Friday, June 13, 2008

   It's all sooo confusing
Hello everybody - Just some random musings today. I have recently had some very good experiences with some customer care departments & some not as good experiences with tech support. I got what I wanted, but somehow it still felt unsatisfying. My wife and I bought a Mac Mini in late March. I had to re-install the OS twice before bringing in to the shop. I got some conflicting information from tech support while they had my machine so that I am not completely confident that I actually know what they did. We started having additional problems with Photoshop and internet connectivity, so we just wanted to be done with our little mac experiment. I checked their web site & it clearly stated that there were no returns after 14 days & there would be a restocking fee if the box was opened. My wife asked me to call anyway. Doesn't hurt to ask, even if I already know what the answer is going to be. I briefly recapped the situation & said I wanted to retuen it. The answer was - sure - no problem & we'll waive the restocking fee. Umm... thank you.

Encouraged by this, I decided to call Adobe. We had spent $650 on a mac specific Photoshop that we would no longer be able to use since we were returning the Mac. Their website specifically said they do not have a program to swap out their software for the same item on a different platform. So - I call up & their response - sure. Just send us a letter of destruction stating the software is uninstalled and the media is destroyed & as soon as we receive it, we'll ship out the windows version but they did charge me $6.41 for shipping. I would much rather be out $6.50 than $650.

So - as a result, I am happy that my personal issues were addressed, yet somewhat unsettled that I cannot rely on the policies posted by these companies. I wonder how much of what happened was dependant on the agent that I was routed to? If I was routed to a recent trainee, would they have been as helpful or would they have restated the policy published on the web? If one agent says no, should I call back and ask a different agent? (My general thought on that one would normally be "no", but I also would not have called in to ask for a refund if the policy said no refunds after 14 days. So - I don't know.

The moral of the story - It doesn't hurt to ask. Generally. Also - I ask that when you do call in - be courteous & don't take it out on the agent if you don't like the company's policy. I'm pretty sure management didn't check with the rep before writing the rules.

More random musings - Canada!

A couple of months ago, I saw Canada for the first time. ok - I didn't actually cross the border. That was a good hundred yards away & the person I was with did not have a passport, but did have the keys to the car we came in. No - it wasn't some road trip gone awry. I went to western New York for work & a co-worker and I decided to see Niagara Falls while we were there.

The power of the falls was impressive - no doubt about that, but I don't really see this place as a destination - more of a place to stop if you happen to be driving by. That & the natural beauty is somewhat diminished by the large casinos on the Canadian side of the river.

I will say that being that close to Canada, made me think of the arbitrary nature of borders. What makes that side of the river different than this side? How much are the people on the far side different? Was the border drawn because that is where there wa a significant change in the attitudes of the people, or just a random line drawn to keep people from killing each other? How much are we shaped by our government and our culture? How different is it for those people a few miles away? Has their educational system drilled different thoughts into the heads of those "foreigners" than were drilled into our own heads?

A question for you - do you feel that your country's government is the country in this world that most closely matches your beliefs? And a follow-up question - how many countries have you visited? I am curious to see if the answer to the first question will be significantly different for people that have experience travelling internationally.

ok - enough ramblings for now. I hope everyone is doing well. Until next time.

-bunraku
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