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The Pitiful State of Customer Service (1 Viewer)

Clinton McClure

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So... In a way this is OK and I understand but in another it's rather poor CS/support and cost Dell a long time customer (I've purchased Dell exclusively for the past 15 years and recommend them consistently - but no more).

The hinge on my wife's laptop broke away from the screen on one side - the small plastic extensions that secure the *screws* to the plastic back plane broke off of the back plane (no more attached hinge) so everything wants to pull apart when the screen is opened (you have to manually push the hinge up and resnap the outer bezel in place). It works but now pulls away if the screen's closed and opened again. It's obviously poor design and bad/defective manufacturing. The warranty expired 9 days ago - *9* days. I work in corporate IT and if we have a device that's *that* close to warranty expiration it's typically repaired anyway. It's a Dell (same brand I have zero issues with on a slightly expired warranty at work) so I get online and do a chat to explain the issue and ask for an exception. They refuse to budge. I explain the situation more detailed - with a photo of the "damage" proving it's *not* "accidental" but a manufacturing defect, adding that it was a Christmas present and wasn't given to the user until the 25th of next month. No dice. I ask "How much to get repaired?" The total for evaluation,, a new screen, repairs, and shipping is $280!! I can purchase the *exact same* system from them for $380 (on sale this week and roughly $50 more than I paid last year) - $100 more and it'd have a 1 year warranty. Paying $280 for repairs that'll have, at best, a 30 day warranty is plain stupid. I told the CS rep I am *not* paying that much for repairs due to a faulty design on a system that's only *days* out of the warranty period, said I'd be replacing the system with a non Dell model as a result, and thanked them for their time.

Stupidly I opened a support ticket instead of just "extending" the warranty ($10/mo on a month-month basis and cancellable at any time) and *then* opening a ticket, which would have gotten the system fixed for $10 (I'd have cancelled as soon as it came back from repairs). So... I'm annoyed that they won't make an exception for a system that's that close to the warranty expiration. Had it been another week or two I'd never have asked for an exception,in spite of it being a Christmas gift.

I then ordered my wife a new, non Dell, system that's identical, spec wise, to the broken system for less than the identical replacement system from Dell. The new system has an extended warranty plus a better designed hinge and a superior designed power plug - right angle at the computer instead of straight like Dell uses and less prone to damage.
Put things like this on top of the gigantic pile of reasons I switched to Mac 10 years ago and haven’t had a single issue since. 🤷🏻‍♂️
 

BobO'Link

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Put things like this on top of the gigantic pile of reasons I switched to Mac 10 years ago and haven’t had a single issue since. 🤷🏻‍♂️
I have a work issued Mac Air. I hate it. There's no way I'd ever purchase one for home use, plus they won't run at least 50% of the software my wife and I use on a regular basis (it's just not available at all). FWIW, Apple support is no better (I deal with them more often at work than with Windows systems) and the products cost at least twice what they're worth.
 

Clinton McClure

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I have a work issued Mac Air. I hate it. There's no way I'd ever purchase one for home use, plus they won't run at least 50% of the software my wife and I use on a regular basis (it's just not available at all). FWIW, Apple support is no better (I deal with them more often at work than with Windows systems) and the products cost at least twice what they're worth.
Fair enough. My experience has been the exact opposite. There’s always weirdness going on with my Windows laptop for work and I have to reboot it several times a day but my Mac at home is 100% uptime and no hassle. Different strokes for different folks I guess.
 

BobO'Link

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Arkansas has one community that I’m aware of that sells booze (mostly wine) on Sundays. The other 99% of the state won’t sell between midnight Saturday and 7AM Monday.
Folks here that waited too late or drank up their supply on Saturday often drive to Missouri on Sunday to make their alcohol purchases. The closest store advertises here, points out that fact, and is about a 65 mile round trip (takes ~90 minutes due to the roads though). From what I understand they get *lots* of Sunday business from this side of the border. They offer "spirits," tobacco products, have a restaurant, and a gas station - oh... you can also get your lottery cards there, too, plus they're open 24/7 year 'round (yes, even on Christmas from what I understand). The few times I've gone that way into MO they've *always* been crowded looking - no matter what day or time of day.
 

ManW_TheUncool

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There are practically no limits on alcohol purchase/consumption (in private spaces) near as I can tell up over here in NYC metro and most of the rest of the Northeast/New England area other than the usual DWI/DUI and relevant disorderly conduct laws... but I'm still very glad that I don't really care for alcohol anyway and basically never drink enough to be more than a little bit buzzed (and then just wanna go to sleep at most :lol:)...

I usually only have 1/2-to-1 serving of whatever for social reasons or partly to help keep germs/parasites in check when I occasionally eat some good, rare steak or raw seafoods (ie. sushi/sashimi)... :lol: Well, there's also the usual tiny sip for Sunday worship communion (that many in some churches actually normally take from a communal chalice prior to this pandemic)... but I guess people down South (and well, many conservative Baptist types up here also) generally don't believe in using actual wine for communion... :P

Do any of those areas down South also prevent serving of alcohol in restaurants on (any part of) Sundays?

