Recently in Bad CS Category

How to Communicate with Tact & Professionalism --

I've been in a training seminar two days this weeks with the below goal in mind.

"Become a polished, persuasive communicator and express your thoughts and ideas with clarity and diplomacy"

The diplomacy part likely occurred during my single restroom break,three minutes long, on the second day.

While I'll address the material covered by the class in a future post I have concerns with the intrusiveness of marketing within the curriculum.

Anyone that's read Professor Cialdini's book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion (Collins Business Essentials),or Rushkoff's Coercion may have been amused, as I was, that a seminar designed to teach you more effective methods of persuasive communication seemed to be using similar techniques to sell future conferences, audiobooks and training subscriptions.

I have no problem with selling during the breaks, displays within the room ,fliers in the course material. What I'd like is for them to restrict this solely to those areas.  In what  could be considered a mildly coercive environment the ethics of  this practice are questionable. Cheaper dictionaries refer to coercion only in terms of physical force and I can see my usage of this term being confusing in that light.I'm referring to an environment that is engineered to trigger as many of the six principles of influence within the first few hours.

• Social proof.(people come forward to buy in breaks)
  
• Scarcity.  (have to order by end of seminar)
  
• Authority (The obvious one
  
• liking. (Dr was likable, really good at what he does)
  
• Commitment and consistency ( writing in the prices, and additions to the advert in the same format the rest of the class takes)
  
• Reciprocation(Starts out with hey, schedule runs to 1630 but can get you out by 1600, next day 1530) To many that's doing them a favor)

I can live with all the above, I may even be misinterpreting the above weapons of persuasion. Twenty minutes were taken up with Evelyn Wood's speed reading course,and many other products,in the time preceding lunch on day one which to me seemed rather inconsistent with the stated goals. 

Looks like I'm not the only one with this concern.

http://www.viewpoints.com/Fred-Pryor-Seminars-reviews




  I seriously recommend both books to anyone that engages in commerce , eg every adult, in the USA.

 

I believe I have a candidate for James Randi's  million dollar prize.  The prize   awarded

"œto anyone who can show, under proper observing conditions, evidence of any paranormal, supernatural, or occult power or event."

could be won in Arizona.The unlikely candidate is Honda of Superstition Springs , after all the name fits nicely, for claiming that a car  certified as having passed Honda's 150 point test managed to be incapable of passing it at the time I purchased it. During the time the car sat on the lot it lost these abilities  with no human intervention.

• rear high level brake light. Absent and wiring hanging lose (88. Brake lights)
• rear speakers that didn't work. (103. Audio system"”radio/CD/cassette, speaker operation)
• Fuel release cap that didn't work. (127. Fuel door release)
• and an interior bulb that was out. (123. Interior lights"”switch/door operation)

Which doesn't reconcile well with.

"œWe've taken the headache out of used car research by doing the homework for you. So when you choose a Honda Certified Used Vehicle, rest easy knowing it passes more than just a 150-point inspection. It passes our strict standards as well."

Honda's strict standards  are letting the dealer certify it and in case of a dispute passing on what the dealer would be willing to do. They seem to have  little purpose other than to be a heat sink. Throughout the process the weasel apologies of "œwe're sorry you feel that way"  began to grate. In short as long as the car is fixed afterwards they are happy. 

Not sorry it happens, not sorry they can't do anything about it but just sorry that someone actually fell for their line of BS.

After certification the car sat on the lot over 100 days and during that time  the above items are meant to have changed condition.  This is why they should be going after that million dollar prize  because I've yet to see a tail light, wiring and fixture separate themselves from a housing and then hide. 

The speakers are unlikely to have failed  but Chris ,general manager, said the didn't at the time check those just the main function not per speaker. I had pointed out the poor wiring and asked them to check it prior to purchase, they said they had. So even if they missed it on the first occasion  there's little excuse for the second.

The light bulb certainly could have blown any time  and the fuel release? It's doubtful as they filled the gas prior to the delivery and it had to be self evident that people were needed to open it up.

Morris @ Honda USA is unconcerned with this state of affairs and doesn't  see any incongruity between the quoted  paragraph above from the Honda site and my experience.  

The remedy took 8 hours of waiting,as  they didn't, actually wouldn't, give me a loan car and it was claimed it would only take two hours  on the first occasion.  In the end two 60 mile round trips were needed.

All they had to do, take car, get me to work/ back and return it in the condition they advertised it as .  Annoying, yes  but livable.  Sadly that wasn't the case.

I believe the cars price was influenced by the certified program and that inherent in that offer was the reasonable expectation that  all of the items on the provided list were functioning at time of purchase. Seemingly that's not the case and Honda appears to  value the delivery condition as being valueless but backed up by their valuable warranty.

