GregHowley.com

Recently, I've been making a lot of calls for customer service related issues. You may remember about a year ago, I wrote about how Linda and I had bought a new TV. Well, that never actually happened. Very shortly after that, we found out that we owed an amount in income tax that would probably pay for almost three seconds of the war in Iraq. That is to say - a ton of money. Then we got a call that the TV we'd ordered was out of stock. Seemed like divine providence - we canceled the order, and we're still watching episodes of Dexter on the old thirty-something inch tube TV that I bought a decade ago. Upconverting DVD players are less than $100. We've got an HD Tivo now, and can quickly add HD to our cable package with a phone call, so the time seems right.

I've now been saving up money for about a year, and this weekend I decided that it was time to reward myself and Linda with a nice TV. So I did the research on consumer reports, and found out that the Samsung LN-T4661F was the TV for me. 46 inch LCD screen, 1080p, rated very well. And although it lists for $2200, PreferredPhoto sells it for $1289, with no tax. You've got to pay an additional $200 for shipping, but still - great deal, right?

So this weekend, I placed the order. I got an email that I'd have to pick up the phone to confirm. So this morning, I did that. Turns out the base on which the TV stands isn't included. What? That's like buying a car and finding out that the seats aren't included, or buying a refrigerator and finding out that the door isn't included. Hard to use any of them without that part! Still, the guy on the phone at PreferredPhoto was a bit argumentative, saying that the page said that the stand wasn't included. (I double checked - there was no mention of that) So I'm canceling that order. Linda was able to find the same TV on another site with the stand included and comparable shipping for $200 less. The saga continues.

Another online order which has gone awry was my order of the new Barenaked Ladies CD Barenaked Ladies Are Men. It's a bit funny, since their last album was entitled Barenaked Ladies Are Me. But I checked the track list before I bought it and found that the two CDs have different songs. In fact, whereas Me has 12 tracks, Men has 16 tracks. This weekend we got it in the mail, opened it up, and found the Barenaked Ladies Are Me CD inside the Barenaked Ladies Are Men case. Had I read something wrong? Was it supposed to be the same CD? Nope - inside the CD jacket were liner notes listing the lyrics for songs I'd never seen before - they'd just put the wrong CD in the case somehow. I called Nettwerk music this morning, and they apologized for the mistake, refunded the shipping to my card, and are express mailing me another copy. Best customer service I've seen in a long time. There wasn't even any wait on the phone.

Lastly, the dentist. Not really customer service per se, but listen to my story. As I may have mentioned, I chipped a tooth over Christmas on a piece of crusty bread and had a Lexington dentist put a temporary patch on the tooth, which I think has since fallen off. After a quick consult with my own dentist last month, we scheduled an appointment for a crown. On the appointed day, I showed up. And waited. And waited. Eventually I left and rescheduled - apparently the dentist had been working on the same guy for four hours and was still finishing him up after lunch. My rescheduled appointment was for last week, and I was sick as a dog. So now I'm rescheduling again. I hope this tooth doesn't go nuclear in the meantime.