Jan 2007
The O.C., they cancel it now that it's getting good.
January/26/2007 04:57 PM Filed in: Television
I've always been a fan of The O.C. (the new Beverly Hills 90210), but
the show has gotten better now that they
killed off Marissa. Her melodrama was hard to
watch at times. Taylor has a quirkiness and is
genuinely funny. Che's character is kinda
annoying but he's better than Oliver, OMG I
hated Oliver.
The show dwindled because of Marissa and Volchok (it was an unentertaining story line), and then they started the new season out about Marrisa's murder and Volchok.
So what does Fox do when they have a good thing going (FireFly)? They cancel it.
The show is immensely better with Taylor as a lead actress. Of course last nights episode of Kirsten being pregnant was a Jump the shark moment.
Maybe a bunch of us fans will keep it going with a petition.
The show dwindled because of Marissa and Volchok (it was an unentertaining story line), and then they started the new season out about Marrisa's murder and Volchok.
So what does Fox do when they have a good thing going (FireFly)? They cancel it.
The show is immensely better with Taylor as a lead actress. Of course last nights episode of Kirsten being pregnant was a Jump the shark moment.
Maybe a bunch of us fans will keep it going with a petition.
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I get so tired of getting ripped off.
January/21/2007 01:57 PM Filed in: Disrespected
My definition of being ripped off includes those
who took my money and didn't provide the promised
services, those who should have reimbursed me for
something I did on their behalf, those who make a
promise to do something then don't and those who
quote one thing and the final price doesn't come
close.
I've written many articles about being ripped off, sometimes I really feel like I have a target on my back. This by no means a comprehensive list, just some that I gave more time to than I probably should have. The bad thing is I actually look out for being ripped off, but it's always something new.
Here is a list of articles I've written that in some way I was ripped off, each article contains as much information that I'm legally allowed to include.
CompUSA
Cosmo
My former employer
American Service Insurance
I've written many articles about being ripped off, sometimes I really feel like I have a target on my back. This by no means a comprehensive list, just some that I gave more time to than I probably should have. The bad thing is I actually look out for being ripped off, but it's always something new.
Here is a list of articles I've written that in some way I was ripped off, each article contains as much information that I'm legally allowed to include.
CompUSA
Cosmo
My former employer
American Service Insurance
CompUSA, letter to the President... UPDATE, I've been declined.
January/15/2007 03:12 PM Filed in: Disrespected
This is the letter I mailed Roman Ross CEO of
CompUSA today. Will CompUSA reimburse me for my
time? We'll have to wait and see.
START:
Dear Roman Ross:
I sent this information to the CompUSA Customer Support website almost two weeks ago and received no response.
I have a client who regularly buys her Mac equipment and software from your Hurstbourne Parkway store #359 in Louisville KY.
She took a 250GB Lacie external firewire drive (purchased from this store) used for editing movies into this store to have it looked at because the fan was making noise. There weren’t any signs that the drive was failing, just the fan. The drive contained 110GB of movie files. She didn't want to lose any files in case the fan failed and the drive overheated.
When she picked up the hard drive the external case was missing. She was told the case had to be broken off and could not be repaired. She was told there were no files on the drive. She was told they could send the drive off to have her files recovered for approximately $800.
She declined their offer because they had already done enough damage and may have caused her to lose the files on the drive.
She asked Rob Jones Tech Support (me) to recover the files from the drive. Rob Jones Tech Support purchased a new drive to recover the files to. The new drive is a My Book 500GB triple interface ($279). Rob Jones Tech Support had to repair the Lacie drive (drive utilities) before being able to recover the files (7 Hours). Rob Jones Tech Support recovered all 110GB of the movie files. Invoice TOTAL including drive $979.
I told my client that she could reimburse me after CompUSA paid her for the recovery; Store #359 declined my Invoice #10061.