The dealer believes that no breach of the contract was evident which is a matter I disagree on.  Had the car worked as advertised I would not be out 10 hours of time. Apart from offering a paint warranty which I didn't want  ( retail about$400 but practically free to them) and a future loan car they consider the matter closed.

The take away from this is that you should not expect a car from a Honda  certified used program to be in the condition advertised  and why should you? Apparently  Honda and at least one dealership believes  as long as it's fixed you should be grateful. 

I posted this over at Yelp but after I've just had another surprise , e.g a loan application that I never requested, I think it's time to expend some time on informing people what they are getting into  if dealing with Camelback VW EXEC Summary: +Wasted our time with childish obfuscation of the sales price +Disregarded our ceiling for buying a vehicle +Changed terms of finance and what it would take to qualify + Ran a  loan application for me instead of a credit check after telling them we'd not be using them then having it denied. In fact I am checking to see if this was retaliatory strike. Some of this is a review of the used car sales process and while the staff at Camelback VW  insist that we must have somehow misunderstood them I don't think that. We went to look at a car, tested it,and left. We liked it enough to discuss terms  the day after and  that's where the fun started. We had simple needs. Tell us the car price + tax, fees and registration.  That's it we didn't want a warranty or many of the other add ons that they try to foist on you.  They made an offer, we declined  as it was above our stated max of 10k  out the door max. Strike 1:  Failing to listen to your customer. Forward a day and a call from  James called wanted us to consider it again at what they called the auction price. (Claimed car was a week away from being auctioned)   This sounded better so we found sitter for the kid,  drove down and asked for a new price. It was $200 less than previously and still above $10k. They had taken up yet another night and this offer just plain sucked. They could have told us on the phone but no they think it's clever to waste people's money acting like a paranoid secret squirrel on a meth bender. Strike 2:  Treating us like children will not make us respect you or even be civil.  We should have walked at that juncture. The usual what could we do to guarantee you'd buy it discussion occurred?  Easy  8k out the door, that's a pretty low offer,insulting? Maybe but hey once you take the piss with an offer that failed to meet our limit  and lose us a few hours of spare time then I get pissy.  They didn't even counter, just said no way, can't even get close and the poor dealer's story of how much they were in for that car etc came out.  I really thought they would break out some violins. Next day  call about how the night guy mustn't have been informed of the "auction price" offer and really they would let us get it for  9200 out the door Yay:)  Erin went down on her own to fill out the paperwork. ( Sidebar) I have really good credit ( there's a reason Scrooge McDuck is Scottish after all) my partner less so, ok it's poor. That's ok we expected to pay dearly for this , her first car, but 20% is just plain awful. Hell when I was new to this country I got a lower rate on a new VW bug.) They came back over 20% and I suggested she not do this without talking first or seeing if my bank would be a better bet. After she spent  more hours at VW Camelback they wanted to run the numbers with me and her ( they still sucked being a  full 12% over the number my bank qualified me for today) but in the meantime they told her she no longer qualified at 20% , that it would have to be co signed BUT if we added an extended warranty onto it, they could call in a special favor and they could see about it. This scam is so well known I can link to it:) That's when we walked for the last time. I could have bought the car, cash but that defeats the  rebuilding credit goal.  Simply didn't trust them. I think the withholding of credit unless you get to the figure by adding warranties  is problematic and  coercive in a manner that I'd consider unethical given a prior indication, the reason we were even back in the dealers , that she'd been approved.   We received a call saying  "they are sorry we misunderstood"  some apology, we understand that you get so used to BS that you can't stop doing it even if you want to. Ended the day at Superstition Honda and bought a used Civic so HA  we were serious. you jack offs! Loan? 6%  . What's sad is that I really like diesel cars and have bought a new VW prior. I've had service at this dealer prior and this is how they go about building a long term business. Morons lost a car sale, a potential car sale and  service for both. Time passed and I just got a letter from the bank saying they'd denied my loan. I never entered into a loan with these people just a credit check. I'm doing some research on the dates/ times this occurred because it seems a tad malicious to apply me for a loan I'd not filled out the paperwork.

Buying a certified car from these people?  Maybe have someone else check it out first. Here's my first review on Yelp prior to their attempts to fix the car.

Following on from a day two weeks ago  Camelback VW  we drove to see a Honda Civic at this dealer.  Decent test drive , I like  (Suzanne) the sales person and once again I find it hard to divorce the idea that the initial tier doesn't know what the sales manager and Fi guy are going to pull. 

The car is a certified Honda meaning that it should have had 150 items checked and they all should work. To this dealer it means  "if they notice fix it"  actually it meant  pretend to fix it.  So yes I bought the car ( sorry to spoil the ending) but am still trying to get it to match the condition  at which I negotiated the price for. 

