Fecal'd

Fecald has a new home

2009-04-02T21:10:00.001-07:00

Fecald now has a new home on The3dStudio.com blog network. Read Fecald now at...

http://www.the3dstudio.com/blog.aspx?id=2

...and get your own free blog at The3dStudio.com!

Fecal'd: John's Refrigeration and the scam that is HVAC

2009-03-09T15:19:00.000-07:00

Fecal'd: John's Refrigeration and the scam that is HVAC

Amazon.com and the rip off that is free shipping

2008-09-17T11:49:00.004-07:00

There was a time when Amazon.com was one of the best places to buy books, electronics, and other good stuff. Unfortunately that time has ended and once again greed is the reason.

When Amazon was a smaller company and was just selling products that they stocked and shipped it was pretty good. At some point they decided to take on an eBay like strategy and let anyone sell anything on their site to make more money. That alone turned out to be a crappy system but their biggest downfall is their crappy customer service.

Ever see the free shipping option on items that ship directly from Amazon.com if your order is over $25.00? Ever notice how all items that are near the $25 price range are always just under $25 so they can get you to either pay shipping (which they will profit from) or add another item to your order (which they will profit from)?

Okay, it’s not an entirely sneaky approach and since the pricing is always listed I would even say there is nothing wrong with this tactic. They are a company and they need to profit to stay in business. Fair enough right?

Wrong. If you choose that free shipping option Amazon will simply hold your order for around a week before it ships out. Why would they do this? What benefit could it possibly bring to them? Simple…they want to sell you on their Amazon Prime service. This is basically an annual shipping subscription where you pay a fee ($80 or so I think) each year and then all your items are shipped 2-day for free. Of course, there is a catch there…it ONLY applies to items that Amazon ships. This is good for books and some electronics but many items are sold by 3rd part companies on Amazon and those don’t apply to the Prime service.

Back to my point though…if you choose the super saver free shipping option they will simply hold your order for a week or so because they want you to then see value in their Prime service. Case in point, I ordered a small Zune hold for around $24.50 and then had to fill my cart to get the free shipping so I chose a pair of headphones for the kid to use. No big deal except that I ordered on the 8th of September and expected my order to ship the next day since both items were listed as in stock.

I check my order a couple days later and see that it has an estimated ship date of the 15th, a full week later and even that was only an estimate…it could take longer. So I wanted to email Amazon but I couldn’t simply reply to the order confirmation emails they sent me, because that would be way too easy. I finally found the contact form on their site and told them that I was onto their scam with the free shipping.

A day later they replied with this…

For this order, I see that the shipping method selected is our free Super Saver
Shipping option. This option is for customers who are willing to wait a
little longer to receive their items in exchange for free shipping. This
extra time is reflected in your estimated shipment date and allows us to ship
your order in the most cost-efficient way possible, and enables us to pass the
savings on to you in the form of free shipping.

Come on now. Are they really saving any money by holding the order for a week? Either way, somebody has to pull two products and toss them in a box…that process doesn’t change based on time. So, I replied back to their email to tell them I was reporting this scam to the BBB and got this…

Greetings from Amazon.com. We're sorry. You've written to an address that
cannot accept incoming e-mail.

Lovely. Great customer service there! So I found the contact form again and put my reply in there and a few hours later got this reply…

I have researched your order and see that it was shipped on September 11,
2008. We were able to ship your package in advance of the date estimated on our
web site, so we expect your order will arrive by September 17, 2008.

For your reference, we offer free Super Saver Shipping as an option for
customers who don't mind waiting a little longer to receive their items in
exchange for getting free shipping.
So there you have it. I called them on
their scam, threatened a BBB complaint and suddenly a few hours later my order
shipped…a full 5 days before the estimate? I can say for sure this wouldn’t have
happened if I didn’t email them…I can say that because I have had this issue
several times now.

Such a dumb system and it is all designed to get you to upgrade to a faster shipping method or their Prime service. I understand if they can’t offer free shipping, but if you are going to offer free shipping then don’t penalize the customer with an unnecessary delay because they chose that option.

This was my last order with Amazon; there are so many better sites out there like NewEgg.com for electronics, software, computer stuff, etc who ship quickly even when they have free shipping deals.

To all my friends at Amazon.com: You've just been fecal'd!

