Shopping Cart Fail [Fail Blog via Buzzfeed]

There is now a dedicated website, and your better check it often if you want to beat out the 150,000 strong mob to win a snazzy hotel room. At least that is what Leading Hotels apologizer-in-chief Ted Tang said in what he promises will be the final update:

Dear Internets,

I would like to once again express my gratitude for your continued support, understanding, and patience with The Leading Hotels of the World. Since October 1, we have explored and evaluated many solutions to the technological failures encountered during the online USD 19.28 Sale.

I am delighted to inform you that today we selected Akamai Technologies, Inc., the world premier web content delivery network, with clients such as Yahoo, Travelocity, and Amazon. Together we are working diligently to finalize a new procedure whereby you, as well as the other 150,000 registrants, will have a chance to secure one of the originally allotted 6,000 room nights that are available at the rate of USD 19.28.

In developing a fair and foolproof platform, we have been faced with various considerations. Timing - both on the developmental front as well as for your trip-planning purposes - has proven to be our major and foremost concern. We chose to preserve the hotel availability dates, which in most cases began on November 1, as to not delay the promotion by several months. We also opted to maintain the promotion on a first-come, first-served basis. To make the offer a random selection or lottery would significantly delay the re-launch due to complicated international regulations. Lastly, we wanted to ensure successful communication to registrants in a prompt manner. We are now confident that, with Akamai, we have found a solution that addresses all of these challenges.

Please note that you will not be receiving any further emails, rather, we have decided to post all future updates and details on a dedicated website at www.lhw.com/1928status, which will go live on Monday, October 13. This will allow all registrants, throughout the various parts of the globe, simultaneous and equal access to the USD 19.28 updates around the clock. All updates will indicate the date and time of posting. Please know that we have intentionally communicated this website address only to registrants in order not to dilute your chances of securing a reservation at the promotional rate. We will announce the details of the new USD 19.28 promotion, no later than Friday, October 17, which will occur the following week. The sale details will be posted at least 48 hours before the promotion begins.

With thanks,

Ted Teng
President & CEO
The Leading Hotels of the World, Ltd.

Sorry, Ted, for posting the link to the super-secret website. We didn't mean to dilute the contest or anything, but since it's out there now, how about an RSS feed?

Keep checking this site, and by Friday at the latest (maybe sooner! surprise!) we'll find out when the mob gathers next.

1928 Status Page [Leading Hotels of the World]
PREVIOUSLY: Leading Hotels Do-Over Postponed
Do-Over Announced By Leading Hotels Of The World
$19.28 5-Star Hotel Room Promo Ends In Fiasco
Book A World-Class Hotel Room For Only $19.28 Per Night
(Photo: Getty)

Here's the situation: Reader Bryan ordered an item from Adorama's Amazon store. After the item shipped, he decided to change the shipping instructions so he could pick up his package at the UPS store. Amazon's policies kept Adorama from changing the instructions on a shipped item, so, after apologizing, Adorama gave Bryan two options: a full refund, or once the item returned undelivered, they could re-ship the item with the right instructions.

Bryan didn't send us his original request, so we'll start with Adorama's response. The writing isn't the clearest, but the content speaks for itself:

hi!

unfurtunaly this is an Amazon order and we wont be able to have you pick it up. I apologized for the inconvenience this may have caused you.

PAOLA
Adorama customer service

Brian responded:

I don't see why it being an amazon order changes anything. It's MY package that I paid for, and paid shipping for. UPS is not able to deliver to my location, all I want is to be able to pick up the package THAT I PAID FOR.

Make it happen, or I'm just returning all of it, and then you'll be refunding my money.

Right off the bat you can tell Bryan is trouble. "Make it happen?" Tell that to a waitress and you'll rightly end up with a drink down your shirt. Let's see how Paola responds:

I apologized for the inconvenience but our contract with Amazon is like that we cant make any changes to the order or have ups hold it for you , if you are unable to be at the address you provide with your order for shipping the order will come back to us and we will give you the money back for the item.

have a nice day!!

PAOLA
Adorama customer service

Paola provided a direct explanation to Bryan's question. Adorama's contract with Amazon prevents them from changing the shipping address. Simple enough, but Bryan kept pushing:

Well, I guess you just lost some money. I have NEVER had any issues with getting UPS to hold a package that I have bought from Amazon.