Manager tier pulls  the usual car dealer tricks.  Unable to answer an honest question. E.g What's the price of the car +tax + doc + vlt with NO other add ons  for paint coverage, window etching or a myriad of other things you can acquire  for far far less if you add them after market.   I nearly walked out as the $200 etching fee made it into the paperwork. He claimed it's an error, said it would hurt the salesperson  and the usual emotional BS they teach at weasel school. Having said that I liked the finance guy , Kiko, which is a total first for me. 

If you paid $800 for a factory alarm it will do your sanity good to avoid checking the part number and installation procedure. 

So why the two?  The fuel cap on these can only be released from the inside and it doesn't work. Noticing this on your trip to San Diego after buying the car is not a lot of fun. Once it was opened it had so much grease, fresh, that it looked like an attempt to cover it up/ fix it.   The radio that I pointed out  had the speakers incorrectly installed was meant to be remedied on site. They did a little but still doesn't work and  the central  cabin light isn't working.  The latter 2 are livable the former is not.  Yes it's picky but the inflated value of a cert car is mostly the happy fluffy knowledge that it's been checked and has no major issues that would prevent your enjoyment  or necessitate a trip back to the dealers to resolve.

Today I took a trip back to the dealer to remedy these items. Was meant to take a couple of hours. I left without the speakers being replaced as they had none in stock and waiting for them to be brought in , plus another two hours , would have resulted in me spending over six hours in a building without a working internet connection ( Oh they have an internet area it just wasn't working on this , or the prior, visit.

I had asked to bring it down during the week and get a loaner car to get to work and back which they wouldn't do. I'm fed up with being reasonable. After discovering tonight that the third brake light didn't just work but was absent from the enclosure entirely I can reasonably claim that the additional price they factored into this car based on it being "Honda certified" is a value that I didn't receive.

In short  Superstition  Honda represented this car as having passed as certified without legally required lighting present let alone not working.

As for Honda they have been playing phone tag with me and I've yet to find out if they have anyway to resolve this.

Ritz Camera Center --------------- Update: Corp office  appears to have resolved this.  Meant to pick  up lens on Friday.

Twas the night before  Christmas and I'd left the house I hadn't her present, I felt like a louse, So leaving work early , prior to falling to bits I popped in a camera store, of the name Ritz The model I wanted I  spied  on the shelf I inquired of its features before reducing my wealth "it has to have", the salesperson said. It better I responded or  in morning I'm dead. Checked though the menu, the manual and staff and  pulled out my iphone just for a laugh found out  that this camera didn't auto bracket. Is the advice in this  shop ,merely a racket? So back to the shelf the d60 went and out came the A200 sony instead, it had all the features  and cheap second lens, Now sadly this isn't where my rhyme ends. The lens , wasn't in stock , but that was ok I could come back and get it  in a few days the time came to pass and alas I was told. you can't have the offer  because it's now old. No matter had I offered to pay in advance we're now stuck in some weird customer service dance Were he said and she said  drives me round the bends when all  I want is the aforementioned lens. So people let this be a lesson to buy in advance Or maybe you'll be the one taking it in the pants Even if you get a promise in writing it makes no difference you still end up fighting. Take that Vogons  I totally  own you !  I'm still waiting for the regional manager to intervene since the store is now unable to proceed without this step To date not one returned call and  I'm tired of chasing them around.   The offer was a  second lens for $50  with new camera   ( saving about $200) and this was a key factor in the purchase.  This with the rep's name was written on the receipt  (  which is misplaced , thank the kid)  but all the info is on my   amex and their till has the transaction and the rep knows she did it.    Regardless of a happy ending here   I get  very little feeling of urgency  from the store in question.

Next step  I think is returning the camera since we're now  close to their limit on returns. ( which they say they will extend while resolving this  but to date my confidence  in their proclamations is quite low:)

Then I posted an update.

After a few more days of waiting,  four separate promises to contact me re this had elapsed  and they have basically failed to honour the deal.Maybe the salesperson ( Kim) messed up in offering this to me but I bought this in good faith with the expectation of returning to store the following week and getting the lens at the price stated.

This offer was material to my choice of camera and no transaction would have occurred without it. While he ( manager John)  would like me to wait for their regional manager to get back from vacation I don't find that to be an acceptable state of affairs and will likely be returning the camera  and while they have said they wil extend the return period in this case part of me fully  expects them to renege on that too.

next step: Head office and  also find out the franchise owner.

Ah well that's another store I can't shop in. Guitar center got back to me confirming the  comically cheap  no weapons sign wasn't just a store policy but a company one. On the bright side I did spend the money at Sam Ash and look forward to buying the kids birthday present there. There's one a couple of miles away  from the Guitar Center  on Cactus road :) For five years I have managed to shop in that store and  no one  noticed ( that's the point of concealed after all)     Frankly this isn't a great sacrifice they don't get more than $2k from me most years, indirectly I've sold a lot more  from recommendations but hey  what's important is their liability.  Just remember to  sue them should you be injured when their piece of paper doesn't  mean a damn thing to criminals.   Added them to CCwhere which is a site that  users can submit  PRO  and anti carry stores.   