_Man_
 
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Scott Merryfield

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Do any of those areas down south also prevent serving of alcohol in restaurants on (any part of) Sundays?

_Man_

In South Carolina, you can buy beer & wine at stores on Sunday, but the state-controlled ABC stores where hard liquor is sold are closed on Sundays. However, you can get a drink in a restaurant with a liquor license on Sundays depending on the county you are in. Our condo is in Horry County, which allows restaurants to serve any day of the week.

FYI, back when I was in college in Michigan, I ran the liquor counter at an Arbor Drug store for two years (the local drug store chain was later bought by CVS). Stores had to purchase liquor from a state store, and prices were set by the state. Four times per year, prices were changed. One of those days was always Super Bowl Sunday. I had to come in early that morning to change the prices. Don't fret, though -- I was back home in plenty of time for the game. ;)
 
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Clinton McClure

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Do any of those areas down South also prevent serving of alcohol in restaurants on (any part of) Sundays?
As long as the restaurant has a liquor license, they are allowed to serve on Sundays in Arkansas. At one time, restaurants where I live (a city within a dry county) were also required to have a private club permit and anyone dining there had to be a member of that club. Basically any restaurant that served booze made you sign up for a membership which was free and consisted of nothing more than filling out a card with your name and date of birth on one side. The other side of the card had the business logo and a membership number printed or (usually) just hand written on it. Every time you visited the restaurant, you were required to show your membership card and sign their guest book. I had “memberships” to Ruby Tuesday, Chilis, TGI Friday, Outback Steakhouse, Logan’s Roadhouse, and a couple more places that I’m sure I’m forgetting. I either had to remember to take the membership card for the restaurant where we were going to eat, or just carry a stack of membership cards with me all the time. After a few years, this requirement was dropped, I’m assuming because it was ridiculous. Now the restaurants in my city just card you before they’ll serve you. I can’t speak for the rest of the south.
 

John Dirk

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I think in Georgia you can now buy it freely on Sundays after 12:30 PM
 

David Norman

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Do any of those areas down South also prevent serving of alcohol in restaurants on (any part of) Sundays?

_Man_

I'm sure there are still some locations that do ban any alcohol sales on Sunday. There are still a few places that are completely dry and no alcohol sales of any sort are allowed though these places are rare and the last map I could find shows the overwhelming majority are in Arkansas and Mississippi with a few isolated counties in TN/KY/Missouri and Texas, plus 2 counties in the FLA panhandle, and a single southwestern South Dakota county which is entirely part of a Native American Reservation
  • North Carolina does not allow alcohol sales between 2am and 7am Monday through Saturday or before 12pm on Sundays. In June 2017, NC allowed each municipality or county (for unincorporated areas) to start allowing alcohol sales prior to noon on Sundays. Raleigh and Carrboro were the first two cities to enact the 10am Sunday alcohol sales.
Charlotte also joined the pre-noon sales with a push from many of the NFL tailgater crowd as the local bars/restaurants wanted to get the Brunch crowd in before Football games.

Still one of my favorites
The consolidated city-county government of Lynchburg and Moore County, Tennessee, is a dry county, despite being home to the Jack Daniel's distillery.

When I moved here in the late 80's (I guess these days we'd be called an Ex-burb), the county was sort of dry as far as restaurants -- beer/wine could be sold at Grocery, 7-11, and ABC store for Full Liquor Sales. There were a couple restaurants located just outside the City in unincorporated areas that allowed Brown Bagging meaning you could bring your own Wine at least to serve and absolutely not on Sunday. There were a couple highly regulated Country Club that allowed similar. Outside of fast food and a couple local owned places (Cafe/Diner) , there was virtually no functioning restaurants in towns. I literally had to drive 25 miles to the next county to eat at a Mexican or Italian place and even those were locally owned stores with no alcohol -- it was another 15-20 miles to actually get a beer with dinner. When the adjacent county finally voted to allow Restaurants to serve alcohol and basically exploded (shopping and restaurants), it forced the issue in the mid 90's and we voted to allow places with Alcohol Licenses though it still is a bit screwy. Straight bars were not allowed and you had to have a Menu and a certain % of Food Sales to get a local license. A few years ago a couple places found a loophole (or arranged a loophole) to allow "Private Clubs" ostensibly to allow Event/Party Venues to open/sell alcohol at their place, so a few other places started selling yearly memberships for $1, stuck in a couple pool tables, and became a Sports Bar (mainly Biker Club from what I could tell). I think this year the local govt gave up on enforcing those sort of restrictions.

