right on bro!

oy. I got wrapped up playing SOCOM last night (single-player mode) and didn’t write an entry. Nice work! Umm…I gotta go to work.

General

Today: pretty cool. I drank a lot of water. I have this unfounded suspicion that drinking lots of water puts me in a better mood. But seeing as I have no scientific evidence, I’ll just keep doing it.

Got jeetered up today with EB Games. Yesterday I finally broke down and ordered a PS2 Network Adaptor, to be shipped via 2-day air. Today I checked the order status and found out the order had been placed on hold. After calling EB’s customer service line, I found out they placed my order on hold because I had different billing vs. shipping addresses. They tell me that I have to list my shipping address as a “secondary address” tied to the credit card. And, they didn’t even notify me - I only found out because I wanted to watch the package progress through the shipping company’s online tracker.

WTF? I’ve probably placed about a hundred orders for products online from different Websites and I’ve never encountered that. So I call my bank, and of course, they’ve never heard of it either. So I call back EB, and they tell me it’s a common practice. So I call my bank again, and somebody over there finally goes, “Oh yeah….we get a request for that…once in a long while.”

That is weak. I hate horrible customer service (on EB’s part, not my bank). At least they said yes when I asked them to ship the adaptor to me overnight. If EB wasn’t the only place giving away a free copy of Everquest with the adaptor, I would have busted somewhere else.

Anyway…that means I am going to bust into the world of Playstation online gaming. SOCOM for starters, and Midnight Club 2 next week. First, I have to get a router, which jeeters me up even more, because I’m going to Best Buy to get it (it’s on sale), and Best Buy is not exactly the master of customer service.

Best Buy (and the Albertson’s on Hillhurst for that matter), are you listening? For maximum customer happiness, NEVER make your customers wait in line to check out. There’s nothing that pisses me off more than going to the store at 8pm at the end of the day, and finding two checkout lines 6-7 people deep, with six other lines that aren’t being used. Read “Why We Buy” by Paco Underhill. One time I left a cart full of groceries right at the checkout line and walked out because of this.

I guess running a retail business is the fine art of balancing low prices with shitty customer service. Of course you could have good service and charge more, but it’s rare that a fool isn’t jeetering for the lowest price that your competitor is willing to offer, so what are you going to do?

Yes, my bitching and moaning is most accurately described as solidly upper-middle class, without any hint of redeeming social value. I do find it strange that I should get all worked up about not having a video game shipped to me by airplane a day late, or a long line of customers serviced by a poor overworked cashier. Five years ago I was just wondering how I was going to pay my rent. But I worked my ass off (well not really, because I’m a fat bastard who sits at a desk all day) to be able to buy this stuff, and I bet that’s how a lot of other people feel too.

Whatever. I’m going to go read a book or watch TV or play a videogame or something. Out.

General