 
Dear John P#####,
Due to liability issues Guitar Center has a no weapon policy that includes all store staff and customers. The only people that are aloud to carry are people that are occupationally required to by their profession.
I would like to apologize for any inconvenience, and appreciate you giving us the opportunity to remedy this for you.
Please feel free to contact us if you have any more questions or concerns. We appreciate you choosing GuitarCenter.com.
http://www.GuitarCenter.com/
Sincerely,
Chase L******
Night Team Leader
1-866-498-7882

Guitars, Musical Instruments, and Musical Equipment from Guitar Center

This in a  neighborhood were the local   Red Lobster has off duty cops there to walk you to your car.  Yep the kind of place you would be happy to take  $2k of equipment out, not :) 

I don't go to enough conferences to know if this is standard operating procedure but at NME there was a kind of E-vampire that haunts the periphery of their stand trying to snag badge id's on the way by. As in stepping in front, oh have we.. while doing it anyway.

Then they call you. They call you when ill, won't take I'm ill for an answer and to add insult to injury send out a confirmation that you've agreed to a vid conference later in the day. What an appalling way to do business Veotag

Ignoring the circumstances in how the info was acquired the follow up was about as unprofessional an act as one can get. A communications company that can't listen is a waste of time.

Batman was wonderful. I'll get to him later. What was piss poor, as nearly all of our visits to the theaters are nowadays is the constant distraction of people texting and talking on the phone.

It's so bad I have to ask them to stop. I don't like to. Don't get me wrong it's not a embarrassment thing it's a real worry that someone's asshole boyfriend, husband or even worse parents will cause a scene which turns ugly and I can't afford ugly.

I can usually live with it, Batman is 2 hours 30 and tonight I just couldn't. So these rude asses are bad enough. The theaters are worse. I've been pretty loyal to Harkins since they don't have no firearms signs and their popcorn adornments are great. They don't seem to be a stingy on the light and soundproofing as the AMC ones out on the periphery ( THX my ass) On the occasions I've complained it's been more annoying than just walking out.

They claim policy is walk 5 mins in , then 15 mins at the start to intervene with people on their phones. Er no, I had 3 "fireflies" in my sight nearly the entire time, then the calls. These people take money to provide an experience that we're getting close to , in all but time, doing in the home. To our mind no one checked, or if they did it was cursory. I think I'm tired of paying a premium for a shitty service. Why has no theater chain created a tier of guaranteed interuption free cell phone removed clients? It should pay for itself all the people I've talked to go to less movies than they want to based on the climate at most theaters. I'll let you know if we get any response out of Harkins. As you can see from their contact page email is not an option :(

Harkins Theatres - Contact Harkins

I swear my fellow diners at hospital canteens look in better shape than the mass that "meats" for late lunch at this location. This wasn't just a gray tide but a few human buoys had popped in too. Please withhold the " don't be so judgmental" holier than though attitude , this is a review after all.

Lately I have been working remotely ( or remotely working) on the Friday so I've been going out on Fridays for lunch since it's all "new" to me. The same places that I eat out at in the evening often have vastly different characters during the day and this Black Angus throws it into sharp relief. For example at night I have never been served stale bread.

Have a wide range of ages , group sizes and noise levels and there's some life in the place. Chilis that just opened up nearby and seems to have kidnapped the life leaving a quiet, genteel even , location that would be more fitting in the deep south when you don't have anything better to do. So far this is the only local place that exceeded my hour.

Food's ok , fitting with the price range and the burgers are well appointed, cooked to request and relatively tasteful. Fries tepid and it feels likelike the minimums you have to do to keep the blue rinse and Caddy driving class happy is all they are about. The only thing hip about this place is the replacement joints.

Coffee seems to have been held on life support and brought out when some unsuspecting fool that refuses to believe in coffee only being a morning drug. Usually the surroundings don't bug me but it felt like the Hometown Buffet , which I can live with until you give me stale bread past it's sell by date which I fear may a fitting epitaph for this place within daylight hours

More reviews over at Yelp.

I have realized that a good exercise for any political philosophy  would be to see  how well it works on the camping scale.  I've just been through that this weekend with Creddy.   

Simple Idea.    People say in advance what they are going to do , what they will bring.

We had the Sat AM breakfast which meant that Friday night we'd not have to do anything other than eat.   I wish.  You see just because someone makes an offer to do a meal  you shouldn't expect them to have the pots, pans and ,er , oh  the  goddamn stove available to do it.   Luckily we brought two, why? let's just say we have a  pretty good handle on  this kind of thing and spent more money on a stove and gas to accommodate a shortfall that came up earlier. I doubt it will be repeated unless we're doing all the food / cooking since buying at the last minute is way too costly on a few people. 