Crutchfield.com - Customer service done right

2008-09-05T13:20:00.009-07:00

Here is another example of what customer service is supposed to be. I wanted a pair of the Bose Quiet Comfort 2 noise canceling headphones and I found them over here at Crutchfield.com. Since these headphones are the same price at all authorized Bose dealers I figured I would buy them from Crutchfield since they have a good customer service reputation and I have used them several times in the last 10-15 years.

I placed my order and they were quickly shipped out (free shipping!) and even arrived a day ahead of schedule.

I unpacked the headphones and could immediately smell cigar smoke on them. They stunk really bad. Upon further inspection could see that the black fabric inside the headphone ear pieces was falling out as well. They looked new but clearly were used (returned) or refurbished or something.

For $300 this isn't what I expected and so I sent off an angry email to Crutchfield. To be clear, this email was a reply of the email they had sent me with tracking info. I point that out because many companies won't let you reply to an email and instead you have to fill out a form on their site which is the beginning of bad customer services in my book. Crutchfield made it easy to bitch, which I like.

I demanded a new pair be overnighted and that they send a pre-paid shipping label to take these back at their expense.

This was on Thursday and I didn't expect a reply until Friday, at best, but within a few minutes Max at Chrutchfield replied to apologize. That alone calmed me down a lot. Then another reply included a PDF return shipping label. A third email then was a receipt of my new order. Max said they would ship my new order out Friday morning (it was late Thursday by this point) and would send it for next day delivery. Note that the next day would be Saturday and they set it for Saturday delivery. All of that happened in minutes after I emailed them. That's impressive.

It's clear that Crutchfield understands that the problem isn't when something goes wrong, it's how the situation is handled that matters...and they handled it as best as they possibly could. Crutchfield usually doesn't have the cheapest price around on anything but it just goes to show that you get what you pay for. Sometimes when the price is a little bit more it's because that company is providing more than just the physical product they are selling. Keep that in mind.

Although it is Friday and I won't receive the new headphones until tomorrow I am sure it will work out just fine (I even have a tracking number for the new headphones). Neither I or Crutchfield knows why these smell like cigars as they did confirm these are new units and they do not allow smoking in their warehouse. Maybe a customer returned them to Bose directly and thy got listed as new, who knows.

Quick side note: I did try the Bose headphones for a few hours and they are awesome. Best sounding headphones I have ever heard and the noise canceling stuff is amazing.

ThePocketSolution.com - Online buying done right

2008-08-30T11:00:00.006-07:00

I was in the market for a way to extend the battery life of a Zune (It's like an iPod only less pretentious (there I go using big boy words!)) so that the battery would last longer when used for playing video on the device. This will be useful for plane trips to keep the boy occupied and is much smaller and easier to deal with than those portable DVD players.

In a few minutes I found a few battery pack options that would work from places like Amazon.com and Buy.com but once you added the shipping on they couldn't compete with this one: http://www.thepocketsolution.com/PSI-32452/Microsoft+Zune+AA+Battery+Booster.html

I was able to use Google Checkout on their site, which I am not a big fan of but it does speed things up and the total bill was only $15.85 shipped. Seemed liked a fair deal for a hunk of plastic.

That site even let me pick an option to ship the product in environmentally friendly packaging (when available) which was interesting and confusing. I expected the product to be hand delivered by a smelly tree hugger on a bicycle but that isn't what they meant I guess because it shipped in a not-so-environmentally-friendly bubble mailer. Inside of that was a cardboard box holding the unit so I guess that part can be recycled. Still, a fair effort compared to most hard plastic wrapping everything else comes in. My guess is that larger items might ship with cardboard boxes with earth friendly peanuts or whatever for packing but such a packing job wouldn't make sense for a tiny item like this that was shipping via USPS.

Oh yea, back the point of this post... I placed the order at 4pm on Monday the 25th of August 2008 and the next day (26th) at 6am I had an email showing that it shipped via USPS with a delivery confirmation number. It arrived at my house on Friday the 29th.

Not only did this company NOT gouge me on shipping (only $2.90 shipped) but they shipped the product the next day. Keep in mind that I ordered at 4pm in AZ time which was hours later in NY time where they company is located so they were probably closed when I ordered. I hate to say that's impressive because it's what I expect any time I order, but the truth is that not many places work like that. In fact, the bigger the company the longer that process seems to take. When you go with a small guy like this company they have more to lose and generally understand what taking care of their customers means.

