Books / Customer service (AKA another reason to loathe Microsoft).
I was watching a program about the great Arthur C. Clarke and one of the interviewees was Gentry Lee.
About a decade ago, I read ACCs "Rendevouz with Rama" which I thought was truly excellent. I saw on amazon that a number of sequals had been released which where apparantly written, not by ACC alone, but by ARTHUR C CLARKE and Gentry lee. I didn't really notice the latter, and bought the whole bunch. They sucked. Big time. I still forced myself to read them, partially since I was hoping they might eventually get good (they didn't) and partially because I combine being cheap with being daft, so if I've bought something and don't like it, I find it difficult to just discard it. I later read that GL was the one who wrote them, with ACC merely providing suggestions.
Still, ACC, other than being a great author and a great scientific mind (communication satelites are mainly his idea - he worked it out while working with radards during WWII - geosynchronous orbit is also known as Clarke orbit for a reason) also had good taste in computers - he managed to get Hewlett Packard to donate an expensive HP9100 computer during the late 60s, and he later switched to the Amiga
A tale of customer support from three companies:
1)I bought a fountain pen from the Taiwanese company TWSBI a while back. I recently noticed that the cap had cracked. I sent an email and the son of the company owner emailed back saying they'll post a replacement.
2)This: http://davesmechanicalpencils.blogspot.se/2008/02/pentel-customer-service.html Customer bought a Pentel Sharp Kerry mechanical pencil. 15 years later it fails and she sends it in to them. A representative of Pentel then shows up at her work with a replacement pencil.
3)I bought a Microsoft gaming mouse. After the shop shuts its doors for good but well before warranty expires it breaks. I go through a long an annoying procedure at Microsofts webpage, then reboot into Windows and starts over since it turned out Internet Explorer is required. Eventually, I reach a message that informs me that for Microsoft to even consider reading the fault report, I have to pay about $100 in local currency (which is more than the mouse cost). I hunt around on the website and eventually find an emailaddress. After a day or two, I receive a brief reply telling me that the only way to get an RMA on it is to go through that process.
Has anyone told Microsoft they don't have a monopoly on computer mice?
About a decade ago, I read ACCs "Rendevouz with Rama" which I thought was truly excellent. I saw on amazon that a number of sequals had been released which where apparantly written, not by ACC alone, but by ARTHUR C CLARKE and Gentry lee. I didn't really notice the latter, and bought the whole bunch. They sucked. Big time. I still forced myself to read them, partially since I was hoping they might eventually get good (they didn't) and partially because I combine being cheap with being daft, so if I've bought something and don't like it, I find it difficult to just discard it. I later read that GL was the one who wrote them, with ACC merely providing suggestions.
Still, ACC, other than being a great author and a great scientific mind (communication satelites are mainly his idea - he worked it out while working with radards during WWII - geosynchronous orbit is also known as Clarke orbit for a reason) also had good taste in computers - he managed to get Hewlett Packard to donate an expensive HP9100 computer during the late 60s, and he later switched to the Amiga
A tale of customer support from three companies:
1)I bought a fountain pen from the Taiwanese company TWSBI a while back. I recently noticed that the cap had cracked. I sent an email and the son of the company owner emailed back saying they'll post a replacement.
2)This: http://davesmechanicalpencils.blogspot.se/2008/02/pentel-customer-service.html Customer bought a Pentel Sharp Kerry mechanical pencil. 15 years later it fails and she sends it in to them. A representative of Pentel then shows up at her work with a replacement pencil.
3)I bought a Microsoft gaming mouse. After the shop shuts its doors for good but well before warranty expires it breaks. I go through a long an annoying procedure at Microsofts webpage, then reboot into Windows and starts over since it turned out Internet Explorer is required. Eventually, I reach a message that informs me that for Microsoft to even consider reading the fault report, I have to pay about $100 in local currency (which is more than the mouse cost). I hunt around on the website and eventually find an emailaddress. After a day or two, I receive a brief reply telling me that the only way to get an RMA on it is to go through that process.
Has anyone told Microsoft they don't have a monopoly on computer mice?