TOR TOR TOR!!!!!!!

Germany just beat Portugal 3-2 in the Euro 2008 Quarter Final. We were the under dogs but we went quickly up 2-0, before Portugal made it 2-1 before half time. Germany then made it 3-1, and with a few minutes left Portugal made it 3-2.

So we win, we go on to face the winner of Turkey/Croatia!


Congrats to Ballack, Scheinsteigher, and Klose on their goals!

-D

Tim Russert, A True Pioneer

Today this country, and the world lost one of it's finest journalists, fathers, and political geniuses we have seen. I always enjoyed watching Tim Russert, especially on Meet The Press. While over the years many networks, journalists or anchors have favored certain politicians or political parties, Tim always grilled everyone equally.

He had a way of forcing candidates to re-evaluate their statements and comments over the years. If you suddenly switch your position on a stance, he was there to ask you why. He could take the toughest political decision and situations, and convert them into thoughts that made sense to the rest of the country.

It's during the next five months that we needed Tim Russert the most, and he will missed. It is my hope that we can find someone with nearly half the heart for politics, life, and family as Tim had, to carry on. Tim was straight forward with his questioning, and got the answers we all needed to make our decision.

My thoughts and prayers are with Tim's family and his family at NBC. He will be missed by me, and keeping up with Politics will just not be the same.

Tim,

Thanks for the memories.

God Bless!

Dell and Price Mistakes

If you shop Dell quite often, you will know this issue. You go to Dell's site, and see their "Dell DEAL OF THE DAY!" The price looks amazing, better than at your local store, so you get excited, and go ahead and purchase the item.

You get your confirmation email, even get your scheduled shipping date. Now you are psyched, a PS3 and two games for $291 shipped. Granted Walmart is giving out $100 gift cards with the purchase of a 40GB PS3, but this deal is nice nonetheless.

So of course the day of the proposed shipping date, the order get's delayed. Then a few days later it get's canceled because it's on back order. Interesting, one would thing they would of had enough product for their big "Dell DEAL OF THE DAY" sale.

What's worse, when inquiring about re-activating the order, Customer Support tells you:


Dell records indicate that the item PS3 Bundle in the order number 333373110 is currently backordered and hence it was cancelled. Please be informed that as we are into customer care and have limited access to place an order, I request you to please contact our sales department at 800-284-3355 extension 72-61843 and have the order once again placed.

Of course, the problem with this is that the item is now $120 more.

So, ok I get it, a price mistake, it happens. How is it, that this happens on a nearly regular basis? Would you not simply warn the person making this mistake, and then fire them the second or third time around?

Where is the QA being done after changes are made to the site?

It almost feels like a good way to get customers to your site, in the hopes they buy other things, just to kill the attention grabber. Retail stores have been using sales on big items for years to draw in customers, and then make the money on the sale item up in other more profitable items the customer buys.

So one has to wonder if Dell is simply doing this to draw traffic, or just has a team that cannot manage to double check their sale pricings?

Granted, I credit Dell for finally giving me a $100 coupon for my troubles, even though the PS3 will still cost me $20 more than before. But even that that took time in email responses, and filling a Better Business Bureau complaint. It's not like I'm trying to get Dell Products for free, I just want to purchase, what they advertise, and actually receive that product and have it shipped.

Point is, if you have a Price Mistake that you made, stick to it!

-Dravor

The not so Geeky Geek Squad

Recently, I had to go back to our local Best Buy to pick up our Dyson vacuum. It turns out Dyson has a deal with Best Buy, where you can simply return your Dyson to Best Buy for warranty/repair issues.

Not only is it aggravating that only the "Geek Squad" personnel can walk the ten feet into the "back area" to get my vacuum, but even worse there is only one person there. So myself and a female customer in front of me wait for the gentleman to finish off with the other customer.

After a few minutes the other customer just leaves, and wait another ten minutes, being ignored by the "Geek Squadist". When I finally pull aside a Manager to ask for help he says:

Best Buy Manager: "Oh Bob is our Geek Squad Associate, he will be happy to help you"
Myself: "We'll, the last customer left 10 minutes ago, and "Bob" has not said one word to us".
Best Buy Manager: "Bob, could you help these customers out?"
Bob: "Sure thing boss"
Bob : "Hi Mam, I've actually been working on your laptop for the last few minutes, and it will be done soon!".
Female Customer: "Well you said it would take 30 minutes, it's been 45 minutes now..."
Bob: "I'm sorry mam, one of the platters on your drive is dying, so it's taking somewhat longer to run the test" < ???? >
Female Customer: "Can't I just leave the drive here and come back tomm?"
Bob: "Well mam, if we do that, I'd have to check it in, and that is a lot of paperwork. Let's just wait a few more minutes and it should be done."
Female Customer: "But if it doesn't finish soon, won't you have to check it in anyways?"
Bob: "Well yes, but I assure you, it will be done soon. It's just that messed up platter."
Myself: "So Bob, if one of the platters on her hard drive is dead, shouldn't you be replacing the drive under warranty, and check in the laptop anyways?"
Bob (Looking confused, and flustered): "Well... uh.... it's not actually the platter.... uh..... the drive is fine it's just running slow.....yeah yeah the platter is actually fine, we won't have to replace the drive."
Myself: "So the platter isn't dying and the drive is working?"
Bob: "Well yes, the platter is ok. ummmm... it's just running really slow"

Bob walks back to get my vaccum.

Myself to Female Customer: "Be careful, this Geek Squad Member is as much of a Geek as I am a Senator"

So remember, just because a store has setups like Geek Squad, Firedog, etc does not mean they really have more understanding than your typical teenager. Who would you rather try and recover your data on a failing hard drive, someone making $10-12 an hour working at a Big Box Retailer, or something with the experience to help you save your data. It may cost you a bit more, but in the end, isn't it worth the price when you can be sure your problem will be fixed, and your data won't be lost?

Nothing against working retail, I did it in my younger years, but retail and disk content recovery just don't jive well together.

-Dravor

Germany Beat Poland!

Woohoo, Lukas Podolski scored twice, and Germany beats Poland 2:0 in the Euro 2008!