I'm so sorry for the inconvenience maybe you place the order through Amazon and it was ship by another company. I don't want you to feel like if we don't appreciated your business but unfurtunaly we can not hold the pack. if the order was place directly from us we wouldn't have this problem.

again I apologies.

PAOLA
Adorama customer service

Another fairly direct response from Paola, and a way to avoid the problem in the future. Fine.

How Bryan choose to advance his case?

Please learn proper grammar and english. It would make your messages much easier to understand.

At this point, Paola could have stopped responding. The substantive interaction was over. If we were in Paola's place, we wouldn't have been able to respond with anything approximating a polite response. And as we'll see, advancing the conversation doesn't help anyone, even if the intent is to help an unreasonable customer.

Oh thank you.... For the compliment... am just trying to give you good customer service. at least someone is paying attention to your problem.

PAOLA
Adorama customer service

See, this is what I'm talking about. Re-read your last 2 messages. They are written poorly. "unfurtunaly" is spelled "unfortunately".

All this poor grammar and spelling lets me know is that the employees at this place are incompetent, and that I would never order anything from you again. No one is paying attention to my problem and I am NOT receiving "good customer service". If I was receiving "good customer service", my problem would have already been taken care of when I called yesterday. I can't believe all this hassle is being put into this situation. All I want to do is pick up my package; this should not be an impossible task.

You fail. I will never order anything from adorama again.

Are you a teacher? All I m trying to do is help you and "unfortunately" you don't see that you are just looking for mistakes in the grammar. I hope you have a very nice day!

PAOLA
Adorama customer service

Yes. I am a teacher. I teach 4th grade, and they spell better than you

and can complete sentences using proper punctuation. It reflects poorly on you and the company you work for. If you can't do this, maybe this is the wrong job for you. You are doing NOTHING to help me. If you want to help me, offer to overnight me another camera with no restrictions on the package, so that I can pick it up at the UPS office. Sitting here and arguing with me does nothing to fix the problem.

Today, I will be contacting any management/owners that I can get ahold of and informing them of the awful customer service I've received. If you can't solve the problem and just type gibberish to me, then you are of no use in your current place of employment.

With the respect you deserve let me explain you something. I was trying to assist you since the first time that you call , but you just say that you wanted your money back and started complaining about my grammar instead of telling me that you wanted the item expedited, is very frustrating for me as a customer service representative that is doing her best to assist you, to only get this kind of email in response like if I was one of your students . Am really sorry this is going the way is going, you are the first customer I get that is a "teacher" and act like a student.

If you want the item I will be more than happy to place a new order for you, I will need to charge you for the item again and am supposed to charge you for shipping as well because I don't see where we mess up with your order we send it to the address that you provide Amazon for shipping. if you will like I can ask my manager as a first time courtesy to give you free shipping. And if you want fell free to contact my manager to complaint about my customer service skills her ext# is 2219 her name is Leah, I am sure she will be happy to listen to you and read our emails....thank you and have a nice day!!!!!!

PAOLA
Adorama customer service

Can we all agree this is a reasonable solution? Paola offered to resend the item, possibly even waive the shipping. And she volunteered her manager's number and rightly suggested that any third party might find Bryan's behavior offensive.

So how does Bryan respond to the olive branch?

Wow. I have no clue what any of that says since your sentences are all run-ons and really really long. Go back to school.

The situation deteriorates from there.

I just feel sorry for the kids you teach ... You are very disrespectful, maybe my problem can be solve going back to school but in your case you will have to be born again.. Respect others is easy and make others life easier too. Here at Adorama we treat our customers with respect because that's how they treat us. but that's not you case. Have a good life.

PAOLA
Adorama customer service

Spend less time telling me to be 'born again' and more time studying an English book. Religion is just a crutch for the weak.
Sent from my BlackBerry(r) smartphone with SprintSpeed

Be happy!! Have a nice day!! "teacher"

PAOLA
Adorama customer service

I was happy today until I had to deal with you. And for some reason you decide to bring religion into this. I'm making phone calls right now, doing my best to make sure that you don't have a job by the end of the day.
Sent from my BlackBerry(r) smartphone with SprintSpeed

Ok she is waiting for your call ext#2219 leah .. bye

PAOLA
Adorama customer service

Okay.... Here's an awesome email exchange between an adorama.com camera customer service rep and myself. Yeah, I'm an asshole, but this ignorant woman actually suggested that I become "born again".