I was not with her during the incident in the store so that information is provided by her. There may be a few details not included because I am unaware of them, but I am certain I spent my time recovering those files. I would appreciate CompUSA reimbursing me for the recovery time. It was something they were going to do for her anyway.
Thank you for your time.
STOP:
I went ahead and changed the the name of my client to "her" throughout the letter but Ross knows who "her" is. As for what was done to the drive by CompUSA employees, it had to be an accident or mistake or something like that. I doubt any maliciousness was involved.
Update My client had two separate recent issues relating to CompUSA:
1. Work provided on 8/17/2006, The issue listed above about the external hard drive and the damage they caused to the drive and my recovering the files. My invoice only relates to this issue.
2. Work provided on 11/13/2006, Where her house got hit by lightning and killed the firewire ports on her G5. She called me to look at the problem first. I discovered the damage and suggested installing a new firewire card or taking it to CompUSA for warranty work. She took it to CompUSA for warranty repair and a service person told her she shouldn't have to pay me for my time since it's warranty work. This is not accurate because I charge per hour rate regardless of the work I'm doing. The service person was just confused about my involvement in the process. This second issue has absolutely nothing to do with the letter to Roman Ross and my invoice.
I'll update this post after I receive a response from Ross or CompUSA.
11/4/2006 I sent the first email to CompUSA Customer Service.
11/16/2006 I mailed the first letter today to their President.
12/04/2006 Nearly 3 weeks since I mailed the letter with no response, kinda disappointing.
12/15/2006 Still no response so I'm sending the letter again to a different ZIP Code. It would be nice to get it before Christmas.
1/8/2007 Still no response so I resubmitted the issue through the Customer Service website.
Update
1/12/2007 (1:56 PM EST) I received an email today from CompUSA Customer Service customer_service@compusa.com indicating that the link I included to this article was broken. The link wasn't broken, their email wrapped the link to a second line and they didn't try to copy and paste the whole thing into their web browser. I replied with that information.
1/12/2007 (2:53 PM EST) I received a call today from CompUSA Headquarters (972) 982-4000, Kevin Hain who works out of Roman Ross' office (CompUSA President), another company with an unavailable President. The gentlemen wasn't rude but he wasn't pleasant either. He started by explaining that they were not going to pay the invoice and that they had received my previous letters and emails. It also means that they were just ignoring me for more than a month. So I asked some questions. He said they were in contact with my client but he mentioned the G5 and that wasn't even related to this issue or invoice, my client was confused by their call and was talking about a separate G5 issue not the external hard drive issue. Which means he called me without even getting his facts straight. So he was telling me that they were not legally responsible to pay the invoice because they did not contract with me to do so. You have to remember he didn't even have his facts straight so he was declining something else that wasn't related to work I provided on the invoice.
I don't really even understand their misunderstanding. I never mentioned the G5 in my letter or my invoice and the issues are three months apart. So why was the G5 even being brought up?
This is very disappointing. Yes, I'm completely aware that they have no legal obligation to pay the invoice but sometimes you do something because it's the right thing to do. I did fixed their mistake.
1/13/2007 I'm sending another email to CompUSA customer service. If I'm going to be declined, I at least want it to be from someone who understands the entire situation and not someone just pointing out CompUSA's legal obligations or lack thereof.
Update
1/15/2007 (1:28 PM EST) I received another call from the same gentlemen that called me previously, Kevin Hain who works out of Roman Ross' office (CompUSA President). He started by saying he fully understood the issue and that CompUSA has no legal responsibility to pay my invoice because they did not contract with me. This is completely accurate, I was not contracted by CompUSA for any work. I wanted to make sure he completely understood the situation so I asked a couple questions. His immediate response about the G5 indicated that he still did not understand because he mentioned a separate issue with my client not her external hard drive. But after a few minutes of elaborating I believe that he understood enough of the situation to confidently decline my invoice. Maybe he got up to speed before calling me back. He also indicated that my issue went through their legal department. He mentioned my website, so knew anything he said would be posted online.