I didn't have to email them and ask for a tracking number or a status update or anything. They did exactly what you would expect and that's rare so I figured I would give them a good plug. they have all sort of Zune, iPod, iPhone, and other such accessories as well. Please note that I am not affiliated with this company (or any company I mention on this blog).

Now, if only the idiots at Ikea.com were this good...but that's for another post because that one is still assery in progress.

John's Refrigeration and the scam that is HVAC

2008-08-28T14:38:00.007-07:00

This one is actually about a year old, but I still feel the need to point the fecal finger at John's Refrigeration of Arizona. I had been using John's Refrigeration for years at my house to both service and repair my HVAC unit. For the most part they seemed okay and honest though every now and then on a routine "cleaning and inspection" they would come down with a dirty part and tell me a new one was needed (like a $400 capacitor...come on, $400 for a capacitor? Now, a flux capacitor I could understand costing $400.). Your HVAC guy has you by the balls regardless of what you think because getting a new guy is a pain in the butt.

While I would say I am fairly handy and have a pretty good grasp of how electronic devices work, as soon as you get into HVAC you usually have to call in a professional. You really can't deal with refrigerant issues on your own and when the main unit is located in your 120+ degree attic you really wouldn't want to clean or troubleshoot your own system. Nor can you afford to be without AC in Arizona in the summer...it would kill you.

So, fine, I paid the $75-$100 per cleaning twice a year or whatever it was and part of that deal was belonging to an exclusive club (and by exclusive I mean anyone who paid can join) of being a preferred John's customer. That means that if you have HVAC issues and it is a peak season where they are really busy they make you a priority. It's one of those warm and fuzzy things you pay for that is complete crap, like an extended warranty or any type of insurance. Maybe that capacitor really was $400, maybe not, but I was okay with it because my HVAC kept working and it was pretty old.

So, let me take you back to a really hot time here in Arizona...back into the summer of 2007. I had a small room in my house that needed to be cooled, a little separate office area that wasn't part of the main HVAC system. Don't worry about why I needed it, I just did...okay? So I found what is called a mini-split HVAC system. These things are popular in other countries where space is limited and are popular here in the USA now when people are adding air conditioning to an older house that never had it. It's like a mini HVAC system that still has an outdoor unit (compressor) and indoor unit but made for a small space, like one room, but is less ghetto than a window unit.

So, I found one online...it was around $3000.00 or so and I bought it. To connect the outside unit to the inside unit you have two flexible copper lines (like a normal HVAC system has). One brings the warm coolant to the compressor where it cools down with pixie dust, the other brings the cooled coolant back inside. Eh...you get the idea, I don't claim to be Bill Nye.

These lines come in 25 foot of copper line (it's pipe really) but I needed to go 30 feet. So I got extra line to make the distance. I installed everything on my own but I wanted an HVAC guy (or person of you prefer) to braze the two copper lines together where I extended them. This has to be done for HVAC. It's like soldering or sweating copper pipe but it uses different materials and I figured I would let a pro do the job. That way they could connect it to the compressor and make sure the coolant pressure was good at the same time.

I figured this would cost, at most, $250 total. So I called my good buddies at John's Refrigeration to schedule an appointment and of course the girl (woman, whatever you want to call it) was clueless. Basically, what I wanted wasn't on her list of services so I couldn't have it done. I explained that it was the same as if a copper line had broke or been cut that it was just like gluing them back together. Still clueless so she got her boss involved who was the owner, or one of them. I think his name was Steve, so let's call him that for this story.

Steve explained that they couldn't help me because they don't charge by the hour but by the service and my service wasn't on their list. Steve did confirm that he knew what I needed and any one of their techs could do the job but that they couldn't do it. I didn't get this at all because if my existing line broke they could come out to fix it but they wouldn't do the same exact job on a new install.

Odd. So, after a few calls to Steve (because he wasn't real good at answering questions without having to calling me back first) I was told that because they didn't sell me the unit they wouldn't work on it. Now, that makes no sense because they didn't sell me the unit in my house and they work on that all the time.