All this because they put all kinds of restrictions on MY package which won't allow me to pick up my package at the UPS office.

Enjoy!

You sure got one thing right, Bryan.

Clearly the exchange could have been handled better by everyone. The telecoms and other large companies use rigid customer service manuals to limit similar debacles. Their customer service is like Plinko: your complaint's destiny is governed by its fall down a maddening decision tree. Bryan would have been dismissed with a simple: "We cannot accommodate your request at this time. Please be assured, your business is important to us." We prefer companies where employees can treat us not just as consumers, but as people.

When dealing with any company, always treat customer service representatives as you would want to be treated yourself. The whole Golden Rule thing and all. Not only is it common decency, but it's the single best way to get exactly you want.

(Photo: paolo màrgari)

Consumer Reports posted a list of 7 common online security mistakes that you might be making — and assuming you were protected was #1. Now, we know our readers aren't making these mistakes because they are so responsible and awesome, but maybe you have a family member who keeps sending money to Nigeria and wondering why Bank of America keeps emailing when they don't have an account. Maybe you could send this their way?

7. Shopping online like you do in stores. Avoid using a debit card and always look for the "https" in the website's address. You can get a virtual account number from your credit-card company. It’s good for only one purchase from a specific vendor.

6. Clicking on a pop-up that tells you your PC is secure. CR's survey showed "that 13 percent of respondents who saw such a pop-up tried to close it but launched it instead; 3 percent clicked on a pop-up and got a malware infection." Block pop-ups and/or be very careful to click the X, not the ad.

5. Thinking your Mac protects you from everything. Mac users fall prey to phishing scams at about the same rate as Windows users, says CR.

4. Downloading Free Software. "Fish-tank screen savers and smiley faces" are the enemy of everything good in the world. Download software from reputable sites (Download.com), and check out our sister site Lifehacker to see if they have any recommendations.

3. Using one password for everything. Dumb! Here's some advice for creating and managing good passwords.

2. Accessing your account through email links. Don't do this. Don't. Please stop. Stop! CR says: No matter how official an e-mail message looks, trying to access a financial account by clicking on embedded Web links is risky. If the e-mail message is fraudulent, a cybercriminal could use the account number and password you enter to steal your identity or empty your bank account.

1. Assuming your security software is working. CR says: "Renew the subscription when the software prompts you. Make sure your security software is active when you’re online and that it has been updated within the past week or so."

Read the full article here.

7 online blunders
[Consumer Reports]
(Photo: Getty)

Here's a head's up - Continental has canceled dozens of flights going into and out of Houston (IAH)...but they haven't told anyone. They canceled my outbound flight to California through Houston (which, fine, understandable), but didn't send me so much as an email or phone call, like most carriers do. It wasn't until I tried to check this morning that I was met with their proposed new flight plan (see attached.) It's sad and hilarious at the same time. Needless to say, I've rebooked since then.

I'd have been in trouble at the airport if I hadn't tried to check in this morning, so just a warning to anyone trying to fly across the country today - the airlines, particularly Continental, are doing their usual awesome job at handling the situation. I'm not so much upset about changing my plans, it's the total lack of communication from Continental and the completely useless "solution" they tried to offer.

(Photo: FlyGuy92586)

Here's how it went down:

• Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson told Fannie Mae CEO Daniel Mudd (whose name is good as...) and Freddie Mac CEO Richard Syron that they and their boards were fired.
• The companies will be placed into conservatorship of the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
• Common shareholders will be virtually wiped out. Preferred shareholders (banks) will be protected.
• Instead of providing a massive headline-grabbing infusion of cash upfront, the government will provide quarterly subsidies to cover losses.
• Freddie and Fannie will continue to operate normally, except taxpayers will be on the hook for future losses.

Both Obama and McCain announced that they support the plan, not that either of them can veto the Bush Administration's takeover.

The Treasury made its move now partly to reassure Mexico, Japan, and China that their central banks' shares of the Depression-era institutions will be backed by you.

Isn't that great?!

U.S. Rescue Seen at Hand for 2 Mortgage Giants [The New York Times]
U.S. Near Deal on Fannie, Freddie [The Wall Street Journal]
Fannie, Freddie's boards meet Saturday to mull government plan [Reuters]
PREVIOUSLY: U.S. Treasury Attempts To Save Freddie, Fannie, Avert Apocalypse
Bush Administration Considering A Takeover Of Freddie And Fanny
(Photo: Getty)

Chat Information
AT&T product specialists are happy to assist you with your questions. Click below to begin your live text chat. Chat representatives will not have access to your personal account. This service is provided to you under AT&Ts Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Chat Information
Welcome to AT&T. My name is Peter. How may I help you today?

