Silvanus' Blog

Archive for the ‘Rants’ Category

So. Being that I live in a house with fairly hard water, but having grown up in a house that had soft water, I budgeted in the purchase of a water softener for my house this year. I did some pretty good research, looking around for a good company, with good pricing, to purchase from. After some debating, I decided to go with affordablewater.us, due in large part to their positive testimonials displayed in large number on their site.

Unfortunately, my experience ended up not being so pleasant.  After detailing my thoughts/feelings about the overall experience, I’ll include the correspondence between myself and AffordableWater.

I first placed my order with AffordableWater on 3/8/2011 (way ‘early’ in the morning, like 1:30a.m.).  Great pricing only $864 for a Fleck 7600sxt with 112k grain capacity.  Was pretty excited to finally be getting on the way to getting soft water in my house.  Received my automated confirmation right away, then, nothing…  Surprisingly, no shipment confirmation with tracking information was sent.  I wasn’t really overly worried about this, as the information was able to be acquired directly from their website, when they did ship the water softener.

On 3/15/2011 (pretty fast for freight shipment!) the delivery arrived.  This should have been my first sign everything wasn’t going to work out. The shipping company, Dayton Freight, handled things totally unprofessionally.  The driver arrived at my home with a truck that had a broken lift-gate, completely unable to off-load the delivery.  The ‘blame’ for this promptly was displaced to us, the recipients of the delivery, by the driver.  After he attempted to inform us that if we could not find some way to offload the shipment, it would cost us an additional $60 to have him return the next day in a truck capable of delivering to a residence.  That in and of itself, is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard from someone handling a shipment, somehow we were apparently responsible for his/his company’s incompetence?  Upon attempting to actually cooperate with this imbecile, and actually offload the delivery (I wanted my water softener), we discovered a box that was damaged.  The damaged box contained the resin used for the filtration of the water, that actually causes the water to be ‘softened’.  The box was damaged severely enough, that the bag inside (a very thin plastic, not even as thick as my garbage bags) had broken open, and the resin was spilling out into the truck.  The driver had the gall to suggest that it wasn’t really a big deal, that we could ‘just get some bags and scoop up the stuff’.  That idea didn’t really sit well with me, so we ended up refusing the shipment for damages.  There was no way to accept a partial shipment, it was all or nothing, the driver informed us, it was simply easier in the overall scheme to deny the delivery because it was damaged.

Being rather irritated about this, I shot off an e-mail to AffordableWater to inform them of what had happened  (remember, all of this will be below).  I wasn’t really nice about the situation, as I was still pretty riled about the moronic delivery guy.  The first thing next morning, I received a prompt and courteous reply, apologizing for the problems, and letting me know they would get a new shipment to me right away, if that was what I wanted (I had indicated I may not).  I replied back, apologizing for my prior brusqueness, and letting them know that yes, I would definitely like them to ship a replacement, and thanks for taking care of it.  I also let them know the problem was not theirs, but in fact the shipping agency, as the shipment bill clearly stated it was to be delivered to a residence.  I got another reply letting me know the shipment would be delivered via ups, a little later than they had hoped, because apparently one of the components was out of stock until that morning.  Cool, my new softener was once again on its way!

A few days later UPS calls to schedule a delivery day/time.  We got it set to be delivered on the 24th.  3/24/2011 arrives, and late afternoon the delivery arrives.  My wife calls to inform me that the driver is there to deliver, but as they are preparing to off-load the delivery, the driver (this UPS guy was awesome, very professional) points out that one of the boxes appears to have some damage.  Once again, it is the box containing the resin.  Once again, the box is damaged severely enough the flimsy bag inside is spilling resin all over my driveway and the back of the UPS truck.  My wife called me at work, to determine what should be done, after some discussion with me, and the UPS driver, it was decided that returning it for being damaged was the best way to handle the scenario again.  Since we couldn’t receive a partial shipment, and I really didn’t want water softener resin spilling all over, that seemed to be the best solution.

Apparently I assumed wrong.

I dropped another e-mail to AffordableWater, expecting the situation to be handled much the way it was the first time. I let them know I had refused the shipment for damages again, and would like a replacement shipped as soon as possible.

However, disappointingly, I opened my e-mail the next morning, to read a rather curt reply informing me that my refusing the damaged shipment a second time was unacceptable, and they would be refunding my purchase.  I sent them a reply e-mail letting them know my dissatisfaction with this, and that I expected the refund promptly if that was how they felt, also informing them I would be sure to make this information known.

Ultimately, I do not understand how I as a customer could have handled this differently. I paid nearly a thousand dollars for something, that I am expected to accept delivery for in a damaged state?  The inadequacies on the part of the choice of shipping containers, and careful shipment handling by the carriers, is somehow my responsibility?  I really dislike being treated as if this whole scenario is somehow my own fault.  Perhaps if AffordableWater had somehow provided me a solution in the event something like this might happen a second time?  Something like: ‘In the event that the second delivery’s resin arrives damaged, please accept the shipment and dispose/store the damaged resin in the following fashion…  Contact us to let us know, and we will get a replacement shipment of resin shipped out, and a return label to return the damaged resin shipment back, so it can be retreated correctly’ etc.  Nothing of this sort was mentioned at all, but somehow I was expected to know, that if I treated the second damaged shipment, identically to how I treated the first, I would be treated as a troublesome customer not worth doing business with. It’s not as if they would ultimately be liable for the shipment, as it was DAMAGED, they should be getting a refund on their shipping + the value of the damaged merchandise.  Yet I was supposed to apparently, in the moment of delivery when their company was already closed for the day, clairvoyantly ‘know’ I was supposed to accept the delivery and work things out with AffordableWater ex-post-facto.  Ultimately, things seem to have worked out in the best fashion possible, I learned that if I ever needed them for anything again in the future, I could not depend on them anyway.  Hopefully no-one out there will get burned by them in an attempt to get some warranty help or something similar, once they’ve got your money.  I know I’m happier knowing my business with them is concluded, and will not have to associate with them in the future

