue was solved. He agreed and we set another gate and he promised to cancel the disconnection.

Our neighbour came over that night very upset saying that he had got another letter threatening to disconnect and what were we doing? I explained the whole sorry story and assured him that it was under control.

Sure enough the next time Integral got it right - I left the gate open, the lock was fitted the meter was read a key was left behind and everyone lived happily ever after. At the same time I had been fighting with telstra about noise on our phone line which also has to do with the locked gate, but that - as they say - is another story ....

telstra #2 "no sir, the problem is not at our end"

I think the script for all telstra help desk people ends with Step 3 : "no sir, the problem is not at our end".

I look after the technology at Westfields Sports High [a government run school] and that includes the network and the internet connection. A few years ago we had ISDN for an internet connection [sort of like a high speed dialup connection]. The ISDN was supplied by Telstra. The internet connection is paid for by the NSW Department of Education and Training [DET] and as a part of that they filter the content.

One holidays we returned to work to find out that we had no internet connection. I spent a while checking all the settings making sure that our internal proxy server had not caused the problem and then I called the DET helpdesk. They put me through all the same tests and agreed with me that the problem almost certainly with the ISDN connection. They arranged for Telstra to work on the problem. The next day Telstra called me and asked me what the problem was.

They did a few tests and decided that the problem was with the DET set up and that there was nothing they could do to help. I said ok and called back the DET helpdesk. I spoke to the guy there and he said he would call me back the next day but that there was probably not a lot more for him to check. Mean while 1600 people [staff and students] were wondering why there painfully slow internet had suddenly stopped and, deciding that they liked slow internet over no internet, were supplying a fair of pressure to get the system up and running.

The DET called me back the next day and we tried a few more things - now I was pretty sure that it could not be the problem but I also thought we needed to make sure we had tested everything before going to Telstra. Now the other part of this story is that I had access to the DET Router at our school [one of the staff had overheard the password] and so I could see that the router was getting an error message from the ISDN box that it was not able to connect - so I actually knew the problem was not with the DET stuff - but I wasn't supposed to have access so I had to go through all the tests.

The next day I got the DET guy to hold the line while I called the Telstra guy and was switching between the two of the them arguing with them both and especially explaining to the Telstra guy that I had a lot of people wanting this to work and they needed to send someone out to check - that we and the DET had checked everything and that it had to be Telstra - the Telstra guy spent a lot of time telling me "no sir, the problem is not at our end", a lot of "I can see your connection and it is showing that everything is working fine". Eventually I told the DET that I would keep on the Telstra guy and try and convince him to send someone out.

While I was talking to the Telstra guy the lights on the ISDN box went off and then on and off again.

I asked the Telstra guy and he said " well that happens when they are testing the line"

"Why are they testing the line when you told me nothing is wrong with the line!!" I yelled.

"oh" said the Telstra guy.

Suddenly the lights came back on and stayed on.

"You could have asked them to do this 2 days ago. Why are they fixing something that isn't broken?" I had copped a lot from this guy, mostly about how their systems were reliable and he was not going authorise work on our line when he thought we had the problem.

"I thought everything was wrong at our end? Why are they fixing something that isn't broken" I asked again.

"In a few minutes you should try again." he said quietly. By this time I was logged into the router and watching the error log - it was showing me that everything was working normally.

"Hmm maybe there was something wrong at your end after all," I laughed, said goodbye, and hung up.

telstra #1 there will be more ....

I am sure I will have many telstra posts - there is a lot of therapy to go through - a lot of venom to suck from the wound of the time I spent on Bigpond Broadband.

CRAPTACULAR is about the best word to describe the shrivelled impotent mess which was bigpond broadband.

During the time I was with them:
+ they had an outage of a day a month - in the last four months I put up with them they had 3 days a month with no internet connection - I was supposed to be grateful cos they refunded me some money.
+ they raised the prices, lowered my download limit
+ they had a program that had to run other my connection would fail after 5 minutes - sadly cos they could not spell MAC the version for Apple computers running Mac OS did not work properly meaning you could not play online games and it would often crash the machine.
+ an individual had written a much better version of the program which ran on Mac's but Telstra ignored it and would not support it either.
+ it was slow slow slow
+ Telstra Customer Service is a lie
+ the support staff had difficulty spelling Mac
+ when I left they asked me why I was going - when I mentioned the outages the person on the phone said that no one had mentioned them - when I asked her then why had Telstra refunded 25% of everyone's bill for the last three months in a row - she had no answer - she then went on to ask me if the reason for leaving was due to a lack of value for money - i said is there a place to right i capital letters 50 points high - it is cos they are crap, crap, crap - she said no and read me the three options - I went for quality of service.

subway

what is it with subway - I always get sucked in and I blame them - they make this big deal on the advert about how good it is - making it look all funky and healthy and then you get into the store and it's like 1000 questions to get your food - a wait of 6 mullion hours and then when you sit down to eat it all you taste is the dressing. The cookies used to be the one and only saving grace and then they went hard and stupid.

And now - the wrap - ahhh Subway the joy has appeared, for finally you are living up to your promise and the cookies are once more soft and yummy - and it only take you 999 questions to prepare [the bread is not asked cos it is a wrap] although I still consult a calendar to determine when I should have my meal prepared - now when I finally sit down to eat it has been worth the wait.