Is customer service dead?

I recently converted from a PC to a Mac (and I love my Mac!).  My CPU is a Mac Mini, a tiny little thing with a lot of power.  I found the best price for it and bought it from Amazon.  While there, I saw a cool little Mac Mini mounting bracket with extra USB ports on it (the Mac Mini only has five USB ports).  If you want to look at it yourself, here it is: Mac Mini Hang With Mi.

While I found it on Amazon, I had to order it from Other World Computing (OWC).  It arrived quickly and I happily got out my drill, mounted it on my old ratty computer desk, stuck my Mac Mini in the bracket, and hooked up all my peripherals.  

Due to the touchy nature of my GSM "air" card - the gadget I use to connect to the Internet out here in the boonies - I planned to plug it into one of the USB ports on the front of the bracket.  The GSM card doesn't like being buried under the desk; it slows the connection down a lot.  So, after getting everything ready to go, I plugged the GSM card into one of the bracket USB ports.  Nada.  Nothing.  Nicht. 

I tried several other things, my trackball mouse, my keyboard, my camera cord - nothing worked in any of the USB ports on the bracket.  Grumbling, I sent it back to OWC for exchange for a working bracket. 

OWC contacted me and said their tech department had checked the bracket and that it was getting power, so they were sending it back to me as nothing was wrong with it.  They implied that I was too stupid to connect everything correctly and admonished me to make sure the power supply was plugged in.  When asked, OWC admitted that they had not actually plugged anything into the USB ports themselves to see if they worked.   They would not exchange the unit for a new one.  So I got a refund less a 15% restocking fee because I returned it (even though I really just wanted an exchange).  

Gee.  What do y'all think?  If you were OWC, would it have been better to send me a brand new working unit and thereby secure my loyalty through excellent customer service?  Or would you do what they did and lose me as a customer?  They have a really nice online store with a lot of products, but they won't get any more of my business. 

LoneStar

A WIP update

As I've been getting in a goodly amount of stitching lately, I thought I'd show you my WIP.

Here it is the last time I posted it (2-25-10):

Here it is as of today:

This is "Wild Things, " an OOP limited-edition pattern by Cross Stitch Pattern Gallery.

LoneStar

Another great weekend

We had absolutely gorgeous weather this weekend - highs in the 80's and sunny with a light breeze.  

Georgia and I headed over to Austin for the I35 Stitchtogether.  We had a great time and had a big group.  There was lots of laughing and eating and yakking and eating and I think we did get a bit of stitching done.

While the two of us were in Austin, our DH's went to the gun range and and played with their man toys.  They had a lot of fun, too.  DH spent the evening cleaning the guns he had used and man! does the cleaning oil smell weird.  DH likes the smell, but to me it smells like sour apples mixed with axle grease.  Next time, DH will clean his guns outside on the porch.

Sunday afternoon, we took the day off and puttered.  DH planned out how he is going to install electricity in his shop, and I got a lot of stitching done.  Emma played a lot with the new toy her Auntie Gloria gave her.  It's a yellow rubber ball with a squeaker that she killed after about two hours.  We were kind of glad as this squeaker was a bit shrill and more annoying than usual.  And of course, toys must be taken and placed in the food bowl while you are enjoying a bit of kibble.  Silly dog.

 

LoneStar

Customer service

DH came home last night and solved the push mower problem.  When I lowered the wheels, I tipped the mower and inadvertently released a safety latch.  You know, one of those because-some-of-you-are-stupid-enough-to-stick-your-hand-under-a-running-mower safety devices.  Anyway, I latched the latch and was able to get my mowing done after supper.  Yippee! No trip to the repair shop this time!

I use a Logitech Wave keyboard.  After I converted to Mac, I am still able to (mostly) use it well after downloading some software updates.  I have loved Logitech products since I got my first trackball thumb mouse, way back in 1995.  So, when I needed a new keyboard last year (I got my old keyboard back in 1995, too), I naturally looked at Logitech.

Last week, I dropped something on my keyboard and one of the little legs that prop the keyboard at an angle for easier typing broke.  This little leg is plastic and is about a square-inch in size.  So I e-mailed Logitech and asked how much a replacement would cost.  They e-mailed me back and said the keyboard was obviously faulty so they would replace it.  

I e-mailed them back and said the keyboard was not faulty; I had dropped something on it and that's why the leg broke.  They e-mailed me back and said it could not be replaced.  I e-mailed them back and said that was a bunch of baloney as I could take out the unbroken leg and replace it easily.  They e-mailed me back and said they had no part available but would replace the keyboard as it was still under warranty; I just needed to mail it to them and they would send me a new one and reimburse my shipping costs.  I e-mailed them back, thanked them for their generous offer, and asked what was I supposed to do for a keyboard in the meantime?!  In the end, I decided to keep my keyboard; I've got the broken side propped up on a flash drive.  Good grief.  When I get a minute, I'll wander out to DH's shop and look for an itty bitty piece of wood to glue under there.

