Stilgherrian Live, The Blue Edition

Cnut of the Week graphic

It’s less than three hours until tonight’s edition of Stilgherrian Live (9.30pm Thursdays Sydney time), so we’d better get some nominations together for “Cnut of the Week”.

It’s the same rules as usual. We’re after people (or abstract forces of nature, or organisations or whatever) who’ve been futilely trying to hold back the tide of change.

My first nomination will be Starbucks for leaving taps running all day — ignoring the change to more environmentally-friendly methods and, incidentally, practising a weird kind of Seattle-based neocolonialism by thinking their own “global policy” is more important than the local laws where they operate.

Who do you nominate, and why?

It’s also “The Blue Edition”, mostly in support of Blue Day 2008, but perhaps we’ll show some blue movies too. Watch and see.

Links for 02 October 2008 through 06 October 2008

Stilgherrian’s links for 02 October 2008 through 06 October 2008, covered in peanut butter and cat fur:

How Dell fixed my monitor order

Dell logo

Last week I posted a long, angry piece describing how Dell screwed up an important order. Well, important to me. Pissily tiny to them. Within hours I received a phone call from Winston Robins, Dell’s Purchase Experience Manager for Australia and New Zealand.

What immediately impressed me is that he’d actually read what I’d posted, here and on Twitter, and instead of glossing over the mistakes he seemed genuinely interested in finding out what went wrong.

The short version is that the monitors I’d ordered were delivered as quickly as possible after that, and Winston kept me informed of progress at all times. He acknowledged Dell’s mistakes, and said the staff responsible were “coached” — which is a nice little euphemism, eh?

So what went wrong?

Continue reading “How Dell fixed my monitor order”

At Town Hall station? You breathe this!

Photograph of filthy air vent at Town Hall station

This is the air vent in the elevator between platforms 1/2 and 4 at Sydney’s Town Hall station. Do you like that layer of black crap?

Town Hall station is already hot, humid, smelly and dangerously over-crowded. Add to these risks the fact that you’re breathing whatever it is that’s accumulating up there.

While taking this photo with my trusty but battered Nokia N80 the other day, I expected someone to question me — concerned that I was a terrorist or something. I reckon terrorists are the least of your worries here.

Dell’s useless customer “service”

[Update: This problem has since been resolved. Please also read How Dell fixed my monitor order for the full story.]

Dell logo

Dell, I’m not happy with you. I’m not happy with you at all. Your incompetent customer service has screwed up the timelines for an important project for a new client, yet your blind, stupid corporate machine blunders on like a brain-damaged slug.

If you read my Twitter stream yesterday you can probably skip this post. However I will document this little disaster because I’m still waiting for Dell to provide the promised explanation and I’ll point their people in this direction. I have specific questions at the end.

In brief, though, it was a customer “service” disaster. I’ll continue to recommend Hewlett Packard’s well-engineered computers and excellent service to my clients.

Continue reading “Dell’s useless customer “service””