Peter: I will be happy to answer your questions regarding AT&T services. I specialize in setting up new phone accounts and High Speed Internet service.

you: Hi Peter, I'm comparing services in the Columbus area. I'm looking for basic internet and cable tv. I wasn't very lucky in finding prices on the website.

you: I would like 2mbps internet and basic or standard tv service.

Peter: Do you currently have local service with AT&T?

you: I do not, I moved in a few days ago.

Peter: To clarify ordering DSL online does require a basic home phone line; which ranges in price from $5-$17 per month, and this would make your High Speed DSL prices $10 cheaper per month. Also if you place the order through phone you will be not eligible to get the current online promotions.

you: I'm in no need of a land line.

you: What online promotions are you speaking about?

(Long pause)

Peter: May I ask from which state you are?

you: I'm from **. I'm a new graduate student at ***

you: So my new residence is Columbus OH 43201

you: I mention it becuase I've been offered student discounts at other companies

(Another wait)

Peter: Good news though if you order online today you will receive the New Line Promotional credit making your phone activation free of charge which would cost you $38 to $40.

you: I don't want a phone.

you: I want internet and tv.

(Another wait)

Peter: However you can go for U-verse services if it is able in your area?

[Shouldn't he know if it's available in my area? I've provide my location.]

Peter: AT&T U-verse service is 100% digital television delivered over an Internet Protocol (IP) platform using fiber optic technology. AT&T U-verse also offers High Speed Internet and Voice (in limited areas) over IP access into your home.

you: That's fantastic, but I'm just looking for price quotes on basic internet and tv service. I don't need anything besides basic cable and 2Mbps dsl.

[A few minutes go by while I wait for a response.]

you: Well thanks Peter, but I think I'm going to find another service.

The customer, Will, adds, "I was then directed to a review of my chat session." His review was not favorable:

I let [AT&T] know I had no interest in being pushed canned lines by a salesperson with a shaky understanding of the English language, but would have expected, as I have experienced with other websites, online site assistance.

(Photo: Getty)

Our reader writes:

About three weeks ago now, I went to Adobe.com to buy a copy of Dreamweaver CS3 online, as I couldn't find one locally. As I have Adobe CS2 Premium, I qualified to buy the version that is the upgrade from GoLive to Dreamweaver. So I find this version on their store, add to cart, and buy it.

Problem #1 - While most other versions of Dreamweaver are available as downloads, this one, inexplicably, is not. I'm told it will be shipped in about a week. As I had a trial version of Dreamweaver CS3 installed already, I contacted their live chat system and asked if the serial number could be sent via email or something in advance, so I could get to work. No can do.

I wait - and a week later, the box arrives. I tried the serial number received on the trial version at first. Problem #2 - It cannot find my Adobe CS2 (to verify I qualify for upgrade) even though that had been installed in the standard, default directory. So it asks me to enter the Dreamweaver CS3 serial number, then pick what version I'm upgrading from, and enter the GoLive serial number.

Problem #3 - It tells me the serial number I'm putting in does not match the product I'm upgrading from. This in spite of the fact I copied and pasted it directly from Go Live's help menu, and also tried typing it in manually several times. (The only thing I can figure, in retrospect, is that since my choices were upgrading from GoLive 6.0, GoLive CS, or GoLive CS2, the fact that I have CS2 Premium was the issue). I tried uninstalling the trial and installing fresh from the CD, but got the same issue.

I surf over to Adobe's customer support portal, which promises an answer in one business day. I have to register first, of course (grr), but I submit a ticket with all the appropriate information first thing on a Thursday morning.

The following *Tuesday* (six calendar days, four business days later), I get this gem (emphasis added):

Hello ________,

Thank you for contacting Adobe Customer Service.

Due to the Support Portal being closed on weekends [?!], we were unable to
respond to your e-mail. We sincerely regret any inconvenience this may
have caused and appreciate your patience.