After I got Steve to his boiling point, he came out and told me that there was no profit in the job so they wouldn't do it. He said he could sell me the same unit, not installed, for $7000.00. So, he wanted a $4000.00 profit markup on the $3000.00 unit I bought. Then he want to be paid for installing it (which consisted of hanging it on a wall) and that would probably be $1000 o $2000 for a job that took me few hours. Oh, and then testing the unit was extra as was adding coolant if needed.

I explained how I was a preferred customer and he said, "A job I can't profit from is not preferred" or something like that. We argued for a while and he finally said he could do the job for $750. But I told him it would literally take 15 minutes to do and he didn't care. He wanted to gouge me because "It's summer in Phoenix and we only take jobs that pay well". He went on to tell me how they could "pick and choose" the jobs they took at this time. What an ass.

So, after that I actually had a friend refer two handy man guys to me that used to do HVAC work and had all the tools for it still. Blase and Herb (seriously, I am not making those names up and whatever image comes up in your mind is exactly how they look) charged me $150 total and drove half across the state on the same day I called them to do the job. They were done in less than an hour with full testing of the unit and coolant pressure. A year later it runs just fine.

Oh, and for my continued HVAC work I now use Magic Touch (Blase and Herb are far away and they don't do HVAC work normally). Everyone in my family was using John's Refrigeration and has since dumped them in favor of Magic Touch and is very happy with them. This is what happens when you become a greedy business, you lose business. All of my family has jumped ship and I know they have told their friends and so on. The HVAC business is largely word of mouth so hopefully this has hurt their business and will continue to do so because people who have that sort of attitude don't deserve to be in business.

To all my friends at John's Refrigeration in Mesa, Arizona: You've just been fecal'd!

CalCellular.com - Assery ensues

2008-08-27T14:55:00.003-07:00

So, I was in need of some emergency backup lighting for my business. Just some minor lighting was needed for a few areas in case of a power outage. Nothing fancy, nothing hard wired into our AC, just some sort of plug in device that (ideally) used LEDs (I'm all green that way).

So I Googled around (because I am so savvy that way) and found these cool little battery backed lights at CalCellular.com (http://www.calcellular.com/litesaver-ls1000.html). The price was good so I ordered 6 of them along with a few of these tiny LED flashlights (http://www.calcellular.com/led-flash-9.html). Before I forget, the flashlights are junk...but they are cheap and only meant for emergency use. One of them actually had an LED burnout (if you know anything about LEDs you know they don't burn out after a few hours of use) and another flickers. But hey, they were made in China and had a cheap price so I wasn't expecting a Mag Lite.

Back to the assery...the emergency lights arrived pretty quick, so I give them credit there. I installed them all which really just means I plugged them in. A day later I tested them by simulating a power outage. That process is pretty technical...actually it just involves unplugging them from the wall. Yup. They all worked.

A few days later one had a red light glowing on it so I emailed CalCellular to ask what it meant. It may have been covered in the direction but I tossed those...I mean, it's a light you plug in so are directions really needed? If you answered yes please turn off your computer now and never tought it again because you may very well be part of the problem.

Three days later and no reply from CalCellular on the red light. Is responding to email that big of a deal for a web based company? I mean, you are doing business on the web so why can't you reply the same day? If I called you on the phone you would answer right, so why does email have this insane delay at 99% of all companies? So I emailed again and they replied that day with...

Just unplug the light, let the battery runs out, and replug the light.
Red light means charging. There will reset the light.

Okay, sounds simple enough though I told them that none of the other units did that and I had hoped the unit wasn't defective, to which they replied...

Don't worry, 5 years warranty.

Oh yea, why worry about a purchase you made on the Internet? So, as you might have guessed by now their suggestion didn't work (tried it twice) and the light just didn't hold a charge so clearly something was wrong. So now we go back and forth over email while they check to make sure I am not a total idiot by asking things like "Is the switch turned on". Only after being threatened with a charge back did they say...

Please send it back, we will resend you a new one.
Sorry for the inconvinence.

Now, I had already told them I would send it back if they provided a pre-paid postage label. Why is that concept so hard to understand for these companies? If the product arrives DOA or dies within a few days of receiving it then I am not paying a penny to get it resolved. In fact, shouldn't I be billing them for the time it took me on my end to email and get it resolved? I paid for a working product so why would I pay more to get that?