Additionally we  ended up doing extra cooking that negated the entire point of organizing it. E.g we rest on the meals we're not doing, ha!  

Next.

A disappointing  trip to J G guns in Prescott.  We used to love driving up there for food at one of the local eateries, buy ye olde  gun, come back happy.

Over the last year though it ceased being fun and the counter on a Saturday seemed to be more competition than commerce. 

Creddy has a full post over here and while we thought that she was being ignored at the show in Phoenix a year back this one was far more obvious. I can't think of a single person with a passing interest in guns that  we've not told about the store, e.g it being worth the drive, but those days have come to an end.

I don't know a lot about the older 9mm Smith / Wesson autos  so her asking what differences in the  model numbers they had was perfectly valid since, er that's their job to know. DA?  DAO?   Mag disconnect?   Sorry but you only get to pull off a "œsuperior"  we know more about guns than you attitude when you back it up with something.Anyway see her post for the rest of this it's quite annoying.

next Up Wanted! 

In a prior post  I related a fun non dining experience we had at a local restaurant.  Well I chatted with the franchise office and  their expectations  re what happened.      Found out the troublesome waitress had left   and that they acknowledged the  staffing/ management issues which they  had corrected but the changes were yet to be evident. Anyway  they invited us to have the meal we tried to get prior.  Usually when we get shafted this bad we've told people that  no amount of free food is going to cut it,  e.g   we're just letting them know why we're leaving.   This time I acquiesced since , we like their pizza. I've been to  2 more of their stores regularly ,dinner and lunch,  and this was  hopefully an aberration. 

Well the good news is the meal was  very good.  Pizza rocks,  wings are desperately average with nothing to recommend them but their fries were good and the kid loved them.  So  far so good.  I updated my prior scathing review but will   go a couple of times   paid before making up my mind. 

We must go looking  for this treatment.  I think our expectations on how one should be treated at a fast food drive in has been spoiled by the  two local McD's  staff there seem  happier than  BK and Wendies and the night shifts at Jack in the Box  are downright scary :)   Yet until tonight no one had called Erin, least to her face,   a bitch.  Her crime?  Expecting that her order and change would be correct. Here's the run down Wendy's W GREENWAY-PHOENIX 3450 W GREENWAY PHOENIX, AZ 85023 US (602) 548-1966 1745 Order kids meal , cheeseburger nothing on it,   They have no choc milk,  no orange juice for option for kids and  didn't understand the concept of root beer thinking Mr Pibb qualifies as such. paid  1st window, asked for receipt said  do it next window wrong order with receipt for chicken nuggets. Had to wait for them to  recognise she was still at window came back  with order correct, waited another  45 secs while they realised she's waiting. Erin asked , where's the change   for correct order. They then said you paid  for nuggets  , not a burger,  eg,  not recognizing that was the point. woman heard   through window, never saw her said "the bitch wants her change too" our  toddler heard this, and said bitch after it. Called  JMJ the  franchise owners, closed. SO called  1800 829 3639 Corp relayed story. There you have it.   They  fuck up an order,  argue about it, don't follow their own guidelines on receipts and then  call you a bitch.  I am so looking forward to my chat with their  franchise owner:)

Update post This franchise decided that on a Mother's day that having two front of house staff, one on his third day is acceptable staffing for a busy period. They had no milk, there was no coffee, we had to get our own silverware, petition for menu and then go get our sugar ( this is all small stuff but when you realize that's what we pay for it becomes annoying,) Finally get an order in and the order was not matching the description. Their garlic pizza has Alfredo sauce, this one came with tomato which doesn't agree with Erin. So let's ask them to change it. Oops they say we don't have Alfredo sauce either. At this point I was just fed up and asked to see someone. It went badly , seemingly we should know that their pizza when ordered by the slice is always tomato and that the waiter told us otherwise , and that we believed him, is something we should basically accept and eat. The story changed to say we do have the sauce but that it's not available by the slice. No effort made to correct it and by the time she decided to argue with my wife it was a case of I'll pay for the drinks, salad we had and leave. She said ok , then turned round and in front of the other customers basically said , no , why don't you just go, or you can go now. Either way it was about as unprofessional as I've seen. I understand two staff will get stressed trying to handle this but the management put them into that position . They know they don't have staff, they know to order enough milk, ( not like Fry's grocery isn't next door) and they can't make coffee? ) They should know never to berate the customer for requesting an item to match that on the menu. All in all until an under new management sign appears or their franchisee is kicked into shape I'd avoid dining in at this place Streets of New York :: Pizza "¢ Pasta "¢ Subs

I love it when companies that create a problem  take corrective action against their best customers. actually make that their customers period.  This is the mentality that decides the easiest solution to a health problem that disproportionately affects  a segment of the population has to be  inflicted on the general population that don't have the same predisposition. 

A real case of the cure being worse than the disease. 

