Companies that have burnt...

Stereodude

Not really a
Joined
Jan 22, 2002
Messages
10,865
Location
Michigan
That does stink. I've found myself trying to find and buy whatever components I can from Amazon these days even if it's a few dollars more. So far their return policy and customer service has been fantastic compared to Newegg.
So, they replied and told me their return policy on replacement orders is tied to the original order invoice date. I wrote back and asked them to show me where that's documented on their site since for all I know they're just making this up as they go.
 

Stereodude

Not really a
Joined
Jan 22, 2002
Messages
10,865
Location
Michigan
I swear Newegg has their e-mail replied to by monkeys. They just keep saying the same thing back to me without reading my replies and it seems there's no way to escalate anything.
 

Stereodude

Not really a
Joined
Jan 22, 2002
Messages
10,865
Location
Michigan
So, after a handful of e-mails, they have finally issued me an RMA. And, they even covering the return shipping.
 

Handruin

Administrator
Joined
Jan 13, 2002
Messages
13,737
Location
USA
Another option is to use the live chat feature. I've fixed several problems that way in the past.
 

Stereodude

Not really a
Joined
Jan 22, 2002
Messages
10,865
Location
Michigan
Well, I got the replacement drive from Newegg, and it seems to be functional, so I guess they did alright by me (after some prodding).
 

Chewy509

Wotty wot wot.
Joined
Nov 8, 2006
Messages
3,327
Location
Gold Coast Hinterland, Australia
I'm not going to name them, as they have been honest the whole time with the problem. The only BS part is the time it'll take to fix the issue.

Being a core router that's the problem I can sort of understand the time needed to fix, but 4 mths for a fix is a little too long in my book.
Well, my current ISP STILL has not fixed the problem, and the core router upgrade has been pushed back AGAIN. (It was scheduled for April, and now scheduled for 3rd Jul - like they are going to do a core router upgrade that will take 50% of their customers offline for an hour or so, 3 days into the new financial year). While I have nothing but respect for the customer service people who work there, the people that look after the infrastructure seem to be lacking any form of competency. (The reason for the most recent push back is an issue with QoS rules that they can't figure out and are waiting on Cisco to call them back).

The 2 reasons why I stuck with them for so long was I have a personal friend who works for them (and can get insider information on what was really going on), and being so close to the end of semester at Uni, didn't want to change over leading up to or during exam period as I wanted to ensure I had Internet access from home. But enough is enough.

The issue (which I don't think I completely explained) was that any of their customers that are Telstra DSLAM infrastructure and not their own DSLAMs, would suffer periods of high ping times during the day, which would often result in packet loss and connection timeouts for all Internet traffic. While the period would only last 2-3 minutes, it could happen 10-50 times a day, and was worse for any traffic that was peered through PIPE. They identified the problem back in late Feb, and since they a router upgrade due in early Apr, the router upgrade would resolve the issue. (The old hardware was being pushed to it's limits - the only solution was to upgrade the router).

Another issue I was having, (and still having) is that their SPAM filter was filtering out legitimate emails, and you can't disable the SPAM filtering on the email accounts. They won't even acknowledge there is a fault, despite multiple instances of actual proof (including MTA logs showing delivery to their email servers).

The ISP - On The Net. (http://www.onthenet.com.au).

I've just cancelled my service with them, and (this is still a shock for me) will be moving to Bigpond. (Telstra operate all the infrastructure in my area, and for ADSL2 they beat all other providers on pricing - they offer ADSL2 service cheaper than others are offering ADSL 1.5Mb in the same area for the same download limits). And Telstra just gave me a free modem/router, and $110 credit for switching to them. Pretty nice welcome package.
 

ddrueding

Fixture
Joined
Feb 4, 2002
Messages
19,511
Location
Horsens, Denmark
Wishing you luck. I'm running to the end of my promotional package with the local Cable provider. If they won't extend the promotional pricing, I'm very tempted to switch to DSL. Slower speed, but much cheaper.
 

Mercutio

Fatwah on Western Digital
Joined
Jan 17, 2002
Messages
21,564
Location
I am omnipresent
Verizon sold its DSL business to a company called Frontier. I think Frontier has done more to sell Comcast cable than anything Comcast could have done in the history of ever.
 

time

Storage? I am Storage!
Joined
Jan 18, 2002
Messages
4,932
Location
Brisbane, Oz
I've just cancelled my service with them, and (this is still a shock for me) will be moving to Bigpond. (Telstra operate all the infrastructure in my area, and for ADSL2 they beat all other providers on pricing - they offer ADSL2 service cheaper than others are offering ADSL 1.5Mb in the same area for the same download limits). And Telstra just gave me a free modem/router, and $110 credit for switching to them. Pretty nice welcome package.