Finally, they responded with...

Don't worry, I will send you a new one. Keep that light.

Thanks for letting me keep the broken light, that was nice, maybe I will make some yard at out of it. So why on earth would they waste all this time arguing over a light that costs only a few dollars and why would they only agree to send a new one when I threatened a charge back. I had intended to buy 6 more of these but now I just won't do business with them ever again. They did send me a new light though it was shipped quite slowly and it does work at least. I shouldn't have to make threats to get decent customer service.

So, to all my friends at CalCellular.com: You've just been fecal'd.

The Good - Walt Disney World and the missing $20

2008-08-27T14:27:00.004-07:00

Although I started this blog (I hate that word) so I could explain, in detail, how bad customer service within certain companies has become. Maybe those companies will get wind of this and change (yea right) or maybe I can save you some of my headaches by helping you avoid the crappy experiences I have had.

But sometimes I have a good experience somewhere and it only seems fair to include those here as well...if for not other reason to prove I am not some angry nut job. Although bad customer service chaps my ass like you couldn't imagine (because I am that complex), extraordinary customer service is the exact opposite. That's why the tag line for this blog (bleh!) is "The Good, The Bad, and The Assery." Even your local nightly news will show you how some kitten was rescued from a burning building after they have shown plenty of footage of death, theft, and violence so that only makes sense here.

So, on with the good already. I have long been a fan of Walt Disney World (yea, yea, Disneyland is cool too but not that same) and have taken many trips over the years. Disney World is a pretty unique place for many reasons but one of those reasons if the customer service. While I wouldn't say that every bit of their customer service is top notch, I would say that the vast majority is and that's pretty impressive.

I took a trip there several years ago (circa 2000 maybe) and had actually rented a car and stayed at the Wilderness Lodge hotel. The car turned out to be pretty nice since that hotel is not on the monorail line (which makes ZERO sense for the record) and the Disney bus service is garbage (it was garbage then and much worse now). So the car actually came in handy and since they offered (at the time) free valet service at the hotel it worked out well.

I remember coming back from Typhoon Lagoon water park one day and we dropped the car off at the hotel with the valet. Because we were at a water park I had taken my watch off and left it in the car's center console and with it was a $20 bill (real money, not that fake Disney crap money). It's a water park and I didn't want those items to get wet. I forgot to take them out of the car when we got to the hotel but I did see them in the console when I retrieve some other items so I know I left them in there.

Later that night we had the valet pull the car up and my $20 bill was missing, though my crappy watch was still there. I knew what had happened, but who would believe that story. When we came back to the hotel for the evening I decided to mention it to the front desk people. I wasn't asking for my money back but thought I should mention it since I did remember the valet who helped us out (same guy parked it and retrieved it).

I barely had 10 words out and the front desk person already had the cash drawer open and was getting me a new $20 (a fresh crispy one no less, probably fresh off the official Disney money printer). I felt odd even telling them what had happened since it sounds fishy to begin with but there was never a second where they doubted me. They asked for the info I had, like the valet's name, and said they would have an investigation done which involves setting some dummy traps for the valet in test cars (so they told me). Maybe they never did anything and maybe anther valet was involved, but the point is that the people at Disney never doubted me or made me feel like I was trying to get some free cash.

It was handled much better than I would have expected and that has stuck with me for many years now. So there you go. There's The Good.

The one about Artscow.com and their crappy products

2008-08-26T16:15:00.006-07:00

I found a link to this www.Artscow.com which prints stuff on objects. For example, they will print your favorite picture on a mouse pad and send it to you. I buy promotional items for The3dStudio.com website that I run from time to time for various customers so I figured I would do a test run with them.

I ordered 10 mouse pads with our www.The3dStudio.com logo on them to give out to the people that work at The3dStudio.com. My order went in on July 6th, 2008 and there was no real confirmation of that beyond the receipt email. Days went by and I couldn't track my order or even see if it was shipped.

On July 17th I emailed Artscow.com to get an updated on my order and got this reply back...

You can get the shipment in these 2-3 days.
Since it is international shipment from Hong Kong, sometimes, it takes longer time. Thanks.
Please be more patient on shipment.

That was a little sketchy but I stayed "more patient" and my order did arrive several days later so I was pretty happy overall.