Such a case is Ebay's recent decision to remove the ability for sellers to rate buyers.Couple this  with a new fee schedule that is  argued by Ebay to mean a reduction of charges for "most" people which seems counter to my experience.  If they mean per 1000 items listed it's cheaper for mass sellers there's a case for that.  For the  occasional seller  all I see are increases

It's an election year after all and   I think they've been nicking plays from the politician's play book.  Reducing an insertion fee by 5c while adding on the

From the Auction Bytes blog.

If
you list 100 items with a starting and ending price of $9 with a 50
percent sell-through rate (50 items out of 100 actually sell), it would
cost you a total of $63.63 in fees under the old structure and a total
of $74.38 under the new structure. This is a fee increase of 17 percent.This
is based on the old insertion fee of 40 cents plus commission fee of
5.25%, and the new insertion fee of 35 cents plus 8.75% FVF. If
you list 100 items with a starting price of $9 and sell 50 percent of
them at a selling price of $35, you would have paid $121.75 in total
fees under the old pricing structure. Under the new pricing, you would
pay $162. That is a 33 percent fee increase.

Which is in most of the cases for my personal use  + paypal fees =  usuary?    I really liked Ebay and  apart from rare items now  I've abandoned it. Two reasons.  One  the curse of "perfect information"  There's just too many people using it with an appreciation for the value of items that  there's little deviation in the  price of gear.   Secondly I'm   painfully aware that additional fees  are passed straight on to me.  It's bad for me on both counts. 

 I found the presence of  neg feedback generated by a seller VERY instructive  with regards to demeanor and professionalism of the seller .e.g  "loser didn't read ad properly  , get a life"     killed my  desire  straight away to deal with them.   Mistakes happen,  it's the only way you see  where customer service promises transform into action.

 No longer  having that insight is a disservice to buyers as well as sellers and   I swear I  looked up Ebay's new management to see if they'd used a "buy it now" option to bring in  Fema's ex director. Yer doing a hell of a job Ebay.


 




eBay's new feedback policy: no real feedback

I love it when companies that create a problem  take corrective action against their best customers. actually make that their customers period.  This is the mentality that decides the easiest solution to a health problem that disproportionately affects  a segment of the population has to be  inflicted on the general population that don't have the same predisposition. 

A real case of the cure being worse than the disease. 

Such a case is Ebay's recent decision to remove the ability for sellers to rate buyers.Couple this  with a new fee schedule that is  argued by Ebay to mean a reduction of charges for "most" people which seems counter to my experience.  If they mean per 1000 items listed it's cheaper for mass sellers there's a case for that.  For the  occasional seller  all I see are increases

It's an election year after all and   I think they've been nicking plays from the politician's play book.  Reducing an insertion fee by 5c while adding on the

From the Auction Bytes blog.

If you list 100 items with a starting and ending price of $9 with a 50 percent sell-through rate (50 items out of 100 actually sell), it would cost you a total of $63.63 in fees under the old structure and a total of $74.38 under the new structure. This is a fee increase of 17 percent.This is based on the old insertion fee of 40 cents plus commission fee of 5.25%, and the new insertion fee of 35 cents plus 8.75% FVF. If you list 100 items with a starting price of $9 and sell 50 percent of them at a selling price of $35, you would have paid $121.75 in total fees under the old pricing structure. Under the new pricing, you would pay $162. That is a 33 percent fee increase.

Which is in most of the cases for my personal use  + paypal fees =  usuary?    I really liked Ebay and  apart from rare items now  I've abandoned it. Two reasons.  One  the curse of "perfect information"  There's just too many people using it with an appreciation for the value of items that  there's little deviation in the  price of gear.   Secondly I'm   painfully aware that additional fees  are passed straight on to me.  It's bad for me on both counts. 

 I found the presence of  neg feedback generated by a seller VERY instructive  with regards to demeanor and professionalism of the seller .e.g  "loser didn't read ad properly  , get a life"     killed my  desire  straight away to deal with them.   Mistakes happen,  it's the only way you see  where customer service promises transform into action.

 No longer  having that insight is a disservice to buyers as well as sellers and   I swear I  looked up Ebay's new management to see if they'd used a "buy it now" option to bring in  Fema's ex director. Yer doing a hell of a job Ebay.


 




eBay's new feedback policy: no real feedback

Great ,

Do we have a psychotic stalking the family? Even with the express knowledge, and public acknowledgment that they are aware, that we expressly forbid them to use our yard as their market place we are littered once again withing a short period of them , or someone purporting to be the company , left on the blog.

Coincidence? 

I do hope so since the depravity of a mind  that would enact such pettiness is worrying It's worrying enough seek injunctive relief if my next attempt to settle this like adults doesn't work. 

A:  I don't want you dropping literature on my property
B:  We'll stop that right away.

On the bright side they have given me a really neat business idea.