You committed to a 2-year contract with Arstel? Are you insane? :smack:
 

timwhit

Hairy Aussie
Joined
Jan 23, 2002
Messages
5,278
Location
Chicago, IL
Wishing you luck. I'm running to the end of my promotional package with the local Cable provider. If they won't extend the promotional pricing, I'm very tempted to switch to DSL. Slower speed, but much cheaper.

I have Comcast. When my promotion ends I call and tell them that I would like to cancel my service unless they can offer me a promotion. They always do.
 

Mercutio

Fatwah on Western Digital
Joined
Jan 17, 2002
Messages
21,564
Location
I am omnipresent
They won't do that in my area unless someone lives in one of the towns where Comcast isn't the only cable TV franchise.
 

Chewy509

Wotty wot wot.
Joined
Nov 8, 2006
Messages
3,327
Location
Gold Coast Hinterland, Australia
You committed to a 2-year contract with Arstel? Are you insane? :smack:

Who said anything about a 24mth contract? :confused: (No fixed term contract was part of the deal - I can leave at any time). :rambo:

Anyway, it's all Helstra infrastructure in my area. (One of the problems when semi-rural). If I went with anyone else, they just blame Telstra for any problems, and I'm stuck with even crappier service, or paying $ more for 1.5M ADSL, when I can get ADSL2+ with Telstra. As my wife put it - cut out the middle man.
 

Chewy509

Wotty wot wot.
Joined
Nov 8, 2006
Messages
3,327
Location
Gold Coast Hinterland, Australia
Wishing you luck. I'm running to the end of my promotional package with the local Cable provider. If they won't extend the promotional pricing, I'm very tempted to switch to DSL. Slower speed, but much cheaper.
We don't have any price difference between cable and ADSL2+, with either service it's about your download limits and if you can get a static IP or not. And cable rollout was very limited to certain areas only with each city.
ADSL1 is a different story. But it's interesting to note, that in some places it's cheaper to get ADSL2 than it's to get ADSL1, pending on who has infrastructure in your area.
 

MaxBurn

Storage Is My Life
Joined
Jan 20, 2004
Messages
3,245
Location
SC
I am still very happy with fairpoint ADSL, formerly Verizon. Pretty good service and when I did have a problem got a free modem from them and a service visit on a Sunday.

I think the only thing that would make me happier is when they roll out a faster speed like they say they might or if I move and get fiber.
 

time

Storage? I am Storage!
Joined
Jan 18, 2002
Messages
4,932
Location
Brisbane, Oz
If there's no contract, how does the $110 credit (and free modem) work?

Look, I'd probably crack and do the same in your position, but I wouldn't be under any illusions about "cutting out the middle man". BigPond CSRs don't have any more influence with or get any better information from Telstra maintenance than any other ISP. What you do get is consistently the worst customer service in the industry (except for TPG) - see any survey. They excel at turning simple problems into protracted, blood-pressure-raising ordeals. I'm not saying other ISPs' support is actually useful, but at least they don't waste my time and shorten my life.

I've also been told that Telstra CS uses Oracle Siebel CRM, very possibly the most ruinous software package a company can buy (in my opinion).

How exactly do you envisage your current problem being treated when you're with BigPond? Why do you think you they would take any notice of you, let alone investigate and tell you what the problem was?
 

Chewy509

Wotty wot wot.
Joined
Nov 8, 2006
Messages
3,327
Location
Gold Coast Hinterland, Australia
If there's no contract, how does the $110 credit (and free modem) work?
A bit of luck I guess.

However in order to get the best deal from Telstra, there are a few helpful items to know. There are actually 2 different Sales departments, one for inbound sales and one for outbound sales. The inbound sales department are very hardline about what they give out, and only strictly offer what is advertised either in print or online. The outbound sales, on the other hand will do anything to get new business, and are allowed to offer price matching arrangements, cash backs or other free stuff. You just need to get the right sales department. (They are separate phone numbers).

I totally understand about the lack of control CSRs would have, but at least they can't pass the buck and blame another company for the fault. In my limited dealings with Telstra in the past, the CSRs can be next to useless, but once you get escalated to either a level 2 technician or onsite engineer most are very good and completely honest. And if the problem is affecting a large number of people things tend to happen. (Something I can't say with my current ISP).
 

Mercutio

Fatwah on Western Digital
Joined
Jan 17, 2002
Messages
21,564
Location
I am omnipresent
I have four older-ish Gateway notebooks sitting here. They're all T6330us. One of my students bought them gods-know where, but they're in immaculate shape and the idea is that they're going to go to his kids.