I used one of the mouse pads myself and in less than one day I noticed the edge where my wrist would rub on was peeling up. So I tried another and a day later the same thing happened. The printed surface was peeling away from the black rubber backing.

I emailed Artscow again and told them of the problem and asked for it to be corrected or to give me a refund if they couldn't fix the problem. They replied with...

Hi Matt,

Please return the item to the address below for refund.
Thank you.

P.O.Box No.68398
Kowloon East Post Office,
Hong Kong

B.Rdgs,

So, now I need to spend my money to ship these mouse pads back to Hong Kong? To a PO Box of all places...which means tracking is worthless of course.

I replied back and told them I would send the product back but I needed a pre-paid shipping label and told them I would issue a charge back if they didn't comply and all I got back was...

Hi Matt,

If you are not willing to return the items then
we can't issue refund back to your CC. Thank you for your
understanding.

B.Rdgs,
William

So, I filed my complaint with American Express and just the other day got the final letter from AmEx on this issue showing that they agree with my side of the story and have issued a refund (they technically issue you a refund the day you file the complaint but this letter basically says you get to keep the refund).

Another case where this could have been easily fixed. Either send me the product I paid for that doesn't break after a few hours of use or give me a refund. Fix the problem and I would be a repeat customer. Instead, they wasted their time arguing with their customer and lost the money in the end. Not to mention they would be hit with a charge back fee (usually $25 or so). Not very smart over an order that was $28.80 total.

To everyone at Artscow.com: You've been fecal'd!

Checker Auto Parts not accepting used oil

2008-08-26T16:01:00.006-07:00

This one is from back in March of 2008 when I was trying to bring some used motor oil to a local Checker Auto Parts store so it could be recycled.

I had tried multiple times over a few months and a few Checker locations to bring back my used oil but every time they would have a sign up that said "Not accepting used oil, tank full".

After a few months of that I emailed Checker via their website and after a few days I got the usual canned reply...

CSK Auto, Inc. apologizes for the continued frustrations you have encountered at
our Mesa locations with recycling your used oil. I am forwarding your concerns
to our District Manager to review with the Management teams at our Mesa
location. I can assure you that your concerns will be addressed and handled
accordingly.

We appreciate the time you have taken to make us aware
of your concerns and assure that we take every possible measure to ensure that
we are providing our customers with service that is second to
none.

Thank you,

Richard Johnson
Sr. Claims
Administrator
rjohnson@cskauto.com
602 631 7715
voice
602 294 7778 fax

So I replied back and asked that the district manager give me a call so that they could stop by to pick up my used oil. After all, I had been a customer of theirs for many years and I had made many attempts to bring them my oil already.

A week or so went by and I still never heard back from anyone else at Checker beyond that initial canned reply. Turns out that the district manager just chose to ignore my initial complaint and when I emailed back I got this...

Dear Mr. Anderson, Again we apologize for any inconvenience this matter may have
caused you. Please understand that our District Manager will not be able to come
to you to pick up the oil. As a Corporation we simply cannot allow this kind of
service to our customers. We do realize that you have been inconvenienced and
would be more than willing to send you a $10.00 gift for your time. I must make
it perfectly clear that we will not be able to come to you to pick up the oil.
We cannot provide deliveries or pick ups to private residences.

I would recommend that you contact your local store prior to making another trip
so you can verify with them that they can accommodate you. We have discussed
your concerns with the store and they will do their very best to make sure that
they are doing everything they can to keep their container available for our
customers to recycle their oil. At times due to high volume, the container does
get full and it is necessary for our customers to return at a later time. If
this is of great concern to you then a phone call prior to leaving may benefit
you from experiencing any future inconveniences.

If you would like to reply with your address I will be more than happy to send you the gift card.
Again we apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you and look
forward to your reply.

Richard Johnson
Sr. Claims
Administrator
rjohnson@cskauto.com
602 631 7715
voice
602 294 7778 fax

Just like other crappy companies out there, their only solution to problems is to try and buy you off. Well, that doesn't work for me...at least not for $10. So, after the thousands of dollars I have spent at Checker auto I have simply moved on to another local auto parts store.

They could have solved this many ways really. That manager should have picked up my oil...I realize that sounds demanding, but it would have been the best way to make it right. Get out there and see your customers and help them out after you have repeatedly screwed them. Imagine the story I could have been telling about the amazing customer service I received. At the very least, he should have returned my call instead of ignoring me. It's the usual assery.

