TimNC.com
Life – Computers – Games – Cars

I know this guy! I wrote the inventory system he uses to list items on eBay. Way to go Kevin!

Back in 2006 I spent a month in Tokyo working with Sega on a Texas Hold’em game machine. Someone sent me an e-mail saying they saw me on the Impress Watch website, which is a technology news website. I was at a Sega private show where they demo new machines for buyers, and my picture was taken and put in the article. A link to the article can be found here.

By popular demand, I have recorded a video of the new house for friends that have requested pictures and updates and stuff. So here’s a guided tour of the unfinished home.

There’s a point in the video where I say “dry-wood” instead of “sheet-rock”. I guess that was a Freudian slip. The basement had leaked from the kitchen upstairs and a lot of the slats holding up the panneling had to be replaced due to water damage. I doubt they won’t be asking me to host the next episode of This Old House.

I have been getting an awful lot of spam from spam bots on this blog, but hopefully I just fixed that.

I’ve also been getting comments and e-mails about more people with problems with Tessie Toys.  It sucks that so many people are having problems with them.  I did finally get a working blackberry from them, it wasn’t in great shape but it worked.  I chose not to write a negative feedback because I noticed a trend with their feedback.  They have A LOT of mutual feedback withdrawls.  That means that they retaliate with negative feedback, and I didn’t want my feedback lowered because they are crooks.

 The only way to solve this people is to complain to eBay.  I know you may think this won’t help, but trust me it does.  eBay listens to complaints, and if a buyer is doing things like this they will remove them from the site.  But my complaint isn’t enough, everyone needs to complain.

 I hope everyone is having a great 2008 so far, and hopefully I’ll have some new and interesting stuff to blog about soon.

Okay, so you all know about the hell I’ve gone through trying to get a working Blackberry (see “The Blackberry Curve 8300“). Well it gets worse. My daughter wants a cell phone for Christmas, and while I don’t think she really needs one, the cost is minimal to add her to my minutes so I figure it’s an easy Christmas present. So I go to the Suncom store here in town and pick out a cute little pink Sony Ericsson W200 phone and I do all the stuff about adding the 3rd line and everything. So when they call in activation to turn it on, I’m denied. “I’M WHAT!?” I’m denied! Now over the last 3 weeks I’ve gotten a text message and a flyer in the mail about being approved for a 3rd and 4th line already, so why am I declined?

So I call Customer Service. They said it was a billing issue. What billing issue? So they transfer me to billing. Aparently for a period of 3 minutes, my phone was disconnected for not paying. Wait a second folks…. I pay my Suncom bill out of my checking account automatically each month. I don’t even look at the bill when it comes, it just gets paid. So why was I disconnected? Billing said I needed to talk to Customer Service about that. So I go back to Customer service. Remember the Blackberry Curve problems? Well they delayed billing me because of my phone issues. They didn’t want to charge me until I got the phone. When I did get the phone I called in to Customer Service and they activated the Blackberry features, and while I was on the phone with the lady she said “Hey they are disconnecting you for not paying, but I’m going to fix that right now because we delayed your payment on purpose.” and then I paid my bill in full.

So long story short, since I had a disconnect, they won’t give me another line of service for 90 days from the day it happened (which would be January something). I spoke to 3 different supervisors about this, and none of them would budge. One of them even admitted that I did nothing wrong and that my account has always been in good standing, but they couldn’t do anything about it.

So this is how Suncom treats its long term and loyal customers. I’ve been with Suncom since they first popped up here in North Carolina, for years now.

So now I’m pissed, and I have to find something else for my daughter for Christmas, and I’m seriously considering going to Cingular and buying an iPhone and telling Suncom to take a hike.

After getting a defective Blackberry Curve from Suncom and patiently awaiting my replacement, I got a package in the mail from tessies-toys.  My Blackberry Pearl has arrived!  I admit I was pretty mad about the poor customer service from tessies-toys but I got over it.  I mean after all they wouldn’t knowingly send me a bad unit, and maybe the person that sent me that response was just having a bad day.  My replacement Pearl had arrived and I had something to work with.

Then I opened the box.

This isn’t a Blackberry Pearl.  I don’t know what this T-Mobile Windows Mobile thing is.  Ok after looking at tessies-toys listings it’s an HTC Excalibur 620.  Not exactly what I was expecting.  It came in the same sized white box that my original phone came in with no markings on the box.  How do they keep these things separated?

So I send a note to tessies-toys, trying to hold back my anger here:

And this was their response:

Well they were nicer this time at least.  So I decided to write a good ol formal letter to send back with my misshipped phone (imagine nice Word formal letter template here):

So now we’ll wait and see what happens.

I’m just not meant to have a Blackberry am I?

Since I got the PS3 I decided I should check out the PlayStation website forums and stuff.  When I tried my old Underground login name and password it worked.  I haven’t logged into this thing in years.  I went to update my profile to change from my old spam filled e-mail address to my new e-mail address, and it told me it was already taken.

 Then it dawned on me…. when I registered the PS3 it created a new account with my new e-mail address.  Ooops!