Tomorrow I'm heading off to Austin for the I35 Stitchtogether.  It'll be nice to sit and stitch for most of the day, even if I will be stitching on the never-ending BAP border.  

I made some cookies to take with me and share.  I had a new recipe and I think there was a typo.  The recipe said to bake the cookies for 5-8 minutes and cautioned strongly about over baking them as they would burn easy.  The first batch came out raw and yucky.  On the next batch, I ended up increasing the cooking time to nearly 20 minutes!  Oh well!

LoneStar 

Best laid plans...

...go to waste when dealing with lawn mowers around here.   We got the push mower back from the shop and it has worked fine the two times I've mowed the inside yard.  The grass is growing like crazy down here.  

But of course, it couldn't last.  I swear we have mower demons lurking about.  This is getting old.  I did some dreaded housework this morning and then planned to mow the inside yard this afternoon right after lunch.  I started the mower and pushed it over to the fence and did some mowing near the fence.  Then I remembered that I wanted to lower the mower wheels some more.  So I turned off the mower and did that.  Now the danged thing won't start again.  Piffle.

I have nothing to report stitching-wise as I haven't stitched for several days.  I've got to get back in my chair and get after it as the BAP ain't gonna stitch itself.  


LoneStar (who is still shaking out her bath towel before using it, and will do so forevermore!)

OHMYGOODNESSGRACIOUSSAKESALIVE!

I am very nearsighted.  Very, very nearsighted.  I wear glasses - without which I could not locate my buttocks with both hands.  My glasses are the last thing I take off before going to sleep, and the first thing I reach for upon awakening.  I'm so nearsighted that I can't get my hand in focus while holding it in front of my face unless it is about four inches away from my nose.  My eye doctor calls this high index vision loss; I call it blind as a bat.

Yesterday morning after taking my shower, I grabbed my towel off the towel rack.  My fuzzy vision (no, I don't take showers with my glasses on) noticed a large brown spot on my dark green towel.  Several things instantly ran through my mind.  ITWASABUGITWASASPIDERITWASABUGITWASASPIDERAAAAUUUGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!  No, I did not hold the towel close enough to my face to see what kind of bug it was.  My mama didn't raise a fool.  I knew it wasn't lint as we don't have any brown clothing or towels or blankets or anything brown that would produce such a large clump of lint.    

I cast the towel away from me with a loud yell, which caused Emma to come investigate.  I found another towel.  I dried myself off.  I put on my glasses.  The towel with the BUG/SPIDER was in a wadded heap on the floor and I was not going to investigate it, glasses on or not.  When DH called me at lunch, I told him that the first thing he needed to do upon arriving home that evening was clear the towel of unwanted guests.  DH married me for better or for worse and for being the chief bug killer of the home.

DH reported that it was a spider.  A honking big, albeit dead, spider, but a spider nonetheless.  *full body shudder*  

If I hadn't noticed the brown spot on my towel, I'm sure you would have read about the resulting reaction in today's paper, and you would have seen it on last night's news.  I probably would have been the first woman to achieve orbit and warp speed without a space ship.  

LoneStar

A great weekend

DH and I had a great time on Saturday in Houston.  We went with friends.  Georgia and I dropped our DHs off in downtown Houston at the convention center at a gun show, and then we went to Spring (north of Houston) to shop hop.  We went to three quilt shops and one cross stitch shop.  

I didn't intend to buy much, just some GAST floss I need for my next project after I finish the BAP (in the year of our Lord 2045 at the rate I'm going!), but you know how that goes.   One of the quilt shops we stopped at was owned by an elderly lady and it had some cross stitch stuff.  A lot of it was very dated, but that worked to my advantage as I found several OOP and HTF leaflets.  While the owner continues to get new quilt fabric in, she also has a lot of older fabric; Georgia was happy to find some fabric that she bought several years ago and needed more of.  We had fun talking to her as she used to be a school teacher.

Our DHs had fun at their gun show, and my DH came home with a new pistol.  He'd been wanting one and had been researching them and was able to find one he liked for a price he liked.  Like a little kid, he had to take his new pistol to work today to show all the guys.  Silly man.

I'm about 95% converted over to Mac now.  I ended up having to buy some software (Parallels Desktop 5) to run some Microsoft software I use, mainly Excel and Word.  I looked at and researched the Mac equivalent, but I would have had to buy it.  Buying the software to run a virtual machine on my Mac for Excel and Word was cheaper than buying Excel and Word for the Mac.  I have to run down a printer driver and then I'll be humming along.  

I really like the Mac.  I got a Mac mini "tower."  Here it is in comparison to my old Dell tower.  The Mac mini is 6.5" x 6.5" x 2" in size.  My old Dell is gigantic.  The Mac mini is more powerful than my old Dell.  Dynamite comes in small packages!

And I have to figure out how to save my signature in Mac, so for now I'll just sign off "LoneStar."