2009 April

Archive for April 2009

Brian Wants a MUNNY for his Birthday

Posted on April 18, 2009 by Ching under Toys, Wishlist.

SHOW ME THE MUNNY!

Brian has decided he wants a MUNNY for his 35th birthday. I think he might be hitting second childhood early. LOL.

Kidding aside, these things are pretty cool actually. They are ideal for artist types like Brian because you can do whatever you want with them. You can draw and paint on MUNNY, using crayons, pencils, ketchup, or anything else you can think of…

You can make clothes for MUNNY. Make things to put in MUNNY’s hands. You can snuggle him, pierce him, drape him, cherish him. MUNNY is open to pretty much anything… or so it says on the web site.

Here’s some inspiration…

For even more inspiration, just go to the KidRobot MUNNY gallery or the MUNNY gallery at Vinyl Pulse or the MUNNY photos at Tates Comics or search for MUNNY on Flickr or Google MUNNY or check out some DIY videos on YouTube (there are some irrelevant hits, so just skip those). For information, check out MUNNY on Wikipedia. Amazing!

Brian wants a 7-inch Series 4 White Edition MUNNY DIY toy, but I doubt that he will turn his nose up at a 4-inch White Edition mini MUNNY. It seems like once you get started, you can never get enough of these things.

I’m sure he’d ask for the 18-inch White Edition MEGA MUNNY if he could, but then he couldn’t get a new cell phone. The MEGA MUNNY is expensive!

For other neat MUNNY stuff, go to the KidRobot web site. They’ve got tons of neat stuff.

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Nokia and Backorder Hell

Posted on April 17, 2009 by Brian under Blog, Life, Reviews, Wishlist.

If you have not been following my Tweets then let me fill you in.

On April 3rd I ordered a new phone through Nokia. I had some difficulties through their web site previously but through the assistance of the Nokia customer service center I was able to resolve the issue and get the phone ordered properly. However, Nokia failed to mention that I would be in backorder hell and would possibly never receive my phone. Below is a letter that I just send to there web site.

Let me start by saying that I have been a faithful user of Nokia for over 10 years. I have had just about every Nokia phone ever released. I know this probably does not amount to much since there are several people in this world that are just like me, but I thought I would say it anyway.

I recently attempted to purchase a Nokia E71. Due to some confusion on your web site my order was messed up and rejected. Despite this Nokia held almost $800 on my credit card for a week before releasing the held funds. The rep that I called (Rob) helped sort out the situation and assisted me in placing another order for the phone I wanted. He also offered me a free headset due to my phone being on back order (it was originally in stock when this whole mess started). Overall, I was pleased with the resolution and was advised that the phone would be in within 2 weeks and should ship shortly after that. This was the end of the good customer service. Things all down hill from here.

I had been following the web site waiting for the backorder flag to fall. Sure enough it fell off about 2 weeks later just as I was advised. However, I did not receive a shipping confirmation. In an attempt to find out why my phone did not ship I called customer service and spoke to another rep. This rep did not speak English very well and I had difficulty understanding everything that he was saying. I did not even get his name. I asked what was holding up my order and he advised that the phone was in but they could not ship my order because the headset was now on backorder. I was frustrated by this and asked what could be done. The only thing that he could do was apologize, nothing was offered to make amends for the error. Nothing was done to appease me for the inconvenience. Nothing was done at all. To make matters worse, the rep tried to tell me that I was offered a special deal by the previous rep. I had to immediately stop him and advise that the phone price is the same that is offered to every person that orders through the web site. I went on to advise that the headset offer was the one that is currently being promoted on the web site as well and that the free shipping is something that is offered through your company if you order anything over $200.00. I stated that nothing that I received was any more special and it was something that any other customer would have received if they had placed the same order. He then apologized, he did not say what for, I can only assume it was for trying to mislead me and getting caught.

I called again the following day and requested a supervisor. I received Jessica, a floor supervisor. I have worked in Call Centers before, I know that a floor supervisor is not a TRUE supervisor; their authority is limited (which I found throughout the conversation with her to be true). However, I gave her a chance. The only thing that she could offer was to remove the headset and then the phone would ship. I don’t see how this benefits me as a customer. I have to sacrifice something in order to get something. So now I am stuck in backorder hell. I am supposed to receive a phone with a headset but I cannot receive the phone because the headset is back ordered, then there is no guarantee that I will even receive the phone when the headset comes in because the phone may be on backorder again. The only option I seem to have is that I will have to sacrifice a portion of my order in order to get my phone, thus making my devise only partially useful in my opinion.