None of them have hard drives, but they still have the Vista stickers on the bottom, so I offered to do the work for him. I have an image that should work beautifully on that hardware. I stick drives in, load my image and everything's fine except none of the machines have their wireless card detected.

Gateway (Acer) says they have either Marvell, RealTek or Intel cards in them. And I know I have Realtek and Intel wireless drivers built into my image (if they weren't put there by Vista), so I dutifully hunt down the right Marvell driver, since the link is broken on their web site.

... and that's not the right driver, either.

So I open one of the machines up and find that it has an Atheros card. Fine. I install THAT, and that machine is happy.

Take the same driver to another machine, thinking that they're probably all from the same batch or something. Nope. Has an Atheros card again, but it's a different one that needs a different driver.

Machine number 3 had the same card as the first machine, but the fourth one needed a RALink driver.

I guess it's possible that all four of these machines had their NICs replaced at some point, but the more likely explanation to me is that Gateway/Acer/Acer's ODM just threw whatever they could find in these machines and shipped them out the door.

So anyway, fuck Acer and everything that looks like Acer.
 

Mercutio

Fatwah on Western Digital
Joined
Jan 17, 2002
Messages
21,564
Location
I am omnipresent
I had very good experiences with Gateway prior to the Acer buyout. They had excellent support for a consumer outfit.
 

MaxBurn

Storage Is My Life
Joined
Jan 20, 2004
Messages
3,245
Location
SC
2011 was the year that moved me to Comcast for ISP. I had a lot of micro outages with Fairpoint that they could never track down and I lived with it for years. So far five months with comcast has been more reliable and much faster. Unfortunately unlike the DSL I don't have internet when the power is out in the neighborhood. I can't complain but I am watching data cap and billing statements VERY closely. Already caught them for a $10 bill in adding an outlet on install, which they didn't do.

Sony still on my list.

Don't know why I didn't mention it last year but linksys/dlink are still on my list. I look at DDWRT as a cop out, for those that know what they are doing they can replace the OS on the router with something that doesn't suck, not going to let them off the hook for having crap in the first place though.

I can't decide about samsung. Is having an original design deficit bad? Is it just part of their KIRF culture? Right down to using the same actor for commercials for similar products, generally companies try to avoid that sort of thing. A little more differentiation and they would be able to sell some more products without the injunctions, wouldn't that be worth it?

Apple on the device side with ios5 stole so much from the jailbreak community and delivered it officially that I really haven't been compelled to jailbreak again after updating. I don't see that as bad, especially as they have reached out and hired or picked up some of the hacking community people as interns. On the manufacturing side sure there are some bad practices when you put them under the microscope and compare to US conditions but better or worse than everyone else manufacturing in those countries? I'm thinking better. Procurement side has been brutal though, scooping up whole companies to secure materials and manufacturing capacity showing they aren't afraid of using that cash hoard when they want to, especially when it deprives competitors of something they need.

RIM is actually not on my list, I would like them to succeed. The breaches of security discovered in some countries were shown to be demanded by local governments in accordance with their laws, not good but what are they going to do, just pull out? I don't have any specific hatred for the bb os, more like a complete and utter disappointment.

Looking forward to consumerist worst company 2011, no oil spills to hijack it. Banking struggles with the home loans are fading into the background but I think all the new fees etc can float them to the top again.
 

Mercutio

Fatwah on Western Digital
Joined
Jan 17, 2002
Messages
21,564
Location
I am omnipresent
Don't know why I didn't mention it last year but linksys/dlink are still on my list.

Given how complex home routers have to be and how thin the margins are for products in that space, it's not any wonder that we associate those products with crap. Of course, almost no one wants to pay for "decent", which limits our choice to a $50 hunk of crap that will die four months after you buy it or a massively overpriced enterprise-grade device that needs four semesters of programming coursework to set up.

Honestly, I blame consumers as much for crappy home network hardware as I do the manufacturers.


I can't decide about samsung. Is having an original design deficit bad? Is it just part of their KIRF culture? Right down to using the same actor for commercials for similar products, generally companies try to avoid that sort of thing. A little more differentiation and they would be able to sell some more products without the injunctions, wouldn't that be worth it?

It's very hard for me to see Samsung as anything other than a top-tier manufacturer for the spaces in which it operates. I don't know what you're talking about with regard to advertising, but then I almost never see or hear any. I don't know if I'd buy a Samsung washing machine just because I like its TVs and tablets, but I'm willing to say it's a company I respect more than some others.
 