________, I understand that you purchased the upgrade version of
Dreamweaver CS3 (serial number). As you already had the
trial version of CS3 installed, you took the serial number from the box
that arrived and put it in. It accepted that, but then asked you to
verify that you was eligible to upgrade. You went to your copy of GoLive
CS2, and copied the Serial Number directly out of Help>System Info and
pasted that in to the CS3 dialogue, but it is telling you that the
GoLive CS2 number does not match what you have selected. You tried
selecting Go Live 6.0, GoLive CS and GoLive CS2 and it does not allow
you to proceed under any circumstances.

I understand your concern with this issue and apologize for the
inconvenience caused.

It would have been a pleasure to assist you with this issue. In this
regard, I would request you to contact Adobe Customer Service phone
support at 1 (800) 833-6687 from 6:00am to 8:00pm, PT, 7 days a week.
This is not an issue that can be resolved through this portal and they
are best equipped to handle such issues. They will provide you step by
step assistance through this issue..."

Problem #4: It's taken their customer service portal nearly a week to tell me ... they can't provide any customer service.

I grit my teeth and call the 1800 number. I called at 11:45 EST, and after the first five minutes, put the phone on hands free, so I could at least work while I listen to the dreadful hold music. I waited.

And waited.

And waited.

And waited.

And at precisely 1:07 EST... I was ... disconnected.

As I've had this happen after lengthy hold times with other companies, I suspect this some sort of slate-clearing standard procedure.

I write into the portal, politely, but firmly, to complain about this, and request that one of their reps call ME instead. I suggested that since I'd been waiting a week's shipping time, six days "customer service portal" time, and an hour and 20 minutes hold time to get what should have been a straightforward purchase, that they had a deadline of the following Monday to get it sorted.

I get:

"Hello _______,

Thank you for contacting Adobe Customer Service.

_______, thank you for your reply.

I understand your concern with this issue and apologize for the
inconvenience caused.

It would have been a pleasure to assist you with this issue. In this
regard, I would request you to contact Adobe Customer Service phone
support at 1 (800) 833-6687 from 6:00am to 8:00pm, PT, 7 days a week.
This is not an issue that can be resolved through this portal and they
are best equipped to handle such issues. They will provide you step by
step assistance through this issue..."

So here I am. Please warn your readers (again) to stay away from Adobe; meanwhile, I'm off to issue a chargeback request to my credit card company, and to shop for something else.

We've written about Adobe not being able to actually sell its software before. Twice. These stories are only a fraction of the complaints we get about Adobe. Adobe, if you wonder why your software is so popular on bittorrent, here's one reason: Even the people who want to buy it can't get it from you. Here are some email addresses for Adobe's executives, hopefully they can help: rburgess@adobe.com, cboesenberg@adobe.com, selop@adobe.com, igiffen@adobe.com, sgomo@adobe.com, harris@adobe.com, dlucas@adobe.com, bnelson@adobe.com, snakama@adobe.com, efoley@adobe.com, ushike@adobe.com, mrozen@adobe.com, sofferma@adobe.com.

(Photo: Getty)

Skipping past the fact that gift cards are a terrible investment and that you could easily take your $50 straight to Target, why would anyone bid more than face value on gift card?!

Steven Levitt is baffled:

This seems to defy all logic. The item description is: “Just a $50 gift card to Target … .”

We need to find lpinok and sit him down with Ben Bernanke. Maybe, hopefully, hours of conversation will unearth the mangled thought process behind baffling phenomena like the subprime meltdown.

Until someone offers an explanation, we have no choice but to believe that lpinok represents everything that is wrong with personal finance in America.

How Much Would You Pay for a $50 Target Gift Card? [Freakonomics]

The major provisions of the "Cable Consumer Bill of Rights" are:

• 1. Customer Service Transparency
• Cable companies will be required to collect and report detailed information about consumer complaints, and to follow-up with complaining consumers within 30 days to ensure their problems have been resolved
• Companies must also collect and report detailed information about service outages by borough and community district, and submit a quarterly Plan of Correction for communities that are routinely subject to service outages
• Companies must also improve meaningful consumer disclosure; including providing consumers with a full and accurate list of all service tiers, sub-tiers and channel offerings for their franchise area
• Cable operators must provide convenient service centers that are easily accessible by mass transit. We recommend one service center for every 500,000 customers served
• Ensures privacy protection for the customer which prohibits the cable providers from sharing data on customer's internet usage and television viewing habits
• 
  2. Cable Rate Transparency
• Cable companies must provide needed transparency about their cable rates so that consumers know what percentage of each bill is allocated to:
• Cost of content, capital expenditures, system maintenance, administrative expenses and profit
• Independent programmers affiliated / non-affiliated with cable or broadcasting companies
• 
  3. Independent Arbitration
• Create an independent arbitration system to help cable companies and independent programmers efficiently resolve disputes over access, rather than denying consumer access to popular programming. (This mechanism would avoid the type of blackouts that consumers have experienced such as when Yankees and Mets programming were not available to many cable subscribers for lengthy periods of time
• 
  4. Annual Cable Consumer Report Card
• Cable companies must publish and distribute an annual Cable Consumer Report Card so that consumers can easily:
• identify their cable company's performance over the previous year,
• access cost and service information,
• view improvements that have been made and service outages that have occurred, and
• view complaint ratios by community board
• The availability of a report card as well as where to obtain the information (web site, phone number) must be included in all promotional materials issued by the providers
• This annual report must also disclose the existence of exclusive contracts that cable companies make with Multiple Dwelling Units (MDUs), which prohibit residents from choosing among cable providers

Information in New York City's monopolistic marketplace leads to anger and frustration, but not action. Say a consumer finds out that their monthly cable bill is $145 plus 3 squids because their building signed an exclusive contract with Time Warner, who allocates 99% of those funds (including the squids) to shareholders, and not infrastructure improvements. What's the consumer supposed to do? Cancel their service and go with.... right, nobody.

The franchise renewal represents the city's best shot at forcing cable operators to meet strict customer service goals. New York can look to Montgomery County's franchise agreement with Comcast for inspiration. Under that agreement, Comcast agreed to:

• Answer the phone within 30 seconds and transfer the customer to a live human in an additional 30 seconds.
• Fix service interruptions within 24 hours if no work is needed inside the home, and 3 days if access to the home is required.
• Provide a 10% per day credit if the technician is unable to repair the connection during a scheduled service appointment.

The franchise can't be signed without the approval of the Franchise Concession and Review Committee. The Mayor, Comptroller, and Borough Presidents should stand up for New Yorkers and write a real Cable Consumer Bill of Rights, one that will provide the level of customer service all New Yorkers deserve.

And then use that agreement to extract even stricter standards from Verizon.

Comptroller Thompson Unveils "Cable Consumer Bill Of Rights (Press Release) [NYC Comptroller]
(Photo: Dr. Hemmert)

Screwed up video display is a problem dear to our heart. In Willy's case, the video problem didn't happen until HP had taken the first crack at fixing his laptop and charged him over $400. They didn't fix it the second time he sent it in, so he sent it once more, again specifying that the video display "has lines, spots, and it scrambles." HP diagnosed a faulty audio component—which Willy says worked just fine before he sent it in—and offered to repair it for $300 more. Willy sent HP an Executive Email Carpet Bomb and has spent hours on the phone with customer service, but it still came back unfixed—but with a shiny new audio PCA. So Willy is disputing the charges with American Express.

I have had this laptop for a good long while, about four to five years, and since then, migrated to a new one, but this one was still old reliable for a while as a backup. Well, as all good computers do no matter what, they eventually develop something, and this one developed an issue where it wouldn't turn on.

Now keep in mind that yes, this is a somewhat old laptop (Compaq R3000) but I have been trying to get this fixed for a while. This has already been in repair three times in one month time. I understood the first time that I would have to pay for the repairs as it is beyond the warranty. At the time, I didn't care; I'm one of those people that would like to see older computers running and being used. The unit does not turn on. I had also requested that the unit be —inspected extensively— and make sure it still runs properly, as I wouldn't know if there was problems since it doesn't turn on.

That was March 26 and I paid $417.90 for the repairs. The repair number for this is:

I get the laptop back on April 1st and immediately found that the computer was making unnecessary fan noises (as if the fan was hitting something inside the computer) as well as developed video problems; the screen was looking like a blur with vertical lines along the screen.

called again to have the unit sent in and the unit arrived at the center at April 7, and received the unit back on April 10. The fan noise is gone but the video is still having the same exact problem. Basically, dead on arrival. That repair number is:

Now I have the unit sent in for the third time (April 11, new repair number: ) over the last four weeks and now they claim that the AUDIO JACKS are broken and I must pay a cost of $312.90. Now I DO know that the audio jacks works as I've tried them through headphones when I had the laptop a second time before the video issue. Unfortunately, this so-called "repair" is not even related to the video problem that came in the second time, and I suspect that would not even get fixed. For the most part, that should have been inspected in the first place at the original repair.

