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On December 1st the post was entitled “Amazon 1  vs.  Barnes and Noble 0″.   My mistake.  Apologies to Amazon.  Barnes and Noble should not have even been on the scoreboard.

Three weeks after a promise to correct the categorization of the book on their system, it is still wrongly categorized.  It is still therefore ineligible for any of the discount coupons they keep emailing out.

I’d follow up on the last message from their customer services department but I really don’t think they care.

Sigh.

At the moment AT&T and Verizon are battling it out and as an AT&T customer I think it shows.

I recently discovered that I can get a discount off my cell bill with AT&T through my employer.  Great!  Every bit helps.  So, off to the AT&T store to arrange it.

Problem 1:  They are happy to apply the discount but want a $36 fee to do so.  I have great problems with paying to get a discount (Barnes & Noble being my least favorite bookseller but the failings of their customer service exceed even their marketing errors) so contacted AT&T and with no debate got the fee dropped.

Problem 2:  The account has to be in my sole name, as the employee.  Again, AT&t happy to switch it over with no mention of any consequences.  The first bill shows an $18 fee per line (so $54 total) to switch names.  I called up customer service, explained that this was a hidden, unmentioned charge, and they took it off the bill quicker than I could say “Verizon”.

Would AT&T have been so quick to make those changes if they weren’t under pressure from competition?  I’d like to think so, but deep down I suspect not. 

Anyway, well done AT&T!

I have never believed in the pure marketing hype of the “collectible”.  Call me cynical, call me realistic, call me madam, but don’t call me after 2 a.m.

Anyway, our daughter was given a Beanie Buddy when she was born.  It has become, over the years, a much loved toy and a well battered one.  Because of nothing better to do, we recently thought about having a stand-by replacement available.  I know, it could never replace the original, but should something happen to it she will be devastated and possibly it’s “twin” will help that moment.  Clearly, as the item was originally marketed as a “collectible”, since “retired”, and there are masses of sites hyping up the beanie ranges, this was going to be a challenge.

Or not.

I found a replacement, in mint condition, for $3.  Yes, $3.  And plenty of them around.  And there was me, worried that it would be hard to find and expensive.

Ho hum.

The best advertisement for Amazon seems to be the Barnes and Noble “customer service” department…

At this time of year customer service is important.  As people try and find those elusive Christmas presents the last thing they need is grief from poor customer service.  In the space of a couple of days I’ve had to contact online customer service for both Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Amazon sent an item that got damaged in their warehouse.  Not enough to warrant returning the item, but enough that they should be aware.  I received an email response from them within minutes.  And no, I’m not talking about the standard “we have received your email and will be back to you soon” automated email, this was from a real live person, addressing the specific issue.  An unexpected level of service, and all the more laudable because of it.  Issue was resolved quickly.  Great customer service.

Barnes & Noble sent a coupon.  Great!  Books make great presents and cheaper books are even better.  So, I went online to use the coupon only to be informed, in red text, that the book chosen did not qualify for the coupon.  As with too many coupons nowadays the small print detailing the exclusions was far too long, but I think I pinned it down to the fact that the book was classified as a textbook.  Huh?  A book of science fiction short stories is a text book?  Clearly a mistake on their part, so an email was duly sent to customer service.

Customer Service (Madelyn) replied to say that the coupon coundn’t be applied to the book as it was a textbook and the coupon wasn’t valid on textbooks.  Great.  Told me nothing I didn’t know already and didn’t help at all.

So I queried it again.

Customer Service (Kris) wrote back to thank me for pointing out the incorrect classification and to assure me they would correct it as soon as possible.

So I wrote back, as the coupon had now expired, asking if I could get the book at the price I would have paid at the weekend, if their data had been correct.  A fair question, I think.

Customer Service (Rose) replied to tell me that until the online details had been corrected the coupon could not be applied.

At this stage I got tired of the game and ordered the item from Amazon.  A couple of things to note:

No-one at B&N customer service seems to own this issue, even after it was assigned a unique reference.  Each response was from a different person.  That is not good customer service.

No-one at B&N customer service has actually delivered any customer service.  I’ve been told what I already know.  They have promised to update the classification for the book.  But no-one has actually addressed the issue from the customer standpoint.  That isn’t bad customer service, it isn’t customer service at all.

The 1st of August is Yorkshire Day.  I’d like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a happy day, whether you even know where Yorkshire is or not.

There a brief Wikipedia entry on Yorkshire Day if you are interested.

The Yorkshire flag

Today, the 5th of July,  is Tynwald Day, the national day of the Isle of Man.

The Manx flag

The latest Buffalo Magazine fell into the post box this weekend.  It talks of the housing market being “poised for a rebound”.  That’s good.  But on the next page it says that housing values are “sustaining a 4 percent average annual appreciation”.  Okay, so where is the market rebounding from?

It gets worse.  A couple of pages further on it says that “Prices have come down”.  So, house prices, while sustaining 4 percent appreciation, have come down?  There’s some very peculiar mathematics involved here!

Those are just the basics.  It seems every page has a different story to tell, depending on the slant of the writer.  So, Mr. Editor, what were you doing before this went to the printers?

Another fun page is the one with a couple of items on it.  The first is an article entitled “New homes are getting smaller”.  The other item on the page is an advert for a house which must top 8,000 square feet.  If this is a deliberate piece of arrangement it is wonderful, but I suspect it was just sloppy work.

(In reality, I don’t care about house prices.  We have our house and that’s it.  But such sloppy writing just throws doubt on everything else in the magazine, which is why it is in the recycling bin already.)

Presumably anyone who voted for any of the so-called representatives of the people in the New York Senate is taking note of the behavior of your successful candidate?  Doesn’t matter what party they are, do you think you are truly being best served by their behavior?

If the answer to that question is “Yes”, then please continue in your poor deluded state and vote for them again next time around.

If the answer is “No”, are you blindly going to follow party doctrine next time around or will you remember how they behaved?

Who am I kidding?  You get the representation you deserve, so I guess I answered my own question about your voting intentions.