 
 

There's more to come on this since Jiffy Lube are basically contending they are not culpable. A lot more but I'm sick of paying tradesmen and services money for substandard and in this case negligent work that has incurred me other charges. 1" over fill on the oil, thanks.

Even more fun is the People at Midas that get their very own special level of hell for attempted fraud. Oh wait they actually carried out fraud too by charging for an oil-filter that was under 1 day old, claiming the wipers are cracked ( nice try new 3 weeks ago) and a few other things I'll get to. For now It's time to suggest that you don't get an oil change from the Jiffy Lube at 27th 2745 W Peoria Ave Phoenix.

 This is one of those tales I love.   Most people here don't believe me when I said that the UK was so hostile to car drivers that just being able to find somewhere to drive it and park was a chore.  Pay the toll to get over the bridge, pay the toll to get into the city, pay to park   etc.  Now it looks like McDonald's in the UK have decided that it's in their interests to send $150 fines to people who have the gall(  they probably have that minced up in their  happymeal ) to eat their and pay for the meal.  The UK people don't seem to be  ba da da da daaaa loving it.  So that's funny.  What's funnier and I have this debate  quite a lot is that just because you hire a third person to be a dick on your behalf doesn't make you  less  culpable just highlights how  crass you are.  Hey  customers we've paid a company to shit in your food but since we don't profit from it, swallow ok?      See how it goes.   Eat lunch one day,  get fined,  refuse to pay get a larger fine, then  they take you by force and it all goes pear shaped.   If you need to commit a crime in the UK  mug someone . You'll get less of a fine, some assistance with education, rented accommodation and some money  .. just don't park while beating the shit out of the pensioner. 

McParking row as slow eaters given heavy fines | The Guardian | Guardian Unlimited

McDonald's in effect washed its hands of the charge, saying it had been imposed by Civil Enforcement and the burger giant did not profit from it.

Well done Safeway.  Weeks, ne months of sending mails to my house asking me to use a service that is supposed to supplant the need to go out to a store.  

Safeway - Ingredients for life There are no products matching "vinegar" May we suggest a few tips to help you search for products?

May I suggest a few tips for providing a working store?   While I'm full of piss and, oh wait I don't have any vinegar I'll quit while I'm behind.
 

 

I should know better that the the view from the hill which we are sold is far better experienced vicariously. That's the point of the phrase, a more prosaic way of saying "the grass is always greener" I fell for this last night when perusing the offers at (Sir Sean mode on, Shircuit Shitty) and bought four items two of which are to be delivered with the remainder picked up. Or so I thought. They had decided that for today these orders would not be released till after 1400 , so you know, thanks for waiting in line, paying in advance etc but go take a hike. ( they don't honor their 24min pick up the day after T giving which yes is in the small print but oddly missing from my receipt) The manager was , er less than helpful with a suggestion that cancellation or waiting are the only two options. The idea was broached that helping me would set a precedent for having to assist the other customers was quite sad , pathetic in fact. YES of course you should help the other fucking customers. Taking her logic not helping me = not helping anyone which I'm sad to say is what passes for most US retail companies. ( Ok here's the only thing I am upset about. Notification. All they had to to was include this fact on the site, on the receipt or even on a sign at the door of the store. I didn't buy from them for four years after they stiffed me last time maybe I can get to five this time prior to caving? UPDATE: Hey, do you know? They did notify me on the mail when I could pick it up. At the same time I was in the store! How to pick up your purchase:

• Avoid the crowds: Circuit City stores are closed on Thanksgiving Day. On November 23, the day after Thanksgiving, we ask that you pick up your online purchase after 12:01 p.m. due to the high volume of traffic in our stores. Don't worry, we have set aside the item(s) you ordered. Your order will be waiting for you at the customer service counter when you're ready to pick it up.

Ah if only they read their own mails.

 

Update # 2

This time , 6 hours after my original request and 4 hours than the earliest time that I should have returned we found out that.... The order was not ready for pickup.  Ok Let's wait.

Turns out that I will not be getting the item after all since they have none in stock. Dammit acquisition was all I had left to look forward to:) If this crap continues I'll have to work on self improvement for satisfaction.

 Over the last couple of weeks my parents have been in town.  Since I have a massive amount of vacation time , and Erin's recovering from her bike 2.0 mashup, I took all of it off +1 day to get Erin to an appointment tomorrow morning.   On the whole we had a sedate  type of vacation with much of the usual touristy stuff  bypassed in favour of the practical nature of finding another vehicle, making sure  kids trip to ER was the only one  ( he's taken a real shine to climbing and falling) and working our way through casual diner attitudes.  I've  barely touched computers,  read only a few deserving blogs and kept my email to  under 5 pieces  and don't feel the worse for it.