Here is all of the correspondence I have regarding the situation (excluding the original order confirmation) in order of sent/received:


From: Kyle Siemer
Sent: Tuesday, March 15, 2011 3:29 PM
To: 'Sales@AffordableWater.us'
Subject: Order #5491

So.  I used to play WoW.  I got involved enough to eventually get my main to 80 and even managed to do some high-end raids.  During one of these high-end raids that took well over 12 hours to complete, my loathing for the game began.

I have never played a game that I find as intensely irritating and aggravating as I find WoW.

My primary complaints are:

1. Godawful graphics.  WoW is by far one of the most butt-ugly games in existence when compared to the disgusting level of system resources it requires to run it.  Cartoony looking avatars should NOT make my graphics card work hard, especially when games that require much higher fps (such as Left for Dead 2) do NOT tax my graphics nearly as much as WoW and it’s awful rendering.
2. Assholes.  They’re everywhere, no matter what you do.  If you want to do anything other than Solo content (which you cannot ‘defeat’ the game solo) you HAVE to deal with assholes.  Granted, I could probably play for a couple years doing nothing but quests, but then I’d never get to see the ‘end’ of the game, hence, to truly play the game, you are FORCED to deal with people at one point or another that you would likely kick the teeth in of were you to meet them in real life.
3. ADDICTS.  When I was in high school, no one wanted to sit and listen to me talk about how cool my Dungeons and Dragons character was.  Now that all of you tools have finally succumbed to some kind of geekdom, I’m really not interested in hearing about it.  I really don’t give a flying crap about how many achievements you have, or that you have oodles of phantom digital gold.  Guess what, my Shadowrun character has a couple million nuyen, and I’ve earned over 200 karma, I’m a grade 6 initiate… see how lame that gets?  I’m really not interested in your cool gear, or how awesome you are at stun-locking someone, anymore than I am interested in political or religious discussions.

In short, screw WoW, screw Blizzard, and if you want to talk about WoW to me, piss-off.

So, last Thursday I started my new class at UVU for ‘Designing for Digital Devices’. During the syllabus presentation, we were informed that in order to design for a digital device, we had to have one to test on.
Pretty basic logic there.
We were given tentatively 3 choices: an iPhone, an iPod Touch, or a Zune HD. These devices arguably hold the greatest market share, with iPods/iPhones topping that out.
So after weighing the options I quickly decided several things. First, after having a Windows Mobile phone for the last couple years, I really am not that impressed by Microsoft’s mobile stuff, so that automatically excludes the Zune. Second, I really hate iPods. Third, I really hate iPhones. Fourth, I’m really beginning to dislike iAnything, because all of these idjits who are technotards have one and think they are sooooo awesome because of it. Fifth, the iPod touch is a castrated iPhone. Sixth, I hate the iPhone.
So after all of this, and despite my hate/hate ideals regarding the iPhone, I hopped onto my att wireless online account and ordered one. I felt disgusted with myself immediately, and have had to tell myself continually that if I really want to make money doing this kind of stuff, I have to have what ‘everyone else has’, bleh.
So, the next day, I get my shipping confirmation from att, with my fedex tracking junk. I plugged the number in on fedex’s site to find out when I can expect it to arrive. It tells me 1-12-2010. So, I wait, and the 12th comes and goes, no iPhone. I check the tracking on FedEx again, still says the same thing it said last time I checked. ‘The package is in Memphis, and due to arrive on the 12th’.
So, today, I had a couple other FedEx packages arrive, no iPhone. So I chat with FedEx, they tell me:

A FedEx representative will be right with you…
You have been connected to Tanesia .
Tanesia : Hello Kyle, thanks for visiting FedEx.com! May I have your tracking number?
Kyle Siemer: 408621144226
Tanesia : I’m sorry for the inconvenience. The box was received in our overgoods department empty. Please contact your shipper so they can file a claim with Fedex.
Kyle Siemer: okay, thank you

Fast, to the point, great. Not real awesome they sat on an empty box and failed to notify anyone, but whatever.
So, then comes att’s turn. The first rep I got there was, hmm.. how can I say this politely…, stupid. After wasting 5 minutes trying to communicate to her that I didn’t have the empty box, FedEx did, I finally just asked to be escalated.
I sat on the phone for around 20 minutes waiting on a supervisor. I get the supervisor on the phone who proceeds to inform me of the incompetence of att and fedex in shipping iPhones and the problem they are having with them being stolen. Also, that I have to wait 24-48 hours for my missing package to be ‘investigated’ before they can even think about sending a new one. Yeah, rrrreally.
So I escalate again. I finally get to a manager who tells me pretty much the same thing, but finally offers to expedite the ‘investigation’ and bump the shipping on the replacement to next-day.
At this point I’ve been on the phone for like 40 minutes fighting with morons, who fail to grasp the concept that they are holding my money hostage. They have charged me for an object I haven’t received, and no amount of chargeback threats seem to sway them. So I agreed to the idiotic solution. I will wait until this time tomorrow before I call back again to find out wtf is going on with my money and my iPhone.

Did I mention I hate iPhones?

So one of the guys at work sent me this. This pretty much just sums it all up, no actual words necessary.