Well, maybe I can register the serial number on my old account.  After all it’s a member of the Gamer Advisory Panel…. wait a second when I click on G.A.P. it says “BY INVITATION ONLY …. If you feel you received this message in error, please contact Customer Service (800-345-7669) with your first and last name, email address and PSU number (if known).”

 So I decide to call the number and explain how I have two accounts and I need them combined and for some reason I can’t get access to G.A.P. which my uneditable Underground profile clearly says I have been a member of since 2002.  The nice person I spoke to on the phone said that they had nothing to do with the website or the Underground or G.A.P. and that I needed to go to the Contact Us link on the website and send them an e-mail about it.  So…. I did exactly that.  Approximately 36 hours later I got this response:
Hello Tim,Thank you for writing us.Please email the Customer Support Department of the Gamer Advisory Panel directly regarding G.A.P.
account questions. community_support@playstation.sony.com

If you have further questions regarding this message, please refer to your email case
number:4939584.

Byron
Multimedia Specialist
Sony Computer Entertainment America
Consumer Services Department

Additional Support Resources
———————————————
PlayStation.com Knowledge Base: Browse through hundreds of helpful FAQ articles at our Knowledge
Base at PlayStation.com. To begin, please click on http://playstation.custhelp.com

PlayStation.com Support Page: You will find helpful content divided by our PlayStation(R) product
lines. Please visit http://www.us.playstation.com/Support and select the PlayStation product of
your choice to learn more.

Original Message Follows:
————————-

Consumer Name: Tim Whitaker
Consumer Email: xxx

Message from Consumer:
I’m trying to get back involved in the G.A.P. after purchasing a PS3. I realize now though that I
have two PlayStation Underground accounts. My old one is yyy and that was linked to
my G.A.P. access. My new one is xxx and that was through registering through my
PS3. After I realized what I had done, I tried to change the e-mail address on my old account but
it won’t because of the new account. I also cannot gain access to G.A.P., and it told me to call a
1-800 number. I called the number and the person I spoke with said I needed to send an e-mail
through this site.

I want to have one account with my new PS3, my PS2 and my PSPs all together and I still want to be
part of the G.A.P. What do I need to do to fix this?

Okay…. so uhm…. I just forwarded my original e-mail to the new address I was just given. So who wants to make some bets that this will not be resolved and I won’t be a part of the Playstation community?

So I won this “MINT UNLOCKED BLACKBERRY PEARL 8100 GSM SMARTPHONE!” on eBay from the seller tessies-toys. I was pleased with the price and it’s cheaper than buying one through SunCom. At first I was really excited after the phone arrived, but after a couple of hours I realized some things. First, the vibration motor doesn’t work. Second, it’s missing half the applications that are suppose to be installed on this phone. There’s no browser, no Blackberry maps application, etc. Then there is the cheesy “Bonus! Carry Case for unit!” that isn’t even the right size for this phone. So I send tessies-toys an e-mail and this is how it went:

And this was their response:

Now is it just me, or was that response a bit rude? How about an apology? A little bit a sympathy? tessies-toys gets an easy F on customer service. Let’s break down what I said, and how they responded shall we?

1. Me: It seems that some of the standard installation software is missing. 
   Them: I am sorry, there is no software missing 
   Ok so there is a “sorry” there, but it’s not like “I’m sorry you feel that way” or “Sorry you’re having troubles with your purchases” it’s more like “sorry you don’t know what you’re talking about”.  Judging by how many of these they sell on ebay (they have 19 available right now at the time I wrote this) I’d be willing to bet they haven’t opened up every one of them and checked them.  Or do they even know what is suppose to come with a new one?  Or are they relying on their refurb distributor for that?
    
2. Me: Also the carry case advertised in the auction is too large for the phone. 
   Them: and the case is a freebie and is what it is. 
   So they just throw a cheap case in there for free and I shouldn’t complain about it. After all it wasn’t included in the price of what I paid for the product right? Oh wait it was! I guess I’m lucky I got a case at all.
    
3. Me: The auction also stated this was a Cingular released unlock and it is in fact a T-Mobile with T-Mobile software installed. 
   Them: The phones are unlocked and what they originally were is not relevant. 
   So having an honest description is the auction isn’t relevant now? I’ve got one even better for you. How about the fact that every carrier has different software that they install on their phones? Some phones can be reflashed to be “unbranded” as if they were purchased directly from the manufacturer, and it depends on where the phone originally came from. So sorry tessies-toys, it is relevant.
    
4. Me: The vibration funcon does not work at all. 
   Them: Of course, if the phone is BROKEN in some way, I am more than happy to replace it for you. 
   Again is it just me, or was that comment complete condescending?
    

tessies-toys needs a lesson in customer service. I have run customer service for two different companies (Net America and Convey Systems) and nothing like this happened to my customers. I would have been very happy with a response like “We’re sorry you’re having trouble. Just ship it back to this address and we’ll send you another one.” and that’s all that had to be said.

So I was so furious I didn’t know how to respond, so all I sent back wasy “My item is broken and I would like to exchange it.”

Their response

How about AN ADDRESS TO SEND IT BACK IN YOUR RESPONSE!?!?!?!

AAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is the kind of thing that deserves a negative, but looking at their history this seller waits to get feedback before giving feedback, and I’m sure I’d get a retaliatory negative. I’ll ship the phone back and see what happens.