So am I satisfied? Yes and No. I'm thankful to you Mr Kevin Hain for returning my call so quickly this time. He also took the time to answer my questions and assure me that he completely understood the situation, albeit slightly reluctantly.
But in the end they stuck with their legal responsibilities. It's probably because if they paid my invoice for fixing a problem they caused then they would be hit by all kinds of yahoos trying to milk them for misc. garbage.
Maybe they just don't have the money.
So instead of there being a post on the internet from my client talking about how CompUSA destroyed more than 10 hours of her personal videos there's just this one.
START:
Dear Roman Ross:
I sent this information to the CompUSA Customer Support website almost two weeks ago and received no response.
I have a client who regularly buys her Mac equipment and software from your Hurstbourne Parkway store #359 in Louisville KY.
She took a 250GB Lacie external firewire drive (purchased from this store) used for editing movies into this store to have it looked at because the fan was making noise. There weren’t any signs that the drive was failing, just the fan. The drive contained 110GB of movie files. She didn't want to lose any files in case the fan failed and the drive overheated.
When she picked up the hard drive the external case was missing. She was told the case had to be broken off and could not be repaired. She was told there were no files on the drive. She was told they could send the drive off to have her files recovered for approximately $800.
She declined their offer because they had already done enough damage and may have caused her to lose the files on the drive.
She asked Rob Jones Tech Support (me) to recover the files from the drive. Rob Jones Tech Support purchased a new drive to recover the files to. The new drive is a My Book 500GB triple interface ($279). Rob Jones Tech Support had to repair the Lacie drive (drive utilities) before being able to recover the files (7 Hours). Rob Jones Tech Support recovered all 110GB of the movie files. Invoice TOTAL including drive $979.
I told my client that she could reimburse me after CompUSA paid her for the recovery; Store #359 declined my Invoice #10061.
I was not with her during the incident in the store so that information is provided by her. There may be a few details not included because I am unaware of them, but I am certain I spent my time recovering those files. I would appreciate CompUSA reimbursing me for the recovery time. It was something they were going to do for her anyway.
Thank you for your time.
STOP:
I went ahead and changed the the name of my client to "her" throughout the letter but Ross knows who "her" is. As for what was done to the drive by CompUSA employees, it had to be an accident or mistake or something like that. I doubt any maliciousness was involved.
Update My client had two separate recent issues relating to CompUSA:
1. Work provided on 8/17/2006, The issue listed above about the external hard drive and the damage they caused to the drive and my recovering the files. My invoice only relates to this issue.
2. Work provided on 11/13/2006, Where her house got hit by lightning and killed the firewire ports on her G5. She called me to look at the problem first. I discovered the damage and suggested installing a new firewire card or taking it to CompUSA for warranty work. She took it to CompUSA for warranty repair and a service person told her she shouldn't have to pay me for my time since it's warranty work. This is not accurate because I charge per hour rate regardless of the work I'm doing. The service person was just confused about my involvement in the process. This second issue has absolutely nothing to do with the letter to Roman Ross and my invoice.
I'll update this post after I receive a response from Ross or CompUSA.
11/4/2006 I sent the first email to CompUSA Customer Service.
11/16/2006 I mailed the first letter today to their President.
12/04/2006 Nearly 3 weeks since I mailed the letter with no response, kinda disappointing.
12/15/2006 Still no response so I'm sending the letter again to a different ZIP Code. It would be nice to get it before Christmas.
1/8/2007 Still no response so I resubmitted the issue through the Customer Service website.
Update
1/12/2007 (1:56 PM EST) I received an email today from CompUSA Customer Service customer_service@compusa.com indicating that the link I included to this article was broken. The link wasn't broken, their email wrapped the link to a second line and they didn't try to copy and paste the whole thing into their web browser. I replied with that information.