I have purchased many devices over the years from numerous companies and I have never had this much difficulty getting a device as I have through your company. I advised the supervisor that I would give it another week. I am sorry to say that if I do not see any progress from your company in this week I am going to cancel my order. I am also going to make sure that everyone that I speak to (Twitter, Facebook, blog, forums, text or e-mail including everyone I know in Wichita), is made aware of the trouble that I have had with your company and advise against ordering any Nokia products in the future. As it stands, my wife now refuses to purchase the 5800 Express. I had her convinced that this would be a viable replacement for her T-Mobile Wing and she was going to purchase it as soon as I had received my phone (she wanted to look at mine first before deciding) she now does not wish to purchase anything and suggested a week ago that I should cancel my order. I am trying to give your company the opportunity to correct its mistakes, but at the moment I do not see that you care to fix your error or even care about the customer at all. You seem to feel that a simple apology will suffice regardless of the situation or circumstances.

With the upcoming expiration of the contract between Apple and AT&T, the iPhone will soon be the most sought after phone on the market (more than it is currently) leaving companies like yours clamoring for business in the handset market. Exceptional Customer Service and customer loyalty are going to be the only things that will save a company in near future. At the moment my loyalty is fading by the day and if things do not improve I have no choice but to seek a new cell phone manufacturer.

I hope that this does not fall on deaf ears and I hope that someone takes and interest in the actions that took place.

After sending the letter I was shown the following message.

Your e-mail has been submitted. A Nokia Customer Care representative will respond promptly. Your questions and comments are important to us.

Since I am not satisfied with the service to begin with, I found it comical that the letter would go to the very people that I am complaining about. I guess my last little statement at the bottom is true after all. Some little CSR at Nokia will look at this and decide that its not a good thing for the rest of the CS group and can it. Which means I will most certainly cancel my order by Friday if nothing happens.

Lack of customer service and a decline in customer loyalty must be why Nokia’s earnings have declined by 90% in the last year according to Gizmodo. Looks like I will become one of the many iPhone Sheeple soon.

All hail the iPhone.

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Sandals St. Lucia Trip Pics

Posted on April 17, 2009 by Ching under Travel.

Our friends Cory, April, Jay and Becca just returned from vacationing in St. Lucia. They stayed at Sandals Grande, but it looks like they visited all three Sandals resorts. What a MEGA vacation! Check out their pictures below.

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What I Wanted vs. What I Got

Posted on April 16, 2009 by Ching under Wishlist.

I have been wanting this heart link jewelry at Tiffany & Co. for a while now. I just can’t bear to part with $750 for sterling silver jewelry (total for the earrings, bracelet and necklace). Here are some pictures of the jewelry that I wanted.

As you can see, the jewelry is just so pretty. It’s hard to resist. I would have been all over this stuff six years ago, just charging away. Fortunately, I have more self control now. I’m also a lot more resourceful. Everyone knows that if something is fabulous, someone else will copy it. There’s always knock offs. So guess what. I found them!

The knock offs I found are sold at Eve’s Addiction. Check them out.

The knock offs resemble the originals pretty well. From a distance, you can’t really tell they’re fake. So anyway, through sheer resourcefulness I managed to get all three pieces for under $100.

The downside is that the quality of the necklace is not that great. You get what you pay for, I suppose. The necklace is pretty flimsy and not as substantial as the original, which I have seen in person incidentally. The concierge at Courtyard Topeka was wearing it a couple of months ago when we stayed there. Hers are the real deal, gifted to her by her husband last Christmas.

I wish the necklace was half the quality of the bracelet. Though the design is the same, the bracelet is more substantial and heavier in weight. The chain it self was the same, but the little heart and open hearts of the bracelet were thicker than the necklace.

Of the three pieces, the earrings were the best. The earrings were thicker and heavier still. I would guess that the earrings are pretty close to how the real necklace and bracelet would feel. Although, I can’t really know for sure since I don’t have the real Tiffany jewelry here for comparison.

I was very pleased with the earrings and satisfied with the bracelet, but the necklace was a disappointment to be honest. I wish it was heavier/thicker. Oh, well. It is fake after all and only a fraction of the cost of its authentic counterpart. Maybe someone will buy the real necklace for me. ~hint~ ~hint~

He will have plenty of opportunity since we have our anniversary (August), my birthday (October), and Christmas (December) still to come this year. I hope he remembers. =P