I still don't know why the oil tank was always full. They claimed it was emptied weekly (and yet it was full the day AFTER a day it was emptied!) but maybe that isn't enough. Or, maybe they pay to empty it and therefore found it was cheaper to put up a "full" sign!

To all my friends at Checker Auto: You've been fecal'd.

Stootsi.com - The case of the used mouse

2008-08-26T15:34:00.009-07:00

Ever see this Stootsi.com site? They sell a random item each day for a pretty good price. Same idea as Woot.com really, but don't even get me started on those idiots at Woot (that's a pre-fecal'd story even I can't re-live).

So, back in February of 2008 http://www.stootsi.com/ had a deal for a Microsoft mouse that came out to $9.99 shipped per mouse. I ordered one and my wife ordered one. They were advertised as New OEM which basically means they don't come with packaging.

They arrived days later and when opened them we assumed there was some sort of mistake as both units were really dirty and obviously used. One even had some sticker labels on them as if they had been asset tagged by whatever company was using them. The buttons on the other were very stick. Clearly not new as advertised.

So I emailed Stootsi to get what I paid for, here is what they responded with...

Matt-
We can issue you a credit of 5.00 per order or issue an rma to
return the items for a refund. The units were oem, but they shouldn't have
been used. Please advise.

What? I was asking to get the product I paid for and they want to strike some sort of deal? I told them that they could have the two used units back as long as they paid for the return shipping (why would I pay for their mistake). I even sent digital pictures of the units so they could see how they arrived.

So they reply again with...

Matt-

I will issue you an rma via email to this address to return
both items for a refund. Please print out the label and give to a UPS driver or
drop off at a UPS store. Thanks again for your kindness and willingness to work
with us since you were not happy with your product.
- Stootsi.com

Never trust any company that can't sign an email with a person's name at the bottom. So now they want me to print their shipping label yet I have to drive to a UPS store to drop it off. After that I will have wasted my time, my gas, and my box (theirs was damaged pretty bad when it arrived) to get back where I started from before I made this purchase? All of that and still no new mouse.

I emailed back and told them that wasn't going to work. I again told them I needed the items I paid for or a full refund and got this back...

Matt-
Do you have a contact phone number to reach you at? It would probably
be easier to resolve this over the phone. We already issued the pre-paid
shipping label to your email address. Did you receive that? You can put both
items in one box. If you do not have a box we can reimburse you for a 'box' with
a store credit. Either way, when they come back to us we will issue you a full
refund. Thanks again for being so kind!

Oh yes, let's get the phone involved because surely that will solve our problems. Of course, note that they won't give their phone number out at ANY point. You're an online business that can't do business online? Now they want to reimburse me for the cost of my return box with a Stootsi.com store credit (knowing very well I would never use them again at this point).

After another email where I threatened to issue a charge back via American Express I got this back...

Matt-

We issued you a refund on both of your orders this
morning since you weren't happy. We are simply asking for a phone number to
assist you in returning your product to us. We offered you a free return on our
item, but if you are not willing to drop off the package we cannot force you to
do such. And as far as you not ordering from us again, that is unfortunate,
however, given that I don't think we would ever be able to meet your demands
perhaps that is best. And lastly, the mice were never originally sold as new.
They were oem items, not new. Thanks again,
Stootsi.com

Now that's where it gets really good. Notice the end of their email back to me where they say "They were oem items, not new". Yet, on their site and in their first email they wrote "The units were oem, but they shouldn't have been used". These people are so clueless they don't even know what OEM means.

So, I got my money back and made sure to educate them on OEM (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Original_equipment_manufacturer). This once again shows that the problem isn't what matters but how you handle the problem that matters. They should have simply sent me two new units or refunded my money. If they wanted the used items back they should have sent me a pre-paid box I could drop in the mail or have a carrier come pick it up. Had they done that I would have purchased many more items from them.

To all of my friends at the Stootsi.com: You've been fecal'd!

Assery at the Sedona Real Inn & Suites

2008-08-26T13:39:00.016-07:00

Thinking about taking a trip to Sedona, Arizona? It's a nice place with good scenery, good food, lots of touristy shops, and it's share of assery. Enough assery to cause the creation of this blog? Yea.