NC still doesn't allow alcohol sales above a certain Alcohol % outside of the State Run ABC stores and they are closed on Sundays. It still shocks me to walk into a regular Grocery store in some states and see full blown Whisky, Scotch, Vodka, etc for sale. SC does have some Independent Alcohol stores and even a couple Costco's that sell Alcohol though they require a separate attached location and can't sell directly out of the main store. I don't think NC has any Costco that are allowed to do this
 
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BobO'Link

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I live in a "dry county" (AR) that allows "private club" liquor sales in restaurants (you *must* do ~55%+ of your sales with food to qualify and you're a "member" by simply walking in the door) and they are *not* allowed to sell alcohol on Sunday. Depending on just where you live in town and which direction you go, the *longest* drive to a liquor store is ~15 minutes.

I lived in Paris, TX for a year - the town was dry but the county was wet (I thought that was quite odd) so it was a quick drive to a city limits liquor store.

I'm always surprised when I go into a grocery store in wet counties and see a liquor section simply because of how long I've lived here where *none* of them have one.

I've lived here for almost 50 years and the restaurant liquor sales are less than 10 years old. Before that you had to be a member of a true "private club" (Elks, VFW, Country Club, etc.) to be served alcohol - and for that entire time it's been the wettest dry county I've ever seen. *Every* time going "wet" has been on the ballot the county line liquor stores mount huge anti-sales campaigns and it stays dry - depending on your outlook. I couldn't care less either way as I've never liked alcohol with food and rarely drink (got kind of burned out on it in college).
 

Kevin Hewell

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When I moved here in the late 80's (I guess these days we'd be called an Ex-burb), the county was sort of dry as far as restaurants -- beer/wine could be sold at Grocery, 7-11, and ABC store for Full Liquor Sales. There were a couple restaurants located just outside the City in unincorporated areas that allowed Brown Bagging meaning you could bring your own Wine at least to serve and absolutely not on Sunday. There were a couple highly regulated Country Club that allowed similar. Outside of fast food and a couple local owned places (Cafe/Diner) , there was virtually no functioning restaurants in towns. I literally had to drive 25 miles to the next county to eat at a Mexican or Italian place and even those were locally owned stores with no alcohol -- it was another 15-20 miles to actually get a beer with dinner. When the adjacent county finally voted to allow Restaurants to serve alcohol and basically exploded (shopping and restaurants), it forced the issue in the mid 90's and we voted to allow places with Alcohol Licenses though it still is a bit screwy. Straight bars were not allowed and you had to have a Menu and a certain % of Food Sales to get a local license. A few years ago a couple places found a loophole (or arranged a loophole) to allow "Private Clubs" ostensibly to allow Event/Party Venues to open/sell alcohol at their place, so a few other places started selling yearly memberships for $1, stuck in a couple pool tables, and became a Sports Bar (mainly Biker Club from what I could tell). I think this year the local govt gave up on enforcing those sort of restrictions.

That was Atlanta 50 years ago.

You can find beer and wine at grocery stores and convenience stores here. but you have to go to the liquor store for liquor.
 

Jeffrey D

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That was Atlanta 50 years ago.

You can find beer and wine at grocery stores and convenience stores here. but you have to go to the liquor store for liquor.
I think PA still is this way- you have to go to a state store for booze. It wasn’t all that long ago when you couldn’t get anything on Sunday, and grocery stores weren’t allowed to stock even beer.
 

Doug2000

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On the flooring (not sure if you got that fixed) you should have:
1) Immediately bought more flooring (to replace the defective stuff).
2) Brought back the same or hired a new a contractor to finish the job.
3) Taken the defective flooring back for a credit.

The deal between you and the contractor is most likely - you supply the material / he installs it. If your material is defective you need to correct that or he’s going to walk. For him time is money. Im sure none of this was explained but nonetheless…

Speed is important - Flooring patterns and colors like this come and go. With so much time passed it my be impossible to get more flooring with the same pattern. If you cant get more of the same pattern you’re looking at ripping it all out and starting again.

Im doing a lot of work on my house right now and Im constantly running around buying what they need - more tile, more grout, etc. It’s not uncommon for material to be defective. I take it back and get another batch to replace it - Same Day!
 

JohnRice

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I've gotten so jaded by the attitude toward customer service. I'm also finding I'm getting less liable to tolerate it, and finding out exactly how bad it is. I even had a problem with Burger King, where they got my order wrong, big surprise, and made it seem like it was my fault.

Then this week a supplier at work actually did something right. They messed up an order I'd placed and only sent one of an item I ordered six of. When I inquired, they actually admitted the mistake and fixed it, without charging us additional shipping. It really struck me how surprising that was.

Meanwhile, something completely inexplicable happened with our shopping cart software, and I opened a ticket. We've been on that platform for 20 years, but they still responded with things that assume we have no idea what we're doing, such as "Product codes can't be duplicated." No shit Sherlock. After clarifying that's not the problem, I've gotten nothing but silence. Fortunately I can configure a fix, which is a monumental pain in the ass, but that does nothing about it not happening again.
 

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