1/12/2007 (2:53 PM EST) I received a call today from CompUSA Headquarters (972) 982-4000, Kevin Hain who works out of Roman Ross' office (CompUSA President), another company with an unavailable President. The gentlemen wasn't rude but he wasn't pleasant either. He started by explaining that they were not going to pay the invoice and that they had received my previous letters and emails. It also means that they were just ignoring me for more than a month. So I asked some questions. He said they were in contact with my client but he mentioned the G5 and that wasn't even related to this issue or invoice, my client was confused by their call and was talking about a separate G5 issue not the external hard drive issue. Which means he called me without even getting his facts straight. So he was telling me that they were not legally responsible to pay the invoice because they did not contract with me to do so. You have to remember he didn't even have his facts straight so he was declining something else that wasn't related to work I provided on the invoice.
I don't really even understand their misunderstanding. I never mentioned the G5 in my letter or my invoice and the issues are three months apart. So why was the G5 even being brought up?
This is very disappointing. Yes, I'm completely aware that they have no legal obligation to pay the invoice but sometimes you do something because it's the right thing to do. I did fixed their mistake.
1/13/2007 I'm sending another email to CompUSA customer service. If I'm going to be declined, I at least want it to be from someone who understands the entire situation and not someone just pointing out CompUSA's legal obligations or lack thereof.
Update
1/15/2007 (1:28 PM EST) I received another call from the same gentlemen that called me previously, Kevin Hain who works out of Roman Ross' office (CompUSA President). He started by saying he fully understood the issue and that CompUSA has no legal responsibility to pay my invoice because they did not contract with me. This is completely accurate, I was not contracted by CompUSA for any work. I wanted to make sure he completely understood the situation so I asked a couple questions. His immediate response about the G5 indicated that he still did not understand because he mentioned a separate issue with my client not her external hard drive. But after a few minutes of elaborating I believe that he understood enough of the situation to confidently decline my invoice. Maybe he got up to speed before calling me back. He also indicated that my issue went through their legal department. He mentioned my website, so knew anything he said would be posted online.
So am I satisfied? Yes and No. I'm thankful to you Mr Kevin Hain for returning my call so quickly this time. He also took the time to answer my questions and assure me that he completely understood the situation, albeit slightly reluctantly.
But in the end they stuck with their legal responsibilities. It's probably because if they paid my invoice for fixing a problem they caused then they would be hit by all kinds of yahoos trying to milk them for misc. garbage.
Maybe they just don't have the money.
So instead of there being a post on the internet from my client talking about how CompUSA destroyed more than 10 hours of her personal videos there's just this one.
For the first time today I threw away a Mac...
January/11/2007 09:08 PM Filed in: Apple
I bought my first Mac in 1995 and later sold it to
my brother Brian. I had two slot loading iMacs
(Graphite and Green) in my basement collecting
dust.
The green one was Allyson's and the Graphite I bought for myself the day they were introduced. Shortly after installing 10.4 on each of them they died.
They would no longer start and I then proceeded to scavenge them. I pretty much took anything that was useful.
Today I threw away one Dell and two Macs. The Dell didn't bother me but the Macs did, I kept wondering if I should try to keep the Apple logos or something.
Well I did it any way. I've thrown away a Mac.
The green one was Allyson's and the Graphite I bought for myself the day they were introduced. Shortly after installing 10.4 on each of them they died.
They would no longer start and I then proceeded to scavenge them. I pretty much took anything that was useful.
Today I threw away one Dell and two Macs. The Dell didn't bother me but the Macs did, I kept wondering if I should try to keep the Apple logos or something.
Well I did it any way. I've thrown away a Mac.
themacjedi street sign, no really.
January/03/2007 08:12 PM Filed in: TheMacJedi
Click here to see my street sign.
Who is the TIME "PERSON OF THE YEAR" for 2006, I am.
January/01/2007 11:06 PM Filed in: RJTS
Business
