Annoyed with Toshiba

On Thanksgiving morning I went to Toshiba's website to order some new RAM for Shawn's laptop. Her computer, a light weight Portege model, came with a mere 512MB of RAM and Windows XP. She wanted to upgrade to Windows 7, but that required a memory upgrade. Just as well as her PC was getting a tad sluggish.

The Toshiba website worked pretty well. I looked up her model number and up came the available accessories. I checked the memory link and was told that a 2GB card was available. Great! I made the purchase and we got it in the mail last Thursday.

Shawn backed up her laptop at work on Friday. Sunday morning, I set to replacing the old memory with the new. It was an easy operation. Rather than lifting the keyboard out I just had to unscrew a hatch on the bottom, snap the old one out, and insert the new one. The operation took less than 2 minutes. When I went to boot, an alarm sounded and the laptop would not run.

To make a long story short, her PC isn't equipped to handle anything more than a 1 GB card. So, why was Toshiba even offering a 2GB card associated with her model number? Sure, I could have looked it up in the specs before I made the order, but I figured this was Toshiba's website and they wouldn't steer me wrong, right? Wrong.

But that's only the beginning of my annoyance. It continued when I made the call to their customer service this morning. Yes, they provided me with a return authorization number and the address and so forth. Yes, the person was kind enough on the phone. However, when I asked if Toshiba, upon receipt of the wrong product they sold me, could then just ship me the correct product and then credit my account the difference I was told that they were not set up to operate this way. In other words, Toshiba's computer software couldn't handle that. I would have to wait for the account to be credited and then go online and re-order the correct product or I could have a second charge applied to my account and get the correct product ordered right away and then they would credit the account when the wrong product is returned. That's where I went off the rails. That's crappy customer service. In fact, it's not customer service. After their website steering me wrong that's a poor way of handling this.

Now that I have the correct information, I think that I'll re-order the part from someone else. Even if I was willing to order the RAM to have it rushed out and just wait for the credit, I wouldn't do that from Toshiba. They aren't willing to go the extra step and I'm not willing to give them my money.

Cheese balls

Cheese balls
Originally uploaded by B.D.'s world

Rest of the pictures from the cheese making party here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bdsworld/sets/72157622485117095/

Canning Season 2009

Canning Season 2009
Originally uploaded by B.D.'s world

We had forgotten this basil vinegar. It's made using Purple Ruffle Basil, hence it's red color.

Canning in Progress

Canning in Progress
Originally uploaded by B.D.'s world

Lots of work done; lots more to do.

Montana vacation

Weary goat
Originally uploaded by B.D.'s world

Rest of the set here.

Customer relations

Had a young guy as a customer today wearing an Oregon State University t-shirt. I said to him, "I believe, if I'm not mistaken, that the Oregon Country Fair is in the next week or two?"

He replied, "Really? Are they going to put it in this parking lot?"

I said, "The Oregon Country Fair?"

He said, "I know that they have a fair in this lot once in a while."

"That they do! But I think the Oregon Country Fair is probably held in Oregon."

He looked at me, paused, considered the wisdom of my reasoning, then stared into the air above me scratching his chin. "Oh, yea, I can see that."

"You borrowed that shirt, didn't you?"

"Yea, how did you know?"

"Lucky guess. Have a good night!"

Open Source

Hard economic times force changes in behavior, even in Washington State's government. It was announced last week that the Liquor Control Board's help desk was switching from a costly ticket tracking system to an open source solution. In house testing had been performed, the training needed was minimal, and the cost was right, so we're making the switch. Other open source solutions may be implemented if they offer a reasonable cost savings, according to our IT folks.

Now, this may seem to be A) sensible and B) no big deal, but consider that Washington is the home of Microsoft, Adobe, Nintendo, and many other software vendors...and the state is looking into open source solutions. If they find one that they like, then they may look to others and once they switch, then what's the rationale for going back to a paid product for those items?

It's possible that the economic downturn is churning up changes not glaringly apparent, but that may have long term consequences not currently recognized.

sunflower

sunflower
Originally uploaded by B.D.'s world

Some new gardening photos are up.