Ta-Dah...



For closure: The second package came to me last Friday! Not completely glitch-free though. There was, a somewhat (less than half-hearted attempt) to "deliver" on Thursday (while I was home) resulting in a door slip (filled out very poorly) being left. Without going into details, I had a friendly talk with the shipping company (considerable wading through menus and such) in which I explained my frustration. I also had a nice talk with the delivery person (who appeared to be a season hire). No sarcasm, both were friendly and, in the end, helpful.

No idea what happened to the first package it is still "Delivery Pending" as I type. I was actually asked if I would like to "cancel" it - what does that mean anyways?

So, I am whole. But, I don't think that I will use that shipping service again unless there is a compelling reason to do so. The kicker for me leading to that conclusion is that less than an hour after I signed for the package, I received a "please rate our service" robo-call.

 

To be fair most ebay stuff gets to me just fine - yesterday I got 100 WS2812Bs for $8 in the mail - it was perfect. And the retailers are so paranoid about getting bad ratings that they replace without a whimper.

Agree, and not just the Bay, Amazon as well. I once ordered a particular bulb. It came with terrible packing (flimsy and not padded cardboard box) and, as I would expect, broken. In the same order, I also purchased two other bulbs from a different company. Both came intact and with sufficient packing (thick Styrofoam-line box).

I sent a photo of the damaged bulb and I was promptly sent TWO additional bulbs without any charge. Both were packed exactly the same as the first. One of the two bulbs was, again, broken, but the other made it ok. Three bulbs cost, for one bulb sold - I would have thought that if you want to sell mail-ordered bulbs, you would think a little more about the packaging.

 

That's pretty much what happened with some stepper drivers I ordered. Flimsy packaging so broken switches on 4 of the 5 boards. Pictures sent to them, replacement sent in same packaging, only one broken this time. I ordered switches elsewhere, swapped out the broken ones and got 10 for the price of 5. (of course, I proceeded to wire 3 of them backwards and let out the blue smoke, sigh). Still ahead, though.

I also hear you about delivery screw ups. I've had stuff left at my basement door and outbuilding side door. Of course those are both exposed to the weather and my front door isn't. Sheesh, they had to try harder to find those than my front door.

 

I didn't want to start a new thread for this because, well, long story short, this still fits the topic.

Just returned from a trip to Cable/Internet/Phone provider hell. Ever been there? Your ticket is issued when your monthly bill shows a $135 increase...because (insert unacceptable BS reason here) ______________. You are treated to numerous versions of music on hold and bizarre attempts at fixing things - oh and an added benefit is to somehow lose the ability to make LD calls (voice over IP) - that one is thrown in free of charge!.

On the latter point, you will get to spend hours dutifully turning things on and off (gee why didn't I think of that?) before convincing people to look somewhere else on their end (hmmm seems like your number was not in our LD base - even though it was there for a heck of a long time and we have no idea why it stopped being in there).

On the former point, you will be invited to negotiate the price increase down from $135 to $14 (I allow that kind of increase every year or two because it is beneath my threshold for starting over). Oh but, once negotiated don't think that it has been changed effective for the current period (still shows you owe the difference) or for subsequent billings - that is a whole new trip to music-on-hold-ville.

But, eventually, in the end, finally, it gets straightened out...at least for now...and everyone was polite and pleasant and dutifully reading their scripts and showing the appropriate respect for the customer.

Yeah, it is nice when things work out - but I recommend a different vacation