Purely anecdotal but since the last visit it seems like wait staff, retail clerks and most service industries we interacted with are staffed by  humorless, cookie cutter clones that seem to have totally bought into their commerce cog role.Anything that's not in the line of being an expert at detecting false currency  or fake id's is usually not going to interest them.  Why am I being asked if I could  find everything?

Will someone go get me one? put it on back order and call me when it gets here?  ( I'm old enough to remember that being a possibility @36)  no I didn't think so. I'd rather we dropped the pretense offer of a service that will never be rendered.



While we're talking about crappy CS let's  go a car shopping.

Special shout outs to the car dealers that failed to secure our business.

Bell Road Scion

Aziz you truly suck as a salesman for anybody that gives a rats ass about what their wife thinks.Your insulting manner, refusal to acknowledge what we wanted to buy over what you wanted to sell and general ineptitude with the truth has done your franchise proud.

Bell Road Ford

Josh,  It doesn't matter that your bosses want you to call up and keep reminding us about their great offers. If you don't have the car we want , an Escape Hybrid, we're not going to buy it. Tell those assholes that you're losing ANY future chance that  we'll ever buy from their dealership. 

Bill Luke Dodge

Ah Heather  really so SO  very close. We'd agreed on a price after the usual bullshit of having our direct requests ignored in favour of their usual  dog and pony show where they try to sell you  $800 car alarms that costs me $140 online (OEM)it's plug and play and really easy to install. How hard is it? Patriot, any color, minimal trim and an Auto Tranny? 

I said I would  arrange financing privately and get back with you. Get a call from her before  9am asking were I was at.   Thankfully this convinced me that I didn't want to deal with ANY  new car dealer and redoubled our efforts to get a second hand one. There's a second hand Isuzu Rodeo outside.   I own it, no payment , fuck them all.

Walmart:

Bought a fresh turkey, the bag broke on the treadmill covering some produce. Not only did I have to clean it up  but I had to buy the unusable produce.  Supervisor refused to engage Erin on this and wandered off.  Their fucking packaging broke , took out yet to be paid for items which she made us pay for. We'll see what their reply is on this one.

Yet another plastic bag with crap thrown on my driveway by a company that thinks that breaking the law is good practice. The receptionist said it works, it's their only form of advertising. It's gratifying that they offer clean up services for yards but a little ironic that the method chosen to advertise that fact by tossing plastic bags of gravel attached to paper onto my yard is the way they are going about it. At which point did they decide they had a right to place garbage on my property in a bid to further their material wealth? Even if question wasn't asked try this. Why have they ignored the no solicitation signs ? Why have they a fish on the bottom of their leaflet suggesting that somehow their ethical foundation is a selling point? Seemingly when I called them the most they can do is to remove me from their tossing shit on my yard list. Lovely.

Sec. 3-5. Prohibiting distribution of handbills at private premises where properly posted.(a) No person shall throw, deposit or distribute any commercial or noncommercial handbill upon any private premises if requested by anyone thereon not to do so, or if there is placed on said premises in a conspicuous position near the entrance thereof, a sign bearing the words "No Trespassing," "No Advertisement," "No Unsolicited Newspapers," or any similar notice, indicating the manner in which the occupants of said premises do not desire to be molested or have their right of privacy disturbed, or to have any such handbills left upon such premises.(b) Subject to the conditions set forth above, the deposit or distribution of any commercial or noncommercial handbill on private premises shall be done in such a reasonable manner as to prevent their being carried or deposited by the elements upon any adjoining premises, street or sidewalk or other public place, or upon other private property.(c) The provisions of this section shall not apply to the distribution of mail by the United States.(Ord. No. G-717, § 1)

RENEW YOUR LANDSCAPING - Homepage - Seemingly I wasn't the only person having issues.  

Here's another tale of going beyond the call of duty to elevate a poor customer experience into something gloriously awful. For those of you keeping track Erin's recovering from a motorcycle accident which has made it difficult to walk/stand around. In the short term we're going to get an SUV with auto transmission that she can get in and out off until she's able to get back on a bike. Friday: We went to Frontline Trucks on Camelback road and saw a suitable vehicle but it's stuck way in the middle and would require quite a bit of effort to get it out. Erin was already sore and we couldn't wait for that eventuality. Called them back today to arrange a test drive , set a time.. got there. By now you know they hadn't moved the truck, didn't seem to fussed that they'd wasted our time or start to provide any resolution on perhaps maybe moving the fucking thing. So the impression of a dealer that won't even move a vehicle to let you test it when it's in there interest to do so suggests staying far far away. 4610 W Camelback Rd, Glendale, Maricopa, Arizona 85301, United States - Google Maps Next up:Glendale Pontiac Salesman told our max price... comes back with a figure nearly double it .. lovely. Just say hey sorry you're not spending enough ,you're not providing us a means to rip you on a trade in and with no finance frankly It's not worth my time talking with you rather than insulting us.