I have been on the phone with HP Support ever since it has entered into the repair facility for the third time. I have asked for supervisors and managers, and they have instead just put me to agent to agent, with some of them even hanging up on me. I've been at my wit's end trying to figure out why they have not repaired the unit, or even replaced it, and why they did not inspect the laptop the first time properly so I wouldn't have been sending it in all the time.

The strange irony of this is that I MYSELF work for technical support for a competing electronics company which deal with EXACTLY THIS class of both technical problems and servicing problems. From my perspective of this and comparing it, you are doing far worse than I remember. I remember it used to be quite quick, snappy, and reliable.

I am sorely disappointed by the support that I have been provided for the notebook, and the difficulty of getting answers and a satisfactory resolution to this problem. Since I have made this charge on my American Express card, I have decided to also dispute the charges to this and halt payment, as I'm not satisfied at all at the quality of the repair and workmanship that you have done with my laptop and I have not gotten any resolution to this.

From TechCrunch:

We've noted problems with the service in the past, but never a general outage. The site is down. The service is down. Everything appears to be offline.

If you want to be a phone company, and get your users to rely on you to manage all of your incoming calls, this simply cannot happen.

Google has yet to release a statement or give any indication when GrandCentral will be back up and running—though it better be soon. Google's starting to make Verizon look good, and that's simply intolerable.

If You Wanna Be A Phone Company, You Can't Go Dead [TechCrunch]

I bought a small but overpriced postal scale at Staples ($22). When I took it home and opened the box, there was a broken, not-for-sale scale in it. I took it back and exchanged it for another one without any problem. But it's a crappy scale even when it's functional: it's not set at 0 and I don't see a way to resetit.

This one really left me scratching my head. Not only did [Sears] send me the wrong item, they charged the wrong prices on everything I ordered. I ordered an air blow gun and got a jigsaw instead. I submitted this order during the 20% off/free shipping promotion. The total in my cart at checkout was $26 less than my card was charged, and I was charged for shipping as well.

Half an hour of arguing on the phone with a Sears rep and I was able to get the discount credited back to my card, but no free shipping, and it could take 10-14 days for them to "trace" my $20 blow gun. I am filing a claim with my credit card issuer just to be safe. This is the same company that sends me a free ratchet in the mail every time I exchange one in the store, so I can't complain too much.

See, I try to be a good guy and purchase a retail copy of Windows XP to use on my Macbook. But the stupid security sticker is covering up the last five digits of the product key, and trying to remove the security sticker tears the label. I give up.

Nice Guys Finish Last [Scott Kidder]

Heartless smashers of candy.

From MacNN:

"It started out a 1 pink line, Then about 2 weeks later another 2 lines appeared. Every now and then when I start up they are gone but seem to fade in after about 5 minutes."

We, the undersigned, request that Apple Inc. officially acknowledge and address the defect in their LCD Displays. The defect causes vertical lines (cyan/yellow/pink) to appear cutting through the screen and multiplying as time goes by. Unfortunately, the problem starts to appear right after the end of the one year warranty. This problem has been filling up the Apple's online discussion forum and with no possible solution. We are the loyal Apple fans and would love to see Apple show its appreciation by stepping up to this issue.

If this happens to you, the first thing you should do is check to see if the credit card you used to purchase the computer has extended warranty protection. If it does, you may not have to wait around for Jobs to read this blog.

iMac LCD screens failing en masse [MacNN](Thanks, Mike!)

From NBC 9:

Amid an angry crowd chanting "We want tickets," Rockies spokesperson Jay Alves announced World Series ticket sales have been suspended Monday.

Alves says virtually all the tickets are still available, due to a computer system malfunction. He says only several hundred tickets were sold.

"Right now we're shutting the system down .... We expect to be online at some point," Alves said.

According to Alves, the Colorado Rockies will announce new plans to sell the tickets at some point later Monday afternoon. He says the Web site received 8.5 million hits in the first 90 minutes the system was up and running.

Fans booed as Alves made the announcement outside Coors Field.

"We're as frustrated and disappointed as they are," Alves said of the fans.

World Series ticket sales suspended [NBC9]
(Photo:Jeffrey Beall)