Blog: Service

I get the box home only to find an error message saying it's not authorized. So I call customer service. After navigating a very slow series of menus, I get a voice recognition based system for diagnosing the problem. It's actually pretty good, giving a lot of details and asking sensible questions along the way. However, once I reset the box as it instructs, it tells me that the time should appear. But the error has returned, so no time. When I tell it the time hasn't come on yet, it says that it can take 15 minutes, so I should call back - and then hangs up on me! Not very user friendly, especially since I have to navigate the slow menus again. And by slow, I mean when you call, it takes 30 sconds just to get to the "press 1 for English" prompt, and then another ten after pressing 1 just to have the second menu start up. Meanwhile, once I did manage to get a human (by pressing zero over and over until it gave up), she was able to fix the problem in literally one minute.

Now I have working cable service. But I never thought that this Scientific Atlanta DVR - the Explorer 8300 - could be even worse than the 8000 I got from Time Warner. The interface is even clunkier than on the 8000, which is crap compared to a TiVo. After fast forwarding, it doesn't automatically jump back a few seconds. And it doesn't remember where you are in a show if you stop watching it and come back later. What's oddest about all this is the very same company has much better software - still crappy, but worlds better. Anyway, I'd upgrade to something better, but I actually would just as soon not have too much incentive to watch TV.

I was able to open a box in August, but when I tried to renew, the extremely nasty Postal Service employees at Midtown Station 10018 refused to approve the documents according to this policy. I wonder if this was intentional, or simply a consequence of a poorly thought out rule?

Dear Mr. Richardi,

I have been a loyal American Airlines flyer for many years. Since 2001 I have flown American one to two times a month, usually on transcontinental flights. The wide selection of flights from New York and the value of AAdvantage miles cemented my loyalty.

However, in August I decided to try JetBlue after an AA ground operations snafu at BOS delayed my flight for over an hour (a weather hold delayed us for 15 minutes; once it was lifted, we had lost our push crew and had to wait a full hour until someone could push us off the gate). I found JetBlue's employees to be friendly and eager to make sure everything went as smoothly as possible, and their efficiency made up for the lesser value of their loyalty program. But I kept flying American when, not infrequently, no convenient JetBlue flight existed. Until yesterday.

I flew AA 242 on January 21 from LAX to JFK. We landed a few minutes early at 10:09. After a bit of taxiing, the captain announced that there were no available gates and we would have to wait 45 minutes. A half hour later he told us it would be at least 45 more minutes. As that deadline came and went, all he could say was that he had no new information. Around 12:20 - over two full hours later - we finally pulled into a gate. And it took another hour more to receive my luggage. Mine was not the only flight so delayed; nearly every other arrival that night had to wait at least an hour.

While this delay inconvenienced me, it completely devastated the young woman sitting next to me in business class, whose sorrows I overheard as she tearfully spoke to friends and family on the phone during our two-hour wait. Upon the first announcement with the 45-minute estimate, she frantically called the friends she was supposed to meet, including a young man she was clearly looking forward to seeing, only to find out that he was not going to wait for her. As the minutes stretched into hours she realized that she was going to miss the entire evening, and spent the rest of the long delay in tears, crying to a friend and arguing with her mother. I couldn't help but overhear that she had used a family member's hard earned miles to upgrade to business so she could sleep on the plane and have the energy to spend the night socializing.

I know that airline delays are often inevitable and American has to keep costs to a minimum to compete in today's cutthroat environment. However, the insufficiency of the JFK ground crew completely ruined this young woman's trip and ensured that I, for one, will seek other airlines for my future travel needs. Miles may be useful, but being guided in and out of gates when necessary is much more so.

Sincerely,

David Alpert

Sunday I finally did make an Amazon purchase because there were a few books B&N just wasn't getting in, plus I wasn't completely bereft of reading material. But yesterday, to my shock, I walked by the reception desk and there the books were. Delivered in under 24 hours. Apparently Amazon delivers books by courier here - maybe in response to B&N's same-day-in-Manhattan service?

Ironically, that night, I got the notice from Amazon that they'd shipped the books. That's a first - receiving my shipment *before* I get the notice it's shipped.

• Carpeted floors
• No rope waiting line
• Instead of tellers behind bulletproof windows, standing desks where you can stand partly next to the person helping you
• Comfy waiting seats
• Happy music (really energetic and cheerful)
• Easy to read, attractive, colorful signs
• Something about "service with a smile" right out in front

• Tuesday, December 23, 2003: I order 3 small parts from Gateway.com via UPS Overnight. They are shipped in 2 packages.
  
  
• Wednesday, December 24, 2003: UPS attempts to deliver my packages. I am going on vacation the next day, so I call UPS to have them delay delivery until December 31. For some reason the customer service representative says the 31st is not available as a delivery date, so I agree to have it delivered on the 2nd.
  
  
• Friday, December 26, 2003: Unbeknownst to me, the request to delay the delivery got lost in the ether, and they attempt to deliver again.
  
  
• Monday, December 29, 2003: I still don't know the request got lost, so they attempt to deliver again. Later in the day, I decide I'm going to stop at work on my way home, so I call UPS to deliver them to work instead. The CS rep (Rep #2) says no problem, and sends a message to the center to deliver it to Google the next day (Wednesday). The center later calls me and leaves a message confirming that they are going to deliver them.
  
  
• Tuesday, December 30, 2003: No packages at Google. I get home late at night and find yet another delivery notice stuck to the mailboxes. Total: 4.
  
  
• Wednesday, December 31, 2003: Yet another notice. Note that a week ago, they said they couldn't redeliver on December 31 at all. Just another incorrect statement, apparently.
  
  I call customer service about the ignored address change. It turns out that since Brooklyn and Manhattan have different delivery centers, so it wasn't possible for the message sent on Monday to accomplish what it was supposed to accomplish. Rep #2 must have been misinformed.
  
  Today's rep, Rep #3, tells me that if they change the address on the computer, it will get delivered on Wednesday, January 7. Note that this was originally an overnight package, yet a week is required to send it from Brooklyn to Manhattan. Also, the CS part of the Brooklyn center is closed today due to it being New Year's Eve.
  
  After politely informing a supervisor about all the ways in which they have managed to give misinformation and/or screw up, she calls the CS folks in Brooklyn (who are unofficially there), and they agree to get it to Manhattan on Friday.
  
  
• Friday, January 2: No packages get delivered.
  
  
• Monday, January 5: I discover from the online tracking Web site that even though the two packages had been marked for redelivery together (although marked incorrectly) the first few times I called, at least one of the reps along the way failed to do this, and so one of the packages was returned to Gateway. The other package, meanwhile, is still nowhere to be found.
  
  Gateway can only re-ship the entire order, not just part of it, so I ask them to do that. They are happy to, and just request that I ask UPS to return the other package as well or refuse it upon delivery. I call UPS to return the second package, and Rep #4 agrees. A short while later I receive a phone call from an extremely brusque woman confirming that I want to "RTS" the package; I confirm it. Late in the evening I get the email from Gateway that the packages have shipped.
  
  
• Tuesday, January 6: 2 packages get delivered. The 2 Gateway re-shipped, you might think? That would be too competent. No, the 2 packages are 1) one of the ones Gateway shipped last night and 2) yup, the missing package that I had not only asked to be returned, but got a confirmation call from UPS that it would be returned. (The other newly sent package was sent from farther away, so it's not a big surprise that it hasn't arrived quite yet).