MaxBurn

Storage Is My Life
Joined
Jan 20, 2004
Messages
3,245
Location
SC

Mercutio

Fatwah on Western Digital
Joined
Jan 17, 2002
Messages
21,564
Location
I am omnipresent
There's very little that's exciting in the world of desktops and notebooks other than the possibility of a new form factor. "Ultrabook" is the new buzzword. Mobile stuff is exciting because nothing is actually settled right now.

Did anyone suggest it might be possible that the same little girl actually, you know, auditioned and got both roles?
 

time

Storage? I am Storage!
Joined
Jan 18, 2002
Messages
4,932
Location
Brisbane, Oz
I can't decide about samsung. Is having an original design deficit bad? Is it just part of their KIRF culture? Right down to using the same actor for commercials for similar products, generally companies try to avoid that sort of thing. A little more differentiation and they would be able to sell some more products without the injunctions, wouldn't that be worth it?

Wow, have you been reading too many Apple press releases?

Just as a quick example, Samsung phones have been black for many years. iPods and iPhones always used to be exclusively white; now they're black and Apple claims that Samsung looks like them - WTF?

Apart from the different OS, what's unique about an iPhone when compared to any other touchscreen phone? Whereas you can distinguish high-end Samsung phones - they're the ones with the completely different display technology!
 

ddrueding

Fixture
Joined
Feb 4, 2002
Messages
19,511
Location
Horsens, Denmark
I don't know if I'd buy a Samsung washing machine just because I like its TVs and tablets, but I'm willing to say it's a company I respect more than some others.

I did (and a dryer, and a refrigerator for that matter) and have been very happy with them as well.
 

MaxBurn

Storage Is My Life
Joined
Jan 20, 2004
Messages
3,245
Location
SC
I think they make some really good stuff, but they are just doing some weird stuff with the copying. Areas they could easily differentiate themselves in. I'm not saying this is good or bad but it certainly has attracted legal attention, and isn't fairing well in that attention. I have no problem buying their products, I just wonder whats going on in their design department.

Old news links.
http://www.cultofmac.com/116250/samsung-does-not-copy-apple-at-all-sure/

http://news.yahoo.com/three-ways-samsung-copying-apple-173700880.html

http://www.samsung.com/us/mobile/galaxy-tab-accessories/EPL-1PLRBEGSTA
Table camera connection kit not at all like
http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC531ZM/A
It does appear to be more functional at first glance though.


As opposed to samsung someone that has earned my interest in their product differentiation is that new nokia 900. That grabbed my do want more than the nexus did, which still holds a lot of interest. I almost picked a nexus up last night, found one on a forum going for a decent used price.
 

time

Storage? I am Storage!
Joined
Jan 18, 2002
Messages
4,932
Location
Brisbane, Oz
You're nuts. They're both Symbian slide phones with numeric keypads (a design popularized by Samsung, incidentally). Everything else about them is different.

The Nokia is a double-slide phone that exposes media player buttons on the reverse slide.

The Samsung extends 40% more than the Nokia.

The Samsung has stereo speakers.

The Nokia has 11(!) buttons surrounding their D-pad whereas the Samsung has 6.

The on/off hook buttons are different shapes and in different places on each phone.

The Samsung has extra buttons such as 'C' on the keypad itself rather than on the outside of the phone.

The Samsung has an optical trackpad.

The Samsung is more camera-oriented with automatic lens cover and a separate camera mode button (and of course, a honking great 8MP camera).

The Samsung battery is 26% bigger than the Nokia's, yet the phone is very slightly smaller.

I could go on and on and on, but considering these phones are running the same OS and therefore the same processor family (although the Samsung is 25% faster), they have remarkably little in common.
 

MaxBurn

Storage Is My Life
Joined
Jan 20, 2004
Messages
3,245
Location
SC
And marketing, and unboxing experience with packing materials etc.

I'm settling on the side of it just being odd and/or part of their culture. Not a negative. time, I don't care about those details, I'm talking about the experience at say five feet. I was thinking joint venture as they came out at about the same time, a month apart, but with those details it couldn't have been a joint venture/same production line like I was thinking. Anyway it is something interesting to look for, maybe just a free press grab too which could be all they want.
 

Mercutio

Fatwah on Western Digital
Joined
Jan 17, 2002
Messages
21,564
Location
I am omnipresent
I'm settling on the side of it just being odd and/or part of their culture.

City of Heroes is owned by a Korean company, NCSoft. It's the same company that makes a game called Lineage. In Lineage, more or less every character looks like more or less every other character, and it was the most popular MMO in Korea.

One of the most interesting aspects of City of Heroes has been its ability to customize user avatars.

When CoX finally launched in Korea, their gaming press panned it largely because of the huge array of personal choices and customizations that were possible during character creation; the features that made it so interesting for Western audiences made the game a non-starter in Asia.
 
Top