We (myself, pregnant wife, and 2 year old son) took a trip to Sedona back in October of 2007 and after doing some research online we decided to stay at the Sedona Real Inn & Suites (http://www.sedonareal.com/). The hotel looked nice from the pics on their site (doesn't it always?) and the rooms were very large with good pricing.

When we arrived I was pretty impressed with the room as it actually looked like the picture. The carpet could have been cleaned better, but the rest was pretty good. So now that I have said everything good about this place, let's move on to the assery.

The entire problem with this hotel is really with the management. We had an issue with the neighbors smoking on their patio which was 2 feet from our windows and HVAC intake. So, even with the windows closed the smoke still got in and was worse if we turn on the HVAC at all. We complained to the front desk and they said they could legally smoke on their patio even though it was a non-smoking room.

So I told them we needed a new room away from the smoke and they said the could only upgrade us at a cost of $10 more per night. So, I am in a non-smoking room with smoke in it and now I have to pay more money to get what I originally paid for? Interesting way to handle a customer for sure. I told them I wouldn't pay more for a room and they refused to move us. I also said I would need help moving to a new room and they refused to help, saying that they legally couldn't! So we left the next day which cut our trip short a day.

When we left I told them I wanted a refund and they refused. When I got back home I looked up the smoking laws in AZ at http://www.smokefreearizon.org/ and found that while you can smoke on the patio of a non-smoking hotel room you can ONLY do so if the smoke does not enter the adjacent rooms. So, since the smoke was entering our room they could not legally smoke on the patio. Now, shouldn't the hotel staff know these laws already? But regardless of the law, doesn't common sense tell you that I should have smoke coming into my room if I am in a non-smoking room?

So I emailed the hotel when we returned home to ask for a refund and got this back...

Matt,

There is not a policy forbidding a guest from smoking on the
patio of a non-smoking room. We cannot control the actions of other guests if
they are not breaking any policies. You were offered to move which would have
solved the problem, and you refused that offer. We will not be refunding the
charges on your American Express card.

Jessica Pratt
Assistant
Manager
(928) 282-1414 phone
(928) 282-0900 fax
jessica@sedonareal.com

Interesting how they spin that in their favor. I was offered to move...if I paid more money. Also, it was late and we had already unpacked and I have a very pregnant wife on one hand and a 2 year old who is tired on the other and the staff said they "legally could not help us move our bags to the new room".

After a few more emails I got in touch with the General Manager of the hotel and he too refused my refund request. I then explained the law to him and once he realized he was breaking the law (but not before that point) he offered to refund 50% of the hotel charges.

Matt,

I do feel like the offer I presented to you was fair
for both parties involved. I reduced the price in half on a totally used product
that we can not recoup and the damages are increasing daily by your commitment
to harm our business. There is nothing we can do to change the damage you have
inflected.

Thank you for clarity in the law of smoke free Arizona.
Our understanding was only partial of what you stated and that is that smoking
is permitted on patios or decks. With this new information that you have given
us we can educate our smoking guests of the rights of non-smoking guests. This
will not happen again.

Rob Holeman
General Manager
Sedona
Reál Inn & Suites
rob@sedonareal.com

Great, so now it's my job as a customer to educate their staff on the laws...really?

Rob's only concern at this point is making a few dollars on my hotel stay, nothing more. All I wanted was a refund because they failed to provide the service I paid for. If they would have fixed the problem or given me a refund like I asked then I would have told everyone about how great their customer service was and even stayed there again.

Instead, I filed a complaint with Smoke Free AZ, the Better Business Bureau, and issued a charge back through American Express to get my money back. I sited the smoking law when issuing these complaints and sure enough all agreed with me and AmEx gave us all of our money back.

In the end Rob and the Sedona Real Inn & Suites only ended up costing their hotel more money by not providing customer service. Not only did they lose any money they charged me, but as a merchant accepting credit cards they also get slapped with a charge back fee (probably $25 or so). And worst of all, I made sure to tell my friends and family about this experience (who have passed the info on to their friends and family) and that's a potential loss of hundreds and hundreds of customers. Where as one positive review to these people would have brought in new business.

So, to all of my friends at the Sedona Real Inn & Suites: You've been fecal'd!